Pokemon: I refuse to be a supporting character!

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"It's nothing, really. I was just careless and got lightly scratched by Litten—a minor issue."

Li Xiang smiled as he shook his head.

On his right palm, three faintly bleeding scratch marks stood out.

Miss Yin frowned, her gaze sweeping over the visibly uneasy Litten before grabbing Li Xiang's hand to inspect it. "Go to the medical center right away to disinfect and bandage this. Be more careful next time."

"Got it, got it! Litten, let's go."

Li Xiang nodded repeatedly and decisively scooped up the stunned Litten with one hand, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he headed out.

Purugly, lying on the couch resting, silently followed behind.

Outside the door.

Li Xiang, suppressing his excitement and ignoring the pain in his hand, cheerfully jogged toward the medical center.

The candies worked!

Litten's physical abilities had surged, and it had momentarily lost control of its strength, driven by its eagerness for the catnip. As a result, it accidentally injured Li Xiang's palm.

It wasn't a big deal.

Almost every Trainer gets hurt by their Pokémon at some point, whether mildly or severely. It's just part of the job—though perhaps not to the extent of needing to "watch out in the next life."

The injury itself was trivial.

What Li Xiang cared about was how much the four Attack candies had improved Litten's capabilities and, more precisely, how much a single candy contributed to the boost.

These questions would require systematic testing to answer.

Fortunately, the base gym was equipped with devices for measuring a Pokémon's strength, similar to those used for assessing a boxer's punching power.

While the data might lean more theoretical and have fluctuations, it would still provide valuable reference points.

"Meow…"

A soft meow drew Li Xiang's attention.

He slowed his steps and glanced down, meeting Litten's slightly uneasy gaze as it occasionally looked at his injured hand.

"It's nothing, just a scratch. Don't worry about it," Li Xiang said gently, smiling. "If anything, the mistake was mine. It has nothing to do with you."

He had underestimated the sudden increase in strength and foolishly decided to hand-feed Litten the catnip.

"Meow?"

Litten didn't fully understand what Li Xiang was saying, but it could sense that he wasn't upset.

The simple-minded kitten immediately perked up, wiggling out of his arms to follow him closely. Its tail swished back and forth, brushing against his calf with every step.

Li Xiang chuckled softly.

After disinfecting the wound and applying some medication, Li Xiang wrapped his right hand in a bandage.

The scratches were shallow and had barely broken the skin. They'd heal in no time—two days at most.

Li Xiang hadn't been too concerned about the injury in the first place. His mind was preoccupied with testing the candies' effects.

He had fed Litten four out of the five Attack candies, saving one for comparative testing.

This approach would help him determine how much a single candy contributed to Litten's stats.

One stat point might sound straightforward, but the actual value of a single point was something Li Xiang didn't know.

Even the method for acquiring candies had changed, so it was reasonable to assume their effects might have changed as well.

...

Ten minutes later.

Li Xiang and his two cats exited the gym.

Li Xiang wore a delighted expression, while Purugly and Litten looked thoroughly confused.

The two had no idea what Li Xiang had been doing.

Purugly, who could understand the numerical readouts, didn't know Litten had eaten any candies and assumed it was just a standard fluctuation.

Litten, meanwhile, couldn't comprehend numbers and couldn't articulate or even fully sense the changes in its own body.

Thus, the entire narrative was in Li Xiang's hands. Whatever he said had happened, happened.

Unfortunately, he was too excited to explain anything to the two Pokémon.

The test results were promising.

Though the effects fell slightly short of his expectations, they were still excellent.

And this was only the beginning.

Li Xiang didn't yet know the rules or limitations for candy consumption. These were things he'd have to discover gradually.

Currently, Litten's updated data looked like this:

Pokémon: Litten

Level: 6

Type: Fire

Ability: Intimidate

Gender: Male ♂ 

Moves: Scratch, Growl, Ember, Heat Wave, Nasty Plot (Egg Move), Crunch (Egg Move)

Level 6 had been achieved not long ago. It was one step closer to its minimum evolution level.

Typically, based on what Li Xiang had seen on forums about raising starter Pokémon, most Trainers' starters evolved around the beginning or middle of their second semester at the Basic Academy.

The average evolution level was 16, identical to the games.

In other words, raising a starter Pokémon from "zero" to its first evolution stage generally took six months to a year.

This showed how much more challenging raising Pokémon was in this world.

Their growth rate had been significantly slowed.

Li Xiang even looked into the average levels of Pokémon owned by students at Advanced Academies. Most were around level 40.

Graduates who made it to the end averaged in the 50s, while dropouts often had even lower levels.

This meant that in roughly ten years (three years at Basic Academy plus six years at Advanced Academy), most Trainers only managed to raise their Pokémon to level 50 or so.

Becoming a powerful Trainer in this world was no easy feat.

Of course, Li Xiang also reviewed data on outstanding graduates from Advanced Academies.

These individuals had achieved excellent results in the Zhu Xia Region's collegiate tournaments and ranked among the top academy-trained Trainers.

Their Pokémon, aside from rumors and speculation, typically ranged from level 55 and above, with their ace Pokémon often reaching level 60 or higher.

These individuals represented the peak of the younger generation of Trainers in Zhu Xia.

Impressive, indeed.

Even in the games, Steven's Pokémon rarely exceeded level 70—sometimes not even reaching level 50.

....

In the days that followed, Li Xiang's life was both busy and fulfilling.

On one hand, he had to learn explosive punches and improve his physical fitness.

On the other hand, Litten needed training to level up, learn various moves, battle against others to develop combat awareness, and obtain candies through different means.

So much so that he completely forgot about Lin Feng, his best friend and the possible protagonist of the story, as he fully immersed himself in personal growth.

Until one evening.

Lin Feng, with a touch of pride, sent him a photo via a messaging app. That's when Li Xiang realized, Oh, right, this guy exists.

The photo Lin Feng sent genuinely surprised him.

In the picture, Lin Feng was smiling happily, holding an equally cheerful Charmander in his left arm, while on his right elbow rested a strange, red-and-blue, block-like creature that resembled an origami crane.

—Porygon.

Formerly known as 3D Pokémon, Porygon was the star of the infamous "Porygon Incident."

In the anime, the episode featuring Porygon had rapid, intense flashing lights that caused severe eye strain and hospitalizations for many viewers. This led to the permanent exclusion of the Porygon family from the anime and the episode being banned.

Porygon was a man-made Pokémon, originally designed in Kanto's Cinnabar Island Pokémon Research Lab, with Team Rocket rumored to have been involved in its creation.

In earlier games, players could only obtain Porygon at the Rocket Game Corner in Celadon City.

But in this world, Porygon originated in the North American region. It was created by an organization called the Pokémon Genetic Research Institute.

This institute, backed by ten of the largest corporations in North America and the North American Pokémon Association, had ample funding and resources to support its endeavors.

Porygon was one of their research outcomes in recent years.

Li Xiang suspected that this same organization might have been responsible for the creation of Mewtwo in this world.

Of course, that wasn't the focus.

The real focus was that Porygon was an exceptionally rare and valuable Pokémon— perhaps even rarer than pseudo-legendaries.

Why?

Simple. Because of its limited numbers.

Porygon had only been introduced to the public within the last ten years.

In those ten years, being genderless and only able to reproduce through fission or with Ditto, Porygon's numbers remained very low.

When Li Xiang had browsed through the Pokémon registry at the Green City Breeding Base, he had specifically searched for Porygon but couldn't find one.

Most likely, they'd already been claimed.

He had been choosing his Pokémon during the peak period when new trainers were selecting theirs.

So, when he saw Lin Feng with a Porygon, it was hard not to be curious about its origin.

Lin Feng, eager to boast to his friend, was thrilled when Li Xiang complimented him with lines like, "Brother Feng is amazing!" and "Brother Feng is so cool!" He promptly spilled the details of how he got the Porygon.

It was straightforward.

What does a typical story protagonist do after getting their first Pokémon?

—Participate in competitions.

Large tournaments, small tournaments, commercial battles, beginner trainer contests—you name it.

And more often than not, they amaze everyone with their prowess, taking home the championship and prizes like money or Pokémon.

Lin Feng was no exception.

Not long ago, he had participated in a competition called the Junior Ho-Oh Cup held in Xiang City. Relying on his Charmander, he triumphed in every round, eventually claiming the grand prize.

—A Porygon.

Xiang City, adjacent to Green City, happened to be where Lin Feng's mother's family was from, in the countryside.

No wonder he had been unreachable for a while.

Li Xiang, impressed, marveled at how generous the organizers must be to offer Porygon as a prize.

A quick online search cleared things up for him.

In the Zhu Xia region's history, Ho-Oh was revered as the Tower Lord or Supreme Deity, embodying sanctity, purity and protection.

In ancient times, it was the totem beast of the Zhu Xia region, safeguarding the people as they flourished on this land.

Thus, Ho-Oh held the same symbolic status in Zhu Xia as dragons did in Huaxia (chinese) culture.

It was often invoked for various purposes.

The Junior Ho-Oh Cup Lin Feng participated in was a commercial competition organized by a technology corporation called Sacred Flame Group in collaboration with several trade associations. The event spanned major cities within Yuzhou Province.

Participation was restricted to trainers who had not yet entered a basic trainer academy.

Such competitions were common in this world, primarily aimed at attracting attention through battles to achieve marketing objectives, but few competitions were as lavish in their rewards.

After some digging, Li Xiang discovered that this particular tournament wasn't as widely recognized. It had only been advertised on TV and through local posters.

Who even watches TV these days? …Well, okay, apparently a lot of people still do.

Surprisingly, the internet wasn't as emphasized.

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Read up to 35+ (previously 25) advance chapters of [Pokemon: The Legendary Trainer] and up to 25 (previously 20) chapters of [Pokemon: I refuse to be a supporting character!] exclusively on my Patreon!