Judging Pokémon by Their Looks

Ye Lan's mouth twitched at the sight.

Don't tell me Ludicolo was planning to give me a Magikarp before I left?

Though Gyarados was indeed impressive, he couldn't catch one anyway!

Just like that, Ye Lan waited there for over half an hour. Just as he thought Ludicolo had forgotten about him and was preparing to leave, Ludicolo broke through the surface once more and appeared before him.

"Puh-rururu~"

Seeing that Ludicolo was reluctant to part with it but still held out the stone in its hand to him, Ye Lan admitted that he was truly moved.

"I'm such a terrible person. I actually judged Pokémon by their appearance, boohoo!"

Ye Lan's tearful, snotty display suddenly put Servine on guard.

A snake's sixth sense had always been accurate.

It had the strange feeling that Ye Lan had nearly not become its Trainer!

The sentence sounded rather convoluted, but Servine firmly believed it!

Thus, Servine regarded Ludicolo with a hint of wariness and edged even closer to Ye Lan.

"Are you really giving this to me?"

"Puh-rururu~"

Seeing Ludicolo puff out its chest in assurance, Ye Lan was even more touched.

There was no other reason—the stone in Ludicolo's hand was an exceptionally high-quality Water Stone!

Compared to the luster of this Water Stone, the one the principal had given him was practically garbage!

Ye Lan had originally wondered how there could be a wild Ludicolo. After all, Lombre needed the aid of a Water Stone to evolve into Ludicolo.

In Ye Lan's imagination, this Ludicolo might have been an abandoned Pokémon. He had never expected it to have encountered such a fortunate opportunity on its own.

"Aren't you going to save it for your tribe?"

The quality of this Water Stone was far superior to the one the principal had rewarded him with. Its market price had to be around 2.5 million.

If it were used to buy the ingredients Ye Lan had treated them to yesterday, it would take truckloads upon truckloads to haul them.

"Puh-rururu, puh-rururu~" Ludicolo shook its head, indicating that they had plenty of stones like this and that Ye Lan did not need to worry.

Hearing that, Ye Lan once again felt the innocence of Pokémon.

This Ludicolo tribe had clearly discovered a Water Stone vein. They could obtain Water Stones steadily, yet they had given him the finest one among them.

"I'll accept your gift, but you have to promise me that you won't tell other humans about the many Water Stones you have. Many of them are greedy."

Ye Lan patted Ludicolo on the head, put the Water Stone into his backpack, gave it a few more reminders, and then headed toward the outskirts of the wilderness area with Servine.

"Ludicolo was so busy nodding that I don't even know whether it understood."

An Evolution Stone vein was like a hen that laid golden eggs. The wealth it could bring was beyond imagination.

Yet Ye Lan had no desire to covet it.

On one hand, he did not want to disturb the peaceful lives of these little guys. On the other, this was not something his current strength could hold onto.

This was a resource that even Gym-level Trainers could not control. Perhaps only someone at the Champion level could truly keep it in their grasp.

"I didn't expect Ludicolo to be so cute either. Servine, what do you think about catching a Lotad to be our partner someday?"

"Servine!"

"Huh? Why not? You don't like Lotad?"

"Servine, Servine!"

No meant no. Why did he need so many reasons?

Servine turned its head away and ignored the bewildered Ye Lan.

"Hey, little brother, wait up!"

Hearing a voice from behind him, Ye Lan saw a middle-aged man running toward him while carrying a white, round Pokémon in his arms.

"Hello, little brother. I'm a ranger in charge of the eastern part of Qinghe Wilderness Area. My surname is Lei."

Uncle Lei spoke as he reached out to shake Ye Lan's hand. Although Ye Lan had no idea what was going on, he politely shook it.

"Hello, Uncle Lei. My name is Ye Lan, and I'm a senior high school student. May I ask what you need me for?" Ye Lan sounded rather uneasy as he spoke.

Could his actions last night have affected the Pokémon's normal lives? The wilderness area regulations hadn't said anything about not feeding Pokémon...

Seeing Ye Lan's slightly restrained expression, Uncle Lei laughed heartily and raised the Pokémon in his arms. "Little Ye, do you recognize the Pokémon I'm holding?"

"This is... a Cottonee?"

In Uncle Lei's hands, the white, marshmallow-like Pokémon stared unblinkingly at Ye Lan. When it saw Ye Lan looking over, its little green leaf-like hands even waved at him.

"Cott—" The moment it made a sound, it hurriedly covered its mouth with both hands, afraid that it would make another noise.

"Hahaha, you really do recognize it, little brother. This Cottonee isn't my Pokémon. I've simply gotten to know it over time because I've been stationed in the forest for so long."

"I wonder if you'd be willing to catch it, Little Ye? To be honest, this little one took a liking to you the moment you entered the wilderness area. When it saw that you were leaving today, I brought it along to catch up with you."

Yet Ye Lan was no longer listening to what Uncle Lei was saying. Cottonee's information had already appeared before his eyes:

Name: Cottonee

Gender: Female

Type: Grass/Fairy

Ability: Prankster. Effect: Priority of status moves +1 (for example: Protect, Substitute, Charm, etc.)

Known moves: Leech Seed, Charm, Cotton Spore, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Razor Leaf

Egg moves: Worry Seed, Nature Power, Fake Tears

Rank: Early Intermediate

Evolution progress: 52%

"What an amazing movepool. It needs to learn all of these moves!"

If Ye Lan had to use one word to describe the moves Cottonee knew, it would be dirty. They were downright filthy!

Cottonee's evolution, Whimsicott, had been nicknamed "Disgusting Cotton" by players in his previous life's games.

All kinds of status moves paired with the Ability Prankster were already incredibly annoying, and even more terrifyingly, it possessed the precious Fairy type.

At a time when over half of the pseudo-legendaries were Dragon-types, its existence was all the more rare and valuable.

However, reality was not a game. Fairy-types had extremely strong resistance to Dragon-type moves, but when the gap in strength was too great, they could not achieve complete immunity.

This Cottonee fit Ye Lan's planned team composition very well. However, Fairy-type Pokémon were generally precious, and this ranger whom he had only just met wanted to give one to him so readily, making it hard not to overthink things.

Uncle Lei noticed Ye Lan's silence and seemed to guess what he was thinking. Smiling, he said, "I'm getting old. I don't have that fire in me anymore, and I enjoy being a ranger."

"Besides, this little one isn't my Pokémon. Since it likes you so much, I think it can't be wrong to let it go with you."

As he spoke, Uncle Lei looked at Servine beside them and continued, "You can raise a starter Pokémon this well, so I trust your family circumstances are good too. This little one won't suffer if it follows you."

"Uh..." Hearing that, Servine and Ye Lan exchanged a glance, and the atmosphere became rather awkward.

Since Uncle Lei had put it that way, Ye Lan did not refuse any longer. He crouched down and looked at Cottonee.

"Little one, are you really willing to come with me? Let's make this clear first: if you leave with me, it'll be tough. You'll need to train and battle too."

Ye Lan was very satisfied with this Cottonee, but if it was a Pokémon that could not accept training and battling, he would understand and respect that.

Wild Pokémon were different from Pokémon Eggs. Influenced by their environment, some Pokémon became afraid of fighting.

If that were the case, Ye Lan could only give up.