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After Torracat's evolution, the only member of the team that hadn't reached its final form was Riolu.
In theory, this little guy could evolve as long as its friendship level was high enough, but that was just in-game logic.
In reality, friendship wasn't a quantifiable stat—heck, it wasn't even clear if such a thing truly existed.
Li Xiang could only resign himself to fate.
Besides, Prankster was actually pretty useful. It had become a crucial part of Riolu's combat strength, and losing it would be a real shame.
After all, Riolu had learned so many status moves—some for support, some for personal use. Higher-level academies and youth tournaments often featured double battles and team battles, so it'd be a waste if "Coach Riolu" evolved before getting a chance to shine.
Of course, evolution was still a good thing.
Li Xiang was mainly worried about Riolu's emotions. Watching all its teammates evolve while it remained unchanged couldn't feel good, no matter how much it claimed otherwise.
Only a fool would believe that.
A Riolu as proud as this one, saying it didn't care about evolution That it was fine staying as it was?
That was obviously a lie.
The stronger its desire to grow, the more it would feel the gap between itself and its teammates.
Li Xiang understood this well. He wouldn't let Riolu wallow in confusion—as a trainer, it was his duty to help his Pokémon overcome their struggles.
After much pestering, the prideful Riolu finally opened up to him.
And just as he had suspected, Riolu was anxious.
Right now, it could still be considered the team's leader. But as Greninja and Inceneroar grew and evolved, as Rotom started powering up with candies, and as Corviknight became increasingly tanky…
Catching up to and surpassing Riolu was only a matter of time—and not much time at that.
Riolu felt a growing sense of panic, pushing itself harder to improve.
When Li Xiang noticed this, he didn't say much. Instead, he pulled up footage of a Mega Lucario from his hard drive and showed Riolu the silver ring he kept hidden in his pocket.
This wasn't empty encouragement—it was cold, hard proof.
"See this? This is your future."
Li Xiang pointed at the slightly blurry footage on the screen. It was from an international tournament thirty years ago, where the champion and MVP had been this very Mega Lucario.
Riolu sat in his lap, mesmerized by the image of the majestic, unrivaled Mega Lucario on the screen.
"Rioo…"
"Yes, that's the future you—not a possibility, but a certainty."
Li Xiang whispered into its ear, "Maybe, for a time, you'll be caught up to, even surpassed. But growth isn't measured in months or even years. Even if you lose a thousand, ten thousand battles… as long as you win the one that matters most, you'll be the ultimate victor. Every loss will just become fuel for your progress."
"So, you've got to think long-term. I can wait. You can wait. One day, you'll stand before me in that form, and when you do, you'll look back and realize how silly your worries were."
Riolu tilted its head up, staring at Li Xiang's chin, and suddenly understood.
"Riolu!"
With a determined cry, it leaped off Li Xiang's lap, its confidence restored.
For Pokémon, no motivational speech could compare to their trainer's encouragement and promises.
For the sake of that future, Riolu decided that even if it fell to the bottom of the team, struggling to keep up with its teammates, it could endure—
As long as Li Xiang never saw it as weak, it had nothing to fear.
....
Monday.
With Yang Tianwang's help, Li Xiang managed to get his hands on a voice pack from a famous Yuzhou voice actress. After some tinkering by Rotom, they replaced the phone's default Siri voice with the new one.
Now, Rotom's voice had gone from a stiff robotic tone to a crisp, slightly tsundere-sounding one.
Aside from the awkwardness of pulling out his phone in public and drawing stares (forcing him to use headphones), the experience was great.
…Well, it did give off some serious otaku vibes.
'When will Bluetooth headphones become a thing?'
To thank Yang Tianwang for his help, Li Xiang took the opportunity at lunch to give him another crushing 24-1 battle record, restoring Yang's confidence by proving that it wasn't that he was bad—it was just that Li Xiang was too strong.
Of course, this led to some post-match complaints, along with Yang pestering him about how he'd gotten so powerful. After nearly half a month of being dominated, they still hadn't managed to turn the tables.
But Li Xiang remained unfazed, calmly explaining that "the abilities of trainers cannot be measured by the same standard." Yang Tianwang and the others were the "leading sheep," while he was the "shepherd."
They were on entirely different levels.
Naturally, the "shepherd" was promptly ganged up on and roughed up by the "sheep."
But after beating him up, the group realized they were exhausted, while Li Xiang was still perfectly fine—leading to a collective meltdown as they accused him of being inhuman.
Li Xiang could only shrug. His strength was just too overwhelming, and his Pokémon too serious. Staying low-key wasn't an option.
And so, the cheerful month of April passed in a flash.
Time really did fly, and before he knew it…
May arrived.
Summer break wasn't far off.
Mainly because this semester was ridiculously short—starting in early April and ending in late June, totaling just eleven weeks.
It barely felt like school at all.
"…Feels like I've been shortchanged."
Li Xiang counted the number of candies he had obtained this year and realized that even with an extra Pokémon on the team, the rate of increase wasn't that great.
How could that be?
It was already hard enough to max out on candies, and now the efficiency had dropped too. At this rate, he'd only finish eating them in the year of the monkey.
He could only hope that the youth training camp would provide more sparring opportunities.
Speaking of which, with its semi-closed management system, there should be plenty, right?
…
There was no doubt that the youth training camp had caused a huge stir throughout Zhu Xia.
In just a few months, it had become a regular headline topic across major media outlets.
Everyone knew that the issue of how to educate young trainers was becoming increasingly serious. With some people fanning the flames, a major reform was inevitable—but no one expected it to go this far.
The existence of the youth training camp might even change the way higher education institutions recruited students. The guaranteed admission system might not be such a good thing anymore.
Whether the teens emerging from the youth training camps could be considered truly "qualified" trainers was still under debate from all corners of society.
"Hey hey hey, are we training Pokémon Trainers or candidates for the Top Ten Model Youths of Zhu Xia?"
Li Xiang held a newspaper, looked at the article, and couldn't help but complain, "Aren't the expectations for trainers a bit too high?"
"Well, if we don't raise the standards, and we end up with a trainer stationed in Qingcheng who's good at nothing but taking bribes and cutting corners, would you be happy about that?"
Song Jie, sitting nearby, quietly commented, "Blame it on Mr. Xia at the top. He's just too perfect as a Champion—completely reshaped the public's perception of what a trainer should be."
Li Xiang tugged at the corner of his mouth. "The way you say it makes it sound like trainers before him were all incompetent."
"I didn't say that. I'm just saying Xia Chunyu is too powerful, too perfect."
Song Jie continued, "A Champion in his early thirties—there haven't been many like that in the league's history."
'Sorry, I know plenty of Champions who were only eleven or twelve. Even the slowest ones were in their twenties. The only old guy was half-retired and became a Professor.'
Li Xiang silently complained in his heart, but he understood that this world was different from the original canon.
Here, Pokémon grew more slowly, and high-level Pokémon were more common at the top levels. Master-ranked Pokémon were typically level 75 at minimum, and level 80s were a dime a dozen. That was the main reason Champions were older.
Who wouldn't want to become Champion in their early twenties?
But the Pokémon's energy levels just didn't allow for that. It wasn't like you could spam Rare Candies at will.
Suddenly—
Song Jie's phone vibrated in his pocket.
He took it out and glanced at it, then couldn't help but smile.
"What're you smiling at? Got a girlfriend?" Li Xiang couldn't help asking.
Song Jie scoffed, "What nonsense! Remember what you asked me about last year?"
"Last year… Oh, oh! The shiny Beldum! Got news?"
Li Xiang tossed the newspaper aside and spun around excitedly. "Where is it? How much? Do I have a shot?"
"Of course you do." Song Jie smiled and turned his phone screen around to show him.
On the screen was a photo. The main subject was a huge rack lined neatly with several rows of PokéBalls, all Ultra Balls, each cushioned by a soft purple mat.
Aside from that, nothing else was in the image.
The shiny Beldum was somewhere in there?
"Guess where this is?"
Song Jie asked with a grin.
Li Xiang raised an eyebrow. "A storage room for an auction house? A breeding facility? Or maybe the collection room of some Pokémon collector?"
"Nope. Youth. Training. Camp."
Song Jie enunciated each word with a growing smile. "A bold move. A really bold move. Seventy-three shiny Pokémon in total being offered as rewards. Don't know whose brilliant idea this was. How many Qingcheng Star department stores do you think it'd take to buy just this one rack?"
Qingcheng Star was the biggest shopping mall in Qingcheng.
"Rewards?" Li Xiang stared at him in disbelief. "Just Qingcheng's camp is giving out seventy-three shiny Pokémon?"
"Of course not! It's the total from all the youth training camps in Yuzhou combined."
Song Jie rolled his eyes. "You think shinies are cabbages or something? I don't know about other provinces, but for Yuzhou, this is confirmed."
"…Alright. So is the Beldum I wanted in there?" Li Xiang asked in a low voice.
"If the info is accurate, yes."
Song Jie nodded, then sighed. "I'm also curious where they got so many shinies. No leaks at all. It's like they popped out of nowhere… If they're giving these out as rewards, people outside will go nuts."
No kidding.
Those things were walking mountains of gold.
Li Xiang swallowed hard, suppressing the desire burning inside him. "Why would they offer shiny Pokémon as rewards? That's insanely expensive. Isn't that kind of absurd?"
He had assumed the top prize would just be high-potential pseudo-legendaries or something.
"I want to know that too. The person in charge of Yuzhou must be out of his mind. And the Yuzhou League is even backing him."
Song Jie sighed. "It probably has something to do with all the recent stuff going on. The higher-ups are getting nervous."
Trying to boost competition to produce stronger, more elite trainers?
The top brass of this world really did have a talent for thinking outside the box.
Li Xiang figured that even if they went all in like this, it would take years to cultivate a truly powerful trainer. Even the ones focused purely on battle strength wouldn't be ready for at least seven or eight years.
"So what are the conditions to win one?" Li Xiang asked, more focused now. "Tournaments? What?"
Song Jie shook his head. "If I had intel that good, I wouldn't just be learning about this crazy stunt today. Just wait and see. The stronger you are, the higher your chances."
Fair enough.
Li Xiang quietly withdrew his hand, feeling a fire ignite within his heart.
This was what it meant to have a future to look forward to.
A clear, tangible goal—right in front of him.