Chapter 56: A New Environment
Yuan Xi pointed at the map and said to Chen Xi, "Qiefeng Academy is divided into five major areas: the teaching area, the Pokémon breeding area, the battle training area, the scientific research and exploration area, and the shopping and entertainment area. There are maglev buses between each area."
"So if Young Master Chen Xi is interested, he can visit each area separately. Perhaps he will discover something."
"Thank you, Yuan Xi." Chen Xi nodded, expressing his gratitude to Yuan Xi.
As for where to go, Chen Xi thought for a moment and decided to put down his luggage first, then plan his next steps.
To be honest, coming to such a city, Chen Xi felt a bit like a country bumpkin entering the city.
Chen Xi arrived at the small villa. Looking down from the study, he saw that it not only had a garden but also a standard swimming pool.
Yuan Xi had said that if Chen Xi was not satisfied with the environment, he could still request modifications.
Chen Xi didn't mind the environment too much. It wasn't as big as his own home, but as long as it was habitable, it was enough.
Chen Xi returned to the study, took out his notebook, and began to record his three-year plan for Qiefeng Academy, aiming to be as purposeful as possible and achieve his desired goals step by step, rather than wasting time here.
First, his strength needed to grow further. He aimed to become a Tianwang Trainer within three years if possible.
Even if he couldn't become a Tianwang Trainer, he should at least reach the peak of Elite Four level.
Then, he needed to build his first complete team.
Because he obtained Charizard Y's Mega Evolution ite, Chen Xi was more inclined to build a Sunny Day team. At least in Sunny Day conditions, Floette and Torterra would indeed be stronger.
Second, he needed to establish his own foundation.
Although a single word could mobilize the Yuan Family's resources, he ultimately wasn't in power. More often, it was his older sister's affection for him that allowed him to mobilize the family's resources through her.
Qiefeng Academy was the most suitable place for him to establish his foundation, as it gathered Elite talents from all of Sinnoh. He would surely find the people he needed.
Third, he needed to establish his own financial source. No matter what he did, he had to have his own financial source.
If he only supported himself, Chen Xi believed the family would certainly provide for him. But if he wanted to support his own power, that would be digging up the family's roots to support his own people.
If he did such a thing, even if he were to take charge of the family in the future, his power would be illegitimate, and it would surely sow seeds of disaster later on.
Fourth, he needed to connect with the Alliance. Regardless of whether he would eventually join the Alliance or not, only by connecting with them would he have a chance to negotiate.
Fifth, Psychic. Relying on Calm Mind for twenty years to gain telepathy was too distant.
Chen Xi had to find a way to accelerate this process, and there was a Psychic in this Academy.
Sixth, enhance his reputation.
...
Chen Xi initially listed several general directions, but how to start was something Chen Xi was still unsure about.
However, among all these points, the most important one was the first: improving his own strength.
Because the upper limit of a power's strength is entirely determined by its leader.
This can be seen from the leaders of various villainous organizations. If their leaders didn't have strength close to or even that of a Champion, many capable and ambitious subordinates simply couldn't be controlled.
So Chen Xi understood that being Tianwang level only gave him the capital to participate in family policies. But if he truly wanted the Yuan Family to observe the unfolding events from a position of strength, he needed to become a Champion-level Trainer no less than Lance. Only then would the Alliance be wary.
Chen Xi looked at the goals he had written down. After organizing his thoughts, he went to the courtyard and summoned Torterra.
Then, he had Torterra eat the page of goals he had casually written down, ensuring that all traces were destroyed.
It was enough for him to be clear about his goals in his heart. If they fell into someone else's hands, it would cause unknown trouble.
So, it was better to have Torterra eat them. Anyway, he wasn't worried about Torterra getting indigestion.
"Thinking about it, I really lack a Fire-type Small Elves for destroying evidence!" Chen Xi couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
Next, Chen Xi didn't stay in his villa. Instead, he decisively chose to leave, intending to explore various parts of the city and the Academy.
To be honest, a city full of young people looked quite novel and vibrant.
The first place Chen Xi went was the Scientific Research and Exploration Area, because it housed Qiefeng City's largest library.
It contained historical records of Qiefeng City, and even Qiefeng Academy. These things were very useful for him to understand the school.
After spending an afternoon looking through materials in this library, Chen Xi gained a certain understanding of Qiefeng Academy.
"Excuse me, classmate, is this seat opposite taken?" Just as Chen Xi was looking up information, a tall young man with slightly flowing hair, holding a stack of books, asked Chen Xi.
"No!" Chen Xi made a gesturing motion, his gaze glancing at the topmost book in the young man's stack, "Changes in Abilities Caused by Pokémon Evolution." He casually remarked, "This book has a good premise, but the examples it uses have flaws."
The young man's expression changed slightly when he heard Chen Xi's words. He said, "This is an important work by Professor Rowan, a landmark piece. Have you really read it?"
Chen Xi calmly replied, "This is an early work by Professor Rowan when he was twenty-eight. It's his foundational work where he first proposed Pokémon evolution, with the goal of making Small Elves more mature.
It mainly explains how Pokémon evolution makes them more perfect from the perspective of Ability changes.
For example, Magikarp's Swift Swim turning into Gyarados's Intimidate is because Gyarados is already a ruler of the water and doesn't need a fleeing Ability like Swift Swim.
So, this Ability, as it evolves, transforms into Intimidate, which is more capable of instilling fear and shock in targets during hunting.
At the same time, it also makes powerful Small Elves that trespass its territory retreat in the face of difficulty, avoiding unnecessary battles."
"What's wrong with that?" the young man asked, frowning when he heard Chen Xi's words.
"Theoretically, there's nothing wrong, but this point ignores Hidden Abilities and Dream Special Abilities!" Chen Xi said.
"Hidden Abilities! Dream Special Abilities?" the young man murmured.
Chen Xi continued, "We call the most common Abilities of Small Elves 'Normal Abilities,' which account for about 90%.
Another Ability is Hidden Abilities, accounting for about 9%.
There's also a very rare Ability called Dream Special Abilities, accounting for about 1%, or even less.
This research paper doesn't mention the latter two Abilities.
Still using Magikarp as an example, perhaps the evolution of a Pokémon isn't necessarily from Magikarp evolving into Gyarados.
Instead, Magikarp's Swift Swim Ability, after being pursued by predators for a long time, evolved into the Rattled Ability."
"Magikarp also has the Rattled Ability? Is that true or false?" Hearing Chen Xi's words, the young man sounded somewhat disbelieving.
"You can try it and see. It's just an experiment, after all," Chen Xi said casually.
Many Pokémon's Dream Special Abilities have not been announced. Chen Xi had known this for a long time.
This was a form of knowledge monopoly by the upper-class families, but many people still tirelessly pursued this knowledge and then made it public through academic papers.
Although these researchers gained honor and money from it, it indeed opened a window for lower-level Trainers.
If Chen Xi remembered correctly, the Alliance basically announced Abilities and Hidden Abilities to the public when they fully controlled Sinnoh.
As for Dream Special Abilities, those would only be announced after the Dream World was completely discovered and confirmed.
However, for the guy in front of him, to discover a Dream Special Ability Magikarp among thousands upon thousands of Magikarp, he would have to work hard and experiment.
Anyway, Chen Xi didn't have much hope of proving it himself, as scientific papers aren't just about giving a result; they require extremely rigorous data and experiments.
If data fabrication occurs in experimental data, even if your final conclusion is correct, people will still tear you apart and directly brand you on the pillar of shame in scientific research.
Therefore, even though Chen Xi knew various future knowledge in his mind, he didn't plan to pursue a career in scientific research.
It wasn't because it was troublesome, but because even if he became a top scientist, could he protect the Yuan Family?
No!
If he couldn't, then what was the point of him being a scientist?
However, Chen Xi wouldn't refuse to build good relationships with scientists.
After all, these talents represented the cutting edge of the era. His own knowledge would only be sufficient for a dozen years or so. By then, he would still need to catch up, if there was still a 'then'.
Next, the two of them started chatting, exchanging words.
Chen Xi excelled in his broad knowledge, while the young man excelled in his deep foundation in Pokémon evolution. The two had a very pleasant conversation.
It wasn't until someone reminded them to lower their voices that they realized they were in a library.
The two then quieted down and went back to reading their respective books.
The two didn't exchange contact information. The young man was not good at socializing and forgot to leave it.
Chen Xi, on the other hand, felt that it was a chance encounter and they might not meet again, so he didn't leave contact information either, not even asking for a name.
Over the next few days, Chen Xi began to explore various areas to understand the city and Qiefeng Academy.
Soon, Monday arrived, and it was time for the Elite Class.
Chen Xi and Zhu Lan arrived at the classroom together. While waiting, Elite Class students arrived one by one.
The older students looked at Chen Xi and Zhu Lan with some curiosity.
Apparently, new members had joined the Elite Class, which they found very interesting.
And Chen Xi looked at these Elite Class students; many were people he recognized, if not close friends, at least acquaintances.
The first was Dian Ci, one of the future heirs of the Dian Family, and the future Gym Leader of Sunyshore City, whose strength was comparable to the Elite Four.
The Dian Family was the most neutral of the Five Great Families.
Their family had a somewhat different style from other families in Sinnoh, because the people who came out of their family, apart from being unruly scions who bullied men and women, basically had very high scientific literacy and were very important scientific research backbone for all of Sinnoh.
Whether their family members were scientists or not was another matter, but compared to the power struggles of other families, this family was famously laid-back. Basically, as long as they didn't go bankrupt doing scientific research, they wouldn't think of other families.
As for what they would do after losing all their money... Of course, they would sell their technological achievements, then exchange them for money to do more research.
The people of the other four great families, and even the Temple, understood the significance of this family to the Temple. So, facing this family's demanding attitude for money, they all decisively paid up.
After recognizing Dian Ci, the red-haired man sitting next to him was also recognized: Da Ye, also from Sunyshore City, the future Fire-type Elite of Sinnoh, and Dian Ci's good friend, so close they were almost inseparable.
The Trainer sitting in front of Dian Ci was Ami from Asagi City, Chengdu, the future Gym Leader of Asagi City's Steel Gym.
Seeing her occasionally turn her head to chat and laugh with Dian Ci and Da Ye, it was clear that the three had an unusual relationship.
Here, besides Dian Ci, another acquaintance Chen Xi saw was Ju Di, the young master of the Ju family.
He was two years older than Chen Xi and one year older than Dian Ci and his friends. However, what Chen Xi found strange was that even so, this young master of the Ju family was also in the same class as him.
This made Chen Xi even more curious about this Elite Class. Chen Xi wasn't very familiar with the people around Dian Ci, so he probably hadn't seen them because they all became cannon fodder later on.
Chen Xi's gaze swept around. Besides himself and Zhu Lan, there were other new students who had just joined this class.
The most conspicuous among them was a small boy dressed in blue. He isolated himself, found a seat, and then closed his eyes to meditate. With Chen Xi's mental power, he couldn't determine if he was a Psychic.
If he really was a Psychic, Chen Xi intended to get close to him.
However, after this round, four representatives from the Five Great Families had arrived; only the Wetland Shrine had no one.
Thinking about it from another perspective, it was truly reasonable that the Wetland Shrine ultimately left no trace back then.
This was not putting the Alliance in the eyes of the Temple, and even more so, not putting the Alliance in their eyes.
And just as Chen Xi was filled with various thoughts and conspiracy theories, a mature, young, but sharp-looking woman entered the classroom with light steps.
She looked around, counted the number of people, and said with satisfaction, "It seems everyone is here.
Old students, submit this year's assignments and you can go back and wait for the results.
As for the new students, please stay a moment so I can explain the rules of the Elite Class."
Upon hearing this, the seventeen or eighteen Trainers who were originally in the classroom suddenly disappeared, leaving only six people.
This scene made Chen Xi a little stunned. Was the number of new recruits in the Elite Class so small?
Starting tomorrow, there might only be one update, because Sword and Shield is about to be released. Once I finish the game and hatch my main Pokémon, I'll be back.
