Outside the capital,
a red streak sliced across the sky like a rocket.
"Wuhu, take off!"
"How's it feel, Latias?"
Lin Yu sat astride Latias, drinking in the wind-ripping speed.
He was only testing the Dragon Rider boost for her.
Totally not just because he wanted to soar through the sky.
"Faster… a little," Latias murmured beneath him.
"Alright, let's head back."
"Mm!"
Latias flickered and vanished into thin air.
Two days slipped by in a flash.
Lin Yu avoided going out as much as possible these days,
holing up in the training chamber to drill his Pokémon.
When he did have to step outside, he kept his Ditto Mask on.
He couldn't help it —
being too famous was more trouble than it was worth.
He'd already gotten plenty of attention at the provincial tournament.
But after revealing Latias, countless people would be hunting for her origin.
The tourism industry in Alto Mare was about to boom.
Whether anyone could actually befriend Latias and Latios would depend on their own luck.
He'd also heard that Shuimu City was flooded with visitors lately.
Lin Yu had single-handedly boosted the development of two whole cities.
During these days,
Lin Yu's title as Senior Researcher was officially confirmed.
Multiple master researchers had approved his thesis and praised its feasibility.
Once scaled up,
trainers would finally understand exactly how their Pokémon evolved.
At Luo Qingfeng's request, Lin Yu helped write a paper:
On the Mechanism of Magikarp Evolving into Gyarados.
He didn't join the actual experiments, but he wrote down every detail of how Misty's Magikarp had evolved.
Professor Luo looked at him with a complicated expression,
then sighed:
"Your imagination is boundless."
The process had inspired her, too.
Magikarp and Gyarados were polar opposites in personality —
the key was rage.
Rage was what drove the evolution.
What about Feebas?
Feebas evolving into Milotic — what was the extreme shift there?
Ugliness to beauty.
Researchers really did think fast. She'd hit the nail on the head immediately.
Still, it would be a while before those findings went public.
Then there was Energy Cubes.
Was there a secret to crafting Master-tier cubes?
Lin Yu still couldn't quite figure it out.
For most of his Pokémon, his current cubes were more than enough.
Higher-grade ones would only cause energy overflow.
The real exception was Latias.
She had once been at least Elite-tier, maybe higher. She was only recovering now — the better she ate, the faster she healed.
When Lin Yu asked Luo Qingfeng about it,
she fell into a stunned silence.
What had she been doing at sixteen?
This boy, at sixteen, was asking her about Master-tier Energy Cubes?
Despite her shock,
she taught him everything she knew.
Lin Yu's crafting skills improved drastically.
And then there was the tournament prize.
The championship reward included:
10 million in cash
One pseudo-Legendary Pokémon of choice
Basic evolution resources
Lin Yu could convert the resources into money or equivalent materials — roughly 30 million's worth.
Adding the pseudo-Legendary (which was priceless),
the tournament had earned him nearly 100 million in total assets.
That was the real jackpot.
His Senior Researcher title also gave him two extra Pokémon slots.
The league offered three pseudo-Legendary options:
Beldum
Dratini (egg)
Gible (egg)
The last two were eggs. Beldum would take time — its Metagross parent was still recovering.
Lin Yu hesitated.
He wanted all three.
But he could only pick one.
In the end, he fixed his gaze on Gible.
Dragonite and Metagross were great,
but Metagross overlapped Psychic typing with Gardevoir and Latias.
And Dragonite…
After thinking long and hard, he worried it would compete with Charizard for future Entry boosts.
Besides, he'd seen Dragonite and Metagross plenty of times lately.
The mystery had worn off.
But Garchomp?
He'd never even seen one.
So Gible it was.
"Wonder where that Ralts ran off to these past two days…"
Without her, he couldn't continue his stories.
Lin Yu had discovered something:
when he combined Emotion Master with storytelling for his Pokémon,
he maximized the Joy Conversion Entry.
He didn't even have to pet Gardevoir nonstop anymore.
Repeating the same joy-giving method gave diminishing returns.
He'd tried everything, and the effect always faded.
But storytelling was consistent —
and at cliffhangers, Entry Coin gains spiked.
Who knew helping Magikarp evolve would lead to this?
A happy accident, indeed.
Good deeds really did pay off…
Qinling Mountains.
Beneath thick mist and ancient woods,
a small pink, crescent-shaped Pokémon flickered into view.
"Yo… yo meow…"
It was Mew.
And she was stressed.
As the World Tree's symbiotic guardian,
her duty was to keep humans away.
She'd set up endless fogs and decoys across the mountains —
fake Regirock, Regice, Registeel…
But she'd gotten distracted lately, sneaking off to listen to Lin Yu's stories every day.
A few explorers had slipped through and stirred up chaos inside the World Tree.
In response, the World Tree activated its defense system,
spawning waves of "simulated Pokémon" to block intruders.
The World Tree was alive.
Creating so many defenders in such a short time was like a fever —
its energy was burning out of control.