High school life

After stepping outside, Cheng Tian decided to make a couple of rounds through the nearby streets. Sure enough, he spotted quite a few Pokémon.

Pidgey rested in the roadside trees, while a few Caterpie could be seen on the lawns and among the bushes.

Mr. Mime worked as servers in restaurants, and construction sites had Pokémon such as Machamp, Geodude, and Ampharos. Even the alleys had Raticate scurrying about.

Some pedestrians walked with Furfrou sporting different coats, while others had Skitty and other Pokémon beside them. Pokémon and humans lived together in harmony.

This was exactly the world Cheng Tian wanted! "This is awesome!" He was beside himself with excitement.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, Cheng Tian arrived at school.

Bingzhou No. 1 High School! A key high school in the city!

Once inside Bingzhou No. 1 High School, Cheng Tian headed toward a C-shaped building.

Cheng Tian had just entered his second year of high school, and today they would officially be assigned to their streams. Unlike in his original world, however, there was a Pokémon Studies stream in addition to humanities and sciences.

Humanities remained the same: memorize whatever needed memorizing. Sciences, on the other hand, had become a little unusual. If you took the pure science stream, you still studied the usual subjects, mathematics included.

But if you chose mathematics while pursuing Pokémon Studies, things became much easier.

You only needed to cover roughly two textbooks' worth of material. There were still arts entrance exams, of course, but physical education exams were no longer a separate category. Instead, physical education had become an important subject in Pokémon Studies.

That was right, Trainers had to maintain their fitness too! They did not have to become superhumans from Pallet Town, carrying Cosmog on their shoulders and taking a Hyper Beam head-on... but at the very least, they had to avoid dragging their Pokémon down in the wilderness, right? If a Trainer's Pokémon had to split their attention during battle to protect their Trainer...

Cheng Tian said, "That would be seriously lame."

And what excited him most, most, most, most of all was that English was not on the college entrance exam!

That was right, no English exam!

The explanation began with a bit of history... (censored)

And so, on that day, the sunset hanging upside down in the sky and the crimson on the sea reflected one another in a breathtaking sight...

As a result, English did not have nearly as much influence. It was merely an ordinary foreign language, one you had to master if you wanted to study abroad. Learning English was not compulsory.

When Cheng Tian read this wildly rewritten history, his heart remained untroubled. He even felt a little like laughing. He had no fondness for those colonizers.

There were plenty of other outrageous historical accounts. Magellan had been an ordinary sailor who once accidentally fell into the water and was rescued by Lapras. Just as he thought he could go home, Lapras gave a disdainful smile.

How naive. I'd like to take you home, but I don't know the way.

And so, one Pokémon and one human headed east, circling the globe before finally returning home... thus proving that the Earth was round.

There was also an idiotic French king named Louis XVI. One day, as though his brain had suddenly short-circuited, he declared himself a knight sent by God. To prove it, he found a wild Honedge and tried to draw its blade.

Honedge certainly did not indulge him. A single Slash to the head made the young Louis XVI go down in history as the first king to die from an attack by a wild Pokémon...

Whatever the case, English really did have less influence than before.

Tears streamed down Cheng Tian's face.

Fantastic! In this life, I finally won't have to suffer the torment of English again!

He reached the C-shaped building, which housed the classrooms, and Cheng Tian went to the classroom in the middle of the third floor.

He found his seat with practiced ease and set down his schoolbag.

"Hey, did you hear? Apparently Ma Ning went to this World Cup too."

"Yeah, I heard he even brought a Vigoroth and boarded the plane dragging two sacks of red cards."

The students in the classroom were all discussing their favorite topics. Suddenly, a hand clapped Cheng Tian on the shoulder, and a voice rang out.

Bai Yun stood behind Cheng Tian with a grin. "A-Tian, decided on your stream yet?" Cheng Tian smiled confidently. "The Pokémon Studies stream, of course! My dream is to become a Pokémon Master."

Bai Yun gave him a thumbs-up. "I'm planning to choose Pokémon Studies too. I want to become a Pokémon Breeder and achieve financial independence on my own."

Then, looking rather pitiful, he added, "Otherwise, I'll get dragged home to inherit the family business."

Well... this boy, every bit as unserious as Cheng Tian, was his best buddy in both lives, Bai Yun.

He was the young heir of the Bai Group. Though he had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth, he had known Cheng Tian since kindergarten, and the two had always been good friends.

Ahem... getting off topic...

Although Bai Yun had a family fortune, he did not want to go home and manage the company. More importantly, Bai Yun was an anime geek.

He often shared things with Cheng Tian, who would discuss them with him with equal enthusiasm.

... (censored)...

"Yeah, yeah." Bai Yun said excitedly, "There's only a trailer out right now, but I've decided I'm definitely following this series."

Just then, a small figure appeared behind Bai Yun, holding a rolled-up Chinese textbook. With a mischievous chuckle, she jumped up and delivered a heavy blow to the back of his head.

Bai Yun staggered, then clutched the back of his head and looked at the girl before him in pain. "Stinkbug, what was that for?!"

At that, Lin Lin puffed out her cheeks in anger. "You jerk, Bai Yun! Who are you calling a stinkbug?"

Bai Yun curled his lip. "You. We're already in our second year of high school, and you still follow me around like a kindergartener."

Lin Lin stamped her foot in anger, making her twin ponytails bounce. "I'm not talking to you anymore." With that, she returned to her seat in a huff.

Lin Lin and Bai Yun were childhood friends who had grown up together. Cheng Tian was long accustomed to this sort of thing. "Aren't you going to smooth things over?"

Bai Yun waved a hand. "We sit together anyway. I can talk to her during class." Cheng Tian nodded at that.

Just then, their homeroom teacher walked in. The noisy classroom quickly fell silent, and everyone hurried back to their seats.

Their homeroom teacher nodded in satisfaction, then said, "First, congratulations on entering your second year in this new semester. You'll be facing a heavier workload, and I hope you can adapt quickly."

"I'm sure you all know about the college entrance exam reforms. Pokémon Studies will be added to the streams available in your second year. Now, I'd like to count how many of you intend to apply for Pokémon Studies."

At that, most of the forty-odd students in the classroom raised their hands.

Come on, getting to interact with Pokémon early was amazing, okay? And even if they could not become Trainers later, working in a related field would be pretty good too. The teacher had expected so many hands to go up.

Cheng Tian was no exception, of course. Looking at all those students, their homeroom teacher nodded without surprise and said, "It isn't just our class. Plenty of students in other classes have applied for the Pokémon stream too. But that would leave very few people choosing humanities or sciences, so the school has unanimously decided..."

"You'll have to pass an exam to get in."

At that, the students began crying out. Cheng Tian understood the decision. With so many people choosing the Pokémon stream, how were the other streams supposed to survive?

"The exam is scheduled for two weeks from now. In the meantime, you need to hurry and review your Pokémon knowledge. Most importantly, you need to obtain your first Pokémon."

"You can buy one from a Pokémon Day Care or a Pokémon Center, or catch one yourself. Of course, you must do so under adult supervision, and stay safe."

"The exam will include both a written component and a battle test, so you little rascals had better work hard."

"Obtain my first Pokémon?" Cheng Tian's eyes lit up.

That's just what I need to complete the mission!