System

After leaving the League Shop, Roy brought his Pokémon to an open area at the foot of Mt. Pyre.

"Litwick, Duskull, here we go!"

"Lit."

"Dusk."

Roy held a Poké Ball, red on one side and white on the other—the most traditional standard Poké Ball. Better Poké Balls naturally cost more.

For example, a Luxury Ball cost 5,000, and had more space inside.

It was not that Roy did not want to get Luxury Balls for them, but the League Shop below Mt. Pyre only had standard Poké Balls for the time being.

Roy threw the two Poké Balls, striking Litwick and Duskull respectively.

A flash of red light drew Litwick and Duskull into their respective Poké Balls. The floating balls fell to the ground, shook three times, and then became still.

Capture successful.

Roy copied Ash from his previous life, raising the Poké Ball in his left hand high overhead.

"I caught a Pokémon!"

Hiss...

It felt a little cringe, but also pretty great.

He was someone with Pokémon now, right?

If Pheobe was only six years old in this life, then Ash, who should have been around the same age as her, was probably only five or six.

Maybe he was somewhere in Pallet Town right now, playing in the mud.

With that thought, Roy clenched the Poké Ball in his hand. Aunt Delia, wait for me! Lorelei, wait for me!

Pokémon World! Here I come!

[Congratulations, Host, on obtaining your first Pokémon. System binding in progress: 1%... 10%...]

Suddenly, a mechanical voice rang out in Roy's mind.

A system!

Roy froze.

When he had first transmigrated, it was not as though he had never dreamed of getting some sort of cheat, marrying a rich beauty, and reaching the pinnacle of life.

But after two years of waiting, nothing had happened. That made him settle on staying at Mt. Pyre. It was a little boring here, but at least his safety was guaranteed.

This damn system had only shown up now. At first, Roy had thought he would be like other transmigrators and receive a Rayquaza right from the start.

If he had known, he would have bought an unregistered Poké Ball on the black market and caught Litwick earlier, so he could have activated the system sooner.

While Roy was still fantasizing about riding Rayquaza to the top of the world, the system's progress bar reached 100%.

A ghostly purple light rose beneath Roy's feet and enveloped him.

Was he going to evolve too?

Litwick and Duskull stared blankly at Roy within the light. They had never heard of humans being able to evolve.

Once the light faded, Roy felt as though his body had not changed at all.

However, he could feel that his Ghost Power had grown considerably stronger.

With a thought from Roy, the ghostly purple energy appearing in his hand was far more solid than when he had fed Litwick and Duskull that morning.

For some reason, Litwick found that its Trainer suddenly smelled wonderful. Duskull, meanwhile, acted completely out of character and rubbed itself against Roy's clothes.

Roy shoved it away at once. Too ugly, rejected.

Sorry, we're not compatible.

Duskull: (¯(∞)¯)

So what exactly did this system do?

As if hearing Roy's thoughts, the mechanical voice rang out in his mind again.

[This is the Popularity System. Its purpose is to bring Popularity Points to the unpopular Ghost-type Pokémon.]

[The Host can gain Popularity Points by bringing popularity to Ghost-type Pokémon. Popularity Points can be exchanged for powerful items.]

Before Roy could ask anything, a translucent panel appeared before his eyes.

"Litwick, can you see a transparent panel?"

The flame atop Litwick's head swayed, indicating that it could not.

After watching Litwick and Duskull's reactions, Roy realized that he was apparently the only one who could see the panel.

Host: Roy
Ability: Ultimate Ghost Power (Beginner Lv. 1) [20,000 Popularity Points required to level up]

Pokémon: 2

[Appraisal Eye]

[Shop] (Locked. Can be opened after reaching 500 Fame.)

After listening to the introduction of his half-baked system, Roy thought about it for a while before understanding. Put simply, the system wanted him to make a name for Ghost-type Pokémon and earn Popularity Points.

He could use Popularity Points to exchange for items in the shop. Though he had no idea what kind of items they were, they should not be too bad... right?

But was he not cultivating Ghost Power? Why had it become Ultimate Ghost Power (Lv. 1) on the panel?

Could it have been because of that ghostly purple light just now?

Before he could figure it out, the Scanning Eye provided an explanation:

Item: Ultimate Ghost Power

Function: Increases the power of Ghost-type moves used by Ghost-type Pokémon in the current team by 1%. (At Lv. 10, increases move power by 10%.)

So his system had turned him into a humanoid Curse charm?

It took 20,000 Popularity Points to level up once. Did that mean he needed 200,000 Popularity Points to reach Lv. 10?

The system's mechanical voice rang out again:

[The Popularity Points required to level up Ultimate Ghost Power doubles with every level.]

Following the system's explanation that the required Popularity Points doubled with every level, Roy did some quick calculations.

Ultimate Ghost Power required 20,000 Popularity Points at Lv. 1. Every subsequent unlock would double the requirement, and upgrading from Lv. 9 to Lv. 10 would require 10.24 million Popularity Points.

Hiss...

Roy sucked in a cold breath. 10.24 million Popularity Points... by that calculation, it seemed like an impossible amount.

The higher the level of Ultimate Ghost Power, the stronger Roy's attraction to Ghost-type Pokémon would become. By Lv. 10, Roy would practically look like a succubus to Ghost-type Pokémon.

Roy tried channeling his Ultimate Ghost Power into Litwick.

"Litwick, do you feel anything?"

Litwick, having received the boost, flickered the flame on its head and used Mind Communication to say that it did feel something, but it was not very obvious.

Not very obvious.

Seeing that the panel still showed zero Popularity Points, Roy suddenly had the urge to give up completely.

Other than the locked system shop, both of the other functions could be used.

Roy turned his attention to the system's second scanning function. It had just scanned the function of Ultimate Ghost Power.

Then did that mean...

"Litwick, don't move!"

Roy used the scanning function on Litwick.

System Scan
Pokémon: Litwick

Level: 28
Gender: Male

Ability: Flash Fire (When hit by a Fire-type move, absorbs the flames and strengthens the Fire-type moves it uses.)
Skills: Smog, Ember, Astonish, Minimize, Confuse Ray, Hex, Will-O-Wisp, Fire Spin, Night Shade

Held Item: None
Inherited Skills: Heat Wave, Acid Armor, Captivate

Individual Values: 20
Technical Machine/Move Tutor: None

Sure enough, the system could also scan Pokémon information.

Roy looked at the panel before him in surprise. He had not expected the panel provided by the Appraisal Eye to be so detailed.

Do not underestimate an appraisal system. Though it could not provide immediate combat power, it was probably the most useful thing Roy's system had at this stage.

His Litwick really did have Flash Fire.

Roy had tested Litwick's Ability as early as a year ago.

Litwick had three Abilities in total: Flame Body, Flash Fire, and its Hidden Ability, Infiltrator.

Unfortunately, it originally also had Shadow Tag, but those damn developers had nerfed it because it was too strong.

Roy had ruled out Flame Body first. Otherwise, there was no way he would have let Litwick sit on his shoulder.

There were almost no Fire-type Pokémon around Mt. Pyre, so he had never had a chance to test Flash Fire.

However, he had tested it on the Substitute of the Gengar that had once saved his life, and Litwick could not pass through the Substitute to hit the real body.

So, through a process of elimination, Roy confirmed that his Litwick had Flash Fire.

Although it was not a Hidden Ability, it was even more useful than one.

Flash Fire was essentially an enhanced Fire immunity. By that logic, Litwick effectively possessed immunity to three types.

And Fire types had always been extremely popular offensive options from the first generation until now, so gaining another Fire immunity was certainly a good thing.