After lecturing Owen, Lynnea, and Leo on team battle concepts for three hours and showing them several battle videos, Zoe checked her watch.
"Alright, that's enough for the morning session."
"This afternoon, we will conduct a comprehensive analysis based on your performance during last week's field survival training. Remember to bring your pens and notebooks."
Before leaving, she glanced at the three of them and added: "Just a heads-up—tomorrow is a rest day.
However, you need to use today's notes to brainstorm how the three of you can cooperate to function as a qualified team.
By next Friday, everyone must submit a summary of no less than a thousand words.
Don't take this lightly; the quality of your summary will determine your fate for next week's second field training session. That's all. Go get some lunch."
Zoe left as efficiently as she had arrived, leaving the three Rising Star members staring at each other.
"What! Field training again next week?!" Leo jumped up, looking like he wanted to cry.
"Isn't the real problem how to write a thousand-word summary?" Lynnea sighed. She had been happy about having Sunday off, but the homework ruined the mood.
Teachers everywhere really were cut from the same cloth. "How are we even supposed to start writing something like that?"
"Owen, what do you think?" Lynnea turned to him.
"Let me think..." Owen mused. "The afternoon session is a deep dive into our performance from last week. I think we can start from there."
At their current level, high-level tactical maneuvers were out of reach. Instead of aiming for the stars, the most important thing was to patch up each other's weaknesses. They were all rookies; trying to run before they could walk wasn't realistic.
"If a team can cover for its members' shortcomings through coordination, that should count as meeting the basic requirements of a 'team,' right?"
"I guess," Lynnea sighed.
Owen scratched his head. While team battles were a hassle, this was an essential experience for becoming a professional trainer.
In the pro world, where individual strength has its limits, a reliable team maximizes survival odds. This was a truth proven by countless lives lost in the field.
The Hunger Games
After the morning session, the three went downstairs for lunch. Leo was still grumbling.
"I don't mind the training, but the food they gave me was way too little!!"
"Think about it—can a Munchlax really be compared to an Eevee or a Growlithe in terms of calories? I gave all my own food to Munchlax, and he was still hungry. If it's the same ration next time, one of us is definitely going to starve."
Owen and Lynnea couldn't help but laugh. Munchlax's appetite was legendary for a reason.
"Don't Munchlax eat wild vegetation too? Why not just forage on the mountain?" Lynnea suggested.
"If he has to do that... he'll be even less willing to fight," Owen said, knowing Leo's situation well. "Leo's Munchlax is a bit of an outlier—he's a picky eater."
"He's been pampered by Leo with good food since birth. Unless he's on the brink of starvation, there's no way he's eating wild grass."
"Exactly," Leo said, looking pained. "My Munchlax cares a lot about flavor. If he eats something gross, he gets incredibly demotivated. I think I raised a 'fake' Munchlax."
Pokémon were like people—if you spoiled them, they developed all sorts of habits.
"I'm also worried he'll think the wild berries are unhygienic... Forget it, I'll ask Zoe for some compressed biscuits. He doesn't love them, but at least the fat and calorie content will keep him going," Leo decided.
Lynnea pursed her lips. "Compressed biscuits? Good idea..."
Compressed biscuits?
Owen froze mid-step.
"What's wrong?" Lynnea and Leo looked at him in confusion.
Owen shook his head. "Nothing. Let's keep moving."
Compressed biscuits...
Owen's mind raced. He had just remembered something very important. In the anime, May had a Munchlax. Like all of its kind, it was a bottomless pit that caused trouble by eating everyone's food.
That was until May learned to make a specific food that could make a Munchlax full with just one piece.
That food was the Pokéblock.
Pokéblocks weren't just highly nutritious; depending on the recipe, they offered different benefits. The kind May made was like a "Senzu Bean" from Dragon Ball—one block could keep a Munchlax satisfied for a long time.
On Earth... it seems Pokéblocks don't exist yet!
Currently, the use of Berries on Earth was limited to raw consumption or processed nutritional supplements—mostly in liquid form like juices. The concept of a concentrated Pokéblock hadn't hit the market as far as Owen knew.
Is making them hard? In the original series, you just cut various Berries into pieces and tossed them into a Berry Blender. Under high-speed rotation, the flavors neutralized and merged into a crystalline energy cube.
The Berry Blender looks like a juicer, but it's definitely different. There must be another step. If it were as simple as juicing, someone would have discovered it by now.
Generally, when fruit is blended, you get juice and pulp. It shouldn't naturally form a crystalline cube. Does that mean after the blending, there's a compression and solidification step?
That step is likely the key to purifying the energy into a crystal.
Owen suddenly lost his appetite for lunch. He wanted to go home and experiment. Aside from rare varieties, common Berries like Oran Berries weren't expensive—they were mass-produced for trainers and much cheaper than high-end supplements.
If he could master Pokéblock production, he could produce his own high-value nutrients from cheap raw materials!
"The blending part is easy to solve... but the compression and solidification part..." Owen pondered. "Maybe I can use Magnemite's psychic power to compress the mixture? But after that, what's the condition for solidification? Temperature? Pressure?"
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