Tournament

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"Another message?" James was hopeful, but confused as well. He never thought he'd hear from the Gods back home again until he decided to head there himself.

Intrigued, he selected the letter icon with a mental click and began to read.

{Hello again James,

Since you're reading this, then that means you've reached the minimum requirements to create a new body.

As you already know, you died and lost your old one before arriving on that little island. Due to this, we decided it was best to implement a way for you to build a new model to call home.

As you'll learn after browsing through this addition, it has the potential to make one incredibly powerful. I won't go in depth on this as it's better to figure these things out for yourself, but try to stick to as few variables in your power as possible.

Don't just grab whatever's the strongest at the time or you'll end up spread too thin before you know it. In fact, you'd be surprised how strong some minor abilities could prove to be when paired with proper support or fuel.

Basically, if you take anything from this advice at all then let it be one word; cohesion.

Now, this whole 'build your own body' concept may all sound somewhat odd from a mortal's point of view, but trust me when I say we Gods do this all the time. So much so in fact, that this portion of the system actually takes up nearly 40% of the total power we put into it.

Gods take their bodies very seriously after all, it wouldn't do to have their work not showcase that fact.

Well that's all for now, good luck out there.

-Yahweh.

PS: I took the liberty of altering the system to simulate a live body during the time you spent as a soul. Thought you could use it after, you know.}

"Phew-," James let out a breath of relief. His last 15 minutes looked somewhat silly now that he knew what was going on. "To think that an act of kindness nearly sent me spiraling over the edge.."

Granted, it would've been preferable to have that info from the beginning, but he probably would've waved the whole thing off as merely interesting had he discovered his present state at the start. It was his own fault for spending so much time in the VR that he never noticed it till now.

And, now that he was paying attention, James could see how none of the surroundings shifted in his presence, it was so obvious that he felt even more depressed by his prior stupidity. He gave up after that.

After sending a copy over to Queen, James saved the message and laid down atop the grass of his island. He wasn't going to bother with any of the [Body] stuff at the moment, he couldn't even access it anyways. Instead, he was going to take this time to shut his brain off and just relax in the real world.

•••••••••••

White City, Kanto Region - Two Days Later

•••••••••••

The stadium was packed to the brim as over 60% of [Multiplayer] population currently inhabited a single city. Cheers of triumph and cries of despair filled the air day and night, as the Marvel multiverse's first Pokémon League Tournament kicked off its debut.

James had designed this city based off of Pokémon Stadium 2 and placed it floating high above the Indigo Plateau. Yes, he made it into a floating city.

James wanted every tournament to feel like a world class event, so he designed the island to float in the upper atmosphere all year round and only descend for two weeks a time. He even wrote in new lore detailing how it was all due to an ancient battle between humans and Pokémon thousands of years ago, now the citizens of this world hold commemorative tournaments every year to honor the lives lost during those dark times.

He was pretty proud of the idea and it delighted him every time a new arrival was awestruck by its telling.

"Sir, now that the quarterfinals have concluded, what are your thoughts on the remaining participants," asked Queen as the two floated above roaring crowds.

James paused for a moment, a bit surprised by the question, before realizing what it was and giving her a strained smile while answering, "I'm fine now, thank you. I made a mountain out of a molehill when it could all have been resolved by spending more time out of VR and simply being a little more cognizant of my surroundings. If I worried you, I apologize."

Seeing her nod with a wary, yet placated expression, James continued, "As for the semifinals, I've actually been thinking of switching them up a little bit. If we continue as is, then the result is obvious and the finals would be boring. We cant have that be the case for our inaugural tournament now, can we?"

"Oh?" Queen pressed while raising an eyebrow. "What did you have in mind?"

"Battle Royale," James said. "Have Arceus come down with the four Alolan guardian deity AI's to push the issue. This whole situation originated from there after all, so this would make it more believable to the players. Have him say that they're, 'making a mockery of this event by using the very Pokémon that caused it,' or something like that, and they'll eat it up."

"You just don't want Hydra to win in your first world," Queen got to the point instantly.

"Of course I don't," he replied calmly. "I may not care about how my presence affects the worlds we link to, but that doesn't mean I'm impartial. If I can screw over the people I dislike while making it seem as if the game was designed that way from the start, I'm sure as Hell going to try."

"Very well then," the AI sighed. "I'll get right on it, sir."