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"The taste is pretty good, a bit sticky on the teeth, average."
That was Incineroar's evaluation of the gummy candy.
A tiger who enjoys spicy ice cream has very discerning tastes. Candies like these are probably something only kids would like, right?
But after sensing the power surging from within its body, the gummy candy instantly went from average to top-tier. That feeling of getting stronger just by eating enough was quite nostalgic. So nostalgic that it was an experience only from its younger days.
Incineroar slammed a single claw onto a tree stump. Seeing the marks left behind getting deeper each time after eating the candy, it nodded in satisfaction.
The extremely obvious change was a booster shot on the path of growth. Having results made moving forward all the more confident.
"Roar!"
Incineroar patted its increasingly robust body, feeling that not only its attack, but other aspects had also increased significantly.
Hmm. Fwoosh!
A small flame ignited from Incineroar's fingertip.
It squinted, sensing for a moment. It actually discovered that its special attack seemed to have improved as well.
After all, with its superb temperature control ability, the increased firepower output from the special attack boost was quite noticeable.
"Roar!"
Incineroar turned its head excitedly and made an OK gesture to Li Xiang.
'Your Big-bro Incineroar is developing in all aspects!'
"That's great news," Li Xiang responded with a smile, but he knew in his heart that none of the Pokémon on his team were slow, making them susceptible to being caught off guard by Trick Room.
However, there was always a way to counter it. Whether the opponent could even master such excessive speed was a question in itself.
Having consumed a portion of the candy and reduced the load, Li Xiang switched out Incineroar and brought in Greninja, feeding it a similar portion of type-specific gummy candies.
The effect was basically confirmed: it randomly boosted one of six stats.
After eating so many candies for so long, they were all too familiar with the sensations of which stats increased. Even if they weren't sure, asking about the post-consumption feeling could generally reveal it.
Unfortunately, the random effect was a bit frustrating, as it could easily waste candy on stats that were less needed. After all, one candy only boosted a single stat, and only with incredible luck would it boost all or multiple stats.
But, well, the Mist Island incident was like a limited-time event in a mobile game, and the gummy candies were one of the event rewards. Having them at all was already great; there was no need to ask for too much.
"Ninja!"
Greninja, wielding its twin blades, left a mark on the tree stump and leaped back in satisfaction.
Its relatively weak physical attack had always been a source of worry, but now with the gummy candies, it could at least compensate somewhat. At least its physical attacks wouldn't feel like scratching.
This was very important for Greninja. Otherwise, all its training in its Ten Forms of Ksitigarbha style would have been for nothing, and it was still practicing them.
It had the fate of a special attacker but the heart of a physical attacker. That was Greninja.
Incidentally, the fact that the gummy candies could boost stamina made it incredibly happy.
Playing a Substitute strategy relied heavily on stamina. The higher the stamina, the longer the Substitute lasted, and the more possibilities there were.
Like before, Weavile and Honchkrow had both been toyed with by it.
Next were Corviknight and the others.
After feeding all of them, Li Xiang had them spar with each other to test move power, defensive ability, speed, and so on. Then he took out previously recorded data, compared them, and ultimately determined their respective growth focuses.
It wasn't very professional. If visual estimation were enough, what would be the point of all the professional equipment in training halls? Those were the real tools for recording Pokémon growth. But given the limited conditions, it was fine to consume a portion and conduct simple tests.
The conclusions gradually appeared in Li Xiang's notebook as he recorded them.
The effect of the gummy candies was undoubtedly the same as the hard candies before: powerful in the beginning, but growing weaker over time.
After eating too many, the effect approached zero. If it weren't for stacking quantity, which could still produce some effect, Li Xiang would have thought they had hit the limit.
After all, he had no stat panel to look at, so who knew if they had reached their peak.
At times like this, Li Xiang often envied the Pokédex from his original world. Whether in the anime or the special manga, it could display a Pokémon's six-stat chart.
Although it wasn't very helpful for battle outcomes—the anime mentioned more than once that the data stream was inferior to the bond stream, and shouting "Get up" was more effective than calculating damage—having such a tool during training would be incredibly useful.
But it didn't exist.
Without the irreplaceable genius Professor Oak, many things simply couldn't be created.
While he was happily improving his strength, Cheng Xin had also contentedly finished a portrait.
"How is it? Any results?" Mo Ye asked from the side.
"Yes, but I'm not sure if this is his true face. It's also possible he used Ditto to disguise himself." Cheng Xin handed over the portrait. "But I've noted down his aura, walking habits, body shape, and foot size."
He then looked at the now-awake Mewtwo with admiration. "It's amazing you can remember so many details."
Most people's dreams are composed of a small amount of eye-memory, with the rest being filled in by their own habits, inevitably making them seem disjointed and locally blurred. Mewtwo's dream, however, contained an immense amount of information, comparable to upgrading from 360p to Blu-ray or even higher, something ordinary human dreams could hardly match.
"You flatter me." Mewtwo responded casually, floating up from the ground and looking at Li Xiang's delighted face in the distance. It said, "It's your turn to fulfill your promise."
Regarding the medical books, Zhong Hai said he would send them over.
"Alright. How do you want to learn? With me teaching you personally, or just the books?" Cheng Xin smiled. He could tell Mewtwo seemed to really enjoy reading.
"Books." Mewtwo's eyes lit up. It plucked a strand of hair from Cheng Xin's head. "I'll remember you."
This statement was by no means a threat made during a conflict, but rather represented that Mewtwo would seek out Cheng Xin one day. Perhaps for discussion and exchange, or perhaps to learn from him.
This made the Psychic-type Elite Four member pause for a moment. Then he chuckled.
"Visitors are welcome." He bowed to Mewtwo and retrieved the portrait and information booklet. This lead had to be pursued as quickly as possible.
Every minute of delay created variables.
As for Mo Ye, the Elite Four member who should have been stationed in the city, his task was even more complex than Cheng Xin's.
He had to juggle both sides, running back and forth between the outside world and Mist Island. After all, Mewtwo was still a ticking time bomb.
Perhaps its danger level was lower than that of the interdimensional visitors, but it couldn't be left unchecked. Only when it was truly confirmed that Mewtwo would not pose a threat to human society would his monitoring work end.
"I'll leave the rest to you." After saying this to Mo Ye, Cheng Xin turned and quickly walked away.
Mewtwo was puzzled. "You're not leaving?"
"No," Mo Ye nodded, speaking honestly. "My mission is to ensure you are not a threat and to guarantee his safety."
"First, I currently have no intention of leaving Mist Island. Second, Li Xiang's safety is my responsibility. You may leave." Mewtwo replied bluntly.
While it held no ill will towards Mo Ye, who had participated in the siege against it, it certainly had no fondness for him either. There was no need to force interaction with people you didn't like.
That was another thing Li Xiang had taught it.
Mo Ye frowned slightly. "Responsibility? What do you have to back that up? You haven't even figured out your own situation."
In his view, Mewtwo was viewed with suspicion by the sages of Mist Island and the outside association. There was hardly any friendly party. It could be said to be in a difficult position itself, liable to be attacked by a mob at any moment, just like inside the Tree of Beginning.
Under these circumstances, where did it get the confidence to be responsible for Li Xiang's safety?
"Power." Mewtwo said calmly. "I know what you're worried about, but I have no interest in doing what you imagine. And my power is more than enough to protect Li Xiang."
Li Xiang had explained to it long ago the reasons it would be rejected.
The black energy was only one of them. Another was the immense power it held and its extraordinary learning ability.
In a world that had already carved up territories and gradually stabilized, Mewtwo's existence was very abrupt. The stronger the power, the more inflated the accompanying desires, making it easy to infringe upon others' established "interests."
For a society where humans and Pokémon coexisted, its existence was also an unstable factor.
Legendary Pokémon generally do not interfere with the development of eras; this was an unspoken understanding established over millennia.
Whether Mewtwo would abide by this understanding was a complete unknown.
Even many powerful trainers were subject to the League's supervision, let alone an anomaly like Mewtwo.
The North American Pokémon Research Institute had originally created Mewtwo as an artificial weapon. They never considered that it would gain freedom or attempt to integrate into the world.
After listening, Mewtwo thought about it seriously and finally came to a conclusion. "Humans are so overbearing." Everything was decided by them, everything was regulated by them. Any unstable thing had to be monitored, and if it did something that didn't please them, it had to be eliminated.
It was quite unreasonable.
"But it is precisely because of this overbearing nature that the world is filled with peace and order," Li Xiang had responded.
In a world where power was unequal, without a sufficiently overbearing organization or individual to establish rules, chaos and conflict would inevitably arise.
Even Mist Island had its Museum of Knowledge and City of Wisdom, as well as the highest council of ten sages. They made the rules, restraining the strong from doing whatever they wanted.
In this respect, they were no different from the outside world.
"Isn't this unfair?" Mewtwo had asked at the time. "Adding various shackles to the strong is unfair to them."
"There has never been absolute fairness in the world," Li Xiang had responded. "And personally, I believe the purpose of restraining the strong is to prevent them from attacking the weak. The strong can take more, but what they take cannot be forcibly taken from the weak. I think that's important. Of course, as I said, you should have your own opinion."
At that time, Li Xiang had used himself as an example. He was the weak, and Mewtwo was the strong. With rules, Mewtwo had to consider the consequences if it attacked him. Without rules, Mewtwo could kill him at will. This had made Mewtwo somewhat unhappy, as by then it already understood concepts like "kill," "death," and "life."
"I would never do such a thing to you."
"For example, don't be angry."
"That's making something out of nothing."
"Nice, using idioms. Okay, then let's change the example to when you were defeated earlier."
After reasoning by analogy, Mewtwo gradually understood the importance of order. So, even if Mo Ye offended it in many ways, it wouldn't get angry. Instead, it very seriously told him that it had the strength but would also never do anything harmful. To this end, it even exposed a portion of its power.
Mo Ye fell into silence. After a long while, he released his Kingdra. "I hope you keep your promise. I'll be right down there."
"Lies are meaningless to me." Mewtwo responded loudly.