Chapter 59: Testing the Modifier (Two Chapters Combined)

Hu Yang had a long, long nightmare.

A horde of ghosts was chasing him. He ran and ran, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape. At last, he ended up in a dead end. As the ghosts closed in to tear him apart, Hu Yang suddenly opened his eyes, jolting upright in bed, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.

A strange room. Unfamiliar furniture.

“Are you all right?” came Gengar’s voice in his mind.

Hu Yang wiped his face, took a deep breath, and turned to see Gengar looking at him with concern.

Not far away, Roserade and Axew were sprawled out on the floor, sleeping in exhaustion. Seeing this, Hu Yang inexplicably felt a wave of relief.

He’d been scared to death—he almost thought he’d transmigrated again.

“Of course I’m fine. Why are you looking at me like that?”

He’d only been sleeping, right?

Gengar seemed doubtful. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

Hu Yang paused, looking at Gengar’s expression, and belatedly sensed something was wrong. He hesitated for a moment and asked, “What happened?”

Gengar answered cautiously, “You’ve been asleep for two days and two nights. No matter how we called you, you wouldn’t wake up.”

In desperation, he’d even used a nightmare curse—but even that hadn’t woken him.

Hu Yang didn’t care that Gengar had tried to give him nightmares. He was stunned for a moment, then said, “Wait, did you say I’ve been sleeping for two days and two nights?”

Gengar replied, “That’s right.”

His voice woke up Roserade and Axew, who looked at Hu Yang with delight in their eyes.

“Rosa!”

“Axew!”

They called out as they rushed over, brimming with excitement.

Hu Yang instinctively reached out and caught Axew.

Roserade stood by the bedside, visibly happy.

After confirming that their Trainer was unharmed, the Pokémon finally relaxed.

Hu Yang glanced around the room, patted his pockets, but didn’t see Decidueye anywhere. He asked, “Where’s Decidueye?”

Gengar looked toward the window. “It went out.”

Just as he spoke, a familiar cry came from outside, and Decidueye flew in through the window, a fish clamped in its beak.

Hu Yang was speechless.

Decidueye dropped the fish to the floor and stared off, lost in thought.

Hu Yang looked at it, recalling what had happened that day.

That day, he had desperately wanted to change Axew’s Ability. Decidueye had come out of its Poké Ball on its own and modified Axew.

Afterward, Decidueye was clearly exhausted.

And after modifying four of Roserade’s moves, Hu Yang himself had fallen into a coma.

Contemplative, Hu Yang picked up Decidueye and set it on his lap.

The golden finger interface surfaced in his mind.

“Pokémon Modifier (Trial Version 1.0.2)

Functions:
○ Appraisal
○ Move Tutoring
○ Shiny Modification
○ Ability Modification [Relevant template missing, unavailable]
○ Base Stat Modification [Relevant template missing, unavailable]
○ IV Modification [Relevant template missing, unavailable]
Bug Fixes: This product is currently in trial. If you encounter bugs, please take a screenshot and send it to the author’s email.”

It seemed the three missing templates were with Decidueye.

Thinking of this, Hu Yang checked Axew and Roserade’s information again.

Axew’s Ability hadn’t reverted to Rivalry, and the moves he’d added to Roserade hadn’t disappeared.

“Do you feel anything unusual?” Hu Yang set Axew on his lap and examined it thoroughly.

“Axew…” Axew lay there like a dragon pancake, letting him poke and prod.

Nothing seemed wrong with Axew.

He looked at Roserade next.

“Rosa…” Roserade looked like she wanted to say something, a puzzled look on her face. She spoke, her tone confused: “Rosa, rosa…”

Gengar interpreted, “She says she suddenly knows how to use some new moves.”

“Do you feel unwell?” Hu Yang asked.

Roserade shook her head gently.

That was good.

Hu Yang let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed that, no matter the modification, none of it harmed the Pokémon.

At that moment, footsteps sounded outside the door.

Soon, the door opened, and Norman appeared in the doorway.

“You’re awake?”

Hu Yang realized then that it had been Norman who’d helped him while he was unconscious. “Thank you,” he said.

Norman didn’t seem to mind. “How’s your body? You’ve been in a coma for two days and two nights.”

“I’m fine now. I’m really sorry for all the trouble these past two days,” Hu Yang said.

Norman was a hearty, easy-going man. He laughed. “It’s no trouble at all. May told me about you.”

Even though Norman waved it off, Hu Yang still felt a bit embarrassed.

Now that he was awake, there was no reason to keep imposing on them. He told Norman he’d return to challenge the Gym another day, then left with his Pokémon and headed back to school.

Before leaving, he quietly left three hundred League coins under the pillow to thank Norman’s family for looking after him and his Pokémon these past two days.

Back at school, the first thing Hu Yang did was report to the faculty office. Before he even entered, he saw Lijia coming out.

Lijia said, “Are you all right?”

Hu Yang was startled. “How did you know—”

Lijia explained, “May told us about it two days ago. Don’t worry about things here at school. Your health comes first.”

Hu Yang fell silent.

Lijia told him other teachers had covered his classes these past two days, then shooed him back to his dorm to rest.

But Hu Yang felt better than ever—fit as a trainee idol with two and a half years of practice: he could sing, dance, and even play basketball.

When he returned to his dorm, he saw the Magikarp floating dumbly in the water.

The moment it saw him, it started banging its head against the tank.

It looked as if to say, You haven’t fed me in two days!

Hu Yang felt a pang of guilt. “My bad, my bad.” He hurried to the fridge, got some food, and dropped it in the tank.

Magikarp stopped its headbutting and began to eat.

After feeding Magikarp, Hu Yang took Roserade to their usual training spot.

“Let’s see if you can use Grassy Terrain,” he said.

“Rosa!” Roserade nodded, a green light shining from her body.

Grassy Terrain was a move that drew on the power of nature. It restored health and boosted the strength of Grass-type moves. In a fantasy novel, it would be like a special domain.

But soon, the green light faded from Roserade’s body.

She’d failed to use the move.

“Rosa…” Roserade looked apologetic.

It seemed that move modification didn’t mean instant mastery.

Hu Yang thought for a moment and comforted her, “It’s all right. You already know how to use it, right?”

Roserade nodded.

“Keep practicing and you’ll definitely master it,” Hu Yang encouraged.

Roserade kept trying.

On her fifth attempt, she finally succeeded in using Grassy Terrain.

But because she wasn’t proficient yet, the effect only lasted a few dozen seconds before fading away.

“You did great! With more practice, you’ll get the hang of it,” Hu Yang praised her.

He looked at the four modified moves.

Four moves, two days and two nights. That was twelve hours per move.

Did that mean the more moves modified at once, the greater the strain on the user?

To test this theory, Hu Yang ran some experiments during his time off.

That night, he called his Pokémon to his bedside and told them, “I might sleep for a while like last time, but don’t worry, I’m fine, I won’t die. There’s food over there—help yourselves if you’re hungry. And remember to feed Magikarp.”

“What are you going to do?” Gengar asked in confusion.

Axew and Roserade looked bewildered as well.

Hu Yang grinned. “I’m going to give you all a cheat code.”

Gengar: “?”

After giving his instructions, Hu Yang lay down and this time opened Axew’s move modification panel.

Move modification wasn’t all-powerful. Perhaps because this was reality, some moves that conflicted with a Pokémon’s type couldn’t be modified.

For example, Roserade couldn’t learn Fire-type moves, but she could learn some Water-type ones. Not all moves could be randomly added, either. If a Pokémon’s energy control or physical strength wasn’t enough, powerful moves that required high control couldn’t be added.

Moreover, a Pokémon could only master a limited number of moves. With Roserade’s current strength, she could learn up to twenty moves (not counting fusion moves).

But this wasn’t a fixed number. As Roserade’s strength increased, so did her move limit.

For example, an Elite-level Pokémon could learn up to twenty moves; a Champion-level Pokémon could learn up to fifty.

With this in mind, Hu Yang added Swords Dance to Axew.

Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion washed over him, and he fell asleep almost instantly under the gaze of his Pokémon.

Gengar was speechless.

Axew felt a new move’s information appear in its mind and was a bit confused.

Swords Dance—what was that?

“Rosa?” Roserade said she’d felt the same thing before.

“Axew…” (Is he really all right?)

Axew grabbed the bedsheet, wiggled its way onto the bed, and poked Hu Yang’s arm with a little paw.

“I don’t know, either,” Roserade replied, frowning.

Gengar sighed, checked the time on the wall, and instructed Roserade to get food from the fridge to feed Magikarp.

Roserade nodded and went to work.

That purple guy couldn’t touch food, and Axew was too short to reach the fridge—only Roserade could handle these chores.

Axew sat by Hu Yang’s head, keeping watch over him.

Twelve hours quickly passed.

As the Pokémon drifted off to sleep, Hu Yang opened his eyes.

He checked the wall clock. Exactly twelve hours had passed since he’d made the modification.

So, one move required twelve hours of sleep.

What about shiny modification?

Hu Yang turned to Axew. Normally, Axew was dark green, but its shiny form was sand-colored. Not very pretty, but after evolving into Haxorus, it would become a cool, black color.

“Axew?”

Axew rubbed its eyes, woken up by his voice.

Hu Yang wasn’t sure how long shiny modification would take, so while he was up, he made himself a cup of instant noodles.

It was already dark.

Decidueye, Magikarp, and Roserade were already asleep in their little nests.

Though Gengar didn’t need sleep, he’d returned to his Poké Ball for simulated rest at times like this.

The midnight aroma of instant noodles was irresistible. Axew, eyes half-closed, was drawn over by the delicious smell.

Hu Yang picked Axew up and split the noodles with him.

After eating, Axew licked his lips, still wanting more.

Hu Yang took him back to the room and, like a devious witch, coaxed, “Axew, do you want to look even cooler than you do now?”

“Axew?” Now fully awake, Axew gave a questioning cry.

Hu Yang found the book with the black Haxorus in it, sat with Axew under the desk lamp, and pointed at the picture. “Want to be as cool as that?”

Axew had lived in the wild and didn’t really understand what “cool” or “handsome” meant, but judging by Hu Yang’s tone, those words sounded great.

“Axew!” Axew looked at the book and nodded.

If that color was better, he wanted to be like that too!

“Okay. But after I change your color, I might need to sleep a bit. You’ll have to watch over me!” Hu Yang teased.

Axew patted his chest with his tiny paw, full of responsibility.

He was strong!

Hu Yang set Axew aside, opened the shiny modification panel, selected Axew as the target, and initiated the process.

Before he drifted off, he saw Axew’s body glow, just like when Decidueye had modified his Ability.

Three in the morning.

Suddenly, a cry came from the bathroom.

Awakened, Magikarp and Roserade looked towards the sound.

Gengar poked his head out of the Poké Ball.

“Caw?”

Decidueye looked up in confusion, saw there was no danger, and went back to sleep.

When the others arrived, they saw a strange Pokémon standing before the mirror, eyes brimming with tears.

“Rosa?” (Who are you?) Roserade was stunned.

Hearing this, Axew was even more upset.

He’d become so ugly; this color was one his kind would shun.

“Axew?” Gengar asked uncertainly.

Axew was too distraught to respond.

“Rosa?” (Why did your color change like that?) Roserade, realizing this was the Axew they knew, was completely confused.

“Axew…”

At that moment, Hu Yang woke up and glanced at the clock.

This time, only an hour had passed.

So, shiny modification required one hour of sleep.

Modifying a move required twelve hours.

Hu Yang suspected that modifying IVs or Abilities would require even more time.

And if it came to base stats, with his body, he might have to sleep for centuries…

As for why Decidueye was only exhausted after modifying an Ability, perhaps his physical strength was simply that great.

Twelve hours of his own life in exchange for a Pokémon’s move—and not instant mastery, either. The Pokémon still had to work hard to learn it.

Honestly, it was a bit of a loss.

But he could use his sleeping hours for modifications anyway.