After spending the morning adjusting to a body twenty years younger, Hu Yang finally accepted that he had transmigrated.
Six hours ago, Hu Yang had still been a "wizard" selling hacked Pokémon on the TaoBao Network.
He had just received a large custom order for three hundred perfect 6IV Pokémon and was preparing to stay up all night modifying them. But as soon as he finished the first one, his vision went black. When he opened his eyes again, he was in this world.
After lying rigid and watching a thirty-centimeter-long green bug crawl over him, Hu Yang finally confirmed that he had transmigrated into the Pokémon world.
As a Pokémon fan with no family or attachments back in his old world, getting to come to a world he loved should have been something to celebrate.
But his current predicament made it impossible to get excited.
Damn it! Other people transmigrated into someone's body in a big city. Why had he landed straight in the middle of an uninhabited mountain forest?!
A few minutes ago, he had escaped a Caterpie habitat, only to run straight into dense woodland inhabited by Beedrill!
As everyone knew, Beedrill were hot-tempered, easily angered, and fiercely territorial. Anyone who trespassed on their territory had a 99.9 percent chance of being attacked.
Looking at the Beedrill in front of him, with its red eyes and two thick, enormous white stingers gleaming menacingly in the shadows, Hu Yang could not help swallowing.
If those two stingers pierced his body, his career as a Trainer would end before it even began, wouldn't it?
"Bzzzz!"
A strange buzzing came from Beedrill's mouthparts. Hu Yang could guarantee that it was not making some friendly, cutesy noise.
Sure enough, the surrounding bushes rustled a moment later, and pair after pair of ruby-red eyes emerged from the shadows.
Hu Yang took off running.
The sound of the Beedrill's thin wings vibrating was right behind him.
A fork in the forest path appeared ahead, and Hu Yang suddenly felt as though he were playing Temple Run.
"Shhk!"
A stab of pain in his side instantly dragged his attention back to reality.
Waaah! A Beedrill's Poison Sting had hit him! It hurt so much!
The heavens want me dead! Hu Yang thought miserably.
Just then, a river suddenly appeared on his left.
Hu Yang nearly wept with joy at the sight.
He quickly changed direction and plunged headfirst into it.
At that moment, he was immensely grateful that he had learned to swim before transmigrating.
River water flooded his ears and nose. Holding his breath, Hu Yang flailed about and grabbed something hard.
He opened his eyes and saw a vacant-eyed creature covered in red scales amid the rushing water.
Holy crap, wasn't that the legendary Magikarp?
With its body caught in his grip, the Magikarp began struggling. The current swept against them, and Hu Yang lost his hold.
A moment later, he experienced firsthand the feeling described by the lyric, "Cold, icy rain slapped wildly against my face."
The blows left Hu Yang's eyes red. Worse still, he could not come up for air.
Through the surface, he could see the Beedrill still hovering overhead. They clearly had no intention of letting him off easily.
He couldn't stay here.
Holding his breath, Hu Yang began swimming downstream.
After swimming ten meters, he surfaced for a breath, then submerged again.
He had no idea how long he swam. Only after making sure those awful Beedrill had not followed him did Hu Yang finally climb onto the bank.
Looking at the handsome face reflected in the water, Hu Yang immediately recognized his ten-year-old self, even though he was twenty years younger.
That's me, all right. Already handsome at ten.
After all that chaos, his clothes were completely soaked.
Hu Yang had noticed earlier that the leaves in the forest were beginning to yellow. If he was right, it was autumn.
He was still wearing the clothes he had worn before transmigrating: a white short-sleeved shirt under a blue track jacket, with gray sweatpants.
After making sure there was no immediate danger, Hu Yang took off his clothes and examined the wound where the Beedrill had hit him.
His clothing had blocked the translucent purple stinger from sinking all the way into his body.
Using a leaf, Hu Yang pulled out the stinger. He found that the skin around the puncture had already turned faintly purple, with a dull, burning pain.
Clearly, he had been poisoned.
Hu Yang felt hopeless.
A poisoned Pokémon would slowly lose its strength until it fainted. What about a human?
Hu Yang did not dare imagine it.
The growling that came from his stomach just then only made matters worse.
He was hungry.
Earlier, he had noticed plenty of fruit-like things growing on the trees in this forest. Those were probably what this world commonly called "Berries."
Unlike ordinary fruit, however, different Berries had different effects.
For example, Cheri Berries cured paralysis, Rawst Berries treated burns, and Pecha Berries cured poisoning—the very thing he needed most right now.
He just did not know whether Berries worked on humans.
Besides Berries, Hu Yang had also seen plenty of ordinary fish in the river.
Just as he had thought, ordinary animals existed in the Pokémon world alongside Pokémon.
Hu Yang pulled his jacket over and spread it beneath him, preparing to lie down and rest. That bout of strenuous exercise had drained a great deal of his strength.
He looked up at the clear sky through the patchwork of branches and leaves.
His top priority was to leave the forest, find a human town, and look for a way to treat the poison.
After all, the forest was so vast that finding any Berry tree would be difficult enough, let alone one bearing Pecha Berries that could cure poisoning.
As he thought, Hu Yang suddenly felt something pressing uncomfortably against his waist.
He sat up, picked up his jacket, and felt around the pocket until he pulled out a small purple sphere.
He must have touched something on it, because the sphere rapidly expanded in his hand, returning to its full size.
Once Hu Yang saw what it looked like, he froze.
Its top half was purple and its bottom half white, with a white button at the seam and an "M" above it.
This was... a Master Ball from the games.
How could this be?
He tried pressing its button. With a click, the Master Ball opened, and a beam of white light shot out.
Within that light, a Pokémon covered in orange feathers appeared.
It was not entirely orange, though. The feathers around its chest and neck were a vivid white, much like the napkin Westerners tied around their necks when eating.
"Squawk!"
The Pokémon held its head with one wing and stared blankly at him with its vacant, round eyes.
Hu Yang looked at him.
He looked at Hu Yang.
A moment later, a flood of information abruptly appeared in Hu Yang's mind.
[Species: Cramorant ♂ (Shiny)] Types: Flying, Water Ability: Gulp Missile Base stats: 1530 (HP: 255, Attack: 255, Defense: 255, Special Attack: 255, Special Defense: 255, Speed: 255) Known moves: [Precipice Blade], [Origin Pulse], [Spacial Rend], [Roar of Time]
(Note: Pokémon in this book are not limited to four moves. There is no move limit, so please stop asking.)
Current mood: &#?+!# Physical condition: Perfect Friendship: 100 (You are his favorite Trainer. He loves you more than he loves himself.)
*!!!*
Hu Yang was stunned.
Wasn't this the first Pokémon he had just finished modifying for his customer?
Cramorant. A Shiny Cramorant, a Pokémon from Galar.
The games described Cramorant like this:
[Although Cramorant forgot things very easily, he would never forget a Trainer with whom he had formed a bond of trust.
But if someone snatched his food, he would attack without mercy—even if that someone was his Trainer.]
Since this Cramorant had been the first Pokémon used for testing, all six of his base stats had been set to absurd values.
Hu Yang had deliberately given him those four moves as a joke, too.
Not only had this Cramorant come along, but the software used to modify his data had also transmigrated with him.
He could already see the relevant information in his mind!
"Pokémon Modifier (Trial Version 1.0.2) Functions: ○ Appraisal ○ Move Teaching ○ Shiny Modification ○ Ability Modification [Required template missing. Unavailable.] ○ Base Stat Modification [Required template missing. Unavailable.] ○ Individual Value Modification [Required template missing. Unavailable.] Bug fixes: This product is currently in its trial phase. If you encounter any bugs while using it, please take a screenshot and send it to the author's email address."
A few notes before we begin: 1. This is not a mindless power fantasy about endlessly catching and killing everything.
2. This is an unconventional take on a traditional Pokémon story.
3. The author cannot write women, so there is no female lead.
4. Ordinary animals exist in this world. Other people eat Pokémon, but the protagonist will not, nor will he modify Pokémon to sell them.
5. This is not a dark story.
Before you continue