"Then how about switching us? Maybe Old Jia or Joy could take the train with him instead?"
"Uh, Teacher Liu, maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. It's not that the train ticket won't be reimbursed, it's specifically your ticket that won't be reimbursed."
Li Han emphasized the key point again, then followed up with another blow.
"And also, Teacher Liu, to be honest… you're not actually included in our travel plans."
"Hold on a second."
Old Liu pulled Li Han aside and asked, "I was the one who brought this guy over, and now you're cutting me out?"
"It's not like that, Teacher Liu. This was a decision made by the higher-ups. I'm just carrying it out. Listen, let me break it down for you:
If the Varsity Team performs well this time, we'll be expanding later. When that happens, you'll take on one of the new roles."
"Exactly, so why can't my expenses be reimbursed?"
"Because we have to win the Academy Cup first before we can expand. Right now, you're part of the Varsity Team in name only, but not officially in the system, so..."
Li Han shrugged, clearly powerless to change anything.
It was just like Rowan's form that hadn't been submitted yet; Old Liu was in the same limbo. If the team didn't do well in the competition, they'd have to reassess everything.
At least Rowan, as the contestant, had some level of job security. Old Liu didn't even have that.
"So it's not just the train ticket; meals and lodging are on me too?"
"Yeah... so maybe you could just stay back at campus and watch the livestream?"
"No need for that, I'll go with you all at my own expense. I heard there was that one esports coach who started off just ordering takeout for the team, and he still made it big in the end."
"I might not be able to design strategies, but I can at least do this, right?"
"Ahem, as long as you're happy."
Old Liu was worried that if he didn't go, after they returned, someone else might swoop in and steal his position. Since he was so determined, Li Han had no reason to stop him.
In the time that followed, Rowan's life was basically just going back and forth between two places. If he wasn't at home playing with the cat, he was probably getting played by the cat.
He used the strengthening device to train himself, and every day he'd head to the Varsity Team's training ground to practice with the team, to get a sense of their tactics.
He also studied their opponents.
"We need to keep an eye on that local team from Tianfu. They've got a fully developed Shadow Tag + Perish Song strategy, and a pretty tricky Wobbuffet that knows Destiny Bond. If they drag things out, it could get dicey."
The longer the training went on, the more everyone came to recognize Nekomi's strength. Aside from the earlier team battle, Nekomi also demonstrated her skills in tag team* battle, further winning everyone over. [TN: *It refers to a tactic where several people take turns fighting against a single opponent.]
Based on past competition data, unless the opponent used rule-bending moves like Destiny Bond, no one could really see how Nekomi would lose.
And honestly, even if they did use it, the level gap was probably too wide for it to matter.
If Nekomi really did lose, it'd probably be because the opponents were cheating, or Rowan threw the match.
"It's fine, don't worry. She knows U-turn. If they start with Perish Song, I'll just have Nekomi switch out."
Shadow Tag can't stop moves like U-turn, and Mean Look also can't trap a Pokémon that can use U-turn. The only downside is, the rest of the fight will have to be handled by other Pokémon.
As long as there's a reliable partner, Nekomi wasn't particularly afraid of such situations on the field as she didn't have to fight 1v6.
"Then it's simple. If we really do face them, we'll just focus on taking out the Pokémon using Perish Song."
With yet another weak point patched up, their chances of victory rose even further, and the team atmosphere clearly became more harmonious.
However, under the guidance of Li Han and Jia Qiong, there was no premature celebration.
Although the Varsity Team wasn't top-tier in terms of strength, there was no internal scheming. The teachers in charge, while a bit too fond of pushing limits, actually had real skills. Rowan actually found this kind of setup quite nice.
A few days later, Rowan's makeup exam results also came out. A score in the 90s even gave his GPA a slight boost, and just like that, the graduation season at the university had arrived.
It was the familiar Student Center once again. After a series of speeches, Rowan walked away with both a diploma and a degree certificate. The other students also began leaving the campus one after another after that day.
Zhang Lin, however, didn't leave. He applied for a dorm extension and stayed on campus, waiting for his civil service interview.
Although an entire batch of students had left, there wasn't much change on campus. The biggest impact was probably felt by the college's print shop—without students printing theses and study materials, its revenue plummeted.
The weather gradually grew hotter. In the few days before the competition, the Varsity Team paused training to let the team members relax a bit.
Rowan didn't go anywhere during these days. After a trip to the insurance company to collect his post-graduation payout, he stayed in his rented apartment and worked on his computer.
Occasionally, he played a few rounds of games to relax. During this time, he even tried streaming a bit, but the results were underwhelming—the viewer count never even reached double digits.
In the era of Pokémon, many things had changed under their influence, and even online trends had shifted, rendering most of Rowan's previous knowledge obsolete.
Besides… he was kind of clumsy with his hands anyway. Streaming was really just for fun.
"Nekomi, take over for me for a bit. I'm going to the bathroom."
"Meow? (Me? I don't know how!)"
"It's fine, you've been watching for days. Just play like I do."
Looking at her own paws, Nekomi carefully tucked her claws into her paw pads, then tried to grip the mouse.
She only had three fingers, but using the mouse wasn't too hard for Nekomi. The tricky part was the keyboard; she had to press each key with a single finger, or she'd end up hitting the wrong ones.
"Meow.. .(Charge up Double Strike, Flash into the bush with Lethal Tempo, Ignite, then Q follow-up...)"
In League of Legends, a level two Master Yi has an absurdly high kill threshold. Rowan always played in an unconventional way, but Nekomi remembered it.
So when Rowan came back, his character already had another kill point. He figured the opponent must've been a total noob, which in turn backfired on him.
But the next day, a well-edited video popped up on a video-sharing site.
[Meowscarada Teaches You How to Tower Dive at Level 2…]
Since the camera was turned on, Nekomi's gameplay was recorded.
Sure, there weren't many people in the live stream, but there were still one or two real viewers.
At first, the video just did decently in terms of views, but once a well-known streamer from Paldea re-shared it, it started gaining serious traction.
Humans pulling off this kind of play wasn't unusual. Psychic-type Pokémon using telekinesis to operate a keyboard and do it made sense, and Rotom possessing a custom-built computer to do it was even more normal.
But a Meowscarada pulling it off? That sparked genuine curiosity.
Only, Rowan had no idea any of this was happening.
By the time the next morning rolled around, he was already at the train station with Nekomi, preparing to head out early for the competition.
Some people thought the whole thing must've been staged. "A Meowscarada with three fingers could never do something like that," they claimed. But when those same people came to the stream to see for themselves, all they saw was...
[Streamer has gone to participate in a competition. Stream has been paused. See you again if fate allows.]