Chapter Fifty-Seven: [Read, Received]

Ralts resolved to put her thoughts into action. She drew more unused pen refills from the holder, took a deep breath, and extended her psychic power, controlling ten refills to float above the keyboard.

The girl wanted to simulate typing with ten fingers, but reality was harsh—she couldn't split her focus to control so many lines of psychic force at once.

The refills scattered across the desk, marking the first attempt a failure.

Ralts pursed her lips in frustration, visibly disappointed.

"You should take it slow. Don't expect to master everything in one go. Start by trying with two refills," Tang Yi reminded her at just the right moment, pausing before adding, "My Ralts is truly clever."

The gloom on the girl's face faded considerably.

Very well, she would start with two refills.

Splitting her psychic force into two streams was easy for Ralts at her current level. The two refills, enveloped in psychic energy, tapped steadily at the keyboard.

After more than ten minutes, Tang Yi called a halt.

They increased the number to three refills. Though it was just one more, the difficulty spiked dramatically.

Tang Yi could tell from the frequent typos in the computer document that Ralts, though silent, was clearly struggling.

A brief summary of five hundred words took nearly an hour to complete.

Tang Yi scanned the document content—it was proper and methodical. After a few minutes of reading, he finally nodded in approval.

Ralts, who had been anxious, finally relaxed, rising to return to her room for sleep. At the moment she left Tang Yi's room, she actually felt as though she'd escaped a tiger's den.

Tang Yi couldn't really judge the accuracy of Ralts' conclusions—it wasn't his area of expertise, and he wouldn't offer random advice for fear of causing her unnecessary trouble. But he could seek counsel from someone more professional.

The next day.

During the lunch break, Tang Yi checked the chat group the vice principal had created for students who advanced to the second round of the selection tournament.

Though he wasn't currently participating in Coach Li Yaowen's training, as a qualifier from the first round, he hadn't been removed from the group.

Recently, he had been busy with Ralts and hadn't been active in the chat. The others had grown used to his absence; now, whenever there were training notifications, Li Yaowen no longer bothered to mention him directly.

Tang Yi: Hello, everyone [Smiling Face.JPG]

Yang Fu: Wow, the busy man appears. Rare sight [Smile.JPG]

Human thoughts are strange sometimes.

Tang Yi and the other qualifiers barely knew each other—there were no grudges.

Yet among the four qualifiers, he alone missed training. Even with good reason, his absence inevitably provoked some discomfort: Three of us make time to be here, but you don't. Do you think you're superior?

Tang Yi could sense a hint of sarcasm from Yang Fu's [Smile] emoji, but he didn't mind.

Tang Yi: @Li Yaowen, hello sir, may I disturb your lunch break for a moment? I'd like to ask you some questions about training [Smiling Face.JPG]

Li Yaowen: [Tears Turned to Laughter.JPG] No need to be so polite. Any questions, just ask in the group. I'm here to coach you all, and I'll do my best to help with your college entrance preparations.

This coach was warmer than Tang Yi had expected; the school must be paying him well.

Tang Yi didn't hold back, then. He reorganized Ralts' insights from the previous night regarding psychic power usage, edited a lengthy message, and posted it in the group.

Yang Fu: Too long, didn't read. I'm out.

Jiang Hai: +1

Zhang Chen: +1

The three lurkers realized Tang Yi was genuinely asking about training, lost interest, and quickly left the conversation.

Several minutes passed in silence.

Li Yaowen finally spoke again: Finished reading. This is about psychic power training, right? Did you summarize it yourself? Very good.

Tang Yi: Do you think these observations are accurate? Any suggestions for improvement?

Li Yaowen: I remember the vice principal told me your partner is Ralts, correct? You're aiming to train multi-threaded psychic control? It's a good idea.

Tang Yi: That's right.

Li Yaowen: Psychic power in super-powered creatures is released through mental frequency. To control its strength more precisely, you need to start at the source and manage the output of mental energy.

Tang Yi: I sort of understand the theory. The question is, how can the creature better control its mental energy?

Li Yaowen: I once talked briefly with a psychic master who competed in the World Cup. He shared a simple trick: have Ralts use psychic power to push a coin forward, limit the distance, and let her continually adjust.

Tang Yi: I see. Thank you so much. I'll try it when I get home.

Li Yaowen: You're welcome. Actually, next time you have a chance, bring Ralts along. This is just a basic psychic skill technique—if you want to excel in real matches, you'll need to learn more skills, so you have more options in competition.

That evening, when Tang Yi returned home, he incorporated Li Yaowen's trick into Ralts' daily routine, adding coin training.

Compared to other exercises, the coin training was lighter, but consistently pushing the coin to an exact distance with psychic power was rather challenging.

No matter, though. Ralts had plenty of time at home each day.

As usual, that night, Tang Yi had Ralts finish her summary report. Though she still struggled, the time spent was less than the day before.

This showed Ralts was making steady progress.

It was a good sign; slow and steady.

Tang Yi always supervised Ralts but never rushed her. He couldn't help but worry: would the girl grow bored and weary of such tedious, repetitive training over time?

Late at night, when all was quiet, Tang Yi opened his browser and reviewed the day's search history.

[How to shop online]
[How a trainer uses a bank card]
[What can you buy if you have money]
[Heard humans eat cake on birthdays, but I don't feel much about birthdays]
[So I'll set a small goal—I want to taste cake]
…

Today, the search history hadn't been entirely deleted; in fact, these entries seemed deliberately left for a certain trainer to see.

For example, those last two lines—it turned out Ralts wanted to try cake.

Tang Yi hadn't expected that. Gu Qingyue had told him that the spirit girls didn't have birthday traditions like humans, but that didn't mean they didn't long for cake.

These were words Ralts would likely never say aloud; recording them this way neatly avoided embarrassment.

Tang Yi couldn't help but smile, leaving a single line in the search history.

[Read and received]