Fatty Lei was a little speechless. Lu Li might be their thigh*, but as my girlfriends, is it really okay for you two to fawn over him like this? [TN: Thigh refers to a person who is powerful, highly skilled, or influential, and who can support, protect, or carry others.]
Could you at least spare a thought for how your current boyfriend feels?
Looking utterly depressed, Fatty Lei complained, “All right, no matter how much you worship Brother Lu, he’s not going to fall for you.”
“Of course we know that. We just got a little excited after meeting him in person,” Meirun hurriedly explained.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
After Lu Li returned home, Kakuna, who had also finished eating, called him over.
“Kakuna”
(Lu Li, I’m going to try breaking through and evolving.)
At those words, even Feebas, who had been training Tackle nearby, stopped and urged Lu Li to carry its water tank over beside Kakuna.
Lu Li nodded solemnly. He first carried the water tank containing Feebas over to Kakuna, then sat upright in front of Kakuna and waited.
“Little Yellow, you can definitely do it! We believe in you,” Lu Li encouraged.
Even Feebas in the water tank swished its tail, splashing up tiny droplets of water as it cheered Kakuna on.
Feeling Lu Li and Feebas’s gazes on it, Kakuna took a deep breath and began attempting its breakthrough.
Dazzling white light began accumulating inside Kakuna. Through its pale-yellow shell, Lu Li could clearly see that mass of light surging and churning continuously.
Unfortunately, the white light was never able to break through Kakuna’s shell.
Kakuna only made one attempt, and it could only make one attempt.
The breakthrough failed.
Watching the white light slowly fade and Kakuna’s shell return to its dull yellow color, Lu Li let out a soft sigh inwardly.
At the same time, he was also glad that he had been cautious enough not to wait until the seventh day before letting Kakuna attempt its breakthrough.
“Kakuna”
Kakuna gave a soft cry, clearly feeling down.
Seeing the emo Kakuna, Lu Li gently stroked its head and comforted it softly, “It’s okay, Kakuna. We still have three days. We can try many more times. One failure is nothing.”
“What you should do now is cheer up and prepare for the next breakthrough. I believe you can definitely do it.”
Feebas beside them also comforted Kakuna.
Kakuna, which had originally been somewhat dejected, raised its head and looked seriously at Lu Li. It tried to find disappointment or disgust on Lu Li’s face, but all it saw in his expression and eyes was encouragement.
“I’ll go prepare some nutrient solution for you. This time, we’ll replenish more energy before trying to evolve again,” Lu Li said as he stood up.
Kakuna stared blankly at Lu Li’s back. Perhaps it truly hadn’t chosen the wrong Trainer.
After turning around, a trace of regret and helplessness also flashed through Lu Li’s eyes.
Still, he had expected this. For Pokémon, this world was simply too lacking in resources, especially for Bug-type Pokémon.
Lu Li briskly mixed the nutrient solution and soon had it ready.
“Come on, Little Yellow. Let’s rebuild our morale and charge toward evolution again,” Lu Li said as he placed the nutrient solution in front of Kakuna.
Kakuna nodded firmly and jumped straight into the basin.
Kakuna’s mouth was very small, even extremely tiny, but fortunately, its shell could also absorb nutrient solution.
After Kakuna finished absorbing it, Lu Li picked up a towel and wiped down its shell before placing it on the bedside cabinet.
“Get some proper rest first. Don’t use Harden anymore. We need to devote all your energy to evolution.”
Lu Li reminded it.
“Kakuna”
Kakuna indicated that it understood.
The next morning, after finishing breakfast, Kakuna began trying to evolve again.
This time, Kakuna failed again.
But unlike the first failure, Kakuna was no longer discouraged at all. Instead, it seemed even more confident and assured than before.
“Kakuna”
Kakuna looked firmly at Lu Li. It could feel the changes inside its body and had also figured out why its first two evolution attempts had failed.
The third attempt definitely wouldn’t fail. It was completely certain.
Lu Li, who had already thought about how he would comfort Kakuna, couldn’t help laughing when he saw that Kakuna was even more confident than he was.
“All right. As long as you’re confident, that’s enough. Then we’ll try again.” Lu Li gently patted Kakuna’s shell in encouragement.
Feebas beside them was filled with envy. It also longed to evolve as soon as possible. Every time it saw the light of evolution appear, it couldn’t help imagining the moment when it would evolve itself.
Thinking of this, Feebas glanced at the painting of Milotic on the wall.
“That day will come,” Feebas thought firmly to itself.
On the 28th day since Pokémon descended.
The sky was only just beginning to brighten when Kakuna could no longer suppress its urge to evolve.
“Kakuna”
Kakuna woke Lu Li up.
Climbing out of bed, Lu Li hurriedly asked, “Are you going to evolve?”
Kakuna nodded solemnly. It could no longer hold back the urge to evolve.
“In that case, go ahead,” Lu Li encouraged softly.
The familiar light of evolution appeared once again, but this time it was brighter than ever before.
That familiar warmth once again spread throughout his entire body, and Lu Li once more sensed that invisible, intangible line. It seemed a little thicker than the last time.
Before Lu Li had time to think about it further, the light of evolution faded.
Kakuna on the bedside cabinet had disappeared, replaced by a Beedrill hovering in midair.
Beedrill’s body was divided into three sections, with a conical abdomen. In particular, its twin needles were noticeably longer than the poisonous stingers of an ordinary Beedrill.
Something was off!
Very, very off!
Suppressing the wild joy and excitement in his heart, Lu Li couldn’t help circling Beedrill twice to inspect it.
This was different from the Beedrill he remembered. Instead, it looked somewhat like Mega Beedrill, yet it was also different from the Mega Beedrill in his memory.
If he had to describe it, Little Yellow’s current appearance was somewhere between Beedrill and Mega Beedrill.
Mega Beedrill’s four legs all transformed into poisonous stingers. Little Yellow only had its forelimbs evolve into poisonous stingers, but they were longer and sharper than those of an ordinary Beedrill, while its hind legs were still normal insect legs.
There was absolutely no way Beedrill’s appearance was normal, but judging from its looks, this abnormality seemed to be a beneficial mutation.
“Little Yellow, do you feel anything wrong?” Lu Li asked softly.
“Kakuna”
Beedrill shook its head, indicating that it felt better than ever and didn’t feel that anything was wrong at all.
Hearing that Beedrill didn’t feel anything bad, Lu Li also breathed a sigh of relief.
Afterward, Lu Li carefully examined Beedrill’s appearance and condition.
At present, he could confirm that his Little Yellow’s Beedrill form showed signs of Mega Evolution, but it was not a complete Mega Evolution.
If his guess was correct, then that meant Little Yellow might be stronger than a normal Beedrill.
Lu Li decided to call Indeedee over and have it help check whether there was anything wrong with Beedrill’s body.
Lu Li loudly called for Indeedee in his mind. To make visiting each other more convenient, Indeedee had left a psychic mark on him. Normally, as long as he called to it through the mark and the two of them weren’t too far apart, Indeedee would immediately sense it and respond.
A sharp whooshing sound rang beside Lu Li’s ear.
Indeedee suddenly appeared in the room and curiously examined the Beedrill hovering in midair.
“Why does this Beedrill look different from the ones I’ve seen before?” Indeedee wondered in confusion.
Upon seeing Indeedee, Lu Li hurriedly asked, “Indeedee, please check Beedrill’s body and see if there’s anything wrong with it.”
Indeedee nodded, then made an OK gesture.
It had previously learned quite a bit of medical and nursing knowledge from Teacher Chansey at school. Although it wasn’t particularly proficient, it was still at about the level of a community-based doctor.
Indeedee scanned Beedrill with its psychic power and immediately noticed something unusual.
“Ordinary level? With resources this scarce in this world, how did Beedrill manage that?” Indeedee suppressed its doubts and continued examining Beedrill.
Indeedee soon discovered another strange point: Beedrill’s base stats were clearly different from those of a normal Beedrill.
A normal Beedrill had a base stat total of 395, but Little Yellow’s base stat total was as high as 420.
What did that mean?
Normally, every 100 points in a Pokémon’s base stat total represented a threshold. Little Yellow’s base stat total had actually broken through 400. If this wasn’t evolution, then it had to be atavism.
After finishing its examination of Little Yellow, Indeedee took out its drawing board and began drawing.
After Lu Li took the drawing, he roughly understood what Indeedee meant.
The good news was that there was nothing physically wrong with Beedrill. The bad news was that Beedrill really was abnormal.
“Its base stat total is 25 points higher than a normal Beedrill’s? That should be a good thing, right?” Lu Li himself wasn’t completely certain.
Although Little Yellow was abnormal, fortunately, it was abnormal in a good direction.
So the question was, what had caused Little Yellow’s abnormality?
According to the most basic logic, there were only two possible factors behind Little Yellow’s abnormality.
The first factor was individual mutation, making Little Yellow stronger than an ordinary Beedrill.
But that possibility was not very high. After all, Beedrill had shown nothing special during its Weedle stage. In fact, it had been exceptionally weak, and among Little Yellow’s siblings, its aptitude had ranked at the very bottom.
During its Kakuna stage, Little Yellow had needed three attempts before successfully evolving. Although that was partly because it had used Harden too many times before, it still wasn’t enough to prove that Little Yellow was fundamentally different from others of its kind.
After all, in the Pokémon world, there had been precedents of Kakuna continuously using Harden for an entire month. Yet those Beedrill had not immediately reached a half-Mega-Evolved form right after evolving.
Then only the second factor remained.
If individual factors were excluded, then it could only be environmental factors.
If Beedrill had become like this because of the environment, then the logic actually made sense.
Pokémon had suddenly descended into this world. It was almost like Pangu splitting heaven and earth during the primordial era.
During the initial stage of Pokémon’s descent, the two worlds were still merging, and all kinds of elemental energy were more active. Although the quantity was small, its quality was high and extremely primal.
It was said that Mega Evolution might represent some Pokémon’s ancient form. If he followed that line of reasoning, then it seemed to make sense.
“Is it because of the environment?” Lu Li was still asking himself, but inwardly, he had already more or less confirmed it.
Then another question arose.
Was this benefit only available during the early stage of Pokémon’s descent? If so, how long would it last? Could Little Beauty still catch this opportunity?
Thinking of this, Lu Li glanced at Feebas again.
Sometimes, being born in the right era was no different from being born into the right family.
Indeedee was not a professional researcher. It could only inspect Beedrill’s basic condition, and it had no idea about anything more profound.
Indeedee did not understand why Beedrill had become like this either, but one thing was certain: this was actually a good thing for Beedrill.
Lu Li was not the type to insist on getting to the bottom of everything. As long as he could confirm that this change was harmless to Beedrill, he was perfectly willing to accept it.
Taking a deep breath, Lu Li said with heartfelt happiness, “Beedrill, I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
Beedrill solemnly nodded, then raised the poisonous stingers that gleamed with cold light like a knight’s lance and gave it a few swings through the air.
“Kakuna”
(I’ll protect Lu Li.)
Lu Li smiled, then asked Indeedee, “Indeedee, do you know what level Beedrill’s strength is at now?”
Indeedee started drawing again.
This time, it drew very quickly, taking only a few breaths.
Ordinary level, and even within Ordinary level, it was already fairly close to the later stage.
Late-stage Ordinary level. According to the game’s settings, Beedrill was probably around Level 36 now, which corresponded to late-stage Ordinary level.
Evolution truly was an enormous opportunity for Pokémon. Before evolving, Beedrill had been around Level 10 at best, yet after evolution, its level had suddenly skyrocketed by at least twenty-six levels.
After returning the drawing board to Indeedee, Lu Li curiously asked, “Indeedee, what level are you?”
57.
Indeedee directly wrote a number on the drawing board.
Level 57, which meant late-stage Elite level, not far from Gym level. In the wild, that level was already higher than 99% of Pokémon.
After confirming that there was nothing else wrong, Indeedee directly used Teleport and left.
Lu Li then brought Beedrill to a corridor near the arcade.
“Beedrill, hold back as much of your strength as you can, then show me the moves you learned,” Lu Li ordered.
Beedrill, which had long been eager to show Lu Li its new strength, immediately began displaying the various moves it had learned after evolving.
The first was Fury Attack.
In Lu Li’s eyes, this move was basically a frantic series of thrusts that could deal multiple hits in an extremely short period of time.
Even with Lu Li’s physique far beyond that of an ordinary person, he still could not clearly see how Beedrill landed multiple hits in an instant. He could only barely make out Beedrill raising and lowering its twin needles.
If Beedrill had not been able to explain it, he would have thought Beedrill had only raised its twin needles once.
Next came Focus Energy.
The effects of Focus Energy were easy to recognize. When Beedrill used the move, it would stop and take a deep breath, while a cluster of white light briefly gathered around its abdomen before vanishing.
After that, Beedrill demonstrated Twineedle, Rage, Pursuit, Toxic Spikes, Pin Missile, and Agility.
These were all normal moves that Beedrill could naturally learn after reaching Level 35.
In other words, Beedrill itself did not possess any Egg Moves, nor had it learned any illegal moves.
Greedy as he was, Lu Li still felt a little disappointed about that.
If possible, he would have quite liked Beedrill to learn defensive moves such as Protect.
Still, it was already a good thing that Beedrill had awakened all the moves it was supposed to learn.
At least it wasn’t like in some novels, where Pokémon could reach the corresponding level and still fail to naturally awaken the moves they should have learned at that level.
*Chapter 72 Beedrill’s Mutation—Primal Form?
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