After 3 minutes, Ralts came to Alex and Crobat with a smile.

“Father, Ditto said that he wants to join our family. Isn’t that great?” ​​

Alex saw Ralts’s innocent smile and said, “Yeah, Ralts. It’s really great that Ditto wants to join us. I’m glad that I asked you to help me convince Ditto.”

Crobat gave Alex a look which said, “Are you sure it wasn’t lying?”

Alex understood Crobat and said, “Don’t worry. I’ve considered that possibility.”

Though Pokémon seldom lies, they are not inept in lying. Of course, there are also Pokémon species that never lie and Pokémon species that lie relatively often compared to other Pokémon. But even these Pokémon lie much less than a normal human being.

Alex went in front of the glass cage and said, “Ditto, as you’ve probably just heard from Ralts, I’m a very nice trainer who doesn’t treat his Pokémon poorly. So what do you think? Do you want to join my family?”

Ditto, who had spent most of its life alone, was very lonely and would like to have a family. After talking with Ralts, it felt that this trainer will take good care of it. It had the feeling that as soon as it agrees, it’ll never get lonely again.

Ditto looked at Alex and nodded with a neutral face.

Alex looked briefly at Crobat and opened Ditto’s glass cage.

Ditto, who was free, did not run away and just looked at Alex with an indifferent expression.

Alex took a Pokéball out of his pocket and placed it in front of Ditto. Ditto saw this and touched the Pokéball with an emotionless expression.

Ralts, who can understand the emotions of a Pokémon very well, knew how nervous Ditto was in reality and cheered it on all the time.

Alex was a bit confused about why Ralts was cheering for Ditto all the time. But after thinking for a bit, he had a guess.

He took Ditto out of his Pokéball immediately and said with a smile, “Ditto, welcome to the family. You don’t have to worry about how you will be treated because everyone here is a family member.”

Without waiting for an answer, Alex lifted Ditto off the floor and put it on his shoulder.

Ditto felt like Alex trusted him and kept him as a family member and became very happy even if it still has its indifferent face on the outside.

Ralts, who saw Alex is not quite sure whether Ditto likes this closeness, said to Alex via telepathy, “Father, don’t worry. Ditto is very happy and trusts you now. This is just its nervous face.”

Alex heard this and knew that his initial guess was right. He said with a smile, “Ditto, no need to be nervous. You can take your time to adjust around us.”

As he said that, Ditto’s face eased up a little bit. Alex and Ralts talked to Ditto for a while. Even Crobat joined in the conversation from time to time. Alex could feel that Ditto trusts him and will follow his commands.

After making sure that their bond was a little stronger than before, he said to Ditto, “Ditto, I have a task for you. Can you do it for me?”

Ditto, who was sitting on Alex’s shoulder, nodded and waited for his first task.

Alex, who saw that Ditto was ready to follow him, asked, “Ditto, do you remember the faces of the people who walk past you every day? Can you show me a few faces that you last saw several days ago?”

Ditto quickly turned into different faces that it hadn’t seen for a long time.

Alex saw that and said, “Ok, Ditto. Now make yourself as thin as paper and turn yourself into one of these faces while clinging to my face. It should feel like that face is mine. And make sure that you are not covering my mouth, ears, eyes, and nostrils. ”

Ditto understood Alex’s idea and carried out Alex’s orders.

After 30 minutes of testing, Ditto managed to flawlessly change Alex’s face. No one would be able to detect that the face is fake. In addition, Ditto is now only allowed to use faces that have the same skin color as Alex. So that Alex’s hands don’t have a completely different skin color than his new face.

Alex, who had fulfilled phase 1 of the plan, went towards the stands that were selling Pokémon with his new face.

After 2 hours, Alex had seen 60% of all Pokémon in the black market that were being sold by trainers and had to say that he was a bit disappointed with the quantity and quality of the Silver Pokémon he could buy.

He found 10 silver Pokémon and was able to buy them for 15,000 Pokédollars.

The Pokémon that Alex had bought were:

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2 Butterfree (Shallow Silver & Silver)

Raticate (Silver)

Fearow (Shallow Silver)

Beedrill (Silver)

Parasect (Shallow Silver)

Persian (Shallow Silver)

Venonat (Shallow Silver)

Farfetch’d (Deep Silver)

Koffing (Shallow Silver)

None of these Pokémon met Alex’s expectations.

Alex’s minimum requirement of potential for his new Pokémon is Deep Silver, and that is the absolute minimum he expects. He won’t add a Deep Silver Pokémon to his team if it doesn’t have something else that makes it exceptional from others.

After 5 minutes, Alex suddenly saw a Pokémon that surprised him.

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Pokémon: Shieldon

LV: 3

Type: Rock / Steel

Abilities: Sturdy

Gender: Male

Potential: Shallow Gold

Move: Protect, Tackle, (Innate Talent) Rock Polish [Not Usable] (Innate Talent) Sleep Talk [Not Usable], (Innate Talent) Flamethrower [Not Usable]

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Alex thought with a smile, “Shieldon can be a great tank for my team, and this Shieldon even has Shallow Gold potential. It also has Rock Polish as an Innate Talent move, which means it loses one of its big weakness (that it is too slow). The best fact is that it has yet to evolve, which makes it easier for me to bring it up to Gold potential. Maybe I can increase its potential to even Deep Gold. No matter how I see it, I must have this Pokémon.”

Alex walked in the direction of the young woman who was selling several Pokémon in her stall and said, “Hello, miss. I would like to buy this Shieldon.”

The young woman looked at Alex and said, “Well, you’re not the first to say that. Although I don’t know the talent (potential) of this Shieldon, it’s not cheap. You can hardly find this Pokémon here in Kanto, so it is worth more than average Pokémon. Though I won’t ask as much money as a Dragon-type Pokémon’s worth, I want at least 10,000 Pokédollars for it.”

Alex and the young woman negotiated a bit, and the price was lowered to 8,500 poke dollars.

He could still try to lower the price, but he didn’t want to risk the woman getting angry, saying that he was too greedy and refusing to sell him the Pokémon. Although this was very, very unlikely to happen, Alex did not want to risk it.