Scavenging, Poké Ball

On the third day of desert island survival, the sun had just risen.

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

There was also the exhaustion factor—he hadn't rested well these past two days, and with the warmth of the fire, he'd slept straight through until dawn.

Waking up, he raised his arms and stretched. Just as he was about to get up, he felt something heavy pressing on his legs.

When he looked closely, it turned out to be a Poliwag sleeping on his lap.

This little tadpole didn't look big, but according to the setting, it weighed a full twenty-five jin. Imagine how heavy twenty-five jin is, then imagine that weight pressing down on your legs—that's the heft of a Poliwag.

The moment he saw the Poliwag, he noticed his pants were wet, and he happened to catch the Poliwag still smacking its lips, with crystal-clear drool trickling from the corner of its mouth.

"Damn," Yu Hai's forehead instantly lined with exasperation. He really wanted to toss this messy little tadpole far away.

After thinking it over, he decided against it. After all, it was rare to meet such a friendly Pokémon in the wild, and having the Poliwag around gave him a bit of a sense of security.

"Hey, wake up, lazy tadpole," Yu Hai reached out and nudged the Poliwag. The little guy was still groggy, smacking its lips, unwilling to wake up, and just rolled over to keep sleeping.

With that, he had no choice but to pick the Poliwag up from his legs and set it down where it was, letting it continue to sleep.

"Yoo? Yoo, hah," the Poliwag, stirred by being lifted, woke up too. Watching the human stretching, it also opened its mouth and let out a big yawn.

Yu Hai noticed the Poliwag had woken up but didn't pay it much mind. Instead, he followed the coastline to look for freshwater.

He hadn't drunk water in two days, only licking a bit of dew and eating some grilled fish. He was very thirsty now and had to find freshwater as soon as possible.

Even though this little tadpole was a Wild Pokémon, if he had a Poké Ball, he'd want to catch it as his first Pokémon.

The final evolution of Poliwag, Poliwrath, had a Base Stat total of 510, which was already respectable.

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

Aside from Pseudo-Legendaries, it was in the second tier of Pokémon, with Base Stats all exceeding five hundred.

To think that Venusaur, one of the Starters, only had a Base Stat total of 525, even if it had a Mega Evolution.

But that couldn't be helped—after all, Starters were the initial Pokémon reserved for League affiliates.

He was a black-market nobody stranded on a deserted island. Even if he cried, there'd be no milk for him. Meeting a friendly Poliwag was already pretty good; he had no right to be picky.

Poliwag was fine too. Its final evolution, Poliwrath, had six individual stats that were fairly evenly distributed, with no standout points—just a bit slow on speed.

Still, speed could be compensated for with an Ability.

He remembered Poliwrath had the Swift Swim Ability, which doubled its speed in rain. Used well, that could surpass most Pokémon's base speed.

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

"Sigh," Yu Hai shook his head helplessly. Without a Poké Ball, he was in a tough spot. Even with the Proficiency Panel, he was like a skilled cook without rice.

He'd stop thinking about it for now, or he'd go crazy. Since he'd come to the Pokémon World, his goal was definitely to become a Trainer.

The urgent matter was to solve the food and water problem first.

If he died of thirst on this deserted island, he'd be a huge embarrassment—a real disgrace to the transmigrator community.

He couldn't find freshwater along the coast for now, and he didn't want to explore the island's jungle. So he used a large, broad leaf, folded it into a cone-shaped bowl, and collected dew from plant leaves along the jungle's edge.

If he couldn't find freshwater, the dew on the grass blades would be all the freshwater he could drink today.

He had to be quick. Once the sun was high and the temperature rose, even the dew would evaporate, and he'd have to endure until tomorrow morning.

Luckily, the dew in this two-dimensional world was big enough. Before long, he'd collected a bowlful, enough to quench his thirst for now.

As for the Poliwag, it had been following behind him while he looked for freshwater, observing this human's strange behavior.

When the Poliwag saw Yu Hai drinking dew, it curiously stuck out its tongue and tasted the dew on the leaves. After swallowing a drop, the Poliwag smacked its lips, finding the taste pretty good—very sweet.

The Poliwag went for a second drop of dew. Morning dew was everywhere.

In truth, the Poliwag could survive in the sea; it could filter salt from seawater, so it didn't need to drink dew at all. It was just curious about what Yu Hai, this human, was doing.

With his lips moistened by freshwater, Yu Hai's urgent need for water eased. Instead, he started scavenging for trash while looking for freshwater, collecting and storing dew.

He hoped to find something useful. Broken wooden boards could be firewood, foam could be used as a mattress and for warmth, plastic bottles and buckets could hold water or catch rainwater.

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

He had no idea how long he'd be stuck on this deserted island. Who knew when the damn sky would decide to rain? He didn't dare gamble; he just wanted to be prepared.

This deserted island was littered with washed-up household trash, exactly like the uninhabited island from some desert island survival streamer he'd watched in his past life.

When he first transmigrated, the sight of all that trash had broken him. The beautiful Pokémon World was all lies, existing only in anime.

But thanks to all that household trash washed ashore, he could scavenge for useful items. Otherwise, he wouldn't even have wood to grill fish at night.

Without realizing it, he'd already collected a big pile of junk, mostly wood. He wouldn't lack firewood tonight.

But he still hadn't found freshwater. He had to head back first, put his stuff by last night's fire, and then deal with food.

If he wanted to keep fishing, he had no bait left. He didn't know if there were earthworms in the damp soil; he could dig for some later.

If there were no earthworms, the innards of last night's fish could serve as bait.

Thump—

Yu Hai was thinking about his next steps, not watching where he was going, when he stepped on something underfoot, lost his balance, and fell.

The things he had scavenged were all thrown out. When he got up to look, just as he was about to find what had tripped him—

Suddenly, a red-and-white spherical object rolled out, heading toward the sea.

"Th-this? Isn't this the classic first-generation Poké Ball from that one company?"

Yu Hai stared blankly as the Poké Ball rolled farther away, only realizing belatedly that this was exactly the kind of Poké Ball he had dreamed of.

Seeing the Poké Ball about to roll into the sea, he immediately got up and chased after it. In his haste, he lost one of his shoes and charged straight into the water.

Finally, just as the Poké Ball entered the water but before the waves could sweep it away, he grabbed it.

"Hahaha, a Poké Ball, I've got a Poké Ball!" Yu Hai stood in the seawater, laughing like an idiot, clutching the baseball-sized red-and-white Poké Ball tightly.

After the excitement faded, he immediately realized something was wrong. This was a deserted island—how could there possibly be a Poké Ball here?

Many readers don't understand the percentages for abilities. Please refer to the related works section, ability introduction...

Regarding the issue of League direct-line connections: the protagonist doesn't yet know the world's background, so how does he know about League direct lines and the Starters?

1. The protagonist is an adult, a twenty-five-year-old adult. That was stated earlier.

2. As an adult, he doesn't believe in fairy tales. No matter what version of the Pokémon background, Bug Catchers are always the standard roadblock mobs. If it were truly a utopia, if it were really that perfect, then everyone should have Starters, everyone should have food and clothing without worry. Then what the hell would the villains even do? The villains would just lie down and give up.

3. Starters are the initial Pokémon for Trainers. Why didn't the Bug Catcher get one? The Bug Catcher who didn't get a Starter, compared to the Rookie Trainer who did—isn't that basically the same thing as school district housing?

4. As an adult, if he couldn't realize the above issues, then has this adult ever been beaten down by society?

If life were carefree, if he could just lie back and collect rent, who the hell would bother transmigrating to suffer? Isn't collecting rent sweet enough? Isn't lying down comfortable enough?

Answering a reader's question: the Elite Four, the Champion, the Gym Leaders—these are the families themselves. Families, the League, the Champion, the Elite Four, the Gym Leaders—they're all intertwined, intermarrying with each other. That's what it means to be well-matched in social status... The younger sisters of the Jenny family and the Joy family are quite pretty. I believe many powerful Trainers would marry into these two families...

If someone wants to be a son-in-law, but is too weak, these two families probably wouldn't even want them...