"Brother Baishi, do you know if the breeding center has any Tangela eggs?"
As they walked, Yun suddenly asked the question. He hadn't expected that the most suitable Pokémon for his training plan would end up being Tangela.
"Tangela?"
Baishi, leading the way, paused for a moment. As far as he could remember, Tangela wasn't featured in the breeding center's catalog or on its website. For one, there weren't many in stock; and two, this Pokémon was mostly found in the southern regions.
Obscure and not particularly good-looking… why would this kid Yun be interested in a Tangela?
Baishi was genuinely puzzled.
"We don't have any right now, but if you reserve one, I think we could have it delivered within a week," he offered after some thought.
"That's fine… I'll check out the other Pokémon eggs first."
Yun sighed in relief. The fact that it wasn't available made things easier—less to agonize over. Truth be told, he didn't really likeTangela.
As for what to pick if Tangela was off the table, he'd considered alternatives—Bellsprout, Oddish, they could work too.
But Yun had other thoughts in mind.
Over the past half-month, he'd put a lot of effort into designing a training plan for Grass-type Pokémon—but now he was starting to panic.
Because, honestly, he didn't have much confidence in it.
With zero experience in raising Pokémon, he was a complete rookie. Training in real life wasn't going to be as straightforward as "grind, level up, repeat." It required careful planning. So rather than testing his unproven theories on his first partner, Yun wanted to wait until he had more experience—and a chance to scientifically verify his ideas—before putting them into practice.
That's why, apart from Grass-types, Yun was also considering other kinds.
He had narrowed it down to three categories:
First, Grass-type Pokémon that matched his training plan—Tangela, Oddish, Bellsprout, and so on.
Second, Bug-types that could potentially develop psychic abilities after evolving—like Caterpie, Venonat, Wurmple...
These Bug-types were easy to raise and matured quickly. Within a year, they could naturally evolve and become decently strong.
Plus, psychic abilities... were rare and powerful.
However, in the real world, evolved Bug-types like Butterfree, Dustox, or Venomoth rarely displayed any actual psychic powers. It wasn't like the games where they'd just "learn a move" by leveling up. That made it risky. Without psychic powers, their advantages weren't so clear—and Yun didn't have much confidence in training them to awaken such abilities either.
As Baishi led the three of them around the spacious facility, he introduced each Pokémon egg in turn, giving appropriate recommendations.
"This is a Nidoran egg..."
"This is a Meowth egg..."
"And this… is an Eevee egg."
"Eevee is a Normal-type Pokémon, which is considered the most adaptable of all types," Baishi explained.
"It's also one of our top recommendations. Eevee is gentle in nature, easy to raise, and it has four primary evolution paths—Electric, Water, Fire, and Grass. Its strength increases significantly after evolving. If you're aiming for strong performance in the entrance exam battles, choosing Eevee gives you the best chance of passing."
"We also sell matching evolution stones. Once your Eevee hits maturity, you can use them. Right now, if you buy the egg and the stone together, there's a five percent discount." Baishi smiled as he added the sales pitch.
"Eevee, huh…"
Yun stared, unmoved by discounts—because this was the third category of Pokémon he'd already identified.
From what he knew, Eevee had at least eight known evolution paths.
Currently, the Pokémon League recognized 702 Pokémon species, but evolutions like Glaceon, Leafeon, Sylveon, Espeon, and Umbreon weren't even officially counted in that number. Yun had already cross-checked a ton of online sources to confirm this.
Pokémon had only been part of modern society for a few decades. It wasn't surprising that many secrets remained undiscovered.
And Eevee wasn't the only case.
There were other mysteries too—Politoed, Slowking... no one had publicly revealed how they evolved.
No one knew how Slowpoke really turned into Slowking.
And how Feebas evolved into Milotic? Still a mystery.
All these unsolved secrets weren't tied to rare Pokémon—but to the most ordinary species. Meanwhile, information about legendary Pokémon had actually been discovered in ancient murals and ruins across secret realms.
...
Eevee itself wasn't that expensive. Its gentle personality and weak combat ability had led the general public to treat it as a pet. The real cost was the evolution stones.
Even the lowest-quality stones were several times more expensive than an Eevee.
Eevee could breed, but the stones? Non-renewable resources. Incredibly rare. Found only in hidden secret realms. Their market was monopolized and ruthlessly marked up. Those generous "I'll give you a Thunder Stone as a gift" scenarios you see in the anime? Yeah, that wasn't happening for regular folks like Yun.
This breeding center clearly dealt in evolution stones. Eevee and stones—bundled together for sale. If a family could afford it, most would already be tempted.
But if everyone thought Eevee was only powerful after using evolution stones… then Yun was certain of one thing:
Eevee was wildly underrated.
Those alternate evolutions—Espeon, Umbreon, Sylveon—that required special conditions instead of stones? They had just as much potential as the elemental paths.
Maybe it was because Yun had been standing in front of the Eevee egg longer than any of the others, but his parents started exchanging glances.
"What do you think of Eevee?" his dad asked.
"It's good—actually, probably the best choice. But..."
Yun hesitated. Compared to Grass- and Bug-types, Eevee was definitely more stable, easier to raise, gentle in nature, highly adaptable, and packed with potential. It was like a perfect choice, waiting to be discovered by someone lucky enough to see its true value.
"Then it's settled. Don't worry about the rest—we can afford an evolution stone." His dad gave his shoulder a reassuring pat.
Yun looked up, a bit stunned.
That's not the issue though...
Forget it. It wasn't something he could easily explain. If he chose Eevee, he definitely wouldn't evolve it into one of the Fire, Electric, Water, Ice, or Grass forms. That'd be way too extravagant.
But he had a nagging feeling that things wouldn't go so smoothly. And explaining why he wanted Eevee to his parents would be a pain...
After all, he couldn't just say it had other evolution paths.
Now, the dilemma became the classic problem of choosing one out of three.
Before coming to the breeding center, Yun still hadn't made up his mind. But now that he was here, he couldn't afford to keep hesitating.
"I want to take another look."
Yun asked Mr. Baishi to give him another tour—focusing especially on eggs from the three categories he'd considered.
Bug-types. Grass-types…
And finally, that Eevee egg—white base, with soft brown swirls, the patterns blending like fluffy clouds, pleasant just to look at.
When it came time to choose, Yun thought he'd be rational. But in the end, he realized that the biggest deciding factor for him was… looks.
The appearance of the egg. The appearance of the Pokémon that would hatch from it.
Eevee won, hands down.
Because, as it turns out—looks really are justice.
Gazing at the Eevee egg, Yun made his final decision:
"This is the one."
______________________________________________
If you want 15 chapters ahead, check out my Patreon:
patreon.com/PureParadox