Point Allocation Failed, Yet Succeeded

Just like his last point allocation, a roar sounded in his mind, and Mark and Caterpie were both briefly stunned.

Rubbing his forehead, Mark quickly regained his senses.

His mind was still a little dizzy, but it was nothing serious.

Mark looked around and inexplicably felt as if he had forgotten something important, yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not recall it.

Beside him, Caterpie was also looking around in confusion.

"Come to think of it, why did I pass out just now?"

Mark frowned in thought, but he did not dwell on it for long.

Because Mark knew what he should be doing now: training his Spirit Master skill, the Tackle Training Method (Power-Up Tackle), and taking it a step further.

After crossing over, he had become a Spirit Master. While guiding Caterpie in practicing Tackle, he had comprehended the Tackle Training Method (Power-Up Tackle).

Compared to an ordinary Tackle, Tackle (Power-Up Tackle) was significantly more powerful.

But in his eyes, it was still far from enough.

If Tackle were placed in a martial arts world—

The Tackle Caterpie had initially comprehended from its bloodline and genes could only be considered a beginner's grasp.

The Tackle (Power-Up Tackle) he and Caterpie had developed together could be considered competent.

But beyond competence lay mastery, and beyond that, Return to Simplicity.

Return to Simplicity was Mark's goal.

To describe it with the swordsmanship of Dugu Qiubai, a famous figure from the martial arts world: unbound by objects, grass, wood, bamboo, and stone could all become swords.

The same applied to Tackle. He wanted to simplify Tackle (Power-Up Tackle) from complexity into simplicity, making it appear utterly ordinary while possessing extraordinary speed and power.

Mark closed his eyes in thought.

Though he had a rough idea, he had yet to find an entry point for taking that first step toward Return to Simplicity.

As he pondered, Mark opened his backpack and took out Hia Kingdom Pokemon Common Sense Encyclopedia (I) and Hia Kingdom Pokemon Common Sense Encyclopedia (II), carefully flipping through them.

The two books differed in thickness. The second was much thinner than the first.

"Strange. Why do I feel like there should have been a lot more books? And these two seem to be missing a lot of content too. Especially the second one—it looks like more than half of it was never printed..."

Mark kept thinking but never found the reason for the missing material. Instead, he discovered another oddity.

—His backpack's design was rather strange.

His backpack did not seem to have been made specifically for carrying books. It seemed to have held something before, but he could never remember what.

"This shape... it looks like an ostrich egg. Caterpie, do you remember anything?"

Mark asked Caterpie beside him. The latter shook its head, clearly having no idea either.

Mark did not spend much time dwelling on such trivial matters and soon returned to considering the Tackle Training Method.

Since he still could not find a suitable entry point, Mark picked up a stick and began writing and drawing in the dirt of a nearby clearing, recording key pieces of knowledge from his memories before crossing over.

He decided to organize and summarize everything he knew.

At first, Caterpie stayed by Mark's side. Later, growing bored, it practiced Tackle by itself in the nearby clearing, attempting to incorporate Raticate's Quick Attack techniques.

And so, a day passed.

Three days passed...

Five days... ten days...

A month passed before he knew it, and the nearby clearing had already been filled with dense writing by Mark.

Like a man possessed, Mark muttered things under his breath.

"Return to Simplicity... overt strength, hidden strength, Transforming Strength... unity of body and intent, not a feather can be added, not even a fly can land..."

Muttering to himself, Mark suddenly let out a frustrated roar and repeatedly wiped away the words written in the dirt. Once the ground was clear, he began writing on it again with his stick.

One day, two days, three days...

After writing continuously for three days, Mark once again erased the words on the ground, then continued writing new content.

For the entire following year, Mark repeated this process without pause.

Actually, it could not be called just one year. To be precise, for nearly five years, Mark had been writing and drawing in the nearby clearing, constantly researching.

At first, Mark's Caterpie practiced Tackle techniques alone in the nearby clearing. Later, it began thinking alongside Mark.

Then, in the sixth year, Mark stopped burying his head in research. Every day, he set aside several hours to sit in meditation, attempting to find the path forward for the Tackle Training Method through heaven, earth, and nature.

The result was still failure.

Time flowed on. Ten consecutive years passed, and Mark gained very little.

And after those ten years—

Mark suddenly had a feeling that if he chose to give up, he would wake up and end all of this, and all his troubles and confusion would vanish like smoke.

Mark did not know what waking up meant, nor did he want to know.

Because he had no intention of giving up, much less ending things.

He continued to sit in meditation in the forest every day, contemplating heaven and nature, researching diligently day after day...

Time continued to pass, one year after another...

"Return to Simplicity... just how am I supposed to achieve it..."

As Mark sighed, he walked through the forest with Caterpie. Without realizing it, they arrived at a familiar place.

Blue sky, white clouds, an endless expanse of grassland, and several small puddles scattered across it.

This was where he had crossed over into this world.

Using the reflection in a puddle, Mark saw an incomparably aged figure. At the same time, he felt his body's functions declining.

"Have I... become this old?"

Mark raised a hand and touched his wrinkled cheek.

"Return to Simplicity... Return to Simplicity..."

Mark muttered, and as he spoke, it felt as if something suddenly left his body. The world in his eyes lost its color and turned black and white.

He could no longer control his body, and his black-and-white vision grew darker and darker. Before long, he fell stiffly backward...

Seeing Mark fall, Caterpie promptly cushioned him to keep him from being hurt, only to discover that Mark's body had lost all signs of movement. Both his heartbeat and breathing had vanished.

It crawled out from beneath Mark and stared blankly at his face.

What it saw were Mark's eyes, full of unwillingness yet devoid of all light.

—Its master was dead.

Buzz—

With a strange humming sound, the image before Caterpie's eyes began to shatter and collapse...

When Caterpie came back to its senses, it saw its young master not far away.

It rubbed its eyes in disbelief, then threw itself into Mark's arms as tears streamed down uncontrollably.

"Caterpie, Caterpie, Caterpie!"

Mark gently rubbed Caterpie's head and wiped away its tears. "I told you already, this is the effect of point allocation. That experience didn't really happen. It was like the last time, when we practiced Tackle for more than three years. This time was just a little longer. Don't cry. You're making it seem like we really went through life and death."

"Caterpie?"

"Yes, that experience didn't truly happen." Recalling those memories, Mark sighed softly and continued, "But it still felt incredibly real. Forty-seven years and three months of painstaking research, and in the end, I still failed to comprehend the mysteries of Return to Simplicity. It seems I'm just an Ordinary Person after all..."

As Mark spoke, he opened the system panel.

Judging by those forty-seven years of memories, this point allocation should have failed. After all, he had exhausted himself and died of old age without finding the path to Return to Simplicity.

But looking at the system panel now, this point allocation had still succeeded.

Mark

Spirit Trainer Talent: None

Trainer Skill: Tackle Training Method (Power-Up Tackle, Instant Strike, Adamant Penetrating Strike, Multi-Strike Combo)

Special Talents: Robust Health, Poison Resistance

...

Caterpie

Five-Dimensional Potential:

Strength: F Constitution: F- Agility: F+ Spirit: E Perception: E+

Trait: Shield Dust

Special Ability: Evolution

Skills: Tackle (Power-Up Tackle, Instant Strike, Adamant Penetrating Strike, Multi-Strike Combo), String Shot

After forty-seven years of painstaking research, although he had ultimately fallen short and failed to comprehend the mysteries of Return to Simplicity even in death, he had still achieved some modest results.

Using Raticate's Quick Attack as a reference, he and Caterpie had successfully perfected Tackle (Instant Strike), allowing them to launch Tackle at extreme speed.

Likewise, taking inspiration from the technique of combining hardness and softness used by Machamp, he and Caterpie had developed Tackle (Adamant Penetrating Strike), granting Tackle a penetrating destructive effect.

In addition, he and Caterpie had developed Tackle (Multi-Strike Combo). Caterpie could perform up to seven Tackles in rapid succession within an extremely short time...

PS: To prevent some readers from missing the point and thinking the protagonist is a useless loser who trained for decades without succeeding, then feeling dissatisfied, let me explain here.

The direction of the protagonist's point allocation is not fixed. It is based on what the protagonist wants.

If an Ordinary Person allocated points to Tackle, they might develop Tackle (Heavy Slam) in the Dream World and happily call it a day.

If they allocated points to Tackle (Heavy Slam) a second time, they might develop Tackle (All-Out Tackle) in the Dream World and still happily call it a day.

But in truth, even those two point allocations would not compare to the Tackle (Power-Up Tackle) the protagonist developed the first time.

And the "Return to Simplicity" the protagonist wanted to achieve through his second point allocation was a realm comparable to Bodhidharma, Dugu Qiubai, and figures like them. Do you think that's something you can get from just two point allocations?

And you should understand that Bodhidharma, Dugu Qiubai, and people like them traveled and grew in a real world. The Dream World the protagonist inhabits is essentially an open-ended little black room.

Do you really think this so-called "Return to Simplicity" could be forcibly figured out by being cooped up in a little black room for a few decades?

This was impossible from the start, yet the protagonist felt exceptionally dejected and suffered an incredibly intense sense of defeat. Well, that's some old-fashioned humblebragging...