He Believed It-He Really Believed It!

System Bro awakened right on schedule, and Jiang Xing was delighted.

Then System Bro started acting like an idiot, and Jiang Xing was deeply disappointed.

After all, he had not transmigrated into the Spirit World, but into an entirely different Beast Taming World. At most, it had stitched together a little of the Pokemon World's lore with the common settings of beast-taming webnovels. The level of infringement was lower than that of Pal or Copywriter, nowhere near enough to earn a warning from the GF Legal Department...

As System Bro, wasn't it a bit much to suddenly pop up and claim this was Pokemon?

What if people misunderstood and thought this was fanfiction?!

If the system had possessed a physical body, Jiang Xing would have leaped up and hit it with a super-effective Focus Punch right on the weak spot, to knock some sense into it—

These were Golden-Veined Koi, not Magikarp!

They couldn't evolve into Gyarados!

Did you even know how to issue quests?

Answer me!

Having discovered that the system he had painstakingly awakened was an idiot,

Jiang Xing was terribly disappointed.

But once he calmed down, his gaze inevitably fell upon the Golden-Veined Koi in the pool.

Looking at their watery eyes and gleaming golden scales, Jiang Xing rubbed his chin.

Then again, although there was a ninety-nine percent chance that System Bro was an idiot, was there perhaps that one percent chance that these little fishies really were Magikarp?

After all, names were given by people.

What if these little fishies were written as Golden-Veined Koi, but read as [Magikarp (parallel-world ecological subspecies, original form)]?

It was not entirely impossible.

Besides, even taking ten thousand steps back,

System Bro was still a classic webnovel cheat. Its reputation was fairly decent, and it was highly rated among transmigrators. On some review site, it would at least score an 8.0.

One point would be deducted for certain bizarre systems, and another for trash systems that were worse than the Deep Blue Panel next door.

So perhaps these Golden-Veined Koi really did have the potential to transform into dragons?

Dragons were the mark of an emperor!

In the Beast Taming World, all Pet Beasts with draconic traits possessed respectable strength.

Pet Beasts that truly had the Dragon Attribute, even in their base forms, had a racial rank no lower than Commander Rank. After several stages of evolution, their racial rank could even reach Monarch, Overlord... or even Quasi-Divine Rank!

Among the Pet Beast races known to humanity that possessed Quasi-Divine potential, Dragon Attribute races were the most numerous, without question.

This showed just how precious Dragon Attribute Pet Beasts were.

If Jiang Xing could make the Golden-Veined Koi evolve into draconic Pet Beasts...

Even if they merely gained a few draconic traits without possessing the Dragon Attribute,

forget a term paper—they could serve directly as his graduation thesis!

"My term paper is nearly complete. Even if I lose this batch of experimental data, it won't affect much... At worst, I'll prepare another batch of Golden-Veined Koi and begin the cultivation again."

"Besides, attempting a draconic evolution is itself within the scope of verifying the Golden-Veined Koi's evolved form."

"Given Dr. Xu's personality, as long as the design is reasonable and the line of thought is correct... even if it ultimately fails, not only will I avoid losing data, it may even earn the paper extra credit."

"It's worth a try!"

The system could not provide any help regarding how Golden-Veined Koi might evolve into draconic Pet Beasts.

That was only normal...

It still thought they were Magikarp!

However, it had already given him enough inspiration—

Jiang Xing had studied Golden-Veined Koi for more than half a year. He understood these Pet Beasts extremely well and possessed ample knowledge of Pet Beast Evolution Studies.

Drawing on the system's train of thought, he quickly began designing an evolution plan.

If Magikarp were used as a template, then first of all, special evolution methods would be useless.

In the games, Magikarp did not need Evolution Stones, moves, or Intimacy to evolve into Gyarados. It merely needed to reach the required level.

That approach clearly could not be applied to Golden-Veined Koi.

If it were that simple, someone else would have discovered the hidden form long ago. It would never have been left for him.

Considering that the system's cheat tip mentioned the differences between reality and games—even in the real Spirit World, Magikarp's evolution required more than just a high level—

Jiang Xing devised the first experimental plan.

The plan drew inspiration from the legend of "a carp leaping over the Dragon Gate," theorizing that the Dragon Gate Leap could serve as a process through which Golden-Veined Koi tempered themselves and converted the Transcendental power accumulated within their bodies into evolutionary energy...

Since transformation and conversion were required, accumulation and nurturing were naturally necessary as well.

Therefore, Jiang Xing needed to increase his investment, improve the Golden-Veined Koi's diet and training intensity, and raise their overall strength—especially their proficiency in Water Leap, the core move for the Dragon Gate Leap. The higher, the better.

It could be said that this simulated the process of [leveling up].

But that was not enough.

In the Beast Taming World, Doctors had already discovered that the types of moves mastered by Pet Beasts could also influence their evolution.

Considering that Golden-Veined Koi could not simply conjure something from nothing if they were to transform from the weakest fish-type Pet Beasts into draconic Pet Beasts,

Jiang Xing added a second and third variable.

He needed to use food and other methods to give the Golden-Veined Koi some Dragon Attribute energy.

And preferably, they would master a Dragon Attribute move in advance.

That way, the Golden-Veined Koi would at least possess a trace of draconic aura, greatly increasing the experiment's chances of success.

Finally, Jiang Xing recalled the system's cheat tip.

[In the real world, when Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, it not only requires a high level, but also a Fearless Heart capable of leaping over the Dragon Gate.]

"Personality..."

Some Doctors in the Beast Taming World had also proposed theories that a Pet Beast's personality could affect its advanced form.

After some thought, Jiang Xing added personality to the plan as the fourth variable.

That was: selecting timid Golden-Veined Koi and courageous Golden-Veined Koi as control groups, then cultivating them separately.

Once he had listed everything, the cultivation plan had basically taken shape.

Jiang Xing looked over the brand-new experimental plan and frowned slightly.

"Following this method, the current ten Golden-Veined Koi are nowhere near enough... I'll need at least a hundred."

"And giving Golden-Veined Koi even a trace of Dragon Attribute energy and a Dragon Attribute move... that won't be easy."

"Dragon Attribute Pet Beasts are precious to begin with, and the related move manuals are worth a fortune. Some are even monopolized by Dragon Tamer Clans and treated as forbidden treasures."

"Not to mention the food and materials that could give Golden-Veined Koi a trace of draconic aura. They definitely won't be cheap."

"How could I possibly afford that?"

Jiang Xing looked at the experimental plan in his hands, feeling somewhat helpless.

He had not expected that the greatest obstacle before him would turn out to be the cost.

Being poor was truly too difficult!

At that moment, his vision blurred, and system information appeared before his eyes.

[You have designed an evolution plan, only to discover that you lack the most important thing for cultivating Pokemon—high-quality Pokemon food! Thus, as someone familiar with all kinds of Pokemon items, you decide to bring a tiny bit of technological shock to this world!!]

[You have received a quest: Personally create a serving of Pokemon food of Excellent quality.]

[Reward: Portable Automatic Berry Mixer!]