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

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.

Add to that those who are impersonating 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?"

"Offer 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 method 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: About the fact that a food vlogger I follow appeared on the cover of a top academic journal.

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.” 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 opened the magazine to the first page, 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, there's no 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 and going 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 main point is 'Pokémon Evolution'... By the way, what's that?"

"The top journal in the Pokémon academic world! Never mind... [Another evolutionary path for Milotic] ​​You get what that means now, right?! That 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?"

Zhou Yang looked at the messages in the group chat, scratched his head, and said, "How would I know?"

[Staying up all night and going bald]: I haven't even had a chance to see it yet, but I'm already here to tell my family the good news...

"Come back, you useless thing!"

"DouDouGe is finally triumphant!!"

"It's you I choose, Baldy! Go watch it and then tell us!"

"Investigate further, report back!"

Zhou Yang suddenly felt that he was carrying too much on his shoulders. He looked up at his colleague who was engrossed in a magazine and quietly moved closer.

Coincidentally, he had just turned to the most crucial part.

"...In conclusion, all the above evidence proves that the energy cubes made based on the beauty theory can increase Feebas's [beauty level]. When the [beauty level] reaches a certain threshold, that is, when Feebas's appearance is as shown in Figure 4-7, it can evolve into Milotic..."

…………

On this day, keywords such as "[Minas's second evolutionary path]", "[Beauty]", "[I'm not a pigeon]", and "[Apologize to Xia Chen]" soared on the trending lists of major social media platforms.

The trending topic "[Milotic can evolve without Beautiful Scales is fake]" that swept the internet a few days ago had just cooled down a bit when it was reignited by this even more significant news.

And this time, the level of attention is frighteningly high.

The fact that a prestigious journal like Pokémon Evolution has published this research indicates that its authenticity is over 95%.

The remaining single-digit probability is left to the few possible blunders.

However, Pokémon Evolution has published tens of thousands of academic articles since its inception, and the number of such blunders is less than two-tenths, making the possibility extremely low.

……

A comparison of news headlines from the past month reveals an interesting phenomenon: the headlines are all about "[Fish-Mane can evolve into Milotic without using Beautiful Scales]".

Just a month ago, this sentence was followed by a question mark, but a month later, it is followed by an exclamation mark.

If the "[Axel's Sharp Commentary on Xia Chen]" incident a few days ago only caused a minor stir, then this "[Another Evolution Path for Milotic]" officially recognized by Pokémon Evolution has completely surpassed the World Championship discussion, topping the trending search lists on major platforms.

Almost all the negative news about Xia Chen from a few days ago has disappeared, and the comments section is flooded with incredible praise.

Countless water-type trainers were thrilled. They could get a Milotic without using expensive Beautiful Scales?

Is this Cresselia's illusion?

Everyone only dares to dream of finding a beautiful scale...

Moreover, it's not just Water-type trainers; almost any trainer with normal aesthetic sense who doesn't dislike snake-type Pokémon can resist the temptation to raise a Milotic.

It is no exaggeration to say that this discovery in evolutionary research has benefited a large portion of trainers worldwide.

So, who was this fire thief?