Sapphire gazed at the young man in front of her—still as sharp-tongued as ever—and found herself lost in thought. Perhaps it was the recent string of failures she'd endured, but she suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia for the old days.
Truth be told, this was the first time she'd seriously examined him up close. It dawned on her, belatedly, that he was actually quite handsome. It was just a shame about that mouth of his. He could easily navigate through girls based on his looks alone, so why did he always choose to tease her specifically?
As she thought about it, Sapphire's pretty face began to redden. She seemed to finally realize something later than most. The only reason a boy would constantly pick on a specific girl was usually because he cared about her, right?
Uh oh. Could it be that this guy used to like her?
Cough! Where did that narcissistic thought come from? Did losing that recent Gym battle scramble her brains?
"By the way, how did you find my shop?" Li Yuan asked, eyeing her with equal interest. "This place is pretty out of the way. People don't usually stumble across it without a referral. Did you sniff me out or something?"
Sapphire's guess wasn't entirely wrong; Li Yuan did actually like her quite a bit. Just the fact that she wore the face of "May" but was named "Sapphire" made her quintessential heroine material. And among all the heroines in the Pokémon anime, May was one of his favorites.
If he could chase her down and make her his, it would fulfill a childhood dream. Plus, it would light up another icon in his Encyclopedia System. Why wouldn't he?
And if he couldn't catch her... well, he wouldn't chase her. It wasn't like he couldn't live without her. In short, Li Yuan was actually quite lazy. He would put in some effort if he had a goal, but if it didn't work out, he'd drop it. He never forced things.
"Can you stop being so disgusting? Can't I just have wandered here randomly?" Sapphire's face darkened.
"Sniffed him out"—what the hell? What kind of smell could a grown man have besides sweat? It was amazing he could say something so gross with a straight face. Believe it or not, she was ready to turn around and leave right now.
"Fine, fine, fine. Then tell me, what do you need here? Since we're old classmates, I can give you a... 9.5% discount," Li Yuan said, spreading his hands with a look of indifference.
"9.5%... You might as well not offer a discount at all," Sapphire couldn't help but retort, suddenly doubting her previous guess. Did this guy really used to like her? Generally speaking, when things got to this point, shouldn't the starting offer be at least 30% off?
Offering a mere 9.5%... didn't he know that being so stingy meant he'd never get the girl!
"Are you sure you don't want it? The services in my shop are quite expensive. Even a 9.5% discount might save you tens of thousands," Li Yuan reminded her.
"That expensive?" Sapphire was startled.
"Take a look for yourself." Li Yuan casually grabbed a price list and handed it to her.
Sapphire had already been surprised to hear that a 9.5% discount could save tens of thousands. Now, looking at the price list he handed her, she was shocked into cursing.
"Holy shit... Fire Blast tutoring: 100,000. Awakening the Blaze Ability: 500,000???" Sapphire's eyes widened as she read.
She could understand the price for Fire Blast; tutoring for such high-power moves was always expensive, and there was no guarantee of success. But what the hell was "Awakening the Blaze Ability," and why did it cost half a million RMB?
Why didn't he just rob a bank?!
He could have just mugged her directly, yet he was kind enough to offer to swap an ability instead. How touching! Did she need his help for that? An Ability Capsule only cost a few thousand. He was starting at 500,000—robbing banks wouldn't be as fast money as this!
"Are you sure the price for the Blaze Ability isn't a typo?" Sapphire asked incredulously after checking several times to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her.
"Of course it's not a typo; that's the price. And I might not even teach it just because someone wants to learn it," Li Yuan said, spreading his hands in a "take it or leave it" manner.
"Are you sure your shop actually gets customers?" Sapphire was speechless. She had truly never seen business conducted like this.
"Duh. You're my old classmate, otherwise, I might not even have seen you without an appointment," Li Yuan curled his lip.
"Then explain it to me. Is this 'Blaze' made of gold, or is this shop made of gold? How can it sell for so much?" Sapphire still didn't believe he could get customers running a shop like this.
"You know, my Blaze ability is worth more than gold. You didn't think I was just swapping an Ability, did you?"
"What else could it be?"
"I recall your Torchic had the Speed Boost Ability, right?"
"She's a Blaziken now."
"Fine, fine. What if I told you I could let your Blaziken keep its Speed Boost Ability, while simultaneously allowing it to trigger Blaze at full health, on command?"
"Are you kidding? How is that possible?" Sapphire was stunned for a moment, then immediately imagined the scenario he described.
A Speed Boost Blaziken was already an incredibly powerful Pokémon. If it also had the Blaze Ability—and a manually triggerable, full-health Blaze at that—it would be practically equivalent to gaining a free "Adaptability" buff on top of everything else.
If that could really be done, her Blaziken wouldn't just get a simple 50% power increase; they would possess a unique, exclusive buff. Where in the world could you find another Blaziken that could Speed Boost and activate Blaze at full health?
Once such a Blaziken appeared on the competition stage, the visual impact on the audience would be immense. Whether it attracted investment from major corporations or the favor of Elite Four members and Champions, wouldn't any of those easily earn back the 500,000 tuition fee?
Sapphire found it hard to imagine such a good thing existed in the world, so her first reaction was disbelief.
"You'll know if it's real or fake once you pay. My shop is open right here in broad daylight. If it were a scam, do you think Officer Jenny is blind?" Li Yuan shrugged, too lazy to explain further.
To others, this kind of "dual-ability wielding" seemed impossible, but he had a cheat code. Everyone knew that items like Ability Capsules could switch a Pokémon's ability, but they easily overlooked another issue.
Ability Capsules could only switch abilities, not grant new ones. The prerequisite for switching was that the new ability had to already exist within the Pokémon's genetic potential. If you only had one potential ability, an Ability Capsule was useless.
This meant that the Blaze ability had always existed inside the Speed Boost chicken. He was merely using his Aura's ability to perceive molecular foundations to excavate that potential. In principle, it wasn't anything strange; anyone else with his specific Aura could easily do it too.
"This..." Sapphire had to admit she was almost convinced.
Li Yuan's shop didn't look new; it had clearly been open for a while. If he had been running a scam, Officer Jenny wouldn't have tolerated him. This meant his words were likely true—he really had a way to let her Speed Boost chicken gain the Blaze Ability.
Although it was still very hard to believe, it didn't stop her from being tempted by a Blaziken that could activate Blaze.
"Do you still think my 9.5% discount is too little?" Li Yuan smiled meaningfully.
"Is it possible that the problem isn't that the 9.5% is too little, but that it's me?" Sapphire looked at the massive sum of 450,000 still needed after the discount and could only sigh.
Where would a college sophomore like her get that kind of money? Raising Pokémon was expensive, okay?
"No way. Are you doing that badly since you left me?" Li Yuan continued, heartlessly.
"I wasn't doing that great when I was with you either!" Sapphire raged. This guy really couldn't fix his bad-mouthing habit. Don't talk like they had actually been together! She lived just fine without him!
Wait, I shouldn't have replied to that!
"Sigh... forget it, forget it. Guess I'm stuck with you. How about a 50% discount? That work?" Li Yuan said silently.
"No..."
"I think it will work this time."
"Really, no..."
"Seriously? You can't be that broke, can you?"
"I am that broke..."
"..."
Well shit, getting stuck with you is a massive loss. I've never seen such a shabby heroine!