It didn't take long for the NPCs on the beach to finally notice Hakuya and his Pokémon intruding on the area.
"I'll show you the power of my Pokémon. Don't go crying now!"
With an exclamation mark popping up above her head, a little loli NPC wearing a yellow inner tube loudly issued a challenge.
Her lead Pokémon was a Squirtle, a Kanto region starter, and its randomized ability was simply [Levitate].
And whether it was due to the underlying code continuously improving or not, Hakuya found that the NPCs in the randomized world seemed to be gradually moving away from blindly relying on "wheelchair" cheese strategies, occasionally actually pulling off some tactical plays.
For example, this inner-tube loli NPC who came to disturb their appreciation of the ocean view was doing exactly that.
She opened with a few unremarkable Pokémon—Squirtle, Tynamo, and Bellsprout—allowing Latias to happily boost her Special Attack to the max. Then, she sent out her ace Pokémon to clean house and finish the job.
"Latias, use Dragon Pulse and finish it off."
"Gengar, use Psych Up."
Both commands were issued almost simultaneously. Latias opened her mouth and blasted out a terrifying energy dragon, while Gengar rolled its eyes craftily, a white light symbolizing stat increases emerging around its body.
After matching its own Special Attack stat with Latias's, the sky-blotting energy dragon, measuring hundreds of meters long, roared loudly and plummeted from the sky, completely swallowing this chubby purple ghost.
As the majestic energy shockwave dissipated, to the surprise of both Hakuya and Latias, the opponent was completely unharmed.
The [Disguise] ability! Gengar tanked it directly!
"Use Shadow Ball."
"We're done for. We're about to get swept."
Hakuya looked at the [Shadow Ball], resembling a massive black hole crashing down from the sky, with a helpless expression.
This was how the randomized world worked: either you one-shot me, or I one-shot you.
Failing to outspeed this chubby purple ghost meant they could only tearfully try again.
"It feels like the difficulty of battles in the randomizer is gradually increasing too~"
Walking out of the Pokémon Center again, Hakuya couldn't help but sigh.
It wasn't his fault he was surprised; after all, it truly was his first time seeing this group of NPCs start using actual tactics.
Before, they either read his battle commands in advance like Cyber-Roxanne, or they used stat-crushing cheese like that Battle Girl in the Dewford Gym with her Wonder Guard Regigigas.
"Of course, if it's only at this level, it's still not enough to stop us."
After pondering for a moment, Hakuya revealed a smile of guaranteed victory.
This [Disguise] + boosting tactic was indeed quite good.
Borrowing the stats Latias had stacked up to boost itself, and then relying on its high Speed to sweep the team with attacks.
However, cracking it was actually very easy. He just needed to swap the little jet plane out before it used [Psych Up], denying Gengar the opportunity to use its [Disguise] ability for a free, damage-less stat boost.
[You defeated Tuber (F). Received 1,000 League Coins.]
Following routine, he snagged another few thousand in battle prize money. Then, Hakuya hurried deeper into Slateport City without stopping.
Arriving at a new town, besides elbowing the NPCs on the side of the road, diving into the tall grass to catch randomized Pokémon was an indispensable part of the experience. He still had quite a few Great Balls on hand; it was time to add some new partners to the team.
"Heracross... the Bug King's aesthetics and potential are both pretty good... Wait, why is its ability [Sticky Hold]? Give me back [Guts], you bastard..."
"Chansey, huh... Adding another defensive wall to the team wouldn't be bad. With an Eviolite, its tankiness is extremely high... Why is its ability [Weak Armor]? That ability is a terrible match~"
"The last one to pop out is an Eevee?"
Hakuya looked at the petite, brown figure that sprang from the tall grass and scratched his head.
He felt that whether it was an issue with his luck or just bad feng shui in this area, after walking around for a while, the wild Pokémon that spawned were all quite bizarre. This ordinary Eevee—whose ability he couldn't yet determine—actually counted as the most normal one out of the bunch.
At this moment, after thinking it over, Hakuya ultimately decided to send it on its way.
Its aesthetics matched his tastes, true, but the Eevee family's strength simply wasn't quite enough in the randomizer.
"La-woo~"
"Wait a minute, why does something seem off?"
Noticing that the Eevee hadn't even lost a [Disguise] after taking a [Dragon Pulse] from the little jet plane, Hakuya was somewhat surprised.
It was a known fact that a normal Eevee's typing was Normal, meaning it could only be immune to Ghost-type attacks. But [Dragon Pulse] was a Dragon-type move. This little creature had neither [Wonder Guard] nor [Disguise]; no matter how you looked at it, taking zero damage was impossible.
Could it be...
With a rough guess in mind, but unable to truly confirm it, Hakuya still threw the Great Ball in his hand.
Setting strength aside, Eevee was indeed one of his favorite Pokémon.
Not counting the Partner Eevee, Eevee had a total of eight evolutions: the gentle and tranquil Vaporeon, the passionate and unrestrained Flareon, the straightforward and courageous Jolteon, the natural and graceful Leafeon, the cold and aloof Glaceon, the mysterious and distant Espeon, the dark-bellied and tsundere Umbreon, and the delicate and charming Sylveon...
No matter which one it was, he expressed that he could accept it.
And due to the underlying code of the randomized world, the capture rate was closely tied to a Pokémon's base stats. Relying on its base stat total of 325 in its initial form, Hakuya ultimately only spent three Great Balls to capture it at full health.
After the crisp capture sound effect played, this little creature's detailed information panel popped right up.
[Eevee]
[Type: Fairy]
[Gender: Female]
[Level: Lv20]
[Ability: Multitype (Changes the Pokémon's type to match the Plate or Z-Crystal it holds)]
[Moves: Tackle, Helping Hand, Sand Attack, Quick Attack, Baby-Doll Eyes, Swift]
[Egg Moves: Yawn, Wish]
[Note: This Eevee is currently holding a Pixie Plate. Its typing has changed from Normal to Fairy.]
"It really is Multitype..."
Hakuya rubbed his chin with his hand, muttering to himself.
Although he had a rough guess beforehand, discovering it was true was still a bit surprising.
He was wondering why, despite having no prompt for [Wonder Guard] or [Disguise], it could directly gain immunity to the little jet plane's [Dragon Pulse]. It turned out it was holding a Pixie Plate in the wild, and it just so happened to randomly roll the exact same ability as the Alpaca.
Recovering from his shock, Hakuya suddenly remembered something and couldn't help but gulp.
"Hiss... didn't I get a Legend Plate from an NPC earlier...?"