Pokemon: I refuse to be a supporting character!

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Qu Sheng and the others naturally hadn't found their luggage yet and were anxiously searching for it. Their voices over the phone were heavy with panting—they were likely running while talking.

Li Xiang first asked for a general description of their luggage, then their current location, and finally the places they had already searched. After gathering all the necessary information, he hung up and called Lin Feng for the same details.

Once he had all the intel, Li Xiang didn't rush to choose which group to help. Instead, he thought for a moment, created a new group on WeChat Messenger, and added everyone to it.

Li Xiang: "Song Jie and I will take pictures of all the luggage we see and tag their locations. You all do the same. This will be much more efficient than searching one by one."

Lizard Poop Scooper: "Great idea! But… can I add a few more people? How about everyone from our class?"

Rain Curtain (Xu Wan): "I think this method is really good too. Li Xiang, let's add more people? Maybe even students from other classes? It'll be even more efficient."

Xia Chunyu's Fanboy (Lin Feng): "+1"

Jasmine Honey Tea (Qu Sheng): "+1"

Li Xiang: "If you guys don't mind, then sure."

Since he had already chosen his instructor and dorm, and Qu Sheng and the others had no issue sharing the group with outsiders, Li Xiang had no objections. The main purpose of the group was to help themselves anyway.

And so, the rest of Class 1's students joined.

"Vice Class President! Our savior! |`)"*

"I love you, Vice Class President~ Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ"

"Accept my kowtow! From today onward, I'm your devoted fanboy. Anyone who tries to take your place will have to go through me!"

Li Xiang had recently asked his homeroom teacher to let him be the Vice Class Representative instead of the Class Representative as being the class leader brought in additional responsibilities and formalities that he thought were somewhat of a hassle. 

Amidst the flood of praise, the temporary group quickly grew in size. The number of people thanking him even included students from other schools. Seeing everyone call him "Vice Class President," they followed suit as well.

The chat soon devolved into spam, forcing Li Xiang to mute the group for a minute before things calmed down.

As more and more people joined, Li Xiang, who had originally planned to search himself, found the sheer volume of images in the group too chaotic to manage. He shifted his role from searching to organizing—removing duplicate posts and marking found items.

"I'll help keep track," Song Jie said, putting away his Pokémon. "You can't handle this alone. Make me an admin."

And so, the two of them stationed themselves outside the field, ignoring the curious stares of the armored officers, and focused entirely on their phones—constantly checking for misdeletions.

However, their conspicuous phone usage inevitably caught the attention of Camp Leader Xiang and the others.

"Little students, weren't you supposed to be helping your classmates?" Xiang Yangwei approached and asked in a low voice. "Why are you just standing here playing on your phones?"

Recognizing him, Li Xiang stood up and showed him the group chat. "We're sharing intel in the group. This is way more efficient than searching blindly."

Xiang Yangwei's eyes deepened as he scanned the flood of photos and tagged locations. He then glanced into the distance and saw a student already dragging his luggage toward them at a sprint.

"You're Li Xiang, right?" he suddenly asked.

Li Xiang nodded and pointed at Song Jie. "Yeah, I'm Li Xiang. This is Song Jie. We're classmates and now roommates."

Xiang Yangwei gave him a long look. "Li Xiang, Song Jie. Good. I'll remember you two."

With that, he turned and left to greet the incoming students.

Li Xiang knew he had left an impression on the Camp Leader but didn't dwell on it. He retrieved his luggage from the supervising teacher and continued managing the group.

And indeed, many hands make light work.

As the first four to join the group, Qu Sheng and the others quickly located all their belongings. After retrieving them, they rushed back to the field.

Many others in the group also found their luggage and immediately headed to the registration area.

By now, five of the top ten spots had been claimed, leaving only five remaining.

Li Xiang remembered the students who had passed by earlier—most of them had canine Pokémon with them, which explained their speed.

Before long, Qu Sheng and the others appeared in the distance, looking like refugees fleeing a disaster as they stumbled forward.

There were only four of them, with Xu Wan—the only girl—leading the charge despite carrying multiple bags. Yang Tianwang lagged behind, clearly on the verge of collapse.

Li Xiang and Song Jie quickly put down their phones and ran to help with the luggage.

"W-what place are we in?" Lin Feng gasped, completely out of breath. They had practically sprinted for their lives to secure a top-ten spot.

"Including you four, nine spots are taken. Only one left," Li Xiang said, leading them to Xiang Yangwei.

Xiang Yangwei couldn't help but glance at Li Xiang before addressing the four.

Since boys and girls couldn't room together, Lin Feng and Xu Wan had to find other roommates.

Of course, both had friends in mind and asked if they could room with specific people. As for the instructor, they all chose the same one Li Xiang had picked.

Surprisingly, Xiang Yangwei was very accommodating and agreed to their requests.

"In this training camp, performance is everything. As long as the top-ranked students' requests aren't unreasonable, we'll approve them," he said with a smile. "You'd better keep pushing yourselves. Today is just the beginning."

Li Xiang couldn't shake the feeling that there was a hidden meaning in the Camp Leader's words.

Lowering his head slightly, he responded with a "Yes, sir!" along with the others before returning to the field entrance.

No one chose to go back to the dorms yet. Instead, they pulled out their phones again.

"Admin! Make me an admin! Keep the benefits in-house!"

"The last spot has to go to someone from No. 1 Middle School!"

"Hurry up, hurry up!"

The three boys shouted anxiously. As students of No. 1 Middle School, regardless of their usual opinions about the school, they would always stand by it when competing against others.

Li Xiang had no objections and granted them admin rights.

The group was still growing, meaning there were still plenty of lost students desperately seeking help.

The WeChat Messenger group proved incredibly effective. Shortly after Qu Sheng and the others registered, another student arrived.

Unfortunately, it wasn't someone from No. 1 Middle School, but judging by how he was lugging multiple bags while still clutching his phone, he was definitely a group member.

When he realized he was the tenth person, he jumped for joy and spammed the group with thanks—until he got muted for flooding. Spotting the group at the field entrance, he hesitated before shouting from a distance, "Thanks, Vice Class President!" and then scurried off.

Li Xiang couldn't help but laugh. "Look at that. I get all the credit when I was just simply set things up."

"Someone had to take the lead," Song Jie said flatly. "None of the people behind us bothered to do it, did they?"

The others agreed. The idea itself wasn't complicated—what was rare was someone willing to sacrifice their own time and opportunity to make it happen.

Later, students from No. 1 Middle School began arriving in groups, having found their luggage.

When they saw Li Xiang, they insisted on hugging him before registering.

Those who came later, unaware of the situation, joined in the chaos after learning he was the "Vice Class President" from the group—girls included.

Of course, Li Xiang wasn't about to take advantage. He settled for quick, loose hugs before moving on.

After registering, the students from No. 1 Middle School didn't leave. Instead, they stayed by Li Xiang's side, helping in the group until every last one of their schoolmates had arrived.

...

9:00 AM.

The first scavenger hunt of the training camp officially ended.

There were still stragglers—not everyone had a phone, and not everyone carried theirs with them.

But all forty students from No. 1 Middle School had passed, even if their dorms and instructors varied.

Li Xiang considered disbanding the group, but Song Jie stopped him.

"There are over 150 people in there now. Who knows if we'll need it again later? Keep it for now."

So he kept it.

Li Xiang had no objections.

The group dispersed to their dorms.

The boys' and girls' dorms were in separate buildings, though adjacent. Since there were far fewer girls, they were all placed on the same floor.

The dorm rooms were spacious—two bedrooms, a living room, and a bathroom. The living area had air conditioning, a sofa, a table, and even a mini-fridge.

One bedroom was for Li Xiang and Song Jie, with two beds. The other was a resting area for their Pokémon, designed to accommodate their free movement indoors.

Larger Pokémon like Onix and Gyarados would have to stay outside.

"Not bad at all," Li Xiang said, opening the storage cabinet to find it spotless, as if professionally cleaned. It even had hangers and other essentials.

Back when he was in college, the dust on the desks, beds, and cabinets had been thick enough to write in.

"The bathroom's fully stocked too," Song Jie said, emerging from the toilet. "Including toiletries. I'm guessing there's a cleaning service…"

Li Xiang grinned. "And if there isn't, are you gonna clean?"

"…Are you underestimating me?" Song Jie gave him a strange look. "What's so hard about sweeping and mopping?"

"Alright, I'll hold you to that."

Li Xiang was already looking forward to Song Jie's reaction. Everyone thought housework was easy—until they actually had to do it.

The two headed to the camp's supermarket to buy bedding and pillows.

The supermarket was massive, rivaling large chain stores outside. It had everything—electronics, cookware, you name it.

By the time they arrived, plenty of students were already browsing.

"Did they just copy-paste an entire supermarket here?" Li Xiang muttered, eyeing the baby cribs and rocking horses in the distance. He wondered who in the camp would even buy those.

Song Jie picked out a set of Pidgeot-down pillows and blankets. "It's better this way. Never know when you'll need something weird."

"Then why'd they bring in a fresh produce section? We have a cafeteria," Li Xiang said, amused, as he took the bedding from Song Jie.

"Whatever. Let's just grab what we need. Who knows what they've got planned for the afternoon?"

Song Jie had a feeling Xiang Yangwei had more tricks up his sleeve.

Nodding, Li Xiang pushed a cart and loaded it with essentials and snacks before heading back to the dorm.

But as they stepped out of the stairwell, they froze.

The hallway outside their dorm was piled high with plastic bags—so many that they couldn't even reach the door.

"Are these… trash?"

"Trash? These are snacks. For you, Mr. Vice Class President." Song Jie set down his bags and picked up a thank-you card. "Oh, and there's a card too."

Li Xiang took it and skimmed the message. These were gifts from the group members.

Since when did middle schoolers have such strong etiquette?

Glancing at the other closed dorm doors, Li Xiang sighed. He couldn't just throw these away—they were gifts, after all.

"Kids these days…"

Muttering, he began clearing the snacks from the doorway and hauling them inside.

As soon as he closed the door, at least eighteen other doors on the floor creaked open.

Students peeked out, whispering among themselves.

"He took everything?"

"He took everything!"

"Today's the first time I realized how cool the Vice Class President is."

"What kind of nonsense is that? He's always been cool!"

"Tch. Bootlickers. The Vice Class President is beyond your comprehension."

"Shut up!" ×N

When the boys had been lost and panicking, running around like headless chickens, Li Xiang had been the light cutting through the darkness—the one who stepped forward with a solution.

No one knew how overjoyed they had been in that moment and didn't understand the depth of their gratitude afterward.