Chapter 32

According to the lore, the Pokémon Pokédex was originally invented by Professor Oak. In some special stories, a special Pokédex is only given to the protagonists and has various unique nicknames.

The upgrade module card drawn from the lottery made the Pokédex mobile. Takumi evaluated it as comparable to the golden legendary upgrade of an SSR.

「'Fifty Million Mora' (Hu Tao) joined the group」

「'This Magnet is a Billion' (Ningguang) joined the group」

「'Chongchong Grows Up Quickly' (Xiangling) joined the group」

「'Qianyan Army Captain Hong Yi' joined the group」

Along with Keqing, Andre, and Childe who gathered in person earlier, the first batch of seven members was complete.

After some thought, Takumi felt that using nickname IDs was fine when the group was small, but it would be inconvenient and confusing when more people joined. So he set it up to display real names only.

Takumi sent Keqing, Andre, and Childe away and began to explore the upgraded mobile Pokédex.

"Hmm, it's definitely mobile-friendly."

"It has many camera functions, and the processor, memory, and other hardware are full of high-tech features. It gives off that weird high-tech vibe of the Pokémon world."

"In that case, besides the group chat, we could also play some mini-games. It would make promoting and popularizing Pokémon knowledge easier."

But the difficulty was that Takumi couldn't write code. However, when he continued to check the items obtained from the second ten-consecutive lottery, he was a bit surprised.

Besides the two golden legendary cards, and one Pokédex upgrade card, there were four SR purple cards among the rest:

「'Bald Programmer' (Purple) – Improves your coding and programming skills in the Pokémon World language to 'Expert'」

「'Mediocre Breeder' (Purple) – Increases your breeding skill level to 'Advanced'」

「'The Coordinator's Slogan is "The Most Beautiful, the Most Elegant, the Most Handsome"' (Purple) – Increases your coordinator skill level to 'Advanced'」

「'I am the Supervisor' (Purple) – Provides expertise in the ACG industry, improving your supervising and post-production skills in music, animation, and comics to 'Expert'」

"Ah, this..."

Takumi realized that the SR purple cards were increasingly leaning toward random skills.

Could the system be telling him, as the store manager, to stop being lazy and expand his focus beyond just the breeding house? Attack from multiple areas and increase efforts to promote Pokémon?

"It's doable with skill cards!"

Takumi's eyes lit up.

He wanted to make a casual puzzle-type game with Pokémon elements first.

But before that, he needed to find artists, musicians, and other personnel. This was Teyvat, not the Pokémon world. Finding the right people with the relevant skills...

Takumi thought carefully:

"Artist? Isn't there a great artist in Mondstadt's Dragonspine, Mr. Albedo?"

"There are plenty of musicians. Venti can master any instrument quickly. I just need to bring some wine, and that'll serve as his payment."

"As for the theme song, there are also people like Xinyan, Barbara, and Yun Jin!"

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that everything was in place, with nothing missing.

While Takumi was thinking about how to increase the reach and promote Pokémon, the atmosphere in the group chat was quite lively.

「Hu Tao: What, @Childe, you actually pulled five foxes in a row? Shocked face!」

「Xiangling: Hey, hey, I left early and missed that famous scene!」

「Ningguang: In fact, when Keqing returned to the Jade Chamber and told me, I couldn't believe it because it was too unbelievable...」

「Keqing: It's really unbelievable. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have doubted it in every possible way.」

「Hong Yi: …Folks, let me say this: among the 905 types of Pokémon, drawing fox-type Pokémon repeatedly is probably almost as rare as drawing a legendary Pokémon, right?」

「Andre: @Hong Yi, you make a good point!」

「Childe: …Can't argue with that!」

In a secret underground stronghold in Liyue Harbor, Childe held the Ice Vulpix, pondering over the greatly upgraded Pokédex along the way. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that this device, which was equivalent to a handheld tablet, contained terrifying technological power.

When he opened the group chat, of course, the scene of his five consecutive fox pulls was exposed.

Squatting in the stronghold, watching Ice Vulpix carefully licking Moomoo Milk, Childe was deeply puzzled.

There was no denying it.

Ice Vulpix was pure white, with an incredibly light and fluffy appearance—a hundred times cuter than a ragdoll cat.

But... what Childe pursued was strength and power, not beauty.

What kind of beauty does a macho man need?

Just thinking about it...

The anger in Childe's heart began to rise.

The Hydro Vision hanging on his belt suddenly glowed.

"Buzz—"

The Hydro element was activated.

A huge whale made of pure Hydro energy jumped up from the gym's open ground.

"Vullll—?!"

The Ice Vulpix, who had been drinking milk cautiously, was so frightened that its six icy tails stood on end. Its big, blue, crystal-like eyes were full of shock. It quickly hid behind Childe's feet, holding tightly onto his trousers with its small paws.

The whale made of Hydro energy crashed down.

A huge wave of water exploded.

A large wave rushed toward the agitated Childe.

"Vullll?"

Ice Vulpix tilted its head, seeing that Childe remained unmoved. A look of shock flashed in its big eyes.

"Vullll!"

It looked at the massive wave coming toward them.

Its serious face seemed to convey that it would protect its trainer at all costs.

Its small mouth puffed up, and its six curly tails shimmered with frosty ice particles.

"Whoosh—"

A gust of chilling snow bravely faced the oncoming wave.

However, the wave continued without hindrance and crashed into Childe.

Childe remained unaffected.

He wasn't embarrassed in the slightest, being the wielder of the Hydro Vision. He had practiced like this countless times, day and night.

But this time, something was different.

"Hmm?"

After Childe vented his anger, he noticed many ice shards left on the ground after the waves had fallen.

He suddenly realized something, his expression changing to one of shock.

"Little guy, did you just use Powder Snow to freeze my Hydro energy?" Childe picked up the Ice Vulpix that was clinging to his trousers and shivering.

This time, when he looked at the Ice Vulpix, Childe's eyes completely changed.

Hydro + Ice.

It could trigger the Frozen elemental reaction.

This was also the fundamental principle of the Permafrost Team.

Of course, elemental reactions were not only triggered by Vision holders, which Childe knew well.

In the wild, encountering an Abyss Mage with Cryo abilities often led to the embarrassing situation of being frozen.

In the original game, players often suffered from being frozen, feeling frustrated.

But...

Childe grabbed a fist-sized piece of ice from the ground, his eyes fierce.

"Now, it's me and my Pokémon triggering elemental reactions together."

"This is controllable!"