Choosing a Starter Pokémon

Though it was called a restriction, Hu Yang did not force Cramorant to stay inside its Poké Ball.

He adjusted his schedule. Whenever he had no classes, he would go out with Cramorant. He jogged along the shore while Cramorant caught fish in the pond.

"Whew..."

After running for thirty minutes, Hu Yang stopped to rest, drenched in sweat.

As he watched the afterglow of the setting sun on the distant horizon, he began seriously planning his future.

Rather than spending his whole life as a teacher here, he wanted to become a Trainer like Ash, traveling and adventuring across the world.

But for a Trainer without the support of family or a Pokédex, that road would undoubtedly be extremely difficult.

As a transmigrator, Hu Yang happened to have neither of those things.

In this world, he was an undocumented person with no background or identity. The Pokémon League would never hand a Pokédex to someone like him.

"A Trainer..." Hu Yang looked at Cramorant, took a deep breath, and made up his mind. At worst, he would save money for a few years before setting out.

Mr. Lu Xun once said: There were no roads in the world to begin with; when enough people walked them, they became roads.

Besides, from what he had learned, this world had many different small-scale tournaments in addition to the highest-level Pokémon League competitions.

To attract Trainers, these competitions often offered extremely generous prize money.

He could battle his way as he traveled, all the way from Petalburg City to the Hoenn League Conference.

Or he could take another path.

—A Breeder.

He could pass the Pokémon League's examination and become a professional Breeder.

Afterward, Trainers would come to him to create training plans for their Pokémon, and he could earn a handsome fee from it.

Of course, there was a third path as well.

He could enter Pokémon Contests and become a Coordinator Trainer, something like a celebrity. Once he gained a certain level of fame, people would seek him out for endorsements.

For ordinary people, the most difficult of those three paths was undoubtedly the Breeder route.

That was because the profession imposed extremely demanding requirements on anyone who wanted to become a Breeder.

Besides mastering knowledge about different Pokémon, they also had to learn highly specialized academic subjects such as pharmacology and botany.

Anyone capable of all that needed to have a very sharp mind.

Hu Yang lay on the grass, leisurely watching the clouds in the sky dyed by the sunset.

Before deciding which path to take, he first needed a Pokémon that could battle.

The Pokémon League had no strict rules about whether someone could catch Pokémon before turning ten.

However, only after turning ten could one register as a Trainer with the Pokémon League and gain the qualifications to travel.

It was rather like how, in his previous life, he had needed to turn eighteen before he could go to an internet café.

As for Ash's situation in the anime, based on what Hu Yang had learned over the past few days, it was probably more of a sense of ceremony—a ceremony for receiving a Pokémon and beginning a brand-new journey.

The first month passed in the blink of an eye. As soon as he received his salary, Hu Yang began looking for his first Pokémon.

Magikarp, Feebas, and the Pokémon in Petalburg Woods that required few resources and grew quickly all became candidates.

After class every day, Hu Yang would take Cramorant and wander around the forest.

Other than Cramorant's Master Ball, he also had two ordinary Poké Balls on him.

One Poké Ball sold for two hundred Poké Dollars at the Poké Mart.

When Hu Yang had first learned that, he had wanted to slap his thigh and shout, Damn, I was so farsighted!

Those Pokémon he had swiped on a whim had saved him four hundred bucks.

Thanks, Pokémon Hunters!

Petalburg Woods was home to a wide variety of wild Pokémon, the most common of which were Caterpie and Wurmple.

But Hu Yang had no plans to catch either of them.

Although Butterfree, which underwent Evolution from Caterpie, and Beautifly, which underwent Evolution from Wurmple, were cute, Hu Yang did not dare touch them before they underwent Evolution.

That was because he was terrified of boneless, soft-bodied creatures.

Not to mention a huge green caterpillar thirty centimeters long.

The Caterpie that had slowly crawled across him shortly after he transmigrated had left such a deep psychological scar that it remained firmly rooted in his mind even now.

Whenever he saw a Caterpie now, he could not help imagining the soft texture he would feel if he touched it. He even started wondering whether squeezing it hard would make it burst...

Blech!

Hu Yang shuddered and hurriedly looked away from the Caterpie in the tree.

Besides those two, the more common Pokémon were Seedot, Taillow, Shroomish, and Nincada.

Near the river, he could also spot Surskit and Azurill.

But they were very wary. Before Hu Yang could get close, they jumped into the water and fled.

Awkward.

Hu Yang and Cramorant stood stupidly by the river together.

Cramorant could not initiate battles, so catching wild Pokémon through battle was not an option for him.

That left only one method: catching Pokémon that could not resist.

But... Hu Yang imagined what Magikarp and Feebas looked like.

Although both had great potential, they had absolutely no combat ability before undergoing Evolution!

And Feebas's Evolution conditions were harsh as well.

In the games, Feebas needed its Beauty stat to reach 170, or it needed to hold a Prism Scale and undergo trade Evolution, before it could become Milotic.

But this was reality. The game's methods did not work here.

From what Hu Yang had learned during this time, this world seemed not to know the conditions for Feebas's Evolution into Milotic either.

Moreover, wild Milotic were extraordinarily scarce and rare. Even records of them being observed by humans could be counted on one hand.

Though he had a cheat ability, Hu Yang did not want to use any of its functions other than Appraisal, because he was afraid of creating a second Cramorant.

Then his only choice left was...

Just then, a soft cry suddenly came from behind him.

"Ralts!"

Hu Yang turned around and saw the Ralts he had met before standing behind him.

It seemed very happy, its beautiful gem-like eyes full of curiosity.

Hu Yang looked around, but did not see its father, Gardevoir, anywhere.

He crouched down and asked kindly, "Did you sneak out again?"

"Ralts..."

Ralts understood and shyly stuck out its tongue.

It could communicate!

But Ralts looked toward the Poké Ball in his hand.

"Ralts~"

Hu Yang froze. Though he had suspected it before, encountering it for real still felt somewhat unbelievable. He asked, "Do you want to come with me?"

"Ralts!" Ralts nodded its little head rapidly.

But Hu Yang found himself in a difficult position. Of course he was happy to have a Pokémon come right to his door!

But this Ralts had someone behind it. Its father had chased after it last time. If he caught it now, he might open his eyes one night and find Gardevoir standing beside his bed.

Seeing that Hu Yang did not agree, a clear look of disappointment appeared on Ralts's little face. "Ralts..."

Hu Yang: "..."

He asked, "Do you want to follow me because I saved you before?"

Ralts nodded. "Ralts!"

Hu Yang felt that he needed to make this clear to prevent it from misunderstanding. "I wasn't the one who saved you that time. It was the one who saved you. I couldn't beat those two bad guys, and I never intended to save you."

After all, Ralts had been a strange Pokémon to him at the time, and he was not some hot-blooded anime protagonist.

Ralts seemed not to understand what he meant. After hesitating for a moment, it stretched out its small white hand and gently touched the spot over Hu Yang's heart.

"Ralts..." It wasn't like that. It had clearly felt it...

Hu Yang froze and lowered his head to look at his chest.

He remembered that Ralts was a timid Pokémon that would hide in the shadows whenever it sensed hostility.

But when Ralts sensed positive, optimistic emotions from humans, it would approach them of its own accord, and its body would gradually grow warm.