624 CH5 (619), Unexpected Development

Satisfied I recalled Magikarp before placing his LakeBall inside Utopia. I did not directly let him out since I wanted to pay proper/full attention to his optimization, so I first returned to my rod and placed some new bait onto the hook. After casting the line, I secured the rod to the deck, before settling on my "camping chair", waiting for a Pokemon to bite the hook. At least that was what it looked like on the outside, and it was even true to some extent.

However, the moment my backside settled on that chair, I offered Fortuna/Togekiss to return her to Utopia for Magikarp's introduction. There was no need for her to stay outside any longer after all since I seriously doubted that anyone could surpass Magikarp's score, and on the off chance that happened, I would simply ask her to come back out.

She happily agreed, so I moved her there and then turned my full focus to Utopia. Following Fortuna's relocation, I finally released the giant Magikarp so that he could go through the Utopia special. I followed the process closely and was surprised to see/read that the gene optimization part actually indicated that the giant gene had been successfully enhanced. That was an unexpected but certainly welcome development.

There were no further surprises, and the optimization was finalized not long after. Magikarp appeared at Stan/Gayarados' lake, and I got to see the result of his giant gene's refinement. Magikarp had grown from 4.5 times the size of a regular Magikarp to 6 times the average size. Honestly, a 6-meter-long Magikarp sounded unbelievable, but the proof was right before my "eyes".

Before I had the chance to check Magikarp's new status sheet, something monumental happened that attracted my attention. Utopia began to expand, and I was not talking about a slight increase, but a big one that affected Utopia as a whole. Such a huge movement did not go unnoticed by most Utopians, so I made sure to announce that everything was fine and that Utopia was just growing.

Ever since Utopia had turned into a "cuboid" planet it had steadily grown from its initial 225 km² per side/square to 250 km² per square due to the increase in strength of my Pokmeon and the addition of new ones. Similarly, the underground system had grown from its initial 450 km² to 500 km².

Yet, that growth paled compared to the expansion Utopia was undergoing right now. It seemed that Magikarp's addition, or rather the addition of a Pokemon with the giant gene had fulfilled some kind of condition for Utopia's expansion since the cube planet suddenly grew by a considerable amount.

It took roughly 5 minutes, but each square actually reached 500 km², effectively doubling in size. Adding Utopia's 6 sides resulted in a surface area of 3000 km², and along with the underground system that had expanded from 500 km² to 1000 km², Utopia's new available space amounted to 4000 km². This was some truly incredible growth and I could see everyone's disbelief when I shared with them that Utopia had just doubled in size.

Their disbelief was quickly followed by elation which had them all cheer and celebrate Utopia's growth since it meant more space to move around on for them. I did not even mention the other changes that followed the expansion. Something important to note was that the energy density had remained the same, which was actually a good thing considering by how much Utopia had just grown.

An expansion like this should have actually resulted in a loss of energy density since the energy would be spread out across a wider area, but Utopia had relied on its reserves, backup/emergency reserves, and a certain amount of energy drawn from the outside to maintain the current energy density/level.

In fact, not only did Utopia maintain its energy density, but it also saw a slight increase in the purity of the energy inside Utopia. While the increase was small, it was still something that had far-reaching effects. In the short term, it would result in more effective training, and in the long term, it would have a positive effect on the potential of all Utopians as well as their progeny.

I shared the short-term effect with everyone while keeping the long-term one to myself for now. It would take a considerable amount of time for that to show its effect and unlike the first one, they could not feel the effects of the long-term influence, which was why I chose to keep it to myself.

I also made sure to credit the changes to our new resident Magikarp, which had everyone flocking over to Stan's place. Stan, who had been swimming not far from his place, was the first one to come over, and I had to chuckle at his astonished reaction when he saw the giant Magikarp swimming around inside his lake.

I could feel that he was impressed, and thankfully he was not feeling threatened by Magikarp's size, or rather what it meant for Magikarp's future size once he evolved to Gyarados. I was happy to see Stan approach and welcome Magikarp to the family. He made sure to introduce Magikarp to everyone who followed as the youngest brother/member of the Gyarados/Slytherin Group.

I had fun watching everyone's reaction whenever someone saw Magikarp since they all stared at him in disbelief when they first saw him. The Slytherin Squad was pretty impressed with Magikarp and I heard discussions among them as well as the rest of my Pokemon speculating how large of a Gyarados Magikarp would become once he evolved. Most were possible suggestions, ranging from all the way from 70 meters to 130 meters, but some of the "younger" ones did throw out exaggerated numbers such as 200 meters.

While certainly amusing, it was unlikely that Magikarp could reach those exaggerated numbers as a Gyarados, at least not with his current size multiplier, but that did not stop the "kids" from putting their estimations down on the bet set up by Seb/Nidoking and Nyx/Umbreon. They set up the rule that unless someone guessed the exact length, whoever was within 5 meters of the correct length would win the bet.

The duo dragged Gwen/Gardevoir into the mix to help them memorize the individual bets, though Seb did ask me for some paper so that he could keep a physical list as well. Anyway, Magikarp's addition to the team along with Utopia's growth were more than enough reason for a celebration, so I declared the start of a party and began to pull out our standard party set before leaving a thought stream to control an Earth Clone.

I then "focused back" on my fishing since a Pokemon seemed to have taken the bait. Once I was sure the hook had properly set, I began to feel the Pokemon in and after I dragged my catch onto the deck I saw that it was an Octillery. Octillery's first action upon being dragged onto the deck was to shoot ink/an Octazooka at me.

I effortlessly stopped the ink blotch using my psychic powers before making a show of it by having it spin above my head while giving an unimpressed look at Octillery, who was staring in disbelief at the three ink balls floating above my hand. I then moved the rod, so that Octillery could be rated before throwing him along with his Octazooka back into the sea since he only had light yellow potential at the silver stage.

Honestly, I could have added him to Utopia since he was not that bad, but I had no real interest in Octillery, so it would take at least a good one before I would add him or her to Utopia. It was simply a matter of preference, and mine was like this. Otherwise, I would not have insisted on Kun evolving to Azuraid instead of Octillery since I had at the time not known that it was the superior evolution (BS/RV-wise).

Anyway, following Octillery's release I spent another hour fishing before packing up since I had to head for the opening ceremony of the battle tournament. Unsurprisingly, the battle tournament was going to take place on deck as well, so I did not have to move much before I joined the crowd that came for the battle contest.

A few minutes later, when the clock struck 12, an announcer asked the contestants to move towards the podium, while requesting that the spectators take a few steps back to give us some space. I took a look at the people who gathered in front of the podium, and there were quite a few participants, around 130 or so participants if I was not wrong.

My attention was drawn to the staff member who went up to the podium and welcomed everyone before thanking us for signing up as well as the spectators for showing interest in the contest. He then began to explain the format of the tournament.

The first three rounds, which would determine the Top 16, would be 1-on-1. This could be seen as the preliminary rounds of the tournament since only those who made it to the Top 16 would get a participation prize, though aside from the Top 4 the other prizes were more along the line of souvenirs or small gifts.

The following two rounds, which would decide the Top 4, would be 2-on-2, while the semi-finals and finals would be 3-on-3. In summary, I'd have to win 3 rounds to enter the main event, and 7 battles/rounds in total to win the whole thing. Due to the number of battles, the first two rounds would be held today, while the rest of the battles would be held tomorrow. There was no other way to handle this since even if they were 1-on-1 battles, the first two rounds still had a total of 99 battles.

The important part for me was that I would only be participating in 2 battles today, which was pretty much within my expectations. That was also why I had felt that the battle and fishing contests would not interfere with one another too much. Especially since I would be able to watch the other battles from my "camping" chair thanks to the big screen set up on the deck.

Frankly, I did not doubt that I would be able to pass the preliminary rounds with ease and win the whole tournament for that matter. I had already registered Freya/Lopunny, Igneel/Charizard, Fortuna/Togekiss, Gaara/Gabite, Bruce/Crobat, and Jean/Espeon for the tournament since that was a prerequisite, and I honestly did not think any of the participants could beat my Pokemon unless I got super unlucky.

Anyway, once the explanations were done, the screen behind the staff member showed the "battle pyramid", before explaining that the next 5 battles would always be shown on the side so that everyone knew who would be fighting next. Looking at the "pyramid", I saw that my name was in the middle of the first-round bracket, so it would take a few hours until it was my turn.

I stayed to watch the first battle, which took place within 5 minutes of the end of the opening. The battle ended up being interesting enough with a silver-stage Raticate facing a silver-stage Granbull. The Raticate ended up winning the battle, though it was a close one. Still, since the first battle was impressive enough I decided to stay for the second one as well. Unfortunately, that one ended up being much less interesting due to the difference in strength between the two Pokemon that got sent out.

Watching a bronze-stage Wingull being toasted by a silver-stage Pikachu was not what I would describe as captivating after all, and following that somewhat disappointing match, I returned to my fishing spot to resume fishing, though I did keep an eye on the screen to follow the battles since I had nothing better to do anyway until a Pokemon bit the bait. I obviously live-streamed the battles to Utopia as well so that those interested could also watch them. It could serve as extra entertainment during the party.

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