Ding! Please Accept the Grass-type Champion Development System

As the alarm rang, Ye Lan groggily opened his eyes.

Feeling a sharp pain in his head, Ye Lan struggled in bed for a long while. In the end, even after giving one final heave, he still failed to get up.

I should've gone to sleep earlier last night instead of playing for so long...

Last night, Ye Lan had played Pokémon battles, torturing his opponents half to death with Substitute-Protect-Toxic tactics and obnoxious Whimsicott strategies. He had gotten so carried away that he stayed up until three in the morning.

Grass-type Pokémon really are the most obnoxious... cough, cough, the coolest Pokémon!

Just as he was thinking that, his mother's voice drifted up from downstairs. "Get up already, A-Lan! We still have to go pick out your starter Pokémon later!"

Having finally managed to sit up in bed, Ye Lan froze. What starter Pokémon? The third year of high school would begin in a few days. Shouldn't today have been for catching up on his summer homework?

Just then, his phone suddenly chimed with a message notification.

Picking it up, he saw that it was Chen Yang, his childhood friend, urging him along.

"Ye Lan, are you ready? Don't tell me you're still in bed? Have you decided yet? How about we both pick Fire-type Pokémon? They're so cool!"

He hurriedly got up and looked down from the window, only to see Chen Yang and his parents waiting downstairs.

Yet Ye Lan was still utterly bewildered. What starter Pokémon? What Fire-type Pokémon? Was he still not awake?

He went to the sink and splashed cold water on his face, but the stabbing pain in his head returned.

Leaning against the wall, he rested for a while before finally recovering his senses.

"So that's how it is... I'm still Ye Lan..."

A flood of memories rushed into his mind. After sorting through them, Ye Lan understood that he had arrived in a world where humans and Pokémon coexisted harmoniously.

And the place he was in was the Huaxia Region, one of the Pokémon League's ten major regions!

Unlike in the games, however, the Pokémon League had long ago enacted a law allowing people to own starter Pokémon and set out on their journeys only after turning sixteen, in order to reduce trainer casualties.

Reality was not a game. Encountering a violent-tempered Pokémon could very well cost someone their life.

After all, not everyone had the physique of a Super Pallet Town native. Ash could take a Thunderbolt head-on, face down Legendary Pokémon directly, shake the soot off his body, and look like he was completely fine.

After battling through countless leagues and eventually winning the championship in the Alola Region, one look back was enough to leave anyone speechless. He had set out at ten, yet when he won the championship, he looked more like an eight-year-old!

In the Huaxia Region, high school students became eligible to obtain their first starter Pokémon during the summer before their final year, then formally began studying Pokémon-related knowledge once their final year started.

In fact, all students received basic Pokémon education from childhood. It simply was not systematic, and they only began comprehensive study after obtaining a Pokémon.

Mianzhou No. 1 High School, the school Ye Lan attended, was a key high school specifically dedicated to training Trainers.

The difference between key high schools and ordinary high schools was not merely the strength of their Trainer-training foundations. More importantly, it came down to tuition fees.

Raising Pokémon was not as simple as feeding them. The resources Pokémon required and the costs of training were the most practical barriers standing before many ordinary people.

For example, tuition for a single year of third year at Mianzhou No. 1 High School ranged from three hundred thousand to four hundred thousand, not including the cost of buying a Pokémon or registering as a Trainer.

Ye Lan looked around his familiar room. Fortunately, nothing else had changed. Pokémon had merely become part of this world, while his familiar friends and parents were still by his side.

Just as Ye Lan was feeling sentimental, his mother's furious roar came from outside his room again.

"Ye Lan! If you don't roll out of bed right now, your starter Pokémon will be a Caterpie!"

What? Starting out with Rayquaza?! Ye Lan hurriedly shook his head. No, no, no! That was way beyond what he could handle!

After quickly getting himself ready, Ye Lan rushed downstairs, wolfed down a few bites of breakfast, and the two families headed for Pokémon House.

Pokémon House was an official League establishment that sold Pokémon and Pokémon Eggs.

Of course, there were also many privately owned Pokémon shops to choose from, though their prices were considerably higher than Pokémon House's.

Still, many well-off families chose private Pokémon shops, because paying a premium allowed them to reserve high-potential or exceptionally rare Pokémon.

After all, who would not want to start with a powerful and rare Pokémon?

Ye Lan kept thinking about this on the way to Pokémon House.

His family was not well-off. His parents had already sacrificed a great deal to support his dream of becoming a Trainer, and they would still have to pay an enormous tuition fee once school began.

On top of that, registering as a Junior Trainer required paying taxes for five consecutive years.

After deducting those expenses, the family's daily living costs, and the cost of Pokémon food and the like, whatever remained was the money Ye Lan could use to buy a Pokémon.

Taking all that into account, Grass-type Pokémon became Ye Lan's first choice.

Setting aside the starter Pokémon, there were also many outstanding Grass-type Pokémon suitable for ordinary families.

Breloom, a Grass/Fighting type; Sunkern with the Solar Power Ability; the incredibly fast Whimsicott; and Ferrothorn, with nine resistances and one immunity, were all excellent choices.

However, Breloom's Fighting type and Whimsicott's Fairy type meant neither would be cheap. Sunkern was weak in the early stages, while evolving it into Sunflora later required a Sun Stone, which was another expense.

Ye Lan's mouth suddenly twitched. Could he only choose a tanky Pokémon like Ferrothorn? And with its Steel type, it did not seem cheap either!

As he pondered this, they had already arrived at the entrance to Pokémon House.

Looking around, he saw quite a few parents leading their children inside, as well as many people leaving while carrying Pokémon Eggs.

There were three high schools in Mianzhou. Mianzhou No. 1 High School primarily trained Trainers, No. 2 High School leaned toward Breeders, while No. 3 High School was not among the key high schools.

It was currently the peak season for buying Pokémon, so this scene was perfectly normal.

When the guide reserved by the two families arrived, Chen Yang and Ye Lan split up to choose their Pokémon separately.

Just as the guide Ye Lan's parents had reserved was about to say something, Ye Lan's voice rang out from beside him.

"Please take us to the Grass-type Pokémon section."

The guide, Xiao Zhang, froze. Boys usually liked Fire-type or Steel-type Pokémon, right? Or powerful Dragon-type Pokémon, though Pokémon House did not have those. Then he seemed to realize something and secretly sighed. This high school student named Ye Lan was truly sensible.

Ye Lan's parents exchanged a glance before turning to look at him.

"A-Lan, your father and I still have some savings. Besides, your starter Pokémon will affect your battle results on the college entrance examination..."

Hearing his father say that left Ye Lan somewhat dumbfounded, even though he had already prepared what he wanted to say.

"Dad, what are you thinking? I just personally like Grass-type Pokémon more."

Why did people instinctively associate Grass types with being easy to raise, cheap, and weak whenever they were mentioned? Though there was some truth to that, and even Ye Lan himself had initially thought the same.

But on the way here, Ye Lan had already figured it out. He had always believed in Grass-type Pokémon the most!

True, Grass types were not as well-rounded as Steel types. They had five weaknesses and four resistances; they lacked the unpredictability of Ghost types; and they did not have Fairy types' dominance over powerful Dragon types.

Even though Grass types did not have a single pseudo-Legendary Pokémon, in Ye Lan's heart, Grass-type Pokémon had always been the coolest Pokémon!

Giovanni could train even a Beedrill with a base stat total of 395 to stand up to Legendary Pokémon head-on. Why could he, with so many outstanding Grass-type Pokémon to choose from, not do the same?

There were no weak Pokémon, only trash Trainers! He, Ye Lan, would use an all-Grass-type team and stand upon the Champion's stage!

He would raise the price of Grass-type Pokémon through battle!

Ding! Congratulations, Host, on successfully activating the Grass-type Champion Development System!