System Shop

Roy looked at his Popularity Points, which had gone up by another 100. He had not expected them to increase just from having a meal. Not bad, not bad.

It seemed the system's Popularity Points did not refer solely to Ghost-type Pokémon. Ghost-type Trainers counted too.

After finishing the ice cream cone in his hand, Roy took another stroll around the academy's clubs. Most of them were baby Pokémon clubs, each aimed at Pokémon of various types.

Yet there was not a single Ghost-type club.

There was even a Steven Fan Club.

What the hell was that? Did Steven know about it?

Roy felt those clubs were of no use to him at this stage. Maybe someday he could establish a Ghost Fan Club or a Roy Fan Club to raise his Popularity Points?

He returned to the quiet back mountain, pushed open the door to his rundown dorm room, and after making sure no one was around, eagerly opened his System Panel.

[Congratulations, Host. You have accumulated 1,000 Popularity Points. The shop function is now unlocked.]

His Popularity Points had surpassed the 500-point mark and reached 1,000. The System Shop had finally been unlocked, and Roy could not wait to see what it could offer him.

The System Shop button had changed from gray to green.

A total of five items appeared neatly before Roy.

They were:

1. Item: [Reaper Cloth]

Exchange Cost: 10,000

Effect: A cloth infused with astonishingly powerful spiritual energy. Certain Pokémon like it very much.

2. Item: [Dusk Stone]

Quality: High

Exchange Cost: 15,000

Effect: A peculiar stone that could evolve certain Pokémon. As black as the night.

3. Item: [King's Rock]

Quality: Medium

Exchange Cost: 10,000

Effect: When held by a Pokémon, opponents that took damage could sometimes flinch.

4. Item: [Eviolite]

Exchange Cost: 8,000

Effect: If the Pokémon holding this item was capable of evolving, its Defense and Special Defense would increase by 50%.

5. Technical Machine: [Rest]

Exchange Cost: 2,000 Popularity Points

Effect: Rest restored all of the user's HP. Rest put the target into a sleeping state.

Roy looked at the five products in the System Shop.

There were actually two Pokémon items, two items required for Pokémon evolution, and one Technical Machine.

Three of the five items were useful to him at his current stage. Not bad.

The shop seemed pretty useful after all.

At the very bottom of the System Shop was also a refresh button. Refreshing the shop required 100 Popularity Points.

What a rip-off!

He only had 1,000 Popularity Points in total. One refresh would cost a tenth of them.

Damn system! Damn shady merchant! Damn...

Too tired from cursing, Roy stopped dwelling on the refresh issue.

He began analyzing the use of each item one by one.

Starting with the first item, the Reaper Cloth.

Roy did not actually plan to exchange for that scrap of black cloth, even though the Reaper Cloth could evolve his Dusclops into Dusknoir.

After evolving, Dusknoir's base stat total would reach 525, not much weaker than a Starter Pokémon's.

But Roy knew that the 70 base stats Dusclops gained after evolving were all useless stats.

For example, +5 to both defenses, +5 HP, and +20 Speed. It could be said that they were completely meaningless.

The extra 30 Attack would bring Dusknoir's physical Attack to 100.

But what could it do with 100 physical Attack? Was Dusknoir supposed to brawl face-to-face with opponents?

Ghost-type Pokémon did not have many same-type moves on the physical side to begin with.

The extra 20 Speed was practically a pure negative improvement for Dusknoir.

All things considered, Roy immediately gave up on the Reaper Cloth.

Because the System Shop had a Pokémon item that suited Dusknoir even better.

It was the Eviolite in the middle of the shop. Eviolite did not have different quality grades. It could raise both defenses of an unevolved Pokémon by 50%.

In Roy's eyes, the Reaper Cloth was not even worth a fraction of an Eviolite.

Or rather, Dusknoir's greatest purpose was allowing Dusclops to hold an Eviolite.

Dusclops already had base Defense and Special Defense of 130. With Eviolite's boost, both would rise another 50% to 195, nearing the 200-point threshold.

By then, Dusknoir's total base stats would reach 585, surpassing Starter Pokémon and falling only below pseudo-legendaries. Even some Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution did not have base stats that high.

Of course, it should not go head-to-head with Dark-type Pokémon that knew Knock Off. After all, Dusclops only had 40 base HP.

According to Roy's plan, Dusknoir, the evolved form of Duskull, would serve as a support on a Trick Room team in the future. After setting up Trick Room and reversing its Speed, it would specialize in making people miserable.

With its absurdly high dual defenses, plus Pain Split, Disable, Will-O-Wisp, Curse, Substitute, Poltergeist... those moves...

Just try playing against it. You would be left speechless every time.

And this was not even a game. Pokémon were not restricted to only four moves. It was practically invincible.

Still, despite his thoughts, Roy asked Duskull for its opinion.

"Dusk."

Duskull, which had been lying motionless on the windowsill of the shabby little room, was suddenly called out by Roy.

Did it want to become a warrior?

Or an ultimate invincible freeloader tank-support?

Duskull's already tiny head turned 0.1 degrees.

Was that even a question?

The second title Roy mentioned was obviously longer than the first, so it chose the ultimate invincible freeloader.

Roy understood his Duskull's personality too. If it could lie down, it would never sit; if it could sit, it would never stand. Forget about making it a warrior.

He would not consider the King's Rock for now either. It required too many Popularity Points, and its quality was only medium.

The Dusk Stone was required for Lampent to evolve into Chandelure, and it was even high quality. However, when he left Mt. Pyre, Gengar had already given him a perfect-quality Dusk Stone.

Besides, he had no idea when he would save up 15,000 Popularity Points, so he would not consider it for now either.

The final item was the Technical Machine for Rest. It put a Pokémon to sleep and restored all its HP.

Roy wanted that one too. He could keep it for Duskull, expanding its move pool and improving its margin for error.

It was a pity there was no Technical Machine for Sleep Talk. Otherwise, the two could work together. He could only see whether the shop refresh would bring one later.

Roy's final decision was to save Popularity Points for the Rest Technical Machine and the Eviolite first. Together, they would cost 10,000 Popularity Points.

Unfortunately, he had far too few points right now. He only had 1,000 in total and still needed 9,000 more to exchange for the Eviolite.

Most of his current Popularity Points had come from helping Officer Jenny catch poachers in Lilycove City and from the number of people at the battle arena that afternoon.

There had been several hundred people at the battle arena that afternoon. If there had been even more, his Popularity Points might have exceeded a thousand.

So tomorrow, could he...

Roy grinned wickedly as he watched Duskull wandering around the room and Litwick pretending to be a desk lamp.

Tomorrow would depend on you two, my little darlings!

Duskull and Litwick somehow felt a chill run through them from Roy's gaze. Even as Ghost-type Pokémon, they could not help shuddering. What the hell could be more creepy than the two of them?

At the same time, a chubby figure appeared in Roy's mind.