Although Zhang Hong was part of the Awakened team, he wasn't particularly suited for the role from a product promotion perspective. He lacked the caliber of external appeal that Shen Yu possessed, making it very difficult to sell products based on looks alone. While Xia Hu Nao's appearance wasn't as good as Zhang Hong's, only barely passing the acceptable mark on his deathbed, he excelled at putting on a show. With his silver tongue, he could chatter away and make money pour in.
Zhang Hong himself knew that advertising wasn't his forte, so he decided to let the product speak for itself: "How about this, since I'm not busy with anything lately, why don't I bring some trial versions over for you today."
Zhang Hong, with a personality that seemed to come from someone he'd learned from, went from a video call in the morning to showing up in the afternoon.
Looking at the large training room of Liuling University from a distance, Zhang Hong sighed, "Originally, I could have studied here. What a shame, what a shame."
With that, Zhang Hong swaggered over and pushed open the training room door, "Is anyone in there?"
Although Zhang Hong's shout was full of spirit and courage, upon entering and seeing dozens of people waiting for him, he instantly lost his nerve: "H, hello everyone. W, why are there so many people?"
Zhang Hong smiled sheepishly, and Shen Yu stood up, "Alright, alright, stop pretending. Where are the things? Talk about it properly."
When it came to serious matters, or within his area of expertise, Zhang Hong's chatterbox opened up. He took out a helmet, "This is it. Our design is inspired by the Dream Eater Pokémon."
Everyone knew what a Dream Eater Pokémon was. Therefore, explaining the operating principle of this device was simple: by mimicking the ability of a Dream Eater Pokémon, it could, to a certain extent, guide the trainer's dreams, simulating special scenarios within the dream to enhance the bond between the trainer and their Pokémon.
However, this bond was only a mental effect. In other words, even if you fought valiantly in your dreams, it wouldn't increase your Pokémon's combat power. Even if you dreamed of evolution, you would still be the same level after waking up.
Listening to Zhang Hong's explanation, everyone in the training room became interested, even Tong Ruo and Zheng Xiaoxiao.
Tong Ruo stood up and walked over to Zhang Hong, took the helmet from his hand, and immediately put it on her head: "Is that how it works? And then? Why don't I feel anything?"
Zhang Hong rummaged through his backpack again and pulled out a transmission cable and a laptop with exceptionally luxurious specifications, "This thing is quite expensive to use and requires on-site setup."
Tong Ruo took off the helmet after hearing this, "Will it be very dangerous, for example, if the power suddenly goes out?"
Zhang Hong explained as he set it up, "No, this just induces everyone into a dreaming state. And once this dreaming state is achieved, it's generally out of our hands; it becomes a matter for Cresselia and Darkrai. So you don't have to worry about personal safety."
Hearing this, Tong Ruo seemed to understand something, "So, in plain terms, it's just a machine for hypnosis?"
Zhang Hong paused his actions, "Well, something like that. But we're different from those who do hypnosis."
Tong Ruo tapped the helmet, "What's the difference?"
"A hypnotist can only hypnotize one person at a time. We're the same; we can hypnotize a large group of people at once."
"No, what are you proud of, kid? At worst, I can just hire more hypnotists."
Zheng Xiaoxiao had been watching Tong Ruo disrupt Zhang Hong's presentation with a smile until now. She finally spoke, "Alright Ruo Ruo, a device that can accurately induce trainers into dreams is already very rare."
Tong Ruo, after being nudged by Zheng Xiaoxiao and returning to her seat, was still restless and incited the school team to cause trouble, which made Zheng Xiaoxiao want to laugh.
Zhang Hong said while typing on the keyboard, "Exactly. But since we're talking about it, I'll show you the final form of one of our devices!"
There's a trump card? This time, there was no need for Tong Ruo to incite; Lu Bingming also became interested, "Explain it in detail."
"This final form integrates multiple people's dreams, allowing a large group of you to have the same dream simultaneously. This is something that ordinary psychic-type hypnotists cannot achieve."
The crowd applauded, "This is impressive."
"Ahem, well, this ability has its pros and cons. If your dreams merge, then what you dream will be made public, so it's best not to think about doing anything strange in your hearts."
Lu Bingming listened and turned to look at Feng Bing, "Did you hear that? When you think about things during the day, think less about those messy things."
Feng Bing was almost wronged to death, "No, what does this have to do with me?"
After a period of setup, Zhang Hong looked at the helmet in front of him, "Alright, who wants to try first?"
Everyone looked at each other, but no one spoke up first. They all wanted to be the first to try, but they were afraid of being the first to get shot. Seeing this, Zhang Hong rummaged through his backpack and found a large pile of helmets, "Look, I have enough for a whole class, about fifty people. You don't need to worry too much."
Looking at so many devices in front of him, Zheng Xiaoxiao, who was in charge, nodded, "In that case, if you want to try, go ahead."
Seeing that Zheng Xiaoxiao had no intention of participating, Zhang Hong asked, "What's the matter, Sister Xiaoxiao, aren't you going to try?"
"I'll pass. I'm not far from that feeling, and I have to keep an eye on the electricity meter. With so many people at once, wouldn't the meter reading skyrocket?"
Zhang Hong chuckled, "Sister Xiaoxiao, as the principal of Liuling University, isn't this small amount of money just a drop in the bucket?"
Zheng Xiaoxiao pointed to the backpack, "Is that so? If you didn't have the intention to sell, why would you bring so many devices at once? Dare I bet that you have more devices in your backpack."
Zhang Hong, his ulterior motives exposed, didn't take up the bet and instead furiously typed on the keyboard, "Alright, alright, the setup is done. Everyone, try it quickly."
Shen Yu heard that the setup was complete, walked to a helmet, inserted his Poké Ball into the helmet, and then put on the helmet.
"Oh right, I have to tell everyone, the number of Poké Balls you put on the helmet represents how many Pokémon you will enter the dream with. Similarly, you can only use that many Pokémon in this dream. Of course, for everyone's sake, I suggest you only insert one Poké Ball at a time. You can't use more anyway, as there's a limit to sleep. According to Minglong country's time, this is at most a three to four-hour nap."
Listening to Zhang Hong's explanation, Tong Ruo thought for a moment, then pressed six Poké Balls onto the helmet in one go: "I don't need to. My main goal is to prevent everyone from having nightmares."
"Are you sure you don't want to play?"
"Why would you say that out loud?"
Watching the students present, along with Tong Ruo, a teacher who had randomly joined in, put on their helmets and began to be hypnotized, Zheng Xiaoxiao got up from her chair and stretched her limbs.
Hearing the cracking sound from Zheng Xiaoxiao's joints, Zhang Hong instantly felt uneasy, "Um, Sister Xiaoxiao, I'm telling you, I can guarantee their safety. Please don't do anything to me."
Zheng Xiaoxiao immediately broke character, "Alright, what are you thinking? I'm worried that so many people starting to dream at the same time might attract some troublesome Pokémon."
Zhang Hong shook his head, "No, we contacted Cresselia and Darkrai before we made this device. So many people dreaming will provide an extremely large amount of dream energy, which is very beneficial for both Cresselia and Darkrai."
"You have this capability too?"
Zhang Hong smiled, "This, this has nothing to do with me. It was Boss Xia who negotiated it. I remember it was in early July. We worked for a month to get the first experimental unit through."
"Little Xiazi..."
Both of them, still awake, fell silent when Xia Hu Nao was mentioned. Zhang Hong shook his head, "Let's talk about something happy, like dreaming about Boss Xia."
Hearing that they could dream about Xia Hu Nao, Zheng Xiaoxiao also emerged from her silence, "Dreaming about Xia Hu Nao? What's that about?"
Zhang Hong glanced at the indicator light on the helmet. After confirming that all the students had successfully fallen asleep and begun to dream, Zhang Hong breathed a sigh of relief, "The rest is basically not my concern, so I can tell a story. That was when we were just starting our experiments. As you know, Boss Xia was still on the run all over the place, no, fighting guerrilla warfare all over the place. I couldn't do the experiments with Boss Xia, so I did them with Xiao Yu instead. Along with a few of our friends, five of us dreamed together."
Zheng Xiaoxiao took out a bottle of juice, "Keep talking."
"I don't know if it was a problem with our dream induction or some other issue, but as soon as we entered the dream, we saw five Boss Xias appear in front of us..."
Hearing that there were five Xia Hu Naos, Zheng Xiaoxiao almost spat out all the juice she had just taken in, "Cough, cough, and, and there was such a thing?"
"Tell me about it. The sudden appearance of five identical people almost scared us awake."
"Hmm? Scared awake? You knew you were dreaming?" Zheng Xiaoxiao found it more and more interesting, and Zhang Hong nodded in response, "Of course, we knew..."
Mid-sentence, cold sweat began to appear on Zhang Hong's forehead, "Oh no, oh no, something's gone wrong..."
"What's wrong?"
"Dreams, when you have a nightmare, it's easy to suddenly wake up. But in this kind of multi-person integrated dream, the nightmares superimposed would be too stimulating for the dreamer. And as long as one person doesn't stop, everyone else has to keep dreaming with them..."
"In other words, even though you know you're dreaming, you can't wake up no matter what?"
Zhang Hong nodded with great difficulty, "Yes, that's right."