Catching Poliwag

After realizing this, Yu Hai quickly raised his eyes and scanned his surroundings. His gaze made a full circle, but he found nothing.

This deserted island was exactly as it had been before. Aside from the sound of waves and the chirping of insects and birds, there was no one else around.

He did not know whether he felt disappointed or relieved as he lowered his head and walked out of the sea onto the beach.

He was disappointed because Desert Island Survival would continue. He was relieved because he had not encountered Pokémon traffickers like pirates or Spirit Hunters. He would not lose his virginity, nor would he be captured and turned into a slave. In this world, Pokémon were worth more than humans.

After coming ashore, he found another Poké Ball by the sea. Perhaps it was meant to comfort him. He now had two Poké Balls.

The Poké Ball he had picked up was probably one that some Trainer had discarded.

Or perhaps a Trainer had missed while trying to catch a Pokémon at sea, had not wanted to retrieve it, and it had been blown onto this deserted island, benefiting him instead.

He slumped onto the sand, soaked from head to toe, and stared blankly at the Poké Ball in his hand.

The Poliwag that had been following him had a broken wooden board in its mouth. Seeing Yu Hai spacing out, it walked up in front of him and called twice, "Yoyo, yoyo..."

Poliwag was probably talking about grilled fish. Grilled fish...

Yu Hai looked at the Poliwag before him and reached out to stroke its round blue head. Poliwag did not resist, but he still could not understand what it was saying.

Now that he had a Poké Ball, should he catch this little tadpole? That was the thought in his mind at the moment.

"Poliwag, do you want to become my first partner?"

"Yo?" Poliwag tilted its head, unable to understand what this human Yu Hai was saying.

Did he want it to enter that red-and-white ball?

Sure enough, anime had lied to him. Pokémon could not understand human speech at all.

Yu Hai sighed softly. Communicating with Pokémon was far too difficult.

He had thought things too simply before. The Starters in anime had been so obedient because professional Breeders had surely trained them. That was why they could understand human speech.

The wild Poliwag in front of him had probably never even seen a human before, so he should not expect it to understand him.

But just as he sighed, Poliwag smacked the button in the center of the Poké Ball with its tail.

The Poké Ball immediately opened, and a beam of red light shot out, striking Poliwag and enveloping it.

Then Poliwag was drawn into the Poké Ball by the red pillar of light. A red light flashed on the ball's button before quickly stabilizing. This meant that Yu Hai had caught Poliwag.

Everything happened too quickly. Before Yu Hai could even react, he had caught his first Pokémon since arriving in the Pokémon World: Poliwag.

Through the Poké Ball's transparent shell, he looked at the Poliwag inside.

The Poliwag inside the Poké Ball could also see him outside it.

Yu Hai smiled at Poliwag, and Poliwag narrowed its bright black eyes as well, though it did not know why he was happy.

At that moment, Poliwag's Proficiency Panel appeared.

[Poliwag]

[Type: Water]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 31%]

[Level: 5.32%]

[Ability: Damp/0.53%] [Hidden Ability: Swift Swim/1.23%]

[Mastered Moves: (Mind Reader/0.11%) (Ice Ball/0.11%) (Soothing Mist/0.11%) (Bubble/1.11%) (Hypnosis/0.52%) (Chain Slap/1.69%)]

"Is this everything about Poliwag?" Yu Hai carefully examined Poliwag's Proficiency Panel. The information displayed was similar to his own personal panel.

It simply had four more categories of data than his. It was also similar to the rather unserious Pokémon game panel from his previous life, though some things had been simplified and were not so complicated.

The first three entries were easy to understand: name, type, and gender.

The fourth entry, Potential, probably referred to Base Stats. This little tadpole had only 31% Potential to develop, which was a little low.

That was perfectly normal. He was not some chosen protagonist, nor was he Professor Oak's grandson. He could not just pick a Pseudo-Legendary at will. He was merely an undocumented person stranded on a deserted island.

Besides, this was a wild Poliwag, one that had been lured over by fish bait. How good could its Potential possibly be?

Still, he was quite satisfied. After all, he was neither part of the League's inner circle nor had he transmigrated into Jiro's family. He had ended up stranded on a deserted island. Staying alive was already good enough.

He had the Proficiency Panel. Its Potential could slowly increase in the future, so there was no need to feel discouraged.

Below Potential was Level. This Poliwag was only Level Five, and the panel made it convenient for him to check its experience.

Then came its Ability. This Poliwag actually had a Hidden Ability. Was that a pleasant little surprise?

And there were its moves. Poliwag actually knew six moves.

It had used Chain Slap earlier to knock Wishiwashi unconscious.

But what the hell was Mind Reader? Had he forgotten something?

[Mind Reader: Sense the opponent's movements with your heart. Your next attack will definitely hit the opponent.]

So that was this move. Yu Hai opened the move description, saw its effect, and thought of moves like Focus Punch.

In the games, Mind Reader was used together with moves that had low accuracy, such as Focus Punch, which had only a 50% hit rate.

After using Mind Reader, the enemy would enter a Lock-On state, making Focus Punch impossible to miss. With Focus Punch's additional effect, the enemy would definitely become confused.

But this was reality. Whether this move still had a guaranteed-hit effect was anyone's guess.

Could it perhaps increase concentration as well?

He could only test that later.

Then he looked at the other four moves.

One was the Ice-type move Ice Ball. It was a snowballing move whose power increased with each successive hit: an initial power of thirty, then x2 on the second hit, x4 on the third, x8 on the fourth, and x16 on the fifth—for a power of four hundred and eighty.

He knew this move. He had used it often while playing games in his previous life. When he had the initiative, it was sometimes possible to sweep all six opponents with it.

If it was used together with Defense Curl, its power could double again, reaching nine hundred and sixty. As long as the move did not miss, it was a god-tier move.

The remaining three moves were...

Bubble, a Water-type move.

Hypnosis, a Psychic-type move.

And the final move, Soothing Mist, a Normal-type move that removed the user's abnormal conditions.

They were all moves Poliwag could learn naturally as it grew, while some were Egg Moves it had possessed from birth.

Of the last three moves, only Soothing Mist and Hypnosis were fairly good. Hypnosis's accuracy, however, was painfully low.

Overall, this Poliwag was pretty good. As his first family member in the Pokémon World, Yu Hai was very happy. He was finally no longer alone.

He said Poliwag was pretty good because everything was relative. No matter how he looked at it, this little tadpole was better than Magikarp.

Magikarp's evolution methods were simply a mystery. In the anime, he only knew of two.

The first was Jiro's evolution kick, which made it evolve through anger.

The second was the Magikarp waterfall in the Orange Islands.

Before Poliwag's second evolution, there was no need to worry about its growth. It would only need a Water Stone to evolve into Poliwrath.

However, those were matters for the future.

When that time came, he would definitely get Poliwag a high-purity Water Stone, allowing it to raise its Potential and break through its limits.

Helping Poliwag escape its mediocre fate would also be helping himself survive in this perilous Pokémon World...

For an explanation of percentages, please see the work-related section: level settings and Ability introductions.

Let me explain why communication with Pokémon is difficult.

Why could Pokémon be used immediately after being caught in anime? This was exactly what the production team wanted to convey to the audience: Pokémon were obedient and could understand speech. If newly caught Pokémon attacked their Trainers or fled...

That would not conform to the Pokémon World's core values, so there was no issue with difficult communication. At most, Pokémon in anime were simply disobedient. Whether supporting characters or protagonists, being able to use Pokémon immediately after catching them was what conformed to the Pokémon World's core values.

I only added some difficulty. Pokémon that have never seen humans can communicate, but they need time to adjust. Simple words like mealtime and sleep, or move names, will eventually be understood after being repeated often enough. They will understand what the protagonist is saying.

If the words are too complicated, such as overly technical terms or words Pokémon have never heard before, you may know every individual character, but when they are put together, anyone outside that field will definitely not understand them. The little tadpole is the same. It needs to understand the meaning of many unfamiliar words before it can understand them when they are put together.