Chapter One Hundred and One: Silver Vineberries

Silver Razz Berries were something Zhao Fang remembered as having appeared only in Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! They could be fed to wild Pokémon to greatly improve the success rate of capture. It was, in every sense, a miraculous kind of berry.

So when Zhao Fang saw a Silver Razz Berry, he could hardly believe his eyes. But being able to buy one now was a good thing. He intended to test whether using Silver Razz Berries to make Pokémon food would produce any difference.

“Still, if that guy was able to get Silver Razz Berries, does that mean he knows where they grow?” Zhao Fang stroked his chin. If the berry’s effect was really that good, then the locations of the trees would be extremely valuable information. After all, in the real world, berries were not the kind of thing you could plant for four hours and then harvest.

It was much like growing apple trees in his past life. Fruit trees had to go through sprouting, growth, flowering, and fruiting. Although the League had developed a nutrient solution that could speed up berry growth, the price of that stuff was enough to make Zhao Fang’s scalp tingle. He could not afford it at all.

Thinking of that, Zhao Fang hurriedly found an inn to stay at, then took out the Silver Razz Berry and began making the Pokémon food for lunch. This time, he planned to turn it into curry beef rice and see what effect it would have.

Before long, a plateful of richly fragrant curry beef rice was scooped out by Zhao Fang, and he looked at it with anticipation.

[A decent plate of curry beef rice. After eating it, the base stats of Amaura can be increased by 1.1, while the base stats of Gyarados and Dreepy can be increased by 0.2.]

A brand-new text box appeared before Zhao Fang’s eyes. He stared blankly at it. An increase of 1.1 for Amaura was still within his expectations, but Gyarados and Dreepy being able to gain 0.2 was a pleasant surprise.

You had to know that both Dreepy and Gyarados had already developed a tolerance to ordinary Pokémon food. What used to increase by 0.3 could now only raise base stats by 0.001, yet now it could go up by 0.2. That had to be called a tremendous improvement.

Zhao Fang rubbed his chin. The biggest difference between this Pokémon food and the others was the difference in berries. Suddenly, he felt that he had been a little careless. He should have bought some premium berries before testing it.

For the moment, he wrote this insight down in his notebook. Then he took out other berries and made two portions of food for Amaura and Dreepy. He planned to give this curry rice to Gyarados. Gyarados was the strongest combatant under his command at the moment, so Zhao Fang intended to nurture it first.

However, what followed at mealtime made Zhao Fang realize that this idea would be somewhat difficult to carry out. The curry beef rice seemed to have a fatal allure for Dreepy and Amaura. They kept sneaking glances at Gyarados, and Zhao Fang figured that once or twice might be bearable, but if it happened too often, it was hard to say whether Dreepy and Amaura would start to feel resentful.

Zhao Fang decided that he would go find that shop owner later and ask about the berry tree location. But first he needed an excuse. If the owner realized that the Silver Razz Berry was important to him, the other party would inevitably raise the price.

“Got it. Doesn’t this guy like swindling people?” Looking at the two bunches of ordinary fruit in his hands, Zhao Fang came up with an idea.

“Hello, boss.” Zhao Fang smiled warmly as he walked up to the berry stall owner and greeted him cheerfully.

“What do you want?” The berry stall owner frowned, then deliberately kicked a piece of cardboard sign that read, Sold As Is, No Returns.

Zhao Fang rolled his eyes inwardly. This guy had probably been bothered by troublemakers so often that he had already figured out how to deal with them.

“I’ll let it slide that you sold ordinary fruit as berries. But the bunches of fruit I bought tasted pretty good. Do you still have any more here?” Zhao Fang asked, looking at him with a dark expression.

“Nope.” Seeing that Zhao Fang was not there to make trouble, the owner let out a quiet sigh of relief. Though he was in the right, if this young Trainer insisted on causing a scene, it would still affect business.

“Then do you have the locations of the berry trees?” Zhao Fang showed a disappointed expression, then took out a grape in front of the owner and tossed it into his mouth, chewing slowly.

“There are some... but one tree location costs 1,000 League Coins!” Seeing Zhao Fang eat a fruit, the owner’s face took on a sly expression as well.

“Goodbye.” Zhao Fang rolled his eyes and turned to leave. He was not some sucker.

“800! ...500! ...Lowest is 300! If you don’t want it, I’m cutting the price no further!” Seeing Zhao Fang leaving, the owner grew anxious and kept lowering the price.

Very soon, Zhao Fang handed over 900 League Coins and bought three locations from the owner, who also thoughtfully noted the nearby wild Pokémon for him.

Zhao Fang did not hesitate and headed straight for the Silver Razz Berry tree location. The tree was on a hill to the left of Slateport City, still some distance away from the city itself. But after training, Zhao Fang’s stamina had improved considerably, and by the time the sky began to darken, he finally found the Silver Razz Berry tree.

“One... only seven berries in total? Well, seven is not bad.” Zhao Fang counted them and felt a little disappointed, but he still called Dreepy over and had it fly up to bring the berries down.

Looking at the Silver Razz Berry tree, Zhao Fang was tempted. Things like this were not easy to come by. He wanted to dig it up by the roots and take it to plant near his own home, but he did not know exactly how to handle that.

“Oh, right. Isn’t there Professor Birch?”

Zhao Fang suddenly thought of the enthusiastic Professor Birch. He hurriedly contacted him and told him that he had found a berry tree.

Professor Birch was indeed interested. First he looked at the berry through the screen, and after confirming that it was an unrecorded berry, he asked Zhao Fang for the address. He would come over shortly to take the tree away.

Zhao Fang set up camp nearby as Professor Birch requested. If the professor was coming, he would still need some time to fly over, and he would also have to bring tools and the like.

“Even if I dig you up, I wonder whether it’ll affect the Pokémon that rely on you for food...” After thinking it over for a while, Zhao Fang still dug two holes beside the tree and buried two Silver Razz Berries in them.

[After taking a berry tree, one must bury a berry in its place so it can grow. This is an unwritten rule among Trainers.]

Zhao Fang remembered that this seemed to have been said by an old woman in the game.