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Four consecutive tournament defeats.
Even though he'd earned nearly 50,000 PokeDollars in total—faster than robbing a bank—Li Xiang still wasn't satisfied.
—There just weren't enough competitions.
He had scoured Qingcheng for tournaments big and small, only to realize that while there were plenty, scheduling conflicts made it impossible to participate in all of them.
Organizers weren't going to adjust match times for him—he wasn't some high-ranking trainer. No matter how much he tried to shuffle his schedule, he couldn't attend more events.
In the end, he couldn't master time management.
Every missed tournament was a lost opportunity for more candies.
Ugh, infuriating.
Li Xiang was fuming, but at least he found some comfort in Lin Feng's results.
The two had deliberately avoided overlapping tournaments, ensuring they never faced each other. Under normal circumstances, they should've each had their own successes.
But while Li Xiang's best result was a runner-up finish in an unofficial event, Lin Feng actually won one.
At first glance, it seemed Lin Feng had outperformed him. But in the larger, official tournaments, Li Xiang had at least made it to the Top 16, while Lin Feng was knocked out in the fourth round both times.
Luck just wasn't on their side.
Still, it proved Qingcheng wasn't just full of pushovers—there were plenty of skilled trainers around.
Facing prodigies or high-level opponents meant inconsistency was inevitable.
Their Pokémon were still in the early stages—limited movepools, unevolved forms, and even with their cheats, those cheats had limits.
And so, Li Xiang reached the end of his summer break.
Over these two months, his team had made significant progress.
Leaving aside everything else, just in terms of moves:
Torracat was on the verge of mastering Flare Blitz, and it wouldn't be long before it fully grasped the technique.
It had also learned Parting Shot from another Torracat at the breeding center.
Ironically, the inspiration came from Corvisquire.
The little fire cat had picked up trash-talking and sarcasm from Corvisquire, which somehow made learning Parting Shot effortless.
Overall, a solid success.
Meanwhile, Riolu, after rigorous training, acquired the wide-range moveStomping Tantrum, giving it speed control.
It also learned Sunny Day from a cheerful Sunflora.
Currently, it was working on Coaching, Helping Hand, and Swagger.
The detection range of its Aura had expanded from 50 meters at the start of summer to 55 meters—a small but meaningful improvement.
As for Frogadier, it had already mastered Taunt and put it to good use in battles.
Scald, with its decent power and useful secondary effect, was also in its arsenal. For those blessed by RNG, it was practically a god-tier move.
There was no need to obsess over the weaker Water Pulse—sure, the Rasengan-like appearance was cool, but ultimately useless.
Next on the list were Substitute, Grass Knot, Rock Slide, and Gunk Shot.
Sadly, Frogadier couldn't learn Teleport, or else a Flying Thunder God technique would've been hilarious.
If it could learn Ally Switch, it might've pulled off something like Zed's Shadow Swap.
But alas, no such luck.
- Corvisquire.
After over a month together, this big bird had no bad habits besides its sharp tongue. It trained hard, was humble and mild-mannered, and while it had a strong competitive streak, that was more of a strength than a flaw.
All in all, a solid team member.
Thanks to its prior experience with Sky Attack, its body already had a foundation for high-power Flying-type moves.
The progress on Brave Bird was coming along even faster than Torracat's Flare Blitz.
It had also learned Fake Tears, though since it lowered Special Defense, it wasn't much use to Corvisquire itself—only really helpful in a support role.
And that was the sum of Li Xiang's move-related gains over the summer.
...
Early September.
The new semester officially began.
Li Xiang went from a first-year to a second-year student. With the third-years now busy preparing for exams, the school practically belonged to them.
However, as he walked into the classroom, he noticed many unfamiliar faces.
Was the turnover in the advanced class really this high?
Guess this year's batch just wasn't cutting it.
Li Xiang realized he could only remember a handful of names—most classmates barely lasted a semester.
"Forty."
Song Jie appeared beside him out of nowhere, speaking quietly. "Current estimate is that only forty students from our year will get into a top-tier academy."
"Seriously? That few?"
Li Xiang was stunned. Out of four hundred students, only forty would make it?
That was barely better than the acceptance rate of a regular high school's elite track.
"Conservative estimate. If we're being strict, it'd be even lower." Song Jie shrugged.
Clearly, they really were the "worst batch" their homeroom teacher had lamented about.
"Why… actually, never mind. Not my problem."
Li Xiang shook his head, deciding not to dwell on administrative issues. Instead, he asked, "Where's your Alolan Golem? Let me see it."
Much like how tabbies, tortoiseshells, and ragdolls are all just called "cats," people in this world rarely bothered specifying regional variants unless it was necessary—like in official tournaments.
Song Jie glanced around, confirming the back of the classroom had enough space, then released his Alolan Golem.
Thud.
A slight tremor accompanied its appearance.
Before Li Xiang stood a spherical mass of interlocking rocks.
It had a snake-like head, stubby two-toed limbs, and an impossibly top-heavy posture that defied physics. Its face and chin were adorned with beard-like strands and what looked like tufts of hair—though in reality, it was a mix of iron filings.
On its back were three dark, metallic rocks—two protruding like electromagnetic railgun barrels with a central pillar, each embedded with golden, tourmaline-like crystals.
It looked… kinda cool.
"Galvanize?"
Li Xiang locked eyes with Alolan Golem, who, due to Li Xiang's lack of facial hair, seemed disinterested.
Undeterred, Li Xiang reached out and ran his fingers over the railgun-like protrusions on its back.
A faint static prickled his skin—definitely Galvanize.
"Yeah."
Song Jie nodded. "Solid Ability, right?"
Galvanize-boosted Explosion, factoring in STAB, reached a terrifying 450 base power in the games—on par with something like Mega Glalie's Refrigerate Explosion.
Li Xiang nodded in agreement, though he felt Galvanize had limited utility.
Alolan Golem didn't have many Normal-type moves worth using—mostly Return or Explosion. Its Electric and Rock-type moves were generally more valuable.
But effectiveness depended on how Song Jie used it.
"Enough about mine. Where's your Corvisquire?"
Having shown off his new teammate, Song Jie was curious about Li Xiang's choice.
In response, Li Xiang opened the classroom window, placed two fingers in his mouth, and let out a sharp, piercing whistle.
He'd learned this from a seasoned Corviknight trainer—apparently, these raven-like Pokémon were highly sensitive to whistles, able to hear them from kilometers away.
A black speck appeared in the distance, rapidly growing larger until Corvisquire landed gracefully on the windowsill, its keen eyes scanning the room.
"That's one sturdy, sharp-looking Corvisquire!"
Song Jie's praise was genuine. A Pokémon's quality was often evident at a glance.
Li Xiang scratched Corvisquire's well-defined chest feathers proudly. "Damn right."
The two exchanged summer break stories.
Compared to Li Xiang's grind of part-time work and tournament losses, Song Jie's summer had been monotonous.
After obtaining Alolan Golem, he'd barely left home—too busy being personally coached by high-ranking trainers.
"Twelve battles a day. At first, it was fine. By the end? Wanted to puke."
Song Jie groaned. Battling required passion, and twelve daily matches drained even the most enthusiastic.
Li Xiang shrugged. He could relate—constantly chasing candies would've burned him out if not for his patience.
Just then, Qu Sheng and Yang Tianwang walked in together.
As expected, after obtaining their trainer licenses, they'd added new members to their teams.
One had a dopey-looking, pink hippo-like Pokémon—the Water/Psychic-type Slowpoke.
The other had a gelatinous, ice-cream-shaped blob floating in blue fluid, with a diamond-shaped mouth and beady black eyes—the Psychic-type Solosis.
And it was shiny.
"Psychic-type coverage, huh?"
Song Jie's voice was dry. "Someone got wrecked by Psychic-types."
Psychic-types were borderline broken in reality—their telekinetic control could immobilize opponents with equal strength, leaving them helpless as teammates wailed on them.
A staple in double battles.
To counter this, many trainers crammed a Dark-type into their team. Or, alternatively—if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Out-psychic the Psychics!
—Which, as it turned out, was what most trainers thought.
"...You saying that just ruined my mood." Li Xiang sighed.
He'd been on the receiving end of Psychic-type shenanigans too, though Torracat's eventual Dark-typing had eased his urgency to counter them.
"Then just train a Psychic-type yourself."
Song Jie rolled his eyes. "Beldum's Psychic/Steel—fits your style."
"I'd love to, but—"
"No connections? Don't worry, I've got you. I'll send you a contact this afternoon—one call, and it'll be air-freighted to you. Quick and easy."
Song Jie flexed his ultra-rich-kid network.
But then—
"I was kinda hoping for a shiny one. Silver and gold, y'know? Got any leads on that?"
Li Xiang scratched his cheek sheepishly. He'd been wanting to ask this for a while.
Song Jie: "..."