"Rayquaza"

"Poliwag, where are you?" Yu Hai called as he walked, using Poliwag's cries to pinpoint its location.

"Yoyo, yoyo!" Sensing Yu Hai drawing closer, Poliwag raised its voice as if saying, "Here, here, I'm over here..."

When Yu Hai pushed aside the leaves and branches blocking his view, he finally saw Poliwag's blue figure—and Rayquaza?

"No, that's not right. It's Caterpie." Yu Hai had nearly fallen for the Caterpie joke. He found it both helplessly funny and absurd. How could Rayquaza possibly be so weak that it got knocked out by a little tadpole?

Caterpie was a Pokémon with the appearance of a caterpillar. Its back was green and its belly pale yellow. It had Y-shaped red antennae on its head. When attacked by Flying-type Pokémon, it released a foul odor from those antennae to drive enemies away.

If someone touched the red antennae on its head, it would also secrete a nasty smell to protect itself.

Caterpie had two pairs of prolegs on the front half of its body, with suckers on them. Yellow ring-shaped markings ran along its sides, while its tail was a yellow spindle shape.

Caterpie was easy to catch and grew quickly, making it ideal for Rookie Trainers to capture when they had no Pokémon to use in the early stages. This was what people called a route bug.

It just stank terribly here. The smell was beyond description, like an outhouse on a scorching thirty-degree day. Unwilling to stay any longer, Yu Hai took the shrunken Poké Ball from his pocket and captured the unconscious Caterpie.

"Let's go, Poliwag. This place reeks." After capturing Caterpie, Yu Hai called Poliwag away. The stench Caterpie gave off was simply unbearable. He was afraid he might pass out if he took another couple of breaths.

The stench in the air was probably Caterpie's means of self-defense.

"Yoyo, yoyo!" Poliwag found it awful too. If it had not been waiting for Yu Hai to take Caterpie away, it would have slipped off already.

Back at the temporary camp, Yu Hai found a comfortable spot beneath the shade of a tree and sat down. Only then did he take out Caterpie's Poké Ball and check its Proficiency Panel.

[Caterpie]

[Attribute: Bug]

[Gender: Female]

[Potential: 23%]

[Level: 3.14%]

[Ability: Scale Powder/1.31%] [Hidden Ability: Run Away/2.53%]

[Mastered Moves: (Body Slam/0.51%) (String Shot/1.25%)]

Sure enough, mediocrity was the norm for Pokémon. Pokémon with high Potential, such as the Starters, were probably bred that way.

He had never seen a Starter's Proficiency Panel, but he could roughly guess that a Starter's Potential was at least fifty percent.

Every Starter had three stages of evolution. They could evolve without any evolution items as long as their level was high enough. Some Starters could even Mega Evolve, especially the first-generation Starters.

All he could do was envy them. If a Starter's Potential was no lower than fifty percent, then after its third evolution, every one of them would have the Potential to break through to the Elite Four. That was practically guaranteed.

Unless the Trainer was incapable of raising Pokémon, the physical changes and Base Stat increases brought by evolution would certainly elevate a Pokémon's Potential.

As for this Caterpie, its low Potential made it useless. It was not worth raising.

If Caterpie had been the first Pokémon he encountered, perhaps he would have treated it the way he treated Poliwag.

Even though this Caterpie's Potential was low, if he raised it and evolved it into Butterfree, he would release Butterfree once he had other Pokémon partners. After all, it would have helped him.

Unfortunately, they were fated to have no connection. To survive on this uninhabited Deserted Island, he could only treat it as food.

He was not that noble, nor was he someone who repaid kindness with ingratitude. He was merely an ordinary commoner, incapable of saintly deeds like saving other Pokémon even if it meant starving himself to death.

Releasing Caterpie was out of the question. Poliwag had worked hard to catch it. He should be praising the little tadpole instead.

That was the Food Chain. Even if Yu Hai did not eat Caterpie, it would be eaten by Flying-type Pokémon anyway, such as Pidgey, Spearow, Pidgeotto, or Flying-type Pokémon like Pidgeot.

To prepare Caterpie, he returned to the sand pit he had dug earlier and retrieved the Folding Knife from inside. Only after returning to the temporary camp did he release Caterpie.

Bang—

When he opened the Poké Ball and released Caterpie, it was still unconscious. Yu Hai showed no mercy and directly cut off its head.

The red antennae atop Caterpie's head could release a foul odor. Its head probably contained a stink gland specifically used to store the malodorous secretions produced while digesting leaves.

Many insects and animals from his previous life had such self-defense organs, used to drive enemies away.

It was hardly strange for a weak Caterpie to evolve such an organ, but its head could not be eaten.

In fact, he had eaten bugs in his previous life. Their protein content was several times that of beef.

Their diet should have targeted Caterpie much earlier.

But he could not beat Caterpie. Never mind that it knew moves—even the stench Caterpie sprayed at him was something he could not withstand.

But things were different now that he had Poliwag. He could let Poliwag take the lead while he only needed to throw the Poké Ball.

After pinching off Caterpie's head, he pulled out its intestines. There was not much else left to clean.

With its head and tail removed, Caterpie was truly clean—so clean that all that remained was protein. No wonder Flying-type Pokémon loved eating Caterpie.

Caterpie was also simple to cook. He rinsed the inside of its body with slightly salty freshwater, allowing the protein to take on some saltiness, then tossed it into the fire to roast.

Caterpie's shell was tough, but the joints between its segments were fragile. He could practically see the soft tissue beneath the shell—the protein.

Even if he roasted it over the fire with the shell still on, the protein inside would not burn.

Crack, crack—

As the flames roasted it, Caterpie's shell finally could not hold up and burst apart.

But the protein inside should have been cooked by now.

Yu Hai used a branch to pull Caterpie from the fire. He could already smell the faint aroma of meat beneath its shell.

After it cooled down somewhat, he took out the Folding Knife again and cut Caterpie down the middle. With the head and tail removed, Caterpie still had four segments left.

He gave the meatier front half to Poliwag.

"This is yours, Poliwag. You caught Caterpie, so you eat first." Yu Hai kept the tail section for himself.

"Yoyo?" Poliwag stared at the charred black thing before it, unsure how to eat it.

In response, Yu Hai used the Folding Knife again, knocking open Caterpie's shell to reveal the white, tender flesh inside. The smell of meat alone made Poliwag drool.

He cracked open his own portion as well. Looking at the soft, glutinous protein in his hand that would melt in his mouth, he recalled that bugs the size of thumbs in his previous life would burst with juice when bitten.

Staring at the fragrant protein in his hand, a bold idea immediately came to him.

Caterpie could eat a hundred leaves every day. It was practically a pest. To keep the trees from going bald, he would become an expert exterminator.

Then it was decided. Caterpie, it was you.

Wow, I woke up this morning and found that a big shot had tipped a thousand Book Coins. Thank you, thank you! Thanks to Fallen Half-Immortal for the thousand coins, thanks to ZUROSHE for the three hundred coins, and thanks, everyone, for all the monthly tickets and recommendation tickets. Thank you, thank you... As for bonus chapters, I asked my editor yesterday, and the editor said that a normal four-thousand-word update was enough. But I can't spoil everyone's fun either, so how about this: bonus chapters will come after the premium release. Every three hundred monthly tickets earns one extra chapter, and every helmsman rank earns one extra chapter. I'll owe them for now and pay them back after release, which will also give me motivation to write more. One extra chapter means two thousand words. Helmsman ranks can accumulate too; accumulating ten thousand to become a helmsman also earns an extra chapter... If the monthly tickets are short by only ten or so, that can count for an extra chapter too. Sigh, now I don't even dare ask for tickets. Please don't bury me in votes—I'm afraid I won't be able to pay them back... So please keep reading, seriously, please...