Anthony didn't think of this setup as unreasonable or otherwise unfair. After all, different worlds, different norms, and second of all, it's not like the government can just expect field researchers to attend, even an open university system just so that they are eligible to do primary research, something that is already in their job description.
That's like saying to a licensed teacher to do an internship in their school before having a salary; it's practically bullshit. Anyway, Anthony's doors towards more resources and channels besides his parents and Prof. Oak (partially) have been presented, but because of the nature of his field, this means that his respondents will be very, very hard to find.
_Plus, kids will not be very inclined to answer surveys without incentives, I bet I will need large sums of money to give them functional souvenirs like pokeballs and maybe even an evolution stone if the respondents want to be stoned to death by the researcher..._
Anthony, even though it will take a long time before he needs to even think of a defendable title, was in a dilemma because of these factors and the fact that research in itself is tiresome, especially in this world where 2 respondents of the same age group might be on two different sides of the world.
_I can't really divert into astrophysics or other research topics that use past, secondary data since my field is Pokemon training, because that's another buttload of more academically challenging and Pokemon-unrelated college years, something that I would rather not experience..._
Indeed, Anthony would rather be tired and academically challenged with the creatures he enjoys to train and take care of than to stare at a microscope and at formulas god know how was proven to be correct. This is what was in Anthony's mind before all of his prints were finished, put together by a stapler in standby atop the printer he's using, and passed the overdue lab report to Melissa, who casually tucked the document into her armpit while still trying to calm herself down.
_What did you do to have such a long proposal..._
Anthony sighed, however, in truth, he said:
"Goodluck."
Melissa nodded and made a rather perfunctory: 'Thanks' before letting Anthony walk away without even a 'bye', which Anthony understood as he himself found it hard to swallow rice when he first experienced a proposal defense preparation phase, especially since he already graduated high school when school-confined practical research became a subject in their country.
_Hmm... disregarding my repulse with going through that shithole again, this is a good way to advance in the world of being a field researcher, the only problem is that... well, I would rather count the total number of Charizard in a volcano every year than to wait for people to respond on a Likert scale, but I can also do experimental like how Melissa does her dissertation..._
_Oh, but the easier one, relatively are diagnostic test centric research, one of my friend in the education college department of our university tested how good can science majors in the city of our university simplify or restate complicated science concept through a 40 point test, 10 items per major branch of science... he doesn't need a Likert scale in this area as the instrument is not being developed to be a standardized diagnostic tool and is a one time big time research instrument._
_There comes another question, however: What would be my title if ever I went that path? I honestly don't know how the academe works in here, for example, how is the pokedex validated, who the hell can validate 100+ entries of Pokemons and ensure all of them are accurate? That is ridiculous._
Anthony halted his thoughts as he opened the door to his room using the designated key, making it an after thought and basically a set of loose plans for the future, anyway, it's still a long time before he can focus on being a 'field researcher' because his main goal in this world is to become a Pokemon trainer, and by technicality, this profession he is seeking is just for him to have a stable income while he makes a shot for the position of champion, and ultimately, Pokemon master.
Maybe if he became a champion, then he would be able to think about all of these.
_For now, let me just say that I don't want to ever touch a file and write 'Chapter I: The Problem' ever again..._
Before Anthony slept, such were his thoughts.
_________
Fuchsia City is known to be the hub of two famous places: The poison-type gym of the Kanto region, owned by the shinobi Koga, and the Safari Zone, known to contain rare and strong Pokemons, such as Dratini and its evolution Dragonair, among other species that would be rather hard to find in the wild.
In recent months, however, Fuchsia City seems to have witnessed an emergence of another landmark that would define its city. It was a business started by one of the most prominent power couples of the Pokémon training world, known to break and hold numerous records, and even unofficially recognized as people who have just let other people become champions because they felt like it.
It was the daycare center of Hana and Ben Dover, a place where their personal Pokemons were bred and laid eggs, making them of premium quality, even a Shroomish can theoretically fetch a high price, higher than the market price, which, of course, the two mongrels did. Primarily because they knew what their value is.
Even then, the prospect of being able to train Pokemons that are the descendants of the strong and famous Pokemons of Hana and Ben Dover caused demands to become higher, not long after, Ben and Hana were forced to outsource their eggs in the breeding lab of the Pokemon League, their first order were just made this January of about 100 high quality eggs of common to uncommon Pokemon species.
For now, they were not allowed to sell non-local Pokemons except for what they owned, so all of the eggs are inside the Kanto region which are separated with their new 'Premium and Common' format, all the eggs produced by the Pokemons of Ben and Hana were 'Premium' ones, having a higher price than the market while the 'Common' ones were the ones they ordered with the same price as the suggested retail price of the league.
As usual, the daycare center was filled with people hustling and bustling, but now, the reason for this hustle and bustle is not because of Ben and Hana's eggs, but because of a woman who is right in front of Hana and Ben, that's besides the counter of the reception desk.
The woman is, well, aware or not, have luscious appearance; she has a slim waist emphasized by the yellow spaghetti crop top she wears as her signature attire, she has rather full hair of silvery blue that parts in the middle to produce two side forelocks that frame her pretty face, her eyes are also of silvery blue color.
It was Karen, the dark type specialist projected to become a future elite 4 of the Indigo League, visiting her old friends, Hana and Ben Dover, who are, of course, not happy with the person visiting unannounced.
"You're interrupting business."
Hana and Ben said at the same time, which made their visitor chuckle.
"Is it bad to surprise your old friends?"
Hana replied.
"Yes, especially if you make our customers eager to have an autograph session with you rather than buying eggs."
One should know that the visitors of the daycare of Ben and Hana come from adjacent cities alongside those that are citizens of Fuchsia itself, which is not a short trip as Fuchsia is quite an isolated city, and if not for the fact that Pokemons exist and public utility vehicles are advanced, then it would not become even a city.
Thus its rare for a customer to come all the way here just so that they can have autographs; that is a waste of money.
"Well, why are you here?"
Ben, who was tapping around a computer, asked, it's not like they are not happy that their friend visited, it's just that their business was interrupted because of her. This is, of course, known by their friend, Karen, who seems not to mind the cold treatment, as she said.
"I have been eyeing the position of Elite 4 Agatha and scheduled several challenges against her in several intervals, though I would need another 2 years to prepare."
One of the perks of being a challenger of an elite 4 member is that they can schedule the challenge virtually anytime they want, as long as the elite 4 challenged agree. However, this still made the two couple squint their eyes before Hana made the first remark.
"With only dark types? That's quite bold, I say you're bound to lose, maybe you should have just waited for her retirement. That old bag became quite averse in Pokémon battling since Prof. Oak became a Professor, says her only rival has become weak."
Ben agreed with a nod, but Karen, as if not caring about probabilities, replied rather casually, ignoring the eager looks around her.
"Then I will fight her again, and again until I was able to land a victory against her, anyway, all of my team are Dark type Pokemons, or at least most of them... you two however, with no disrespect to the elite 4, can do just fine by challenging them even at this moment, are you sure you wanted to stay retired?"
Ben and Hana simultaneously sighed before Ben chuckled.
"You're the second person that implied that directly to us, which is quite surprisingly low relative to how many famous people we know, but you see, we've already grown tired of battles. People change, and we already have a son that would be quite sad if he were to get semi-abandoned because we let ourselves drown in our desire to fight."
Karen remained silent before laughing and finally standing up from her seat, which she of course took without even getting permission, and said.
"People change, indeed, even the Pokémon world dynamics changes too, for example, because of Hana's absence, some kid named Red from Pallet Town is the new taboo word for Team Rocket, apparently the dude foiled their plans several times already, which is odd because he's just, I don't know, 11 or 12."
Hana and Ben chuckled.
"That forehead man still didn't recover from the ass beating I handed to his little syndicate?"
Karen looked back, her rather carefree attitude gone.
"He already did, but somehow, he does look a little distracted..."
Hana and Ben didn't say anything anymore and let Karen make their place her autograph booth; however, they did recall some news they received not too long ago.
_Viridian City Gym became indefinitely closed... and a few months later, the first accident of Team Rocket's reemergence happened in Mt. Moon..._
______________
The next days of the first week of Anthony internship is mostly uneventful, testing the mental waves of psychic types, the weight of fighting types and more while also listening to the lecture of the researchers, also, they were given lessons to do the most common and relatively basic analytical chemistry methods: Gravimetry and Titration, the former is used to measure things like poison concentration, in fact it is mostly used by trainers for such purposed while titration is used more for a crude check up for the Pokemon as it detects acidity or basicity of a substance.
_As far as I can remember, this is the experimental or quasi-experimental subject of Melissa. Does that mean I will experience assisting a researcher in floating her questionnaire?_
Anthony, however, shook his head.
_It must be voluntary... which I will take upon myself as I want to gauge how hard it is in this world._
While Anthony and the other interns put on their protective equipment, destroying their masks and rubber gloves while putting their labgowns with embroidered names of their owners in a big basket to be put in the washer, he was thinking of such thoughts.
"It's surprisingly easy."
Mary sighed, one of the people who have background in analytical chemistry while walking with Edward and Anthony, the two boys is quite average in their progress, of course relative to Mary who was able to do it in the first try, almost half of the interns is already capable of accurately giving results in their lab reports and were now given regular tasks to analyze simple to moderately complex molecule that came from the clinic section of the laboratory.
As the trio went out of the lab, they suddenly saw Melissa, who was actually absent from the lab for the past few days, carrying a briefcase that had a name that went: 'Sylph Co. Repeat balls, 500 pieces per briefcase'.
"Ugh... my 3 months' worth of stipend..."
The 3 interns heard the grieving voice of their teacher/senior and couldn't help but look at each other.
_That's a shit ton of money for one research._