Chapter 285: Super Transformation!

In terms of combat power it was slightly inferior, but that wasn't entirely Porygon's fault.

Chansey being strong enough was the main reason.

Next came Porygon's combat experience, and the issue of meshing with Baimu as a trainer — it always paused for a beat whenever it received Baimu's commands.

As if a computer program needed a certain response time.

However, based on the actual situation and the manual Professor Akihabara provided, this was a trust system specifically built to make Porygon appear more lifelike — like Affection, the trust level had to be raised to a certain degree before it could be commanded as smoothly as one's own arm.

By the same logic, to evolve Porygon into Porygon2, one needed to raise the trust level.

There were ten trust levels in total; the manual said raising it to level six was enough to prevent Porygon2 from looking down on its trainer and dropping the trust level after acquiring a massive amount of knowledge.

So how does one check what the trust level is?

Very simple.

First, let Porygon enter any device with a built-in screen.

Baimu chose his old phone, and following the procedure, pressed the phone against Porygon's forehead.

In an instant, Porygon's diamond-shaped eyes released an intense incandescent light; then its body began to blur and distort, finally turning into a white light that burrowed in through the data cable port.

Ding~

The phone's screen lit up accordingly, and Porygon's form suddenly appeared within it.

"Hiss! It really went in?"

Baimu exchanged a glance with Chansey watching beside him, still finding it somewhat unbelievable — just like when he first saw the Pokémon Transfer system.

The latter didn't quite understand why the trainer was so worked up, but since he was making that face, it must be something amazing, so very graciously it played along and acted shocked too.

When Porygon entered the phone, it generated an interactive system; even through the screen Baimu could communicate with Porygon by touch — in fact, even better than in the real world.

When Porygon in the digital space expressed various emotions, animations would automatically be generated; in the real world, there were none.

Back to the main point.

Long-press Porygon's body, and a heart would appear on its forehead — one heart symbolized one trust level. Right now, when Baimu pressed it, the trust level was three hearts.

The manual said the starting level was two hearts; it seemed that although the earlier battle hadn't let Porygon gain much advantage, it had still raised the trust level.

Suddenly.

Baimu was curious whether Porygon had a trust level toward Pokémon too, so he handed the phone to Chansey and let it press as well.

"Lucky?"

"Keep holding it down, don't let go, until a heart pops up… right, one, two, three… huh? Four? Huh?"

He stared at the Porygon in the phone screen with four red hearts floating above its head, his own head filled with question marks.

Chansey didn't quite understand what was going on and voiced: "Lucky?"

"……"

Baimu stroked its head in response, thought for a moment, and had to admit the fact that Porygon's affection for Chansey was higher than for him, the trainer.

Just because one move failed to hit it, it gained two hearts?

Balanced on its feet, probably!

"Ahem, can you come out?" Baimu couldn't help mutter inwardly, but friendship between teammates was a good thing, and it also helped Porygon join their little family.

So complaints aside, there was nothing to say about this matter.

"Pr-prr!"

Porygon still poured out from the data cable port, once again taking solid form.

A thirty-six-kilogram Pokémon could casually burrow into a phone without adding any mass to it — one could only say the black technology of the Pokémon world really was abundant.

"Very good."

Baimu stroked its smooth body surface.

Six hearts of trust level… wonder how long that would take.

But at this stage neither Chansey nor Galarian Corsola showed any signs of evolution, so there was no need to rush; even if Porygon evolved, without sufficiently usable moves it still couldn't be put to use.

——

There was one more thing about Porygon that Baimu paid special attention to.

【Conversion】.

When Professor Akihabara bestowed this move upon Porygon, he also gave it the ability to change form.

That's right.

Porygon could actually change its appearance; in the anime it had shown a sharp long-cone form to attack, a shield form to block, and a powerful hammer form.

If you counted 【Texture】 and 【Texture 2】, which changed its own typing, it actually wasn't that far off from Rotom—

Fine, it was quite a bit off.

But the great significance 【Conversion】 brought wasn't about competing with Rotom — at least not for Baimu; for him, the meaning of Conversion leaned more toward unleashing imagination.

A Porygon that could transform through Conversion was like Ditto — you never knew how much potential it could have.

"Fairy Wood Strange Fate"

But wanting to transform wasn't as easy as saying it; up to now, Porygon could only change into the forms that had been loaded into it at birth.

That is, the long-cone, shield, and hammer forms Baimu had seen in the anime, plus a platform-type form that had never appeared.

All these forms had one feature in common: they were full of sharp edges and corners, with not a single smooth curve.

If Baimu wanted to expand on this, he had to abide by this rule.

However, in the manual, Professor Akihabara seemed to anticipate that someone would try to make Porygon take other forms, and stated that to give Porygon more forms required exceptional patience.

Because Porygon's comprehension outside of information technology and combat was very low — so low it drove one to madness.

To compensate for this "defect," Professor Akihabara further upgraded Porygon, creating Porygon2 — a Pokémon equipped with an AI system that learned and grew on its own — in order to give it super-strong learning ability.

Who would have thought it backfired — the upgrade succeeded, the strength increased, but the personality became less than satisfactory.

"Come on, give it a try."

All Baimu looked at the Duobeast before him. "Edge Shift! Long Cone!"

"Pling!"

A dazzling Bai Guang lit up across the Duobeast's body, and its head changed as if it were evolving.

As the light faded, the creature's duck head had become long, flat, and pointed — it didn't look easy to keep balanced.

"So only the head part changed after all."

All Baimu circled around it, nodding thoughtfully. "Edge Shift! Shield!"

The Bai Guang flared again.

This time the change covered its entire body — the creature shifted from a blocky duck into an octagonal shield with a beast face, floating in the air and looking as if it had formidable defensive power.

Once it evolves into Duobeast II, maybe it would work well in Doubles?

"Edge Shift! Hammer!"

The third transformation.

This time its lower half came back, and its head turned into a square pink hammer — it actually looked fairly intimidating.

"Edge Shift! Platform!"

The fourth transformation.

Its lower half vanished once more, and the Duobeast became a flat, even floor tile — the kind a person could step on.

All Baimu was just about to try it out when he saw it suddenly revert to its original form.

"Pa… Pling…"

The Duobeast looked a little weary, though since it didn't need to breathe, there were no heavy panting motions.

"Ah, good work, good work — here, have some juice to recharge."

Seeing this, All Baimu understood that four transformations in a row had been a bit much for it, and he quickly topped the Duobeast off with fruit juice and a Chansey Heal Pulse.

In theory, the Duobeast doesn't need to eat, but Professor Akihabara designed an eating system into it.

The reason is unknown.