The Fragrant Warning

"Get out of the way, let me do it," Yu Hai pushed aside the Poliwag that was digging in the sand and started digging with his own hands.

Before long, he unearthed a Poké Ball that was buried deep in the sand, with only its top exposed.

"Hahaha, a Poké Ball, no wonder I didn't find it before, it was buried in the sand," Yu Hai looked at the red and white Poké Ball in his hand, unable to put it down.

He usually only came to this beach in front of his house for fishing.

There wasn't much edible stuff on this beach, so he rarely came. Further down were the rocky shallows where people went foraging for seafood, and that's where the edible things were, a rocky beach for scavenging.

After obtaining the Poké Ball, Yu Hai immediately opened it to check its condition.

The Poké Ball opened with a pop. He listened and heard no problems. The outer shell had no obvious damage, only some scratches that marred its aesthetic appeal.

To further test the Poké Ball's condition, he could catch a Caterpie to try it out. "Poliwag, go catch us lunch."

"Yo," the Poliwag's eyes narrowed when it heard "lunch." It had been starving for a while.

"Let's go, let's go," Yu Hai called for Poliwag to follow. He was also eager to test the Poké Ball.

They searched for Caterpie along the edge of the jungle and quickly found one. Before Yu Hai could even give an order, Poliwag rushed forward and hit it with a Water Gun followed by a Chain Slap, two consecutive attacks that took down the Caterpie.

He noticed that Poliwag seemed to have a particular fondness for the move Chain Slap. It probably preferred straightforward combat, enjoying a direct, in-your-face fighting style.

Without his command, Poliwag disliked using Hypnosis, which always left the Caterpie reeking.

Sigh, it was so frustrating!

There was nothing he could do. He just threw the ball, caught the Caterpie, released it, and caught it again.

After confirming the Poké Ball was usable, he called Poliwag and left the stinky jungle edge.

"Let's go back, Poliwag..."

"Yo yo, yo yo," Poliwag ran incredibly fast, its legs a blur. The running training it had undergone these past few days was now being used to escape the stench.

Before reaching their temporary shelter, Yu Hai picked up some kelp and shells. He also glanced at Caterpie's proficiency, which was as mediocre as ever.

Its potential was only 34%, and its moves were still Body Slam and String Shot, nothing special.

After that, he washed the pot, boiled water, and prepared the ingredients.

He decided to make stew again, this time using the stove he had modified that morning.

The stove concentrated the flames from the burning firewood, and the temperature was much higher than a campfire. The Caterpie meat was soon cooked.

After he portioned out the food and cooked a pot of shell and kelp soup, he released the Caterpie that knew Psychic.

"Caterpie, want to join us for lunch?"

The words were somewhat terrifying, especially for a Caterpie.

When Little Green first came out, it involuntarily swallowed its saliva upon seeing the protein-rich food emitting a savory aroma in front of Yu Hai and Poliwag.

But when Little Green saw the discarded Caterpie head that Yu Hai hadn't thrown away yet, its lifeless eyes instantly terrified it.

It finally understood what kind of meat that wafting aroma was.

The scene was like a Caterpie horror movie, similar to Sadako crawling out of your TV, the horror effect was top-notch.

Just thinking about it sent a chill down its spine, especially for Little Green, a Caterpie with such expressive features.

The Caterpie's head almost scared Little Green to death, but it was so terrified that its legs went weak and it couldn't move, staring in horror at Yu Hai and Poliwag. What kind of devils were these two?

It's just the food chain. It has nothing to do with devils. If Arceus could make all living beings vegetarian, then plants and Grass-type Pokémon would complain, wouldn't they? After all, they feel pain too.

"Caterpie, want to join us for lunch?" Yu Hai saw Little Green's head sweating profusely and not moving much, so he curiously reached out and nudged it.

But Little Green just fell straight down, its body stiff. Little Green was extremely scared right now.

However, Yu Hai didn't know Little Green was scared. He started to panic, thinking the Caterpie was starving and had no energy. He prayed it wouldn't get sick. He couldn't let this high-potential Caterpie he had finally caught "check out."

He immediately hugged the stiff Caterpie and fed it some shell soup. Seeing Little Green smack its lips and react, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Were you starving?" Yu Hai put Caterpie down and gave it some shell meat and shell soup.

After recovering from its stiff state, Little Green smacked its lips. It found the shell soup quite tasty, much better than bitter leaves.

"No, no," Little Green shook its head repeatedly. How could it eat the shell meat when its distant relative had died with its eyes wide open?

But this meat was really fragrant. It was about to lose its resolve. Someone save it! It couldn't hold on any longer.

Yu Hai could see Little Green's struggle. The fear in its eyes. That head was intentionally used to scare Little Green.

However, he also knew that Caterpie didn't naturally like eating leaves; they could only eat leaves.

As Pokémon at the bottom of the food chain, they had nothing to eat but leaves.

If they wanted to eat berries, they couldn't compete with other Pokémon. If they wanted to hunt, it would be like a sheep entering a tiger's den, a meat bun thrown to a dog with no hope of return.

Therefore, the only choice was to eat leaves.

"Wuwuwu, Little Green has fallen (╥﹏╥)," Little Green ate the shell meat with tears, constantly whimpering, "Wuwuwu, but it's really delicious..."

This was meat, after all. How could it not be delicious? This was a great tonic for a Caterpie.

Once you accept eating meat, it's just protein. Those who play survival games are tough people; what haven't they eaten?

Human ancestors went through the same thing. It's just that after civilization, they were constrained by morality, values, and bottom lines.

If the day ever came when order collapsed, moral shackles were broken, and the bottom line ceased to be the bottom line, that would truly be hell on earth.

In his past life, he had watched many post-apocalyptic movies. He could only hope that day would never come, as kind people would find it hard to survive in such a world.

While he wasn't a good person, he was someone with principles. If this Caterpie didn't want to be with him, if it wanted to leave, he wouldn't stop it.

After finishing lunch, Yu Hai recalled the Caterpie into its Poké Ball. He wasn't familiar with the Caterpie yet and needed to observe it for a while to see if they could get along.

He took a nap with the Poliwag. After waking up, his task was to gather firewood to prepare for the next storm.

The time spent collecting firewood passed quickly. With the little Poliwag's help, the treehouse was soon piled high with firewood, and the sky had darkened.

For dinner, they had a shell and kelp soup, something they hadn't eaten in a long time. Recalling their difficult survival days, the man and the Poliwag returned to the treehouse.

Lying in the windless treehouse with the Poliwag beside him, Yu Hai opened the Poliwag's proficiency panel, wanting to see the little Poliwag's progress during this time.

[Poliwag]
[Type: Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 31.01%]
[Level: 8.99%]
[Ability: Damp/0.53%] [Hidden Ability: Swift Swim/1.53%]
[Learned Moves: (Mind Reader/0.21%) (Ice Ball/0.31%) (Soothing Mist/0.81%) (Water Gun/1.31%) (Hypnosis/0.72%) (Chain Slap/4.12%) (Tackle/0.91%) (Water Gun/6.01%) (Play Nice/1.61%)]

I've made some changes to this chapter. Some readers said it was too dark, so I've adjusted it...

Actually, this chapter was supposed to be a horror story about Caterpie, like watching a horror movie... The protagonist is like Sadako from the movie.