## Chapter 18: It's Decided, I Choose You!
Bai Feng thought for a long time before finally calling Grandpa Fu.
Grandpa Fu was surprised to receive Bai Feng's call and teased, "I didn't expect you, the busy man, to remember to call me. What favor do you need this time?"
"Hehe..." Hearing Grandpa Fu's words, Bai Feng suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. "There is indeed a small favor I'd like to trouble you with."
"I knew it," Grandpa Fu said, pretending to be annoyed. "Go on, what is it?"
"I'd like to ask you to lend me a Jumpluff," Bai Feng requested.
"Just for that? Alright." Grandpa Fu readily agreed without asking why Bai Feng needed to borrow a Jumpluff.
Bai Feng said gratefully, "Okay, I'll have Talonflame come pick up Jumpluff later. Just have Jumpluff follow Talonflame back here."
Soon, Talonflame returned from the Coupling Gym with a Jumpluff.
The experiment continued.
"Jumpluff, I need your help. Use Sleep Powder on Popplio," Bai Feng said.
"Wa ta~"
Jumpluff gently waved the cotton puffs on its hands, and a cloud of brown powder drifted out. Jumpluff controlled it with a gentle breeze, scattering it over Popplio.
Within seconds of inhaling the Sleep Powder, Popplio couldn't keep its heavy eyelids open and slowly fell asleep.
Seeing this, Bai Feng once again injected Golden Finger Energy into Popplio's body and restarted the experiment.
The experiment initially went very smoothly. Bai Feng controlled the Golden Finger Energy, probing the energy circuit in the sleeping state little by little, over and over again.
Having learned from the Fruit Tree, Bai Feng knew this process required time and patience.
The hidden energy circuit inside a Pokémon's body was even more stubborn than that of a Fruit Tree. Bai Feng needed to expend more effort and concentration to awaken it.
However, he overlooked one point: even though Popplio was asleep, the pain in its body still existed. Just as Bai Feng was about to light up a corner of the dim energy circuit, Popplio's body suddenly twitched violently.
Bai Feng was startled and quickly stopped what he was doing.
After a while, Popplio woke up again. The moment it opened its eyes, it felt a sharp ache coming from somewhere in its body. Although it had been in a deep sleep, the pain seemed to linger in its body and hadn't disappeared even after waking up.
"Popplio, are you okay?" Bai Feng asked worriedly.
Popplio shook its head, indicating that a little pain was nothing.
*This isn't just a little pain,* Bai Feng thought. Seeing Popplio's expression, he knew the feeling must have been unpleasant.
"How about we stop?" Bai Feng said hesitantly, worried that he might cause Popplio serious harm.
"Woo~ woo~"
Popplio shook its head vigorously. Bai Feng might be willing to give up, but it wasn't. The experiment hadn't yielded results yet. If they gave up now, wouldn't the suffering it endured have been in vain?
"Alright then, we'll try one last time. If it doesn't work, we'll stop!" Seeing that Popplio was insistent, Bai Feng had no choice but to agree to try one more time.
"Jumpluff, this time use Stun Spore on Popplio."
Since Sleep Powder didn't achieve the desired effect, they would switch to Stun Spore.
The reason Popplio twitched was that it could still feel pain even when asleep, causing a stress reaction in its body. So, perhaps blocking the pain would work?
Stun Spore could cause a Pokémon to enter a paralyzed state, making them lose control of their body, which could effectively block pain.
Of course, it wasn't a 100% block. Pokémon could still feel a slight tingling, buzzing sensation, but this was within a tolerable range.
As the Stun Spore landed on Popplio, it indeed fell into a paralyzed state. Its body became unresponsive, and its senses gradually faded, only vaguely perceiving a slight current flowing through its body, a tingly, numb feeling.
"Popplio, does it hurt a lot?" Bai Feng pinched Popplio and asked.
After falling into a paralyzed state, Popplio's physical senses disappeared, but its consciousness was very clear.
"Woo~" *It doesn't hurt, just feels a bit strange.*
"That's good, let's start again now," Bai Feng said.
Injecting Golden Finger Energy into Popplio's body once more, this time the experiment was finally successful. Bai Feng smoothly lit up a corner of the hidden energy circuit within Popplio's body.
During the experiment, Popplio didn't show any more stress reactions.
However, this process was very time-consuming. To prevent Popplio's paralysis from wearing off, Bai Feng had Jumpluff replenish the Stun Spore several times midway.
But after spending so much time, Bai Feng only managed to light up a tiny bit before stopping.
It was impossible to light up all the hidden energy circuits at once. Lighting up a Pokémon's hidden energy circuit was much more difficult than for a Berry tree, so Bai Feng could only do it little by little.
Furthermore, he couldn't do it continuously. He needed to wait for a period before the next attempt, otherwise, he worried that Popplio and Bai Ye wouldn't be able to handle it.
Although the pain was blocked by the paralysis, it didn't mean it truly disappeared.
After Popplio finished, it was Bai Ye's turn. This time, it went even more smoothly.
After the experiment, Bai Feng had Talonflame send Jumpluff back to the Coupling Gym. At the same time, he felt that he should catch a Pokémon that knew Stun Spore, as he couldn't keep borrowing from Grandpa Fu every time.
"How do you two feel?" Bai Feng asked Bai Ye and Popplio, who had fully recovered from their paralyzed state.
"Woo~" *Feels great.*
Popplio replied. Although not obvious, it felt that its perception of outside energy seemed clearer.
"Shana~"
Bai Ye felt the same as Popplio.
"That's good," Bai Feng nodded with satisfaction. "From now on, I'll need to do this experiment with you periodically. You should be mentally prepared."
"Woo~" *No problem, bring it on!*
"We still need a Pokémon that knows Stun Spore to help with this work. We can't keep troubling others, so while we have time, let's go look around nearby and see if we can catch one."
Seeing that it was still early, Bai Feng took Bai Ye and Popplio to a nearby Wild Mountain.
There were many ownerless Wild Mountains near Fangxing Mountain, which was one of the reasons Bai Feng bought a Plot of Land here originally. If he needed to expand his planting area in the future, he could continue to buy one, two... or even more mountains nearby.
Some Pokémon lived in these Wild Mountains, not too many, not too few. Bai Feng thought it shouldn't be difficult to find one that knew Stun Spore.
Many Poison-type and Grass-type Pokémon knew this Move, and Grass-type Pokémon were the most common in the mountains.
Before setting off, Bai Feng packed some Berries in his bag, planning to use them as rewards for the Pokémon they encountered.
He needed to find a Pokémon that knew Stun Spore, but not all Pokémon knew this Move, so he had to ask them one by one. This would inevitably cause some Pokémon to be annoyed. To avoid being attacked, he needed to pay them a small reward to appease their anger.
Bai Feng chose a mountain to the east of Fangxing Mountain as his target because he had heard Talonflame and Fletchinder say that Pokémon often came from this direction to steal things from the Orchard.
The plants on this mountain were very lush. Since it was rarely visited by humans, there was almost no place to step. Bai Feng had no choice but to clear a path as he walked with Popplio and Bai Ye.
Occasionally, Flying-type Pokémon like Fletchling and Pidgey would fly through the woods, but they weren't Bai Feng's target.
Bai Feng kept his eyes and ears open, paying close attention to his surroundings, afraid of missing his target due to carelessness.
After walking for a while, he suddenly heard a rustling sound from the bushes. He walked over and pushed them aside, only to see a Paras planting mushrooms inside.
Probably startled, the Paras sprayed a puff of powder towards Bai Feng the moment it turned around. It was purple powder.
It was Poison Powder, not Stun Spore.
Seeing this, Popplio quickly created a water screen in front of Bai Feng, melting all the Poison Powder into the water.
Bai Feng quickly soothed the Paras, "You don't need to be afraid. We have no ill intentions. We just want to ask if you know the Move Stun Spore."
Perhaps sensing Bai Feng's calm attitude, the Paras didn't attack again and was no longer afraid. It gently waved its pincers, indicating that it didn't know the Move.
"Then do you know if any Pokémon nearby knows it?" Bai Feng asked again.
The Paras shook the two leaves on its head, still answering that it didn't know. *It was just a tech geek who only knew how to plant mushrooms, it didn't even socialize, how would it know any Pokémon that knew Stun Spore!*
Bai Feng felt so tired.
"Thank you, here you go." Bai Feng, as usual, took out a Berry and handed it to the Sunkern.
However, just as the Sunkern was about to take the Berry, a shadow suddenly darted out from nowhere, sweeping past Bai Feng's palm like the wind and snatching the Berry.
*Damn it!*
Bai Feng, who was already quite annoyed, was instantly infuriated and wanted to curse. Not only could he not find the Pokémon he wanted to catch after searching for so long, but he also encountered a thief. What terrible luck!
"Bai Ye, let's chase!"
Bai Feng took out another Berry and threw it to the Sunkern, then picked up Popplio and chased after the shadow with Bai Ye.
The shadow was extremely fast. It seemed small and moved with exceptional agility, darting back and forth between the grass and trees, almost exhausting Bai Feng.
*Damn it, if I catch you, I'll teach you a good lesson!*
Fortunately, Bai Ye could use Psychic to interfere with the opponent, otherwise, the creature would have disappeared long ago.
After chasing for a while, seeing that it couldn't shake off Bai Ye's Psychic lock, the opponent finally stopped. Only then did Bai Feng get a clear look at the true face of the thief who had stolen his Berry.
It was a small and cute Helioptile.
*You were born beautiful, why become a thief?*
"Ay bip~ Ay bip~ Ay bip~" *It's just one Berry, do you guys have to chase me like this?*
The Helioptile hugged the Berry and cursed at Bai Feng.
Bai Feng shouted angrily, "Cut the nonsense! You stole my stuff and you think you're right? Give the Berry back!"
The Helioptile held the Berry tightly, cautiously backing up two steps.
"Since you won't give it back, don't blame me for being impolite! Popplio, Water Gun!"
"Woo~"
Popplio opened its mouth and shot a stream of water towards the Helioptile, but the Helioptile was extremely fast and vanished from its spot with a flash.
Bai Feng was a little surprised. This Helioptile was a bit too fast. It reminded him of Grandpa Fu's Deerling.
Crackle crackle crackle...
Sparks of electricity crackled around the Helioptile. Then, a golden ball of light appeared above its head. It controlled the light ball and shot it towards Popplio.
Popplio opened its mouth and emitted sound waves, forming a sound barrier with Disarming Voice, easily dissolving the incoming golden light ball.
But Bai Feng's eyes lit up.
This... isn't this Thunder Wave?
He suddenly realized that he had been mistaken before. Stun Spore wasn't the only Move that could paralyze a Pokémon.
Look... Thunder Wave could do it too! Since he couldn't find a Grass-type Pokémon that knew Stun Spore, an Electric-type Pokémon that knew Thunder Wave would also work!
It's decided, I choose you!
Bai Feng's gaze towards the Helioptile suddenly became fervent, scaring the Helioptile into an involuntary shiver.
*This... is this person a pervert?*
Seeing that the other side had more people and looked difficult to deal with, the Helioptile directly threw the Berry it was holding back to Bai Feng.
*Here, take it back, alright!*
After throwing it, it turned and was about to run.
But how could Bai Feng let it have its way?
"Bai Ye, use Psychic to grab it!" Bai Feng quickly called out.
"Shana~"
A flash of purple light flickered in Bai Ye's eyes. The next second, the fleeing Helioptile was controlled and lifted into the air.
The Helioptile twisted its body, wanting very much to resist, but besides being fast, it didn't know any attack Moves.
*You... What do you want to do? I don't taste good.*
Bai Feng chuckled and lifted the Helioptile.
"From now on, you'll follow me. I guarantee you won't have to worry about food or clothes, and you can eat as many Berries as you want."
The struggling Helioptile suddenly quieted down. It raised its head, its eyes shining brightly as it looked at Bai Feng.
(End of Chapter)