Pokemon: Bounty Hunter

Silas carried the incubator containing the Torchic egg upstairs and entered his room.

Carefully securing it on the desk, he lay down on his bed, activated the projection mode of his newly purchased wristwatch, and began paying for access to research papers published by League scholars.

As the night deepened, silence engulfed the surroundings.

Silas gradually drifted into sleep, leaving the incubator on the table with the Torchic egg inside, which occasionally emitted a faint red glow.

Two days later, at noon, the sun shone brightly.

Silas had just finished the morning training session with Pidgeot and returned home to have lunch.

Suddenly, the egg inside the incubator beside him began glowing white.

Silas's eyes lit up—this was a sign that it was about to hatch. His Pidgey had hatched in the same manner back then.

By his estimation, the Torchic egg had been inside the incubator for over 50 hours, which aligned with the typical hatching time for its species. There was no sign of premature birth.

Lost in his thoughts, Silas felt as if time had slowed down. Only after what seemed like ages did the white glow finally fade.

"Tor..!"

A tender cry echoed as a small Pokémon with an orange body and tiny wings appeared before Silas.

Torchic widened its eyes and stared at the towering figure in front of it.

Like most newborn Pokémon, it instinctively regarded the first living being it saw as family. Torchic was no exception.

"Hey there, little one!" Silas greeted with a warm smile.

"Cha!" Torchic's eyes squinted into thin slits as it chirped happily.

Silas gently extended his hands, carefully cradling the freshly hatched Torchic, smoothing out its slightly ruffled feathers from breaking out of its shell.

Torchic relaxed lazily in his palms, its body covered in soft, fluffy feathers. Resting in his hands, it radiated a pleasant warmth.

As newborn Pokémon were quite delicate, Torchic soon dozed off in Silas's tender care.

Silas carefully placed the sleeping Torchic in a specially prepared small bed designed for baby Pokémon.

Then, he silently commanded, "Zero, analyze and display Torchic's status panel."

In an instant, a translucent blue screen appeared before his eyes, visible only to him.

[Torchic]

Category: Chick Pokémon

Type: Fire

Height: 0.18m (Average: 0.4m)

Weight: 1kg (Average: 2.5kg)

Ability: Blaze (When HP is low, Fire-type moves increase in power.)

Hidden Ability: Speed Boost (This Pokémon's speed gradually increases over time in battle until it reaches its limit.)

Moveset: Scratch, Peck, Growl, Counter (Egg Move), Burn Up (Egg Move), Agility (Egg Move)

Level: 1 (Newborn, unable to battle)

Potential: Champion

Training Recommendations:

Infancy: Focus on physical growth. Suggested materials: Nutritional supplements, Mareep milk, vitamin tablets.

Post-Infancy: Prioritize leg muscle training. Torchic's natural development rate is 1.44 times that of its species average, and further training could potentially enhance this even more. (Recommended weighted training diet: Chansey eggs.)

Fire Energy Enhancement: Mix Tamato Berries and Occa Berries to strengthen its internal Fire-type energy.

Note:

The system has detected that this Pokémon's Fire-type energy is 50% higher than the average of its species, indicating an exceptionally high Fire-type aptitude. Therefore, the recommended Tamato Berry to Occa Berry mix ratio should be adjusted from 5:1 to 3:1.

Additionally, based on observed behavior, despite the lack of precise numerical data, this Pokémon's reaction speed is estimated to be at least twice as fast as others of its kind. This suggests an extremely high Fighting-type aptitude. Further evaluation will require a detailed report.

Furthermore, the Speed Boost ability requires additional development. Refer to Professor Birch's research paper, "A Study on Torchic's Hidden Ability: Speed Boost," for more details.

Silas stared at Zero's analysis, sucking in a sharp breath.

Setting aside the exceptional talent revealed in the latter half of the report, the three inherited moves were absolutely insane.

Counter, Burn Up, and Agility—each of them was either an extremely powerful move or had immense tactical value.

Not to mention, they were inherited from three different move categories: Fighting-type, Fire-type, and Psychic-type.

What the hell were its parents?

How did such a mixed genetic inheritance even happen?

A standard Blaziken shouldn't be able to inherit Counter or Agility at all!

This completely shattered everything Silas had learned in his years of studying Pokémon breeding in this world.

And those three inherited moves perfectly explained why this Torchic had such high Fighting-type and Fire-type potential.

For a Pokémon to inherit a Fire-type ultimate move like Burn Up, its internal Fire-type energy must be incredibly dense and of extremely high quality. Pokémon with weaker natural talent wouldn't even be able to inherit Burn Up in the first place.

Meanwhile, Counter and Agility were directly linked to enhanced physical strength and reflexes.

It was a perfect cycle—genetics and potential complemented each other. A Pokémon with poor genetics wouldn't inherit high-level moves, and conversely, strong inherited moves would naturally enhance a Pokémon's base talent and growth rate.

Seeing this status panel, Silas felt a surge of confidence.

If this Torchic didn't have Champion-level potential, he wouldn't believe it even if Arceus came down and told him otherwise.

His Pidgeot, which had Elite-level potential, had only inherited Twister, which wasn't even a particularly powerful move.

But this Torchic?

Just look at its inherited moves!

Its entire status panel might as well have had a giant, glowing sign that said:

"I am a second-generation powerhouse."

And that was before even considering the numerical analysis provided by Zero, which clearly showed that Torchic's stats were beyond normal limits.

Even a small numerical difference in Pokémon battles could mean the difference between victory and defeat. A mere 10% advantage in attributes was often enough to dominate an opponent at high-level battles.

And Torchic wasn't just 10% stronger—it had an overall advantage across multiple attributes.

To put it bluntly, if Torchic was at the same level as its opponent (before reaching Champion level), unless the opposing Pokémon had Legendary-level potential, it could easily take on three opponents at once.

If type matchups were unfavorable, then maybe it could settle for two—just to be humble.

Silas seriously doubted there were many Champion-potential Pokémon out there that had also inherited this many top-tier moves.

And even if they did exist, at worst, the battle would still be an even fight.

Besides, Silas was fully confident in his battle strategies and command skills—he was one of the best among his peers. He wouldn't be a liability to Torchic.

After all, he had talent too.

Silas couldn't help but start fantasizing about the future.

Once this Torchic evolved into Blaziken, wouldn't every battle just end with one opponent after another getting wrecked?

But just as his excitement peaked, reality hit him hard.

His expression froze as he suddenly realized a massive problem.

"Tamato Berry to Occa Berry mix ratio adjusted from 5:1 to 3:1."

This one simple sentence from Zero carried a devastating message.

Silas's brain started running calculations at full speed.

If the proportion of Occa Berries increased from 16% to 25%, that meant the overall cost of breeding Torchic had increased by 60%.

After factoring in the reduced Tamato Berry cost, the total increase in expenses would still be around 50%.

And if he applied the same increased cost ratio to Fighting-type training and other areas, his original 8 million Pokédollar budget to train Torchic to Advance level would need to increase by nearly 4 million Pokédollars!

Silas quickly checked his current balance.

He still had 5.8 million Pokédollars left.

Adding the 1.8 million that hadn't been spent yet, he was still short by a significant amount.

Silas sighed.

Training this monster of a Torchic was going to be expensive as hell.

Still, with talent like this, it would all be worth it.