Poor

Hu Yang could not figure it out no matter how hard he thought.

After dumping the Magikarp into the river, he took Cramorant back to the dormitory. Before preparing his lessons, he reminded it, "Don't bring things home anymore."

Things were different now. He had successfully found a job, and although he had not received his salary yet, he would not go hungry like before.

"Gah?" Cramorant's reaction made it clear that it did not understand what he meant.

Seeing this, Hu Yang sighed helplessly.

As expected, it still would not work.

There was no shortage of slow-witted Pokémon in this world, such as Slowpoke and Psyduck. But unlike Cramorant, no matter how foolish they looked, they could still understand human speech.

Although Cramorant had previously only been data in a game, it now had its own life, and warm blood flowed through its body.

So why could it not understand human language?

Hu Yang could not make sense of it.

He thought of the several cheat templates he had lost during his transmigration. Could it be that, like him, Cramorant had encountered some kind of problem during the journey, or lost something?

At that thought, Hu Yang felt the money in his pocket. He only had 330 left, and he did not know whether that would be enough for a physical examination at the Pokémon Center.

It was not that he distrusted the information provided by his cheat ability. He simply did not want to overlook any possibility of finding the problem.

As the companion who had come here with him, Hu Yang did not want to see it remain like this forever.

Thus, after lunch, he took Cramorant to the Pokémon Center in the city center.

"Um, may I ask how much a full physical examination for a Pokémon costs?" Hu Yang asked.

Nurse Joy's voice was very gentle. "Two hundred League Coins."

Hu Yang breathed a sigh of relief. If he had not had enough, he could only have sold the two valuable Poké Balls on him.

"Please give it a full checkup." Hu Yang handed Cramorant to Nurse Joy.

"Certainly. Please wait a moment." Chansey pushed over a small cart. Nurse Joy placed Cramorant on it and turned to enter the treatment room.

The treatment room door slowly closed. Hu Yang was about to sit outside and wait when, before he could even turn around, Nurse Joy's startled cry sounded from within.

The next moment, the doors were slammed open. Cramorant flew out, flapping its wings. Though it still wore that vacant expression, Hu Yang could see a hint of panic in its movements.

Hu Yang froze for a moment, then instinctively reached out and caught Cramorant.

"I'm terribly sorry." Nurse Joy walked over with a blush on her face. Familiar with this situation, she said, "You may need to stay with it during the examination."

Hu Yang naturally had no objection. Holding Cramorant, he entered the examination room and accompanied it through a full checkup.

The results came out quickly. Nurse Joy looked at the information on the screen and said, "This Pokémon is very healthy. It isn't sick."

Very healthy... Hu Yang was even more confused. Still, he kept his composure. After thanking Nurse Joy, he took Cramorant back to school.

There was nothing wrong with its personal information, and nothing wrong with its physical examination. Hu Yang could no longer think of where the problem might be.

He could only bring Cramorant along while preparing his lessons.

A week later, the school officially opened.

Hu Yang officially began his teaching career as well.

Since he was a newcomer, the school only assigned him classes for two groups.

Hu Yang had originally assumed Pokémon Elementary School would be similar to the elementary school from his previous life. Yet after experiencing it firsthand, he realized this was not elementary school at all. It was practically kindergarten.

Although he had never been a teacher before, even if he had never eaten pork, had he not seen pigs run?

For his first class, Hu Yang did not stumble at all. After ending it perfectly, he packed up his things and headed to the next classroom.

The moment he stepped up to the podium, he noticed a girl below wearing a red bandana, dark blue shorts, and a red T-shirt.

Wasn't that May?

May, the female protagonist of the Pokémon Advanced Generation anime and the games.

Thinking about it carefully, seeing her here was not unexpected. After all, she was also the daughter of Norman, the Gym Leader of Petalburg Gym.

Hu Yang was not too surprised. He introduced himself first, then began chatting with the children about what they wanted to do in the future.

He intended to use the first class as a chance for everyone to get acquainted.

If nothing unexpected happened, he would be staying here for quite a long time.

And so, after that day, every student knew that their school had gained a teacher about the same age as them.

"You're really popular!"

Some time later, Erika and Nishida Gang teased him when they saw him.

They had gone to observe Hu Yang's classes and discovered that his lessons on Pokémon ecology were vivid and fascinating. Even they could not help wanting to keep listening.

"Do you have any tricks?" Nishida Gang asked curiously.

"Maybe it's talent!" Hu Yang replied in a tone that said, I'm awesome, what are you going to do about it?

Over the past half month, he had met many people and gotten to know many of them.

He had gradually become familiar with Nishida Gang and Erika, who were teachers like him. Both of them were warm, cheerful, and easygoing.

Hearing that, Nishida Gang jokingly clenched his fist. "I think you're just asking for a beating!"

"You're a grown man, yet you act like a child." Hu Yang looked at him with a strange expression.

After spending so much time around young people, even his mindset had begun to feel younger.

"You brat!" Nishida Gang pounced on him, and the two began wrestling.

Erika laughed happily from the side.

Everyone at the school welcomed this new young teacher.

At first, some teachers who had not participated in the assessment doubted his abilities. But after reviewing Hu Yang's teaching records, those doubts vanished.

Combined with his tragic persona of having lost both parents, everyone in the school both liked and pitied him.

Teachers from the same office would leave milk and snacks at his desk. The cleaning lady would warmly ask whether he had any trash to throw away, while the cafeteria auntie practically wanted to pile every delicious dish into his bowl.

Hu Yang had never been treated like this before.

He had made it clear from the start that he did not need such special treatment, but that only brought even more careful kindness.

Hu Yang felt touched, but also somewhat ashamed.

He could not reveal his true origins, so he could only remember their kindness in his heart and repay them after he had money.

Right now, he was so poor that he did not even dare catch another Pokémon.

Earlier, in order to find a way to make money, he had specifically sought out May and asked whether, when people battled Pokémon outside, the loser would give the winner money like in the games.

The cheerful and enthusiastic May answered like this: "Of course not! Teacher, what kind of weird thing are you thinking about?"

Hu Yang was deeply disappointed. He had been counting on earning some formula money for Cramorant from Bug Catchers.

Speaking of Cramorant, during this time, it still had not given up on feeding its Trainer things it brought back from outside.

Sometimes they were fish, sometimes Berries, and sometimes several unfortunate Magikarp and Feebas.

When he saw the Feebas, Hu Yang had initially wanted to keep it in a fish tank. After all, Feebas evolved into the very rare Milotic.

Unfortunately, he did not have any extra money to buy a fish tank, so he could only give up on that idea and wait until he received his first month's salary.

It was not as though Hu Yang had not considered catching a new companion. But if he did so now, he could only choose one out of a Grass-type Pokémon, Magikarp, and Feebas.

Grass-type Pokémon could photosynthesize and did not require too many resources in the early stages, while Magikarp and Feebas were both hardy, easy to raise, and had tremendous potential in the future.

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