Pokémon: Trainers Start as Bounty Hunters.

Not to mention children who are obviously from ordinary families.

How could the stall owner have imagined that Tetsuya possessed Zero, something that didn't belong to this world?

Tetsuya's heart was pounding wildly, but since he was still in the black market, he could only forcefully suppress his excitement and walk back to his rented room at a pace slightly faster than normal.

Back in his rented room, Tetsuya could no longer hide his excitement. He took out the Pokémon Egg and shouted wildly in his mind.

"Zero, open the panel of this Pokémon egg for me."

The blue panel then opened, and Tetsuya's attention was fixed on the "potential" section.

The words displayed above are "Heavenly King".

"This is a Heavenly King!" Tetsuya almost couldn't help but shout out.

You should know that during his adventures over the previous two years, the highest aptitude of wild Pokémon he had ever seen was only Elite, and he had never even seen a near-Elite Four member.

Tetsuya never expected that his reluctant trip to the black market would bring him such a big surprise.

Tetsuya originally planned to spend a large portion of his savings to buy a better Pokémon egg, such as Sandshrew. If he chose an elite one, it could evolve into Sandslash, which would be a pretty good Pokémon.

With a portion of the money set aside for nurturing, Zhe was confident he would develop successfully.

But who knew that as soon as Zhe entered the black market, he discovered that this Bobo Egg actually had the potential to be a top-tier player!

Tetsuya couldn't believe his eyes at the time, and even thought that there might be something wrong with Zero.

Chapter 5: Excellent Pidgey and Evolution Stones

However, Zero's judgment has never been wrong in the past three years. Moreover, Zero's judgment is based on his own knowledge system. Even if he is wrong, this Bobo is at least infinitely close to the Elite Four, and has the potential to be a near-Elite Four member.

Moreover, this way, more funds can be allocated to training Pokémon.

Tetsuya acted decisively and bought the Bobo Egg.

Furthermore, Bobo's subsequent growth proved that Zero's judgment was correct; its strength and physique were superior to those of its kind.

After Tetsuya hatched Poppo, he carefully nurtured it using his savings, following the infancy nurturing plan given by Zero.

Soon, Pidgey passed through its infancy and entered the ranks of novice Pokémon.

By this time, Pidgey had mastered Tackle, Growl, Sand Rush, and the genetically inherited Tornado, in addition to the even more outstanding stealth ability, Strong Pectoral Muscles.

This is probably why this Bobo has the potential to be a top-tier character on panel zero.

Tornado is a Dragon-type move. Tetsuya thinks it might have been created by a powerful Dragon-type Pokémon that bred with Pidgeotto or Pidgeot, resulting in its mastery of Tornado and its more robust physique and potential.

It was most likely a Pidgey, because the stall owner probably couldn't beat the Pidgeot and its kind.

Moreover, thanks to Tetsuya's scientific training and his outstanding aptitude, Popo's physique is noticeably larger than that of his kind.

However, Zhe was not in a hurry to go into the forest to complete the mission. After all, although he had spent more than 30 of his savings, he had saved up about 55 Alliance Coins over the past two years by living frugally.

There will be less than 25 left, which is enough for him to train Bobo for a while.

Rattata's experience taught him that he needed to be extremely careful until he had enough strength, as it was unlikely that he would be lucky enough to encounter another ordinary Pokémon with such high potential.

Therefore, Tetsuya could only train and fight for Popo in safe areas on the periphery.

It wasn't until Pidgey reached level 15 and officially transitioned from a beginner Pokémon to a regular Pokémon that Tetsuya, looking at his meager savings, gritted his teeth and officially decided to continue going to the Bounty Hunter Guild to take on missions.

Even so, Tetsuya tried his best to restrain himself from taking on relatively high-level missions to obtain high rewards. Instead, he chose to do the simplest E-level missions first and decided to wait until Bobo evolved before taking on higher-level D-level missions.

Soon, in about a month, Pidgey evolved into Pidgeotto during training, and its level also rose to level 18.

Tetsuya then gave up on the E-rank mission, since the rewards were simply too meager.

The standard reward for an E-rank mission is less than 3000 Alliance Coins, a D-rank mission is 3000-3, a C-rank mission is 3-10, a B-rank mission is 10-50, and I don't know about A-rank and S-rank missions because I've never seen them before, probably because my trainer level and hunter privileges are not high enough.

Generally speaking, a typical D-level task can earn at least 15,000 RMB, and a top E-level task can earn at least seven or eight, not to mention a C-level task.

Tetsuya and Pidgey thus began their real life as bounty hunters.

Tetsuya snapped out of his daze.

Considering Pidgey's potential as the Heavenly King, and because I was initially struggling with strength and money, I didn't have many resources to give Pidgey, so Pidgey's progress in strength after evolution was very slow for a period of time.

Of course, this is only relative; compared to similar projects, this progress can be considered quite rapid.

Later, as Pidgey gradually grew stronger to level 25 and was able to complete a small number of C-rank missions, its strength began to increase rapidly with Tetsuya's significant investment, and it mastered more and more skills.

Even so, based on the previous progress, Tetsuya estimated that it would take at least another six months for Pidgeotto to evolve into a near-Elite Four member.

until today.

Tetsuya couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as he thought about what he had accomplished that day.

From the missions and extra rewards alone, this adventure earned him a whopping 51.2. After deducting the money spent on purchasing items, he still had 50 left, which was roughly two months' worth of his normal income.

Not to mention the thing in his backpack, a fiery glint flashed in Tetsuya's eyes.

Going upstairs to his study, Tetsuya carefully took out his biggest find from his backpack—a bright orange-yellow stone with a faint flame symbol on it.

It is the rare evolution stone—the Fire Stone. The panel provided by Zero shows that its quality is a full 89 points. Keep in mind that even the best perfect Fire Stone only has a quality of 100 points.

This is quite valuable.

Tetsuya recalled the acquisition posts he had seen on the Pokémon forum, where someone offered 2000 million for an ordinary Fire Stone, and some were even priceless.

Not to mention the extremely high-quality Fire Stone in his hand, Tetsuya estimated that his evolution stone could sell for at least 4000 million League Coins.

It's important to know that Fire-type Pokémon are quite powerful. By allowing Pokémon to absorb the energy contained within the Fire Stone, you can quickly and steadily enhance their Fire-type energy, making them even stronger.

Not to mention that Vulpix and Growlithe also need Fire Stones to evolve, making high-quality Fire Stones even more sought after. After all, Arcanine and Ninetales are both very strong, one handsome and powerful and the other noble and elegant, making them the first choice for wealthy people.

Although he didn't know why there was this thing in the giant bee's nest, Tetsuya almost fainted from surprise when he found it.

After seeing that a silly trainer had provoked a swarm of Beedrill, weakening the defenses of the Beedrill nest, Tetsuya was also prepared to follow the hunters' usual thinking and grab some honey and run.

After all, hunters who share their experiences on the forum encounter such new trainers every year and make a profit from it, so it's not surprising that they encounter one every four years.

Beedrill honey is a high-quality ingredient in beauty and skin whitening cosmetics, and can also be used as a supplement. It is very popular among wealthy women and its market price remains high.

To everyone's surprise, Tetsuya discovered a Fire Stone inside the nest while collecting honey. This was more than just a pleasant surprise; it was a windfall.

However, what to do with this fire stone is also a problem.

Although Tetsuya really wanted to keep it by his side to prepare for raising Fire-type Pokémon in the future.

However, Tetsuya had envisioned that his main team's Fire-type Pokémon would be Blaziken or Charizard, so they wouldn't need to evolve with a Fire Stone.

Using it to quickly enhance one's strength is not impossible, but it seems a bit too extravagant, and besides, there's no money to get the eggs of these two kinds of spirits for the time being.

Unless he sells the Fire Stone and finds a way to buy a Fire Chick or Charmander egg from the black market, preferably one with excellent aptitude, since Zhe has Zero to identify them anyway.

In other words, he can only choose one between the Fire Stone and the eggs of a Torchic or Charmander at present.

Of course, evolving with a Fire Stone, such as Growlithe, is also good, but wild Growlithe is extremely rare and is known as a legendary Pokémon, with most of them being controlled by the Officer Jenny family.

If you are a commoner, after you get Growlithe, Officer Jenny will ask you if you would like to join them.

This is something many people aspire to, after all, marrying into the Officer and Joey families—those who know, know.

Undoubtedly, for him, this is still a distant dream, regardless of which one.

Tetsuya hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Chapter 6 Choices and Spirit Items

After thinking for a while, Tetsuya decided to put the Fire Stone away first.

After all, he wasn't in a hurry to make a final decision in this short time.

Whether you save the Fire Stones to speed up the growth of your future main force or choose to slowly save money to buy Pokémon Eggs.

Or you could sell the Fire Stone, choose a good enough Pokémon, and then slowly save up money to train it and realize its potential.

The difference isn't actually that obvious.

Tetsuya's primary goal now is to improve Pidgeotto's strength as much as possible, at least to evolve it into Pidgeot first.

We have some extra income today, which we can invest in breeding Pidgeots.

Once Pidgey evolves into Pidgeot, Zhe will have enough confidence to complete more difficult C-rank missions, and may even be able to challenge B-rank missions.

Raising the next Pokémon will make things less financially strained. Then we can figure out what to do with the Fire Stone; we're not worried about selling it.

Tetsuya carefully packed the Fire Stone and placed it close to his body in the inner pocket of his clothes.

Zheke wouldn't dare put such valuable things in the safe at home; who knows if a thief might come and steal them?

Not to mention the stray sprites; sprites like Meowth are masters at stealing.

Then, Zhe turned on his Pokémon PC, intending to use the time before bedtime to... oh no, to learn from the experience shared by trainers on the forum.

After all, some excellent trainers will post their battle videos on forums for young trainers to learn from. Of course, this is on a paid basis, with prices varying depending on the trainer's level.

However, at the very least, trainers must reach the Elite Four level, meaning they must have three or more Elite Four Pokémon for the forum to offer this service.

Let's put the video aside for now and look at it later.

Tetsuya opened the forum, and a glaring post was pinned to the top of the homepage by the administrator: "A place to sell rare and precious items by hanging them upstairs. You are required to write your own post."

This place is full of trainers selling their finds, mostly carrying items.

Only a very small number of them sell evolution stones, and when you click to view the pictures, they don't look as good as Tetsuya's Fire Stone.

Tetsuya habitually looked through the listings to see if there were any new items for sale, and soon his eyes lit up.

The post titled "Sharp Bird Beak for Sale, No Trade-ins, DM me with your price, Clown Climbs" is a link to a post selling flying-type items.

Tetsuya clearly remembered that there was no such post a few days ago. Looking at the posting time, it was posted yesterday, so it seems that it hasn't been sold yet.

Looking at the amplification effect again, 6%, Tetsuya frowned slightly. No wonder.

Items that typically boost the power of attribute moves, such as charcoal or miracle seeds, generally increase the power by 5%-20%, and their prices vary drastically depending on the effect.

Research indicates that most items can increase skill power by 10% or more, and are called normal items. Only a small portion are less than 10%, and are called defective items.

This broken prop, the sharp beak, has a 6% boost. It's not that it's nonexistent, but it's extremely rare. In a sense, it's a peculiar one. Anyway, Tetsuya has only seen this one in sixteen years.

"But it's good to be weird," Tetsuya thought, relaxing his brow. "Anyway, these kinds of props won't depreciate in price; at most, they'll be harder to resell."

With this, Pidgey will be a little bit stronger. Every little bit helps, and we can sell it later.

If the effect were better, the price would be completely different, so he could only have the same attitude as the other props in this post—admire from afar but not touch.

After all, Tetsuya doesn't have that much money set aside to buy such props.

Looking at the prices below, all around 180 million, Tetsuya nodded slightly.

This was exactly what Tetsuya had expected, because although other items with the same effect had never appeared before, items with an 8% effect had been sold, usually for less than 300 million.

Don't think it's an exaggeration. You should know that items with a 10% effect normally cost over 800 million, and when they are in short supply, you might not even be able to buy one for 1000 million.

Items with powerful attributes like Dragon's Fang and the Curved Spoon would cost twice as much for the same effect.

As for why the price difference between normal and damaged items is more than double even though the effect is only one or two percentage points different, it is because research shows that...

Research data shows that normal items can effectively increase the power of a skill by one level, while damaged items can only increase the power.

What does this mean? Simply put, it's about comparing numbers. Originally, there were two items of the same type, one with an 8% increase and the other with a 10% increase. Assuming the skill power is 60, the former's power after the increase should be 64.8, and the latter's should be 66. The difference seems small.

However, during the actual testing process, although there were no errors in the data for the target, problems arose when the actual combat exercise was conducted.

Taking the move cancellation experiment as an example, to ensure the accuracy of the data, a control experiment was conducted, namely, no item versus no item, no item versus 8% boost item, no item versus 10% boost item, and 8% boost item versus 10% boost item.

The results were completely negated, completely negated, the 10% boost item caused minor damage to the opponent, and the 10% boost item caused minor damage to the opponent.

Switching to an item with a 12% amplification effect against both unequipped and equipped items with an 8% amplification effect resulted in the same 12% amplification effect item causing damage to the attack.

The results of the skill cancellation experiment between items with a 12% amplification effect and items with a 10% amplification effect showed that the former had a little bit of energy left and basically no damage.

This is really puzzling.

Finally, through analysis of the energy, researchers discovered that normal items not only enhanced the damage output but also increased the power of skill levels.

In layman's terms, normal items alter energy on another level, resulting in a difference in the amplification of normal items compared to that of damaged items that is not visible in the data. However, in actual combat, normal items can "destroy" the opponent's moves.

While there are differences between normal items, they are not significant unless the amplification effects are also vastly different.

The above content is from a paper by a researcher at the Oak Research Institute in Pallet Town, titled "On the Difference in the Amplification of Moves by Normal and Damaged Items".

There are other studies as well, but even Zhe only knows what happened, not why it happened.