Scavenging, Poké Balls

On the third day of Desert Island Survival, the sun had just risen.

Yesterday, Yu Hai had wanted to get a Poké Ball and catch a Pokémon to test the Proficiency Panel, but he had fallen asleep while thinking about it.

He had also been too exhausted. He had barely rested properly these past two days, and the warm campfire had let him sleep straight through until dawn.

After waking up, he raised his hand and stretched. Just as he was about to get up, he felt something weighing down his leg.

When he looked closely, he found Poliwag sleeping on his leg.

This little tadpole did not look very big, but according to the setting, it weighed a full twenty-five kilograms. Imagine how heavy twenty-five kilograms was, then imagine twenty-five kilograms pressing down on your leg, and you could understand Poliwag's weight.

The moment he saw Poliwag, he realized his pants were wet. He also happened to see Poliwag smacking its lips, with crystal-clear drool dripping from the corner of its mouth.

"Damn it," Yu Hai muttered, black lines immediately appearing across his forehead. He really wanted to throw this filthy little tadpole far away.

After thinking it over, though, he decided to forget it. It was rare to encounter such a friendly Pokémon in the wild, and having Poliwag around gave him at least a little more sense of security.

"Hey, wake up, you lazy tadpole." Yu Hai reached out and gave Poliwag a push. The little guy was still half-asleep, smacking its lips and refusing to wake up. It rolled over and continued sleeping.

With no other choice, he lifted Poliwag off his leg and set it down nearby, letting it continue sleeping.

"Yo? Yo, ha..." After Yu Hai picked it up, Poliwag woke up too. Looking at the human stretching, it opened its mouth and let out a huge yawn as well.

After noticing that Poliwag was awake, Yu Hai paid it no mind and instead began searching along the shoreline for freshwater.

He had not had a proper drink in two days, only licking a little dew and eating some grilled fish. He was terribly thirsty and had to find freshwater as soon as possible.

Although this little tadpole was a Wild Pokémon, if he had a Poké Ball, he wanted to catch it and make it his first Pokémon.

Poliwag's final evolution, Poliwrath, had a Base Stat total of 510, which was already quite decent.

Besides Poliwrath, Poliwag also had another final evolution: Politoed.

Other than Pseudo-Legendaries, they could be considered second-tier Pokémon, with Base Stat totals exceeding five hundred.

Even Venusaur, one of the Starters, only had a Base Stat total of 525, though it did have a Mega Evolution.

Still, there was nothing he could do about that. After all, those were Starters, initial Pokémon only the League's direct line could possess.

He was an undocumented resident stranded on an uninhabited Deserted Island. Even if he cried, no one would feed him. Being able to encounter a friendly Poliwag was already pretty good; he had no right to be picky.

Poliwag was not bad either. Its final evolution, Poliwrath, had fairly balanced stats across all six attributes, with nothing especially outstanding, except that it was a little slow.

However, speed could also be compensated for with an Ability.

He remembered that Poliwrath had an Ability called Swift Swim. Its effect was to double its speed in rainy weather. Used properly, it could already surpass the base speed of most Pokémon.

To catch this Poliwag, all he lacked now was a Poké Ball.

"Ah..." Yu Hai sighed helplessly and shook his head. Without a Poké Ball, things were difficult. Even with the Proficiency Panel, he could not make a meal without rice.

He stopped thinking about it, or he would become obsessed. Since he had come to the Pokémon World, his goal was naturally to become a Trainer.

His top priority was still solving his food and shelter problem first.

If he died of thirst on this Deserted Island, that would be utterly humiliating. He would bring shame to all transmigrators.

Since he could not find freshwater by the sea for the time being, and did not want to explore the island's jungle, he could only fold a broad leaf into a cone-shaped bowl and collect dew from plant leaves along the edge of the jungle.

If he could not find freshwater, then the dew on the grass would be all the freshwater he could drink today.

He also had to hurry. Once the sun rose high and the temperature increased, even the dew would evaporate, and he would have no choice but to Endure until tomorrow morning.

Fortunately, dewdrops in a two-dimensional world were large enough. Before long, he had collected a bowlful and quenched his thirst a little.

As for Poliwag, while he was searching for freshwater, it followed behind him, observing this human's strange behavior.

When Poliwag saw Yu Hai drinking dew, it curiously stuck out its tongue and tasted the dew on the leaves too. After drinking a drop, it smacked its lips. The taste was not bad—very sweet.

Poliwag went to drink a second drop of dew. Morning dew was everywhere.

In truth, Poliwag could survive in the sea. It could filter the salt from seawater and had no need to drink dew at all. It was only drinking it out of curiosity about this human Yu Hai's behavior.

After his lips had been moistened by freshwater, Yu Hai's need for it was no longer quite so urgent. He began scavenging for trash while searching for freshwater, collecting dew to store away.

He wanted to see if he could find anything useful. Broken Wooden Boards could be used as firewood, foam could serve as a mattress and provide warmth, while plastic bottles and buckets could hold freshwater or collect rainwater.

There was also waterproof plastic sheeting, which could be stitched together to make a rainproof roof. Although the weather had been good these past few days, he still needed to build a shelter.

He had no idea how much longer he would have to stay on this Deserted Island. Who knew when that damned sky would rain? He did not dare gamble on it; he only wanted to prepare for the worst.

There was a lot of household trash washed ashore on this Deserted Island, exactly like the uninhabited island where a Desert Island Survival streamer from his previous life had lived.

When he had first transmigrated here, the trash all over the ground had nearly broken him. The beautiful Pokémon World really was a lie, existing only in anime.

Still, thanks to all this household trash washed onto the beach, he could scavenge some daily necessities. Otherwise, he would not even have had wood to grill fish with at night.

Before he knew it, he had collected a huge pile of junk, most of it wood. He would not be short on firewood tonight.

But he still had not found freshwater, so he could only head back first and place everything beside last night's campfire. Next, it was time to find food.

If he wanted to keep fishing, he had no more bait. He did not know whether there were earthworms in the damp soil, but he could dig around later and find out.

If there were no earthworms, the innards from last night's fish could also be used as bait.

Thud—

Yu Hai was planning what to do next and was not watching where he walked. He stepped on something unknown, lost his balance, and fell.

Everything he had scavenged went flying. When he climbed back up and was about to look for whatever had tripped him—

Suddenly, a round red-and-white object rolled out and headed toward the sea.

"Th-this... Isn't that the classic first-generation Poké Ball from a certain paradise?"

Yu Hai stared blankly as the Poké Ball rolled farther and farther away. Only then did he belatedly realize that this was the Poké Ball he had dreamed of having.

Seeing that the Poké Ball was about to roll into the sea, he immediately got up and chased after it. He was in such a rush that one of his shoes came off, and he charged straight into the water.

Finally, after the Poké Ball entered the water but before the waves could sweep it away, he caught it.

"Hahaha, a Poké Ball! I have a Poké Ball now!" Yu Hai stood in the seawater, grinning like an idiot as he tightly clutched the baseball-sized red-and-white Poké Ball.

After the excitement passed, he immediately realized something was wrong. This was an uninhabited Deserted Island—how could there possibly be a Poké Ball here?

Many readers do not understand the percentages for Abilities. Please check the related work section for the Ability explanations...

Regarding the League's direct line: how did the protagonist know about the League's direct line and Starters when he did not yet know this world's background?

1. The protagonist was an adult, a twenty-five-year-old adult. This was already mentioned earlier.

2. As an adult, he did not believe in fairy tales. No matter which version of the Pokémon setting it was, Bug Catchers were always standard roadside cannon fodder. If it were truly a utopia, truly that wonderful, then everyone should have Starters and never worry about food or clothing. Why the hell would there even be villains? The villains would have already given up and taken it easy.

3. Since Starters were a Trainer's initial Pokémon, why had the Bug Catcher not received one? A Bug Catcher without Starters and a Rookie Trainer with Starters—wasn't that basically the same thing as access to a good school district?

4. If an adult could not recognize the issues above, had that adult even been beaten down by society?

If life were carefree, and you could just lie flat and collect rent, who the hell would transmigrate to suffer? Was collecting rent not great enough, or was lying down not comfortable enough...

In answer to a reader's question: the Elite Four, Champion, and Gym Leaders were families themselves. Families, the League, Champions, the Elite Four, Gym Leaders—you had me and I had you, marrying into each other's families. That was what it meant to be well-matched... The younger sisters of the Jenny family and Joy family were quite pretty. I believe many powerful Trainers would marry into those two families...

If you wanted to become their son-in-law, those two families probably would not even want you if you were too weak...