I need your opinion on meeting people to go out to parties

Well, let's get to it. I have a big problem in that I have a lot of theoretical knowledge, but little practice, which is useless. The reason I have a lot of theory is that I read a lot and watch courses that really work, but my big problem is that I don't have the opportunity to put into practice what I learn. The reason for this is that I live in a city of 200 thousand inhabitants and I only have one friend (I used to have more, but each one went their own way or fought).

This only friend of mine is very shy and doesn't go out to parties or bars very much, which he should because, like me, he doesn't have any women to date. And the problem of him not going out much, added to the fact that my city is small, means that I can never go out to a place where there are a lot of people to approach, because besides not having company, the parties aren't that big.

The solution that was most often given to me when I talked about this in the seduction group I studied, they said that I need to make friends and they said to get these friends by approaching groups of guys at parties, or by approaching people at the gym. The problem is that I'm really bad at making friends like that. Oddly enough, I already have no trouble approaching women, but meeting male friends makes me feel trapped.

And then I thought, what if I went after making female friends? Since I have an easier time approaching women. For example, I once approached a woman with her parents who seemed to be strict and everything went well, we talked on Instagram, but it just didn't go forward for other reasons.

Anyway, my question is what do you think is best to solve my problem?

Making female friends, where I can approach them in malls, clubs, etc.

Or forcing myself to learn how to meet and make male friends?

And how can I do that?