"Hm? A-Tian, why aren't you eating?" Su Han picked up a piece of pork tenderloin and brought it to Cheng Tian's lips. "Does my cooking taste bad?"
"Huh? No, not at all..." Cheng Tian ate the tenderloin in one bite, but his eyes stayed fixed on the Pokémon eating with their heads down around the sofa, especially Gengar and Noibat.
Gengar and Noibat looked guilty. Every so often, they glanced up at Cheng Tian, then immediately lowered their heads to eat when they saw him still staring at them.
Their inner thoughts: He hasn't found out, has he?!
"Something's fishy. Twelve out of ten levels of fishy." Cheng Tian narrowed his eyes.
"Hm?" Su Han froze. "What's fishy?"
"No, nothing." Cheng Tian shoveled rice from his bowl, finding it more baffling the more he thought about it.
How was Noibat already level 37???
Could it be that I'd been making it battle too often?
But that didn't add up either. I never had Noibat learn Shadow Ball! Where did this Shadow Ball with level-three proficiency come from out of thin air?
"Rotom, come here a second." Cheng Tian called Rotom over.
"Roto? What is it, roto?"
"Look something up for me. Can Noibat learn Shadow Ball on its own after reaching level 37?"
"Roto!" Rotom's heart jolted at his words. It knew the cat was out of the bag.
"Roto! The latest research shows that a small number of exceptionally gifted Noibat have a chance of figuring out Shadow Ball on their own." Rotom made up a random lie, even throwing together a level-up chart within a second and displaying it for Cheng Tian as though it were the real thing.
"Huh?" Cheng Tian scratched his head. "Is that so?"
"Roto! I swear twenty years of my life on it!"