Chapter 46: Youth Training Camp Courses
The saying that there is never absolute fairness in this world is not wrong.
Even the traditional sports that advocate fairness the most don't have absolute fairness.
Players born in sports powerhouses, who can receive professional coaching and sufficient nutrition from a young age, are inherently more likely to achieve success than athletes from remote areas. This is an undeniable objective reality.
Fairness is always relative, and this is the same in the field of Pokémon competition.
Even with 11 basic principles and a whole book's worth of derived rules ensuring fairness on the field, this fairness cannot cover everything.
Because one undeniable objective fact is that Pokémon naturally have differences.
Some Pokémon are just inherently stronger than others, like Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Hydreigon...
Letting a Pelipper fight a Salamence, even the most amazing training master can hardly guarantee a 10% win rate.
Because in nature, the former is simply food for the latter, and this bloodline suppression is etched into their DNA...
Galen was clearly deeply aware of this.
Dragonair, after evolving once, becomes Dragonite, a rare species that almost stands at the pinnacle of regular Pokémon below mythical beasts. But his Scyther, after evolving once, is just a mediocre Pokémon, Scizor.
Having watched his cousin fight her way through the professional circle since childhood, Galen knew better than others how vast the gap between Pokémon species could be.
However, this species-centric philosophy of his inevitably had a touch of fatalism.
Or to put it another way: it was a bit cowardly.
It was very inconsistent with the "go for it" values of a hot-blooded teenager!
Most of the new recruits in the youth training camp were prodigies who had achieved high rankings in semi-professional leagues at a young age, only in their teens. This idea of admitting defeat just because someone else's Pokémon is better was obviously not very popular.
"Are you that spineless? Just because that woman has a Dragonair? If you think you have no hope of graduating, you should just quit now. I really don't know how you won that championship," said one of the teenagers who had earned his spot in the youth training camp through a league in another region.
Because he hadn't faced Galen in the Golden Autumn Cup, he had no awe of Galen as the champion, so he spoke his mind directly, without holding back.
Galen just smiled at this, not arguing for the moment.
The coach, after a brief disturbance, continued to lead them to training, while the Pokémon were taken away for physical examinations.
The content taught on the first day was mostly basic, including type matchups that Arthur was already familiar with, Pokémon move lists, and the various effects of common moves.
All of this was something a qualified professional trainer needed to memorize fluently.
Fortunately, Arthur had learned most of this two hundred years ago, so memorizing it wasn't difficult.
Later in the afternoon, they reunited with their Pokémon, and the youth training camp's breeders provided each of them with an extremely detailed Pokémon physical examination report.
Arthur looked at the report and found that the content was far more detailed than he had imagined.
The tests included not only height and weight, but also body fat percentage, upper and lower limb strength limits, skin toughness, energy affinity, resistance to different elemental types, and so on.
Each indicator was followed by a brief evaluation, such as "slightly above the species average," "slightly below the species average," "currently performing well, excellent future potential," and so on.
These evaluations effectively helped them understand the complex and detailed physical examination report.
Arthur was somewhat surprised by the professionalism of this era. Such modern Pokémon testing technology didn't exist in the time he was familiar with.
But at this time, some people weren't focusing on the report, but questioning its accuracy.
"Are you kidding me? My Pidgey is just average? Are you serious? I'm a league champion!"
Arthur turned his head and saw that it was the same teenager who had argued with Galen in the morning.
This teenager looked about the same age as Arthur's current appearance, around sixteen or seventeen years old, probably still in high school.
Having achieved fame and won a championship at such a young age, he was at the peak of his confidence. So how could he accept a report saying his Pokémon was just average?
However, the youth training camp coach didn't care about this.
"Alright, after receiving your physical examination reports, you can find a coach in the base to arrange a suitable training plan for you. But please remember that everyone has a limited amount of basic consultation time. Any time exceeding that will require additional fees."
So there were fees involved - Arthur couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this.
He was starting to understand how tough it was for Uncle William.
Fortunately, he considered himself to have some experience in Pokémon training, so he shouldn't need to spend too much extra money.
But since the existing courses included basic consultation time, he didn't mind listening to the coaches' opinions first.
Then, he took Froakie and the physical examination report and found a free coach near the base's pool.
Because this person had been standing by the pool, surrounded by Water-type Pokémon, Arthur guessed that his coaching specialty was probably related to Water-types.
After starting the conversation, he found that this was indeed the case.
"Oh, you're a new recruit. I'm responsible for training Water-type and Ice-type energy moves. You can call me Coach Wang. Your Pokémon is Froakie? Do you have the physical examination report? Let me see it."
From the conversation, Arthur gathered the following information.
Coaches in the youth training camp weren't all-rounders. Each of them specialized in a very narrow field.
They couldn't directly customize a very systematic and comprehensive training plan for your Pokémon. Trainers first had to decide what they wanted to train, and then find the corresponding coach in the base.
The first two hours of guidance each day were free, or rather, the cost was already included in the initial tuition fee.
But if you needed more than two hours of guidance, you had to pay extra.
It could be said that they were quite stingy!
But for now, he could only accept it.
After looking at the physical examination report, Coach Wang said, "Your Froakie has excellent potential in energy affinity and good physical condition. He also has a high sensitivity to wave attacks. He's very suitable for learning my courses. I can help you create a plan to teach him 'Water Pulse' in the short term. What do you think, are you interested?"
Water Pulse was a standard Water-type energy-based move, which was the coach's specialty.
Arthur also felt that it would be beneficial for Froakie.
But he needed to ask one more question.
"Is two hours of guidance enough for this course each day? Will I need to pay extra?"
He didn't have much income at the moment.
Coach Wang smiled heartily.
"Don't worry, our regular courses here are scheduled for two hours a day. We won't rip you off. Of course, you can pay extra for an accelerated course, but your Pokémon will be more tired, and the daily training volume will be higher."
To be honest, he wasn't worried about the training volume, but he decided to play it safe for now. "Then let's start with a regular course."
After that, the coach took him to sign a registration form. On the way to get the form, Arthur noticed out of the corner of his eye that Flora, who had skipped the trainer courses that morning, had returned.
And at this moment, she was surrounded by several base coaches.
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