Pokémon: I picked up a reborn Eevee at the start of the game

Large raindrops tapped against the glass, making a crisp sound.

Soroya pressed himself against the cold window, staring blankly at the rain curtain that seemed to isolate the world from him.

Soroya used to hate rainy days the most.

There are few places to take shelter from the rain in the wild, and those places have all been occupied by elves who are far more powerful than themselves.

Even if you find a place to shelter from the rain first, this is still the case.

Rain not only wets Zoroya's fur, making it difficult for him to move around, but it can also lead to serious consequences such as catching a cold.

Every time it rains, it's a test for Zoroah that's no less challenging than encountering a powerful and malicious elf.

But all of that is in the past.

Zoroia turned around, scurried back to her warm bed, and snuggled up on the other side of Xia Chen, past Kirlia who was sleeping peacefully next to him.

Actually, Zoroia wasn't that sleepy; she simply liked the feeling of security she was experiencing.

Whether it was the sound of rain outside the window or Soroya's movement, Xia Chen woke up.

As usual, Xia Chen stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, then with a somersault, he jumped out of bed.

After all, it's June, not December, which locks people firmly in bed, so getting up isn't particularly difficult.

Picking up the two little ones who were clearly awake but still pretending to be asleep, Xia Chen yawned and went into the bathroom to help them wash up.

After Ralts evolved into Kirlia, Xia Chen no longer needed to worry about such things, but the short-legged Zoroar still couldn't do without Xia Chen's help.

After nearly ten minutes of fussing, Xia Chen led them downstairs for breakfast.

Inside the lobby, Xianbu was lounging on the sofa in a boss-like posture, his legs crossed as he watched the morning news.

Just like a parent who sees their child smoking, Xia Chen originally wanted to go up and scold them.

But when Senbu does this seemingly street-smart move, it somehow feels strangely cute.

Shaking his head helplessly, Xia Chen could only sigh, "Being good-looking really does give you the freedom to do whatever you want."

…………

Because it was raining and she didn't have to go out for a morning run, Xia Chen saved a lot of time and prepared a very lavish breakfast.

Looking at the table full of delicious food, Xia Chen nodded in satisfaction and said to the little fox beside him, "Zoroa, go and call Milotic down to eat."

Normally, he'll come down for dinner on time without needing to be called. But probably because of the heavy rain today, he's probably having a lot of fun playing in the water on the rooftop and hasn't come down yet.

"Yo~"

Zorua responded and hurriedly ran up.

Two minutes later, Xia Chen and the elves sat around the dining table, eating breakfast while listening to the pattering rain outside the window and the attractive voice of the female news anchor on TV.

"Today is June 6th, the first day of the National College Entrance Examination. Heavy rain has fallen across a large area of ​​our city. To reduce traffic congestion, the League and the police have deployed hundreds of elite Pokémon to use Sunny Day on key roads to ensure the safety of the students taking the exam..."

Hey, is the college entrance exam already today?

Xia Chen, a senior high school student, only realized after hearing the news on TV that it seemed the college entrance examination in this world was also taking place in the next few days.

Six, seven, eight—it sounds like "get admitted" in Chinese.

It's not superstition, it's just a kind of beautiful blessing.

However, this had nothing to do with Xia Chen anymore. As the first place winner in the Beijing University entrance examination, he hadn't been to the school for a long time, except for that back-to-school speech.

"Yesterday, the Beautiful Energy Cube, developed by Xia Chen, a renowned and outstanding elf scholar in our city, finally hit the market amidst great anticipation. A buying frenzy could be seen in major elf department stores. It is estimated that in the Donghuang area alone, the first day's shipments have exceeded one million boxes."

Listening to the news broadcast on TV, Xia Chen took a sip of the delicious soup, which warmed him from his stomach to his heart, making him feel extremely comfortable.

After more than six months of preparation, the money printing machine was finally started.

To be honest, Xia Chen had thought that the Beauty Ability Cube would sell well, but he didn't expect it to sell this well.

According to the information Jiang Qian gave her, almost all sales locations experienced a situation where the products were sold out immediately as soon as they hit the shelves.

Even on the secondhand market, energy cubes have appeared at prices several times higher than the official price, and what's outrageous is that people are actually buying them.

In fact, the newly built Energy Cube factory this year has sufficient production capacity, but unfortunately, it needs to supply not only the Donghuang region, but also nine other regions.

As a result, this production volume is somewhat insufficient.

But Xia Chen couldn't possibly outsource this to another company.

Although his "secret recipe" would eventually be discovered by an experienced master, he could earn more monopoly money by delaying it for one more day.

Xia Chen wanted to earn a few small goals before going to university.

In the future, with market saturation and the emergence of competitors, it won't be so easy to make money like it is now.

…………

Just as the news finished airing, Xia Chen and the elves had finished their breakfast.

Kirlia used her telekinesis to transport the plates to the kitchen, then handed them to Milotic to wash with hot water.

While it may seem strange to use water from Milotic's mouth for this purpose, the water, which is converted from energy, is actually much cleaner than ordinary water.

If it weren't for psychological barriers, drinking directly from the mouth wouldn't be a problem.

After finishing the chores after breakfast, Xia Chen took the Pokémon to the Pokémon Training Center not far from his home for their daily training.

The reason for training at the gym instead of just in the yard wasn't just because of the rain.

As the Pokémon grew stronger, Xia Chen noticed several times that they were using moves to destroy the base, especially Milotic and Sylveon.

However, he felt that asking the elves to pay attention would restrict their performance, so for the past month since returning to Donghuang, Xia Chen has been training in the training hall.

Xia Chen had considered moving to a large house with a garden, training hall, and battlefield.

But after some consideration, I decided against it.

On the one hand, I still lack economic strength. Although I have earned quite a lot during this period, most of it is used for Pokémon breeding resources. I definitely don't have enough cash to buy the house I dream of.

The Beauty Energy Cube has only just been launched, and the money earned will probably be used to expand the factory, so there is unlikely to be any spare money for the time being.

Of course, if Xia Chen wanted to buy, he could definitely get a new home by taking out a loan, but after thinking about it, he felt it was unnecessary.

I'll be studying at a university in another city for the next few years and probably won't be going home much. When I graduate and come back, I'll just build a dojo. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Xia Chen's confidence in opening a dojo after graduation is not without reason.

Besides needing to reach Gym Leader level in terms of strength, the most important requirement for opening a Gym is reputation. Otherwise, with so many trainers in a region reaching Gym Leader level, why are there so few who can become Gym Leaders?

Xia Chen's current situation is that his reputation is barely enough, but his strength is still far from sufficient.

However, Xia Chen is fully confident that he can reach the dojo level within four years.

Moreover, among the seventeen gyms in Donghuang, there is none that are newly introduced Fairy-type gyms.

It's perfectly reasonable for someone like me, who discovered Eevee's Fairy-type evolution, to become the Fairy Gym Leader, right?

In short, whether it's striving to become a gym leader or, in the longer term, protecting yourself and those you care about, strength is indispensable.

Improving our capabilities remains the top priority.

------

The spirit world.

The gray sky remained dark and gloomy, but compared to the barren environment when Zorua first entered the Spirit Realm, where almost nothing grew, the ground now had mountains and rivers, things that only existed in the outside world.

Soraya had lost track of how long she had been in the spirit world. After a long period of adjustment and adaptation, she found that spending four hours a day in the spirit world was the most suitable.

If it goes on for too long, my current physical condition may not be able to handle it.

Based on four hours a day, that would be over six hundred hours, right?

During this long period of time, Zoroya had left the original "starter village" and entered the true spirit world.

Just like the outside world, this place has flowers, trees, mountains, and rivers. However, what supports the growth of these lives is the wisp of soul energy that permeates the air.

As the exploration deepened, Zoroah gradually encountered other beings that constituted this world.

Besides the souls that can now be physically exorcised by themselves, there are even higher life forms in the spirit world, including elves.

Zorua had once seen a Gastly feeding on souls from afar, and while she was observing it, the Gastly also keenly noticed her.

The malevolent look in her eyes sent a chill down Zoroia's spine, and she turned and disappeared from Gastly's sight without looking back.

From then on, Zoroia understood the cruel survival rules of the spirit world. She tried to avoid those intelligent spirits and instead hunted the souls that had power but no brains.

Currently, Zorua is engaged in a fierce battle with the spirit of a Psychic-type Pokémon whose strength was nearly equivalent to that of a Gym Leader in its lifetime.

Although their strengths differed greatly, Zoroah had the advantage of being able to travel back and forth between the Spirit World and the outside world to replenish his energy, while his clumsy opponent could only gradually lose his soul power as he slowly depleted it.

After nearly forty hours, this unintelligent behemoth was finally nearing the end of its life.

Alertly leaping up to dodge the powerful mental energy released by the soul entity, Zoroya retaliated by unleashing a Shadow Ball.

The relentless erosion by the ghostly energy, filled with resentment, caused the nearly transparent soul to writhe in agony.

A few seconds later, the soul finally dissipated completely, and what appeared in its place was a fragment of the soul emitting a fluorescent glow.

…………

In an unknown space shrouded in gray fog.

Perhaps nourished by the continuous fragments of soul, the sapling, like Zoroya, grew slowly but steadily.

Over several months, Zorua poured thousands of soul fragments into the tree, mostly to exchange for tickets to the Spirit Realm, but she also frequently put them into the [Dark Harvest] branch.

Move Fruits aren't the only thing that can be obtained from Dark Harvest. Strictly speaking, only Pokémon that were powerful enough in their lifetime can produce this precious item from their soul fragments.

Anyway, since the [Energy Charge Flame Berry] that Zoroah obtained from the last Elite-level Houndoom, he hasn't gotten any other TM berries.

But that doesn't mean you can't get good things in return. Special attack fruit, defense fruit, speed fruit... all kinds of fruits that improve basic abilities can also help Zoroa grow rapidly.

However, this reduces the number of available soul fragments for exchanging for tickets to the Spirit Realm.

This time, Zoroya spent a full forty hours trying to defeat that powerful soul entity, without producing a single soul fragment.

The reserve of time in the spirit world is almost depleted.

Even so, Zorua did not hesitate to place the soul fragment, which had taken forty hours to create, into the branch representing [Dark Harvest].

Flowering, fruiting, ripening—a familiar process—and a heavy, pinkish-purple fruit appears on the branch.

Soroya took a deep breath, nervously and expectantly extracting information from the fruit.