Chapter 45

Huo La lay on the soft bed of the Pokémon Center, his fingertips subconsciously stroking the texture of the bed sheet, but his gaze was locked firmly on the translucent panel in front of him.

Below the League coin value, the reputation value with the "R" mark was showing 400, like a stone hanging in the air, finally making him unable to hold back and open his mouth: "System, what exactly is the use of this 400 reputation?"

"System is searching... Search complete." The cold mechanical sound rang out, without a hint of emotion. "Reputation can be used to purchase goods in the system mall."

"Damn it, it's the system mall again." Huo La cursed in a low voice, his brows twisted into a knot.

He tapped his brow with his fingertips, feeling irritable in his heart. If he hadn't touched the threshold of a Team Rocket executive, let alone 400, even if he saved up thousands or tens of thousands of reputation, it would just be a number that looked good.

It seems that if he wants to unlock the mall permission, he still has to add some urgency to the matter of "infiltrating Team Rocket."

Just as the thought turned, he suddenly sat up as if remembering something, his tone carrying a bit of questioning urgency: "Wait, that's not right! I defeated the four brothers of Team Rocket and got 400 Team Rocket reputation, what about the League side? Assisting in catching thieves this time also counts as helping the League, so there should be a corresponding League reputation, right?"

"System is searching..." The mechanical sound rang out again, only this time the interval was much longer than usual, and the cave seemed to only have the subtle buzzing of electronic signal operation.

For a long time, the system's voice came again, but with a bit of "flexibility" that had never been seen before: "No League reputation setting was found... Considering the Host's question is reasonable, the system will add the League reputation setting in the next upgrade. All previous events involving the League will be reissued with corresponding League reputation after the upgrade is completed."

Huo La froze in place, his eyes opening wide, and he was stunned for a full few seconds.

In his previous life, he had read quite a few system transmigration novels, seen systems that could talk, and systems that could upgrade, but one like this that could evaluate the rationality according to the Host's appeal and could even temporarily adjust the settings was simply unheard of.

He couldn't help but scratch his head, and an absurd yet inexplicably reasonable thought popped into his mind: Could it be that there is really a second-rate programmer behind this system? Perhaps they are modifying the code and making adjustments in the background in real-time, and he is just a little white mouse used to test the functions?

However, this thought only flashed by.

He shook his head, throwing those groundless guesses to the back of his mind—no matter who is operating behind the system, being able to upgrade to add League reputation is a good thing for him anyway, and there is no need to dwell on such irrelevant places.

Calming his mood, Huo La lay back down, his tone returning to calm: "System, pull up the Pokémon data of Zubat."

As soon as the voice fell, the panel in front of him switched interfaces, and rows of clear attribute data slowly unfolded, completely presenting the information of that newly captured green shiny Zubat in front of him.

Pokémon: Zubat (Shiny)

Gender: Female

Level: Lv20

Aptitude: B

Status: Healthy

Nature: Lax

Type: Poison/Flying

Ability: Inner Focus (A Pokémon with this ability will not flinch.)

Height: 1m

Weight: 8.4kg

Held Item: None

Skills: Supersonic (Proficiency 65%), Astonish (Proficiency 15%), Poison Fang (Proficiency 18%), Quick Guard (Proficiency 11%), Absorb (Proficiency 89%)

Improvement Count: 0

After scanning every piece of data on the panel, Huo La already had a count in his heart.

There were no too many unexpected surprises. Except for the rare green shiny appearance, and the B aptitude being slightly higher than ordinary Zubat, whether it was the ability, skill pool, or improvement potential, it was not much different from the Zubat of Big brother before.

No wonder at the cave entrance of Moonview Mountain, facing hundreds or thousands of Zubat, the system didn't even give a prompt.

If measured by the standard of Beedrill, this Zubat really couldn't enter the "eyes" of the system, even if it carried the rare label of "shiny."

Huo La leaned gently against the head of the bed, his fingertips tapping his knees subconsciously, but a look of relief curled at the corners of his mouth—actually, it didn't matter.

From the moment he decided to capture this Zubat, he had already figured it out: on the road to becoming a Pokémon Master, the system has always been just an auxiliary tool, and it can only be an auxiliary.

If he waited for the system to prompt "excellent aptitude" before acting, and relied on the templates given by the system to cultivate, then he, Huo La, wouldn't be walking his own travel road, but rather like an NPC walking through the process according to the settings, and would never become a true protagonist.

"Forget it, don't think about it, resting early is the right way, there is still a Gym challenge to prepare for tomorrow." Huo La breathed a sigh of relief and closed the system panel—the translucent interface shrank rapidly, and finally curled into a small Poké Ball icon, hiding at the edge of his vision.

Before long, fatigue swept over, he turned over, and soon sank into a dream.

At the same time, the glass door of the Pokémon Center was pushed open gently, and a slender figure walked in.

The girl had long black hair reaching her waist, with a small silver bell tied at the end of her hair. She wore a black long shirt with dark blue trim, and the cuffs and skirt were embroidered with faint water wave patterns. Walking without a sound, she carried a cold temperament.

"Good evening, is there anything I can help you with?" Nurse Joy, who was organizing medical equipment, looked up and showed a gentle smile.

The girl walked to the service desk, placed three Poké Balls gently on the table, her voice crisp like a spring in the mountain stream: "Hello, Nurse Joy. My Pokémon need treatment and recovery, sorry to trouble you."

Nurse Joy skillfully picked up the Poké Balls, her fingertips sweeping over the subtle scratches on the ball body, and nodded: "No problem, this is my duty. Please provide your TrainerID, I need to register the information."

However, the girl shook her head gently and took out a small money bag from the cloth bag she carried: "Sorry, I don't have a registered TrainerID. I can pay the League coins directly for the treatment, please calculate the price."

Nurse Joy was stunned, then smiled knowingly and didn't ask more—in this world, besides Trainers certified by the League, there are indeed quite a few "lone wolf" style Breeders or inheritors. They are used to not relying on the League system and rely on family-inherited knowledge or their own experience to travel. Such situations are not rare.

"It doesn't matter." Nurse Joy put the Poké Balls into the treatment machine and pressed the start button. "The routine treatment fee for three Pokémon is 900 League coins in total. It will be restored in about half an hour, you can wait for a while in the rest area over there."

"Thank you." The girl handed over the League coins, her gaze subconsciously sweeping over the rest area. Most of the seats there were empty, and only a family of three was resting.

She didn't stay long, found a seat by the window, took out a yellowed notebook from the cloth bag, and read it quietly. Her long hair hung on her shoulders, covering most of her side face.

The treatment machine made a slight buzzing sound, and only the ticking of the clock and the light sound of Nurse Joy organizing items remained in the Pokémon Center.

No one noticed that on the title page of the girl's notebook, a lifelike Squirtle was drawn, and next to it was a line of delicate small characters: "Find that freedom that can let you rest in peace."