Fresh Sprouts

Sinnoh Region, Twinleaf Town.

What kind of Pokémon will I manage to catch tomorrow?

Watching the diverse Pokémon by the passersby on the road, a trace of envy flashed in Bai Shi's eyes.

Before he knew it, he had already been in this magical world for more than ten years.

At the very beginning of his transmigration, Bai Shi still deeply missed the family and friends of his past life.

Yet now, after so many years had passed, he could only continue living with the mindset of "let the past drift with the wind, cherish the present."

Who could blame him for dozing off while watching the Pokémon anime and ending up transmigrating right across?

Just like many senior transmigrators, Bai Shi's background after transmigrating was also that of an orphan.

Originally, upon reaching his age, he would automatically possess the right to own a Pokémon and become a Pokémon Trainer.

However, due to his less-than-ideal family financial situation, Bai Shi had yet to obtain a Starter Pokémon.

Naturally, he could not experience the scenery outside the town like his peers.

Since he was small, he had lived in the Orphanage in Twinleaf Town.

A few months ago, he was forced to move out of the Orphanage upon reaching adulthood.

Currently, he could only scrape by on odd jobs and short-term orphan subsidies.

Naturally, Bai Shi was not satisfied with his current situation.

Once upon a time, Bai Shi even had the wonderful fantasy of getting on good terms with Professor Rowan and thus "freeloading" a Starter Pokémon.

Unfortunately, Professor Rowan's laboratory was not in Twinleaf Town, but located in the outskirts of Sandgem Town.

Powerless to do anything, Bai Shi had no choice but to give up.

He honestly stayed in Twinleaf Town to work.

I was a wage slave before transmigrating, and I'm still a wage slave after transmigrating. Didn't I transmigrate in vain then?

Bai Shi knew very well that there was only one way to change his current situation.

And that was to catch a Pokémon of his own.

In this world, occupations with "earning potential" were basically all related to Pokémon.

Changing one's destiny through Pokémon was not just talk.

For instance, Bai Shi's current boss, Suzuki, had a similar background, both hailing from the same Orphanage.

The difference was that when Suzuki went out on a journey, he had incredible luck and caught a Bibarel with the Rototiller move.

Relying on this Bibarel, Suzuki rose in one bound to become a well-known large-scale planting magnate in the town.

Out of gratitude, the prosperous Suzuki provided a certain number of employment jobs every year to the younger generations of the Orphanage.

After coming of age, Bai Shi also came to work at an industry under Suzuki's name through the introduction of the Orphanage.

With Suzuki's example before him, Bai Shi naturally wanted to copycat.

However, people as lucky as him were ultimately a minority.

Every once in a while, adult orphans would carry dreams and enter the wild, wanting to catch a Pokémon.

Ordinary people entering the wild, as long as they didn't actively provoke Pokémon, basically wouldn't face great danger.

Unless they encountered some vicious-tempered Pokémon.

As for orphans like them who wanted to catch Pokémon, it was hard to say.

Powerful Pokémon always brought huge capture risks.

People with good luck could casually throw a Poké Ball into the grass and have a harvest.

Those with bad luck might provoke a Pokémon's counterattack due to a failed capture and suffer severe injuries.

They could only hope to be "picked up" from the wild and brought back to the city by a passing kind-hearted person.

There were also a very small number of unlucky souls who, after leaving the Orphanage, were never seen by anyone again.

Living a second life, Bai Shi cherished his life dearly and had never attempted to go into the wild to catch a Pokémon until now.

Instead, he worked odd jobs to save money while preparing to go out.

For this reason, Bai Shi had only signed a short-term contract of a few months with Suzuki.

Unlike the rest of the colleagues working there, who signed for several years at a time.

Today was the very last day of the contract term.

Having fulfilled the contract, Bai Shi thus regained his "freedom."

The Pokémon Eggs at the Pokémon Day Care are simply too expensive.

Even a mediocre Rattata Egg costs me the better part of my net worth.

Before it possesses a certain amount of combat power, the required cultivation costs would be enough to hollow me out.

Instead of spending all my savings to buy a Pokémon Egg,

"I might as well go out into the wild and try my luck."

Bai Shi roughly estimated his net worth and shook his head helplessly.

He decided to go try his luck in the wild just like the rest of his friends.

Actually, a portion of Pokémon also lived within towns.

However, the vast majority of them were ruthlessly abandoned by human trainers.

They held extremely strong vigilance and aggressiveness toward humans.

Bai Shi did not have much confidence in his ability to catch them.

Therefore, Bai Shi was more willing to go out into the wild to catch a Pokémon.

Still, for the sake of his own safety, Bai Shi had to make final preparations.

He came to the market and took out a large sum of his savings to make purchases.

It took a lot of time before Bai Shi finally returned to the rented apartment where he lived, carrying a pile of things.

The environment of the rented apartment was extremely shabby, totaling just over a dozen square meters.

Aside from the bedroom where the bed was placed, there was only a bathroom used for washing up.

It was even slightly inferior to the single room he lived in during his past life.

Perhaps the only thing worthy of praise was the cheap rent.

The people living nearby were just like him, mostly orphans.

The homeowner here could also be considered one of the Orphanage's "partners."

"From now on, whether I can move to a better environment depends on tomorrow's harvest!"

Bai Shi glanced around the surrounding environment, sat down on the bed, and took out a notebook to carefully flip through it.

Recorded on it was the wild-catching experience he had collected from the other friends.

"According to my calculations, going to the forest in the north has the highest probability of successfully catching a Pokémon."

"Recently, several people have already caught Pokémon there."

"Not only that, but the types of Pokémon in that forest are also relatively diverse."

"As long as I am a bit careful, I should be able to get a decent Pokémon."

"Besides that, that forest can also lead to Sandgem Town, where trainers frequently pass by."

"Even if I miss, there is still a fairly good chance of being rescued."

After conducting an Analytic, Bai Shi set his catching location as the forest north of Twinleaf Town.

His catching targets were primarily Bug-type and Grass-type Pokémon.

The former grew quickly, while the latter were easy to raise.

This perfectly matched Bai Shi's current financial situation.

Aside from wild Pokémon, Bai Shi also needed to be wary of "backstabbing" from his own kind.

Although the Sinnoh Region was not within Team Rocket's radiation range.

However, Pokémon Hunters represented by J were unusually rampant.

Team Galactic, which attempted to meddle with the Legendary Pokémon Dialga and Palkia, was even more extremely dangerous.

Even if the probability of encountering them was extremely small, Bai Shi still prepared a few more items for this.

Under certain circumstances, these items might just play an unexpected role.

"I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow!"

He remained busy until late into the night before Bai Shi drifted off into dreamland with longing.

The next day.

The sunlight was bright and the weather was clear.

It was truly a good day to go out on a journey.

Before leaving, Bai Shi, dressed in camouflage clothing, began making his final "arming."

He placed a yellow hard hat onto his head.

Then he put on transparent goggles.

He put a pair of black gloves on his hands.

He strapped a piece of wooden board to his chest and back respectively.

He tucked a utility knife into a certain pocket.

He shouldered the Space Backpack loaded with various items.

He checked all his equipment from head to toe.

After confirming everything was correct, Bai Shi mustered up his courage, left the rented apartment, and walked toward the northern forest.