"Yo, yo." Poliwag nodded solemnly, indicating that it understood Yu Hai's plan.
Then Poliwag opened its mouth and fired a Water Gun. It missed the tree hollow in the branch and struck the trunk below it instead.
That was awkward. The missed Water Gun made Poliwag blush furiously. It had been so confident that it would hit the target, but instead, it had made Yu Hai laugh at it.
"It's fine, try again." Yu Hai had already taken out a Poké Ball, but when he saw Poliwag's Water Gun miss, he could only force himself to hold back his laughter. He could not even pretend he had not seen it, so he had no choice but to comfort Poliwag.
"Yo, yo." Poliwag's face had turned red from embarrassment. This was truly humiliating for a Poliwag.
When it saw Yu Hai's expression, clearly wanting to laugh but not daring to, its growl at him became even more forceful. It had to prove itself. This morning's special training had worked, and it could not let Yu Hai look down on it.
"Yes, yes, yes, Poliwag is the best." Yu Hai suppressed his smile. Why did this feel like he was both father and mother? In both his past and present lives, he had been single. How had he suddenly become a child's father?
Pff, pff, pff—
To improve its accuracy, Poliwag fired three Water Guns this time. Two of them hit the Caterpie resting inside the tree hollow, enraging it.
If someone splashed a basin of cold water over you while you were sleeping, just thinking about it would make it impossible to suppress your morning temper.
"Wuu?" The instant Caterpie woke up, it spotted Poliwag standing at the entrance to the hollow and let out an angry cry, seemingly asking Poliwag, "Who are you? Why did you splash water on me?"
But Poliwag replied, "What are you looking at?"
Caterpie: "So what if I'm looking at you?"
"Poliwag, use Hypnosis." Seeing the two of them getting more and more fired up in their argument, Yu Hai immediately reminded Poliwag.
"Yo." Poliwag answered to show it understood, then quietly used Hypnosis. It pushed its belly forward slightly so Caterpie would notice it, then continued provoking it. "Try looking again."
Caterpie: "I'll try, I'll tr—tr—"
"Huh? Something's wrong. Why am I getting dizzy? Was that guy behind this?"
When Caterpie realized something was wrong, it finally noticed that it could not look at the spiral pattern on Poliwag's belly. The longer it stared, the dizzier it became, but it was already too late.
Caterpie, standing at the hollow's entrance and glaring angrily at Poliwag, soon had spiral eyes and fainted.
Bang—
At that moment, Yu Hai threw the empty Poké Ball in his hand. It hit Caterpie and sucked it inside, but the Poké Ball stopped inside the tree hollow.
"Poliwag, use Water Gun to knock the Poké Ball down," Yu Hai shouted at Poliwag again.
"Yo, pff, pff, pff." To avoid missing, Poliwag fired several more Water Guns before the Poké Ball was washed down, rolling straight toward the sea.
Before the Poké Ball could roll far, a foot stepped on it. Yu Hai bent down and picked up the Poké Ball containing Caterpie, and Caterpie's Proficiency Panel immediately appeared.
[Caterpie] [Attribute: Bug] [Gender: Male] [Potential: 29%] [Level: 6.89%] [Ability: Scale Powder/2.39%][Hidden Ability: Run Away/4.51%] [Mastered Moves: (Body Slam/1.11%)(String Shot/3.55%)]
Sure enough, his observation had been correct. The faint white glow appearing and disappearing across Caterpie's body was a sign that it was about to evolve. This Caterpie was close to evolving, and both its Potential and Level were much higher than the previous Caterpie's.
But he still would not catch this Caterpie. One little tadpole was enough when it came to Pokémon with mediocre Potential.
He did not have some kind of money-making superpower. He could not afford to raise that many mediocre Pokémon.
Besides, he had the Proficiency Panel. He could farm Pokémon with high Potential, so why would he use low-Potential Pokémon?
Was he trying to prove that he was a transmigrator?
That he had a cheat like the Proficiency Panel?
That he could defy fate and change the lives of all mediocre Pokémon?
So he had to catch a low-Potential Pokémon?
Or was any Pokémon he caught good enough?
That was not proving anything. He was no longer young and hot-blooded. He was realistic, not so naïve as to insist on defying fate.
He had been beaten down by the harsh realities of his previous life, and more than once. Otherwise, he would not have stayed away from the bustle of the city and chosen to become a wild fisherman.
He had long passed the age of hot-blooded passion. If he still acted like a youngster, picking fights with the heavens, the earth, and the air itself, that would just mean there was something wrong with his head.
"Poliwag, let's go." Yu Hai shook his head helplessly, put away Caterpie's Proficiency Panel, and called Poliwag to head back.
"Yo, yo." Realizing there was another delicious feast waiting, Poliwag hopped along behind Yu Hai as they returned to the temporary shelter. It had long been unable to wait to enjoy the delicious taste of protein.
According to the official data, Caterpie weighed 2.9 kilograms, around six jin. After removing the head, tail, and shell, there should still be around two jin of protein left.
By that calculation, Caterpie's nutritional value was equivalent to ten jin of beef. Just thinking about it made him happy. They finally would not have to eat grass anymore. This counted as an improvement in their meals.
Since food was plentiful, Poliwag's training did not need to stop. They could continue later and improve the accuracy of its Water Gun.
"Poliwag, now that we have food, we'll continue training Water Gun later." Yu Hai rearranged Poliwag's training tasks.
"Yo, yo. Yo, yo." Poliwag nodded in agreement with Yu Hai's idea. If Yu Hai had not stopped it from training, it would have wanted to keep training without regard for day or night.
"Huh? Wait..."
Yu Hai suddenly stopped. Seeing the grass at the edge of the forest moving, he quietly approached and carefully observed through a gap in it.
Looking carefully through the gap, he saw another Caterpie eating grass inside the grass. He was immediately delighted and thought, A bumper harvest! Good things really do come in pairs. I won't be polite with this Caterpie...
"Poliwag, jump over there and use Chain Slap. Don't stop until Caterpie faints," Yu Hai whispered to Poliwag beside him.
"Yo." Poliwag nodded. It too saw the Caterpie on the other side of the grass through the gap.
Poliwag bent its legs slightly, kicked off fiercely, and leaped straight over the grass. It swung its tail at the startled Caterpie within the grass.
Smack, smack, smack, smack...
After four Chain Slaps, Caterpie was knocked unconscious. Poliwag was clearly quite strong when it came to bullying weaker opponents.
"Yo-ho, yo-ho..."
After unleashing Chain Slap four times in a row, Poliwag was a little out of breath. But when it looked at the result of its work, it no longer felt so tired and immediately sought praise from Yu Hai. "Yo, yo, yo, yo..."
"Alright, alright, I know. It stinks too much here. We'll talk when we get back." Yu Hai took out the previous Caterpie Poké Ball again and released the unconscious Caterpie inside, carrying it by hand.
[Poliwag—Poliwhirl—Poliwrath][Poliwag—Whirlpool Warrior—Poliwrath] Which do you all think sounds better, the old translated names or the new ones? Vote for whichever name you prefer. Once the little tadpole evolves, I'll use the name everyone votes for. To vote, post any of these four names: Poliwhirl, Poliwrath, Whirlpool Warrior, or Poliwrath. Any one is fine. They respectively represent the new and old names. Once the little tadpole evolves, I'll count the votes. Likes on the names will count as votes too. Only votes from this chapter will be counted. The final name will be decided by the vote count, whether it uses the new name or the old one... Though I think the old names sound pretty good too. After all, I've called them that since childhood...
Before you continue