Electabuzz Evolves! Electivire! (Subscription requested!)

Tongsi first headed over to the berry section of the exchange area.

After looking around, Tongsi quietly picked up the last three Roseli Berries and placed them into his shopping cart.

These were essential ingredients for making reddish-brown Pokéblocks, and redeeming them from the system would normally cost a hundred thousand points.

Since he was getting them for free this time, Tongsi certainly wouldn't hold back.

Immediately afterward, Tongsi grabbed some rare berries needed for making pink-blue Pokéblocks.

Since it was a freebie, he might as well take more.

Tongsi grabbed a dozen of each type of berry.

Moving past the berry section was the Poké Ball area.

There were no ordinary red-and-white Poké Balls in the exchange area, not even Great Balls; the selection started directly with Ultra Balls.

Tongsi walked up to the Luxury Ball display case, picked them up one by one with a nonchalant expression, and placed them into the shopping cart.

In the past, whenever he caught Pokémon, he always used standard red-and-white Poké Balls.

Eevee constantly complained that the Poké Balls were too cramped and uncomfortable to live in.

This time, Tongsi was planning to upgrade the homes of several of his Pokémon.

Luxury Balls featured luxurious interior decorations and an extremely spacious environment, akin to a small villa.

They were quite expensive, however, costing tens of millions of points per ball even in the Pokémon Association's exchange area.

Tongsi only took five Luxury Balls, fearing that taking too many might strain his friendship with Bai Chen.

He also grabbed a single Dusk Ball along the way.

Murkrow would definitely like it.

Moving on to the item section, Tongsi selected a Sharp Beak and a Black Glasses.

These were gifts Tongsi intended for Murkrow.

The Sharp Beak could boost the power of Flying-type moves, while the Black Glasses enhanced Dark-type moves.

Both items offered tremendous benefits for Murkrow.

Finally, Tongsi took a stroll around the evolutionary stones.

It was rather unfortunate that there was no Dusk Stone, so Tongsi had to settle for taking one each of the Water Stone, Thunder Stone, Fire Stone, Leaf Stone, Sun Stone, and Moon Stone.

He would just consider them collectibles.

When Bai Chen went to pay the bill, dark lines covered his face.

He had expected Tongsi to exercise at least a little restraint.

Never did he imagine that Tongsi would act like a newly minted nouveau riche.

In total, these items cost Bai Chen over two hundred million points.

One had to keep in mind that the total points he had saved up over all these years amounted to only around three hundred million.

Bringing Tongsi to the exchange area this time had practically wiped out his entire inventory in one fell swoop.

"Brother Bai Chen, do you happen to have a Dusk Stone?"

After packing up all the items, Tongsi flashed an utterly harmless and innocent smile.

"Get lost!"

Bai Chen blurted out a curse, caught completely off guard.

Wasn't draining him of so many points enough? Was he still plotting to extort a Dusk Stone out of him?

Leaving aside just how precious a Dusk Stone was—something even the Pokémon Association's exchange area didn't carry—where on earth was he supposed to get one? That was the kind of item that had a price but no market.

"If you don't have one, you don't have one, why are you being so fierce?"

Tongsi glanced at Bai Chen, showing a hint of dissatisfaction.

Bai Chen felt a deep wave of mental exhaustion. Good grief, you just consumed hundreds of millions of points worth of my stuff, and you're still not satisfied?

"By the way, does the second floor of the Pokémon Association have a trading machine?"

Tongsi asked seriously.

Bai Chen nodded. "Yes, every Pokémon Association branch has a trading machine on the second floor."

Hearing this, Tongsi frowned slightly.

Should he let Electabuzz evolve or not? Tongsi felt somewhat conflicted.

Within the Elekid evolutionary line, Elekid and Electivire were primarily physical attackers, while Electabuzz was the sole exception, focusing on special attack.

Elekid had just evolved into Electabuzz, and judging from its previous battle against Murkrow, it hadn't truly adapted to Electabuzz's body yet.

Switching from a physical attacker to a special attacker definitely took time.

However, if Electabuzz were to evolve into Electivire someday down the line, it would have to pivot back toward a physical attacker's development path.

If that happened, all the training during its Electabuzz phase would essentially be wasted.

To a certain extent, once Elekid evolved into Electabuzz, evolving it straight into Electivire right away might actually be the optimal choice.

He just wondered if evolving Electabuzz now and then pushing it straight to its final evolution would cause any adaptation issues.

"What's the matter? Hesitating over whether to let Electabuzz evolve into Electivire?"

Bai Chen, standing nearby, seemed to have guessed the crux of Tongsi's dilemma.

"Yeah..."

Tongsi nodded.

Indeed, whether or not to let Electabuzz evolve into Electivire was his most pressing dilemma at the moment.

He had already obtained the Electirizer required for Electabuzz's evolution into Electivire.

In other words, as long as they used the trading machine on the second floor of the Pokémon Association, the evolution could be completed smoothly as a matter of course.

"My advice is... ask Electabuzz for its own opinion."

Bai Chen suggested.

"That's true..."

Tongsi retrieved Electabuzz's Poké Ball—still the original red-and-white one, which he hadn't replaced yet.

"Come out, Electabuzz!"

"Ele-bzz!"

When Electabuzz made its entrance, it flickered with a faint, golden charge of electricity.

Having evolved into a special attacker, its mastery over electrical energy seemed to have grown even more refined.

"Electabuzz, do you want to evolve? To evolve into Electivire."

Tongsi took out his phone, pulled up a picture of Electivire, and showed it to Electabuzz.

"Ele-bzz..."

Electabuzz stared at the photo of Electivire on the screen, remaining silent and offering no immediate opinion.

Tongsi then found a video of an Electivire in battle and played it for Electabuzz.

Seeing the Electivire in the video display overwhelming destructive power during combat, Electabuzz couldn't help but let its eyes light up.

Especially the Iron Tail executed by that Electivire.

Actually, Electabuzz was also capable of learning Iron Tail, but the sheer power demonstrated by that Electivire's dual Iron Tail left Electabuzz utterly astounded.

"Ele-bzz! Ele-bzz ele-bzz!"

Electabuzz nodded, indicating that it wanted to evolve.

"Are you sure you want to evolve into Electivire?"

Tongsi asked solemnly.

"Ele-bzz!"

Electabuzz's expression was very serious; it wanted to possess the formidable strength displayed by Electivire.

In fact, after Elekid evolved into Electabuzz, it had clearly noticed that its ability to control electricity had grown stronger.

Yet none of its other capabilities seemed to have improved correspondingly.

Not only that, but it also felt that its arm strength was somehow inferior to its Elekid days?

That was something it simply could not tolerate.

"Alright, then let's evolve!"

Without any further hesitation, Tongsi recalled Electabuzz and walked up to the Pokémon trading machine.

The trading machine in this world was somewhat different from the ones in anime or games; it didn't require trading with another person to trigger evolution. Instead, the machine itself was capable of facilitating the evolution of Pokémon that required trade evolution.

"Electabuzz, get ready to evolve!"

Tongsi placed Electabuzz's Poké Ball onto the trading machine, pressed the button, and the device whirred into action.

Electabuzz's Poké Ball was drawn into the interior of the machine, and its silhouette appeared as a black icon on the screen.

The next moment, the machine flashed with a dazzling, incandescent light.

When the machine finished its operation, the black icon on the display had transformed into the portrait of Electivire.

"Clack!"

The red-and-white Poké Ball dropped back down into the slot where Tongsi had originally placed it.

Tongsi picked up the red-and-white Poké Ball and tossed it forward.

"Ele-kiv!"

Accompanied by a mighty roar, a nearly two-meter-tall Electivire appeared before Tongsi, swinging its two black tails as faint arcs of electricity danced across them.

... (To be continued)