I haven't decided on a name for my Pokémon trainer yet.

Xu Bowen opened the video with trembling hands.

"Hello everyone, now I'm going to show you a second ability that Magikarp might possess. This ability is very rare, so I'll call it a hidden ability..."

"Please pay attention..."

The video shows a swimming pool with two long passageways divided by rows of wooden planks. Inside the passageways are two Magikarp that look exactly alike.

"These two Magikarp look exactly the same, but their abilities are actually different. This one has the common Swift Swim ability, which everyone already knows. In rainy weather, Magikarp's speed can increase by about 2 times. And this one has the Timid ability that I mentioned earlier." In the video, a finger points to two Magikarp as he introduces them, but Xu Bowen doesn't quite understand which one he's referring to.

"Please look..."

In the video, a handful of Pokémon food appeared in the hand, which then tossed it to the other side of the pool. Two Magikarp seemed to be attracted by the aroma and swam quickly towards the food.

"Although Magikarp is weak, it is not slow in swimming. This may be due to the self-evolution of its species in the face of various harsh environments."

Soon, the two Magikarp swam to the Spirit Food and began to devour it.

Meanwhile, the video angle shifted to an electronic screen displaying two numbers. "These are the swimming speeds of the two Magikarp; we can see the difference isn't that significant."

"Next, I'll show you how much Magikarp's Speed ​​can be increased under the influence of the Fright ability. Shadow Ball."

Two Shadow Balls slammed into the two Magikarp, one after the other.

"boom!"

Xu Bowen's face twitched. This Shadow Ball seemed a bit too powerful. Would it kill Magikarp?

However, his worries were unnecessary. The two Magikarp seemed to have gotten used to the Shadow Ball attack, and after being attacked, they quickly swam to the other side.

"This, this is!" Xu Bowen stared wide-eyed at the video.

He clearly saw that one of the Magikarp was swimming at a much faster speed than before.

At this point, the video angle shifted back to the electronic screen, where the numbers were displayed much faster than before, but one of them changed more than twice as much as the other.

"Based on my numerous experiments, the Timid ability can increase Magikarp's speed by 0.5 times each time."

Every single time? Xu Bowen astutely grasped the key words.

"At the same time, if attacked multiple times..."

As soon as he finished speaking, several more Shadow Balls fell, but this time they were all aimed at a Magikarp.

After the water calmed down, the Magikarp that had been attacked was seen swimming back and forth in the pool at a speed that was almost invisible to the naked eye.

"Some of you may have noticed my choice of words. That's right, the Flinch ability. Every time you are attacked by a Ghost-type attack, your Speed ​​increases by 0.5x. This increase is additive: 1.5x the first time, 2x the second time, 2.5x the third time..."

In the following video, the person didn't speak again, and the camera angle continued to follow the timid Magikarp...

After watching the video, Xu Bowen let out a long sigh of relief: "This is a major discovery! I have to tell the editor-in-chief immediately, by the way..."

Xu Bowen stood up and then sat down again, quickly composing an email and sending it to Dr. Deng Ruizhe.

After the publication of the paper on the Body of Flame, he had been wanting to contact the author of the paper to discuss it together. Xu Bowen felt that he needed to tell him about the Cowardice trait.

Chapter 44 Scam Phone Calls from the Research Institute

Jiangsu Province, Jiangning City.

Little Sawfish Research Institute.

A slender researcher with messy hair, wearing a white lab coat, was carefully observing a huge glass vessel, occasionally jotting down notes in a notebook.

"Teacher, the editor-in-chief of 'Elf Studies' sent you an email. Would you like to take a look?" At this moment, a female researcher with delicate features, also wearing a white lab coat, walked over, holding a laptop in her hands.

"That bald guy is coming to me again for my research results? I'm busy, I'm busy." Deng Ruizhe waved his hand impatiently.

“No,” the female researcher pushed up her glasses and said, “Editor-in-Chief Xu said that the author who published the paper on Flame Body has submitted another paper. This time, the paper seems to be about Magikarp’s hidden trait, Timidity, and this submission has complete experimental data.”

Deng Ruizhe paused, turned his head as if he hadn't heard clearly: "Say it again?"

"I said, the author who published the paper on Flame Body has submitted another paper about Magikarp's hidden ability, which is called Timid."

"Hidden ability? Magikarp? Quick, let me see." Deng Ruizhe put down what he was holding, quickly walked over, and took the notebook.

"The performance and analysis of Magikarp's unknown characteristics?" Deng Ruizhe became interested, found a stool, sat down, and began to read carefully.

Ten minutes later...

"Hidden ability: Timidity. Interesting." Deng Ruizhe's eyes lit up. Magikarp's timidity and fear of battle weren't personality flaws, but rather a special ability?

What kind of thinking, and under what circumstances, led to the discovery of these characteristics of weak sprites? The author of this paper is quite interesting.

Moreover, this author discovered two new characteristics in less than six months. If these were his students, they could graduate directly from their apprenticeship based on these two papers.

Deng Ruizhe stared at Ye Feng's brief information in the email, his fingers tapping incessantly on the table.

"Li Yue, I'm giving you a task. Tomorrow, go and meet this student named Ye Feng in person, and see what he's really like." Deng Ruizhe turned his notebook around, pointed to Ye Feng's information, and said to the female researcher next to him.

"Okay, teacher." Li Yue nodded, while looking at the screen with curiosity.

-------------------------------------

Ye Feng, who was playing with Kirlia, heard his phone ring. He picked it up and glanced at it; it was an unfamiliar number from out of town.

Having received anti-fraud education, Ye Feng immediately became alert.

"Hello?" Ye Feng answered the phone.

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

After a while, the voice on the other end of the phone said: "Hello, I am Qin Shi Huang, the first trainer in history. I have been suddenly resurrected by a Pokémon and am preparing to awaken my invincible armored army to rule the world once again. However, the million gold coins needed to activate it are buried underground and cannot be dug up. I need your help. Give me 10,000 gold coins, and after I successfully unify the world, I will reward you with 10,000 gold coins to help you become the strongest trainer."

Ye Feng: "..."

This must be a scam call, right? Ye Feng's lips twitched. The scam was so low-level; even a rookie trainer wouldn't fall for it. And out of a million gold, you're only giving me ten thousand? Get lost!

"Heh..." Ye Feng sneered, "I wonder what kind of spirits your armored army is?"

“My armored army is naturally the strongest army in the world,” the other side said, seeing that Ye Feng had replied, and felt that there was hope. “That’s 10 Tyranitar!”

"Heh..." Ye Feng's lips twitched. What a boastful person. He shouted into the microphone at the top of his lungs, "You're lying! You're not Qin Shi Huang at all! Qin Shi Huang's army was clearly 100 million armored cocoons! You're not Qin Shi Huang at all!"

After saying that, Ye Feng hung up the phone.

On the other end of the phone, a sleazy-looking man stared blankly at the disconnected call, his ears still ringing: "100 million Metapods??" Are you a scammer or am I? I thought 10 Tyranitars was outrageous enough, how come you can exaggerate even more than me? And why are you shouting so loudly? You almost deafened me!

The scammer shed bitter tears. These days, life is tough!

Ye Feng continued to tease Kirulian.

A moment later, the phone rang again. It was another unfamiliar number, from out of town.

Is this never going to end? Ye Feng frowned. Usually, scam calls would only make one, and once they realized they couldn't fool him, they would stop calling. Why were they so persistent today? Was it because I answered? He should have just hung up without saying anything.

"Hello? Who is this?" Ye Feng asked directly, hanging up immediately if it was still a scam call.

"Hello, I'm Li Yue, a researcher at the Little Sawtooth Research Institute..." A female voice came from the other end, a mature and pleasant voice.

Ye Feng raised an eyebrow. They've even changed identities and genders. Compared to Qin Shi Huang, the mature female researcher is clearly more likely to deceive innocent new trainers.

“Oh, I’m Patrick Star,” Ye Feng said.

Meanwhile, on the high-speed train to Jinghai City, Li Yue, dressed in glasses and a white lab coat—clearly the attire of a researcher—looked bewildered.

"What star?"

"Patrick, are you coming with me to catch SpongeBob?"

"Hai...sorry, I might have dialed the wrong number." Li Yue was exasperated. Seriously? She adjusted her glasses, hung up, then opened WeChat, copied Ye Feng's number again, and dialed...

No, I didn't dial the wrong number! The number is correct! What's going on? Li Yue was a little confused. And what kind of creature is Patrick Star?

Still puzzled, Li Yue called again, but no one answered. She called again, and this time the call went through.

Li Yue only heard a series of "plop, thud!" sounds from the other end.

"What is that?" Li Yue was speechless.

On Ye Feng's side, he saw a phone placed next to the water tank, where a Magikarp was constantly using Splash, vigorously slapping its tail in the air.

"Hello, I think I didn't make a typo. Are you Ye Feng? Have you submitted a paper to the 'Elf Studies' magazine...?"

"Lu!"

Li Yue heard a cry from the other side of the room, followed by a chaotic scene of chickens and dogs running amok.

Li Yue was completely bewildered. What on earth was going on?

"Oh right, I am Ye Feng. I did submit a paper." Ye Feng's eyelids twitched; it turned out he wasn't a fraud.

Beside Ye Feng, Kirlia was rolling on the ground, clutching her stomach and laughing loudly, while Magikarp was using Splash even more forcefully.

"No problem, 1 PM, Entrance 1 of Longxin Plaza." Ye Feng hung up the phone, wiped his sweat, and had expected that researchers would contact him. It was all that scammer's fault; he almost mistook a legitimate researcher for a fraudster.

"Alright, you two are still laughing, there's no dinner!"

Kirlia stopped rolling around and pitifully grabbed Ye Feng's clothes. Magikarp stopped using Splash and stared blankly at Ye Feng.

Chapter 45 Ye Feng the Great Conman

At 1 p.m., Ye Feng, dressed casually as usual, waited for Li Yue's arrival at Entrance 1 of Longxin Plaza.

Not long after, Li Yue called again, asking where Ye Feng was.