"Poliwag, get ready. If the capture fails, rush in and use Chain Slap..."
"Yoh," Poliwag nodded lightly, staring intently at the Poké Ball on the grass as it flashed red and rocked unsteadily.
Bang—
The instant the Poké Ball opened, Poliwag charged forward, swung its tail, and smacked the bewildered Caterpie.
Slap slap slap, slap slap—
Before Caterpie could even react, Poliwag's barrage of hard slaps knocked it unconscious.
Yu Hai picked up the Poké Ball from the failed capture and threw it at the unconscious Caterpie again.
The earlier failure was most likely because Caterpie had not been unconscious.
He refused to believe the capture would fail again this time.
Astonishing jumping power, astonishingly high HP, resistance to Poliwag's Hypnosis, and even the ability to break free from a Poké Ball.
This Caterpie really knew how to surprise people. Four shocking traits had all appeared in one Caterpie, making him deeply curious about what kind of Caterpie it would turn out to be.
The Poké Ball flashed red and shook several times. Then, with a thunk, it finally fell still.
That thunk also told Yu Hai that Caterpie had been successfully captured.
He hurried over, picked up the Poké Ball from the ground, and opened Caterpie's Proficiency Panel.
[Caterpie] [Type: Bug] [Gender: Female] [Potential: 58%] [Level: 4.14%] [Ability: Scale Powder/0.71%][Hidden Ability: Run Away/2.23%] [Mastered Moves: (Confusion/0.54%)(Body Slam/0.61%)(String Shot/3.25%)]
"Holy shit, fifty... fifty-eight Potential, and Confusion too? Th-this..."
After looking over Caterpie's Proficiency Panel, Yu Hai was completely stunned.
This Caterpie's Proficiency Panel was not particularly impressive, but its fifty-eight Potential still shocked him.
This was the Pokémon with the highest Potential he had encountered so far. It even had Confusion as an Egg Move. That was simply insane.
Confusion was a foundational Psychic-type move. As long as a Pokémon knew Confusion, learning other Psychic-type moves would become much easier.
He had also found the reason Caterpie could jump so far. It had probably used Confusion to enhance itself. Its resistance to Hypnosis, much stronger than that of other Caterpie, was also because of Confusion.
Its high HP, its ability to break free from a Poké Ball, and all those other astonishing traits were likewise due to Confusion.
Although this Caterpie had not reached the Potential of sixty or above that he had set as his standard, it was already very close.
But after blurting out that curse and getting over his shock, Yu Hai calmed down. He gripped the Poké Ball tightly and looked around, only relaxing inwardly after finding nothing suspicious.
He was being so cautious not because he feared someone discovering that Caterpie knew Confusion, but because he wanted to see whether this Caterpie had Butterfree parents.
How could such an outrageous Caterpie possibly appear alone? He was not being overly suspicious. Just think about how mother dogs reacted after giving birth, and you would understand what truly protective parenting was.
Unfamiliar Two-legged Beasts were not allowed to touch their pups. They were not even allowed to get close, or they would get bitten. He had been bitten before.
Yu Hai looked around for a long while and found no Butterfree trying to ambush him. Only then did he truly breathe a sigh of relief.
There were currently two possibilities. The first was that Caterpie had wandered off alone to play.
The second was that Caterpie had no parents and had been alone ever since hatching.
Compared to the first possibility, he preferred the second.
There was no other reason. If this Caterpie had Butterfree parents, then one of them had to be an Elite-class Butterfree.
Without parents above level sixty, it would be impossible to produce a Caterpie with fifty-eight Potential.
Based on his earlier estimate, above eighty meant Champion, so Elite Four should mean above sixty.
If that was the case, there should be many ordinary Elite Four members. As for top-tier Elite Four Trainers who could touch the threshold of Champion, he had only known of a few in his previous life. True Champions were even rarer.
Looking down at the Poké Ball in his hand, he knew that if he raised this Caterpie properly, it could take him to the throne of the Elite Four. It would be a lie to say he was not tempted.
But he had only just established his rule, and now he was about to break it himself. It felt a little like deceiving himself, leaving him guilty and uncomfortable all over.
Someone might point at his back and curse him for being shameless.
Back when he could not get one and could only drool over the idea, he had dreamed of Pseudo-Legendaries and Starters. Now that he had this sweet little Caterpie, he no longer wanted a Starter. He really was scum.
Ahem, well... he needed to think it over carefully. There was no need to make a decision right away. He still needed to continue improving the shelter.
"Yoh yoh?" Seeing Yu Hai excited one moment, wary the next, then happy, then wiping sweat, then looking guilty, Poliwag could not understand him at all. Humans really were complicated.
"Alright, Poliwag. I still have work to do. Go soak by yourself..."
As if he had a guilty conscience, Yu Hai shrank the Poké Ball and slipped it into his pocket as though nothing had happened. He returned to the tree hollow and picked up the protruding trunk pieces that had been knocked down by Water Gun.
He would nail these fragments from the top of the hollow back onto its ceiling, using them to disguise the fallen trunk and restore the irregular break where it had snapped.
Next, he climbed the ladder again and used the frying pan to hammer in the nails. Once all the trunk fragments had been secured, the initial camouflage was complete.
Then he went to the campfire and brought some fire into the tree hollow, letting the small flames dry the damp walls and ground.
After finishing all that, he still needed to further camouflage the trunk by finding some woody vines similar to ivy nearby.
He would transplant their roots into the corner beside the trunk. Once the plants grew and covered the entire trunk, the camouflage would truly be perfect.
To make the disguise more convincing, he did not plan to move the massive fallen trunk by the shore. He would just wait for the leaves on it to wither naturally.
If there were only a tree trunk base here but no fallen trunk or canopy, anyone would know something was wrong without needing to think about it.
Even if nobody thought that way, it was still better for him to be cautious.
So that he could move into his new home sooner, he took an empty bucket to the beach, carried back sea sand, and used it to level the uneven ground inside the tree hollow.
He did not lay it too thick, since that would take too much effort. He only needed a thin layer of dry sea sand to keep out the moisture.
He also used his Folding Knife to shave down some roots that stuck up too high.
After leveling the ground with sea sand, Yu Hai left the tree hollow. Seeing the sun about to sink into the sea, he called Poliwag over to catch dinner.
"Poliwag, let's go catch dinner..."
He did not plan to eat the Caterpie in the Poké Ball. Although it had not met the capture standards he had set before, the meaning of capturing it still outweighed the meaning of eating it.
"Yoh yoh?" Poliwag floated belly-up in the bucket, thoroughly confused.
Hadn't they caught a Caterpie already? Why did they need to catch more?
"Why aren't you following?" When Poliwag still had not come over, Yu Hai turned back and urged it. He had no idea what Poliwag was confused about...
He had heard that whether a recommendation advanced depended on yesterday's follow-up reading. I want follow-up reading... Thank you to reader 2021020920375215732960 for the five hundred Book Coins [Uh, friend, have you considered changing your name?]. Thank you to Ruihu 2 for the hundred Book Coins, and thank you all for so many votes... I want follow-up reading, I want follow-up reading. It's really important. If this trial run advances, I'll owe everyone two bonus chapters. Once it goes premium, I'll also...
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