Raw Terastal Orb

Luo Mu wasn't complaining about his Golden Finger. It was just that it had shown up way too late, hadn't it?

Even the donkeys on the production team would've shaken their heads at this.

While Luo Mu secretly grumbled to himself, the Special Hint System seemed to have run into something unexpected and frozen for a moment. Then a line of text slowly appeared.

[After checking, your strength may be the weakest among Champions, but you are still a genuine Champion Trainer. Does that mean this system came late?]

"What do you mean, weakest? Apologize to me, kora!"

Luo Mu was an old hand at rolling his tongue to make that sound as he complained. He knew his actual strength well enough: even when he'd battled Poppy, the Chief Champion, she hadn't been going all out.

Still, being mocked by a system that claimed it had arrived late left him feeling a little annoyed.

However, while Luo Mu was touring his new property, the Golden Finger seemed to have frozen up again. Every now and then, a few words would pop up, like "self-diagnosis in progress."

He ignored it. Based on his years of surfing the internet, he figured he probably couldn't get rid of this Golden Finger anyway. He might as well get on with something useful.

After he'd walked all over this undeveloped land, thinking about where to put various buildings and where to set aside a Pasture area, the Hint System showed up again.

[Binding complete. Although you've already achieved your goal of becoming a Champion, you still have plenty of room to grow stronger. How about we travel to another region?]

"That's a great suggestion, but I'll have to decline." Luo Mu firmly rejected the goofy text dancing in front of him, as if it were afraid he might not notice it.

[.]

When the system fell silent, Luo Mu realized that, unlike the mechanical Hint Systems in the novels he'd read before transmigrating, this one seemed more like a chat partner with emotions.

But judging by how desperately it was trying to get his attention, he could tell without even thinking that the system had no ability or authority to force him to do anything.

Aside from its Hint function, whose effects were still a mystery, all it could probably do was crack jokes with him.

Still, that was pretty good. If it tried to make him take some ridiculous mandatory quest, his free spirit would rather die on the spot. The only thing he'd regret leaving behind would be the Pokémon who'd accompanied him all this way.

After all, he'd finally escaped that grueling life of nine-to-nine work six days a week, overtime until he was sick, and getting his Lunar New Year's Eve off swapped for another workday. Now, he was just an ordinary farmer who wanted to live a quiet, leisurely life.

". . .whether in the land, in the clouds~, or under that girl's skirt~"

Humming a familiar tune, Luo Mu strolled like a retired old man to the only building on the vast plot of land he'd bought.

It was a Three-Story House that looked as if it had seen better days. Luo Mu remembered the Pingdie Town mayor saying that it had once been home to an elderly couple who had no children and relied on each other for company.

After the two old people passed away one after another a few years ago, their land and house had been left abandoned.

The reason Luo Mu had been able to buy such a large plot, despite its being run-down, was that it had plenty of potential.

The couple's will had stated that after their deaths, the land was to be donated to Pingdie Town for free. If the town chose to sell it, the proceeds were to go toward developing the town.

They were kind people in every sense of the word.

After stepping inside and taking a look around each floor, Luo Mu had a good sense of what the couple had left behind.

The house itself took up nearly two hundred square meters.

It had all the rooms it needed, and the third floor even had a balcony where he could grow flowers and plants and bask in the sun. It was a little old, but this was exactly the kind of dream home Luo Mu had always wanted.

All he had to do was give it a Tidy Up and clear out the dust-covered old furniture before moving in.

"Still, some of this stuff really can't be used anymore. I'll have to clear it out."

Luo Mu planned to clean up first, then go into town to buy some bedding and move in tonight.

Aside from the necessary expenses for raising Pokémon, he'd spent most of the money he'd saved over the past year on buying the land. He should cancel his stay at the inn for now. There would surely be plenty of other things to spend money on later.

Thinking that some of the heavier items in the house might be too much for him to move, Luo Mu took a Poké Ball from his waist. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he pressed the release button.

A flash of red light appeared, and a Swampert far more muscular than others of its kind materialized in front of Luo Mu. Its gaze carried a hint of ferocity.

The Swampert looked as though it could shake the earth with a single punch and make little girls cry, but the moment its fierce expression met Luo Mu's smiling eyes, it visibly softened.

"Swampert, sorry for the trouble, but could you help me carry these things outside to air them out in the sun?" Luo Mu said with a smile, pointing at the furniture behind him. It had gathered dust and developed a musty smell after being left unattended for so long.

There were tables and chairs, a sofa, and a few sealed cardboard boxes whose contents were a mystery.

Swampert gave a small nod. With a pair of muscular arms that inspired an overwhelming sense of security, it easily lifted the sofa, which bore plenty of marks from the passage of time, and carried it out of the room.

"Heave-ho!" Luo Mu rolled up his sleeves and walked over to the sealed cardboard boxes. Since the weather was so nice, he decided to carry them out into the sun and see what was inside.

If any of them held keepsakes belonging to the old couple, he would take them to their graves.

If they contained other things, he would sort through them and see whether anything could be used to build a Pasture area or Farming Area for the farm. That would help him save some money.

After all, he didn't have much money left now that he'd bought the land, so he would have to budget carefully.

[In the third cardboard box from the left, directly in front of your right hand, there is a mysterious crystal. It could significantly increase your strength.]

Luo Mu paused as he reached for a box, then raised an eyebrow and looked toward the one the Hint had mentioned. Without a word, he walked over and crouched in front of it, curiosity plain on his face.

Something that could make him stronger?

It seemed the system hadn't given up at all. It was trying to improve his strength by taking the roundabout approach.

Wanting to test how accurate its Hints were, Luo Mu took the small utility knife he had in hand, sliced through the box's tape, and started rummaging through it.

It didn't take long for Luo Mu to see the "mysterious crystal" the Hint had mentioned.

Its outer layer was a bright blue crystal shell that still sparkled despite being covered in dust. But the shell wasn't the important part. What mattered was the gray-black "raw ore" inside it.

"Could it really be this?"

Luo Mu was a little astonished. He'd imagined plenty of things the Hint System might offer that could increase his strength, but he'd never expected it to be the essential item for Terastallization, unique to the Paldea region—

Raw Terastal Orb.

A note: Other than occasionally acting as a straight man to the protagonist's jokes, the Golden Finger is only there to support him. It won't get much attention in the early chapters.

The protagonist's real Golden Finger is his own strength and his knowledge of Pokémon.