"Um, purple? So it should be a Poison-type too, right? With some green mixed in? Poison and Grass?"
The chubby Fugui spoke with some uncertainty.
"The purple isn't that intense. Could it be a Dragon-type?!"
Jace's eyes lit up. Finding a Dragon-type egg in the regular Pokémon Egg section—the unnamed eggs—would be striking gold.
Auron smiled mysteriously. Still so young and naive.
"Poison, Dragon, and Ghost are the three hardest types to distinguish. Poison is deep purple, Dragon is blue-purple, and Ghost is deep blue with a purple tint. These three are constantly mistaken for each other since the colors are just too similar."
"Take this egg, for example. It looks blue-purple, but it's actually deep blue with a purple hue—so it's a Ghost-type. The green indicates Grass. So, Ghost and Grass—what Pokémon do you think it could be?"
"Ghost and Grass? Phantump, Trevenant, Pumpkaboo, Gourgeist, Dhelmise, and... Decidueye counts too, I suppose."
Jace looked up thoughtfully, listing out all the dual Ghost-Grass Pokémon one by one.
"As for which one it actually is, you'd have to wait until it hatches. After all, these are unnamed eggs—we don't know who the mother is, so it comes down to luck."
Auron nodded. Not everyone had cheats like him, able to directly view a Pokémon Egg's information.
Pokémon: Phantump
Gender: Female
Type: Ghost / Grass
Ability: Insomnia (A Pokémon with this Ability cannot fall asleep in battle.)
Potential: Blue
Base Moves: Trick-or-Treat, Astonish
Egg Moves: Imprison, Destiny Bond
Fugui nodded from the side.
"Mm-hm, exactly. That's why we usually go for eggs with confirmed species. It's more expensive, but at least it's accurate."
"Must be nice being a rich kid like you."
After Auron's casual remark, he continued walking forward.
Fugui: ???
Jace: ???
"Does he... have some kind of misunderstanding about his own family's financial situation?"
Fugui gave Jace a strange look as he asked.
"Uh, well, his Pokémon really were all picked out by himself. He didn't need to rely on his family for that."
Jace shrugged helplessly.
There was nothing you could do about it. Some people just had better family conditions than you and were more capable than you. What could you even say?
Fugui: "..."
Auron hummed a little tune as he walked along, scanning the eggs. There were plenty of Pokémon, but not many that fit the team-building requirements for either of them.
Pokémon: Elekid
Gender: Female
Type: Electric
Ability: Static (When a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a contact move, or when this Pokémon uses a contact move, there is a 30% chance of inflicting paralysis. Multi-strike contact moves trigger this Ability check independently for each hit.)
Potential: Orange
Base Moves: Thunder Shock, Quick Attack
Egg Moves: Karate Chop, Focus Punch, Rolling Kick, Meditate
"Oh? This Elekid has pretty good potential. Should I bring it home as a child bride for my Elekid?"
Auron looked at the egg before him with great interest, barely containing his excitement. He even felt the urge to reach out and give it a pat.
At that very moment, back at Auron's home, the Elekid who was playing with Clawitzer and Charmeleon while looking for Kangaskhan suddenly sneezed.
He looked around in confusion, then continued frolicking behind Charmeleon.
After mulling it over for a while, Auron reluctantly gave up, his expression tinged with regret.
"Sigh, it's not like a game after all. Once you bring one home, you have to take responsibility."
He shook his head again. "What a shame, Elekid. Your wife is gone."
Then he cheerfully continued onward, examining the information of various Pokémon Eggs.
Meanwhile, back at the research institute...
"Hss, why is it that the moment Auron leaves, nothing will evolve anymore?"
A middle-aged researcher nearby also wore an awkward expression. Under everyone's watchful eyes, he'd shouted that theatrical chant until his voice was nearly hoarse—and worst of all, there hadn't been the slightest response. It was incredibly embarrassing.
"Bring him back here!" Ashford couldn't take it anymore either. No matter how you looked at it, this was humiliating. Everything worked fine when Auron was here, but the moment he left, nothing worked.
How was he supposed to explain this? Wasn't it basically announcing that a national-treasure-level researcher like himself was completely useless?
Hmm, speaking of which, that old codger Flint really was pretty useless.
Thinking this, Ashford shot Flint a resentful glare.
"Hmph. Useless!"
Flint froze. "??? What did I do now? And where are you even going to find Auron?"
"Are you stupid? Can't I just call him?"
Ashford looked at Flint as if he were looking at an idiot, which made Flint flush with anger and embarrassment.
"Then call him! Why are you snapping at me?"
"I'm not calling. What am I supposed to say? That we can't do anything without him? Don't I have any dignity?"
Ashford waved his hand dismissively, then turned and shouted at the researchers.
"Switch to someone else! Keep going! I refuse to believe we can't get anything to evolve!"
After the two old children finished their little spat, they stopped carefully analyzing the experimental conditions. Instead, they stubbornly decided to just try every trainer one by one.
Back at the Pokémon Egg shop...
"How about a Bellsprout? It evolves into Victreebel."
Auron looked at Jace, pointing at the egg in front of him.
Pokémon: Bellsprout
Gender: Female
Type: Grass
Ability: Chlorophyll (In harsh sunlight, Speed is doubled.)
Potential: Orange
Base Moves: Vine Whip
Egg Moves: Worry Seed, Power Whip, Ingrain, Weather Ball
"Sure, that works. How does it compare to Venusaur though?"
Jace was getting excited. They'd finally found something suitable. He didn't care about appearances anyway—no big deal!
"Hmm, one focuses on offense, the other on defense. But in my opinion, Venusaur is still the better choice."
Auron thought it over before answering. Although Venusaur couldn't match Victreebel in physical attack, its overall stats and speed were both slightly higher.
But those were minor considerations. The most important thing was that Venusaur could Mega Evolve—its tactical value shot up immediately.
"Alright then, let's keep looking. Maybe we'll find a Bulbasaur egg."
Jace was a bit disappointed, but he still chose to hold out for Bulbasaur. However, he noted down Bellsprout's location number just in case they couldn't find a Bulbasaur egg later.
"Shall we keep looking then?"
Jace seemed conflicted. "What if it's like what happened with Tim—I hesitate for a moment and someone else snags it?"
"Ha, what's the big deal? If it's gone, we just find another one. Dragon-types are hard to find, but Grass-types? Come on."
Auron laughed.
"Besides, it's not like this one is an absolute must-have. Among Grass-types, there's still Bulbasaur and Nuzleaf. Not to mention Leafeon, Exeggutor, Tangrowth, and others."
"True."
Jace thought about it, then relaxed and continued following behind Auron, listening as he shared various bits of knowledge.
"Holy crap!"
Auron had been casually scanning through the Pokémon Eggs as usual when he suddenly spotted a special one.
"What the actual—!"
After his initial shock, Auron became even more stunned. He slowly sank to the ground.