Chapter 99: Still A Huge Profit For Myself
“Wow, Li Wei, you really… are amazing… in every aspect.”
Watching Li Wei talk confidently, Yu Yixian subconsciously, in a very small voice, seemed to mutter to himself.
His tone carried envy and longing, but even more so, dejection.
“Hmm? What did you say?”
Li Wei, who didn’t catch exactly what Yu Yixian said, asked him.
“Nothing.”
“Oh, but I just seemed to hear someone saying I’m handsome.”
······
“You have the nerve to call me shameless??”
“Oh? You know you’re shameless yourself?”
······
After a few back-and-forth jabs, Yu Yixian inexplicably felt his chaotic mood stirred into even greater chaos, his feelings shifting from sudden hesitation to something more subtle, and he even felt like laughing a bit.
“Let me think, I do want to buy an Abra, but the options for the other one are really headache-inducing.”
Yu Yixian was somewhat undecided.
“Tell me, in terms of the abilities of your first two Pokémon, what position am I lacking?”
After pondering for a while, Yu Yixian rephrased his question to Li Wei.
“Do you mean in the Grand Festival or in regular battles?”
Li Wei asked Yu Yixian.
“Both, I think. I feel like the Grand Festival can rely on Ponyta, and nurturing Abra a bit can also make use of Psychic Power; the most troubling is still battles, right?
Looking at your Pokémon’s strength, then at my own, I always feel the outlook is worrying.”
Hearing Yu Yixian’s self-critique, Li Wei couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
(ΩДΩ)
“You know you have major problems too!!!”
At this point, Li Wei felt like covering his face and crying.
Speaking of the psychological changes in a best friend when a friend who never does normal things suddenly has an epiphany and says ‘I have a problem.’
······
“What? I was just being polite, and you really think I have problems???”
······
Faced with Yu Yixian’s retort, Li Wei sighed, walked around Yu Yixian to pour himself a cup of coffee, sat on the sofa, and gave up communicating with him.
This person is beyond saving.
He thought to himself.
Sharing some cookies with his own Pokémon, legs crossed while drinking coffee—though this ‘Yu Yixian’ was beyond saving, Li Wei still seriously analyzed in his mind the shortcomings of Yu Yixian’s Psychic team.
Pokémon Trainers basically fall into two categories: specialized and comprehensive.
Simply put, extreme single-type and multi-type teams.
Both have their advantages, and in terms of strength, they’re evenly matched; it just depends on personal pursuits and available resources.
Sometimes, it’s also limited by profession and employment units.
Just like Tu Xiaomi, who specializes in Plant Cultivation and targets ‘Flower’ nurturing—due to her studies and future job needs, she chose Grass-type Pokémon as her nurtured Pokémon.
Whereas Tian Bai, who also aims for medical care, didn’t stick to one type; she trains multi-type Pokémon like Normal-type Happiny, Fairy-type Mime Jr., etc., to meet her needs.
And Mo Jiu seems to specialize in Dark-type, focusing on battles and soloing.
Li Wei himself and Zhou Fengjue pursue team comprehensiveness, ensuring types are as balanced as possible.
For a pure Psychic team, the Pokémon types to guard against should include Bug-type, Ghost-type, and Dark-type, with Dark-type being the most fatal to Psychic-type Pokémon since it immunes attacks with Psychic Attribute.
Though not completely ‘no damage’ in several cases, pure energy body attacks indeed can’t deal damage, which is unavoidable.
This is even more fatal than Fairy-type Pokémon’s theoretical advantage over Dragon-type Pokémon.
Considering Psychic-type Pokémon’s type pairings, viable options should be Bug-type, Fairy-type, and Fighting-type combinations.
Male Ralts that can evolve into Gallade.
Witch as a space hand with strong Special Attack output.
Surskit that has a chance to gain Psychic Attribute upon evolution.
But in fact, Fairy-type is already covered by Ponyta; even if Yixian can’t make it after evolution, Ponyta can step up, so adding a Witch here would be redundant.
Surskit evolving into Dustox theoretically gains the fitting type ‘Bug + Psychic,’ but in this real PM world, many Surskit fail to evolve, and not all that evolve awaken Psychic Attribute······
This involves too much gambling, and per modern laws, if you buy such a Pokémon, you can’t abandon it; you can only wait for it to live out its short life as a Bug-type Pokémon without Psychic Attribute support before buying another.
Have to say, this is something only an ultra-lucky person would dare do; better not advise Yu Yixian to jump into the fire.
Aside from types, in terms of functionality.
Ponyta is definitely an edge ob and sub-carry.
High speed to disrupt opponent’s rhythm, control skills for restraint, damage output via the horn on top of head, and condensing light screens to block skills when appropriate.
Looks very comprehensive, but precisely because it’s ‘too comprehensive,’ this Pokémon is rated quite mediocre aside from being good-looking.
Unless pushing it toward ‘Specialist,’ relying solely on Ponyta’s output definitely won’t suffice.
If really deciding to buy an Abra, it would prioritize harassment, focusing on first strike.
‘He’s lacking an attacker.’
Like the attackers in his own team: Riolu, Eevee, and Magikarp.
(ΩДΩ)
‘Wait, is there something off with my description?’
Realizing this, Li Wei suddenly stopped thinking about Yu Yixian’s lineup pros and cons, veering off to self-critique and reflection······
‘Then our team’s controller is······’
Riolu, Eevee····· and mind-controlled Magikarp.
‘Then assassin······’
Riolu, Eevee, Magikarp.
‘Who fronts······’
Riolu, Eevee, Magikarp.
‘How many Pokémon do I even have in total···???’
Suddenly realizing something, Li Wei silently got up to refill his cappuccino and began pondering a more important matter.
——Could it be that all along, the one with problems… is me???
“How about it, Yixian, you add an Exotic Form Slowpoke. No matter how you evolve it—into Slowbro or Slowking—it can bring a qualitative change to your team.”
After questioning life, Li Wei overturned all his prior theories and directly suggested to Yu Yixian.
As a family of Psychic Specialists, they surely have insights on dealing with Dark-type Pokémon, so in Pokémon selection, one shouldn’t be constrained by such things.
When specializing in Dragon-type Trainers, do they agonize over what type combinations to pick to counter Ice Attribute and Fairy Attribute Pokémon?
No.
What they think about is definitely how to boost body strength and flexibly operate Pokémon’s Ability to brutally beat the opponent, achieving Type Advantage Master status.
Having figured this out, Li Wei shed those concerns and directly told Yu Yixian the Psychic Attribute Pokémon he recommended most in his heart.
This Pokémon Center trip was way more interesting than he imagined—not so dull, and unexpectedly broadened his mindset as a Trainer.
He had been hesitant about his next Pokémon choice, overthinking type advantages and such, but now it seems the most important thing is still choosing the Pokémon you like most and suit you best!
Compromising for types is absolutely unfair to both the Trainer and the Pokémon itself.
Sure enough, helping others actually benefits oneself the most!
While pinching Glaceon’s chubby little face, Li Wei Emotion thus.
