Long-winged Gull Intrudes

While the Magikarp was unconscious, Yu Hai began to prepare it.

Actually, if you didn't call this silly thing a "salt fish," the Magikarp was quite beautiful just from its appearance; looking at it could even whet one's appetite.

The Magikarp was a large red fish, likely based on the red carp from his past life. It had long whiskers like a catfish around its mouth and a golden, crown-shaped dorsal fin on its head. Male Magikarp had yellow whiskers, while female Magikarp had white ones.

After reaching out and stroking the Magikarp's hard scales and admiring it, Yu Hai began to scrape off its scales.

Since the Magikarp's scales were quite stiff, he decided to cut open its belly first, after which he felt a handful of granular objects.

When he placed the yellow granular objects he had felt for into the firelight for a closer look, he finally knew what he had touched.

Fish roe – the Magikarp's unlaid eggs.

He wasn't surprised at all that he could feel these.

The reason Magikarp were found all over the world was due to another one of its characteristics, besides its tenacious vitality.

That was its ability to reproduce, to reproduce a lot. This was the Magikarp's survival strategy; it was thanks to its incredibly strong reproductive capacity that Magikarp had spread throughout the entire world.

Magikarp's reproductive ability was astounding. According to the fish seller who tricked Kojiro, every female Magikarp laid up to a thousand eggs each year.

However, Yu Hai felt the fish seller's statement was conservative. He hadn't considered factors like hatching rates and survival rates, which were uncertain variables. Magikarp likely laid even more eggs.

So, the fish seller wasn't exactly lying. With Magikarp, it was truly a case of "the hen lays the egg, the egg hatches into a hen."

But... damn it, Magikarp were worthless. No matter how much they reproduced, it was meaningless. The waters were teeming with Magikarp.

Only Magikarp that could evolve into Gyarados were truly valuable.

But this was like Schrödinger's cat; until you opened the box, you never knew if the cat was dead or alive.

It was the same with Magikarp. Before a Magikarp evolved into a Gyarados, you similarly didn't know if it could evolve into one.

If a Magikarp was raised at great expense but couldn't evolve into a Gyarados, wouldn't all the investment be for nothing?

No trainer would do such a thankless, labor-intensive task. It was easier to just capture a ready-made Gyarados.

Unless the trainer was incredibly wealthy and could afford to raise any Pokémon they wanted, simply because money was no object.

Lost in thought, Yu Hai had finished preparing the Magikarp.

To prevent a repeat of the past, to stop the Kingler from stealing the internal organs again, he didn't keep the organs to use as bait.

He planned to use the fish roe, some edible internal organs, fish oil, and other ingredients to make a pot of seafood soup in a frying pan.

Fortunately, he was making seafood soup, which was inherently salty. Otherwise, he would have felt weak all over from not eating salt for so long.

The remaining Magikarp rib cage would be dried and crisped over the fire to supplement the Poliwag's calcium, helping it adapt to land life sooner. Otherwise, its soft legs would be too weak to walk.

Well! Misty was right. Magikarp really didn't have much meat. Besides the internal organs, there were only the bones, with a little bit of muscle attached.

If only he had a Farfetch'd, it wasn't often you saw a Pokémon that came with its own side dish.

As he thought about it, Yu Hai's mouth involuntarily watered.

Today's dinner was quite good: a grilled fish and a pot of kelp, clam, and fish roe soup.

Since the Magikarp didn't have much edible meat, he used the shells and kelp he had found, along with the fish roe, to make a pot of seafood soup.

Looking at the kelp, clams, and fish roe tumbling in the frying pan, and smelling the aroma wafting from the pot, he couldn't help but lick his lips and swallow his saliva again.

This was just a big stew, with no technical skill involved. He was just solving the problem of eating his fill, not eating well.

There was a big difference. If one was used to delicacies, they would certainly have no appetite for this stew.

But for him, it was different. Hunger made everything taste good. He had spent the whole day with that silly thing and hadn't eaten anything, so he was starving.

The frying pan contained mostly internal organs, which should cook quickly. Before the fish bones were even roasted, the various ingredients in the pan were already bubbling and almost cooked through.

Today, he wouldn't take it down to cool. He planned to eat it like hot pot. A large leaf would serve as a bowl, and both he and the little Poliwag had a leaf placed in front of them.

"Yo-yo? Yo-yo?" The Poliwag also sniffed the aroma from the pot, hungry and craving again.

Eating meat was more filling; eating grass wasn't very filling. Its mouth hadn't stopped all day, constantly chewing kelp, eating quickly and getting hungry quickly.

"Don't rush, it'll be ready soon." Seeing the Poliwag's big black eyes staring intently at the frying pan, almost reaching into it, Yu Hai quickly used chopsticks made of bamboo to give the Poliwag a few pieces of internal organs.

"Yo-hoo, yo-hoo!" As soon as the Poliwag saw the internal organs, it tried to catch them with its mouth, taking a bite. It immediately got burned by the freshly cooked organs and spat them out, panting heavily. Its lips were likely scalded.

"Don't rush, you burned yourself, didn't you?" Yu Hai said, feeling both helpless and amused. He quickly used an iron cup to get the Poliwag a cup of fresh water.

The cool water was immediately brought to the Poliwag's mouth. The Poliwag drank it down without hesitation, gulping down a cup of cool water.

But the cool water didn't soothe the Poliwag's slightly burned pink lips. The Poliwag was still panting heavily, its lips still hurting terribly, causing it to writhe in pain.

"Poliwag, have you forgotten Soothing Mist?"

"Yo?" Hearing Yu Hai's reminder, the Poliwag stopped writhing. Its bright black eyes paused for a moment, and it suddenly realized, 'That's right, Soothing Mist! How could I forget?'

"Yo-yo, yo-yo." The moment the Poliwag thought of this, and saw the faint smile on Yu Hai's lips, it knew it had made a fool of itself. How embarrassing!

It needed someone else to remind it of its own move. It was so awkward.

The Poliwag wished it could dig a hole in the sand and bury its head in it, just to avoid this embarrassment.

But before the Poliwag could even use Soothing Mist to treat its burn, it was once again infuriated by a laugh, splitting it into two.

"Woo-oo, woo-oo, woo-oo..."

"It's that annoying Long-winged Gull," Yu Hai said, raising a hand to his forehead in exasperation. He felt like things were about to get worse.

The Poliwag, which had been rolling on the ground in pain just moments ago, stopped hurting when it heard the Long-winged Gull's laughter. Instead, it became furious, turned towards the Long-winged Gull standing on a nearby reef, and spat a Water Gun from its mouth.

Unfortunately, the Poliwag had only recently learned Water Gun, and its range wasn't sufficient, let alone its accuracy...

Thanks to Xingkonghuli for the 100 book coins, and Gui Youbai for the monthly ticket, thank you