My name is Yusa Shintaro, I am ten years old and a new trainer from Joban City.
I was born in an ordinary family with ordinary parents. I started my journey as a trainer in an ordinary way on January 1st this year. Now I am living an ordinary study life in a not-so-ordinary college.
It is summer vacation now, and many students have chosen to stay in school to receive summer internship tasks and accumulate more credits. My team mates and I are no exception.
It's just that we originally planned to use the summer vacation to practice eight-person joint operations... but now we are forced to work for the son of Byakuya's boss, and we have to lie to Kazuhiko-senpai and Nana-san to get through.
Alas, it’s all because the squad leader and I were curious and couldn’t help but eavesdrop on Mr. Bai Ye’s conversation. Although I don’t quite understand it, it must be something very, very important.
If the eavesdropping was exposed, he might be fired...
Thinking about it this way, working for Master Bai Lan doesn't seem so unacceptable anymore?
[August 20, 1000, 11:7 am, Bailang Town, Naipuru Island]
"Last week's and yesterday's work reports are here."
After hearing this, the boy with short blue hair reached out and flipped through the documents on the table.
"Thank you for your hard work." He said calmly, calmly ignoring the doubtful glances of the two people opposite him. Shintaro and Fusuke looked at each other, and they could see question marks almost appearing on each other's heads.
Even though they had been working for many days, they still had no idea what Bai Lan wanted to do.
In order to encourage students to accumulate more practical experience, in principle, Guanghui College does not allow students to receive the same internship project continuously - for example, the "Border Patrol" he completed with his squad leader was a job that was only allowed to be received once a month. However, Bai Lan always asked them to do the same thing.
It was the same task that Bai Ye personally handed over to this new team, "regular testing".
It is said that Bai Lan specially contacted a dozen students who had accepted the scheduled inspection task for this purpose, and asked them to secretly exchange work with Shintaro's team. For this purpose, the number of friendly store vouchers and training house monthly cards they gave out made Shintaro and Fusuke dumbfounded. I feel that even if Bai Lan is the boss's son, he will still have to empty his pockets for this.
Perhaps it was because the two people's eyes were so focused that Bai Lan couldn't help but say, "You all have a share in getting things done."
Shintaro: "No, no, no, Master Bailan, that's not what we meant..."
Bai Lan: "...The card is for you, don't call me young master."
No matter what - faced with Bai Lan holding their "little secret" in his hands, the two had no choice but to obey each other's orders for the time being. Fortunately, Bai Lan is not a devil. He had already stated earlier that he only needed their help with a few simple tasks. Once completed, the eavesdropping incident would be written off, and he promised not to settle old scores in the future.
However, when Shintaro and Fuusuke performed the work of "testers" again and again according to the familiar process, they still felt uncontrollably confused.
Their mission targets are both male and female, of different ages, distributed in various industries in different cities, and seem to have nothing in common. But whether they are elderly shop owners, busy working youth or still young children, they all show almost the same attitude towards their arrival - whether it is a weird way of greeting or an unexpected Pokémon battle invitation. .
Respond without hesitation, accept things logically, and give incredibly fast and extremely accurate instructions in Pokémon battles. Even their temperaments were almost the same. Recalling those gentle and polite "test subjects", Shintaro felt in a trance that the same souls were poured into different bodies, like artifacts produced in an assembly line. , downright creepy.
"that!"
Seeing Bai Lan picking up the information and leaving, Shintaro finally couldn't help but speak.
"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't ask questions, but... it's just too weird."
"The people we met were really..."
Before the brown-haired boy said the last few words in a trembling voice, Bai Lan interrupted him forcefully.
"Shintaro." He narrowed his golden eyes, "I said it. Don't ask too much, don't think too much, just do what I tell you to do."
Shintaro hesitated to speak, but finally calmed down after the monitor shook his head at him.
"Sorry." He lowered his head.
Bai Lan paused before leaving.
He pulled out a piece of paper from the folder and handed it to the two hesitating people. Those bright eyes stared at the young trainers in front of them, taking in every bit of their uneasiness and curiosity.
"There are changes in today's testing process. Be sure to note it down before going up the mountain to make sure you don't make any mistakes."
"——Looking forward to your report."
The young man in a pure white kimono quickly left. Shintaro and Fuusuke watched him disappear from sight, looked at each other again, and had no choice but to sigh together, temporarily suppressing their depression and confusion in their hearts.
[August 20, 1000, 2:15 pm, Naipuru Island Ring Road]
"Okay, Shintaro." Fusuke patted the young man's shoulder comfortingly, "According to the agreement, we need to carry out seven tester missions, and today is the last one. Just finish writing the report and you will be relieved - it's just a delay. It’s only half the summer vacation, Kazuhiko-senpai and the others won’t get angry.”
"I'm not worried about this..."
"I know."
"Huh?" Shintaro raised his head in confusion and saw that the squad leader was still smiling as before, even with a little bit of pride.
"Look, we haven't done anything big in the past few days. Master Bai Lan can definitely spend some time to do it by himself. Since he is willing to let us participate, it means-" The blue-haired boy smiled and waved his fingers, "In the future There are still many opportunities to get to the bottom of it!”
Shintaro was stunned for a while, his expression slowly becoming frightened.
"Monitor! Stop eavesdropping!! You will really be expelled!!"
"Uh, that's not what I meant..."
Feng Jie was yelled at by his companion until his eyes were filled with stars, so he simply waved his hand and changed the topic, "Let's just talk. We haven't sat down, right?"
When Shintaro heard this, he immediately panicked and looked around hurriedly to find the route map. It just so happened that the bus announced the voice prompt of "About to arrive at Cedar Grove Station". The boy checked the map and felt relieved.
"Squad leader, you scared me, there are still three stops..."
After passing Fengxue Villa, there is only Canglan Lake, the final stop, and there is no chance to get off the bus. If you sit too far, you may have to queue for an hour to wait for the bus.
Speaking of this, we have to mention the Snowy Battle that just ended a while ago - thanks to the thrilling battle between the divine birds on the top of the Snowy Mountain, tourists from all over the world flocked to the place like the three bees who found the Queen Bee. Naipuru Island, I want to see the frozen bird. Scenic spots that usually don't have a lot of passenger traffic are directly blocked, and buses going up the mountain are also in short supply. However, the weather has been bad recently. Considering the personal safety of the trainers, Fengxueshan has just issued a no-air order. Seeing this, Shintaro and Fuusuke had no choice but to join the long queue waiting for the bus along with the tourists.
"Hey, just think of it as a 'Holy Land Tour'!" Feng Jie, who has always been optimistic, said excitedly, "After you finish your work, you might even have time to take a look at the Frozen Bird."
"This year's snowstorm battle is really interesting! I've seen it in previous years, but this year's is still the best. Especially the seventh day..."
The two children sat chattering on the bus, but they didn't receive any glares from others - not just them, almost all the tourists were talking enthusiastically about the wonderful battle a few days ago, and the entire bus was drowned out by people's chatter. , no trace of the quiet appearance of the past.
When the Snowstorm Battle just started, Nana got a set of BBQ equipment from somewhere and dragged her friends together every night to watch the live broadcast while having a barbecue and camping. In the last two days of the competition, the twists and turns of the plot made them reluctant to leave the campground. They even turned down the scheduled work at the risk of deducting internship points, so they had to stay in front of the screen to watch it first.
At first, everyone just heard that the famous Hidechi Ikawa participated in the competition, and then they watched the live broadcast with interest. Unexpectedly, wonderful developments emerged one after another, and more than one player shined, which directly caused the children to stay up two nights in a row and almost passed out on the grass - of course, the most eye-catching one was the one who once appeared in the Quartz League The mysterious trainer on the field, Beidou.
"He's so awesome. I watched the hot clip that Nana sent us more than a dozen times! It's a pity that I lost too early in the Quartz Alliance and couldn't play against Beidou... Speaking of which, he couldn't be from a military academy somewhere. Graduated, right? The Trainer Training Academy doesn’t seem to teach too many fighting techniques. I heard from Senior Kazuhiko that none of their fighting classes were compulsory.”
"Many netizens guessed that he was from Hezhong, although netizens from the Orange Islands insisted that Beidou must be a native of the South, and they even got into a quarrel, hahaha."
"And the script this time is really touching! The clan members singing the 'Song of the Black Sun' at the end of the film was so foul, it made me cry so miserably in front of everyone without any precautions... Damn it!"
"Hey, it won't be a shame if we all cry together! Speaking of which, Karl has been playing overseas for the past two years. I thought he wasn't very good at acting, but I didn't expect... Well, I can only say that he is worthy of being a member of the Himi family. People."
"The silver swordsman he played is my favorite character this year! Especially the line before facing the giant ice elephant - 'I am really favored by the gods', which almost made me cry in advance."
Hearing this, Feng Jie suddenly lowered his voice mysteriously.
"Shintaro, do you really think what we saw on the live broadcast was just a performance?"
The brown-haired boy was stunned for a moment, "What do you mean...?"
"I have some intelligence sources of my own, and I know some inside information about this competition." The squad leader looked serious, almost unlike his usual self, "Whether it was Beidou shutting down the live broadcast channel due to injury during the game, or Ikawa Hidechi being sent to the emergency room Pokémon all showed that there was an existence with ulterior motives mixed into the arena. And the last appearance of the divine bird proved the previous suspicion-with the ability of the Himi family to write scripts, how could they not prepare for the appearance of the divine bird in advance? Laying the groundwork? If Frozen Bird was just performing, how could it be so cruel to Flame Bird?"
Shintaro couldn't help but swallowed his saliva, "In other words..."
"That's right." Feng Jie said solemnly, "The 'wonderful live broadcast' on the final day was actually just an accident. If Xia Yang Takuma hadn't happened to visit Fengxue Villa that day, what we saw wouldn't have been a game. It’s the tragedy of an avalanche burying everything.”
Seeing the look of panic starting to appear on Shintaro's face, Fuusuke persisted with a sullen face for a while, but couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Hahaha, thank you for your support! You don't really believe it, do you?"
"Hey? Hey?"
The brown-haired boy blinked his eyes in a daze, his brain still not turning around, "Wait, so the intelligence source you mentioned is..."
"Rumors on the Internet - the most outrageous version." Feng Jie couldn't help laughing.
"..."
"...Fousuke."
"I will not vote for you again when you run for class president next semester!!"
[August 20, 1000, 3:10 pm, Snow Wind Villa on Naipulu Island]
When the hazy sunlight from the snow-capped mountains shone through the clouds onto the earth, the two young boys finally arrived at their destination.
Fengxueshan Villa, which used to be cold in the past, is now bustling with activity, with food stalls lined up on the street, and the most popular Snow Mountain Coffee Shop is lined with tourists who come here to visit. However, fortunately, most people went straight to the frozen bird on the top of the mountain, so the small Snow Wind Villa was not so crowded that there was nowhere to go.
Soon, they arrived at the location of the last test subject, in front of the Fengxue Library.
The receptionist was a warm and hospitable southern Chinese, and it took a lot of effort by the two children to persuade him to give up the idea of spending an hour introducing the interesting features of the library. Then, they passed through the dazzling bookshelves and scented candlesticks, and arrived at the deepest children's picture book area.
The person in charge of organizing the books is a man who looks to be in his thirties. He nodded slightly to the visitor, "Hello, guests."
Shintaro took a deep breath and said the words he knew by heart.
"Hello. The two of us serve as inspectors for the 1000th year of the Elven Calendar and will assist you with regular inspections."
And just like what they remembered - the man smiled and bowed to them, and what he said was the answer he had heard countless times before.
"Thank you both for coming all the way. Thank you for your hard work. I will fully cooperate with you."
As skilled “testers,” they already have the workflow in mind. After a brief chat, afternoon tea, and Pokémon battles—all steps ended in sequence, Shintaro suppressed the growing strangeness in his heart and asked the gentle librarian one last question.
Although I only received the notification of changing the process from Bai Lan this morning, the questions he added are very simple and can be remembered with just a few casual glances.
"Mr. Shintani, we have one last question to ask you."
"Speaking."
"You must be paying attention to this year's Snowstorm Battle. So, what do you think of the contestant 'Beidou' participating in the competition?"
In the eyes of Shintaro and Fuusuke, this is just a common chat topic. The librarian whose surname is Xingu did not change his smile, and his tone remained gentle and polite, but the words he spoke were unbelievable.
"You two are referring to the prototype, right?"
The man smiled like a robot and answered calmly.
"According to my observations, during the entire process of the Snowstorm Battle, the prototype used the "Heart Power" energy in violation of regulations more than once, and interacted with people on the "list" without permission. Considering that it violates frequent violations and violates the "nine prohibitions", the possibility of serious errors in the machine program is very high. "
"I have submitted a report to the parent system, recommending that it be separated from the main network and recovered for investigation. According to regulations, machines with program errors that are difficult to repair should be destroyed immediately to prevent contamination of other machines in the network."
The central air conditioner in Fengxue Library is continuously blowing out warm air, blocking out the coldness coming from the snow-capped mountains. However, at this moment, the young testers felt cold all over.
They looked at each other, and they both saw the same shock and fear in each other's eyes.
