Pokémon: I picked up a reborn Eevee at the start of the game.

"Being a Pokémon breeder is a profession that requires a high degree of responsibility, not only towards the Pokémon but also towards oneself. There are some Pokémon in this world that require specific items to evolve, so why is it that certain fish-type Pokémon are different?"

"Breeding isn't about blindly breeding, and evolution isn't about random changes. You should apologize to all the Feebas trainers in the world for posting those irresponsible videos!"

"Speaking of evolution, cough cough, in the first half of next year, the Eevee Fairy-type evolution jointly researched by our Kalos and Unova regions will soon yield results. Our Axel Research Institute will certainly carry on the spirit of breeders."

……

After calmly watching the video Xiao Gang sent him, Xia Chen felt no emotion whatsoever; in fact, he even felt a little amused.

Other details are uncertain, but Xia Chen is certain that Axel is definitely not one of the reviewers for "Pokémon Evolution" magazine.

Otherwise, one shouldn't make such sarcastic remarks five days before the next issue of the magazine is released.

Over there, Xiao Gang, after uploading the video, sent a grinning Steelix emoji.

"Damn it, you've got it all figured out!"

Very few people knew the full progress of Xia Chen's research, and Xiao Gang was one of them, which is why he made this statement.

Xia Chen replied with an Eevee laughing emoji, without saying anything more.

Teacher Xiaogang, you still know too little. I can not only fake it, but I've done it more than once.

Xia Chen smiled slightly, recalling what the old man had said at the end of the program.

According to the information provided by Asahi a few days ago, the research direction of Axel's laboratory is still focused on making Eevee evolve at different times, and even digging deep into the ground to find so-called fairy evolution stones.

If we continue researching in this direction, Axel's ending will likely be the same as that of a certain famous novel film that a certain old artist promised would start filming in the second half of the year as a Sino-US co-production, but which never came to fruition.

Tsk tsk, I wonder how many investors' money is going to go down the drain.

Pulling his mind back to the present, Xia Chen continued studying the exclusive information Professor Oak had given him on "[How to help Pokémon master Awakening Power]".

Compared to considering the old man who was destined to become his stepping stone, Xia Chen felt that Milos's training and development were more important.

…………

However, only a few people, including Dr. Oki and Brock, knew about Xia Chen's research progress, while the outside world was completely unaware of it.

Axel's interview video went viral online, inexplicably.

This is a very unusual thing, considering that at a time when the whole world is focused on the World Championships, which are just a month away from opening, almost everyone is discussing who will win this year's title.

Xia Chen even suspected that Xiao Gang had secretly bought trending topics behind her back.

Otherwise, who else would have this motive?

Axel was simply venting his emotions and taking the opportunity to promote his research on the new evolution of Eevee. He had no ulterior motives and there was absolutely no need to make this a widely known topic online.

Professor Oak did tell Xia Chen some important data: shortly after Xia Chen released the video, the market price and black market price of Beautiful Scales dropped significantly.

After all, it's a Pokémon item worth millions. If given a choice, even if it's just a tiny possibility, many Feebas trainers would be willing to wait and see if Milotic's other evolution paths would appear.

Obviously, sellers who hold the resources of the beautiful scales can no longer sit still.

Although the matter had cooled down somewhat during this period, they still felt it wasn't fast enough, so they took this opportunity to stir up the authoritative figure's criticism of Xia Chen.

Upon learning the truth, Xia Chen shook his head, both amused and exasperated. Sure enough, behind every unusual event, there was the operation of capital.

But there's nothing to worry about; it's just adding fuel to the fire of a bomb that's about to explode in a few days.

Why not capitalize on free popularity?

Xia Chen could only sigh, "There are still more good people than bad in this world."

Thank you, stranger!

…………

The city gate caught fire and affected the pond fish.

Xia Chen himself didn't have any particular feelings. His account on Pornhub, which hadn't posted any videos for a long time, became an innocent victim after the incident went viral.

The number of comments under the video of the ugly fish's evolution that Xia Chen last posted half a month ago has increased by tens of thousands in the past few days.

Obviously, these sudden comments could not all have been posted by Xia Chen's fans; most were just passersby who came to mock him, and there were even some paid trolls trying to stir up trouble.

In addition, there are those who impersonate others, those who are trolling, those who are just watching the drama unfold, and those who have gone from being fans to neutral observers or haters.

The comment section erupted into chaos.

"As everyone knows, videos can't be photoshopped, so this video is real!"

"What do you know! My master pigeon spends twenty-five hours a day researching Pokémon food, how could he possibly do academic fraud!"

"Beware of iChen's classic rhetoric: there are no bad people who like elves."

"I'm so disappointed. I've gone from being a fan to a hater. I only followed him because of his cute Eevee and Ralts, but I never expected him to be such a bad person!"

"Heh, if the old breeder hadn't exposed it, they'd probably be selling those so-called scams that allow Feebas to evolve into Milotic without using Beautiful Scales by now, right?"

"Incense."

"Remember to spit before you leave, everyone!"

…………

Late at night, in a rented room.

In front of a computer screen with a dim fluorescent glow, a man was typing rapidly on the keyboard, the clattering sound echoing in the darkness.

He skillfully switched between accounts, and comments from different angles, some genuinely critical, some trolls, were born from his hands.

His fingers were a little sore from working for a long time. The man stopped what he was doing, lit a cigarette, and subconsciously refreshed the webpage.

A comment within his strike range appeared before him.

"Isn't Master Pigeon going to release a video to respond? Actually, I think it's alright. Master Pigeon didn't mention the evolution of Feebas at all in his video. This whole thing is just so inexplicable."

The man clicked his tongue inwardly. Well said, but I'll still criticize it.

After a moment's thought, his professional instincts led the man to unleash another barrage of attacks a few seconds later.

"The person upstairs caught iChen. Although he didn't say it, wasn't the purpose of him posting this video to make you fans speculate? Otherwise, what was the purpose of him photoshopping out the beautiful scales?"

Nowadays, online trolls need to be more sophisticated; smear campaigns without any basis will only elicit sympathy from bystanders for the person being attacked.

Comments that are nine parts true and one part false are the most effective.

The man put away his keyboard, exhaled a smoke ring with a flourish, and then sent a message to a communicator on Pogaman.

"Boss, the matter is settled."

Chapter 101: My Followed Food YouTuber Reached the Top of Academic Ranking

This matter of publishing the cover

On November 25th, the 47th issue of Pokémon Evolution magazine for 2022 was released, featuring a Milotic leaping across a lake on the cover.

Initially, this issue of "Pokémon Evolution" did not cause much of a stir, since such professional magazines have a very narrow target audience, and those who subscribe regularly are mainly professionals in Pokémon academic research and related industries.

But Xia Chen has millions of fans, not to mention that he was in the eye of the storm of public opinion not long ago.

Soon, Xia Chen's fan became the first to discover the article.

Early morning, inside a research institute.

A young man in a white coat sat down at the bar in the lounge area with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Xiao Zhou, just finished the experiment?" his colleague greeted him.

"Yeah, I stayed up all night. The boss was pushing us to work on the Galer dual-explosive gas project, wasn't he?" Zhou Yang said, yawning to prove he wasn't lying.

"So you're still drinking coffee? Don't you want to sleep later?" His colleague sat down next to him, chatting as he took a magazine from the bookshelf next to them.

"If I don't drink it, I might not even be able to go home," Zhou Yang said, taking a sip of the still slightly hot coffee. "By the way, what's the cover story for this issue of 'Pokémon Evolution'?"

"Let me see," my colleague said, flipping to the first page of the magazine, followed by a shout of "Donghuang National Treasure."

"Holy crap! Feebas has a second way to evolve into Milotic?! The topic that was all the rage and debate a while ago is actually true?!"

"Milano??" Zhou Yang immediately perked up.

As a loyal fan of Pigeon Master, he had naturally paid attention to the much-discussed Milotic evolution incident during this period.

Last night, he even got into an argument with people in the comments section of that video during a break from his experiment, which almost caused the experiment to fail.

"Quickly check who the author is!" Zhou Yang didn't even realize how badly his voice was trembling.

"The first author is Xia Chen, which is the real name of that [Master Pigeon], right? The second author is Lu Yao, the beauty from the Southern Metropolis Research Institute. Holy crap, the third and fourth authors are actually Yukinari Oki and Dr. Lu Si?! What an amazing lineup!"

The colleague turned to look at Zhou Yang, only to find that the latter had regained his vitality as if he had been given a final burst of energy, excitedly typing on his phone as if he were sending a message to someone.

He looked completely bewildered. "While this is indeed the biggest academic discovery since the discovery of the fairy system, is there really any need to get so excited?"

…………

A flock of pigeons.

The events of the past few days have made the atmosphere in the group quite strange. In addition, it's early Wednesday morning, so the group is very calm, with only a few night owls sending goodnight messages in twos and threes.

However, a message broke the silence of the group chat.

[Staying up all night and going bald]: Holy crap!! Huge bombshell!! Pigeon Master is on the cover of "Pokémon Evolution" magazine!! A truly shocking twist!!

[Staying up all night every day is causing my hair to go bald]: The article's theme is, Milotic's alternative evolutionary path!!

After a few seconds of silence, the quiet group chat erupted into a frenzy of activity, like boiling water.

"Really? Don't lie to me, I'm not very educated!"

"Holy crap, holy crap, I'm off to the comments section to argue with those haters and slap them in the face!"

"I've known for a while that those haters are suspicious. They're so well-trained, they're definitely paid trolls. Has anyone tried to dig deeper into this?"

"Wow, I'm a C programming master!"

"We've gone off-topic. The focus is on 'Pokémon Evolution.' By the way, what's that?"

"The top journal in the Pokémon academic world! Never mind. [Another evolutionary path for Milotic] ​​You understand what that means now, right?! The video that Master Pigeon posted the other day was real!"

After one of the group members pointed it out, the group chat erupted with "Holy crap!"

It took about three minutes before someone broke the formation.

"And then what? What is the evolutionary path?"