In the following days, Ye Chuan methodically trained Charmander's skills. Thanks to the virtual training room, Charmander's strength advanced by leaps and bounds, and Ye Chuan was even wondering if it would end its infancy early and cross into a new stage.
In this world, the strength of Pokémon and trainers was clearly defined. Unlike Pokémon, whose classification was based on raw power, a trainer's strength was assessed by the Trainer League.
The lowest rank was Trainee, with the standard being owning one Pokémon. This mostly included high school students who had just received their initial Pokémon, with shallow knowledge of Pokémon battles and no specific specialization. Next was the Normal-rank Trainer, usually second-year high school students.
Normal-rank Trainers, after systematic learning, had mastered a certain level of battle ability and were developing a preliminary battle style. They could be certified by passing the Trainer League's exam and were also the most numerous group.
As for the Pokémon side—
The lowest stage was the egg-born Infancy stage. This was the weakest and most docile period for Pokémon. Because they lacked wildness, they could quickly become the closest partners with trainers. After shedding the Infancy stage, they truly entered the Ordinary-rank Pokémon stage, the beginner's level for battles.
Many factors determined victory in Pokémon battles. Strength was only one of them. The trainer's commanding ability, the Pokémon's special moves and talents, and even the weather of the battlefield could influence the final outcome. Even if their strength was inferior to the opponent, if their own condition was good and they had various advantages, it wasn't very difficult to battle opponents of a higher level.
Ye Chuan felt that with Charmander's rate of progress, breaking through to a new stage early wasn't strange at all.
"Ye Chuan!"
This morning, just as Ye Chuan arrived at the classroom door, he saw Gu Qi standing there with his hands clasped together, looking like he only had this one request in his entire life.
"Please, help me with something!"
"Tell me about it." Seeing Gu Qi's rare appearance, Ye Chuan said with a smile.
"Wasn't I going to join a club full of beautiful girls..."
"Did you fail?"
Gu Qi immediately waved his hand, "Of course not! It's just that to get into their club, I need to pass an assessment, and this assessment is a bit difficult."
Seeing the curious look on Ye Chuan's face, Gu Qi continued,
"The club I want to join is the Paranormal Research Society. The condition for joining is to spend a night in an abandoned school."
"You're going this far just to join a club of beautiful girls?" Ye Chuan's lips twitched.
"Please, just one night with me." Gu Qi took out his bank card.
"You can have all my allowance."
"Ah Ye?"
Before Ye Chuan could say anything, a familiar voice came from behind him. He turned around and saw An Shiyu looking incredulous, pointing at them and the bank card. "O-one night?"
"Huh?" Ye Chuan looked at her. The next second, An Shiyu shoved the bag containing his lunchbox into his arms, covered her ears, and ran away.
"Ah Ye has become a pervert!"
"Wait!" Ye Chuan reacted, but An Shiyu had already run off.
"Did we get misunderstood?" Gu Qi beside him couldn't help but ask.
Ye Chuan said helplessly, "That's because she's wearing purple glasses, so everything looks purple to her."
"..."
The two chatted for a while and entered the classroom.
Ye Chuan saw that Gu Qi still looked like he wanted his help, so he asked, "Where is this abandoned school you mentioned?"
"Eighteenth High. It's a school that was abandoned for various reasons right after it was built," Gu Qi said in a low voice. "Recently, some terrible things have been happening there."
"What?"
"Several ghost incidents happened there a few days ago. It's said that passersby witnessed the lingering spirits of dead students wandering in the classrooms. Then, they sent Pokémon to explore, but they were all frightened unconscious and had to be taken to the hospital," Gu Qi said, his face a little pale.
"Wasn't that a newly built school?" Ye Chuan asked doubtfully, involuntarily recalling the frightened Pokémon he had seen when accompanying An Shiyu to the Pokémon Center a few days ago.
But how could there be student spirits in a new school?
"I'm not too clear about rumors either. Anyway, it's true that someone was frightened unconscious there," Gu Qi said.
"Of course, it can't be ruled out that it's the work of Ghost-type Pokémon, but those witnesses all said that the ones who attacked them were student spirits."
Ghost-type Pokémon, students.
Putting these two words together, Ye Chuan couldn't help but think of Youyou, that variant Gastly wearing a school uniform.
"No way..."
Ye Chuan had a strong feeling that Youyou was behind this, and the timing matched up. He had casually told it to go scare people. Could it have really caused trouble?
Then wouldn't he be the culprit?
The more Ye Chuan thought about it, the more he felt it was his fault. He glanced at Gu Qi and asked, "So, all we have to do is just spend a night there, right?"
"Yeah."
"Knowing it's dangerous there, and the club you want to join still requires you to do this, isn't that a bit unkind?" Ye Chuan said.
"What if something really happens?"
"But the key is that those girls have already gone," Gu Qi said with a wry smile.
"They didn't force me to join the club; they just laid out the conditions for joining."
So, those girls had already gone. Okay, they were tough.
Ye Chuan felt he had to go and see. Before Youyou made things worse, he had to be responsible for finding that guy. Otherwise, if things blew up and affected the Trainer League, they might even investigate him.
Thinking of this, Ye Chuan patted Gu Qi's shoulder.
"I'll go with you."
"Ye Chuan, I knew you were the best!" Gu Qi looked teary-eyed.
"Once I get in and become familiar with everyone, and hook up with a few girls, I'll enshrine your picture as a family heirloom!"
"That won't be necessary," Ye Chuan said speechlessly. He felt that Gu Qi was going too far for the so-called beautiful girl club.
However, since they had agreed to go together, Ye Chuan needed to start preparing some overnight supplies.
After saying hello to An Shiyu at noon, Ye Chuan spent the afternoon buying everything he needed and even went home to get some toiletries.
At exactly eleven o'clock in the evening, he took a car to the entrance of Eighteenth High.
This was a school that was abandoned halfway through construction. Although he didn't know the reason, looking at it from afar, it was indeed incredibly eerie, like playing a horror game. The dim school only had the pale moonlight faintly illuminating it.
At the school gate, there was a dark figure. After spotting Ye Chuan, he immediately ran over. "Ye Chuan, you finally arrived!"
"Did you come early?" Ye Chuan glanced at the time. This person was naturally Gu Qi.
"Not too early, it's just that being here feels super scary." Gu Qi's complexion wasn't good, and his Snivy was even more unwilling to come out of its Poké Ball.
"There's nothing to be afraid of, let's go in first." Ye Chuan's Aura sensed the surroundings and didn't detect anything strange. It seemed they had to enter the school.