Three Choices

"...Oh." Heiduo sighed helplessly, walked back, and picked up Eevee.

How had she survived with such a timid personality?

When he reached the back seat and stretched out to grab a can of Normal-type Pokémon food, Eevee cried out.

"I don't want to eat that! It's too dry! It tastes awful! I want chips! I want that fruit bread! And those cream puffs!"

The little thing kept picking snacks as if she were ordering from a menu.

Heiduo could not help saying, "Are you sure you're hungry and not just craving food?"

Pokémon food was the best food for replenishing a Pokémon's energy, as well as the most filling and hunger-resistant kind. Humans could eat it too. Heiduo often sampled the food he made, though he could not eat too much of it since some ingredients were harmful to humans.

"I don't wanna eat it! Would you eat dog food if someone made you?" Eevee retorted. She still considered herself human and refused to eat Pokémon food that looked like oversized kibble.

...Fair enough.

Heiduo unwrapped a piece of bread for Eevee.

It was all junk food with little nutrition. She would be hungry again soon after eating it.

But seeing Eevee wolf it down, Heiduo could not help wondering whether it really tasted that good.

Two minutes later, Eevee raised her head, pushed the bread crumbs aside, and used her front paws to clean the food bits from around her mouth.

She even scratched her ear with a hind leg.

"That hit the spot! That hit the spot!" Eevee jumped into Heiduo's arms and tugged at his sleeve with her mouth, wanting him to pick her up.

What was this? Was she clinging to him now?

Heiduo frowned. Eevee was cute, but before he knew what gender she had been in her previous life, he could not shake the feeling that there was a burly, foot-scratching old man inside her body—and that old man was acting cute.

No. Just thinking about it made him... Blegh—!

"You're mostly done eating. Tell me, what's your situation?" Heiduo pulled back his hand and stared coldly at Eevee.

Eevee grew a little scared under his gaze and shrank her neck. "What situation? I got transmigrated into Pokémon. Who hasn't watched it? It was so common in the twenty-first century..."

Under Heiduo's increasingly cold expression, Eevee finally gave in. "Fine! I'll tell you, okay?!"

Eevee knew this world was nothing like the peaceful animated Pokémon world where all Pokémon and humans lived together harmoniously. Just from the people who had gone through all that trouble to tie her up and sell her, Eevee knew this world contained both death and filth.

Honestly, she was sick of the precarious life in the wild.

In the anime, the Berries in the forest seemed endless, freely available for Pokémon to pick. But in reality? Every tree bearing Berries stood within the territory of some powerful Pokémon.

If you tried to steal from them, they would beat the shit out of you!

And then there were the Trainers. Whenever any of them saw her, the first thing they did was attack her and hurt her, all in the name of capture.

This world, beautiful on the surface but cold and twisted beneath it, was no paradise or utopia. It was a far more real, naked jungle society!

For a shut-in older homebody like her, who had barely left home before transmigrating, she was terribly unsuited to this world!

If not for Heaven's blessing in giving her a cheat, she had no idea how many times she would have died!

And in this despairing situation, she had actually encountered a handsome fellow countryman! And he seemed extremely capable and impressive.

A thigh! A golden thigh! If she latched onto it properly, she would never have to worry about food or drink again!

To hell with freedom! When your life was not even guaranteed, freedom meant nothing!

"I transmigrated here last year. I was born from a Pokémon Egg in that National Park place. You have no idea how I've survived these past few days, sob sob sob! Not only could I not eat enough, sometimes I couldn't even get any water!" As she spoke, Eevee actually began to cry, tears overflowing from her large watery eyes.

Heiduo crossed his arms, unmoved. "What about before you transmigrated?"

"Before I transmigrated? Uh... I was still in college... Fine, fine. I worked from home, doing freelance illustration and graphic design, and occasionally made videos..." Eevee lowered her head. Heiduo's gaze seemed capable of seeing through her lies, making her afraid to say anything false.

A stay-at-home type, and an artist too? He wondered which life was more comfortable: hers or his own 996 grind.

Heiduo said slowly, "Name, gender, home address."

"...Are you taking a census?!" Eevee bared her teeth. This kind of relentless questioning made her uncomfortable.

"I'm not taking a census. I just want to determine whether you're a... Pokémon I can trust." Heiduo explained his reasons for asking in a fairly objective manner.

Eevee paused, then said, "...Fine. Then let's trust each other. My name is Zou Xue, female, from Balqiao, Tongzhou, Tianjing City. I have a second-tier bachelor's degree, and because my hometown was demolished and I got three apartments in compensation, I decided to coast through life..."

Holy shit, a demolition heiress!

Can't compete with that. Can't compete at all.

Heiduo sighed inwardly. What was the hottest kind of rich person in 2019? Not second-generation rich, nor any other kind of second generation, but the children of demolition compensation recipients.

These wealthy people who could live out the rest of their lives without striving thanks to demolition payouts were often synonymous with all kinds of scandals.

There was no other reason. They simply had too much money and nowhere to spend it.

People like Heiduo, who could wait ten thousand years and still never see their hometown demolished, could only look at demolition heirs with envy and jealousy while their time and health wore away in the 996 grind.

Eevee gave a fairly general account of her circumstances. Heiduo found it hard to judge how much was true, so he believed about half of it and remained suspicious of certain questionable parts.

After she finished, Eevee looked at Heiduo expectantly, as though waiting for something.

Heiduo knew she was waiting for him to reveal his own background, so he said, "My original name is Heiduo, and my current name is Heiduo. I was male in both my previous and current lives. I used to live in Jincheng, Zhejiang Province, and worked in e-commerce operations..."

Since he did not trust Eevee, he certainly would not foolishly reveal all of his information...

Hm? No, wait. Eevee was a Pokémon now, not a human!

Heiduo suddenly spotted a blind spot. Since Eevee... Zou Xue was now a Pokémon, he could capture her with a Poké Ball!

He did not know how it worked, but the Poké Balls here were different from the ones in the anime, where Pokémon could escape on their own. As long as the Pokémon inside did not get a chance to touch the switch, it could not possibly come out!

With that thought, Heiduo's gaze toward Eevee became ill-intentioned.

Across from him, Eevee was still mulling over Heiduo's information when her Danger Avoidance Ability suddenly activated. Her heart began pounding rapidly. She looked up and saw Heiduo staring at her with a strange expression.

"Uh... you..."

"I roughly understand your situation now. We're both adults, so let's be straightforward—I currently have two options for you." Ignoring Eevee's timid look, Heiduo said directly, "First, you follow me from now on. I'll provide food, drink, and lodging, while you protect and help me. But for safety's sake, I'll have to capture you, because if I don't and someone else captures you, you'll have a miserable fate. Of course, I won't exploit you. If I were that kind of person, I wouldn't have risked coming to save you."

That was true. Heiduo was Eevee's savior right now. Without him, she would surely have been dragged away to fight—or perhaps used in some biological experiment.

Heiduo recalled Abu, Red's Espeon from Pokémon Adventures. Team Rocket had used her for experiments, eventually turning her into a pitiful Pokémon capable of evolving at will, but with extremely unstable genes that left her in constant pain.

"..." Eevee said nothing. Her expression was bewildered; she clearly had not expected Heiduo to say something so realistic.

According to the plots of those anime and novels, shouldn't Heiduo fall into danger, then she would save his life, and afterward the two of them would join forces and live happily ever after?

Screenwriter! The script is wrong! The plot is moving way too fast!

Heiduo completely failed to notice the frantic little drama unfolding in Eevee's mind. He continued, "Second, when the Police arrive, you can go with them. I don't need you to repay me. You only need to promise not to expose my identity as someone from another world. But I can't guarantee you'll receive favorable treatment in the future."

"After all, Eevee aren't rare Pokémon in this world. If you don't reveal that you know a language from another world, the best outcome would probably be living without worries as a pet who coasts through life, but that chance is small. There are too many Trainers in this world, and they love Pokémon battles. They'll force you to fight."

At that point, Heiduo paused. His throat was a little dry, so he took a sip of water and moistened it before saying, "You can also choose neither. We can part ways here. You can leave now. I won't stop you, much less illegally detain you. I don't have that much time to waste... So choose."

He spread his hands, signaling for Eevee to make her choice: freedom, a life of idle comfort, or staying with him.

Heiduo did not particularly desire Eevee herself. Even if she had a Golden Finger, she was optional to him. Having Eevee would not mean he could defeat Lorelei right away.

He still had to take things one bite at a time.

Eevee's expression was conflicted. In both her previous and current lives, she had always drifted along with the current. Rarely had a choice concerning her prospects and future been placed before her like this.

It was like when she had just graduated from university. Her classmates were all worrying about jobs, while she had a house and a huge demolition payout. She could live quite well even without working.

The future was a very unfamiliar word to her.

Until now, someone had stood before her and asked her to make a choice—one important enough to determine the rest of her life.

Eevee could not help glancing at the Pokémon standing behind Heiduo.

To Eevee, they were not cute at all. They were not handsome or cool either, and were even a little strange.

But in the way they looked at Heiduo, there was never the slightest trace of resistance or defiance. They even secretly made threatening faces at her out of concern for Heiduo's safety.

Especially that "shark." Its eyes were practically popping out.