Xia Henao had seen many versions of the Grand Festival. Although he himself wasn't particularly interested in the game's Grand Festival, it was mainly because the move sets for the Grand Festival and those for clearing the game and battling were completely different.
Sometimes, Xia Henao would set up a move set with excellent coverage, but it would be completely useless in the Grand Festival.
Using the system, he briefly recalled the Grand Festivals from various versions and then added those from the anime. Finally, he divided the Grand Festival of the Ling Yao Star version into three segments.
The first segment was preliminarily set as the entrance phase, where twelve trainers would appear one by one and give a preliminary show, being scored based on the aspects they chose to display.
Xia Henao remembered that there should be five judging categories for the Grand Festival: Cute, Smart, Cool, Beautiful, and… what was the last one?
Xia Henao racked his brain but couldn't recall. It was only with the system's help that he remembered the last one was Tough. Regarding this, Xia Henao expressed that he wasn't a trainer who solely relied on strength, so the Tough attribute didn't matter to him. He considered removing the Tough attribute altogether.
The system's only reply at the time was: "Are you forcing Machamp to compete in cuteness?"
Xia Henao imagined the scene and found it unbearable, so he decided to keep the Toughness attribute.
The second segment was a targeted exhibition. Trainers would earn judge's votes by showcasing their Pokémon's moves, still based on the previous five attributes.
The final segment was the Grand Battle, a scene that only appeared in the anime. After all, it was too difficult to implement the battle mechanics of the anime, where health bars disappeared, in the game.
After explaining his ideas to Zheng Xiaoxiao, Zheng Xiaoxiao thought about it and nodded, "Good, let's do it." Tong Ruo then handed her invitation to Xia Henao, "Little Xia, hurry up and change this into a participant's invitation for me."
Xia Henao glanced at Tong Ruo, "Sister Ruo, stop messing around. It's too unfair to them if you participate."
"But isn't it interesting?"
Seeing this, Xia Henao could only make grand promises, "Who knows, maybe there will be a national-level competition someday. We'll let Sister Ruo dazzle everyone then."
With great effort, he managed to suppress the destabilizing factor that was Tong Ruo. Xia Henao sent the finalized first version of the Grand Festival rules to Chu Xiaodie, who had been waiting for the rules since earlier, and informed them that there might be a live broadcast on the day of the competition.
Although the girls were a little flustered upon hearing about the live broadcast, Xia Henao managed to calm them down. Zheng Xiaoxiao, upon hearing she would be on camera, leaned in and whispered something to Xia Henao.
Xia Henao's eyes widened, "Sister Xiaoxiao, you really surprise me. How about one more?"
"One more?"
"Yes, we need to be prepared for some unexpected situations."
"Alright, then one more."
After discussing the rules with the two older sisters, Xia Henao decided to return to his small home. Walking on the road, Xia Henao asked the system, "Why do I feel like something is missing?"
The system and Xia Henao recalled the various versions of Pokémon together, and then both realized simultaneously: the Boxes! 138Reading.com
That's right, whether in the anime or the game, the indispensable magical items for trainers were the boxes. Various boxes could store different regional berry-related products. Whether it was Poké Blocks, Poffins, or Poké Puffs, any berry product generally had a box to store it.
However, Xia Henao didn't seem to have seen such a thing on Ling Yao Star. Wasn't this supposed to be a world completely like Pokémon?
The system thought for a moment, "You need to understand, even though it's a Pokémon world, you can't compare things in this world to Nintendo. Nintendo releases dozens of new Pokémon every three to four years. You might not see even one variant on Ling Yao Star for thirty to forty years. How can you compare?"
Xia Henao thought this made sense. In that case, since he was pioneering the Grand Festival, he might as well dabble in the processing of berries. But before that, he still needed to sort out the venue.
With Zheng Xiaoxiao's principal authority, Xia Henao got all the keys to Hall No. 6 the next day. As the teacher in charge of the keys said, "These keys are now yours. With the principal's permission, you can use this hall as you please from now on. As long as you don't tear down the hall, no one will bother you."
With this permission, Xia Henao began to boldly renovate Hall No. 6.
Taking out the blueprints that had just been sent from the computer, Xia Henao frowned and asked the system, "System, can you understand this?"
The system was taken aback, "I can understand it, but why are you asking me? You can't understand it, can you?"
Xia Henao nodded, "Yes, I can't. I only need the basic floor plan and to know what each part is. He gave me all the construction drawings, including pipes and wiring, all densely packed, and I can't understand any of it."
Looking at the red and green mess on Xia Henao's laptop screen, the system said, "I think you should just walk around this hall roughly."
Following the system's advice, Xia Henao nodded and wandered around the hall.
Counting the seats, Hall No. 6 could accommodate over a thousand people. Given the scale of the hall, it wasn't small. After all, the massive buildings he saw on the news in his previous life could accommodate at most around ten thousand people.
Here, Xia Henao once again witnessed the wealth and grandeur of Six Spirits University. This was Hall No. 6. There were at least six halls of this caliber, indicating the school's scale.
Xia Henao thought, "Over a thousand people? Maybe not that many will be needed, as I feel the stage is too small."
The stage Xia Henao mentioned was the small stage at the front of Hall No. 6. It wasn't a small stage; it was more than enough to perform a play. However, considering the possibility of Grand Festival battles, the stage should be larger. It also needed to be more robust, as it was originally designed solely for humans and didn't account for the appearance of Pokémon.
Xia Henao, who knew nothing about the construction industry, suddenly thought of someone. Looking at the words "Niulan Mountain" on the phone screen, Xia Henao hesitated, "Did I misspell the name? This doesn't look like a contractor, it looks like Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor)."
"Nonsense, it's supposed to be 'blocking mountains,' and you've turned it into a drunkard!" the system taunted him without mercy.
He dialed Niulan Mountain, ah no, Niu Lanshan's number and asked, "Hello, Uncle Niu, where are you making a fortune lately?"
Niu Lanshan had recently taken on a big project for Zhang Hong, so he remembered Xia Henao. "Oh, it's Little Xia. What's up?"
Xia Henao said, "Yes, I might have a big project here. Are you interested?"
"Interested. How big is the project, and where is it?"
Xia Henao looked around, "A hall for over a thousand people, located at Six Spirits University."
Niu Lanshan on the other end coughed, "Say that again? A hall at Six Spirits University? Let me send someone to take a look first."
That afternoon, Niu Lanshan's younger brother, Niu Lan'er, arrived at Six Spirits University. Unlike his brother Niu Lanshan, Niu Lan'er was a middle-aged man wearing glasses, looking like an office worker.
Taking Niu Lan'er into Hall No. 6, Xia Henao pointed to the stage and said, "Let's start by renovating this."
Listening to Xia Henao's requirements, Niu Lan'er finally came up with a design: the backstage area would be raised, and the battle area and performance area would be designed as drawers that could be switched out to cover the main stage in front as needed.
Xia Henao specifically emphasized the issues of speed, sound, and vibration. Niu Lan'er assured him that he could trust the technical capabilities of their construction team.
After renovating the stage, Xia Henao and Niu Lan'er began to discuss the audience seating. According to Xia Henao's vision, the entire audience seating would be sloped downwards from back to front, with the judges' area in the middle. For ease of scoring, Xia Henao planned for nine hundred seats as audience seating. However, after Niu Lan'er's calculations, to achieve the audience effect Xia Henao desired, only five hundred seats were possible. After all, the battle area needed to be expanded, modifications had to be made to ensure safety, and a large screen had to be installed. Having five hundred chairs left was already a good result.
The two walked from the stage to the audience seats, then from the audience seats to the backstage, spending the entire afternoon to complete the entire design drawing. After contacting material suppliers, Xia Henao was distressed, facing a thorny problem: the budget was exceeded.
Although Zheng Xiaoxiao was the principal, the budget allocated by the Pokémon League each year and the tuition fees collected were limited. Zheng Xiaoxiao couldn't just give Xia Henao too much money to squander. Facing the sudden budget issue, Xia Henao stated that he would absolutely not use inferior materials and would definitely not owe wages. So where would the money come from?
Xia Henao had his own way.
"Hello, is this Zhang Hong? I need to speak with Uncle Zhang..."
No problem can't be solved with money. If the problem is a lack of money, then find someone who has money.
After a friendly conversation with Ou Haining, he finally secured all the necessary materials at cost price. As for why Uncle Zhang wasn't the one negotiating this business, it was because Xia Henao's Uncle Zhang had just finished a project and was in a good mood. He got too drunk that night and refused to let go of his dining table at home, insisting it was his bed, and no one could pull him away...
Having solved the venue issue, Xia Henao was in a good mood. Like a boss who delegates all tasks, he handed over all matters to Niu Lanshan and his team. In Xia Henao's words, as an outsider, he was only responsible for the final inspection.
Leaving the school, Xia Henao took a taxi and said to the driver, "Please take me to the Qingyin Mountain Research Institute."