Wen Xun

"Principal Zhu, a pleasure to meet you!" The officer in the passenger seat stepped out and greeted Principal Zhu first.

Xiao Ran and the others might poke fun at the principal's figure every day, but beneath that unremarkable exterior lay Elite Four Class strength. He was one of the most formidable fighters in all of Nancheng, and the strong commanded respect wherever they went.

Noticing the bars on the officer's shoulders, Xiao Ran frowned slightly. The man looked barely over thirty, yet he was already a deputy commander.

The military structure in this world was very different from that of Xiao Ran's previous life. Setting aside the international Pokémon League, China's Base Cities were all under the military jurisdiction of the United Front Department. Beneath it were the commanders-in-chief of each Base City, followed by commanders and deputy commanders. A deputy commander already held a rank equivalent to a Gym Leader—someone like Shen Yue's father.

Sending someone of such high rank to escort a group of freshmen to Military Training showed just how much importance the higher-ups placed on these students, and how much they expected of the Awakened. From another perspective, though, it also meant their training would be anything but easy.

"Heh, Commander Wen, I didn't expect you to come pick them up personally. What exactly is going on?" The two were clearly well acquainted, and Principal Zhu asked without standing on ceremony.

"You old rascal. You know you won't pry anything out of us. Still, this was all arranged rather hastily, so the higher-ups said we could give you a little advance notice." Commander Wen laughed as he chided him, seemingly unperturbed by Principal Zhu's Elite Four Class strength.

"As you know, there are quite a few Awakened this year. Twelve of them appeared across the country