Chapter 55: Xingye: Hangzi Ge! You’re Famous!
“Simply describe the skill, the estimated practice time, and the specific practice method.”
Zuo Hang pondered.
“Simply put, it’s Moonblast + Flame, but Moonblast is a half-finished product that hasn’t been learned yet. For a Fire-type Pokémon to master it, it might need a bit of Fairy-type talent. Estimated practice time, about one hour.”
The girl in charge of recording frowned tightly. “Forget it, don’t talk anymore.”
The girl walked up to Fletchling, her brows relaxing as she smiled friendly, completely different from her attitude toward Zuo Hang. “Tell me, how long did it take you to practice the skill?”
“Chirp~~ Chirp~~” Fletchling said.
“Um… five minutes? Okay, then the practice process…”
“Chirp~ Chirp!!”
“Needs a Darkrai and a Gardevoir??” The girl gave Zuo Hang a meaningful look, suddenly remembering that before entering the training ground, the Photography Uncle had told her that the ones applying for the skill were an S-rank Gym Leader and a Three-star Special Agent.
Outside trainers often came to White Dragon High School to apply for skills, and the girl had dealt with quite a few, so she didn’t pay much attention at first.
Moreover, Zuo Hang didn’t have the stern face of an Investigator, his back wasn’t straight, and he was completely relaxed.
Xingye also didn’t look like the type of trainer who would run a gym; from the moment she came in, he had been grinning foolishly like an idiot.
Their behavior made the girl forget the Uncle’s reminder before entering, but when she heard Darkrai, she suddenly remembered!
This Fletchling’s trainer was a Three-star Special Agent with Elite Four-level strength!
“Um… the record is fine. Now take Fletchling to do the mental record, and the application will be complete.” Compared to earlier, the girl’s attitude suddenly became much more respectful.
The mental record was the final step in applying for a skill, and also the most important one.
Just the trainer’s description and the skill video weren’t enough for another completely unfamiliar Pokémon to master the skill.
The mental record captured the Pokémon’s insights and experiences when learning/using the skill, which could only be transmitted to other Pokémon; it was something humans couldn’t understand.
However, not all humans were the same; a very small number could understand the mental records of fan-made skills, and such people in the League usually had special jobs.
Five minutes later, Training Ground 306.
Next to 305, the place specifically for mental records.
This training ground had a computer over two meters tall, an all-in-one machine, with a square machine beside it plugged with many white cylinders. A man in glasses wearing a Pokémon Center uniform sat in front of the computer.
Electrode patches like positive and negative terminals were stuck to the sides of Fletchling’s head, and it threw another Flame toward the mannequin in the center of the venue.
When the skill was released, a strange icon appeared on the staff’s computer screen.
One minute later, the staff took a white cylinder from the machine and pressed the button at the end of the cylinder.
“Welcome to use TM 505. Skill Name （Unnamed）.” A slightly intellectual electronic synthesized female voice.
The cylindrical TM popped out a holographic projection displaying the video just shot by the Photography Uncle.
At the top of the projection was the strange icon that appeared on the computer screen after Fletchling finished the test; looking closely, it seemed like the shape of a Miltank.
Below the projection was the skill description written by the Record Keeper girl.
【Skill Name: Unnamed】
【Skill Attribute: Fire, Fairy】
【Skill Description: Releases Fairy Fire with 40 power, producing secondary explosion damage of 55 power when hitting the enemy Pokémon, with a 10% chance to burn the opponent after hitting, feel the moonlight, then detonate!】
【Skill Level: B+】
【Recommended Learning Attribute: Fire, Fairy】
【Recommended Learning Pokémon: Fletchling】
The man in front of the computer took off his glasses and stared at the Miltank-shaped mark above the holographic projection for a long time.
About twenty minutes later, the man tiredly rubbed his temple, put his glasses back on, and said, “It’s good. The mental record has no issues. If you think of a name for the skill, tell me, and I’ll record it here directly.”
“A name?” Zuo Hang looked at Xingye; he was never good at naming.
Xingye shrugged; he wasn’t familiar with naming either.
“Maoji!! Mao mao!!” Snowy Child suddenly said.
“Pika~~” Pikachu nodded, indicating the name was good.
Hearing this, Zuo Hang also thought the name was pretty good.
“The moment when Fairy Moonblast on the night of the full moon fuses with Blue-winged Flying Bird’s Belly Fire — Fairy Fire resounding at the moment of the end!”
Xingye: “???”
The staff member in glasses: “???”
Xingye suddenly looked dumbfounded.
“No… are you naming a light novel here? How many damn characters is that?”
Zuo Hang said, “Is it a lot? I think it’s fine, and besides, I didn’t come up with it — Snowy Child did.”
Xingye covered his face: “No matter who came up with it, trust me, no one will buy a skill with such a long name, and it’s too stupid; it doesn’t even rhyme when read.”
Zuo Hang patted his shoulder. “Don’t say that. I have a feeling this skill is going to be a hit.”
The staff member pushed up his glasses, expressionlessly typed a barrage on the keyboard, inputting the 34-character name that was so long he didn’t even want to mentally recite it while typing.
He really wanted to laugh right now.
But he was very professional, and the other party was a Three-star Special Agent and an S-rank Gym Leader; if he laughed, he might lose his job.
With the name decided, the trainer still needed to sign a profit-sharing contract.
The contribution points from skill sales were split 46, with the trainer taking 60% and the remaining 40% to the Student Union.
Besides contribution points, skills certified at White Dragon could also be sold outside, split 55, half to the trainer and half to the League.
TM 505.
Zuo Hang’s first applied skill; the highest price for a B+ level skill at White Dragon was 35,000 contribution points, and Zuo Hang set the highest without thinking.
He couldn’t decide the outside White Dragon High School price; it needed the League’s professional appraisers, and the price might take a week to come out.
Zuo Hang generously tossed the TM given by the Pokémon Center to Xingye.
“For you. Cherish it well.”
Xingye was a bit disdainful. “I absolutely won’t let my Pokémon learn it, and I absolutely won’t say this move’s name in battle. Only a super dumb idiot would recite 34 characters during a match? If this skill of yours sells, I’ll swallow this TM on the spot!”
“Sure.” Zuo Hang said. “You’ll probably eat it tomorrow. Buy more seasoning; this thing isn’t easy to swallow.”
Skill names are always better the shorter the better; in Pokémon battles, a name too long affects the trainer’s commands. Others’ skills are two characters, yours is 34 — your Pokémon will have 32 extra characters of reaction time compared to others.
Most trainers still preferred fan-made skills with short names.
