As the Champion of the first Master Tournament, Fu Xuan had never considered abandoning her beloved Psychic-type Pokémon, even with the second generation's introduction of the powerful Dark-type—a classification engineered as a direct counter to her favorite creatures.
But looking at the Psychic-types available on the server rosters, the options were terribly narrow. Outside of Espeon, Mew, Mewtwo, and Celebi, there really weren't many that caught her eye. The latter three were high-tier Legendary sovereigns, meaning they were restricted from participating in standard league brackets.
This left Espeon as her only truly appealing partner. The Slowpoke family and Alakazam could barely be included, but they clearly failed to align with the girl's personal style. Although Fu Xuan held a supreme position within the Commission, she still harbored a deep fondness for cute and elegant things.
Now, the Psychic-type had finally welcomed its true queen. How could Fu Xuan not be thrilled?
The moment she logged into the client, she refused to waste another minute, heading straight toward the forest sector where the Ralts family most frequently spawned, guided by top-tier player strategies. Along the way, she made sure to level up her active roster and fulfill a vital mechanical prerequisite: capturing a companion that knew the move Mean Look.
While trapping moves like Fire Spin could technically prevent a target from fleeing, it wasn't secure enough for a Ralts, which was notorious for using Teleport the exact frame it encountered a human. The best choice was a move that could immobilize an opponent with a single glance. Fu Xuan wasn't picky about the stats; she snapped up the first creature that met her criteria, adding a wild Sableye to her belt.
"How bizarre," Fu Xuan murmured, pushing past a heavy branch. "The community logs explicitly stated the habitat was localized to this coordinate..."
She wandered deeper into the thick forest, checking her landmarks multiple times to ensure her compass hadn't drifted. Yet, despite searching the thickets for most of the day, she failed to uncover a single trace of her target.
Granted, the Pokédex classified Ralts as an incredibly timid creature, but it shouldn't be so hyper-alert that she couldn't even spot a shadow in the brush, right? Checking the comment threads beneath the guide, thousands of other users had successfully cleared the capture loop. A deceptive thread of that scale would be meaningless; if the data were false, netizen flame wars would have forced the author to delete the post within hours.
Having already endured a grueling, mentally draining marathon shift running the Matrix of Prescience in the real world, the added frustration of a fruitless search caused her exhaustion to multiply. Left with no other options, Fu Xuan resorted to her oldest professional tool, closing her eyes to divine her own situation.
The fundamental core of the Omniscient Array was the rigid calculation of cause and effect—gathering bits of data to trace a result back to its root cause. Because it was an entirely logical, scientific discipline, it carried zero mystical taboos against calculating one's own coordinates.
What Fu Xuan failed to realize, however, was that the forest was actually teeming with hidden Ralts and Kirlia. The unique biological trait of their evolutionary line allowed them to sense the underlying emotions inside a human heart. Fu Xuan certainly harbored no malicious intent, but from a wild Ralts' perspective, a powerful stranger marching through the brush with the fierce, obsessive desire to capture and possess them was the literal definition of a threat.
The moment they caught the heavy wave of her intense focus approaching, the entire colony would use Teleport to vanish into the deep woods, staying far out of her sight.
"Only shattered light flows, the full expanse of the star river unseen," Fu Xuan chanted softly, her brow furrowing as she interpreted the mental hexagram. "Thoughts anxious, fate's trajectory confused... Am I truly being too impatient?"
She didn't entirely understand why her internal mindset would affect a wild animal's spawn rate, but she trusted her divination implicitly. The reading suggested she was 'lost in the situation,' hinting that her deep fatigue and frantic desire were clouding her baseline judgment.
"If the matrix commands a pause, then I shall rest," she sighed.
Unzipping her inventory backpack, she pulled out a standard campfire kit and a heavy sleeping bag, setting up camp beneath the canopy to rest alongside her team.
An authentic camping session required a proper atmosphere. She unlatched a generous spread of high-grade treats and sweet berries, scattering them across the grass for her Pokémon. Watching her companions feast happily, a soft wave of comfort finally washed away her tension.
Setting the internal game clock to match a real-time ratio, she curled up by the crackling fire. Her Combusken and Sableye rested near the embers, her Skitty curled into a soft ball directly on her chest, and a Chimecho drifted gently in the breeze above her head.
Staring up at the magnificent, unblinking virtual stars while listening to Chimecho's soft chime blend into the rustle of the leaves, Fu Xuan felt her mind completely untangle. The rhythmic snap of the burning branches acted like a soothing lullaby, and her exhausted body smoothly surrendered to a deep, peaceful slumber.
"Mmm..."
The following morning, a brilliant shaft of natural sunlight piercing the leaves nudged Fu Xuan awake.
A soft chorus of tiny cries echoed around the clearing—her Skitty purred, her Combusken stretched, and a few unfamiliar rustles sounded near the edge of the camp. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she sat up and glanced toward the food tray.
Through her blurry vision, she could see a few small silhouettes happily nibbling on the leftover berries from last night. Beside her own companions stood a completely unfamiliar form. It possessed a small, pure white body, a bright green bowl cut, and a pair of flat red horns peeking through its hair. It was the exact Ralts she had spent all of yesterday hunting.
Fu Xuan blinked rapidly, ensuring it wasn't a visual hallucination born of her fatigue. A massive wave of pure excitement surged through her chest, but she clamped down on her reactions instantly.
Having cleared her mind through a full night's rest, absolute clarity regarding yesterday's divination filled her thoughts. She finally understood why the colony had fled her approach. If she allowed a single spark of that intense, possessive capture desire to flare up right now, the little creature would Teleport away before her Sableye could even blink.
Since it had chosen to step into her camp voluntarily, it proved the creature wasn't fundamentally averse to humans; it was simply seeking a safe connection.
The gathering of Pokémon noticed her movement. Seeing Fu Xuan step out of her sleeping bag, the tiny Ralts instinctively retreated behind her Combusken, peeking out from behind the larger bird's feathers to watch her approach. The red horns on its head twitched continuously, analyzing her emotional output.
"Ralts," Fu Xuan said softly, kneeling on the grass to bring herself to its eye level. She kept her voice entirely gentle, offering a direct, honest proposal. "Would you like to become my partner and travel the star paths together?"
Since the creature could read her heart, she cast aside all tactical schemes, relying entirely on her genuine affection to move it. Within the little Pokémon's radar, the aggressive, possessive pressure from yesterday had completely vanished, replaced by a pure, warm wave of sincere admiration and gentle goodwill.
Finding itself deeply loved by such a gentle soul, the Ralts let out a happy cry and nodded its head in firm agreement.
Fu Xuan's heart swelled. She pulled a Poké Ball from her belt and held it out with an open palm. The tiny creature stepped forward, its small hand lightly tapping the central trigger button, allowing itself to be drawn inside the sphere in a flash of red light.
The ball rested on the grass. Ding.
Successful capture.
Fu Xuan leaped into the air with a bright cheer, immediately releasing her new companion to shower it with affection before packing up her camp.
Meanwhile, on the eastern outskirts of Verdanturf Town, a vibrant outdoor garden was completely overflowing with swarms of wild Beautifly.
March 7th was currently crouched flat inside a thick bush a few yards away, her eyes glued to a pair of high-spec binoculars as she scanned the flock.
"That one has a wonderful wing shape... oh, but that one over there has an incredible shimmer," she muttered to herself, shifting her lens from side to side. "No, no, keep your focus, March! You can't let yourself get distracted by the first pretty wings you see. You have to find a companion that perfectly matches your inner aesthetic standards."
Though the general models of a specific Pokémon species looked identical at a casual glance, Julian's advanced rendering engine preserved thousands of individual variations. For a species like Beautifly, the geometric patterns stretching across their wings, the precise coloration of their scales, and the length of their antennae all held unique, subtle deviations based on individual genetics.
March 7th was thoroughly dedicated to scanning the entire garden, determined to find the single, most flawless butterfly on the server to anchor her new Contest team.
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