"A sword? You can't see it?"
"How come even I have no idea what he's talking about?"
"Wait… If it's Charcadet, then there's no reason it should have resonated with you…"
Looking at Pei Jingguo, who had said his piece and then fallen silent, Su Bai suddenly stroked his chin.
Something just didn't seem right.
"Even if it was a matter of resonance, it should've been Ceruledge that resonated with you…"
"After all, Charcadet has two possible evolutions: Armarouge, the cannon-type evolution, and Ceruledge, the sword-type evolution."
"And we don't even know which one it will evolve into yet…"
The description of the consciousness space had been very clear.
Every Pokémon inside had to possess a certain degree of consciousness resonance with Pei Jingguo before it could appear.
An unevolved Charcadet had absolutely nothing to do with swords!
And Pei Jingguo had specifically said that this Charcadet possessed a sword…
How was that possible?
"I'll take a look at its data…"
The next second, Su Bai opened his Pokédex.
As the original model from which all the other Pokédexes had been derived, his device could display detailed data on any Pokémon owned by a Trainer.
"Its Ability is Flash Fire… There's not much to say about this Ability. For Fire-type Pokémon, it's practically a nightmare, but there's nothing particularly unusual about it."
"Wait…"
"What the hell is this?!"
Su Bai stared at the pink-colored name listed under the Pokémon's moves.
His eyes widened slightly.
"How does this Charcadet have Psycho Cut?!"
He turned his head toward Pei Jingguo, who was silently communicating with Charcadet, his expression almost one of disbelief.
"What exactly did you encounter inside that consciousness space?"
"How could there be a Charcadet that knows Psycho Cut?!"
Wang Tao and the others exchanged bewildered looks.
It was the first time they had ever seen Su Bai react so dramatically.
Although Su Bai was technically their peer, his composure had long since become deeply ingrained in everyone's impression of him.
And Su Bai was the owner of the Pokémon Center.
What kind of situation could possibly make this hidden-class Pokémon Master cry out in shock over a Pokémon's move?!
"Psycho Cut… What is that?"
Wang Tao asked curiously.
"Is it really that powerful?"
"Very!"
"No wonder Pei Jingguo said this Charcadet has a sword…"
"Psycho Cut is Charcadet's sword!"
"This Charcadet actually determined its evolutionary path before even evolving!"
Su Bai spoke with absolute certainty.
"Psycho Cut is a powerful Psychic-type move."
"A Pokémon that possesses this move can materialize the blade within its heart and use it to slash its opponent."
"And it has an unusually high chance of landing a critical hit. How could a move like that not be powerful?"
"However, what surprises me is that Charcadet shouldn't be able to learn Psycho Cut at all."
"This is a move it only learns later, after evolving into Ceruledge!"
As Su Bai spoke, he suddenly slapped his forehead, as though he had finally realized something.
"No wonder this little guy is a Shiny!"
"No wonder it was able to enter Pei Jingguo's resonance consciousness space!"
"This little guy…"
"It has a sword in its heart!"
Although the situation was somewhat unbelievable, Su Bai now had a rough understanding of what was happening.
In the games, being Shiny merely meant that a Pokémon had a different appearance from others of its species.
But Shinies in the real world were genuinely "different" from the rest of their kind!
It would actually be strange if such Pokémon didn't possess something special.
Su Bai had originally thought that since even Wang Tao, who ranked second, had drawn Tyranitar, Pei Jingguo getting a Charcadet seemed somewhat unworthy of the champion title.
But now…
That clearly wasn't the case!
A Charcadet that could use Psycho Cut right from the beginning was definitely extraordinary!
This little guy could be called a natural-born swordsman!
A Pokémon's strength couldn't be determined solely by the strength of its species.
What mattered most was the individual Pokémon itself!
"So because it's a Shiny… it has a move that's completely outside the normal specifications?"
At this point, everyone understood.
The status of Shiny Pokémon instantly rose several levels in their minds!
After all, in this world, being a different color and looking pretty wasn't enough to create much demand.
What people here needed was combat power!
Not to mention that some Pokémon actually looked worse in their Shiny coloration…
"A Shiny Pokémon… and it already knows a 70-power Psychic-type move right from the start…"
Zhang Qun glanced at the Goomy he was holding, his expression one of utter despair.
Goomy possessed a broken move like Protect, which had even played a crucial role in their battle against Articuno.
But when it came to offensive moves…
There really wasn't much to talk about.
Of everyone present, Zhang Qun understood best just how difficult it was to raise a Pokémon with poor offensive capabilities in its early stages.
Even after evolving into Gabite, it actually wasn't all that powerful.
"Everything depends on Big Bro taking care of me" had practically become this rich second-generation's personal motto…
Leveling up?
All thanks to getting carried!
Charcadet, on the other hand, started out with a 70-power move that had an easy chance of landing critical hits…
That was practically cheating!
"I…"
"Damn!"
"So does that mean this little guy will grow extremely quickly and has incredible talent?"
Ding Yue's words were filled with undisguised envy.
Even the rapidly growing starter trio didn't get the luxury of starting out with a 70-power move!
"What exactly did you encounter inside that space?!"
"How did you manage to run into such a special Pokémon?!"
"Ahhhhh! Why wasn't I the champion?!"
Ding Yue's outburst immediately resonated with everyone.
They hadn't been particularly curious about that consciousness space before.
But this extraordinary Charcadet had multiplied their curiosity countless times over!
"This… is a little difficult to describe."
A trace of hesitation appeared on Pei Jingguo's face.
After all, it was difficult to put that kind of sensation into words.
Literature and language had never exactly been the sword fanatic's strong suit!
Still, he stood up and tried his best to recount what he had experienced.
"There were many consciousnesses in that space…"
…...
"What an incredible space…"
"So that's where our Pokémon were chosen?"
"There were that many Pokémon…"
Liu Yunlan patted her Arcanine and smiled.
"Arcanine, looks like we really were destined to meet!"
Su Bai nodded thoughtfully.
As for how the system actually selected Pokémon for its customers, Su Bai had never been entirely certain about the process.
Now, it seemed that consciousness resonance was the system's method of selecting Pokémon.
Of course, the system probably used many other criteria as well before ultimately choosing suitable Pokémon from among those consciousnesses.
For example, Zhou Xiaofei had been dirt-poor at the time, so the system had probably taken his financial circumstances into consideration before selecting his Pokémon…
Even so, there was still a considerable degree of randomness involved.
So saying that some Pokémon and Trainers were simply "destined to meet" wasn't entirely wrong.
"Still… I think I know which Pokémon you encountered."
Su Bai stroked his chin.
"The humanoid Pokémon should have been Kartana…"
"That's an Ultra Beast. Its personality is… rather strange, so I don't think it would be a particularly good match for you."
"As for the Pokémon that said you lacked the courage of a hundred battles…"
Su Bai sighed.
"It's a shame you missed your chance with that one."
"After all…"
"That was the legendary Pokémon known as the King of Swords—Zacian!"