[Lv.1 Drilbur ♂ / Elite-tier]
"Whoa! A shiny!"
The Drilbur that hatched from Gary's egg was different from an ordinary one. The stripes on its body, which should have been blue, were pink, and its nose, which should have been a darker color, was blue.
"This luck..."
Gary knew that the Shiny Charm could bless hatching Pokémon Eggs, but he hadn't expected to actually run into a shiny.
"Dril~"
Drilbur let out a whimpering cry. Because it was a newborn, it still couldn't open its eyes. Its nose swayed back and forth as it relied entirely on smell to search for a target.
Looking at Drilbur like this, it had to be hungry.
Gary got ready to take out some Moo Moo Milk.
"Dril!"
The moment he opened the bottle cap, Drilbur smelled it and crawled toward Gary. Gary brought the bottle over, and Drilbur immediately latched on.
Drilbur drank an entire bottle in one go before it was finally satisfied. Then it opened its eyes, and upon seeing Gary, it curled up next to him to rest.
"Little guy."
Gary looked at the tiny Drilbur, took out a Poké Ball, gently touched it against Drilbur, and registered it. Then he checked Drilbur's data.
[Pokémon: Drilbur (Shiny)]
[Type: Ground]
[Level: 1]
[Potential: Elite-tier]
[Ability: Mold Breaker (Moves can be used on the target regardless of the target's Ability.)]
[Move: Rapid Spin]
[Friendship: 200 (255 max)]
Drilbur's data panel was normal, but it actually had a Hidden Ability, which was extremely good in this era.
"System, use the Ability Expansion Stone on Drilbur," Gary thought silently.
[Ding! Ability Expansion Stone successfully used.]
Gary didn't hesitate and immediately unlocked Drilbur's other two Abilities.
"Use a Bronze Bottle Cap on Drilbur."
[Ding! Bronze Bottle Cap successfully used.]
"Use a Silver Bottle Cap on Drilbur."
[Ding! Silver Bottle Cap successfully used.]
Gary directly raised Drilbur's potential to Champion-tier.
As for pushing it any higher, he decided against it. No need to overdo it.
The key reason was that the Unova Region's Vertress Conference had no strong opponents. Just trainers like Trip, Cameron, and Virgil could make it into the main competition. It only showed that the level of the Vertress Conference was too low.
Gary even felt he didn't need to use system props at all. He could win the Vertress Conference relying solely on his own ability.
It was honestly embarrassing that Ash had been defeated by Cameron at the Vertress Conference. The key point was that Cameron had only prepared five Pokémon and still defeated all six of Ash's.
From this, one could tell that the Pokémon Ash caught in the Unova Region were all weak. Although Ash had caught nine Pokémon there, almost all of them were weak. Aside from Krookodile, the other eight were lackluster—probably Gym-level potential at best, and even that was wasted.
Gary then used three Ability Enhancements to strengthen all three of Drilbur's Abilities.
[EX Mold Breaker (Cannot be disturbed by the target's Ability, and also reduces damage reduction from Reflect, Light Screen, and Aurora Veil when attacking.)]
[EX Sand Rush (In Sandstorm weather, Speed becomes 4 times the original.)]
[EX Sand Force (In Sandstorm weather, the power of Rock, Ground, and Steel-type moves is increased by 60%.)]
After the three Abilities were enhanced, the result was almost exactly what Gary had guessed.
Sand Force's boost was doubled, and Speed was increased by 4 times. After Drilbur evolved into Excadrill, its base Speed stat would be 88. Multiplied by 4, that speed was simply terrifying. Aside from Teleport, there would be almost nothing that could match Excadrill's speed.
Sand Force could also increase the power of Excadrill's moves, and the ability to ignore Abilities and damage-reducing screens would make Excadrill the sharpest knife in the world.
"Alright, you all keep training."
Looking at the onlooking Pokémon, Gary told them to continue their training.
In the following days, Gary stayed in Silvercrown Town. He watched the news every morning, arranged training for his Pokémon in the afternoon, and took care of the newborn Drilbur. The days passed one by one.
Half a month later, Gary was having breakfast at a café. On the TV screen in the café, a drama series was playing, but in the next second, it automatically switched to another channel. A news anchor in a professional outfit appeared on the screen.
"Citizens of Crown City, an incident has occurred suddenly. Kodai Network wishes to issue an important announcement. We now bring you President Grings Kodai, who will deliver the important notice."
The camera turned to a middle-aged man in a white suit—Grings Kodai, president of Kodai Network.
"Here it comes."
When Gary saw this, he knew the plot of the Phantom Ruler was about to begin.
Even though this was Silvercrown Town, since the distance wasn't far, the broadcasts from Kodai Network could still be received here.
"I must take this opportunity to apologize to all of you," Kodai said. "The Entei, Raikou, and Suicune that I brought to participate in the Pokémon World Cup have been destroying everything because they were manipulated by an evil Zoroark that sneaked onto the plane."
Kodai didn't even blush while lying. He even broadcast footage of the three Legendary Beasts wrecking the streets of Crown City.
These flames, lightning, and floods were all created by phantom devices. Zoroark was simply transforming into the three Legendary Beasts and running around.
Zoroark's transformation wasn't a true transformation; it couldn't compare to Ditto. Zoroark's transformation was actually an illusion, and an illusion couldn't deal damage to a target.
Unless Zoroark itself could use Flamethrower, it could pretend to be Entei using Flamethrower with the illusion. But if Zoroark couldn't, then the flames it spat out were all illusions and dealt no real damage.
"I am truly sorry for this," Kodai continued. "We are currently working to capture and recover them. Please evacuate outside the city immediately. It would be best to head to the nearby Silvercrown Town, where we will provide material aid."
Kodai had also revealed his ultimate goal—to drive the people out of Crown City, and ideally have them rush to Silvercrown Town.
"So that's why there have been so many trucks on the streets lately. It turns out Kodai prepared everything in advance," Gary murmured.
In the mornings, Gary had often seen trucks coming into Silvercrown Town. He hadn't known what was inside them, but now it was clear—Kodai had prepared it all beforehand.
After all, it was impossible to relocate an entire city's population without preparing supplies first. If any serious incident occurred, Kodai wouldn't be able to explain himself to the Sinnoh League.
From this operation alone, it was clear that Kodai had spent an enormous amount of money. But compared to being able to keep seeing the future, that money was nothing to him.