With Liu Ling Da's exemplary draw as the last team, other schools' squads began their own lotteries. The barrel containing over a hundred straws was soon emptied.
Looking at the straws in their hands, the team captains wore expressions of both joy and dismay. Those who drew first or last were fortunate. It was the captains in the middle who were left pondering whether to cheat or bluff.
As the captain who drew first was about to begin their speech, the sky suddenly changed color. A strong wind blew from all directions towards the center of the stadium. Shen Yu, arms crossed, shivered, "Strange, why such a strong wind? Who's having such a dream again?"
Chu Xiao Die, also rubbing her hands, kept exhaling warm air. "Ha, you can say that again. Controlling such unpleasant dreamscapes with conscious will, isn't that just asking for trouble?"
Many students shared their thoughts, generally suspecting that a captain from the middle ranks had conjured extreme weather to avoid coming on stage. But with so many people present, how could they possibly find out?
The wind grew stronger, stinging their skin and chilling them to the bone. Chu Xiao Die and Shen Yu huddled together for warmth, while Feng Bing, on the side, began vigorous exercises to keep warm.
"Feng Bing, aren't you from the north? It should be much colder where you're from, so why are you like this?"
Feng Bing, high-stepping and shivering, replied, "Yes, the low temperatures at home are indeed colder than here, but I wear more clothes there! How can you compare?"
Huffing warm air, Feng Bing also wanted to huddle with others, but the girls would never get close to him. He had no choice but to join the other boys, warming himself while complaining, "Thank goodness it's not raining. If it were sleeting, wouldn't we all freeze to death? Who's having such an outrageous dream? I've been trying my best to think of sunny weather, why isn't there any response?"
Besides Feng Bing, everyone else also desperately wanted to know the answer. After all, it wasn't just Feng Bing who wanted to control the weather to warm up. But with so many people combined, their efforts still hadn't changed the current weather, which was rather eerie.
The wind continued to blow, and the clouds in the sky gradually gathered together.
"What... what is going on?"
As if hearing the question, the cloud layer in the sky split open, revealing a vortex of immense energy and strange yellow matter.
"I think something is not right..."
As the words fell, a massive yellow sphere emerged from the opening in the sky and slowly descended. As it descended, the trainers, enveloped by its growing shadow, wanted to escape but found themselves completely immobile. They could only watch as the giant yellow sphere plummeted from the sky. Upon contact with the stadium roof, it exploded, disintegrating into countless globs of slime that shot towards the trainers below.
After a chaotic barrage of slime, the trainers on the ground were not hit directly. Instead, patches of slimes appeared on the ground and began to wriggle towards the trainers.
"Disgusting! Beautifly, take care of it!"
Chu Xiao Die was the first to counter-attack the unknown slimes. Under her lead, many trainers launched attacks on the ground-dwelling creatures. However, when hit, the slimes did not disappear but transformed into Pokémon forms and continued to surge towards the trainers.
The "disgusting" Pokémon, Experiment 1438, perhaps should be called "One Five One Five" now, was the same unkillable, infinitely resilient little bug that Xia Hu Nao encountered before. If Xia Hu Nao were here, he would have commanded everyone to try and overload the experiment's processor with high-intensity data. But first, Xia Hu Nao was gone. Second, everyone present was struggling to fend for themselves, let alone help others.
As for the option of escaping on their own, no one had a second Pokémon.
The melee continued. The trainers' abilities varied, but these pouring experimental subjects were industrialized products. All the experimental subjects had identical data, which meant that while some trainers were still battling, others had already begun to flee as their Pokémon lost their fighting ability.
Just then, a trainer suddenly shouted, "The dream can be controlled, it's sunny!"
Everyone was stunned for a moment, then realized it was indeed bright, good weather. The wind and clouds had completely vanished. Since they could control it, trainers began to attempt to multitask, fighting while also trying to eliminate the experimental subjects before them with GM-level abilities.
However, they soon discovered that the dream was now in a state of being controllable yet not entirely controllable. The weather could be changed, but these monsters could not be eliminated.
The situation grew more chaotic, and soon the first victim appeared. A young girl was surrounded by a large group of experimental subjects and then swallowed. Although the girl struggled, it was futile. The massive slime conglomerate began to digest the girl it had just swallowed right there.
This was no longer the Ditto-level experiment from before; it had clearly transformed into a Muk.
Putting aside the fate of the poor girl swallowed by the conglomerate, let's focus on the trainers still fighting. Not everyone had a solution for their Pokémon.
Soon, the number of trainers fleeing the scene increased. The trouble with a group dream was that as long as one person didn't want to wake up, no one could.
Shen Yu's situation was still relatively good. The members of Liu Ling Da's team had grouped together on the periphery, cooperating with Ling Ling Da and Jiang Ling Da to deal with a large number of experimental subjects. However, these subjects seemed to have undergone multiple upgrades. So many trainers were unable to overwhelm them and instead kept merging, forming a giant experiment specimen three to four meters tall.
The giant appeared unexpectedly, drawing everyone's attention. Just as other trainers were about to imitate, forming a group to surround and attack, a sharp cry was heard.
It turned out that the little girl swallowed by the specimen earlier was now being spat out. It seemed the specimen's digestive ability was poor, and it couldn't digest human bodies. However, the girl's clothes had been mostly digested. Coupled with the slime that the specimen brought up when it spat her out, it was truly heartbreaking.
A girl nearby quickly lent her clothes to the distressed girl.
When this outcome occurred, the trainers began to panic. Who could endure such a thing? Fortunately, the girl quickly dreamed up an outfit for herself, covering her body. The slime on her body would be more troublesome to deal with.
The battle between the trainer collective and the experimental subject army continued, but the experimental subject faction was characterized by technology and ruthless tactics, quickly shrinking the trainers' front line. Just then, Lu Bingming suddenly clapped his hands and closed his eyes, praying.
The battlefield was raging, and what was he doing?
Lu Bingming clasped his hands together and muttered a few words, then a figure suddenly appeared. "Reuniclus, use Earthquake!"
The seismic waves spread, repelling a group of approaching experimental subjects several meters back. Everyone looked at the figure standing before them like a god, "Teacher Wei, how did you get in here?"
Wei Chi Ting did not speak, only manipulating his six Pokémon in battle against the horde of experimental subjects.
"Stop guessing. This is a dream-conjured Wei Chi Ting. Who knows how long he'll last," Lu Bingming said, clasping his hands together again, trying to dream up something else.
With Lu Bingming's dream-conjured Wei Chi Ting leading the charge, other students followed suit. Thus, the coaches and teachers of various teams appeared in the dream stadium and launched a counter-attack against the experimental subjects. The trainer faction's morale surged with the reinforcements, but this nightmare was not easily fooled. As the trainers were about to win, the clouds in the sky slowly began to gather again, seemingly preparing to release more experimental subjects.
The trainers on the ground did not notice this at all. They were still diligently fighting the experimental subjects, with skills of all attributes flying wildly. Shen Yu's hands were clapping red, and then she sighed, "What's wrong?"
Chu Xiao Die, looking at Shen Yu's expression, asked, "What is it, is something wrong?"
Shen Yu asked confusedly, "Why, why can't I dream up Xia Hu Nao?"
Chu Xiao Die looked at Shen Yu's anxious face, "Wait a moment, I'll try too."
Chu Xiao Die also closed her eyes, quickly picturing Xia Hu Nao's figure in her mind, but unfortunately, no matter how hard the two girls tried, Xia Hu Nao, whom Shen Yu longed for, could not appear in the stadium.
Just as Shen Yu was desperately trying to create Xia Hu Nao, someone finally noticed the strange scene in the sky and shouted, "Everyone be careful, something else is coming down!"
Hearing the shout, everyone looked up at the sky. A sphere even larger than the previous one was condensing. If this sphere were to fall from the sky, it would undoubtedly be a catastrophe for the trainers present.
The sphere grew larger and larger, like an inflating water balloon. When it reached its limit, the water balloon suddenly burst, but it did not spray water. Instead, like a bursting balloon, it released a puff of gas and then quietly disappeared.
As the balloon in the sky burst, the experimental subjects on the ground dispersed like a receding tide. The entire dreamscape returned to peace, and a golden gate descended from the sky, standing before all the trainers.