Taming Poliwag

Realizing this, Yu Hai quickly swept his gaze around, turning a full circle—he found nothing.

The deserted island looked exactly as it had before; aside from the sound of waves and the chirping of insects and birds, there was no one else.

Unsure whether he felt disappointed or relieved, he lowered his head and trudged from the sea onto the sand.

Disappointment meant the desert island survival would continue; relief meant he hadn't run into pirates, Spirit Hunters, or any Pokémon traffickers—so he wouldn't lose his freedom or get captured as a slave. In this world, Pokémon were worth more than humans.

After coming ashore, he picked up another Poké Ball by the beach. Maybe it was a consolation prize—now he had two Poké Balls.

The Poké Ball he found was probably one some Trainer had discarded.

Or maybe a Trainer had missed their throw while catching Pokémon at sea, couldn't be bothered to retrieve it, and the ball had drifted to this deserted island, becoming his lucky find.

He collapsed onto the sand, soaked through, staring blankly at the Poké Ball in his hand.

The Poliwag that had been following him all along was holding a piece of broken wooden board in its mouth. Seeing Yu Hai lost in thought, it walked up in front of him and called out twice, "Yoo-yoo, yoo-yoo..."

The Poliwag was probably saying grilled fish, grilled fish...

Yu Hai looked at the Poliwag before him and reached out to stroke its round, blue head. The Poliwag didn't resist, but he still couldn't understand what it was saying.

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

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

"Yoo?" The Poliwag tilted its head, not understanding what this human, Yu Hai, was saying.

Was it supposed to go into that red-and-white ball?

As expected, anime was all lies—Pokémon couldn't understand human speech at all.

Yu Hai let out a soft sigh. Communicating with Pokémon was way too hard.

He'd been overthinking it before. In the anime, the Starters were so obedient because they'd been trained by professional breeders—that's why they listened and understood human language.

This wild Poliwag in front of him had probably never even seen a human before, so expecting it to understand him was out of the question.

But just as he sighed, the Poliwag smacked its tail against the button on the Poké Ball.

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

Then, the Poliwag was pulled into the Poké Ball by the red light. The button flashed red for a moment before quickly stabilizing—meaning Yu Hai had caught the Poliwag.

It all happened so fast that Yu Hai didn't even have time to react before he'd caught his very first Pokémon in the Pokémon World: a Poliwag.

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

The Poliwag inside could also see him outside.

When the Poliwag saw him smile, it squinted its big, shiny black eyes, though it didn't know why it was happy.

Just then, the Poliwag's Proficiency Panel popped up.

[Poliwag]

[Attribute: Water]

[Gender: Male]

[Potential: 31%]

[Level: 5.32%]

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

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

"So this is everything about the Poliwag?" Yu Hai studied the Poliwag's Proficiency Panel carefully. It was pretty similar to the data shown on his own personal panel.

It just had four more data points than his, and it was about the same as that half-baked PM game panel from his past life—some things were simplified, not as complicated.

The first three items were easy to understand: name, attribute, gender.

The fourth item, Potential, probably referred to Base Stats. The little tadpole's developable potential was only 31%—pretty low.

That was normal. He wasn't some destined protagonist, not Professor Oak's grandson, and he couldn't just pick a Pseudo-Legendary. He was just an undocumented nobody stranded on a deserted island.

Besides, this was a wild Poliwag, one lured in by bait. How good could its potential be?

Still, he was content. After all, he wasn't a League insider, nor had he transmigrated into Jiro's family—he was stuck on a deserted island. Just surviving was good enough.

He had a Proficiency Panel, so he could slowly raise the potential later. No reason to be discouraged.

Below Potential came Level. This Poliwag was only level five. Having the panel made it convenient to check experience points.

Then came Ability. This Poliwag actually had a Hidden Ability—was that a little surprise?

And then Moves. The Poliwag actually knew six moves.

Chain Slap had been used before, knocking out the Wishiwashi.

But what was up with Mind Reader? Had he forgotten something?

[Mind Reader: Focus on the opponent's movements with your mind. The next attack is guaranteed to hit the opponent.]

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

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

After using Mind Reader, the opponent enters a locked state, making Focus Punch a guaranteed hit, and the additional damage from Focus Punch ensures the opponent falls into confusion.

But this is reality—whether the move still has that guaranteed-hit effect is highly uncertain.

Could it be that it enhances concentration instead?

That's something to test later.

Then, he turned his attention to the other four moves.

One was an Ice-type move, Ice Ball—a snowballing technique where the power grows with each hit: base power thirty, then doubled to sixty, quadrupled to one hundred twenty, octupled to two hundred forty, and finally sixteen times to four hundred eighty.

He knew this move well; in his past life, he used it often in games. With the advantage of striking first, it could sometimes sweep through six opponents in a row.

If combined with Defense Curl, the power could double again, reaching nine hundred sixty—as long as the move didn't miss, it was a god-tier skill.

The remaining three moves were...

Bubble, a Water-type move.

Hypnosis, a Psychic-type move.

And the last one, Soothing Mist, a Normal-type move that clears the user's own status conditions.

All of these were moves that Poliwag could learn naturally as it grew, with some being Egg Moves inherited from birth.

Among the last three, only Soothing Mist and Hypnosis were decent, though Hypnosis's accuracy was also painfully unreliable.

Overall, this Poliwag was pretty good. As his first family in the Pokémon World, he was genuinely happy—no longer alone.

Calling this Poliwag pretty good came from comparison; this little tadpole was clearly better than a Magikarp in every way.

Magikarp's evolution method was a total mystery. From the anime, he only knew two.

The first was Jiro's evolution kick—evolving through anger.

The second was the Magikarp waterfall in the Orange Islands.

Before its second evolution, Poliwag didn't require much worry about growth, though evolving into Poliwrath required a Water Stone.

But that was a problem for later.

By then, he'd definitely get a high-purity Water Stone for Poliwag, boosting its potential and breaking its limits.

Helping Poliwag escape a mediocre fate was also helping himself survive in this perilous Pokémon World...

For percentage explanations, please refer to the related works section, level settings, and ability descriptions.

Let me explain the issue of communication with Pokémon.

Why can newly caught Pokémon in the anime be used immediately? That's exactly what the production team wanted to convey—that Pokémon are obedient and understand speech. If a freshly caught Pokémon attacked its Trainer or ran away, it wouldn't align with the core values of the Pokémon World, so there's no communication problem. At worst, they're just disobedient. Whether for side characters or the protagonist, being able to use a Pokémon right after capture fits the core values of the Pokémon World.

I've only added a bit of difficulty. Pokémon that have never seen humans can still communicate, but they need time to adjust—simple words like "meal time" or "sleep," or move names, become understood after repeated use, and the little tadpole will grasp what the protagonist means.

For more complex phrases—like certain highly technical terms or words the Pokémon has never heard—it's like reading every character but not understanding the sentence unless you're in that field. The same goes for the little tadpole: it needs to learn the meanings of many unfamiliar words before it can piece them together and comprehend.