The most lavish yet gaudy grand hotel in Jinghai City. On the sixth floor of this ostentatious establishment, in a private room, Xia Hunao happily swirled the glass in his hand, looking at Zhang Hong, who wore a crestfallen expression as if he had lost his entire world. "I say, is it really necessary? You're just treating us to a meal, why are you acting like your life is on the line?"
Zhang Hong glanced at his empty wallet and then shook his head. "It's not that I'm heartbroken about the money, I'm heartbroken about my sofa..."
His nonsensical remark would be incomprehensible to most, but given Xia Hunao and Zhang Hong's relationship, he glanced at Yu Tingyun and said, "Don't worry, with me here, there's no way you'll be sleeping on the sofa tonight."
Zhang Hong looked up at Xia Hunao. "Really? Is that true?"
Xia Hunao nodded. "Of course. Why just tonight? You'll be sleeping on the sofa from now on too."
"Boss Xia!"
Xia Hunao playfully teased Zhang Hong, whose fate had been sealed by the disc incident, and then said, "Alright, alright, let's get serious. The college entrance exam is almost here. How are you all preparing?"
Shen Yu gave a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, I'm pretty much ready."
Zhang Hong, who had been contemplating how to coax Yu Tingyun, turned his head. "What about you? How are you preparing? Our school is counting on you to be the top scorer. A national top scorer in Minglong Country, just the thought of it is exciting."
Xia Hunao blinked. "What? National top scorer? What does that have to do with me? I don't even have an admission ticket. Besides, I already know the questions. Having me take the exam again would be a complete slaughter."
"That's true. So, does this disc of yours have anything that can directly help?"
Xia Hunao pulled out a few CDs from his pocket. "Like I said before, this disc contains recordings of our team's matches from the very first moment of the competition. All eight of us, our entire matches are recorded. You can't just casually watch first-person perspectives like this."
"That's it? So it's completely useless?"
Xia Hunao dragged a stool over to Zhang Hong. "Let me tell you, that disc of yours has been specially optimized by me. While I can't guarantee it has everything you want to see, I can guarantee it will make your blood boil."
With a wicked grin, Xia Hunao dragged the stool back to his seat. Though Xia Hunao had moved away, Zhang Hong felt as though he was being scrutinized. He thought, "If it's something exciting like this, you could have just told me in private. Why did you have to say it in front of everyone? And you had to say it so loudly, in front of the girls, no less. You're practically asking for my life."
Yu Tingyun stood up and asked Zhang Hong with a gentle smile, "Zhang Hong, could you let me have a look at the disc?"
Sweat beaded on Zhang Hong's forehead. Xia Hunao was still stirring up trouble. He took out a laptop from his backpack. "Here, use my laptop."
With the disc in her left hand and the laptop in her right, Yu Tingyun was about to uncover the secret Zhang Hong had desperately tried to protect. Zhang Hong asked Xia Hunao, "Boss Xia, isn't it a bit inappropriate to watch this in public?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Hong realized that Xia Hunao would never do something embarrassing like that in front of girls. But what else could bring him joy?
As the laptop screen lit up, Zhang Hong watched Yu Tingyun open the disc. Besides the battle videos, there was also a report. When Yu Tingyun opened the report, even she, who had seen some of the world, gasped. "Wow, that's... a lot of money. Zhang Hong, do you have that much personal savings?"
Although Zhang Hong's family was in business, asking him to read a report was a bit too much. Zhang Hong stared at the dense text on the screen and asked Yu Tingyun, "Tingyun, which figure is my income?"
Yu Tingyun lightly poked at the words on the screen with her finger. "It's this one."
Zhang Hong stared for a long time, then began to count. "One, two, holy crap, so ma—"
It was difficult to discern the emotions in the elders' words, but the young lady decided to try and save herself. "Um, we've already lowered the difficulty. If we had set the questions according to the example Xia Hunao gave us, this year might have been..."
The attention of the elders was instantly diverted by the mention of Xia Hunao. It had to be said, Xia Hunao's name alone was quite captivating.
"Let's put aside Xia Hunao's question for now. Tell us, how did Xia Hunao solve his problem?"
The young lady, well-prepared, took a piece of paper from her pocket. "Yes, Xia Hunao's solution was to use Ditto to transform directly into Surskit. It would then disappear at the start of the match, and Xia Hunao would use his own abilities to disrupt the battle. Finally, he would emerge and simply 'pluck the peach' with a one-on-one engagement."
Hearing this, the elders were stunned, and then they all agreed. "Hmm, that method is indeed quite good. Surskit's sudden disappearance in a chaotic battle is hard to detect. And with Xia Hunao's abilities, disrupting the match is certainly possible. Or perhaps, his mere presence on the field puts immense pressure on his peers."
"Indeed, this is a choice with strong personal flair. If it were someone else, this answer wouldn't be as brilliant as Xia Hunao's."
"But you can't deny that even if it wasn't Xia Hunao, the success rate of this answer should still be quite good, right?"
"That's true. Now, let's see what kind of question Xia Hunao posed."
With that, the young lady who posed the questions took out another sheet of paper. "Xia Hunao's question is this: Choose four Pokémon to complete a battle against a Legendary Pokémon."
This question seemed simple enough. Although there was a significant gap between ordinary Pokémon and Legendary Pokémon, this gap could be leveled out or even reversed in a four-on-one situation. Such a question didn't seem like Xia Hunao's usual style.
As the elders pondered, the young lady added, "Xia Hunao's question prompt is very long. He also stipulated that no evolved forms could be used, nor could items like the Everstone be used to influence combat power. Essentially, the training of all Pokémon must not exceed that of a Larvesta about to evolve..."
Under Xia Hunao's several restrictions, the difficulty of the battle instantly increased. It is well-known that Volcarona, often mistaken by countless players, evolves the slowest. It evolves at level fifty-nine, meaning you would have to try and battle a max-level Legendary Pokémon with four first-stage Pokémon around level sixty.
"What was Xia Hunao's answer?"
"That, well, Xia Hunao didn't write it down..."