Fang Yuan

June 9, 2016. Summer.

The weather was clear and sunny, without a cloud in the sky.

But Fang Yuan, who was sleeping soundly, suddenly felt a chill run through his body.

I feel like I've forgotten something...

After opening his eyes, Fang Yuan stared at the ceiling and rubbed his head.

That was right!

Today was the college entrance exam, and the last day of it, too.

He reached for his phone and checked the time. Fang Yuan was instantly startled. It was noon?!

Didn't my alarm go off...?

After hurriedly setting down his phone, Fang Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Oh no—just yesterday, he had promised a senior girl currently taking the college entrance exam that he would cheer her on today... And yet... he had overslept?

He had gone to bed early last night. Even if his alarm had failed to ring, he should not have slept until noon.

Picking up his phone again, Fang Yuan felt miserable as he considered how to apologize to her.

But...

Ding!

Just then, a message window popped up.

Senior: The battle exam this morning went smoothly. My opponent's Pikachu was too weak.

"Haha, looks like it went well."

Fang Yuan had just been about to congratulate her and apologize when he suddenly felt that something was off.

A battle exam?

Pikachu?

Weren't you taking the college entrance exam? Did you think you were playing Pokémon?!

"I must still be asleep."

At that moment... a whole flood of message windows popped up again. They were from Penguin News.

The headline of the first article was utterly baffling. Fang Yuan glanced at it and felt even more unsettled.

<Four Professional Trainers Explore Liaoxi Grand Canyon Secret Realm, Encounter a Fierce Ancient Pokémon Aerodactyl—Only One Survivor!>

Fang Yuan frowned and opened the comments.

Talk About It Later: Aerodactyl? A dragon? Did they discover a new species of Dragon-type Pokémon again?

Da Ju Wei Zhong: Looks like the Liaoxi region is about to get lively. Whoever catches that Aerodactyl will definitely become famous. But if even four Professional Trainers were no match for it, this Aerodactyl must be incredibly powerful.

Shu Shan Ya Li Da: what? Another new Pokémon species? Strongly protest! Firmly oppose adding information about new Pokémon to the textbooks!

At that moment, Fang Yuan's head hurt even more. Psyduck awakened Psychic Power when it got headaches, but his headache awakened a flood of memories.

A few minutes later, Fang Yuan, who had been in such pain that he wished he were dead, suddenly revealed a complicated expression.

He had figured out what was going on.

"No wonder. I'm still Fang Yuan, all right..."

"But this world's history..."

Whether it was the Pikachu his senior had mentioned or the Aerodactyl reported by Penguin News, they truly existed.

A hundred years ago, countless special spaces called "Secret Realms" suddenly appeared across the world. Expedition teams from various countries discovered that every Secret Realm was an independent new world separate from Earth. All kinds of "monsters" lived there, possessing terrifying abilities more powerful than cold weapons or firearms.

Years later, the Secret Realm known as Viridian Forest merged with Earth for the first time, and monsters descended upon Earth for the first time as well. Among them were many highly aggressive monsters, but there were also individuals that were friendly toward humans.

As more Secret Realms merged with Earth Space, the first war between humanity and monsters erupted, later known as the Monster War. This war rapidly advanced human technology while also allowing humanity to understand monsters better.

When the first Monster War ended, an organization known as the Pokémon League was established in response, with countries from around the world as its members. The Pokémon League held a leading position in the world, and it was in that same year that monsters were officially renamed "Pokémon" by humanity.

Not long afterward, Professor Ron invented the Modern Poké Ball, used to capture Pokémon, at Celadon University. At the same time, in order to guard against dangers from Secret Realms—and even more so to prevent anyone from monopolizing the enormous potential benefits they could bring—countries everywhere established Trainer Associations. For the first time, Trainers took the world stage as a profession.

By the twenty-first century, every country in the world hoped to cultivate more Trainers, though the reasons for this were each nation's highest state secret. To ensure the quality of schools as educational institutions and the healthy development of aspiring Trainers, China reformed certain universities, redefined the concept of key universities, implemented the 16-year-old Trainer Law, increased the score weighting of Pokémon-related subjects, and included Pokémon Battles in the college entrance exam.

"It really is Pokémon..."

Fang Yuan patted his cheeks.

He had woken up to find the world completely transformed, with creatures from the Pokémon franchise merged into reality. Was there anything more absurd than that?

Fang Yuan quickly ran to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, sorting through the situation again. Yet his heart was still racing.

Fortunately, he was still an upcoming senior at Peaceful City First High School. His parents had not changed, his home address had not changed, and neither had his relationships. The difference was that Peaceful City First High School in this world was a key high school—the kind that trained Trainers. Unlike ordinary high schools, Ping High School mainly taught Pokémon-related knowledge during the senior year. During the summer vacation after their sophomore year, every student at a key high school would receive their own Pokémon and register as a Trainer.

The difference between ordinary high schools and key high schools was not merely their subjects. The bigger difference was tuition.

Key high schools aimed at training Trainers and invested many resources into their students. Tuition for the senior year alone cost 200,000, not even including the fee for registering as a Trainer. For most people, money was the barrier to becoming a Trainer.

Fang Yuan would also register as a Trainer this summer and prepare for the upcoming college entrance exam.

Lightning, flames, torrents, hurricanes—the Pokémon initially called "monsters" by humanity possessed powerful strength. Human Trainers captured Pokémon, trained them, battled alongside them, and raised them. An outstanding Trainer could bring out a Pokémon's latent power to the fullest extent.

The extraordinary powers Pokémon possessed were like a Trainer's hands and feet, allowing them to accomplish many things that human strength alone could not.

This emerging profession had long since become mainstream throughout the world, and every industry was closely connected to it.

However, Fang Yuan also noticed something strange.

Because Secret Realms had appeared in this world, there had indeed never been any Pokémon franchise works. Humanity's exploration of Pokémon species had only reached 702.

That was far short of the more than eight hundred Pokémon he remembered.

Abilities, moves, tactics, types, rare treasures—all of them were still in the exploratory stage. Less than a hundred years was clearly not enough for humanity to fully understand Pokémon, nor was there any comprehensive work that recorded them in a systematic manner.

With a wry smile, Fang Yuan picked up his phone again, replied to his senior with a "Congratulations," and began apologizing for waking up late.

She really did deserve congratulations. If a key high school student successfully entered university and worked hard for another four years, they would have a good chance of becoming a Professional Trainer. Unlike Ordinary Trainers, whom anyone with money could register as, Professional Trainer was both a profession and a social class. With a Professional Trainer license, one could use 95% of public facilities in every country for free, with first-class benefits and treatment. This was also Fang Yuan's dream.