Before Professor Rowan could say anything, the researchers around him were already cheering.
"We're going to the research summit! We actually made it in!"
"I've never been to a single academic conference in my life… and now there's a chance to join the research summit?!"
"This is amazing!"
Seeing the room erupt into chaos, Rowan clapped his hands and shouted, "Quiet! Quiet! What's there to get so excited about? Get back to your work, all of you."
The tall researcher behind him was trembling with excitement. His teeth were chattering as he kept mumbling nonstop, "It's the academic summit... the Pokémon Academic Summit that happens once every three years! Only top professors and highly accomplished researchers can attend... it's also where they evaluate new professors... Ah! The academic summit!"
He clutched his head and yelled incoherently. Under Rowan's darkening gaze, a few researchers quickly dragged the man away before things got worse.
Once the lab finally quieted down again, Rowan slumped into his chair and stared at the message from Professor Oak, letting out a sigh.
The academic summit... If they wanted to go, they still needed that mysterious Corviknight. Without him, there was no way those nameless researchers would get in.
There were countless Pokémon researchers in the world. Even becoming a professor was rare, and among them, the truly famous ones were just a handful.
Back in his prime, over a decade ago, Rowan could've forcefully brought along a few promising students to the summit.
But now... they needed that rising star in the in the world of research—Corviknight.
* * *
On the other side, Shiro was lounging by the shores of the Lake of Outrage, yawning.
Because of the presence of powerful Pokémon like Drakloak, Corviknight, and Bewear, wild ones in the area didn't dare come near, let alone start a fight.
The hunters who had escaped from the Dynamax Den probably noticed that too. They didn't risk getting close and instead avoided the lake.
Right now, most of the Wild Area trainers had been driven off to the northeastern grasslands and deserts. There wasn't a single human soul around Lake of Outrage.
Shiro felt like he was out on a picnic, however, there wasn't much to see here, and after a while, it all looked the same.
He actually wanted to do some field training, but he had already promised everyone a day off, so he decided to let it go.
Lying back in his chair, he opened his laptop and began scouring the web for information about Technical Machines.
At first, he searched just those two words, but nothing useful came up. After thinking it over, he changed the keywords to "Pokémon moves."
"Pokémon moves..."
Posts and articles popped up on the screen, but not many, only a dozen or so.
It seemed like in the current Pokémon research world, no one was seriously studying moves. The Alola region had only just been discovered, and because of the Ultra Beasts, it still hadn't been fully integrated into the League system.
So Professor Kukui, who would one day specialize in Pokémon moves, hadn't yet entered the academic scene.
Shiro sighed and scrolled through the short list of articles.
"Huh... they're all written by Professor Oak?"
He clicked into the first one and found it was about how trainers could guide Pokémon to learn moves. His heart skipped a beat as he eagerly read through it, only to realize it had barely any views.
The few comments it had were from die-hard Oak fans spamming praise.
Puzzled, Shiro started digging through the comments and the rest of the site, trying to figure out what was going on.
He soon spotted a not-so-friendly comment toward Professor Oak.
"What kind of garbage is this? Still can't shake off that trainer stink, huh? Posting training guides on an academic site."
That comment was buried among heaps of praise and was easy to miss if one weren't paying attention.
"Oh? Someone actually dares to bash Professor Oak?" Shiro was a little surprised. But after checking a while longer, he found only that one comment. He couldn't tell if the others had been deleted or if there just weren't any more.
There seemed to be some kind of hierarchy between researchers and trainers.
On this academic website, almost everyone was a researcher. Though many of them raised their own Pokémon for experimentation or companionship, none of them bothered to train or battle with them.
Being a researcher was already exhausting. Aside from completing tasks assigned by their supervising professors, they had to come up with their own study topics and research goals.
The way they looked at Pokémon was like squeezing toothpaste—something to use bit by bit each day. Naturally, they weren't going to "taste" the experience or care about anything related to trainers. Even if, in essence, that was what their work was supposed to support.
Unless someone had massive free time or a major connection, no one would try to be both a researcher and a trainer. As such, anything written about trainers basically ignored.
After carefully reading through all of Professor Oak's articles on moves, Shiro let out a long breath.
"Although it's all pretty helpful, there's really nothing about TMs..."
Professor Oak, real name Samuel Oak, was said to have been the Kanto League Champion before becoming a Pokémon professor. Not just a tournament winner, either, he had challenged the Elite Four and Champion to claim the title.
Later, for some reason, he resigned and chose the path of research, settling down in Pallet Town.
Shiro scratched his head, closed the laptop, and stuffed it into his bag. He was now pretty sure that TMs hadn't been developed yet in this world. Or if they had, they weren't public.
He glanced around at the peaceful surroundings and was just about to close his eyes for a nap, when Haunter's voice caught his attention.
Turning his head, he saw it wobbling along the lakeside, holding a hunter by the back of his earth-toned robe like a trophy. The ghost Pokémon was clearly showing off to Growlithe and the others.
Vibrava followed behind Haunter with an admiring look on its face, while Drakloak by the lake just squinted and stuck out its tongue with disdain.
Growlithe stood up on its hind legs every now and then, trying to get a better look. But each time, Haunter would float just a little higher, teasing it.
"Coooor..."
Corviknight looked on indifferently. It had no interest in these childish games. If Shiro hadn't declared today a rest day, it would have trained until bedtime.
**
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