"Uh, how do I describe it?" Chen You scratched his head, trying to give a comprehensive description of the Pokémon. "It’s a humanoid Pokémon, about 70 cm tall, and it seems to be made of smoky gray shadows."

  "The area around its face looks like a helmet. The top of the helmet has two curved horns, and there’s a small horn between its ears. Its eyes are orange-red with yellow pupils, and there’s a yellow oval mark above each eye. There’s a small bump on each wrist, and it has a smoking colr around its neck. Each foot has a shadowy aura."

  As Su Wen listened to Chen You’s description, he quickly ran through all the Pokémon he knew in his mind and soon came to a conclusion.

  "Marshadow!" Su Wen thought to himself.

  Chen You nudged Su Wen with his elbow. "I’ve never seen this Pokémon before. Maybe you should ask your dad about it."

  Su Wen shook his head. "My dad probably doesn’t know either. There must be some agreement between the Spirit World and the Alliance. Otherwise, the Alliance would’ve made it public by now."

  Chen You looked disappointed. "Oh, I see."

  "So, what’s your ability?" Su Wen asked, knowing that an ability that required two months in the Spirit World to stabilize must be extraordinary.

  Chen You gnced around and whispered mysteriously, "Let me show you."

  With that, he sneaked to the door and shouted, "The homeroom teacher is here!"

  Even though they hadn’t yet developed a fear of their new homeroom teacher, the innate sense of authority instantly silenced the previously noisy cssroom.

  Then, Chen You grinned mischievously. "Rex, just kidding."

  If looks could kill, Chen You would’ve been buried by now.

  A girl sitting behind Su Wen muttered, "Is this what they call social fearlessness?"

  Ignoring the strange looks from his cssmates, Chen You slipped back to Su Wen’s side.

  "Watch this," Chen You said, holding his index finger above his phone where Rotom was. A thread-like shadow slowly descended and merged into Rotom.

  Although it was hard to believe, Su Wen’s Aura sense clearly told him that this bck thread was solidified Ghost-type energy.

  Chen You lowered his voice, speaking like a thief. "This is my ability. I can absorb negative emotions from nearby creatures and turn them into solidified Ghost-type energy. The negative emotions I just caused are enough to create this one thread."

  "Impressive," Su Wen said sincerely.

  Although the prerequisites were a bit strict, the payoff was incredibly high compared to the effort.

  The fiery substance flowing inside a Fire Stone was essentially solidified Fire-type energy.

  Chen You’s ability not only allowed him to essentially create a Dusk Stone out of thin air but also to directly infuse this energy into Pokémon.

  Without Su Wen’s assistance, Charmander would’ve struggled to absorb the energy from a Fire Stone.

  So, Chen You’s ability was indeed incredibly powerful.

  "Right?" Chen You said, beaming. "How does it compare to that girl from the capital?"

  Su Wen actually thought about it seriously before analyzing, "It’s hard to compare. From what we know, her starter Pokémon was a Tier 4 Gengar, which alone puts her on par with your talent. And I suspect she’s hiding other abilities."

  Chen You, unusually, didn’t argue. Instead, he crossed his arms. "True. Just the fact that her high affinity made the Alliance break the rule of only allowing Tier 0 starter Pokémon means I probably can’t compete with her."

  But then, Chen You confidently decred, "But no worries. Watch me reach Professional level in a year, Master level in two, Gym level in three, and Heavenly King level in four."

  Su Wen facepalmed, pretending he hadn’t heard.

  Just then, someone shouted again, "The teacher’s here!"

  Someone snapped without looking back, "Enough already! Joke once and that’s it."

  But the next moment, the cssmate he was talking to coughed twice, signaling him to turn around.

  "This student seems a bit dissatisfied with me," a slightly balding middle-aged man said, his face almost pressed against the student’s, startling him.

  Ignoring the student, the homeroom teacher walked to the podium and wrote three bold characters on the bckboard: "Mu Han Zhi." After brushing off the chalk dust, he said, "My name is Mu Han Zhi. Barring any surprises, I’ll be with you for the next three years. I hope we can all get along."

  The student who’d been startled by Mu Han Zhi started cpping, and the css followed with scattered appuse.

  Mr. Mu raised his hand to stop them. "Let me y down a few rules. First, you’re not allowed to release your Pokémon outside of training csses. For example, that Rotom."

  Mr. Mu gnced at Chen You, and Su Wen had no idea how he’d noticed.

  Mu Han Zhi added, "Of course, keeping Rotom inside the phone is fine, but technically, phones aren’t allowed in school either."

  "Technically?" a bold student repeated.

  Mr. Mu looked at him and smiled. "This rule will be expined by your training css homeroom teacher. I won’t overstep. But until then—and this is only for today—I don’t want to see any phones in css tomorrow."

  "Second, even though you’re all in the Trainer program, theory csses are equally important. The college entrance exam has two parts: practical and theory, each worth 300 points, totaling 600 points. You all know this, right?"

  "Yes~" came the scattered replies.

  Mu Han Zhi nodded. "Then let me tell you something you might not know. Since the college entrance exam was reformed eight years ago, the highest and lowest average scores for the practical exam have differed by 120 points, while the highest and lowest average scores for the theory exam have only differed by 35 points. Do you understand what this means?"

  "It means that, compared to the practical exam, the theory exam is a section where you absolutely cannot afford to lose points. If your practical score is low, it might just be because the exam was hard that year. But if your theory score is low, you’ll truly fall behind others."

  Seeing the silent students, Mr. Mu adjusted his gsses. "I know many of you probably think I’m exaggerating the importance of theory and downpying training. But you can look it up for yourselves. I don’t want any of you starting the school year with the wrong mindset..."

  Su Wen realized that his homeroom teacher was really good at talking—and what he said made sense. While other csses were already moving books, Mr. Mu was still going on. Su Wen raised his right hand slightly.

  "This student, do you have a question?" Mr. Mu’s gsses seemed to glint. He didn’t like being interrupted.

  Su Wen pointed out the window. "Teacher, I think if we don’t go get the books now, we might miss the opening ceremony."

  Mr. Mu paused, gnced at his watch, and his mouth twitched imperceptibly.

  "What’s your name?"

  "Su Wen."

  Mr. Mu nodded. "You’re the temporary css monitor now. Take the css to get the books, then head straight to the pyground. Don’t miss the opening ceremony, or I’ll deduct a point from your performance score."

  Su Wen’s mind was instantly flooded with a stampede of alpacas. This was definitely him passing the buck, right? Absolutely passing the buck!

  Suppressing the urge to sweep away the few remaining hairs on Mr. Mu’s head, Su Wen hurriedly called the css to get the books.