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Psssh—
White coolant vapor enveloped Incineroar's body.
Fire-type Pokémon aren't completely immune to high temperatures, even those they generate themselves. This is evident from the fact that Fire-type moves are only resisted, not nullified, by other Fire types. Even its Flash Fire ability can't guarantee absolute immunity.
When Incineroar's body temperature skyrockets to extreme levels, if it can't rapidly lower its surface temperature, it can easily injure itself, even causing internal damage to its organs.
Achieving rapid cooling through sheer exhaustion alone was something Incineroar couldn't manage quickly.
This is where equipment becomes crucial.
As the icy cold air continued to blast, the temperature in the testing room plummeted visibly. The numbers on the ambient temperature gauge dropped sharply, soon reaching a safe and reasonable level. Incineroar's body temperature followed suit, the excited expression on its face gradually fading.
Having inhaled a lot of smoke, it was temporarily numb to the pain, even if its internal organs were twisted and displaced. Influenced by hormones flooding its brain, it might not even be aware of the damage—until its body could no longer support itself.
In this regard, it was one of the side effects of this "Sage Mode." Forgetting pain was a double-edged sword.
Incidentally, Incineroar looked pretty cool with that cigar in its mouth. It would look even more impressive with a black suit and maybe sunglasses.
Well... enough of that for now. The priority was to increase its strength. That previous form needed to become like Flare Blitz, transforming from a powerful, hard-to-master technique into something it could perform effortlessly, even modify further.
Opening the testing room door, a wave of heat rushed out. Li Xiang's expression remained unchanged. "Take a rest, buddy. You need to cool down and get a check-up."
The snarling Incineroar, upon hearing this, reined in its fierce expression and nodded. It felt it could go another round, its energy still brimming, but since Li Xiang said to rest, it would rest.
Recalling it, Li Xiang rubbed the smooth surface of the ball and placed it on a nearby tray, which was then transported via conveyor belt to the distant recovery room. The fees were automatically deducted; no secondary confirmation was needed.
Inside the testing room, Porygon2 operated the cleaning system, quickly tidying up the scorch marks left by Incineroar.
The next one up was Riolu. What it needed to test and improve were its Aura power and physical reaction speed.
Testing these simultaneously was actually quite simple. By using its Aura to observe incoming projectiles and dodge them while under the effects of the "Three-Blind" state (blocked sight, hearing, and a third sense), it could essentially gauge both.
Compared to the physically taxing training for Incineroar, Riolu's was much safer. The basic difficulty involved soft pellets fired from air guns. Only when Riolu wanted to increase the challenge would it switch to other things, like iron balls or actual moves.
Start from scratch. You have to clear levels one by one, just like in a game.
Clearly, Riolu's training could be left to its own devices. Li Xiang said a few words to it and moved on to the next room.
There, Greninja was stationed.
It had a lot to learn: giant water shurikens, true substitutes, frontal assassination techniques, yoga poses, the Three-Blind Perception method, and also mastering its innate ability to conceal its presence, making it controllable at will.
Greninja had so much to learn that Li Xiang could hardly imagine how long it would take for it to fully integrate all these skills.
But regardless, it had to keep training. Having a goal to strive for was better than having none.
"I have high hopes for you, young frog!" Li Xiang patted Greninja on the shoulder.
The latter narrowed its eyes, maintaining a cold demeanor, playing the role of a cool killer. It entered the testing room without looking back, giving him a peace sign over its shoulder.
'Haaa. Hopeless chuunibyou.'
Li Xiang shook his head helplessly and walked to the next testing room.
One testing room per Pokémon—something only someone as wealthy as him could manage. People like Qu Sheng could only afford to rent two or three at most, for their Pokémon to share.
The testing rooms were quite spacious. Plus, renting so many meant they couldn't oversee them all personally. Letting the Pokémon handle things themselves wasn't reassuring either.
For Corviknight, the training focused on endurance against physical and special attacks, among other things.
Additionally, it needed to practice Light Screen reflection. It could start by reflecting low-power moves like Aurora Beam, or Confuse Ray, Flash, etc. It could even try reflecting moves like Mean Look.
As an A-grade training facility, it could provide Pokémon that knew these moves.
The Three-Blind Perception method was also essential, but what effect it would have once mastered was something Li Xiang couldn't quite picture. Surely it wouldn't just be about endurance, right? Consciousness can't affect the physical body in a short time; that should be impossible.
Perhaps... it would become even more verbally abusive?
"Have you been insulting people lately?" Li Xiang asked.
"Caw! No! Caw!" Corviknight denied loudly, its voice tonally ambiguous, sounding somewhat eerie and sarcastic.
Its human speech was becoming more skillful, and it was getting increasingly proficient at using its beak and talons to operate a computer. It could even use its wings to control the mouse and click the buttons.
After all, its wings were hard yet flexible; pressing a mouse button was easy. With this skill, it had learned plenty of sarcastic remarks from the internet.
"Really?" Li Xiang narrowed his eyes.
Corviknight puffed out its chest and shouted righteously, "Absolutely not! Caw-ha! No lies! Caw!"
"I'll believe you this time. Train well. I'm looking forward to your brilliant performance." Li Xiang tapped Corviknight's wing with his knuckles, producing a crisp clang-clang sound, like striking a gong.
After tapping it, he turned and left.
Corviknight silently breathed a sigh of relief behind him, saluting Li Xiang with a raised wing. "Safe travels, Young Xiang! See you later, Young Xiang! Caw-ha!"
"Call me Brother Xiang," Li Xiang said without looking back, raising a middle finger.
Clearly, four-character phrases were Corviknight's limit; anything longer required an extra sound.
"Okay, Brother Xiang!" Corviknight raised a feather in return, since Li Xiang couldn't see it anyway. After returning the gesture, it hopped and skipped into the center of the arena.
Another testing room.
This one belonged to Rotom.
Like Riolu, it needed to master agile evasion and increase its battle experience. Of course, it also had to learn Vikavolt's mobile spellcasting technique.
In terms of battle practice, its growth speed was faster than Li Xiang had anticipated. Perhaps this was related to it downloading various Pokémon characteristics and battle methods online daily, coupled with paying close attention in class.
Yes, Rotom also attended classes with Li Xiang.
Thirty merit points for an hour and a half of personal instruction from a high-level, second-stage trainer. If you wanted to spar, you had to pay extra points.
In terms of Pokémon knowledge, Rotom had already surpassed Li Xiang. It claimed to have learned the Memory Palace technique, allowing it to store vast amounts of information within its electronic form.
Li Xiang could only silently give it a thumbs-up and call it a champion.
If it weren't for the fact that Pokémon battles couldn't be won by knowledge alone, Li Xiang might have been rendered obsolete as a trainer.
"If only I had an Iron Man suit, you could probably become my J.A.R.V.I.S. and even assist with attacks," Li Xiang couldn't help but say, watching the Pokémon flit between various appliances.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.?" Rotom emerged from the phone, curious. "Iron Man suit? What are those?"
"External exoskeleton combat armor, similar to what the police outside wear, but more form-fitting and agile," Li Xiang pointed toward the entrance.
The armored protective suits in this world resembled the power armor from StarCraft, albeit a simplified version. But in terms of defensive capabilities, they were absolutely comparable, if not superior.
"Those silver bodysuits those people wore before?" Rotom said. An image of the familiar attire appeared on the phone screen against a white background.
"You remember? How did you visualize that?" Li Xiang asked in surprise.
"Just draw an outline and add a few small details. Simple. Even if you praise me, I won't be happy, hmph!" Rotom replied.
"Hahaha, you're really amazing. Not just anyone can fill in those 'tiny details,'" Li Xiang laughed at the familiar tsundere tone. "But it's still a bit different from what I imagined. Though this is pretty good too."
In the games Pokémon X and Y, there was a girl named Essentia (Emma) who participated in Team Flare's E-Suit project. She transformed from a helpless little girl into a superhuman who could leap across rooftops and move at incredible speeds. Although she was controlled by Team Flare initially, the E-Suit eventually became her own.
Li Xiang was extremely interested in this kind of technology.
"Different..." Rotom fell into thought.
"Alright, alright, that's not the focus right now. The focus is training," Li Xiang clapped his hands to bring Rotom back to reality. "You're one of the few special attackers on the team, and an Electric type to boot. Do your best!"
"Hmph! I don't need you to tell me! Of course, it's for myself!" Rotom tsun-ed as usual, flying out of the phone and diving into the washing machine. "Shoo! Shoo!" it cried, chasing Li Xiang away.
If the other Pokémon didn't need supervision, it certainly felt it didn't either.
"Okay, okay, I'm leaving," Li Xiang raised his hands and left. Sometimes, having Pokémon that were too diligent was also a problem.
Finally, only this problem child remained.
He took out the Poké Ball containing the shiny Metang. He had left all the other Pokémon to their own devices precisely to devote time to it.
Although a path had already been laid out for Metang, there were still many areas for improvement. Among them, its temper was the top priority.
Li Xiang truly couldn't understand why a Steel/Psychic-type Pokémon could be so irritable, like a natural powder keg. It strongly suggested a character flaw.
Therefore, he planned to personally teach it the Three-Blind Perception method, helping it break free from its agitation.
"Your turn."
Bang!
The shiny Metang landed. First, it rubbed against Li Xiang affectionately with its brow, muttering "not a dinner table," then adopted an expression that said, "Who are we beating up today, boss?"
"Mind training," Li Xiang tapped its head. "You can't just explode every time you hear the word 'dinner table.'"
Dinner table?
Metang paused, then flew into a rage! 'I'm not a dinner table!'
It raised its crane-like arms, ready to strike Li Xiang. But before energy could manifest, Metang seemed to realize something and let its arms droop dejectedly.
Even if it wasn't initially self-aware, after spending so much time with Li Xiang and the others, Metang, as a Psychic-type Pokémon, had more or less become aware of its short temper.
And the disadvantages it brought were obvious. For instance, its explosive temper made it difficult to integrate into the group; during battles, it wouldn't listen to commands, just lashing out wildly.
Metang itself wanted to change but couldn't find a way.