Heading Out, Then Finding an Injured Eevee

The late summer in Zhijiang was quite comfortable. Feeling the cool morning breeze, Xia Chen walked leisurely along the bluestone path in the old urban district.

In the lush bushes by the road, a hungry little Pidgey chirped all morning, opening its beak while waiting for its mother to feed it.

The unlucky fellow chosen as food was a plump green caterpillar.

A Pidgeot used its sharp beak to mercilessly cut it into several segments, feeding them evenly into the mouths of its children.

This scene vividly played out the saying "the early bird catches the worm."

Xia Chen had long since grown used to this sight, glancing at it briefly before looking away.

If he had to make a comparison, he reckoned his current situation was no better than that of the green caterpillar.

He couldn't even compare to those Pidgeys.

Though it sounded a bit strange, at least those Pidgeys had a mother, right?

As a time-traveler who had arrived in this world for over half a year, Xia Chen felt his luck was truly outrageously bad.

Never mind that he didn't even catch a glimpse of the cheat items every senior time-traveler had by default; the parents of this body had also mysteriously gone missing.

All that was left for Xia Chen was a dilapidated old house in the Zhijiang Ancient Urban District, along with a modest pension arranged by his parents' organization.

Xia Chen felt that if he were a webnovel protagonist, he would be the type with a disastrous opening and a bitter, deep-seated hatred, popular on Qidian a decade ago.

The only two comforting points were, first, that his current body was identical to the one in his original world—simple and plain—

a single word—handsome—was enough to sum up his unremarkable appearance.

The second point was naturally that the world he had time-traveled to was pretty good.

Simply put, it was a technologically advanced Pokémon World that fused multiple worldviews from the Pokémon anime and the Special manga.

Although it wasn't as naive and innocent as the kids' anime, it was much better than the cruel worldview of the Special manga.

All in all, it could barely be called an ideal utopian world.

As for the reason, well, that was something anyone with a sliver of thinking capacity could figure out.

A world possessing all kinds of black technology from the Pokémon World, with incomparably abundant resources, and where people's overall social values were still relatively simple—no matter how it developed, it would be a paradise on earth.

The most crucial part was that there were miraculous existences like Pokémon that violated the Mass–Energy Conservation Law, the Entropy Increase Law, and the Laws of Thermodynamics!

Let alone Regieleki, the electric pillar rumored to be able to provide electrical energy for the entire Galar Region.

Even a Pikachu, described as being "as common as stray dogs on the street," could provide massive amounts of electrical energy.

Others included the thermal energy of Fire-type Pokémon, the snow and ice of Ice-type Pokémon, and the biological energy of Grass-type Pokémon.

With such near-inexhaustible energy sources, why worry about survival?

Yet according to the hierarchy of needs theory from his past life, above survival, there were still many layers of needs, such as the highest level—the realization of self-worth.

Unlike senior time-travelers, Xia Chen had no illusory ambition of becoming a Legendary Trainer; he didn't have that kind of grand aspiration.

Still, as a fanatical Pokémon enthusiast who had come to this world, he naturally thought of leaving behind some trace of his existence.

Therefore, after he adapted to the environment and learned that the development of certain aspects in this world slightly deviated from his knowledge, he set a small goal—

to become a salted-fish Gym Leader, or an Elite Four level trainer if he had the ability, and then raise a large pile of his favorite Pokémon to spend the rest of his life with.

Clearly, even in this worry-free Pokémon World, this pursuit was not simple.

Speaking just of Gym Leaders, the Donghuang Region, which was about the same size as his motherland in his past life, only possessed a dozen or so first-tier ones.

Not to mention the Elite Four, of whom there were only four per term.

One had to know that although this world could guarantee no one would starve to death, wanting to become an Elite Trainer was extremely money-burning.

An outstanding Pokémon egg starting casually at over one hundred thousand was the first threshold.

You could also casually pick up a Caterpie by the roadside to train, but no one could guarantee how far you could go on this long road of a Trainer relying on it.

A Pokémon egg was only the first step. Next, which stage—the infant, growth, or adult stage—did not require spending money to nurture?

Raising a Pokémon cost more than raising a child; this was a true portrayal of this world.

Yet where there's a will, there's a way. Right now, Xia Chen, an impoverished prospective high school senior, was striving unremittingly toward this goal.

Saying he was destitute was a bit of an exaggeration; at least Xia Chen possessed complete Pokémon knowledge from his past life all the way up to the Alola era.

Some of it had yet to be discovered by this world.

This was his sole reliance for climbing up from the bottom of the Pokémon World.

To prevent himself from forgetting, he had even deliberately recorded that information in a small notebook, waiting until he earned his first pot of gold to launch his plans.

That's right: not just Trainers, Breeders, or Researchers—any profession associated with Pokémon was bound to require spending money.

Even if Xia Chen knew the direction of research and the ultimate goal, it was still the same.

Take, for instance, the least costly research Xia Chen could think of, which was also the project he planned to use as his stepping stone into the Pokémon academic world—

the evolution of Sylveon. At the very least, he needed an Eevee for that, didn't he?

Fortunately, after saving money for a year, Xia Chen was almost able to scrape together the starting capital for an Eevee, and was just waiting for his salary to be issued next month.

As a high school student, Xia Chen certainly wouldn't do low-efficiency work like waiting tables that exchanged time and physical strength for pay.

He was currently a somewhat famous food section creator on PiliPili.

Although the Donghuang Region where Xia Chen lived was a heavily modified version of his previous life's motherland, there were still many disparities, such as the cuisine.

And in his past life, as a foodie gourmet, Xia Chen's understanding and research into food was second only to Pokémon.

Therefore, in just over half a year, the not very prolific Xia Chen had already made a name for himself in the food section. This month, because the summer vacation made his video-making time longer, his follower count had even experienced explosive growth.

Naturally, this month's income was also worth looking forward to.

With higher income, Xia Chen's motivation for making videos became even higher.

Thus, on this Saturday morning when most people were still sleeping in, Xia Chen was already industriously walking on his way to the vegetable market.

Morning ingredients were the freshest, and the finished dishes made from them also looked a bit more appetizing.

Cooking paid attention to color, aroma, and taste, but the lords and ladies in the audience in front of their screens could neither smell the aroma nor taste the flavor. If the visual appeal wasn't a bit better, how could he trick—

Ah no, how could he make them willingly cast those two round things?

Speaking of which, he hadn't decided on the dish to make for this episode yet, as this week's theme was Shandong Cuisine, which was hailed in his past life as the head of the eight major culinary traditions.

Shandong Cuisine emphasized excellent ingredients, liked to use salt to enhance umami, used broth to boost freshness, and the dishes were mostly salty and fresh. Most people were accustomed to eating it, so its popularity was only natural.

How about making a signature scallion-braised sea cucumber?

He just didn't know if braising fist sea cucumber with Farfetch'd's scallion would taste even better. Stop, stop, this is against the law.

As Xia Chen was letting his imagination run wild, a tender and weak call came from beside his ear.

"Vee."

Was this an Eevee's Growl?

Xia Chen froze, looking in the direction of the sound, only to see a cute Pokémon that looked somewhat like a fox and a dog with fluffy yet filthy fur huddled in the corner of a narrow alley, shivering.

It was precisely a pitiful and lovable little Eevee.

Whether from the cold or some other reason, this Eevee's body was curled up, trembling uncontrollably.

Its iconic big, doll-like eyes were tightly closed at the moment, and the creamy-white fur around its neck and on its tail was stained pitch-black by sewage, making it look profoundly pitiful.

How could there be an injured-looking Eevee here?

The possibilities were too numerous; a multitude of potential scenarios instantly popped up in Xia Chen's mind.

He didn't ponder further, quickly hurrying over.

No matter what, Xia Chen couldn't ignore a harmless and pitiful little Eevee lying by the roadside.