Auron: @Serena We're heading to the school cafeteria now. We'll wait for you there.
Serena: Okay...
"Let's wait a bit. I already told her, but she seems to still be in class."
Auron put away his phone and told everyone helplessly.
"By the way, what are you all choosing for your minor?"
As everyone sat at a table in the cafeteria, Jace asked out of boredom.
Tim thought for a moment before saying, "For a minor, I'm not really that interested. I'll see—maybe I'll pick an elective if something catches my eye."
"Simon and I are taking Pokémon Food Preparation as an elective! After all, both our Pokémon are gluttons. Yeah, just as an elective, not a minor—no need for that."
Lena said with a smile, her arm wrapped around Simon's.
Peter thought for a moment, then looked at Auron somewhat helplessly.
Auron rested his chin on his hand, propped on the table. "For you, you don't need a minor. You and Jace are the same—both running weather teams. One trick that works everywhere, that type. No need."
Hearing this, Peter instantly gained confidence. "Right, I don't need one."
Watching Peter, Auron sighed helplessly. "I don't even understand why you trust me this much. I probably couldn't even trust myself this much."
Hearing this, Peter quickly stood up with a smile, positioning himself behind Auron and starting to massage his shoulders.
"Hehe, you're my master! If I don't listen to you, who would I listen to?"
Auron looked at Peter with a mixture of laughter and tears, waving him away. "Go on, sit back down. You're making me look like some corrupt official."
"Sure thing, Master!"
"What about you? You haven't said yet," Jace asked Auron.
"For me, my major is Pokémon Breeding. As for a minor, I won't choose one for now. For an elective, I'll pick massage. After all... ah, never mind."
Auron recalled his Pokémon's reactions when he'd tried massaging them before and helplessly covered his face.
"Massage—not bad! Should I take massage as an elective too?"
"Sure, just hope it's not a three-minute enthusiasm."
Seeing Jace's gleaming eyes, Auron didn't have the heart to discourage him, but still reminded him with that final comment.
After this topic passed, everyone chatted for a while longer before Serena finally appeared.
"Oh my god, our advisor can really talk! She went on for two or three hours straight!"
As soon as Serena sat down, she started venting. Look at other people's advisors—two sentences and they're done. Their advisor could talk for two or three hours without stopping.
"Is your advisor the one who's slightly balding, plump and fair, wearing a full suit?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
Serena looked at Tim quizzically. Tim immediately burst out laughing.
"Then you're in for some suffering ahead. When I passed the bulletin board earlier, I glanced at it—seems like he's also some kind of department head."
Hearing this, Serena immediately shut down. "Department head..."
"Hahahaha!"
Everyone took schadenfreude pleasure in this. Only Auron was a bit better—while laughing, he consolingly patted Serena's shoulder and asked, "Ah, poor little Serena. What do you want to eat? I'll get it for you. Hopefully food can comfort you, haha."
"Maocai, with extra broccoli. Thanks."
Head down, Serena answered her request without hesitation.
"Haha, alright. Just a moment."
With that, Auron turned to everyone else. "Let's go—time to eat!"
"Let's go!"
Everyone surged forward toward the cafeteria serving windows, leaving only Lena behind to keep Serena company.
...
"The rewards for Skyspire University's freshman two-on-two battle tournament are out!"
Jace, who'd been browsing the forum while eating, suddenly exclaimed.
He'd just opened the forum and seen a pinned post from Skyspire University.
"Quick, what are the rewards?"
Now everyone couldn't even focus on eating. They all crowded around Jace.
"Uh, first place reward is: enter the school warehouse and choose any three items, or two attribute gems calculated based on the main type of the contestant's battling Pokémon. Two thousand points."
"Second place reward is one Pokémon egg, guaranteed purple aptitude minimum, contestant's choice based on their team-building requirements, pseudo-legendaries excluded. Fifteen hundred points."
"Third place reward is one Pokémon held item of choice. One thousand points."
"Fourth through tenth place: choice of three TMs. Five hundred points."
"Tenth through twentieth place: choice of one TM. Three hundred points."
"Twentieth through thirtieth place: one hundred points."
"Yeah, that's it. Now back off, I still need to eat."
After reading it, Jace pushed away Tim, who was closest to him.
"Points?"
Serena looked completely confused. Where did this points thing suddenly come from?
Everyone looked at Serena, making her feel uncomfortable under their gazes.
"Um, what's wrong?"
"Nothing. You can think of points as the school's currency. You can use points to exchange for items or other things on the school's official website, or you can enter the school's Treasure Vault to exchange for rare items there. Though items in the Treasure Vault are generally very expensive."
Auron explained how points worked to Serena, then Tim continued, "As for obtaining points, there are several main ways. One is school-organized battles—winners get points."
"Second is challenge matches where you bet points. But usually only the two battling parties can do this—anyone outside the battle cannot place bets in any way."
"Third is making contributions to the school. For instance, Auron's publication of Onix's evolution method would earn point rewards."
"You can also give rare items you don't need to the school. That also earns point rewards, which you can then use to exchange for items you do need."
Serena's eyes lit up. "I get it! So points are basically hard currency issued by the school that can be used within the school, right?"
Auron nodded. "Right, you can understand it that way."
"By the way, we basically have no classes this afternoon, right? Come over to my place and let's discuss things together."
"Sure!"
Everyone agreed, then continued chatting while eating.
...
"Auron, we went viral!"
That afternoon, in Auron's rented apartment, Jace sat on Auron's newly purchased sofa and happily patted him.
"I know. That's why I didn't want to go up and battle with you."
Auron helplessly shot Jace a look as he distributed drinks to everyone.
"Tch, if you hadn't gone up to battle with me, would our Charmeleon have evolved into Charizard?"
"Well thank you very much."
Auron sat on the other sofa and rolled his eyes.
"Alright, let's not talk about that. Let's get to business."
Tim seemed to have already guessed what Auron wanted to discuss. As soon as he sat down, he asked impatiently.
Auron smiled mysteriously. "What I want to talk about is the freshman battle tournament."