"Cross Scissor!"

  "Ssh."

  Su Wen, who had just finished his high school entrance exam not long ago, zily leaned on the railing, watching the battle below between a Scyther and a Linoone. The csh was intense, with gusts of wind sweeping across the battlefield, leaving occasional marks on the ground.

  "That’s a Scyther? Someone’s got money," Su Wen muttered as he scrutinized the well-trained Scyther.

  Scyther, being one of the top-tier Bug-type Pokémon, wasn’t easy to obtain.

  Su Wen’s fondness for Pokémon was well-founded.

  Ever since he was four or five years old, Su Wen had been having fragmented dreams of strange events that felt like memories, yet they were things he had never experienced.

  By the time he was seven or eight, he dreamt of himself battling through the college entrance exams, drowning in endless practice papers like the infamous "Huanggang Exam Papers" and "Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simution." The stacks of papers were taller than he was, and the dark circles under his eyes rivaled those of a panda.

  In that moment, Su Wen remembered everything—the fear of being dominated by subjects like Chinese, Math, English, Physics, and Chemistry in his past life. He remembered it all.

  Such a complete recollection couldn’t be expined away as just a dream. It had to be his previous life, though it wasn’t a particurly long one.

  How he parted ways with Earth, Su Wen didn’t know. His st memory was completing the main story of Pokémon Sword and Shield.

  Ah, he had ultimately become one of the many talents Earth had sent to other worlds. The only difference was that while most people were directly transported through soul transmigration, he had undergone a proper reincarnation.

  If you had told his past self that he would reincarnate, he would have immediately called the police—what kind of nonsense was that?

  Now, he realized he was wrong. Every time he thought about his reincarnation, Su Wen couldn’t help but compin.

  So, reincarnation really exists… But hey, Grandma Meng, when did your soup start getting watered down?

  Wasn’t it supposed to make you forget all past grievances with just one bowl?

  What am I supposed to do now that I remember everything? Can I apply for after-sales service?

  The King of Hell must be skimping on employee wages—what a shady business!

  The pnet he now lived on, called Blue Star, was somewhat simir to Earth. The White Eagle Federation and the Xia Kingdom, where Su Wen resided, were constantly at odds, while the Western nations had merged into a rge federation called the Western European Federation.

  Technologically, Blue Star was on par with Earth, with high-speed trains, airpnes, and all the expected advancements.

  However, due to the existence of Pokémon, a significant portion of the popution had shifted their focus to studying them.

  As a result, Su Wen hadn’t heard of nuclear weapons or other rge-scale destructive arms. After all, the power of high-tier Pokémon was comparable to nuclear bombs, and they were controlble. Why bother with nukes when a Dragonite could just swoop in and bst it out of the sky with a Dragon Breath?

  Speaking of Pokémon, they had fully integrated into this world. Whether in daily life, work, entertainment, or exploration, Pokémon were everywhere.

  You might find a Pidgeot delivering takeout, a Chansey assisting in surgery, or a Sudowoodo used as a decorative pnt at someone’s doorstep.

  "Honestly, I wanted to go to the world where becoming a Pokémon trainer meant free meals at Pokémon Centers, not one where I have to go through nine years of compulsory education again!" Su Wen thought, feeling a bit despairing as he remembered his recently concluded middle school life and the impending high school years.

  Despite his compints, Su Wen quickly accepted reality and successfully tched onto his father’s coattails.

  The Linoone on the battlefield belonged to Su Chuan, the Normal-type Gym Leader of Jinming City and Su Wen’s father.

  The Scyther’s trainer was a student, though not a long-term one—just a passerby who had paid for some guidance from Su Chuan.

  Ever since Su Wen’s memories returned at the age of six or seven, his favorite pastime had been watching various challengers get thoroughly beaten by his father in the gym.

  Most of the time, these were instructional battles, like the current one. What could have been a one or two-minute fight was dragged out to nearly ten minutes so Su Chuan could thoroughly identify the student’s weaknesses and provide guidance—a duty of every Gym Leader.

  Su Wen was still wondering when the battle would end when, under Su Chuan’s command, Linoone seized an opening and sent Scyther flying to the edge of the battlefield with a Hellish Cw.

  "Scyther!"

  As the challenger excimed, Su Wen zily raised the red fg on his right, confirming that Scyther had fainted.

  "Scyther is unable to battle. Linoone wins."

  Before the challenger could return Scyther to its Poké Ball, Su Chuan had already stepped forward.

  "That was a good battle. Your Scyther is well-trained, but you’ve spread its focus too thin. Scyther’s greatest strengths are speed and attack, but you’ve also trained its defense, which is unnecessary…"

  While Su Chuan was correcting the challenger’s training methods, Su Wen yawned in boredom.

  Su Wen’s ck of interest wasn’t because the challenger was weak, but because he had seen too many high-level battles involving his father.

  This Linoone wasn’t even in Su Chuan’s top-tier team—it was just used for sparring with novice trainers.

  Su Chuan’s strongest Pokémon was his Sking, a Gym Leader-level Pokémon that had almost overcome the limitations of its Truant ability.

  If compared to game stats, Sking’s base stats were a whopping 670, rivaling legendary Pokémon like Groudon and Kyogre. However, the Truant ability severely limited its potential.

  While this world wasn’t as data-driven as the games, the game stats could still serve as a reference. Sking’s innate potential was immense, but it was incredibly zy, often cking the will to fight due to its ability.

  Even if a trainer could motivate Sking to fight, controlling its attack rhythm was difficult. The sudden pauses or refusal to follow commands caused by Truant often became the deciding factor in battles, which was why few trainers chose Sking as their main Pokémon.

  Moreover, in this world, Sking’s Truant couldn’t be negated by abilities like Skill Swap or moves like Gastro Acid. It wasn’t just an ability—it was an instinct.

  With such a significant limitation, no matter how strong Sking’s base stats were, few trainers would choose it.

  However, Su Chuan’s Sking could use the power of a Life Orb to overcome its ability and fight like a normal Pokémon.

  The Life Orb increased a Pokémon’s attack power but at the cost of draining its stamina.

  In game terms, while other Pokémon used MP to cast skills, Su Chuan’s Sking burned both MP and HP.

  As a result, Su Chuan’s battles were incredibly "fast." While other Gym Leader-level Pokémon could fight for hours—or even days, in the case of tanky Pokémon like Shuckle and Chansey—Su Chuan’s Sking would end battles within fifteen minutes.

  In that time, either the opponent’s Pokémon would be crushed, or Sking would burn through its HP and faint.

  Most of Su Chuan’s losses were due to Sking burning itself out.

  However, a Sking unhindered by its ability was a force to be reckoned with. During the "Ho-Oh Cup," one of Xia Kingdom’s top tournaments, Su Chuan’s Sking had withstood a Sandstorm and defeated a newly promoted Elite Four-level Tyranitar.

  That battle had nearly made Su Wen’s eyes pop out of his head. Even though the Tyranitar had just reached Elite Four level, it was still a tier above Gym Leader level, and as a pseudo-legendary Pokémon, it was shocking to see it get crushed by a Sking.

  That victory had catapulted Su Chuan to fame, making him Jinming City’s top celebrity trainer.

  However, Su Chuan’s Sking had been stuck at Gym Leader level for four or five years, and it was unclear when it would break through to Elite Four level.

  Su Wen hoped Sking would advance soon, as it would elevate his status as a "trainer’s kid," or "trainer second generation" for short.

  Based on his past life’s memories, Su Wen had also researched this world’s history and found that all legendary Pokémon, whether primary or secondary, had been absent from the world for a long time.

  Why this was the case, Su Wen didn’t know. He only knew that history had been rgely lost during a great catastrophe six hundred years ago, and since then, the legendary Pokémon had disappeared.

  Still, the absence of legendary Pokémon wasn’t entirely a bad thing. If Groudon and Kyogre decided to duke it out in the Pacific Ocean, coastal cities in the Xia Kingdom might be wiped out.

  As a standard feature for transmigrators, Su Wen also possessed a special ability: Aura.

  In theory, everyone had their own Aura, but few could harness it effectively. Even fewer could use it without formal training, like Su Wen.

  At first, Su Wen thought having such an ability made him a shoo-in for the protagonist role. However, he soon realized others had even more overpowered abilities.

  Some had innate telepathy, allowing them to communicate with Pokémon.

  Others had psychic powers that could rival a Kadabra’s.

  Even more outrageous were those who could communicate with the spirit world, with an affinity for Ghost-type Pokémon so high that they could instantly capture a Boss-level Gengar upon meeting it.

  Sorry, I thought I was the protagonist, but it turns out you’re all cheaters. I’m not worthy.

  In comparison, Su Wen’s purely supportive Aura ability seemed a bit underwhelming.

  However, over the years, Su Wen had become increasingly proficient with his Aura, developing several uses for it. One of them was sensing a Pokémon’s condition.

  Su Wen had now achieved a level of X-ray vision, allowing him to quickly assess a Pokémon’s abilities at a gnce.

  For example, when he looked at his father’s Linoone, he could instantly see its ability, level, and the moves it knew.

  However, when it came to his father’s Sking, Su Wen’s Aura couldn’t penetrate it at all. It was as if Sking’s Aura was actively resisting his intrusion.

  As for Elite Four-level Pokémon, Su Wen hadn’t had the chance to test his ability on them, but he was certain he wouldn’t be able to "spectate" their stats either.

  In this world, Pokémon weren’t limited to learning only four moves. If a trainer wanted, their Pokémon could learn twenty or thirty moves.

  However, Su Chuan had told Su Wen that top-tier trainers usually didn’t have their Pokémon learn so many moves at once.

  Instead, they would focus on five or six, or maybe seven or eight, key moves and train them extensively. Other moves were learned as backups.

  After all, like humans, Pokémon had limited energy. Kids might want to learn everything, but adults knew their limits.

  "Su Wen, go hang the ‘Closed for the Day’ sign at the entrance. We’re heading home early today—it’s your birthday," Su Chuan said after finishing his expnation to the Scyther’s trainer.