Chapter 146: Before Class (Part I)

Celadon University Auditorium.

The auditorium was already packed with a bustling crowd of students. The front row remained empty, clearly reserved for the esteemed guests and dignitaries who would be arriving shortly.

However, there was still over an hour left before the lecture was scheduled to begin, so those seats remained vacant, and none of the VIPs had arrived yet.

The students, however, seemed utterly impatient. Even though the university had strictly allocated seats for the auditorium, countless people still desperately wanted to squeeze their way in, prompting the students to pull out all the stops and show off their unique resourcefulness.

Some students from affluent backgrounds began throwing money around, attempting to buy admission quotas to the auditorium. Yet, it was painfully obvious that Celadon University students were not easily swayed by cash, and missing out on such a monumental spectacle meant they might never witness it again in their lifetimes. After all, a gathering of so many legendary figures usually only happened at elite scientific summits.

And the chances of these ordinary students ever participating in a scientific summit in the future were remarkably slim.

Therefore, everyone cherished this rare opportunity.

Precisely because of its high value, all sorts of creative tactics emerged endlessly. These included, but were not limited to, sneaking into the auditorium the night before and hiding out, waiting for today’s event to start so they could simply hunker down in a corner and listen to the lecture.

However, this particular method failed when an excessive number of students hid in advance, leading to turf wars over the best hiding spots last night, which ultimately tipped off the school security.

And so, a whole group of students... crashed and burned.

On the campus network, posts of this nature were rampant:

"If anyone is willing to give me their auditorium quota, I will be their girlfriend!"

Attached to the post was a stunning, heavily filtered selfie.

To be fair, under normal circumstances, this would have drawn a wave of enthusiastic cheering and teasing from the crowd.

Yet, this time, the comment section took a bizarrely philosophical turn.

"You're willing to become someone's girlfriend just to attend Dr. Chen Ou’s lecture? Which brings up a fundamental question: are you doing it because you like the person giving you the ticket, or because you actually like Dr. Chen Ou? [Doge]"

This sharp inquiry flooded the entire comment section, rendering the strategy an utter failure.

As a side note, the mastermind behind this trend was actually White... She had used Hui Li’s account to post the comment, which instantly earned thousands of likes and copycat posts from male students across the campus.

Numerous similar schemes were attempted, but none yielded any results. Regarding this public lecture, the university shifted its stance from initial laissez-faire tolerance to strict, heavy-handed regulation.

It left the school leadership alternating between laughter and tears.

After all, even when Professor Oak had come to deliver a lecture, the administrators had never witnessed such an unprecedented craze.

Yet, upon deeper reflection, this phenomenon was entirely understandable.

For one thing, Chen Ou was young, handsome, and immensely accomplished—unlike the seasoned, aging veterans of academia. Having a peer of their own age standing at that podium naturally evoked a powerful sense of aspiration among the students.

Moreover, Chen Ou’s field of research centered on "Legendary Pokémon," a topic that struck a chord with absolutely everyone. Anyone who had ever heard tales of divine Pokémon harbored an instinctive yearning for them.

Had it been scholars like Professor Elm or Professor Birch visiting, they would only have attracted students specializing in their respective fields. But Chen Ou’s appeal completely transcended academic boundaries; even the students from the Trainer Academy were fighting tooth and nail for seats!

After all, which Pokémon Trainer didn't harbor a dream of capturing a mythical beast, marrying into wealth, and reaching the absolute pinnacle of their career?

Consequently... the target demographic expanded infinitely.

Naturally, Chen Ou wasn't money; he couldn't possibly please everyone.

A public lecture causing such a massive uproar was bound to provoke dissatisfaction among certain students. Whether they simply desired peace and quiet, harbored an instinctive jealousy toward a contemporary who had ascended to such dizzying heights, or were consumed by petty jealousy because their significant others were far too enthusiastic about Chen Ou.

In short, those who liked Chen Ou shared similar reasons: talent, good looks, and a profoundly prestigious field of study.

Meanwhile, those who disliked him held diverse motives, with simple, baseless animosity being remarkably common.

Right at this moment, Hui Li’s ears were pierced by one such discordant and grating voice.

"Chen Ou? Hah! He’s nothing more than a glorified archivist. When it comes down to actual survival in the wild, he’d still have to rely on powerful trainers like us for protection. Researching Legendary Pokémon? He probably just stumbled upon them through some sheer, blind stroke of luck, snapped a couple of photos, and started parading around as a fraud."

Spoke a male student in the back row, dressed in a rather flamboyant style, adorned with three or four stud earrings on his left ear and a large hoop earring on his right.

He appeared to be chatting up a sweet-looking girl sitting beside him who wore a pristine white dress.

Disgust was practically radiating from the girl’s face, yet the earring-wearing male remained completely oblivious, launching into an uninterrupted monologue about his own "heroic exploits." He boasted about the arduous process of earning his badges, the overwhelming strength of his Pokémon, his social standing within the Trainer Academy, and periodically dropped references to his family background—first mentioning his father, the Vice Mayor of Celadon City, followed by his mother, who ran a massive corporation... interspersed with belittling Chen Ou to highlight his own "peerless martial valor."

Although not a single word he uttered about Chen Ou was factual, the problem was that nobody else knew what kind of person Chen Ou truly was either. Seeing the youth speak with such absolute conviction, the surrounding students could only nod with a mixture of doubt and belief.

The pierced youth rambled on incessantly, entirely indifferent to the visible annoyance of the person beside him.

"Shut your mouth!"

A sharp, authoritative command rang out from directly in front of the youth. The surrounding area plunged into an abrupt, heavy silence.

Everyone raised their heads, only to see Hui Li glaring at the youth with an expression as cold as frost.

The pierced youth, interrupted mid-sentence, flared up instantly, but before he could retort, Hui Li spoke again.

"You keep running your mouth about Dr. Chen Ou’s incompetence, so why isn't it you standing up on that stage giving the lecture right now? You boast endlessly about your formidable strength, yet the badge you wear isn't even from any of the official eight Gyms, whereas Dr. Chen Ou has already earned four badges from the official eight Gyms."

"Dr. Chen Ou saved our lives during a field expedition. His Charmeleon beat a Sneasel to within an inch of its life. What on earth are you blabbering about regarding him needing others to protect him in the wild? Where on earth do you get the sheer audacity to criticize Dr. Chen Ou’s shortcomings?"

"Have you ever even spoken a single word to Dr. Chen Ou? Have you ever exchanged blows with him in a battle? Do you have the faintest clue what the title of Doctor awarded by the scientific summit actually signifies?"

"Does your unwarranted confidence stem from your parents? If so, do you know that if Dr. Chen Ou so desired, your father’s political position could be stripped away instantly, and your mother’s so-called grand corporation could be shut down overnight? Do you have any idea that disaster often stems from what one says?"

"Do you even know where your hollow confidence and misplaced bravery come from?"

A chilling sneer curled upon Hui Li’s lips.

"They come from your utter ignorance."