Competition from Kalos

Xia Chen had no idea what strange thoughts his two Pokémon were harboring.

After dinner, with Eevee perched on his left shoulder and Feebas's fish tank in his right hand, he went shopping at Silph Department Store.

Over the past few days, he had clearly noticed that both Pokémon had been eating much more. What used to require a trip for Berries and ingredients every two weeks now required a visit every week.

Correspondingly, both of them had grown quite a bit. Eevee had gone from around thirty centimeters when he first found her to nearly half a meter. The increasingly weighty feeling when he held her also proved that she had put on quite a bit of weight.

Though whenever he said she had gotten fatter, she would always bite him wildly.

Feebas had also visibly grown larger. In just over half a month, his weight had risen from seven kilograms to twelve. One could imagine what hard days he had endured back at Cloud Marsh Lake.

And perhaps because his nutrition had finally caught up, Xia Chen felt that Feebas's scales had become increasingly glossy over the past few days.

In short, everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion according to plan.

Xia Chen liked this feeling of moving unhurriedly along a predetermined track.

The man, Eevee, and fish were browsing around when Eevee, crouched on Xia Chen's shoulder and looking about, suddenly cried out excitedly.

"Eevee!"

As though answering a mountain song, a shamelessly smug voice replied from nearby, "Arroo~"

Xia Chen remembered that voice vividly. It belonged to Jiang Qian's uniquely evil Arcanine!

The moment he recalled it, he saw an orange-red dog come charging over from the end of the aisle, panting heavily, with Jiang Han shouting after him, "Arcanine, slow down!"

Xia Chen narrowed his eyes and immediately saw through Arcanine's impure intentions.

He looked eager to see Xia Chen on the surface, but he was definitely trying to take the chance to knock him over and make a fool of him, getting revenge for Xia Chen riding him all morning that day!

That dog was downright full of bad intentions!

Xia Chen timed it perfectly and nimbly spun aside at the instant before Arcanine could pounce on him. The man and dog passed right by each other.

But how could Arcanine stop while charging at full speed? With the supermarket floor being especially slick, he let out a miserable "Arroo!" and had an intimate encounter with the shelf behind Xia Chen.

Fortunately, because of the existence of Pokémon in this world, everything was built extra sturdy. The shelf swayed and trembled for a while, but it ultimately did not fall over.

But the shelf was not alive, so naturally it did not hurt. Arcanine, on the other hand, was in agony after crashing into it, yelping nonstop.

A world where only Arcanine got hurt had been achieved.

Silph Department Store was huge—so huge that it even had a large dedicated restaurant inside.

Xia Chen sat in the café area with the mother and son, Jiang Qian and Jiang Han, whom he had run into by chance. They ordered a few drinks and chatted.

"Eevee, long time no see! You've grown so much again! I really wish I could grow that fast too." Jiang Han looked at Eevee, who had visibly grown two sizes larger, and sighed.

"Eevee~" Eevee answered, then secretly scratched Xia Chen.

Look at how well that kid speaks at such a young age. Unlike you, always saying I've gotten fat.

So what if I'm fat? Am I eating your Berries?

Oh. Looks like I really am. Never mind, then.

"Feebas, you look prettier than before too."

Feebas blew out a string of delighted bubbles. Of course! With the Beauty Pokéblocks Xia Chen gives me every day, of course I'd become prettier!

After greeting Xia Chen's two Pokémon, Jiang Han looked at Xia Chen and gave him an innocent smile. "Uncle Xia, you've... gotten a little older too."

Xia Chen did not want to pay him any attention. The kid had quite high emotional intelligence when dealing with Pokémon, yet he insisted on provoking Xia Chen. Who knew what he was thinking?

Jiang Qian reproachfully rubbed his head. "What kind of way is that to speak? Have you forgotten all the manners Mommy taught you?"

"Uncle Xia is different."

Jiang Han made a mischievous face. "Come on, Eevee, Arcanine. Let's go play over there!"

There was a large Pokémon rest area beside the café. The rest area itself was not particularly fun, but to Jiang Han, who was not shy around strangers, the many unfamiliar Pokémon inside were plenty entertaining.

With Arcanine watching over them, Jiang Qian was not worried. After reminding them a couple of times, she let them go play.

Once Jiang Han left with the two Pokémon, only Jiang Qian and Xia Chen remained at the previously lively table.

Well... and one Feebas who could not speak.

Xia Chen took the initiative to start a conversation. "Do you come here often to buy things too? It seems pretty far from your home."

Jiang Qian took a sip of coffee. "I came here to discuss some business this afternoon, so I brought them around to look around in the evening. Last year's Fairy Aura outbreak in Kalos had too great an impact on the Pokémon world. No matter what field you're in, you have to seize the opportunity."

"Xia Chen, you could also try developing in the Fairy type direction. The top trainers I know all think very highly of this type."

Xia Chen smiled. A wealthy woman worth nearly ten billion offering him this advice despite having no financial interest in him was rather considerate of her.

Jiang Qian turned to look at Jiang Han and Eevee playing wildly in the Pokémon rest area, and suddenly thought of something.

She glanced around and lowered her voice. "Oh, right. If you haven't decided which direction you want Eevee to evolve in yet, you can wait a little longer. There may be a new discovery over in Kalos."

Xia Chen's heart jolted. He cautiously asked, "You mean... a new evolution for Eevee?"

Jiang Qian nodded solemnly. "Everyone knows that Eevee has limitless evolutionary potential because of its unstable genes. The trigger could be an Evolution Stone, or it could be emotions and the external environment."

"With the emergence of the Fairy type, plenty of researchers will undoubtedly investigate it. But among the eighteen types, not every one has an evolutionary form, so things are still in the preliminary exploration stage."

"From what I know, the mainstream direction of research currently leans toward searching for a Fairy-type Evolution Stone that may or may not exist."

"Some researchers also believe it might be similar to Lycanroc's three evolutionary forms—Midday, Midnight, and Dusk—and have been trying to evolve Eevee during special periods when day and night alternate."

Xia Chen fell silent. Sure enough, he could not treat the people of this world like fools. Research into Eevee's Fairy-type evolution was far too obvious, so it was hardly surprising that others had stumbled onto similar research.

The good news was that they were currently on the wrong path.

The bad news was that he did not know how much farther his own correct path would go before reaching the end.

Xia Chen could only trust the information from the games in his previous life.

For one thing, almost all evolution conditions in this world were no different from those in the games. There was no reason Sylveon's evolution would suddenly not work.

For another, compared with research institutes that had better foundations and more abundant funding, this information was his only advantage.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, Xia Chen looked up and replied, "Thank you, Sister Qian. This information is very important to me."

Jiang Qian waved it off. "It's nothing. It's only a guess at this stage. Oh, right, those Fairy Gems I gave you last time, how—"

Jiang Qian stopped abruptly mid-sentence.

Because she suddenly realized something inconceivable. Xia Chen currently only had Eevee and Feebas, so who could those Fairy Gems be for?

The answer seemed obvious.

"Xia Chen, don't tell me... you'd already thought of this?"