Shiro guessed that the competition would most likely take place at the next Indigo Plateau Conference. By then, many old veterans would probably step forward and stir up trouble.
But…
There was still no solid reason for Agatha to try so hard to recruit him. Even if she temporarily took him in as a student to establish a mutually beneficial relationship, his background would always remain an issue. No matter what, his origins could never earn complete trust.
Agatha was an experienced trainer with deep ties in the League. Could her faction truly not produce a few Elite-level or even Champion-level trainers? And besides, wasn't Lorelei still there?
Shiro returned to the Kanto clickbait article and read it carefully again. After a while, he found the key point in an interview with Chairman Goodshow near the bottom.
"The next Indigo Plateau Conference will be a youth trainers tournament. There is no regional restriction for participants, but all competitors must be under twenty-five years old…"
He muttered to himself, "That explains it."
This rule was likely the result of negotiations among the various factions within the Kanto League. Now it made sense why Agatha wanted to win him over.
Even so, he still could not understand her attitude. After laying out the terms and conditions, she had shown no urgency at all and even told him to go back and think it over carefully.
What was she waiting for?
Unable to figure it out, Shiro skimmed through the rest of the news before logging directly into Professor Oak's research institute website.
The first headline on the homepage immediately caught his eye: The Six Region Joint Pokémon Academic Summit Is About to Begin. The location was Pallet Town in Kanto.
He clicked into it and saw a series of updates about the conference, including preparation details, preliminary participant lists, and summaries of the research to be presented. One particularly eye-catching update included both Professor Rowan's name and his own.
[The renowned Pokémon evolution scholar Corviknight and Sinnoh's Professor of Pokémon Evolution, Rowan, will present a research report on the Evolutionary Magnetic Field at this conference.]
The top comment below was highlighted and bolded.
Professor Oak: "I look forward to seeing the most advanced research results in Pokémon evolution, as well as the most talented researcher of this generation!"
Many comments followed.
Professor Juniper: "There has been no major progress in Pokémon evolution research for decades. This will be a milestone conference."
Professor Birch: "I completely agree with Professor Oak. I am also looking forward to Corviknight's appearance!"
Professor Elm: "I must formally state that Corviknight is extremely talented and very generous. He has selflessly shared important research findings in Pokémon breeding with me. I am currently assisting with his theory. Once we have preliminary results, we will publish the related paper."
After that comment, the direction of the discussion shifted.
Professor Sycamore: "What is going on?"
Ice Lapras: "No way. Professor Elm is also working with Dr. Corviknight?!"
Ice Cream Loving Garchomp: "Waiting for the paper."
Dragonite Messenger: "So this Corviknight understands both evolution and breeding?"
Stone-Collecting Metagross: "This is a Pokémon breeding research topic. There are many overlaps between breeding and evolution. It's perfectly normal for Dr. Corviknight to be skilled in breeding."
"…"
The comment section quickly erupted into debate about the similarities between evolution studies and breeding science.
Dragonite Messenger and Stone-Collecting Metagross argued especially fiercely, constantly citing papers and research findings from both fields. Many researchers were drawn out of hiding to supplement arguments and provide additional references.
Shiro was genuinely impressed. With usernames like those and such deep knowledge of Pokémon studies, he could guess who they were with his little finger.
Lance and Steven.
Who would win the argument?
Curious, Shiro scrolled straight to the bottom, only to find that both sides had suddenly gone silent. The reason was simple: Professor Oak had personally stepped in and posted a single line.
"Corviknight conducts research in both directions. What is there to argue about?"
Once the big boss spoke, Lance and Steven could only log off at lightning speed and shut up. After all, Oak was not merely a leading academic authority, he was also a retired former Champion. The two still-young future Champions couldn't out-argue him, and certainly couldn't out-battle him.
Shiro laughed for a while after finishing the comments, then opened his own account and posted an update:
"After a long journey, I have arrived in Sandgem Town in Sinnoh and have met with Professor Rowan."
He pressed send and stretched. "Ahh…"
Just as he was about to close the laptop and end the evening's entertainment, several notifications chimed in rapid succession.
Ding. Ding. Ding…
The alert sound kept ringing without pause.
Slightly stunned, Shiro looked back at the screen and realized that in just those few seconds, many people had already liked and commented on his post. Even the few "friends" he had added had sent him private messages.
Under the post were several comments:
SquirtleSquirtle: "The long-missing Dr. Corviknight has finally returned!"
Ice Lapras: "Waaah, Dr. Corviknight left so quickly…"
Ice Cream Loving Garchomp: "That's wonderful news."
"…"
Looking more closely, Shiro discovered that his account had gained tens of thousands of new followers during this period. The number of friend requests had climbed into the thousands, nearly overwhelming the notification interface.
In the background, there were also messages from three professors.
Professor Juniper: "May I ask if you are currently at Professor Rowan's research institute?"
Professor Birch: "I wonder if you have time recently?"
Professor Elm: "I have preliminarily completed the classification of Pokémon Egg Groups. I will send it to you now."
After reading them, Shiro was somewhat surprised by how quickly they had responded. But it was already close to bedtime, and he had no intention of exhausting himself like Rowan by working late into the night.
He replied to the first two professors that he was temporarily unavailable. He accepted the file Elm sent. but did not open it.
Then he closed the laptop and went straight to sleep.
* * *
The next morning, after washing up and eating breakfast, Shiro remained in his bedroom and opened the file Elm had sent the night before.
Inside, following the Egg Group classification method Shiro had previously proposed, hundreds of known Pokémon were carefully listed one by one. Throughout the document, Elm had also left numerous questions.
Some Pokémon, such as Charizard, possessed draconic physical characteristics yet could also be categorized under the Monster group. In other words, could a single Pokémon possess two or more Egg Group traits simultaneously?
If so, a series of detailed breeding experiments would be required to verify it.
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