Pokémon: Who told him to come out of Pallet Town!

Chapter 15: Pewter City Gym

Natsume stroked his chin, lost in deep thought.

In reality, the Master Ball's abilities are not as overpowered as they are in the game.

If a Pokémon is captured without going through a battle to gain its trust, let alone a legendary Pokémon, even a Pokémon with a little bit of strength is highly likely to "abandon" its trainer in the future.

Despite this, in reality, Master Balls are extremely expensive due to their high cost, limited availability due to league control, and the added allure of their ability to "catch" Pokémon with 100% success rate, driving their price to astronomical levels.

After all, if one is lucky enough to capture a mythical beast and seal it away using special methods, even if one cannot command or use it, it is still something that wealthy people can boast about to their friends, possessing extremely high collectible value.

Therefore, the market price of each Masters ball is generally inflated to around five million.

Originally, Natsume planned to tighten his belt and work hard for several months to buy a Master Ball from the league.

After all, if he wanted to develop the Rotom Poké Ball, the best solution would naturally be to use the highest-performing Poké Ball, the Master Ball, as the final carrier.

"Natsume, what are you thinking about?"

Xiaoxia sat down opposite Natsume, resting her chin on her hand and looking at him curiously.

She only just realized that Natsume, such an unreliable adult, was actually a Pokémon researcher.

Moreover, he is a researcher at Ooki's Research Institute.

Professor Oak holds a very high position in the Kanto scientific community. Anyone with even a slight connection to the League has basically heard of his name.

"I'm thinking about Ash."

Natsume turned his head and looked at Kasumi.

Upon hearing this, Xiaoxia was taken aback.

"Okay, as a teammate, I actually hope that Little Intelligence wins."

Xiaoxia seemed a little embarrassed that she hadn't thought highly of Xiaozhi before.

"No, I hope he loses quickly."

"???"

Xia looked at Natsume with a strange expression. He had already stood up and walked straight to Wu Neng, patting him on the shoulder and saying:

"Let's go, uncle, let's go pick up Ash."

"Huh? He just set off?"

Xiaoxia followed behind, puzzled.

"3"

Natsume glanced at her and, as before, gave her a number.

"What do you mean? Ash was defeated in three minutes?"

"Yes, you finally guessed right."

Xiaoxia: "......"

"System, activate the random skill machine."

Natsume silently recited the command in his mind, and the next moment, a crisp mechanical voice rang in his mind:

[Skill Machine Randomly Selected. Congratulations, host, you have obtained the skill machine - Grass Knot Tying. The following is an introduction to grass knot tying under the influence of the game's rules, which can be used as a reference in reality:]

【Hawk knot: grass, special.】

[Power: Status, Accuracy: 100, PP: 20 (30), Priority: 0]

[It is a contact move, affected by Protect, unaffected by Magic Reflect, cannot be stolen, affected by Mimic, and affected by items such as King's Token.]

[Effect: Entangles and trips the opponent with grass. The heavier the opponent, the greater the power. Ineffective against Dynamax Pokémon.]

Tie a knot in the grass?

Natsume paused, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

This is a very interesting skill. It can adjust the power of the move according to the opponent's weight, with the maximum power being up to six times the minimum power.

If Natsume remembers correctly, for Pokémon weighing over 200KG, tying a grass knot can unleash its maximum power, almost equivalent to the power of the Grass-type move Solar Beam.

"System, teach Pikachu to tie a grass knot."

Without the slightest hesitation, Natsume tossed the skill machine to his middle-parted haircut.

"Pikachu?"

Inside the Poké Ball, a Pikachu, who was lounging and dozing off, suddenly sat up with a start.

[Due to the rules of the game arena, it is recommended that the host forget one of Pikachu's moves and replace it with Grass Knot.]

"The Forgotten Impact".

Without the slightest hesitation, Natsume waved his hand.

In fact, some battlefields, apart from allowing him to achieve unexpected victories, are not as fun as real-life battles in his personal opinion.

Take Pokémon moves, for example.

Due to the rules of the battle arena, Pokémon can only carry four moves.

In reality, however, most Pokémon possess more than four moves—Tackle and Tail Wag are things that can't be forgotten.

However, based on the documents Natsume has read so far, Pokémon do indeed have a learning ceiling for some complex skills.

This is related to a Pokémon's talent and effort. Pokémon with poor talent can't even reach the four standard moves in the game, while those with top talent can learn seven or eight complex moves.

Among these, Pokémon's learning abilities vary depending on their type, with Psychic-type Pokémon exhibiting the strongest learning ability...

Natsume briefly recalled some documents he had read in his early years.

The Pikachu with the middle parting he chose was one he had carefully bred, and its attributes were among the best of all Pikachu.

Natsume had already planned out the final skill combinations: Thunder, Protect, Knotting Grass, Rainmaking, Grass-making, Electric Ball, High-Five Surprise Attack, and so on.

Of these, apart from the high-five attack inherited from the middle-part hairstyle and the newly acquired grass knot technique, it doesn't know any of the other moves.

Unfortunately, my middle-part hairstyle is only level 21 right now. Many moves can only be learned when the level is reached, not to mention the other skills. I can only wait for the system to generate them.

As he walked, Natsume took out the red and white ball containing the middle-part hairstyle.

Through the system's functions, Natsume easily saw what his Pikachu was doing—the middle-parted Pikachu suddenly sat up as if it had been electrocuted.

But less than two seconds later, he yawned again and lay down, covered with the small blanket he had taken from Natsume's tent.

"So that's why I took the wrong one that day, you took it with you."

Looking at the slouching, middle-parted hair, Natsume was furious.

With such talent and such a perfect owner, how can you possibly sleep soundly? Ash's Pikachu next door is already more than ten levels ahead of you!

"We're here. Hey, Natsume, what are you doing going inside?"

Outside the Pewter City Gym, Misty stopped in her tracks, about to call out to Natsume who was walking into the gym.

"Huh? Natsume-nii, what brings you here too?"

As Natsume entered, he happened to run into Satoshi, who looked dejected, coming out of the room.

"Of course, we'll challenge the gym."

Natsume glanced at the listless Pikachu in Ash's arms and casually tossed him two bottles of healing medicine.

"Oh! I want to see!"

Ash took the medicine and sprayed it on Pikachu while following Natsume into the Pewter City Gym.

"What? These two?"

Outside, Xiaoxia covered her head, took two steps forward, and then looked back at Wu Neng:

"Uncle, aren't you going to come in and take a look?"

"Um... I'll just wait outside."

Wu scratched his head, looking somewhat flustered.

Xiaoxia narrowed her eyes, finding the older man in front of her even more suspicious, but she didn't say anything more and turned to catch up with Natsume and the other person.

"Natsume-nii, Natsume-nii, do you also want to participate in the League Tournament? I've got another formidable rival!"

Seeing Natsume adopting a stance of challenging the gym, Ash was overjoyed, as if he had found a kindred spirit.

"Of course, the prize money for the league tournament is very generous."

"Huh? Natsume-nii went there for the prize money...?"

Xiao Zhi scratched his head, seemingly a little confused.

The group walked quickly and arrived at the Pewter City Gym in just a few minutes.

The arena where Ash had previously battled was still open, and a squinty-eyed young man wearing a green vest was standing in the middle of the arena.

Noticing the approaching group, Xiao Gang glanced at Xiao Zhi in surprise, then turned his gaze to Natsume, who was walking at the front.

"Is this a new challenger? Perfect, I've already warmed up!"