Been Boosted?

Been Boosted?

Early the next morning, Jing He woke to Gastly's excited cries.

"Koujie, koujie!"

It was clutching Jing He's battered old laptop, and a battle livestream seemed to be playing on the screen.

Jing He rubbed his head a couple of times, got up and poured himself a glass of water. After taking a sip, he immediately felt more awake. Curious, he walked up behind Gastly—and when he saw what it was watching, "Pfft—"

He had been prepared for Gastly to be watching some Horror Movie to learn how to scare people, or a battle livestream so it could complain about how boring the battle was, or perhaps Kikuko explaining one of her mystical sneak-attack methods. But he had never expected what was on the screen to be...

A milkmaid milking a Miltank!

"Koujie!"

Gastly cried out after Jing He's "sneak attack" from behind drenched it in water.

That "power from behind" again! It glared at Jing He "viciously."

"No..." Jing He wiped the water from his mouth. "You're into that?"

"Moo—"

Miltank's comfortable cry came from the computer.

Time seemed to freeze for several seconds.

"Koujie! Koujie!"

Gastly pointed at a line in the corner of the screen—Moomoo Milk, for healthier Pokémon! So it was an advertisement for Moomoo Milk.

"Uh, sorry. I didn't notice." Jing He paused, sounding entirely unapologetic.

Even if it was an ad, what were you so excited about?

Gastly looked furious. It clicked the refresh button, making the ad play again.

Since it did not have a membership, it had to wait through ads every time it watched a video.

Gastly had just reached a crucial moment when it had, without question, jumped to the next episode, and the ad had popped up on its own.

"Ahem." Jing He cleared his throat. "You know what's strange? People with money buy memberships, while people without money have to wait through ads. Showing ads to people without money—isn't that just wasting time?"

"Koujie, koujie!"

Gastly was indeed distracted, nodding solemnly again and again.

Exactly!

But it was a crafty little Ghost-type, and quickly brought the subject back around.

"Koujie!"

It mimed spitting water, sternly "condemning" Jing He for spraying it with water before brushing his teeth.

"Fine, fine, fine." Jing He raised both hands in surrender. "Don't you just want to try this Moomoo Milk? I'll order some for you, okay?"

After spending so long with Gastly, how could Jing He not know what it was thinking? Gastly: |ω)

Shaking his head helplessly, he picked up his phone and briefly checked his messages, lingering on the bank account notification for several seconds.

"I praised Steven Stone for nothing. He couldn't even understand such an obvious hint?"

Just yesterday, he had praised Steven Stone for understanding people. Hadn't he skipped out on the bill at the end as a hint that he was short on money and could not even afford a meal?

"Koujie?"

Why not just tell him directly?

"Heh." Jing He chuckled softly. "I'm a teacher, after all. Directly talking to a student about money would be a 'stain' on the profession."

Gastly rolled its eyes.

It did not know whether Jing He cared about saving face or not.

"Morning, Jing He."

"Good morning, Teacher Jing He—"

"..."

As Jing He entered the academy with Gastly, a hint of confusion appeared on his face. There were clearly far more people greeting him this morning.

Still, he smiled back at every friendly greeting.

When he returned to the consulting room, Jing He became even more puzzled.

He knew his own position well. As a Pokémon Psychology instructor, he was the kind of barely noticeable, dispensable teacher at Canalave Pokémon Academy. Not many people even knew him, so why were so many people greeting him today?

But clearly, returning to the consulting room did not immediately answer his question.

Gastly did not seem to understand the situation either.

But Gastly did not care. Once it returned to the consulting room, it excitedly drifted back and forth around the room.

That morning, under its threats and inducements—cute pleading, pitiful whining, and begging—Jing He had ordered a case of Moomoo Milk right in front of it. It would be delivered home that evening, and now it only wished time would pass faster.

"Koujie, koujie—"

Jing He, meanwhile, made himself a cup of coffee, sat down at his desk, and turned on the computer.

He skillfully opened the League's official website, briefly browsed some current news, and logged into his account.

He wanted to see whether Mewtwo had replied.

However...

The moment he logged in, the computer began ringing frantically with "ding, ding, ding" sounds as though it had Crashed.

"Koujie?"

Even Gastly could not help drifting over to take a look.

Jing He was a little surprised as well.

Had Mewtwo really come through the internet cable? But when he opened the messages, he discovered that they were not replies from Mewtwo. They were comments under the paper he had published!

"Hm?"

Come to think of it, Jing He's paper had not been published for just a day or two. Yet it had always remained lukewarm, with barely any comments.

That was normal. After all, he was not some famous doctor, nor could he even be considered a researcher. Naturally, few people would see the papers he published.

Looking at the "999+" notification that was still climbing, Jing He was somewhat at a loss.

What was going on? He immediately turned off the computer's notification sound, and the incessant dinging finally stopped.

Still puzzled, he did not rashly open that frightening "999+" notification. Instead, he went straight to the researcher channel.

Very quickly, he found his own paper on the first page, listed sixth among the pinned papers—The Potential Connection Between Pokémon Personalities and Ability Values.

Had someone paid to boost it?

Otherwise, it was difficult to explain why a paper that had received so little attention had suddenly become one of the popular papers.

This also explained why so many people had taken the initiative to greet him that morning. It was most likely directly related to this paper.

He tried opening the paper.

He scrolled down the page.

Soon, he saw a comment below the paper that had been pinned due to its popularity.

"An interesting direction, but it lacks actual numerical data to support it. If it's due to equipment issues, perhaps I can offer some help. —Professor Oak"

Huh? Jing He froze.

Professor Oak?

No wonder the popularity was so high.

Professor Oak had commented on his paper—and it was a fairly positive comment at that—sparking discussion among the researchers and Trainers below.

As an authority in the Pokémon World, Professor Oak's influence was enormous. Even a simple comment from him could produce this kind of effect.

As the paper exploded in popularity, even Jing He's Pokémon Psychology Consulting Room—which had only ever been visited by Mewtwo over the past month—received more attention.

Little Growlithe: Excuse me, if a Pokémon can't eat, could it be a psychological problem? Eevee Eating Cabbage: Hello, sorry to bother you, but what should I do if a Pokémon has too much of an inferiority complex? Math Magician: Should humans really coexist with Pokémon? Questions like these suddenly increased by quite a lot.