Who Says I Can Only Choose One?

New Town was a remote town situated around Blazing Fire City in the southern part of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Inside the town's council hall, a middle-aged man with fiery red hair was enthusiastically explaining what a martial soul was to a group of six-year-old children.

Pity he's not my Uncle Tao. Looks like any divine martial souls or Innate Soul Power stuff like that is probably not in the cards for me.

Among the crowd of children, Lin Huo, who had transmigrated, watched the glib-tongued middle-aged man and secretly grumbled in his heart.

As everyone knew, on Douluo Continent, any martial soul of high quality was passed down generation after generation with bloodline as the bond.

As for ordinary folks like them, whether they could awaken a decent martial soul completely depended on whether their own luck was strong enough.

Yet judging from the situation in the original novels of Douluo I and Douluo II where talents emerged in droves among commoners, the possibility of commoners being able to awaken a good martial soul was somewhat higher than the odds of winning a lottery jackpot.

As for Lin Huo...

Having transmigrated and lived on Douluo Continent for six years, Lin Huo knew very well that as an orphan, he had no hidden background to speak of.

If not for the town head of New Town being a benevolent person much like Old Jack of Holy Soul Village, who frequently sent relief supplies to struggling families in town, Lin Huo didn't even think his little body could have steadily survived to the age of six.

Living in such a hard-mode environment, Lin Huo held at most a lottery-like yearning for martial soul awakening.

In fact, if the result of the martial soul awakening turned out utterly terrible, Lin Huo would immediately consider defecting to Spirit Hall to seek a way out.

Six years ago, Pope Qian Xunji died of heavy injuries, and the current pope, Bibi Dong, had just taken office as a new official, making it prime time to promote talent.

At least Lin Huo was not some fish that slipped through the net of nine-year-old compulsory education; never mind building an AK, bringing out a rifle, growing bigger and stronger, and creating past glories anew.

At the very least, whipping up some simple black powder to go fish-blasting still didn't pose too much of a problem.

With this skill under his belt, trading it for a decent position from the upper echelons of Spirit Hall and temporarily securing a life free from worry over food and clothing wouldn't be too big of an issue for Lin Huo at all.

"Alright, I'll say this much for now. You little runts, all gather around first."

At the call of the passionate middle-aged man who had finished his long-winded speech, the drowsy children in the hall snapped awake one by one, groggily crowding forward.

Dropping his thoughts, Lin Huo followed the general flow with a fluttering heart and drew near.

"Did you guys see these few stones on the ground?" The middle-aged man pointed at the awakening array on the floor, his gaze sweeping across the children one by one.

"Remember well how these stones are arranged. If you are fortunate enough to awaken a level one or level two of Soul Power, even if you can't walk far on the path of cultivation in the future, relying on the job of awakening martial souls for remote places can still guarantee you won't have to worry about food and drink."

This Soul Master is actually quite kind-hearted; he's even introducing future career directions to the kids. Though this guy didn't introduce himself as a person from Spirit Hall beforehand, I wonder if there's any other trick behind this.

Lin Huo inwardly muttered, growing pensive about the middle-aged man's identity.

Having been on Douluo Continent for so many years, Lin Huo had also learned that the business of awakening martial souls was not handled entirely by personnel from Spirit Hall.

In remote places like New Town, those who came to awaken martial souls were usually outsourced personnel dispatched on labor contracts.

Take Oscar and Ma Hongjun over at Shrek Academy in the original Douluo work, for instance.

Those two were actually picked out by outsourced personnel like Flender after hitting the jackpot in some remote backwater.

Besides that, among those great nobles and major sects, people would also be sent out proactively from time to time to awaken souls for ordinary people.

It wasn't that these superiors were overflowing with any kind of benevolence; their purpose was eight-tenths likely to prevent Spirit Hall from completely monopolizing Soul Master resources from the source.

No matter what, with Spirit Hall acting as the front-running leader, the awakening of a six-year-old Soul Master was already a beneficial and auspicious matter for the common folk all over the continent.

"Next, I'll read the names, and you step forward in order."

Just as Lin Huo was still letting his imagination run wild, the middle-aged man had already taken the name list and started calling names one by one.

"Lin Bo, sparrow martial soul, Innate Soul Power actually reaches level one? That's not bad at all."

"Lin Da, purple-skinned rat martial soul, barely half a level of Innate Soul Power, that's a bit of a pity."

"Lin Lü, martial soul... eh? A rather strange-looking caterpillar, unfortunately only half a level of Soul Power..."

Names were called out one by one, except that the highest Innate Soul Power among this score of people barely reached level one.

Just as Lin Huo had anticipated, the Lin Family in New Town possessed no special bloodline heritage.

"Lin Huo, hurry up and step over to awaken your martial soul. You're the last one."

Hearing his name called, Lin Huo's heart skipped a beat, knowing that his future development depended entirely on this martial soul awakening.

Start-up Orphanage, do your thing please. Since I'm a transmigrator who came from you anyway, at least drop some overpowered cheat for me to use.

Praying silently in his heart, Lin Huo's emotions surged incessantly, and finally, he stepped forward with a nervous heart.

"Do as I say, enter the array, and then clear your mind and calm your spirit..."

As the words fell, the middle-aged man waited for a short moment only to see Lin Huo still standing dazed in place without moving, figuring the child was just zoning out for a moment, leaving him somewhat amused and exasperated all at once.

Yet little did he know that Lin Huo's eyes were currently beholding an entirely different scene.

A gray-haired old man wearing a white lab coat was currently overlapping with the middle-aged man's figure, and Lin Huo recognized that angular, square-faced visage at a single glance.

It's you! Toni... ah no, it's Professor Oak!

Within Lin Huo's field of vision, Professor Oak was talking endlessly about something, seeming like the classic opening lines of a Pokémon game.

It was just a pity that Lin Huo, who was in a state of extreme excitement, didn't hear a single word.

Until the sentence "Come and collect your starter Pokémon!" reached his ears, Lin Huo was finally called back to his senses by the sensation on his shoulder.

At this moment, as Lin Huo looked again into the hexagram array for martial soul awakening, three particularly glaring red-and-white little spheres were resting steadily within it.

"Hey! Little Lin Huo, snap out of it. Stop spacing out; the earlier you finish awakening, the earlier you can go home for dinner."

Pulled back to reality from another vision, Lin Huo rubbed his eyes and saw that those three red-and-white balls were still resting quietly.

Having already been through such big storms and waves as transmigration and rebirth, what was mere martial soul awakening turning into a starter Pokémon choice?

Lin Huo didn't even need to adjust himself, steadily maintaining his own emotions in a stable state to prevent his flaws from being seen.

Out of politeness, Lin Huo offered a slight apology for his momentary daze: "Sorry, uncle, I was thinking about some other things just now."

"Hey, it's nothing, nothing. Hurry on into the awakening array and awaken your martial soul." The middle-aged man waved his hand to indicate he didn't mind, continuing to urge Lin Huo to hurry up and awaken his martial soul.

With his back to the crowd as he approached the awakening array, Lin Huo's gaze imperceptibly swept over the three red-and-white Poké Balls.

According to Lin Huo's speculation, based on the choice he was about to make among the starter trio, his martial soul would likely be determined.

Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur—these three starters of the Pokémon world that everyone dreamed of in his past life, one of them was now about to become his, Lin Huo's, martial soul.

The hand he stretched out slowed down significantly. Choosing one out of three seemed very simple, but when it came to actually making the decision, Lin Huo still felt some hesitation.

In terms of attributes, these three Pokémon carried the Fire, Water, and Grass attributes respectively.

Yet in terms of race values, meaning innate stats, the three Pokémon were pretty much on par.

Bulbasaur played dirty, while Charmander looked handsome after evolving.

As for Squirtle... it was probably because it had a lot of water, plus its head was relatively rounded.

Now, having to force a decision between Bulbasaur and Charmander, Lin Huo found it somewhat difficult for a moment.

Struggling for a moment, Lin Huo finally made up his mind and reached his hand toward the red-and-white ball containing Charmander.

Being strong was a matter of the moment, but being handsome was a matter for a lifetime.

How enviable it was to be a azure figure soaring through the sky, spitting blue flames to burn all enemies to ashes.

In comparison, Bulbasaur, green on top of its head and green on its back, undoubtedly had a much inferior appearance.

Besides, this wasn't truly a Kanto hell-start in the Pokémon world; choosing Charmander as a martial soul wouldn't mean suffering in prison.

Making up his mind to thrust his right hand out, right at the single instant before he was about to grab the red-and-white ball, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Lin Huo's mind.

Who says he can only take one? Don't people have two hands?

Without thinking much, his other, free hand moved swiftly, grabbing Bulbasaur's Poké Ball at virtually the exact same moment as his right hand.

The moment both Poké Balls were grasped in Lin Huo's hands, the remaining Poké Ball vanished from Lin Huo's field of vision in the blink of an eye.

And Professor Oak's voice rang out once again at that very moment:

"Is this your choice? Then next, your story is about to begin! The Pokémon world full of dreams and adventures! Let's go!"

A faint warm current flowed slowly within his body, and Lin Huo unusually swiftly hid his left hand inside his pocket.

As for the middle-aged man, he simply thought Lin Huo had a childish temperament and was wandering around out of curiosity over the awakening array's construction, so he didn't give Lin Huo's previous action any further thought.