The next day, Xia Hunao leaned against a rather large aircraft, checking his watch. "I wonder how many of them will show up today. I hope they had a good night last night."
As he spoke, Xia Hunao pulled out his phone from his pocket. "Let me see what they're all chatting about."
The group chat on his phone was very quiet. Although there were still over a dozen people in the group, they were all silent, not a single person speaking. Xia Hunao slapped his forehead. "That's right, they don't necessarily need me in the group. But speaking of which, it's past nine o'clock. Could it be that none of them are awake yet?"
Just then, he saw Cai Rou and Li Han walking along the runway. Xia Hunao waved at Cai Rou. "This way."
When Cai Rou arrived, Xia Hunao looked at them. "You two came together. Where are the others? Are you rich kids with such irregular lives?"
Li Han shook his head. "To be honest, Boss Xia, if Cai Rou hadn't called me, I wouldn't be here at this hour. I'd probably still be waiting at the Alliance headquarters."
Xia Hunao blinked, startled, then took out his phone to send a message. "Damn it, I forgot to notify you all. I only notified the captain and vice-captain. No wonder I felt something was off."
As Xia Hunao was busy typing on his phone, in the Pokémon Alliance's battle arena, a group of second-generation heirs looked at the empty battleground. "This is strange. Why isn't Boss Xia here yet? Is he going to stand us up?"
Someone next to him retorted, "I don't think so. You know, this is probably another test for us, just like yesterday."
"Were you beaten silly by your old man yesterday? Using the same trick twice, do you think he's looking down on you or us?"
"That's true. But speaking of which, Li Han and Xia Pingdong aren't here either. Did they know something in advance?"
"Quick, ask them."
As they were discussing, someone shouted, "The location has been changed! Check the group chat..."
A few hours later, Xia Hunao sat by the airplane door, watching everyone chew out Li Han and Xia Pingdong. Although Li Han was brought by Cai Rou, girls had privileges with Xia Hunao. Xia Hunao waved his hand and protected Cai Rou and Xia Pingdong's girlfriends.
After another ten minutes, Xia Hunao organized everyone onto the plane. The plane then took off, carrying them to an unknown destination.
On the plane, Cai Rou asked Xia Hunao, "Coach Xia, where are we going?"
Xia Hunao pointed to the clouds outside the porthole. "The Wasteland. Something's happened over there. Trouble started at 12:40 last night. Fortunately, the local Pokémon Alliance managed to temporarily contain it. Otherwise, you would have been called away last night."
Seeing their disbelieving looks, Xia Hunao unscrewed a bottle of water. "Since it's come to this, I won't hide it from you anymore..."
As Xia Hunao gradually explained the purpose of gathering them all, the expressions of everyone on the plane grew increasingly grim. Xia Hunao spread his hands. "Actually, we don't want this either, but you know, what kind of times are these? There aren't many days left until the college entrance examination. A considerable number of trainers from the Alliance have been reassigned to deal with exam-related matters, especially after I suggested adding psychological tests, so we're really short-handed."
Xia Hunao observed their expressions as he spoke, then continued, "Don't worry, we're quite humane. We're not forcing you to come on this mission. However, we won't cover your return airfare. We hope you can arrange that yourself. Oh, and by the way, if any of you has a working card, then I..."
At this point, Xia Hunao directly pointed at Li Han. "He'll jump off the plane."
Li Han quickly waved his hands. "Hey, why am I involved in this?"
At Xia Hunao's prompting, everyone took out their phones to check. As expected, none of them had any money. Xia Hunao clicked his tongue. "Alright, can't you all think a little? Although this world has had some negative impacts on Pokémon, how strong can the affected Pokémon be at this stage? They're only at a level that a beginner trainer can handle. Otherwise, who would dare let you deal with it?"
After Xia Hunao finished speaking, he went to the cockpit and closed his eyes to rest. Then he felt his phone vibrate. After unlocking it, he saw Cai Rou had sent him an emoji. Xia Hunao's lips curved slightly. "As expected of a student trained by Zhi Shui."
The plane flew for several more hours before slowly landing. Xia Hunao stood up. "I should have asked for a helicopter. Now that we've landed, we have to transfer. Fortunately, it won't take much longer."
After a bumpy journey, they finally arrived outside the secret realm in the Wasteland. Xia Hunao looked at the staff member wearing sunglasses who greeted them and muttered, "Strange, why does this person look so familiar?"
As he spoke, he heard someone from behind shout, "It's Yu Linglong! Sister Linglong, can I have your autograph?"
Yu Linglong walked towards them. "Good afternoon, everyone. Why are you so late?"
Xia Hunao put his hands in his pockets. "Well, there was a bit of a hiccup on our way here. By the way, Sister Linglong, why are you here? I thought you'd be coaching A Du's psychological project."
"It's all for them. Even with you and Cai Rou, they felt two groups weren't enough to ensure complete safety, so they called me too. I'm not like Jin Fang Su. I'm from the Yu family, so being on call has become second nature."
After a brief chat with Yu Linglong outside the secret realm, Xia Hunao led the group inside. Within the secret realm, they divided into three teams and began exploring in three different directions.
As Xia Hunao walked, he spoke about the Pokémon in the Wasteland. "You all probably know that secret realms are usually inhabited by Pokémon of a single attribute. However, the Wasteland is different from other places. The entire Wasteland is home to more rugged Pokémon, or you could say they're generally more aggressive. They'll fight on sight. After being influenced, they've become even more ferocious. Their overall demeanor is completely different from Li Han's Pokémon. You can think of it that way. Look, here they come!"
As he spoke, a Slakoth charged towards them, shouting something as it ran. Xia Hunao rubbed his forehead. "This is a disaster. I can't understand what it's saying, but from its state, you can tell, what Slakoth looks like this? So, who's going to fight?"
The others looked at each other, then a girl stepped forward and began a battle with the Slakoth.
While Xia Hunao's group was engaged in battle, Cai Rou and Li Han's team had also encountered a situation. Unlike Xia Hunao's group, Cai Rou's team saw not a Slakoth, but a large ball of fluff wriggling towards them. Cai Rou asked Rotom beside her, "Rotom, what is this?"
Rotom hadn't expected to encounter something so obscure. After operating at high load for a while, it said, "This... should be a Swinub..."
Even Rotom, who was usually confident in its observational skills, hesitated. It wasn't that Rotom's professional skills were lacking, but the thing in front of them had no visible eyes or legs, just fur. They couldn't figure out how this ball of fur was navigating.
Cai Rou glanced at Li Han. "How about you go first and set an example? After all, you're her boyfriend, aren't you?"
Li Han looked at his girlfriend, then at the teammates with him, and then threw out a Poké Ball. "Bring it on!"
Unlike Xia Hunao's and Cai Rou's small squads, Yu Linglong's team had a smoother journey. They walked a few hundred meters without discovering anything. Xia Pingdong, following behind Yu Linglong, breathed a sigh of relief. "It looks like we're lucky. We haven't encountered anything yet..."
As he spoke, a giant, unidentified object stood before them. Xia Pingdong asked Yu Linglong, "Sister Linglong, what is this thing?"
Yu Linglong shook her head. "I've never seen it before, but everyone be careful. I have a bad feeling about this."
As soon as she spoke, the giant unknown object in front of them began to shake, then suddenly disintegrated into numerous Beedrill, which launched an attack on everyone. Yu Linglong reacted quickly, sending out her Pokémon to shield them. "What are you doing? Attack quickly!"
Hearing Yu Linglong's words, Xia Pingdong and the others finally took out their Poké Balls and began to fight back against the Beedrill. Xia Hunao's three teams sequentially encountered the Pokémon within the secret realm. Outside the secret realm, in a large conference room, dozens of people were watching everything inside the secret realm on a large screen.
"Well, it seems that our discussions with the Pokémon to demarcate a certain area of the secret realm are feasible."
Malanchi, sitting at the head of the table, took off his glasses and slowly put them in his pocket. "If this is the case, we should be able to implement this plan on a large scale. Let's use this upcoming college entrance examination as a pilot. Remember to follow up on this experiment comprehensively. I have other matters to attend to at the Alliance, so I'll be leaving now."
Meng Tianya, who had been sitting next to Malanchi, closed the file in his hand. "Understood. I will continue to be responsible for this matter here."
After Malanchi left, Meng Tianya looked at Xia Hunao on the screen, who was secretly giving a 'V' sign to the camera in the sky. "This kid's abilities are truly unpredictable."
Meanwhile, inside the secret realm, Xia Hunao, who had secretly made a 'V' sign, watched as his team members, who had just arrived, subdued the Slakoth with their newly acquired Poké Balls. "The truly interesting part of this play is yet to come."