Twilight City isn't small, but due to the authority of the Twilight City Pokémon Breeding Center, everyone chooses their starter Pokémon here, so it's inevitable to run into people you know.
At least from the moment he got out of the car until he reached the entrance of the Breeding Center, Lin Fan had already greeted several people.
Suddenly, Lin Fan felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned his head in surprise, and a familiar, delicate face came into view, framed by shoulder-length short hair, looking full of spirit.
Su Ling, a classmate from his second-year Class 3.
The burly man beside Su Ling was undoubtedly her father, Su Wu, also the founder of Twilight City's famous “Fighting Dojo.” He was a renowned Professional Trainer with strong abilities.
“A living Professional Trainer...”
Lin Fan stared at Su Dad, his eyes gleaming, muttering to himself.
“What?” Su Ling didn't quite hear him and asked in confusion.
“Nothing.” Lin Fan scratched his head awkwardly, brushing off the suspicious Su Ling. But when he turned his head, he met Su Dad's meaningful gaze and paused.
A living Professional Trainer... Could it be that you've seen a dead one?
Su Dad looked at Lin Fan with a chuckle, patted Su Ling's shoulder, and smiled at Lin Dad and Lin Mom: “Hello.”
As they had already arrived at the entrance of the Breeding Center, the group didn't exchange many pleasantries before parting ways.
Lin Fan looked helplessly at Su Ling, who was waving and signaling him not to forget, feeling a bitter taste in his mouth.
This brute... she's already challenging me to a battle before I've even picked my starter Pokémon, and she's not giving me a chance to refuse!
“Son, what's going on?”
Facing Lin Dad and Lin Mom's gossipy expressions, Lin Fan rolled his eyes fiercely, ignoring the two unreliable people, and strode forward.
What's going on? Your son is about to be beaten up!
...
After entering the Breeding Center, Lin Fan followed the signs to the guide area, where a smiling man with glasses emerged.
“Sir, are you here to choose your starter Pokémon?”
After receiving an affirmative answer, the smile on the man's face became a bit more cordial: “My name is Sun Qi. Please follow me.”
Lin Fan looked at Sun Qi leading the way, deep in thought.
As one of the essential institutions in every city, most employees of the Pokémon Breeding Center are Breeders who have passed the Breeder Association's examination.
Although they are only junior, being a Breeder is enough to prove their proficiency in a lot of Pokémon-related breeding knowledge.
Under the care of professionals, the Pokémon at the Breeding Center are often superior to those outside, and their physical condition generally has no problems. However, their prices are naturally slightly higher than those outside.
Sun Qi walked and asked, “Do you have any Pokémon in mind?”
Lin Dad and Lin Mom exchanged glances, tacitly giving the choice to Lin Fan: “We don't know much about Pokémon; let the child choose for himself.”
Sun Qi nodded knowingly and smiled: “That's good. Let the child decide for himself, after all, he is the one who will truly be interacting with the Pokémon.”
Lin Fan pondered for a moment and then spoke: “Grass-type Shroomish, Tangela, Bug-type Surskit, Nincada...”
After a moment of hesitation, Lin Fan added, “Also Weedle, Sun Ge, do you have these?”
In Lin Fan's memory, before the holidays, all the teachers had repeatedly warned them that Twilight City wasn't a big city, and it was best for kids like them to choose Grass-type Pokémon, as they were the easiest to raise and offered the broadest range of future career paths.
Grass-type Pokémon are indeed a type of attribute Pokémon that are more suitable for the general public to choose, with a decent lower limit and a very high upper limit.
Even if you ignore them and treat them like potted plants, allowing them to sustain themselves through Synthesis, it's a method. The drawback is that such a Pokémon will undoubtedly become a battle-weakling.
However, Grass-type Pokémon also have a downside: many Grass-type Pokémon's final evolutions rely on an ite.
And the price of an ite... Even Pokémon are considered rare species, let alone an ite, which is far rarer and more precious than Pokémon.
Shroomish and Tangela are among the few Pokémon that don't require an ite and have decent potential after evolving.
Moreover, as far as Lin Fan knew, many Pokémon that require special evolution methods, such as Tangela, which needs to learn the Ancient Power skill before it can evolve, have not yet had their stable evolution method discovered.
Therefore, its price is lower, making it an excellent choice for a bargain.
However, compared to Grass-type Pokémon, Lin Fan was still more fond of Bug-type Pokémon.
Surskit and Nincada were both Bug-type Pokémon that Lin Fan remembered as being quite good, especially Nincada. After evolution, it's a buy-one-get-one-free deal, not only getting a Ninjask, whose speed ranks high among all Pokémon, but also a Shedinja, which possesses a Bug-type characteristic—Wonder Guard.
Itself being Bug-type + Ghost-type, under the effect of its characteristic, only super effective Fire-type, Ghost-type, Dark-type, Flying-type, and Rock-type attacks can cause damage to it. It seems to have not been discovered by anyone to this day, only being mentioned in some folk legends.
As for the last Weedle, it was Lin Fan's personal preference.
Logically speaking, Weedle's final evolution, Beedrill, is definitely not considered powerful.
Its strongest stats, physical attack and speed, can only be considered average, and it also shares the common weakness of Bug-type Pokémon—low HP, poor defense, and easily shattered.
But Beedrill is cool, especially since it also has the game-changing mechanism of mega evolution. The Mega Beedrill after evolution has the most reasonable base stat distribution among all Pokémon, with extreme physical attack and speed enough to crush all doubts.
Not to mention there's Giovanni's strongest Beedrill from the previous life's manga as a template, overcoming gods with its frail Bug-type body.
Unfortunately, Lin Fan had not yet heard any news of mega evolution coming into existence.
It's still debatable whether ites and Key Stones even exist in this world.
Lin Fan sighed, feeling a bit regretful.
Sun Qi looked at Lin Fan with some surprise.
This kid has good taste. Are high schools teaching that well now?
But this child seems to have a special fondness for Weedle... It seems he hasn't suffered the poisonous beatings of Beedrill swarms in the wild.
After thinking for a moment, Sun Qi spoke with a slight apology: “Tangela and Nincada are too unpopular, especially the latter, which lives in dark underground all year round. We don't provide them here.”
“And Weedle's final evolution, Beedrill, is not considered powerful, nor does it have much research value. Whether it's a Trainer aiming for battle, a Breeder focusing on breeding, or a Researcher focusing on research, even as a display Pokémon, very few people choose it. Therefore, we don't provide it here either.”
Sun Qi smiled apologetically, looking at Lin Fan's somewhat disappointed eyes, and then suddenly hesitated.
“However... there is indeed a Weedle in our Breeding Center right now. It's just that Weedle...”
Sun Qi thought for a moment and finally said, “It's not suitable to be caught.”