Technical Machines

The two entered the store. Compared with the Pokémon League and the Pokémon Day Care, the Pokémon Skill Specialty Store fell well short in both space and interior decor.

After all, it was only a privately owned shop. Naturally, it could not compare with an official League establishment.

As soon as they entered, a sales assistant approached to ask what they needed. Both told the assistant which Pokémon they wanted Technical Machines for.

The assistant first took Ye Tian to the section for Butterfree's moves.

As far as Zhang Cheng knew, Butterfree could learn more than thirty moves through Technical Machines, giving it a very broad range of options.

Butterfree could even learn moves with devastating power, such as Hyper Beam and Solar Beam.

An ordinary shop like this certainly would not stock those, though. High-quality Technical Machines were generally only available at League centers and official Pokémon Day Cares.

And moves like those cost at least a million Pokémon Coins. For now, Zhang Cheng and Ye Tian could only dream about them.

Another important point was that having a Technical Machine did not guarantee that a Pokémon could learn the move.

For some difficult moves, a Pokémon might need a long time to learn them even with a Technical Machine. A Pokémon with poor aptitude might not be able to learn them at all.

"Our store currently carries ten Technical Machines compatible with Butterfree: Double Team, Protect, Rest, Aerial Ace, Thief, Safeguard, U-turn, Sleep Talk, and Infestation."

The assistant displayed all the Technical Machines in the store that Butterfree could use for Ye Tian to choose from.

Zhang Cheng checked their prices. Most ranged from forty thousand to a hundred thousand Pokémon Coins, making them fairly mainstream Technical Machines.

The shop's primary customers were students from Jiangcheng No. 1 High School. Most of them could not afford expensive Technical Machines.

Ye Tian leaned toward moves with special effects. His Butterfree already had Bug-type and Flying-type attack moves.

After weighing his options, Ye Tian chose the Protect Technical Machine. Protect was a versatile move that the vast majority of Pokémon could learn.

His main reason for choosing Protect was that Butterfree was too frail to withstand powerful attacks.

The other reason was its relatively affordable price. At thirty-one thousand Pokémon Coins, Protect was indeed a good choice.

Once Ye Tian had chosen his Technical Machine, the assistant took them both to the section for Poliwag's Technical Machines.

As before, the assistant first introduced all the moves in stock that Poliwag could learn. "We currently carry six Technical Machines compatible with Poliwag: Double Team, Protect, Sleep Talk, Swagger, Thief, and Scald."

Poliwag's available move pool was actually rather small. Once it evolved into Poliwhirl, it could learn quite a few Ground-type moves through Technical Machines.

For now, however, it could only learn a few powerful Water-type moves and some moves that most Pokémon could use.

Zhang Cheng's first choice was naturally Scald, but its price was a hefty seventy-five thousand Pokémon Coins. The moment he saw the price tag, he abandoned the idea.

Among the remaining moves, Protect was certainly a versatile option. However, Zhang Cheng still wanted Poliwag to learn a damaging move that would give it broader type coverage.

As he hesitated, wondering whether to choose Protect, Zhang Cheng suddenly thought of a move that suited him perfectly.

It suited him, rather than Poliwag: Thief.

In this Pokémon world, every Pokémon could carry one item into battle, and that item could not be seen directly with the naked eye.

That was because Pokémon items could take an energy form. Although they had a physical appearance, making their effects apply to a Pokémon was not as simple as putting them on its body.

To equip an item, a Pokémon had to absorb its energy, merging the item with itself. When the item needed to be removed, the Pokémon only had to expel that energy from its body.

Thief could damage an opposing Pokémon while stealing its item, but the theft would fail if the user already had a held item.

For ordinary Trainers, however, the move might not be particularly useful, because it was difficult to tell what item an opponent was holding during battle.

By the time they discovered the opponent's held item, the battle had usually reached a critical point. Using Thief then would already be too late.

Thanks to his cheat ability, however, Zhang Cheng could see exactly what item an opposing Pokémon was holding.

Before a battle, he could use the system to check whether the opponent had a held item. If it did, he could immediately use Thief and wipe out the advantage that item provided.

With that in mind, Zhang Cheng bought the Thief Technical Machine without hesitation.

"Thief isn't all that useful, is it? Using it when you can't confirm whether the opponent has a held item really isn't worth it," Ye Tian said in confusion when he saw Zhang Cheng's choice.

"I reckon I've got incredible luck. I'll just bet on whether the opponent has an item. Call it the mystery-box strategy," Zhang Cheng joked.

"You can do that? Well, suit yourself. Everyone has their own style," Ye Tian said, surprised.

Once they confirmed their choices, the assistant took Zhang Cheng and Ye Tian to pay. Since they were buying together, the store gave them a discount by rounding down the prices.

In the end, Zhang Cheng paid forty thousand Pokémon Coins for the Thief Technical Machine, while Ye Tian paid thirty thousand for the Protect Technical Machine.

Zhang Cheng now had twenty thousand Pokémon Coins left. After buying their Technical Machines, he and Ye Tian went to a Pokémon Food store to buy the food their respective Pokémon needed.

That cost Zhang Cheng another ten thousand Pokémon Coins, leaving his savings nearly depleted.

Ye Tian only bought five thousand Pokémon Coins' worth of food. With Butterfree as his only Pokémon, there really was no need to buy too much Pokémon Food.

After finishing their shopping, the two found a restaurant and enjoyed a hearty dinner before hurrying back to school. After a busy day, they both planned to get some proper rest.