Chapter 008

Nurse Joy then looked at me and said, "Sorry about that, guess my mind wandered off. You were asking me about my PIT. Well, 9 years ago when I took the test there were not nearly as many applicants as there are today. I applied to give the test at Viridian City where I grew up and managed to pass the first two tests. The first test was given on a computer in the examination centre. The questions were mostly multiple choice and fill in the blank type questions about basic Pokemon knowledge. The test lasts for one hour. The overall pass rate is always 10%. This is because only the top 10% are passed by the official PIT board every year. The others have to try and get a smaller sponsorship somewhere else, apply for a non-Pokemon job or simply try again next year. The second round for those who passed the first also takes place in local centres, but this time its a two-hour test with a few more complicated questions that require a paragraph long answer. This time, there is no fixed number that goes through, but you need to have a certain score on the test to pass the round. The average pas rate for this round is also 10%, but there have been a couple of years where it was as low as 6% and as high as 15%. The third round is much more complex with both theoretical and practical parts. It has a very high barrier for passing. I was eliminated in this round back when I attempted the PIT. There were a few academies I could go into, and as I was close to passing the third round I could have maybe done better if I waited a year to attempt it again, but since my dream was to become a Pokemon Doctor and I was eligible for a scholarship at the Nurse Joy Academy, I decided to join" said Nurse Joy. She looked over at me and said "You probably know the format of tests already given that it is public knowledge. I just like to ramble so don't mind me"

"Yes," I said, secretly thinking that this Nurse Joy was probably way too lonely. In bigger cities, the Pokemon Centers have several Nurse Joys who can take shifts while the others relax. But in smaller places like Hurik Town, only one Nurse Joy would be assigned. While they were allowed to hire assistants, these assistants would be locals with only a basic knowledge of healing Pokemon and nowhere near qualified to run the Pokemon Center. So the Nurse Joys in such places were forced to take massive shifts and be on call for emergencies all the time. They had little free time to themselves.

On the other hand, the purpose of the Joy clan in assigning Nurse Joy to remote places was to learn to handle pressure and form local connections. This Nurse Joy, for example, had a great relationship with the local Officer Jenny, the mayor, the Sheriff, which happens to be Roger and the few other retired trainers living here. Even though they might not be much compared to some others in larger towns and cities, they were connections that lasted for even and would prove useful if there was ever a need for the Joy clan.

The Jenny clan was also very similar to the Joy clan. They too were a matriarchal can that predates the alliance, and they were in charge of order in populated places. They adopted short blue hair as their standard hairstyle along with the police uniforms, and had a near-monopoly on the powerful and loyal Growlithe species. They too had an 'Officer Jenny Academy' for which they would recruit from the PIT.

Alex chatted with Nurse Joy for a few minutes about the PIT and some other random topics. He inquired about the evolution of Chansey and found out that it was far away from evolution. She could identify if a Chansey was ready for evolution by looking at it, as it was one of the courses she studied at the academy.

Alex theorized that the training tab in his cheat was for evolution, and that a 100% trained Pokemon was ready for evolution. He just had to see and scan a fully evolved Pokemon once to be sure.

He looked at the clock. The time was 5 30. He needed around 10 minutes to go back to Cherry Grove. Hence he had to leave soon if he was going to be back by the time of curfew.

"It's almost time for the curfew, Nurse Joy. So I will take your leave" said Alex, which she acknowledged. As he was preparing to head out, he heard a loud siren.

"That sounds like the raid shelter alarm. Why is it going off now?" wondered Alex.

The raid shelter alarm was a precautionary measure installed in all towns and cities which were in danger of being invaded by Pokemon. If the alarm sounds, that means a wild Pokemon group was probably attacking and civilians were advised to take shelter.

Nurse Joy quickly came out from behind the counter and joined me near the door.

A staff member of the center rushed out from inside and said, "Nurse Joy! I just talked with Officer Jenny and the Sheriff. We are advised to stay indoors now"

"Alright, " replied Nurse Joy, "but what happened?"

"It's the Zubat" he replied "For some reason they came early today"