Choosing Each Other

"System, what exactly does this evolution progress mean?"

[Ding! Evolution progress is the degree to which a Pokémon can evolve perfectly. The closer it is to one hundred percent, the better the evolution results and the greater the improvement after evolving.]

Seeing the message pop up from the system, Ye Lan's eyes lit up, though he also marveled at his own good fortune.

Luckily, he had chosen to upgrade the scouting function. Otherwise, according to Ye Lan's original training plan, he might have arranged for Snivy to evolve at around eighty percent, wasting much of Snivy's potential for nothing.

"Snivy..."

Looking at her Trainer, who was basking in a self-satisfied "as expected of me" expression, Snivy wore a look of utter disdain, her eyes practically rolling into the heavens. (Fun fact: Snivy's sclera was brown, so there was technically no such thing as a white-eyed glare.)

Her Trainer was only calm and reliable—and rather cool—when training moves or battling. Usually, he was not only lazy, but occasionally acted strangely as well. It really did not suit her temperament.

Now that evolution progress was displayed as a stat, Ye Lan could clearly determine Snivy's best time to evolve. He immediately felt much more at ease.

When he arrived at the school warehouse counter, Old Zhang, who managed the warehouse, was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, leisurely sipping hot tea as he swayed back and forth.

Seeing Ye Lan approach, Old Zhang showed no particular expression and merely called out, "What's the number?"

"2568."

Only after Ye Lan gave the number the principal had informed him of in advance did Old Zhang slowly rise and retrieve a palm-sized iron box from the room behind him.

As Ye Lan picked up the unremarkable box before him, he could not shake the feeling that he had been scammed. He slowly opened the lid, revealing a green gemstone inside the iron box.

The gemstone was entirely green and roughly shaped like a leaf. Though its color was dull, the Grass-type energy it emitted still made Snivy beside him unable to resist looking toward the box in Ye Lan's hand.

It was actually a low-quality Leaf Stone!

Although a Leaf Stone of this quality would have poor results when used to evolve certain Pokémon, it was perfectly suitable for letting Snivy absorb its energy and prepare for her future evolution.

Handing the Leaf Stone to Snivy, Ye Lan was fairly satisfied with the reward.

Although this Leaf Stone might not have been worth as much as the Protect move disc from before, it could effectively speed up Snivy's evolution.

After checking the time, Ye Lan nodded in thanks to Old Zhang and headed to the training grounds with Snivy, ready to continue training.

Today's assessment had ended, and all twenty spots in the elite class had been assigned.

Once the results were fully announced, some were delighted while others were disappointed. Ye Lan's childhood friend, Chen Yang, had unexpectedly failed to earn a place in the elite class.

Seeing Ye Lan approaching from afar, Chen Yang pulled a long face and complained, "Ye Lan, why am I so unlucky? Getting crushed after being grouped with Lin Yan in the first round was bad enough, but then I ran into a Butterfree that knew Confusion in the second round!"

Hearing Chen Yang's description, Ye Lan could not help picturing the Butterfree that had used psychic power to avoid Snivy's attacks.

That Butterfree had indeed been quite strong. If it had not encountered Ye Lan, it could even have achieved a respectable ranking in the top-ten placement matches.

"If your Charmander had Lin Yan's Charmander's strength, you definitely would've won. How about I introduce you to him so you can become Lin Yan's apprentice?"

Ye Lan looked at Chen Yang teasingly. He had only meant it as a joke, but when he saw Chen Yang actually considering whether it was feasible, he hurriedly said he needed to train and ran toward an empty training field.

He knew his childhood friend's personality all too well. If Chen Yang trained at Lin Yan's intensity, Ye Lan would drink gasoline and perform Flamethrower if he lasted three days!

He arrived at a training field in the farthest corner, the place Ye Lan used most often.

Perhaps because Ye Lan had trained in the same place for so long, the other students generally left this field empty. As long as there was somewhere else to train, they would not come to this area.

Ye Lan and Lin Yan had already been very popular among the seniors. Coupled with their results in this assessment, even those who had not known much about them had become familiar with them.

With younger students watching the matches as well, Ye Lan and Lin Yan had even become the two sharpest swords Mianzhou No. 1 High School had for the provincial tournament in the eyes of the entire school.

Watching Snivy use her moves fluidly again and again, Ye Lan's own enthusiasm was stirred up as well, and he began physical training and ball-throwing practice.

After Snivy had trained her moves according to Ye Lan's plan for a week, she could already train on her own according to the routine. She would even adjust bad habits in her moves based on shortcomings revealed in recent battles.

Though Snivy was proud by nature, she had always maintained the attitude that if she could do something perfectly, then she would do it perfectly when it came to training and battle.

That was the creed Snivy had always lived by.

Ye Lan had once told her that if she wanted to remain proud, she had to keep defeating every opponent. She could not stop, nor could she lose. Only then would she have the right to be proud; otherwise, she would merely be fooling herself.

As time passed, the number of people on the training grounds gradually dwindled, and Ye Lan noticed that this training session felt different from the previous ones.

For some reason, whenever he trained moves alongside Snivy, he felt a sense of seamless understanding unlike before.

It was as though they were not two separate individuals, but closely linked together. Their senses were synchronized, and one session of training seemed to have the effect of two, while the flow of their moves improved considerably as well.

During the earlier battles, Ye Lan had been too focused to notice that after gaining the ability "Grass-type Pokémon Affinity.LV.1," communication between him and Snivy had become far smoother.

Before Ye Lan's commands could even leave his mouth, the moment an idea surfaced in his mind, Snivy could react swiftly and deliver the strongest possible counterattack for the situation.

"Looks like this new ability needs to be my top priority for improvement too."

As he considered it, Ye Lan understood that this ability called "Grass-type Pokémon Affinity" was not as simple as its name suggested.

Perhaps the Grass-type Pokémon he caught in the future could produce the same effect as well.

Ye Lan had once worried that specializing in a single type would make him easy to target and counter, and that his tactics would not be as flexible or varied as those of Trainers who did not follow a specialization route.

After all, even the champions of each type did not have teams made entirely of one type of Pokémon, while Ye Lan had no choice but to do so because of the system's restrictions.

Take Lance, the Dragon-type champion of the Kanto Region. Born into a Dragon-type family, he also had plenty of Flying-type Pokémon on hand and was jokingly nicknamed "Dodrio" by countless fans.

Now that Ye Lan had gradually seen the system's powerful abilities, he no longer had so many concerns holding him back.

Before, he had only possessed a goal. Now, he possessed confidence as well.

Beneath the setting sun of dusk, Ye Lan headed home with Snivy.

Along the way, Ye Lan stroked Snivy's little head and asked softly, "You started training right after the match. Was today's workload too much? Are you tired? You'll have to keep it up tomorrow too."

"Snivy~"

Snivy turned her head away and said nothing.

Even if Ye Lan had not said it, she would definitely keep working hard.

What Ye Lan had never known was that some exceptionally gifted Pokémon could faintly sense things outside their eggs even while they were still inside them.

Though everything had been vague, Snivy had still felt countless looks of disdain. For a time, she had even believed that no Trainer would choose her.

Then Ye Lan appeared, carrying such pure affection and passionate joy that Snivy had wanted to break free of her shell immediately to meet him.

From the very beginning, they had chosen each other.

When Snivy first opened her eyes after emerging from her egg, she immediately turned her head away again.

Ye Lan had always assumed that it was simply Snivy's natural personality, but in truth, Ye Lan's gentle gaze had been too scorching for Snivy to meet his eyes.

At that moment, Snivy swore that she would keep winning.

She would become strong enough that even when facing that emerald legendary dragon, she would have the courage to fight it.

She would take Ye Lan and climb toward the very highest peak!