After leaving the mysterious office, Xia Huna followed Shen Yu as they strolled down the street.
Shen Yu edged closer to Xia Huna: "I never imagined we'd get entangled in something like this."
Xia Huna reached out to take Shen Yu's hand: "There's no use dwelling on it now. We just need to focus on going to school."
Speaking of school, Shen Yu looked at Xia Huna with concern: "Are you sure? Can you and Guagua Paopa pass the final exams?"
Xia Huna stammered, unable to find words, and finally waved his hand dismissively: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
...
Another day spent doing nothing of consequence, Xia Huna opened the system again, intending to check on Guagua Paopa's training progress.
Name: Guagua Paopa ♂
Level: lv1
Ability: Protean
Effect: +Sp. Atk -Atk
Stats: HP 12, Atk 5, Def 6, Sp. Atk 6, Sp. Def 6, Speed 6
Moves: Pound, Growl
IVs: 6V
EVs: Speed 3
There was absolutely no progress. Although the EVs seemed slightly higher than before, at level one, it wouldn't make a significant difference. Well, even at level one hundred, it wouldn't be much of a speed difference.
However, Xia Huna wasn't worried at all seeing this progress. For some reason, he was exceptionally sleepy today. Perhaps saving Zhang Hong had used up too many brain cells. He lay on the bed and drifted off into a daze.
...
"What do you think of my team composition?"
Xia Huna leaned in. On the screen, from top to bottom, were Pokémon like Xiong Gui Hu, Pang Tou Yu, and others.
Xia Huna wasn't a hardcore battler. Much of his strategic knowledge came from watching entertaining videos online. Based on his extensive "browsing of various forums," his conclusion was: "It should be pretty strong."
"Let's try it out, shall we? Can I trouble you?"
Xia Huna never refused such requests. The two quickly completed a battle with a bizarre aesthetic.
Don't ask. Just know that he was crushed from beginning to end.
Xia Huna couldn't understand why he had no chance to fight back. Was the gap between players that vast?
Disbelieving, Xia Huna proactively requested another match, and then...
Humans are creatures that can easily become addicted to something. In this entire afternoon of battles, Xia Huna didn't win a single one. To make matters worse, he didn't even take down a single opponent. The best he managed was to chip off half of a Calyrex's HP. And that was only because the opponent couldn't stand it anymore and went easy on him.
Xia Huna couldn't comprehend it. He snatched the Switch when the opponent wasn't looking and quickly checked the team composition.
Xia Huna, who had always believed he could handle any strange team composition, was truly shocked this time. The level of shock was enough to kill a whole troop of editors from UC Shocking News.
All he saw were nines. Regardless of the Pokémon, its nature, or its level, whenever he checked its stats, it was just a string of nines, with no odd numbers at all.
Xia Huna threw the Switch aside: "Are you kidding me? I knew my game experience was terrible this afternoon. Later on, a Speed Forme Deoxys could be one-shotted by your Little Snorlax using Sing."
How absurd was this matter? Let the numbers speak for themselves.
Little Snorlax has a base Sp. Atk of 40 and a base Speed of only 5. Speed Forme Deoxys, on the other hand, has a base Speed of 180, a base Sp. Def of 90, and a base HP of 50.
Let's bring both to level one hundred for comparison.
For a level one hundred Little Snorlax, let's ridiculously give it perfect IVs, max Sp. Atk and Speed, and 252 EVs in those stats. Its Sp. Atk would only be 196, and its Speed a mere 119.
And Speed Forme Deoxys? Let's be outlandish again, 0 IVs, -Sp. Def and -Speed, no EVs. Its Sp. Def would be 166, its Speed 328, and HP 210.
And you're telling me your 60 base power Sing can go first and one-shot it!
Defeated and frustrated, Xia Huna grumpily threw the Switch back and heard a statement: "This game is like this. As long as my stats are high enough, I can play all sorts of strange matches. This is a game where data is king. Skill and strategy are all nonsense."
Xia Huna really wanted to retort, saying: "You're t/"