Chapter 20: Preparations Before the Battle! (Please Support with Votes QAQ)

Ling Feng studied the screen carefully for a while longer and realized that it was indeed possible to unlock powerful Pokémon without spending money. The "Dream Factory" game regularly launched events that rewarded players with small bonuses and items. With consistent dedication and several months of gameplay, unlocking a red-tier Pokémon should be achievable.

However, most of these unlocking items were random and couldn’t be used to select a specific Pokémon. This meant that even if you unlocked a red-tier Pokémon, it might not be one you liked or wanted. If you wanted to build a strong and well-rounded team, the honest truth was that you’d have to spend money.

At this moment, Ling Feng looked at the reward he had just earned from completing the tutorial—a card that allowed him to unlock a specific purple-tier Pokémon—and he pondered deeply. He had enough money to easily unlock all the popular top-tier Pokémon, but he had no intention of doing so.

One of the greatest charms of Pokémon was the belief that “there are no useless Pokémon, only useless trainers.” Even some unpopular and seemingly weak Pokémon had their own tactical value and could become the core of a team, producing unexpected results.

With this thought in mind, Ling Feng opened the team configuration screen and began selecting from the purple-tier Pokémon. Among them were some moderately strong but not particularly popular choices, like Scyther and Magcargo.

As he browsed, a familiar figure suddenly caught his eye and made him pause. Atop its sharp protrusions were two yellow eyes, and petals of blue leaves expanded and contracted—it was a very peculiar-looking Pokémon.

—The Ore Pokémon, Lumineon!

To be honest, when Ling Feng saw Lumineon, he thought he must have made a mistake. He couldn’t fathom how such a strong Pokémon could be placed in the second-tier purple category.

After all, Lumineon was consistently among the top 30 in usage rates in the Scarlet and Violet doubles format and was the signature ace of the reigning champion, Icí.

From this, Ling Feng realized that both the players on the battle road and even the game’s developers had only a shallow understanding of battle strategies.

With that realization, he immediately used his tutorial reward to unlock the right to use Lumineon. He didn’t hesitate, not only because Lumineon was powerful, but also because he had just thought of a way to use a “normal Pokémon” strategy that would make Lumineon play a crucial role on his team.

After selecting Lumineon, Ling Feng returned to the Pokémon screen and began fine-tuning its configuration. Fortunately, this step didn’t require any payment; he could freely adjust the Pokémon’s level, effort values, and held items.

But soon he noticed something was off. Many important items were missing from the list—items like the “Choice Band,” which locks moves but boosts power, or the key item for Lumineon, the “Power Herb.”

At that moment, Ling Feng understood why Lumineon was categorized as a “purple-quality” Pokémon. Without the Power Herb, Lumineon was completely different from one equipped with it.

The Power Herb allowed a Pokémon to skip the charge turn of any move that required charging, allowing it to unleash the move immediately. Although the item would disappear after activation, in practice, combined with Lumineon’s devastating charge move “Meteor Beam,” it could directly knock out opponents.

Even more importantly, Meteor Beam raised Lumineon’s special attack by one stage after use. Coupled with its base special attack of 130, once activated, Lumineon transformed into a mobile cannon, blasting whoever stood before it.

In the original game, Lumineon suffered from a speed disadvantage and could struggle against counters due to its fragility. But in this simulation battle, the turn order wasn’t determined by speed.

Thinking this through, Ling Feng shook his head slightly. It seemed this world’s understanding and development of Pokémon weren’t as advanced as he had imagined. Otherwise, how could a global gaming giant like Dream Factory miss so many crucial battle items?

Furthermore, Lumineon’s hidden ability, “Corrosion,” wasn’t available for adjustment either, implying that people here might not even know about some Pokémon’s hidden abilities.

But for Ling Feng, this was a blessing in disguise. The less people understood Pokémon, the more sensational the game he was about to create would be.

That said, even without the Power Herb, it didn’t matter. Lumineon wasn’t meant to be an all-out attacker in his team; it had a different, ingenious role.

He quickly adjusted Lumineon’s effort values and moveset, then turned his attention to other Pokémon.

The good news was that white, green, and blue-tier Pokémon were all freely usable. However, these tiers generally included less popular Pokémon with modest stats, like the mightyena, parasect, and slugma.

Ling Feng quickly searched and added two Pokémon to his team: the round, ball-like electric rodent Pokémon, Togedemaru, and the purple, slender-tailed normal-type Pokémon, Doublade.

These two seemingly unremarkable Pokémon would become the core of his upcoming strategy.

Just thinking about what he was about to do made him smile.

Next, Ling Feng added three more Pokémon—Pidgeot, Swampert, and Dugtrio—to his team. After completing the detailed configuration for each, he opened the PvP interface.

The battle road’s PvP modes featured two formats: 1v1 singles and 2v2 doubles. Players could use up to six Pokémon.

Each mode had its own ranking system, progressing from the lowest to highest as: Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball, Luxury Ball, and Master Ball tiers.

Most players hovered around the Great Ball tier year-round. The Ultra Ball tier was reserved for players with a deeper understanding of the game. The Luxury and Master Ball tiers were exclusive to powerful trainers—gym leaders, elite four, and champions.

At this moment, Ling Feng clicked the matchmaking button for doubles.

Simultaneously, he started his live stream and typed in the title:

“Player of Quality: Challenging a Fresh Free-to-Play Account with a 100% Win Rate to Master Ball!”

“Lose one match and win a 100,000 yuan red envelope!”

(Just one rank away from topping the new book charts QAQ Please send me monthly votes, I bow to all of you!)

(If you don’t have monthly votes, commenting and following works too!)

He smiled confidently, ready to take on the challenge ahead.