He clicked on the system's move selection.
Before Motomu's eyes, the Level 40 move options appeared within the blue panel.
[PASSING GRADE: ALL POKEMON STATS ARE LOCKED AT 60% OF THE CURRENT HIGHEST STAT]
[FREELY SPEAK: THE POKEMON LEARNS TO SPEAK; PERHAPS IT CAN KEEP YOU COMPANY AND CHAT]
[MOUNTAIN OF ADMIRATION: EVERY TIME THE POKEMON LEVELS UP, ITS SIZE DOUBLES]
(Gold Legend) [HIDE-AND-SEEK: THE POKEMON TRANSFORMS INTO AN OBJECT OF THE SAME SIZE. THE LONGER IT PERSISTS, THE MORE EXPERIENCE IT GAINS.]
Motomu stared at the four options on the system panel.
For a moment, he was in a bit of a daze.
'Passing Grade?'
First was the first option.
Motomu frowned and carefully read the system description once more.
Big Eyeball's every stat would be locked at 60% of its current highest stat.
What was its highest stat?
It was its Defense and HP, which were both approaching the 1,000-point mark.
This was thanks to the double empowerment of Enlarge and Harden and Dream Eater.
Big Eyeball's Defense and HP were no longer those of a glass cannon.
Sixty percent of 910 was roughly 500 points.
Its Speed, Attack, Special Defense, and Special Attack would all skyrocket.
From the weakling that was bullied by Pidgey back then, it had come all the way to being a meat shield that could withstand the bites of the Great White Snake.
Big Eyeball had always followed a defensive path.
It served as a sandbag to take the most vicious beatings and the most painful damage while waiting for him to deal damage.
But his own damage output had never quite caught up; for two years, he had been bottlenecked by his Chakra reserves.
Even if he boosted its stats, he would still be held back by those limited Chakra reserves.
Once the Chakra ran out, Big Eyeball would have to rely on its 500-plus physical attack to go and bite people.
Motomu couldn't help but shudder at the thought of that scene.
"Let's look at the others."
Motomu rubbed his chin, keeping this option in the back of his mind for now.
The second option made his eye twitch.
"Freely Speak: The Pokemon learns to speak; perhaps it can keep you company and chat."
Keep you company and chat.
Motomu stared at those words for a long time, his lip twitching.
*Was the system suggesting I'm lonely?*
*Or did it think Big Eyeball was too bored and needed someone to talk to?*
He imagined the scene of Big Eyeball opening its mouth to speak.
A flying Sharingan with a mouth full of sharp teeth, a flickering purple tongue, and saliva flying everywhere.
Chatting with him in a sinister, raspy voice.
"Human, what are we eating today?"
"The black snake is trying to steal my human; I'm going to eat her!"
"Human, I'm so bored. Take me out to play."
Motomu shivered.
Just thinking about it felt incredibly eerie!
Big Eyeball's current appearance was already ridiculous enough.
If it started talking too, it would probably leave people psychologically scarred.
If Danzo knew his Sharingan could talk, he probably wouldn't even have the heart to study it anymore.
"Besides..."
Motomu thought of Cobra.
That one was already talkative enough; if he added Big Eyeball to the mix, he'd never have a moment of peace again.
He crossed off the second option immediately.
Motomu looked at the third one.
[MOUNTAIN OF ADMIRATION: EVERY TIME THE POKEMON LEVELS UP, ITS SIZE DOUBLES.]
Every time it levels up, its size doubles.
Motomu's eyelid twitched.
Big Eyeball currently had a diameter of five meters. Another level would make it ten meters, then twenty, then forty...
In the end...
An eyeball covering the entire sky appeared in Motomu's mind.
Floating above Konoha, blotting out the sun, with its purple tongue lashing about and saliva falling like a torrential rainstorm.
*Kids would probably cry from terror.*
"Well... it's not entirely out of the question..."
Motomu muttered, his tone hesitant.
At least it would be incredibly tanky.
According to the rules of Enlarge and Harden, the larger it was, the harder it became.
At that stage, Big Eyeball would take Tailed Beast Bombs like a person drinking water.
Unless it was something like the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion—a concentrated single-target attack—Motomu couldn't think of any way to break through its defense in a short time.
Becoming increasingly hesitant, Motomu let out a sigh.
He shifted his gaze to the final option.
Its golden border was far more eye-catching than the other three options.
Another golden passive, just like the previous Elementalization.
He clicked to view it.
[HIDE-AND-SEEK: THE POKEMON TRANSFORMS INTO AN OBJECT OF THE SAME SIZE. THE LONGER IT PERSISTS WITHOUT BEING FOUND, THE MORE EXPERIENCE IT GAINS.]
Motomu blanked for a second, then read it three more times.
Transform into an object of the same size?
Persist without being discovered?
The longer the time, the more experience?
"Isn't this just AFK farming?!"
This was even more ridiculous than the Heart soaking in lava!
At least the Heart method was something he had developed himself.
Big Eyeball was currently five meters in diameter.
What could it turn into?
A five-meter rock?
A five-meter tree trunk?
Or Old Eight's little restaurant?
Motomu thought about it and felt it was a bit far-fetched.
Something five meters large was inherently conspicuous in the wild; a five-meter thick, spherical tree wouldn't look normal no matter how you sliced it.
But soon, another possibility occurred to him.
Big Eyeball had the Minimize move.
After using Minimize, Big Eyeball would only be the size of a fist.
Fist-sized rocks, fist-sized branches, fist-sized bird nests—these things were everywhere in the forest.
Who would notice?
Besides, Big Eyeball could fly; if it found a tree hollow, crawled in, and turned into a stone, who could possibly find it?
The longer it went undetected, the more experience it would get.
If he left it there for a year or six months, how many levels would Big Eyeball gain?
Motomu's eyes lit up.
The Heart soaking in lava gave seventy-two experience points a day, totaling twenty-six thousand a year.
Without doing anything, it could go from Level 30 to Level 37.
If Big Eyeball used this passive, setting efficiency aside for a moment!
The most critical thing was—
He wouldn't have to worry about Big Eyeball's future leveling.
He could just toss Big Eyeball No. 1 into Ryuchi Cave and have it turn into a rock.
Then he could go about his business with Big Eyeball No. 2.
After a few months, Big Eyeball would have leveled up on its own.
He wondered if Big Eyeball would go crazy from boredom.
Motomu silently apologized to Big Eyeball in his heart.
However, he soon calmed down again.
Motomu regained his composure.
This passive had several key issues.
What counted as being discovered?
Did it count if an animal found it? Or a bug? Or a passing child?
If any random microbe passing by could interrupt the AFK session, then this passive was useless.
Furthermore, once Big Eyeball transformed into an object, could it move?
Could it change locations on its own?
How did the Hide-and-Seek game work, anyway?
Motomu thought about it and realized he could only find out the answers after making his choice.
He looked back and forth between the four options, his mind racing.
Passing Grade was the safest; he wouldn't lose anything by choosing it, but its ceiling was too low.
Mountain of Admiration had great potential, but the massive increase in size felt a bit wasteful.
Hide-and-Seek was the most enticing, but there were too many uncertainties.
As for Freely Speak... Motomu gave it the cold shoulder.
He didn't want to be nagged by an eyeball for a chat every day.
Motomu closed his eyes, and scenes from the past few days' battles flashed through his mind.
The pursuit by the White Snake Sage, Shukaku's Tailed Beast Bomb, Sasori's assassination attempt, the exhaustion of the Dragon Vein, the Heart's AFK farming, and the appearance of the Kidney.
Every battle reminded him of one thing: he wasn't strong enough yet.
Against the White Snake Sage, he could only rely on the Dragon Vein to stall.
Once the Dragon Vein was depleted, even escaping became a struggle.
Facing Shukaku, he could only rely on the Mangekyo and Psychokinesis for sneak attacks.
If they clashed head-on, he wouldn't be able to kill Shukaku at all.
He wasn't fast enough.
And he certainly wasn't strong enough.
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