Nidoking's grumbling was not enough to slow Nova down, but Aresdra was another matter entirely.
On the very same day Nova officially set out on his journey, the Norlandia Alliance launched the auditions for its officially sponsored idol group, "Kernel Dazzle Aurora," known by the initials K.D.A.
The three words stood for Core, Dazzle, and the Alliance itself. Together, they carried the meaning of the shining core of the Norlandia Alliance. This was not just any performance group. It was meant to be a carefully crafted showcase of the Alliance's culture and strength to the outside world.
Nova's first reaction upon seeing the name, however, was a quiet internal collapse.
"K.D.A., huh. So who exactly is going to fill the Ahri and Seraphine shaped gap in my heart?"
The Alliance had put serious effort into promoting the auditions, and when the day finally arrived, it managed to capture the attention of most people across the Norlandia Alliance. Even those with little interest in idol groups caught wind of it through news reports and advertisements and gave it at least a passing glance.
What set these auditions apart from the ones Nova remembered from his past life was the content. There was no singing or dancing evaluation at the start. Instead, the main audition format was a Pokemon Contest style performance competition.
In this world, if you wanted to stand in the spotlight as a performer, singing and dancing were useful extras, but the real foundation was your skill in Pokemon Contests. That was what Aresdra had been studying in the performance program at her vocational school. Unless your Contest performance was strong, you simply would not get the chance to show off anything else.
It was a bit like being a vocalist who could not hold a tune, or an idol who had never learned to dance. The rest of your talents would not matter if you could not clear the first bar.
Though when you thought about it, it made a certain kind of sense. This was a world built around Pokemon. Nearly every field of society had become deeply tied to them in one way or another.
The highly anticipated audition was set to be broadcast live across the entire Alliance at seven-thirty in the evening on the fifth of June.
If Nova had wanted to, he could have delayed his departure by a day and watched Aresdra's performance from the comfort of his sofa. But he chose not to do that.
Tonight was the first real step of Aresdra's journey. Nova felt that, as the person closest to her, he should be taking his own first step on the same day. That way, even with thousands of miles between them, it would feel like they were both moving forward together.
That said, just because he had left the house did not mean he was going to miss the stream. He fully intended to watch it, even from a campsite.
The one thing he had to be careful about was not going too deep into the mountains. The center of the Cengluan Mountain Range was not guaranteed to have a stable signal, and he was not willing to risk that.
So his goal for the day was simple. Climb North Mountain on the edge of Harmony City and find a good spot to set up camp near the summit.
He was also genuinely a little worried about Nidoking. The Pokemon was carrying significant weight, and throwing it straight into non-stop cross-country trekking felt risky. Honestly, for Nidoking, climbing a mountain was harder than battling. In a real battle, it barely needed to move. It was a special attacker through and through, standing its ground and blasting away at opponents from a distance. Going up and down a steep slope was a completely different kind of effort for a Pokemon of its size and weight.
Nova had started in the morning, skipped lunch, and made it to the summit of North Mountain by four in the afternoon.
He began looking around for a flat stretch of ground to pitch his tent.
Nova did not have a lot of long-distance travel experience, but he had spent enough time surviving in the wild that setting up camp felt natural to him. What he had not expected was how busy the summit turned out to be.
The flattest area near the top was an open clearing built around a cross-regional signal tower. Alliance staff had leveled the ground there specifically for the tower's construction, and a proper road connected it to the base of the mountain.
Nova had not come up that road because his home sat on the Nanshan side of the city and cutting through to reach the signal tower path would have taken him far out of his way.
When he reached the clearing, he found that several other groups had already set up camp. Some were Alliance workers maintaining the signal tower. Others were amateur Trainers from Harmony City who enjoyed outdoor activities. There were no families with young children, which made sense. Getting up here required a Pokemon capable of handling wild encounters along the way, and the journey was long enough that heading back down would mean walking through the dark. Most people simply chose to stay the night.
Nova had no issue camping near others. This was still within the city's boundary zone, not genuine wilderness. The basic rules of society still applied here. If this had been somewhere like the Tamar Desert, he would have walked an extra five kilometers to find a quiet spot before even considering sleeping near strangers.
His arrival, however, caused a stir.
Nidoking and Corviknight were simply too imposing. When the two of them walked into the clearing, a few people with their backs turned initially thought a wild Alpha Pokemon had wandered into the camp.
Once the alarm settled and everyone got a proper look at the situation, their attitude shifted completely. A Trainer of Nova's obvious strength joining the camp meant the night watch was essentially handled. Nidoking did not even need to stay alert. It just needed to lie down near the entrance and let its snoring do the work. That alone was enough to keep ordinary wild Pokemon well away.
Once people confirmed that Nova himself was a perfectly harmless and rather young-looking fellow, they quickly warmed up and helped him get his tent sorted. Some even brought food over for him and his Pokemon.
Most people kept a respectful distance from Nidoking and Corviknight, but Mudkip and Growlithe were immediately popular. Growlithe especially, despite being capable of reducing a room to rubble, turned out to be a natural with people. Driven by its Hustle, it made its way around the entire group, nudging one person and letting another scratch its ears, and within a short while had collected a small pile of treats and eaten itself half full.
Mudkip was like a little plush toy. It sat there and let people pat it, pinch its cheeks, and pick it up, completely unbothered, and was equally well-received.
Sprigatito, true to form, was having none of it. Aside from Nova and Aresdra, it did not allow anyone else to touch it. Its coat was normally soft and carried a faint, grassy scent, but the moment someone it disliked reached out, the fur would stiffen into wooden spines sharp enough to rival a Cacnea. The message was very clear.
After the tent was up and dinner was finished, Nova settled down with Sprigatito tucked under one arm and opened the live stream on his phone.
He had no idea yet what he was about to see.