"This guy's really fast. He already released a Platinum Trophy guide?" Edward twitched at the corner of his mouth as he watched the video on his phone.
It was only two days ago that he mentioned the idea of creating future content to Mewtwo, and now—just today—Mewtwo had already produced a full guide for the latest hit single-player game, Black Myth: Ho-oh, and not just any guide, but a Platinum Trophy walkthrough. The speed left Edward speechless. As expected of a Psychic-type Pokémon—its gaming speed far surpassed that of any normal person.
"Hello everyone, I'm Mewtwo. Today, I'll be bringing you the first episode of the complete Platinum Trophy walkthrough for Black Myth: Ho-oh…"
Mewtwo's voice had apparently been processed somehow—it sounded quite magnetic. However, the view count was... unimpressive. Perhaps because Mewtwo was still new to content creation and lacked an audience base.
Edward shook his head and didn't bother finishing the video. His current focus was still on overseeing the post-production of his latest movie.
Thanks to the combined efforts of Mewtwo and the post-production team, A Wicked Ghost was almost done editing. Only the voice acting and subtitles remained before they could submit it for public screening approval.
"I wonder how my buddy's doing... It's been a while without any updates. Kinda worrying," Edward muttered as he looked out into the distance.
Ever since he handed over the follow-up investigation of Team Aqua to the League, there had been no new developments. The League had gone silent, and there were no relevant news reports. Edward didn't even know whether the private detective he'd hired had been rescued or not.
He occasionally searched online for any updates related to Team Aqua, but nothing ever came up. The organization had gone quiet, avoiding any major moves. Even Steven hadn't sent a single message. Edward tried calling, but the line never connected. He had no idea if Steven was off digging up rocks again or preparing to strike against Team Aqua.
As he sat in his office, Edward glanced at Fortune, who was busy working on a test paper nearby. Curious, he walked over for a peek.
Fortune had been buried in test papers for days now, which made sense—entrance season for Hoenn University was just around the corner, and Fortune was planning to apply.
Because Fortune had skipped both middle and high school, he had to take a special admission test. The university required prospective students to complete a designated set of exam papers. Based on the results, they'd determine whether or not to admit them.
Sure, Edward could pull some strings. He could easily donate a building in the name of the Stone family and exchange it for a guaranteed admission slot. But clearly, Fortune had other ideas.
Edward glanced down at the paper Fortune was working on. It was a past-year entrance exam paper from Hoenn University's Economics department. The school published the real exam questions every year after the results came out, so cram schools often used these as teaching tools to prep students for the test.
If a function f(x) is differentiable on interval I and its derivative is less than 0, then the monotonicity of F(x) on I is:
A: Increasing and decreasing
B: Monotonically increasing
C: Monotonically decreasing
D: Cannot be determined
Edward rubbed his eyes, then took another look.
Good grief. He couldn't understand any of it.
What the heck was all this?
Just seeing those function intervals brought back traumatic memories of his college years and the torment of higher mathematics. So, Economics majors had to deal with advanced calculus on their entrance exam?
No wonder the test for direct-entry students was harder than the regular school path. After all, if a student skipped over years of school to jump straight into college, the exam had to be tougher—otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to those who'd gone through the entire educational system.
Watching Fortune clutch his head in frustration, Edward couldn't help but chuckle.
In a Pokémon battle, you might hear things like:
"Fortune! Hang in there!"
"Fortune! Dodge it!"
"Fortune! Counterattack!"
And sometimes it would work, even turning the battle around.
But in math?
If you didn't know it, you just didn't know it.
Edward had once followed the golden rule of multiple-choice exams: "When in doubt, pick C." But if the question was open-ended or required actual calculations... he was completely lost.
"Kyu!"
Q leapt down from Edward's head and waddled over to Fortune's test paper. After staring at it for a moment, it smacked its tail down on choice C.
"Congrats, Q," Edward said with a chuckle. "You've mastered the secret art of answering C when in doubt."
But when Fortune actually filled in the answer—he also picked C. And when Edward checked the answer sheet...
C was correct.
Edward was stunned.
He gave Q a strange look.
No way... Could Q actually be a genius?
A math genius?
His imagination began to run wild.
In the Pokémon world, there were indeed Pokémon who had become mathematicians and developed well-known theories. But some famous conjectures from his previous world didn't even exist here. For instance, the renowned Goldbach Conjecture.
Back in the day, the "1 + 1 = 2" proof had sparked countless amateur mathematicians to flood scientific institutions with their "proofs." One person even brought in two apples and said, "One apple plus one apple equals two apples. Therefore, I've proven 1 + 1 = 2."
It was laughable—but somehow also kind of sad.
Still, if Q really had a talent for mathematics, Edward wouldn't mind nurturing it. It might even become a brilliant Pokémon mathematician.
With that in mind, he scribbled a simple math problem and handed it to Q. Q glanced at it—and once again slapped C with its tail.
Hmm…
9 + 9 = 27?
Edward gave up on the spot.
Nope. Q probably just liked the letter C.
"Fortune, don't stress too much," Edward said gently as he watched the kid continue working through his test. "Do you want me to hire a professional tutor to help you out?"
Fortune's passion for economics had come as a surprise, but seeing him now, struggling through exam prep… Edward couldn't help but see a reflection of his own high school senior year.
(End of Chapter)