As one of the original Team Rocket Trio's Pokémon, Ekans was not especially powerful in the Late Stage, but in the early stages, it was practically a major boss.
Combined with Xiao Ran's skill in battle, this Ekans swept through its opponents, earning him full marks on his combat assessment. It also successfully evolved into Arbok during the next two battles.
Seeing two Pokémon evolve in succession made the academy Pokémon still waiting to be chosen stare with shining eyes. They desperately wished Xiao Ran would pick them, but unfortunately, his assessment was already over.
With near-perfect scores in every subject, Xiao Ran, who had attended the fewest classes, ended up ranking first in his year.
As the exams gradually came to an end, the students welcomed their first winter break at university, some delighted and others worried.
Xiao Ran returned home with Ye Ling, but Dad Xiao was still away. With the New Year approaching, he had a busy stretch ahead and probably would not return until New Year's Eve.
Nor would Xiao Ran and Ye Ling get much time to rest at home. Xuan Yuan Tianyu had already sent word that the New Year travel rush was putting a strain on transport security. They would form teams and take part in local train escort missions.
Train stations normally had their own security teams, but passenger numbers surged during the New Year travel rush. People who worked or studied away from home all needed to return, leaving the security teams clearly short-handed. They could only borrow personnel from universities and trainee Investigators.
That meant they would spend the remaining few weeks before the New Year entirely on trains.
As luck would have it, the train they would escort was bound for the Southern Borderlands, and the escorts coming from