A week later.
By mid-January, the weather had become very cold.
Most universities had completed their final exams, and students had entered the winter break frenzy.
In this month, there were two things that Trainers should pay attention to.
One, the National Competition.
Two, the Professional Assessment.
Due to the large student population and the fact that the competition was open to the public, the National Competition attracted more attention.
In comparison, the Professional Assessment garnered interest only within a small circle.
The main reason for this was that, unlike the National Competition which was publicly broadcasted on television and online streaming platforms, the Professional Assessment was more secretive and only concerned the candidates themselves.
To participate in the Professional Assessment, there were several registration requirements, such as having six Pokemon, passing a physical examination, political screening, and so on...
By this time, Fang Yuan had already passed the simplest of the five stages of the Professional Assessment, the written exam.
A few days ago, Fang Yuan went to the testing site in Magic City and took the written exam. The vast exam site had only a handful of people.
The examination hall was large, the number of examinees was small, and there were many cameras and proctors, even Psychic Type and Ghost-type Pokemon overseeing the exam... which essentially eliminated the possibility of cheating.
However, this level of surveillance, in Fang Yuan's view, was not unsolvable, like Luo Kuo's Illusion Technique...
But then again, no Master Level Trainer skilled in Illusion Technique would be so bored as to cheat in the written part of the Professional Assessment.
The exam content was all about the cultivation, training, legal and related knowledge a Trainer should master. Everyone had gone through nine years of compulsory education; anyone who put in a little effort could pass.
Since there weren't many candidates for the Professional Assessment, the grading was swift. Three days after the test, the written exam results were published. Fang Yuan's scores were medium, neither high nor low, which was a very good result for a Trainer who decided to take the assessment in his first year and had only reviewed for a few months.
Inside Fang Yuan Institute, Fang Yuan had already started packing his belongings, getting ready to head to the next assessment location.
Of the five major stages of the Professional Assessment, the first stage, the written exam, was the easiest to pass,
with the remaining four stages gradually becoming more difficult.
For the second stage of the Professional Assessment, Fang Yuan needed to go to the assessment site of the Trainer Association East China Division.
Hua Nation's territory was divided into seven regions: Hua North, Northeast, Hua East, Hua Central, Hua South, Southwest, and Northwest.
Each region had a regional level Trainer Association.
The Trainer Associations in Hua Nation were organized as follows: the Trainer Association Headquarters managed the seven regional branches, the regional branches managed the provincial capital level Trainer Associations, and the provincial capital level Trainer Associations managed other city Trainer Associations within the province.
For example, the Pingcheng Trainer Association was managed by the Jinling Trainer Association of Su Province.
And for a small town like Nanwu Town, without a Trainer Association, there was only a simple Spirit Center as the administrative agency.
Of course, directly-administered cities like Magic City or the Imperial Capital had a more special status, and their administrative status was on par with provinces.
There were also Trainer Associations in some public areas, such as the Dianyuan Mountain China Trainers' Association, which were established overseas and directly managed by the Headquarters.
The first stage, the written exam, could be completed in any provincial city, but starting from the second stage, one had to proceed to the regional division.
The standard for a Professional Trainer required a minimal understanding of training—Advanced Technique Secret Books—which was the content of the second stage assessment.
The method of assessment was an interview + a battle test.
Candidates first answered some questions posed by three examiners, then engaged in one-on-one combat with one of them. The requirement was to demonstrate a high level of mastery over moves; winning or losing didn't matter as much as the scores given.
This sounds easy, but at this stage, examiners often like to play some tricks with the help of their Pokemon. Encountering an irregular examiner can truly test the candidates' mentality...
The third stage was a 6VS6 battle among the candidates of the same session.
On Earth, where 3VS3 battles were popular, 6VS6 were rare, but not nonexistent.
However, the 6VS6 battle in the Professional Assessment was slightly different from the traditional 6VS6.
For both battling sides, a Pokemon could only enter the battlefield once, regardless of the outcome. After each battle ended, only the next Pokemon could be substituted.
The purpose of this rule was for the examiners to score the strength of each of the candidates' Pokemon.
The second and third stages were all carried out at the regional branch examination site and didn't take too much time.
The time-consuming ones were the fourth and fifth stages; these could take anywhere from two to three months to half a year to complete and began to incorporate some elements of danger.
Fang Yuan looked at the date. Before the regional part of the National Competition, he would definitely be able to pass through the second and third stages...
It is worth mentioning that the National Competition also started with regional preliminaries. The seven regions of Hua North, Northeast, Hua East, Hua Central, Hua South, Southwest, and Northwest all conducted them simultaneously. First, the universities within these regions competed in preliminaries to decide who would advance, and then after the New Year, the qualifying students would participate in the actual National Competition.
Since Fang Yuan was born in Su Province and his school was in Magic City, naturally, he would take part in the preliminaries within the Hua East Division. The Hua East region included eight provinces and cities; the competition was fierce, but as a student of Magic City University, Fang Yuan didn't need to worry about these details, he could just steamroll his way through.
...
Trainer Association, East China Region Division, located in East China City!
Close to the second stage of the assessment, dressed in the same red outfit, trying to look cool and not worried about catching a cold, Fang Yuan arrived here.
"Huff..." Fang Yuan exhaled. Although he was wearing little, because Eevee was lying on his shoulder, he didn't feel too cold.
"How about it, are you looking forward to it?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Bwoo!" Eevee pointed towards the cluster of buildings in the distance, where towering skyscrapers stood out, contrasting with other areas with their technologically advanced, ultra-modern architectural style, which was the Trainer Association East China Division.
Eevee rubbed its face with its paw, recalling the times while training in the forests of Nanwu Town for the Little Phoenix King Cup...
Back then, it was a newbie that would cry if it bumped into a tree, very resistant to training, and even Eevee itself hadn't anticipated that just two years later...
It would be able to accompany Fang Yuan in most of the assessments that Trainers aspired to.
Professional level, this was the realm Fang Yuan yearned for since he first crossed into this world. Although as his horizon widened, the ordinary Professional Trainer didn't seem so far from Fang Yuan's reach anymore, he still hadn't forgotten the goal he had set for himself when obtaining his Trainer qualifications.
"For the second stage against the examiner, how about you battle in the form of Eevee as a commemoration?" Fang Yuan said, looking at the distant buildings, extending his hand to pet Eevee's head.
"Bwoo..." Eevee stretched lazily.
Fang Yuan, the times have changed, I'm invincible, do as you please.