Conflict with the Homeroom Teacher

"Is something the matter?" Shu Tong asked, feigning confusion.

"Would I be playing with you if there wasn't? Come in with me." The homeroom teacher went into the office as he spoke.

Sitting down at his desk, the homeroom teacher took a sip of tea and spat the tea leaves back into the cup.

"Did you know Chen Li dropped out?"

Shu Tong said in surprise, "He dropped out? Why?"

The homeroom teacher sneered. "Keep pretending. Did you arrange a gambling battle with Chen Li?"

"What evidence do you have?" Shu Tong retorted.

The homeroom teacher immediately flew into a rage. He had known Shu Tong was rebellious, but he had not expected him to be this stubborn.

"Xu Wei witnessed it himself, and there are transfer records between Chen Li and Xu Wei. Are you still going to deny it?" the homeroom teacher nearly shouted.

Yet Shu Tong remained completely unfazed, which only made the homeroom teacher burn with even greater anger.

"That's it? You call that evidence? How do you know he wasn't the one who challenged me to a gambling battle? I ranked last in last month's summary battles. Who wouldn't want to pick on an easy target? Besides, do you want to see my transfer records with Wu Hongzhen? I'm afraid you know perfectly well. Since you, as the homeroom teacher, are incapable of stopping all gambling battles, don't stand on the moral high ground and criticize others, because you have no right to." Shu Tong's voice rose with every sentence.

The homeroom teacher's face turned crimson with rage. Shu Tong's words had struck right at the heart of the matter, every sentence mocking him.

Seeing the homeroom teacher like that, Shu Tong snorted and turned to leave the office.

Pointing at Shu Tong's back, the homeroom teacher roared, "Shu Tong, you're finished. I'm telling you, your future is gone."

Shu Tong paid no attention to what the homeroom teacher had said. What could a half-crippled professional Trainer possibly do to affect my future?

After returning to the classroom, Shu Tong headed toward his seat.

"Shu Tong." Qian Kaile called out to him.

"Hm?" Shu Tong turned around.

"Sit next to me," Qian Kaile said.

"?"

Shu Tong looked at Wang Jing, Qian Kaile's former deskmate. Wang Jing was strikingly beautiful, with a tall, shapely figure. Both her looks and physique were exceptional.

"Kaile, I don't want to leave you," Wang Jing said coyly.

The sound made goosebumps rise all over Shu Tong's body. He hurriedly retreated, afraid he might be poisoned to death.

Bang!

Qian Kaile slammed his hand on the desk, glaring at Wang Jing. "Get to the back. I'm not interested in women."

Wang Jing froze in shock, then covered her face and ran to Shu Tong's seat. The instant she sat down, the chair fell apart.

Shu Tong chuckled. Only then did he realize someone had been trying to mess with him.

"Thanks." Shu Tong sat beside Qian Kaile.

"Don't mention it. I'd take a knife to the ribs for my boss," Qian Kaile said.

Wu Hongzhen and the others were all staring at Shu Tong, even more unable to understand why Qian Kaile had helped him.

"Childish." Shu Tong cursed directly at Wu Hongzhen.

Wu Hongzhen slammed his hand on the desk, but his deskmate quickly held him back, because the homeroom teacher, Sun Youzhong, had entered with a dark expression.

"Another month has passed, and there are only three months left until the college entrance exams. I want to see how much progress you've made this month. If you keep ranking at the bottom, I advise you to drop out. At least then your Pokémon won't have to suffer alongside you." As Sun Youzhong spoke, his eyes occasionally drifted toward Shu Tong.

Shu Tong clenched his teeth. I can't beat you right now, so I can only endure it. One day, I'll make you regret what you did today.

"What, it seems some people still aren't convinced. Then gather at the field." After saying that, Sun Youzhong headed toward the field.

The entire class followed close behind.

Though it was called a field, it was actually a vast expanse made up of countless battle arenas.

There were more than a dozen classes in the grade, gradually gathering at the field. This year's cohort had around four hundred and fifty to four hundred and sixty students, and the month-end summary battles were first conducted across the entire grade.

Originally, every morning of the month had been reserved for cultural-subject assessments, but those had all been taken over.

Thus, that morning, every class's homeroom teacher was making final tactical adjustments for their students, though this was naturally only for the top students.

The homeroom teacher called the class's prized students over.

Qian Kaile, however, walked straight over to Shu Tong and said, "I drank too much last night. My head still hurts a little."

"Qian Kaile, come here," the homeroom teacher called.

Qian Kaile raised his hand and shouted, "Teacher Sun, I need to take a dump."

There were only six top students in their class. Basically all of them were with Wu Hongzhen, while Wang Jing was the only one who had wanted to curry favor with Qian Kaile. After Qian Kaile's stunt just now, she was probably furious enough to switch sides.

The top students in every class were naturally far stronger than the others.

Because these top students followed the homeroom teacher every day for all kinds of battles, the teacher knew their strength best.

The afternoon battles were also connected to these top students.

There were fifteen classes, with ten people from each class. That afternoon, four students besides the six top students would be selected from each class to take part in the schoolwide battle assessment.

As for the class selection assessment, it was simple: challenge your way up the rankings.

Since last month's battle rankings had already been released, lower-ranked students could challenge anyone up to five places ahead of them. If they won, they would take the challenged student's rank.

Once no one issued any more challenges, the final rankings would be decided. The top ten could participate in tomorrow's schoolwide battle assessment.

At that moment, the top six had already brought out their respective Pokémon.

The homeroom teacher analyzed each Pokémon's current condition and the points they needed to watch out for.

"Could you possibly see more clearly than I can?" Shu Tong focused his gaze on the six Pokémon as well.

Persian, Rhyhorn, Ponyta, Phanpy, Corphish, Sneasel

[Name]: Persian

[Type]: Normal

[Ability]: Technician

[Moves]: Last Resort, Power Gem, Feint, Taunt, Bite, Fury Swipes

[Individual Aptitude]: High-grade Attack; mid-grade Stamina, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, Speed

[Recent Turning Point]: Three days later, it used Pickup to find ten Hondew Berries in bushes south of the city. After eating them, its resistance to Poison-type energy greatly increased.

[Recent Turning Point]: Two weeks later, it used Pickup to find a Serious Mint in Rustling Forest in Auspicious City, helping Persian unlock its deeply buried potential and comprehensively improving its Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack, and Special Defense.

The other five Pokémon truly had no scripts worth examining, but Wu Hongzhen's Persian was genuinely enviable. No wonder its strength had improved so quickly. Had its Pickup Ability been hacked or something? How could it pick up so many good things?

Both Hondew Berries and Serious Mints came from Mystery Realms, and they were the kind that could not be cultivated after being taken out of a Mystery Realm.

After the Mystery Realm invasion, people discovered vast numbers of plants within the Mystery Realms that did not exist in this world. Many trees bore all kinds of fruit.

After long-term research, researchers gradually discovered the uses of these Berries.

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