After getting Sprigatito's training notes, Xia Chi had no desire to attend class or edit videos, and no time to stream.
He simply posted an update saying, "No stream today."
Then he spent the entire afternoon and evening engrossed in studying the two sets of training insights.
There was a reason Geeta was Paldea's Top Champion while Brassius was a Newbie-Friendly Gym Leader.
The quality of their training notes differed considerably. The ingenuity and ideas Geeta displayed were far more impressive.
Brassius envisioned Meowscarada as a Speedy Attacker-an assassin.
Geeta, on the other hand, believed Meowscarada's exceptionally rare [Protean] Ability could allow it to develop into a warrior equally capable of offense and defense.
Neither approach was necessarily better than the other. The former focused on maximizing strengths and minimizing weaknesses.
The latter started with its Ability. Both made sense.
Still, Xia Chi leaned more toward Geeta's approach.
The reason was simple: with cheats, he could do whatever he wanted.
He was only just getting started, yet the all-stat support his bonds and equipment provided Sprigatito was already outrageous. It would only grow stronger from here.
Besides, Sprigatito had a Grass-type bond that supported sustained combat. It would be a real shame not to raise it into a Hexagonal Warrior.
In fact, Xia Chi's previous two equipment choices had already nudged Sprigatito toward the path of an all-round warrior.
But as a Gym Leader specializing in Grass-types, Brassius certainly had worthwhile insights in his training notes, too.
Xia Chi ultimately decided to use Geeta's notes as his foundation, supplement them with some of Brassius's insights, and adapt them to his circumstances to create a training path tailored to his own Sprigatito.
Since he had already bought the training supplies Sprigatito needed a while ago, Xia Chi did not go on a shopping spree after organizing the notes.
All right, the main reason was that he was short on money.
A top-tier Trainer like Geeta used only the best, and Xia Chi could hardly afford that right now.
Fortunately, things should improve next month.
After all, his fans, led by his Top Supporter Iono, had spent quite generously in his streams this month.
Come to think of it, after less than half a year of making videos and streaming, Xia Chi's account on the Piplup platform was already approaching five hundred thousand followers. It was nothing short of a miracle.
Of those, probably fewer than a hundred thousand had followed him for the history videos in his [Legendary Pokémon Secrets] and [Regional Legends] series. Most were stream viewers.
Especially after running into Iono and Raihan in matches recently, his follower count had doubled outright. He now had a reasonably sizable audience.
And because he had deliberately used his status as a student at the prestigious Shanghai University, along with his good looks, to attract fans early in his streaming career, his fame on campus had risen as well.
The looks from passersby hardly counted. His appearance had always turned plenty of heads.
The noticeable change was that several fans from his university had come up to chat and ask for photos over the past few days.
If he had not spent most of every day holed up in his dorm editing videos or streaming, it probably would have happened even more often.
In any case, after Xia Chi finished organizing Sprigatito's training notes, he suddenly realized it was just past midnight.
It was December 1, League Year 224, Donghuang time-the day Xia Chi posted his monthly [Legendary Pokémon Tales] video.
Following the philosophy of Staying up late is bad for my health, so I'll just stay up all night,
he decided to give "The Genesis of Arceus (Part One)-The Origins of the Universe and the Three Dragon Gods of Matter" one last little polish.
Thinking about it was one thing. Doing it was another.
Predictably, "a little" turned into "a whole lot."
By the time dawn broke outside his window and the eastern sky grew light, Xia Chi finally clicked publish with satisfaction.
Then he prepared Sprigatito's breakfast, lunch, and Berry platter for the day before yawning and slipping beneath his cozy covers.
Meanwhile, in Celestic Town in the Sinnoh Region.
As the sun rose over the Donghuang Region, this place thousands of miles away was still enjoying the quiet of late night.
As the large town closest to Mt. Coronet at the center of Sinnoh, it offered the fullest sense of that towering mountain range's breathtaking grandeur.
At that moment, a house not far from the Celestic Historical Research Institute glowed with soft yellow light.
A beautiful blonde woman with a slender figure sat at a desk, reading.
Behind her, a Togekiss had taken on the role of a hair dryer, diligently blowing warm air from its mouth over her wet golden hair.
Outside the window, the imposing silhouette of a Pokémon resembling a creature half shark, half dragon flickered in and out of view.
Celestic Town, Togekiss, Garchomp-all the pieces were there. The woman was none other than Cynthia.
"Ding~"
A clear chime suddenly sounded beside the bed.
Cynthia put down her book and stretched languidly, her lovely curves showing faintly beneath her simple black pajamas.
"Roserade, get my phone for me."
With the elegance of a gentleman, Roserade gave a slight nod. "Rade~"
A vine extended from beneath its brightly blooming roses and delivered the phone from the bedside table to Cynthia.
No one had messaged her. There was only an app notification.
"The Content Creator you follow, [Shuiye Shuiye], just uploaded a new video!"
Cynthia raised an eyebrow. That procrastinator uploaded this early in the month?
An avid Mythology and History Enthusiast, Cynthia had followed Shuiye ever since his very first video became popular.
She was a longtime fan.
She occasionally watched his streams too, though not often, because of the time difference.
But she had never missed a single one of his history videos.
The content was engaging and his ideas fresh, though some parts had no evidence to support them and could very well have been made up.
Still, these were not meant to be rigorous educational history videos, so that hardly counted as a flaw.
At the end of his previous video, Shuiye had asked his viewers which region they wanted him to cover next.
The comment Cynthia had posted from her alt account-"Could you talk about the myths and legends of the Sinnoh Region?"-had unexpectedly been voted to the top.
So this episode was about Sinnoh mythology?
Curious, Cynthia tapped the notification and saw the video's title-
"The Genesis of Arceus (Part One)-The Origins of the Universe and the Three Dragon Gods of Matter"
Hah, what a bold claim!
Cynthia's first reaction was skepticism.
Compared with the earlier episodes about Ho-Oh at the Burned Tower and the resurrected Legendary Beasts, or the Guardian of the Sea and the Legendary Birds, this topic was more than just one level above them.
Creation?
The origins of the universe?
Was he planning to start a whole new school of thought?
Based on the murals, statues, and other artifacts unearthed so far, along with verifiable historical records,
Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia were all legendary Pokémon confirmed to have existed and to have been revered and worshipped by the people of Ancient Sinnoh.
But where had this claim about creation come from?
And what evidence was there for the origins of the universe?
With her mind full of questions, Cynthia unconsciously sat up straight and started the video.
Before you continue