102. It Is My Duty

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Capital University's chief recommendation student this year was truly outrageous.

Not in terms of strength, but behavior.

This Chief Roy hadn't come to school for another two months to check in. During the first half of the freshman year, he actually attended class for less than two weeks. It wasn't clear whether there would be imitators of this kind of behavior, but at least it was unprecedented.

There had never been a chief recommended student who displayed such arrogance with absenteeism and rule violations—like using Power Trip.

Yet the school leaders even condoned this behavior, claiming it was an approved leave of absence?

Things had gotten so bad that the school newspaper began running a quiz with prizes.

—When will Chief Roy return to school?

One answer received the most votes by an absolute margin.

"The day of the final exam."

Remarks: "Falling from the sky/bursting through the door."

Obviously, during the mid-term exam, Chief Roy had descended from the sky on a Salamence, defeated the school team in the main election, and made history. Many people still vividly remembered the scene.

Many were waiting for a classic repeat performance.

"What the hell, who did I just see?" exclaimed Axel, who had just walked into the classroom. He rubbed his eyes with a suspicious expression on his face.

"Callan, pinch me, am I still dreaming?"

Although Callan beside him was also very surprised, he still complained: "Can you be less dramatic? People who don't know better might think you've seen Arceus. Isn't Roy just coming to class?"

Yes.

The day before the final exam, Roy showed up in the classroom. Looking like a model student, he sat in a chair, copying notes he had borrowed from Serena yesterday.

Axel leaned over, looked at the notes Roy was copying, and immediately burst out laughing: "Hey, why is our Chief Roy copying such basic knowledge points? No way, no way, nobody really knows all this stuff. Don't you know it already?"

"Get lost, you jerk," Roy shot him an annoyed look, then glanced back at his textbook in distress.

There was a written test in the final exam covering Pokémon knowledge.

Roy, who had read the original source material and was proficient in the games, was quite confident at first, thinking nobody knew Pokémon better than him.

However, the first question stumped Roy.

"Tauros is only male, what is its female counterpart Pokémon?"

"???"

After checking the answer and seeing that the corresponding female was Miltank, Roy was speechless...

"I don't read enough, don't lie to me," he thought. "One is a bison and the other is a cow—how are they corresponding pairs? At most, they're in the same egg group and can breed together!"

The second question was, "What Pokémon can learn human language and speak?"

"Isn't that just Meowth from Team Rocket?" Roy thought.

Looking at the answer, it was Chatot.

A Pokémon that resembled a parrot.

Roy really wanted to tell the teacher who made the question: "Good job, but don't make any more questions—go find work at an electronics factory instead!"

"Why not test evolution forms, Abilities, TMs, Base Stats..."

"Do you even understand what Mega Evolution is? Or Z-Moves?"

After seeing the ecological research paper about Mankey that would be on the test later, Roy's fighting spirit completely evaporated.

"Forget it, I'll just copy from someone during tomorrow's exam."

He originally wanted to fit in with everyone as a normal student, but the test questions were too outrageous.

"Fine. I'll use Psychic-type moves to cheat," he thought mischievously.

At this moment, Callan came over. Seeing Roy's troubled expression, he reminded him: "The written test only accounts for a small portion of the grade. The practical combat assessment is the key part. With your strength, as long as your written test score isn't too low, keeping your position as chief recommendation student will be a breeze."

"By the way, this year's practical combat assessment is in the form of a group battle."

"Group battle?"

This was the first time Roy had heard of it.

"The school only announced it this morning, and I just found out," Callan said with a smile. "Both sides deploy six Pokémon at once, and the team battle is conducted in a 3v3 format."

Roy was puzzled. "Can a freshman even put together three Pokémon?"

As mentioned before, most Trainers only had the chance to capture their second Pokémon during the midterm exam.

Currently, there was no opportunity to capture a third Pokémon.

This year's midterm exam also had that Illuminati incident, and many students didn't even have time to subdue their second Pokémon...

"Of course not," Callan explained. "The school's intention is to have students form teams and take the test as small units. Each person can only use one Pokémon, and the points earned are distributed equally... It's common for professional-level trainers to explore the spiritual realm and complete related tasks as teams, so this could be considered early adaptation training."

"Axel and I have already formed a team, and there's still one spot left. What do you say? Want to join? Then we can give you more points."

Saying this, Callan looked hopeful. With Roy's strong combat abilities, their team would surely win the championship.

"...I could carry Callan and score 83 points together!" he thought.

Roy understood the proposal, but had no intention of agreeing to Callan's offer.

Instead, he thought of something interesting.

Roy asked: "Scores are distributed equally... That means, the fewer people on a team, the more points each person gets?"

"...That's right."

Seeing Roy's expression of interest, Callan's heart skipped a beat, and he said nervously:

"Wait, you don't want to compete alone, do you?"

"Why not?" Roy replied noncommittally.

Hearing this, Callan suddenly had a feeling of "that's exactly what he would do."

It certainly seemed like the kind of outrageous behavior Roy might pull off.

When Callan wanted to offer a few more words of persuasion, Axel grabbed him, dragged him to a corner with an excited expression, and started whispering.

Roy looked over thoughtfully, his aura power surging, and he overheard parts of their discussion.

"Why are you trying to dissuade him?"

"This is our best chance to avenge our humiliation!"

"You, me, and we'll call Cade too—the three of us will dispatch our strongest Pokémon. Three against one, how can we lose?"

Callan was swayed.

With Roy's monstrous rate of getting stronger, Callan felt it would be difficult to ever catch up, so he had given up on erasing his shame.

He wanted to move on, but it was impossible to say he had no regrets in his heart.

But he never expected Roy would be so arrogant—or greedy for points—that he would take part in the final exam alone.

In a situation where everyone could only deploy one Pokémon, Roy would face a one-versus-three scenario in every match.

Ordinary students naturally couldn't be Roy's rivals.

However, he, Axel, and Cade were all recommendation students with deep backgrounds. It wasn't impossible for the three of them to fight Roy together and arrange some targeted tactics to defeat him.

Hadn't Roy also achieved a tactical victory at the beginning, defeating Brian despite having the weaker Pokémon?

A Pokémon's raw strength wasn't everything.

Now that a three-on-one advantage was in sight, Callan had to consider whether this might be his only chance.

Soon, he made up his mind.

With determined eyes, Callan picked up his phone to contact Cade.

—It was their duty to revive the glory of the Recommended students...