"Um, how to describe it," Chen You scratched his head, trying his best to give a complete description of the Pokémon's appearance. "It's a humanoid Pokémon, about 70cm tall, and seems to be made of smoky gray shadows."
"The area around its face resembles a helmet. On top of the helmet are two curved horns, and there's a smaller horn between its ears. Its eyes are orange-red with yellow pupils, and above each eye is a yellow oval marking. Each arm has a small bump on the wrist. It has a smoky collar around its neck, and a wisp of shadow on each foot."
Listening to Chen You's description, Su Wen quickly searched through all the Pokémon he knew in his mind and finally confirmed its identity.
"Marshadow!" Su Wen said to himself.
Chen You nudged Su Wen with his elbow. "I've never seen this Pokémon before. You should ask Uncle Su."
Su Wen shook his head. "My dad probably doesn't know either. There must be some kind of agreement between the Spirit World and the Pokémon Association; otherwise, the Association would have announced it long ago."
Chen You was a little disappointed. "Is that so."
"So what's your ability?" Su Wen understood that a talent requiring two months of stabilization in the Spirit World must be extraordinary.
Chen You glanced around and said mysteriously, "I'll show you."
With that, Chen You quietly slipped to the door and shouted, "The homeroom teacher is here!"
Although they hadn't yet developed a fear of their new homeroom teacher, the innate sense of suppression instantly silenced the noisy classroom.
Then, Chen You reappeared with a cheeky grin. "Relax, relax, just kidding."
If looks could kill, Chen You would probably be buried under a pile of them by now.
The girl sitting behind Su Wen said faintly, "Is this the legendary Social Butterfly Syndrome?"
Ignoring the strange looks from his classmates, Chen You had already slipped back to Su Wen's side.
"Watch this," Chen You dangled his index finger above the Rotom in his phone. A thread-like shadow slowly descended and merged into Rotom upon contact.
Although it was incredible, Su Wen's Aura sense clearly told him that this thin black thread was materialized Ghost-type Energy.
Chen You lowered his voice, speaking like a thief. "This is my ability. I can absorb the negative emotions of nearby creatures and convert them into materialized Ghost-type Energy. The negative emotions I just stirred up were only enough to condense this one thread."
"Amazing," Su Wen said sincerely.
Although the prerequisite was a bit demanding, the payoff was incredibly high.
The substance that looked like flowing flames inside a Fire Stone was, in fact, materialized Fire-type energy.
Chen You's ability was not only equivalent to creating a Dusk Stone out of thin air, but by the looks of it, he could also mindlessly infuse this energy into his Pokémon.
One had to know that without Su Wen's help, it would be extremely difficult for his Charmander to absorb the energy from a Fire Stone.
Therefore, Chen You's ability was indeed exceptionally powerful.
"Right?" Chen You's eyebrows danced with delight. "Who's more impressive, me or that girl from the Imperial Capital?"
Su Wen actually considered it seriously before analyzing, "It's hard to compare. The information we have is that the girl's starter Pokémon is a fourth-tier Alpha Level Gengar. That alone makes her talent comparable to yours. And I suspect she has other abilities she's hiding."
For once, Chen You didn't argue. Instead, he crossed his arms. "True. Just high affinity alone was enough for the Association to break its iron-clad rule that starters can only be zero-tier Pokémon. On that point alone, it's hard for me to compete."
But then, Chen You's confidence returned. "But no worries. Just watch me reach the professional level in a year, become Alpha Level in two, Gym-level in three, and Elite Four in four."
Su Wen covered his forehead, pretending he didn't hear anything.
Just then, someone else shouted, "The teacher is here!"
Someone, without even turning his head, cursed, "Aren't you annoying? Kidding around once is enough."
But the next moment, the classmate he was talking to coughed twice, signaling him to look back.
"This student doesn't seem very pleased with me," a slightly balding middle-aged man said, his face so close it almost touched the student's, startling him.
Ignoring the student, the homeroom teacher walked to the podium and wrote the three characters for 'Mu Hanzhi' on the blackboard with flamboyant strokes. After dusting the chalk off his hands, he said, "My name is Mu Hanzhi. If all goes as planned, I will be with you for the next three years. I hope we can all learn from each other."
The student who had been startled by Mu Hanzhi led the applause, and the rest of the class followed with scattered clapping.
Mr. Mu pressed his hand down, signaling for them to stop. "First, let me go over a few rules. Firstly, within the school grounds, you are not allowed to let your Pokémon out except during training classes. For example, that Rotom."
Mr. Mu glanced at Chen You; Su Wen had no idea how he'd noticed.
Mu Hanzhi added, "Of course, it's fine to let Rotom stay in the phone, but theoretically, phones are not allowed in school either."
"Theoretically?" a bold student repeated.
Mr. Mu looked at him and smiled. "Your training course teacher will explain this rule to you, so I won't overstep my bounds. But before that, meaning starting from tomorrow, I don't want to see any student with a phone in the classroom."
"Secondly, although you are all students in the Trainer program, theory classes are also very important. The National College Entrance Exam is divided into practical and theoretical sections, both worth three hundred points, for a total of six hundred. You all should know this, right?"
"Yesss," a scattered chorus of voices replied.
Mu Hanzhi nodded. "Then let me tell you something you probably don't know. Since the college entrance exam reform eight years ago, the difference between the highest and lowest historical average score for the practical exam is one hundred and twenty points. For the theoretical exam, the difference is only thirty-five points. You all understand what this means, right?"
"It means that, compared to the practical exam, the theoretical exam is a section where you absolutely cannot afford to lose points. If your practical score is low, it might be because that year's practical exam was very difficult. But if your theory score is low, you will truly fall behind everyone else."
Seeing the silent students below, Mu Hanzhi adjusted his glasses. "I know many of you must think I'm deliberately exaggerating the importance of theory classes and downplaying training. But you can go home and search for the facts yourselves. I don't want any student to start the school year with the wrong mindset on the very first day..."
Su Wen realized that his homeroom teacher was a real talker, and what he said was quite reasonable. But while other classes were already moving books, his teacher was still rambling on. Su Wen slowly raised his right hand.
"Yes, student, do you have a question?" Mu Hanzhi's glasses seemed to glint with a white light. He really disliked being interrupted.
Su Wen pointed out the window. "Sir, I think if we don't go get our books now, we might not make it to the opening ceremony."
Mu Hanzhi froze for a moment, then glanced at his watch. The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.
"What's your name?"
"Su Wen."
Mu Hanzhi nodded. "You're the temporary class president then. Go lead the students to get their books. After you get them, assemble on the sports field immediately. Remember, don't miss the opening ceremony, or you'll get a demerit on your record."
A million alpacas galloped through Su Wen's mind. This was blame-shifting, wasn't it? This was definitely blame-shifting!
Forcibly suppressing the urge to tear out the few remaining hairs on Mu Hanzhi's head, Su Wen called for his classmates to hurry up and go get their books.