"Wow! A golden legend!!!"
"Finally, something dropped!"
As the notification slowly faded away, Red clenched his fist, his excitement bursting out as he gave a powerful swing of his arm.
Meanwhile, Nami had long since grown accustomed to Red's occasional emotional surges. She remained crouched on the ground, calmly helping him pick up the Pokémon coins generated by Pay Day.
Ever since testing Pay Day in the pirate world, her fondness for this move had skyrocketed.
To grind up its proficiency, she had been using it frequently in battles today.
After two straight hours of intense combat, she had successfully reached Level 19, and her experience bar was already more than halfway full.
If nothing unexpected happened, she would confidently reach Level 20 tomorrow.
By East Blue standards, she could now be considered a genuine powerhouse.
While Nami bent down for the sake of a mere hundred-plus in cash, Red opened the TM — Reflect and examined it carefully.
[Move: Reflect][Type: Psychic][Category: Status][Power: —][Description: Uses Pokémon energy to create a mysterious transparent wall that blocks or weakens physical attacks.]
"Reflect? A Psychic-type defensive move?"
"That's a pretty rare Pokémon attribute… but…"
Thoughtfulness flickered in Red's eyes as he activated the TM. Instantly, only a single [Able to Learn] option appeared in the list.
It belonged—unsurprisingly—to Luffy, the Pokémon with the Fairy-type.
"As expected," Red murmured.
Just as he had previously deduced that Dragon-type was the result of multiple powerful attributes being fused together…
The Fairy-type, as a racial attribute, naturally shared similarities.
Dragon-type leaned toward combat and destruction, which is why powerful Dragon Pokémon could learn many offensive moves from other types.
Fairy-type, on the other hand, leaned toward trickery and status manipulation.
And this happened to overlap significantly with the ever-versatile Psychic-type.
That was why most Fairy-type Pokémon could learn at least a few Psychic-type moves.
"Headbutt for basic attacks, Seismic Toss for control, and now Reflect for physical defense…"
"All Luffy lacks now is a reliable ranged attack."
"I remember the department store in Celadon City sells the Hyper Beam TM—but it's pretty expensive."
Red glanced at the funds in his bag, barely reaching 50,000, and couldn't help frowning.
Even though he had been careful to avoid spending at friendly shops, this amount of money clearly wasn't enough to purchase all the TMs in a department store.
"Looks like Nami's Pay Day really is going to have to become a permanent move…"
Red sighed helplessly.
Money really could stop a hero in his tracks.
If it weren't for the lack of funds, he would have already stocked up on Poké Balls and gone on a full-scale Pokémon-catching spree!
Wild Pokémon had a low drop rate. Unlike Pokémon obtained from NPCs, which always came with a corresponding TM…
Most drops from wild encounters were just Berries with little practical value.
But the sheer number of wild Pokémon made up for it.
Given enough volume, even a random Rattata might drop a powerful Dark-type move someday.
"What a shame~ What a shame~"
Just then, Nami finished collecting the coins and handed them to Red.
Without wasting any more words, the two of them continued forward toward the end of Route 5.
Since they no longer needed to search for Abra, they picked up the pace and sped ahead.
Any low-level or low-exp Pokémon they encountered were simply ignored outright.
After all, after two hours of nonstop battles, both Red and Nami were running low on stamina.
Finally, just before the in-game time ended, they arrived at the end of Route 5.
Standing there was an extremely special building from the Pokémon world—
The Pokémon Day Care!!!
Compared to the shabby little house in the games, the structure before Red could no longer be called a "house."
It was more fitting to call it a Day-Care Building.
Though it couldn't compare to a Gym in scale, it was roughly the size of a proper kindergarten.
Through the windows, one could clearly see specialized training environments inside, separated according to different Pokémon types.
"The Day Care, huh…"
Muttering softly, Red immediately stepped inside.
Just after entering, he spotted an elderly man and woman standing behind the counter.
As Red approached, he triggered the grandmother's dialogue.
Like any other NPC, she introduced the facility in a mechanical voice:
"This is the Pokémon Day Care, where we help raise Pokémon."
"Pokémon left here will gain 200 experience points per hour of in-game time."
"To retrieve a Pokémon, a fee of hours stored ×100 will be charged. Any fraction of an hour counts as a full hour."
"How may I assist you?"
As her words ended, a prompt appeared before Red.
[Deposit Pokémon]
He instinctively selected it.
The screen shifted, and a Pokémon selection interface appeared.
Aside from Buggy—who was too far away—all of Red's Pokémon were eligible for deposit.
Luffy, Zoro, Nami…
And Usopp, who had only just appeared in Red's Pokémon list today.
"A place where Pokémon gain experience passively? The rules are a bit different, but the effect seems basically the same."
Thinking this, Red immediately selected Usopp at the bottom of the list.
Usopp's status screen popped open instantly:
[Pokémon: Usopp][Level: 16][Gender: Male][Nature: Timid (+Speed, -Attack)][Type: Bug / Grass][Ability: Run Away (Ignores all enemy interference; escape is guaranteed.)][Moves: None][Experience: 136 / 1021]
——[HP: 64][Attack: 36][Defense: 36][Sp. Atk: 42][Sp. Def: 54][Speed: 52]——
He really lived up to the name "God Usopp."
This was by far the most distorted stat spread Red had seen so far.
A Nature that reduced attack power—Timid.
A combination of Bug-type, widely considered the weakest type, and Grass-type, which lacked offensive power.
And on top of that, an Ability—Run Away—that provided no benefit in combat whatsoever.
The moment his stat list appeared, it was already clear that Usopp was not meant for direct combat.
However, the Speed boost from Timid granted him the mobility that long-range attackers sorely lacked.
Bug-type's talent for hiding and Grass-type's resilience greatly enhanced his survivability.
And combined with a near rule-breaking absolute escape ability—
A weak yet completely uncounterable support Pokémon…
Was born!!!
"Then it's decided—go!"
Without hesitation, Red pressed the [Select] button beneath the stat panel.
The reason for choosing Usopp was simple.
Even without entering the game world, Luffy and Zoro could gain 200–300 EXP per day through real-world training.
Nami was leveling up under Red's guidance and improving rapidly as well.
Among the Straw Hat crew, Usopp alone relied on developing ammunition to grow stronger.
While his combat power with tools might not necessarily fall behind a leveled-up Nami, it barely contributed to improving his core stats.
And recently, Usopp had been completely absorbed in researching Nami's Clima-Tact.
In Red's judgment, the crew's support specialist deserved the privilege of quietly soaking up experience.
"Red? Nami?"
With a flash of light, Usopp suddenly appeared inside the Day Care area, separated from them by a railing.
He looked over curiously.
Red simply smiled.
"Good evening, Usopp."
"I'll explain everything later."
"Time's tight—just stay here for a bit."
"Let's go, Nami!"
"Huh?" Usopp froze in place, reaching out instinctively—only to be blocked by an invisible, solid barrier isolating him from the outside world.
(End of Chapter)