The Bug Catcher Boy

The screen showed.♬💢  💘♧

A little figure wearing a straw hat stood in the grass, looking around.

[You were born in Viridian City and came from an ordinary family]

Suddenly, a Caterpie emerged from the grass. The straw-hatted figure tossed out a red-and-white ball, and the ball sucked Caterpie inside.

[At the age of ten, you encountered your first partner, Caterpie, in Viridian Forest, and the two of you embarked on a journey]

After these words appeared, a pixel animation of Caterpie appeared in the bottom corner of the screen.

Lying on his back, Baimu shifted positions and thought, Who would have thought this first simulation would start him off as a Bug Catcher?

The scene changed.

The Bug Catcher appeared in front of a large house. As he entered, he came face-to-face with a slicked-back-haired middle-aged man.

An "intense" battle began.

The process was more or less just Caterpie being sent out, then instantly being sent flying by the Rhyhorn released by the opponent.

Although there was no background music, the Bouncy Bubble that appeared when Caterpie slammed into the wall was enough to show just how brutal that collision had been.

[You lost to the Viridian Gym Leader and failed to obtain your first Badge]

Baimu: "?"

Wait!

He was challenging a Gym without leveling up? And with Caterpie?

The screen went black, then lit up again. Under Baimu's bewildered gaze, the Bug Catcher entered Viridian Gym once more.

What had just happened replayed itself, and the exact same words appeared.

The third time, the fourth time, the fifth time...

Wait, wait, wait—!!

A Caterpie was challenging a Gym without leveling up, and he hadn't learned a single lesson?

This wasn't a Hot-Blooded Youth making his debut. This was clearly a brainless youth who refused to learn from his mistakes!

Baimu silently watched the illusory screen repeat the same content.

After the tenth failed challenge.

The content finally changed.

[You lost to the Viridian Gym Leader. Your tenacity and Guts earned his recognition, and you obtained the Green Badge]

An emerald-colored wheat-ear emblem appeared beneath Caterpie.

Baimu was speechless. Giovanni only gave him the Badge because he was tired of dealing with him, right?

At the exact moment the Bug Catcher obtained the Badge, Caterpie's appearance suddenly changed, transforming from a caterpillar into a cocoon.

[Your Caterpie evolved into Metapod]

It had finally evolved...

The simulation had only just begun, yet Baimu inexplicably felt exhausted.

In the scene, the Bug Catcher left Viridian City and arrived at a dense forest. When a golden caterpillar emerged from the grass, he sent out Metapod.

Just as he was wondering how he was supposed to catch it, the former suddenly Tackle-d the latter, forcibly knocking itself unconscious.

[You caught your second Pokémon, Weedle, in Viridian Forest. Your traveling party has grown]

...A stupid Trainer and a stupid Pokémon. A match made in heaven. That was fine.

Baimu suddenly wanted an accelerator button more than anything.

The scene changed again.

The Bug Catcher arrived at the foot of a giant rocky mountain, where a stone-built city stood.

[You arrived in Pewter City. The towering rocky mountain filled you with fighting spirit, so you decided to challenge the Gym]

Just as expected.

Leveling up?

What was that?

At least Baimu had never seen this guy make his Pokémon battle wild Pokémon. He was a machine built solely for challenging Gyms, completely ignoring the fact that he could strengthen his Pokémon through special training after a defeat.

Ash might have obtained several Badges through charity, but at least he knew to catch more Pokémon!

Could Metapod and Weedle actually fight? No, they couldn't. They simply didn't have what it took, understand?

Just as with Viridian Gym, the Bug Catcher failed his tenth Gym challenge, then won the Gym Leader's admiration through sheer Guts.

[You obtained the Gray Badge]

An octagonal gray gemstone emblem appeared beneath Weedle. At the same time, Metapod and Weedle were simultaneously enveloped in white light.

A large butterfly and a golden, cocoon-like creature took shape.

[Your Metapod evolved into Butterfree, and your Weedle evolved into Kakuna. Delighted, you decided to set out immediately for the next city]

At last, one of them had reached its final evolution.

Baimu breathed a sigh of relief. What made him even happier was that the Bug Catcher seemed to have finally wised up.

[You caught your third Pokémon, Venonat, at the foot of Mt. Moon. Your traveling party has grown]

[You caught your fourth Pokémon, Paras, in a cave on Mt. Moon. Your traveling party has grown]

[You lost to an unfamiliar Trainer]

[You defeated an unfamiliar Trainer]

[Your Kakuna evolved into Beedrill]

One delightful scene after another gradually appeared once the Bug Catcher entered the Mt. Moon area. The Hot-Blooded Youth seemed to be turning into a normal Trainer.

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Until—

[You arrived in Cerulean City, surrounded by waterways and rich in water resources]

As usual, the Bug Catcher headed to Cerulean Gym, only to be told that the Gym Leader had gone out to perform as a mermaid.

A performance?

Was this based on the anime?

Baimu was shocked. He had always thought the background was based on the games. After all, only cities from the games had appeared, while the anime featured many original towns.

He suddenly had a bad feeling, and that feeling was soon proven right.

When the Bug Catcher arrived at the place where the Cerulean Gym Leaders were performing, an encounter took place.

[You accidentally bumped into a girl. After you apologized to each other, you both felt happy and exchanged contact information]

[You contacted the girl. The two of you chatted happily and decided to travel together]

[You began challenging Cerulean Gym. Although you failed, the girl's presence made you braver, and you challenged it again]

[You began dating]

What? No way, right?

What was this dog food spilling out of the screen? The Trainer Simulator had turned into a Dating Simulator!

Wasn't it supposed to be possible to interact with the opposite sex? How had it become inevitable that he would date someone?

Baimu abruptly sat up.

The Bug Catcher had already been a hot-blooded, stupid Trainer. After getting a girlfriend, his fighting spirit hadn't changed, but scenes of the two of them alone together had clearly increased.

Even the rough battle details had changed.

Normally, after fighting seven or eight times, he would at least figure out some of the opponent's patterns and exchange one or two rounds.

But at Cerulean Gym, he could manage several exchanges at the beginning, only to be one-shot for the rest of the battle.

By the tenth defeat, when his Guts was praised, he had completely become a weakling.

The Pokémon didn't evolve anymore, either.

As Baimu watched the two little figures hold hands, without encountering a single wild battle, they caught their fifth Pokémon and arrived in Saffron City, continuing with battles just like before.

Baimu's heart sank lower and lower.

The Saffron Gym Leader, Sabrina, was a serious Psychic. Her personality was completely different from the previous three Gym Leaders, and even after the Bug Catcher lost ten times, she still refused to give him the Gold Badge.

Just as he was wondering how the Bug Catcher would break out of this predicament, the ending suddenly arrived.

The scene suddenly turned gray.

[The Indigo League officially began. With only three Badges, you missed the Indigo League]

[Simulation complete]

The virtual screen froze on the Bug Catcher's fifteenth defeat.

"...So this simulation was the story of a single League?"

At that moment, Baimu looked like someone who had just finished watching a terrible movie. Who would have thought that a perfectly good Hot-Blooded Youth and Bug Catcher would suddenly turn into a love-struck youth?

Challenging the Gyms so many times had already been a waste of time. With a girlfriend, he wasted even more time. If the girlfriend had made the Bug Catcher stronger, then fine.

But what was this about becoming weaker?

Love was supposed to fill people with strength, wasn't it? What kind of Simulator was this?!

As he thought this, several lines of text appeared before his eyes.

[Reward One: Raise any Pokémon by one level (below Lv. 30)]

[Reward Two: Obtain a clue about an obtainable Pokémon]

[Reward Three: Move—String Shot (a Pokémon may be chosen to learn it)]

[Reward Four: Carry the [Romantic Luck] talent into the next simulation]

There really were rewards.

Baimu tried it and discovered that he could choose two.

Two out of four wasn't bad.

However, he couldn't begin the second simulation without choosing a reward, and he wasn't sure whether Rewards One and Three could be carried over.

He'd give it a try.

He had to try at least once.

Baimu lit up Options Two and Three without even looking at the fourth.

Fortunately, the reward move could be carried over.

The Simulator's uses could also be saved up. The countdown continued running instead of stopping at one remaining use.

Baimu felt that the level-increase reward might be able to accumulate as well.

But at that moment, most of his attention remained focused on the clue—

[Carry an iron ingot weighing at least 1 kg with you]

What kind of clue was this? At best, it was a hint.

Baimu glanced at the time and the sky outside. Pyrite Town had already sunk into the night, but the sounds from the mines and smelting plants continued without pause.

It was still early.

He washed his face, went outside, and set about finding a way to get an iron ingot.

Once he had the iron ingot, he would start the second simulation.

P.S. Please follow the story, everyone!