Oliver froze for a moment when he heard the news.
While it was true that he had first reached the final conclusion and then worked backward through the reasoning, that had absolutely nothing to do with academic fraud, let alone plagiarism.
Everything he had published was knowledge that did not exist in this world. He still had plenty of unpublished material in reserve—there was no reason for him to plagiarize something as basic as the Fairy type.
Could it be that the professor in question had also been researching the same direction, but Oliver had published first?
Although he still didn't fully understand what was going on, Oliver's tone remained calm, as if this were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
"Tian Xin, give me a moment. I'll check what's happening online."
"Alright. I know you didn't fake anything—I was the one who provided the Sylveon battle footage! You absolutely have to slap them in the face with the truth!"
Hearing Oliver's steady voice, Tian Xin unconsciously calmed down as well. It was as if she had found her anchor—this suddenly didn't feel like a hopeless situation anymore.
After hanging up, Oliver casually opened a major news site.
At the very top of the page, a bold headline caught his eye:
'Is the Genius Researcher a Fraud? Revealing the True Face of Oliver!'
Oliver frowned slightly and tapped into the article.
The article claimed that a certain professor had personally contacted the media, stating that he had been researching a new Pokémon attribute—Fairy type—for a long time, and that Oliver had somehow obtained his research materials and published the paper first.
This professor, surnamed Hu, was said to be a faculty member at a top domestic university, specializing specifically in Pokémon attribute research.
As evidence, he presented a set of highly detailed experimental logs and research reports, complete with rigorous logical derivations.
Historically, it wasn't uncommon for two research teams to work on the same topic simultaneously. In such cases, whoever published first was recognized as the discoverer, while the other side's efforts were simply unfortunate—but not plagiarism.
However, the problem was that the content and data in Professor Hu's logs were strikingly similar to Oliver's paper.
This level of similarity could no longer be brushed off as coincidence.
Naturally, the media swarmed in like sharks smelling blood.
But in truth, because Oliver's paper itself was extremely rigorous, one could theoretically reverse-engineer a similar set of experimental logs after carefully studying it.
So the key question became:
When were those documents created?
If the creation time of those files was earlier than Oliver's paper, then Professor Hu truly had been researching Fairy types beforehand.
But if they were created after Oliver's paper was published, then it would be undeniable slander—an attempt to steal credit for the discovery.
Yet, despite how crucial this point was, not a single media outlet mentioned the file creation timestamps.
There was only one explanation:
Professor Hu had not provided the creation times at all.
And the media didn't care. All they wanted was controversy and traffic.
Soon after the story broke, a massive wave of online commenters appeared, openly siding with the professor and hurling insults at Oliver. Rational voices were completely drowned out.
In reality, without proof of creation time, those logs alone could not convict Oliver of anything.
The Pokémon Alliance would never strip him of credit or rewards based on a mere "high similarity" accusation. In all official records, the discoverer of the Fairy type would still be Oliver.
That made things even stranger.
If this was ultimately meaningless, why was Professor Hu doing this at all?
Inside the training facility, Jiang Shuyun noticed that Oliver hadn't come back after answering his phone and went out to check on him.
She found him standing there, brows slightly knit, staring intently at his phone.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Oh, nothing serious. Just a small issue," Oliver replied casually after noticing her.
"This doesn't look like a 'small issue' to me," Jiang Shuyun said seriously, locking eyes with him.
She had grown up with him. There were very few things in this world that could truly trouble Oliver—and if he looked like this, it meant the situation was far from trivial.
Seeing that he couldn't brush it off, Oliver handed her his phone.
"Here. Take a look. It's really nothing—this'll be resolved in a few days."
Jiang Shuyun took the phone. The moment she saw the headline, she exploded.
She knew Oliver better than anyone. There was no way he would ever do something like this.
As she clenched the phone in anger, Oliver heard ominous creaking sounds and quickly pried her fingers open, rescuing his phone just in time.
"Don't worry," Oliver said calmly. "I'll get to the bottom of this."
He then returned to the training room and briefly explained the situation to Teacher Liu, who immediately told him to go home and handle it—everything planned for the day was already finished anyway.
After hearing what happened, the three teammates also stepped forward together.
"Captain, we believe you. There's no way you plagiarized anything!"
On the way home, Oliver received calls from his mother and from Mu Xue as well. They were both calling to ask about the situation.
Mu Xue even asked if she needed to step in and resolve it, but Oliver refused.
As an Alliance official, she was not suitable to get involved.
More importantly, this was a matter of evidence.
Without solid proof, even if Mu Xue publicly supported him, she could end up dragged into the storm of public opinion herself.
Once home, Oliver downloaded all the experimental logs and reports that Professor Hu had released online and studied them carefully.
They matched his paper almost perfectly—without a single error.
It was clear that whoever wrote them was genuinely competent, at least professor-level, fully consistent with Professor Hu's claimed status.
After meticulous comparison, Oliver had to admit something troubling:
He couldn't find any flaws in them.
Which meant… he couldn't directly prove they were fake.
The situation had reached a stalemate.
Professor Hu couldn't provide decisive evidence—but neither could Oliver refute him outright.
Then—
A flash of insight struck Oliver's mind.
"So that's it…"
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/SwipeSage