Ye Zijin and Her Level 18 Pokémon

Cheng Cheng widened her beautiful eyes and said, "Yeah, I really like Eevee, so I had my dad get one ready for me."

Liu Bin said, "But many of Eevee's evolutions need Evolution Stones, and those aren't cheap. Are you planning for all six of your Pokémon to be Eevee?"

Cheng Cheng said indifferently, "Yeah, why not? You don't need to worry about that. I'm my parents' only daughter, so they'll definitely prepare everything for me."

Liu Bin said, "You rich people, stay away from me. My heart has been severely wounded again."

Jiang Jing smiled without saying anything, but he began thinking about his second and third Pokémon.

On the other side, night soon arrived. While everyone was attending evening self-study, a group of teachers were chatting in the office.

The overall layout of the Spirit Studies office was fairly standard. Upon entering, one could see how spacious it was, with an area roughly equal to two classrooms combined.

It was divided into four sections, each with a blue plastic table. The tables were divided into six workspaces, each separated by thirty-centimeter-high metal partitions.

In the corner of the third table was Teacher Lin Kai's workspace. His desk was simply arranged: a laptop, textbooks, pens, and a thermos were his personal belongings, while the rest were neatly stacked student exercise books.

As he worked on his computer to prepare tomorrow's lesson materials, he suddenly heard a discussion from nearby.

A teacher of average build and ordinary appearance, though quite kind-looking, asked the male teacher beside him, "Hey, Teacher Zhu, are the results of this Pokémon level assessment out yet?"

Teacher Zhu checked his phone and said, "They're all out. They're being printed into documents now and should be delivered shortly."

At that moment, another teacher walked over holding a cup and asked curiously, "How many Level 16 Pokémon were there in the entire grade this time?"

That question drew the attention of everyone in the office. Some teachers directly gathered around, while others were too embarrassed to do so and pretended to continue their work, though both ears were perked up as they waited for the male teacher to answer.

Asked that question, the male teacher operated his phone as he said, "Let me check. I remember there being quite a few—several more than last year."

Then he read from his phone, "There were 629 Pokémon assessed today. Some students had more than one Pokémon."

"There were twelve Level 16 Pokémon, two Level 17 Pokémon, and one Level 18 Pokémon."

"What? There's even a Level 18 Pokémon?" a female teacher exclaimed.

"This is the first time I've heard of a Pokémon being Level 18 during its initial assessment."

"It's the first time at our school too, right? Before this, I'd only heard of schools like No. 1 High School, No. 2 High School, and No. 3 High School having them."

A beautiful female teacher in a pink dress walked over and asked, "Which student has the Level 18 Pokémon?"

The male teacher said, "It belongs to Ye Zijin from Class 1."

The female teacher said in realization, "So it's Ye Zijin. She's probably the only one at our school who could have one."

"Ye Zijin's future goal is probably Magic City or Imperial University."

Then a curvy female teacher asked, "Who do the other two Level 17 Pokémon belong to?"

The teacher said, "One belongs to Peng Yu from Class 3, and the other belongs to Jiang Jing from Class 9."

The female teacher asked doubtfully, "I know Peng Yu. He was already among the top five in the grade during his first year, and his family conditions aren't bad. Having a Level 17 Pokémon is fairly normal."

"But who's this Jiang Jing? A hidden dark horse?"

A male teacher asked Lin Kai, who was operating his computer in the back, "Teacher Lin, Jiang Jing is in your class. What impression do you have of him?"

Lin Kai turned around, as though he had already prepared his answer. "Jiang Jing has always struck me as a handsome young man. His physical fitness is quite good, but his academic performance is just average."

"But I didn't expect such an earth-shaking change once he entered Spirit Studies. Maybe he has an exceptionally high Trainer Talent!"

Just as he finished speaking, a chubby head poked in from outside. Holding a stack of documents, he said, "The assessment results are out. I'm handing them out."

At 8:10 p.m., Class 9's evening self-study session was underway.

Jiang Jing closed his white exercise book and placed it in the upper-left corner of his desk. He took out his math textbook from the drawer and began previewing it. Beside him, Liu Bin, who had finished his homework, opened his Chinese textbook and propped it up to hide himself while secretly playing on his phone below the desk.

The reason this guy's grades were only around average was that he was too lazy. English was his weak subject, and in his previous life, he hadn't started studying hard until his senior year.

Still, compared to before, he was already considered diligent. With pressure from the future, he would only become more hardworking.

Jiang Jing himself was studying with great enthusiasm now. The feeling of improving every day made it impossible for him to stop.

Besides, everything he was learning now was something he had studied before. He could remember it after reading through it once, so it was quite easy.

No. 8 High School only had two evening self-study periods, ending at 8:40.

At that moment, Liu Bin glanced at the quiet surroundings. Looking back, he saw that Sun Le and Zhang Haocheng were both doing their homework. The entire classroom was filled only with the sounds of pens moving and pages turning.

He bumped Jiang Jing's shoulder, then pointed at the phone in his hand. Jiang Jing immediately understood.

He reached into his drawer and took out his phone. Liu Bin had sent him a WeChat message.

Liu Bin: "Brother Jing, do you have any ideas about your second Pokémon?"

Jiang Jing replied, "The sooner we prepare our second Pokémon, the better. We can't keep dragging this out."

Liu Bin: "We can catch Pokémon at the school's Breeding Park now. We only need to pay one thousand yuan."

Jiang Jing replied, "The Pokémon in the school's Breeding Park are almost all One-Star Talents. Two-Star Talents are extremely rare—almost impossible to find."

Liu Bin: "But if we buy one from a Breeding House, a Two-Star Talent is still too expensive. I think I'll probably go to the school's Breeding House instead."

Jiang Jing replied, "Think it through carefully. Don't rush into a decision."

After putting down his phone, Jiang Jing held his book and pondered quietly.

He possessed an ability within his body that could improve a Pokémon's talent. He only needed to catch one.

The school's Breeding Park was filled almost entirely with One-Star Talent Pokémon. As long as he caught one, he could raise it to Two-Star Talent. No matter how he looked at it, he wouldn't be losing out.

And he had Data Eye. He could search through them one by one until he found a Two-Star Talent Pokémon.

With that thought, Jiang Jing's plan became clearer and clearer.

Ring, ring, ring!

Before he knew it, class was over.

"Brother Jing, Top Student, Brother Cheng, let's go," Liu Bin said as he slung his backpack over his shoulders.

Top Student was Sun Le's nickname. Sun Le had the best grades in Class 8, so calling him that was fitting.

As the group walked back to the dormitory, Sun Le said, "I'm taking Mankey out to train later. Are you guys coming?"