Considering a second Pokémon

As December arrived, the bleak autumn winds gradually turned bitter.

Perhaps because global warming wasn't a thing in this world, early winter in Shanghai was colder than Xia Chi remembered from his previous life.

"Achoo!"

Having just woken up, Xia Chi tucked in his quilt, which was already getting a little too thin, and wrapped himself up like a Caterpie.

He glanced out the window. Dusk hung heavy in the sky.

Yesterday's all-nighter had successfully put Xia Chi on Unova time.

Luckily, it was a weekend with no classes. Otherwise, he would have had to rack his brains for another excuse to ask Teacher Zhou for leave.

Xia Chi had always felt that anyone who could get straight out of bed after waking up was practically superhuman.

Lacking that level of self-control, he reached for the phone beside his bed without a shred of guilt and began aimlessly browsing.

It was a little past four in the afternoon.

As expected, Sprigatito was out "grinding monsters and leveling up." The app showed that the little cat was in good condition, so there was no need to worry.

Iono had sent follow-up information about Sprigatito's training, along with a puzzled message after failing to reach Xia Chi.

Xia Chi snapped a photo of himself in his current "Wriggler" state and sent it over, accompanied by a "Snorlax sleeping soundly.gif" reaction image.

Miss Nessa, whom he followed, had posted another set of swimsuit runway photos today. As always, they were a feast for the eyes. Slurp, slurp~

Then he checked the video he had posted before going to bed that morning.

Holy shit, how did it already have five hundred thousand views?!

Xia Chi instantly bolted upright like a dying man jolted back to life.

At first glance, that number seemed unremarkable. It wasn't even a fraction of the views on his first Ho-Oh video.

But this one had only been up for ten hours. There was no comparison!

After browsing the comments, Xia Chi figured out what was going on.

For one thing, his streams had brought in considerable traffic over the past few days, and most Pokémon battle enthusiasts also enjoyed videos about Legendary Pokémon.

History buffs and livestream fans were drawing each other in and crossing over, producing this result.

Of course, the single biggest reason was that this video's content was simply explosive.

Arceus's creation myth-never mind whether any of it had actually happened. Had they enjoyed watching it or not?

Judging by the feedback from most viewers, the answer was yes.

The dense barrage of on-screen comments, along with coin donations and likes that nearly matched the view count, made that clear.

Of course, plenty of people still fixated on Xia Chi's lack of rigor, accusing him of peddling unofficial history and making up stories. But amid the overwhelmingly positive comments, they couldn't make any waves.

"Meow~"

Sprigatito's cry pulled Xia Chi out of his engrossed dive into the comments.

I'm back~

Sprigatito deftly pushed the window open and jumped down beside Xia Chi. Nuzzle landed-a super-effective hit.

"You're back, Sprigatito~"

Xia Chi scooped up the kitten and gave the little cat a quick physical check. Good, no obvious external injuries.

Come to think of it, after Sprigatito had adjusted to that increase in strength over the past few days, the frequency of injuries had dropped considerably.

Perhaps the change in confidence had something to do with it too.

After applying Potion Spray to Sprigatito, Xia Chi suddenly realized it was almost six.

The comments and thirst traps have led me astray!

Starting today, I'm quitting the comments!

Having learned his painful lesson, Xia Chi got out of bed to prepare Sprigatito's dinner.

This was the first dinner since he had finalized the training plan, so Xia Chi took extra care with it.

Unfortunately, he had no particular talent for cooking. Even following the tutorial, the finished dish looked nothing like the picture-if not completely different, then at least ninety percent different.

Tesla Model X versus dumpster.jpg

Fortunately, the taste at least met the cat's minimum standards. Sprigatito showed no sign of distress and ate with earnest concentration.

Watching the kitten eat, Xia Chi rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

With my cooking skills, even a salad that doesn't need heat is barely manageable. Anything more complicated is definitely doomed.

So should my second Pokémon be one with hands that can cook?

Oh, no need. Once Sprigatito evolves into Floragato, standing up won't be a problem.

He just didn't know how much cooking talent the little cat had, or whether Sprigatito could shoulder the responsibility of feeding this household.

"Come to think of it, shouldn't I start planning to catch a second Pokémon?"

Xia Chi muttered to himself.

Although raising another Pokémon meant adding another money-devouring beast to the household, Xia Chi's income had improved.

As long as he didn't insist on using top-tier resources for everything, he could still afford it.

So who should I catch?

Xia Chi sank into thought.

His first choice would definitely be a Grass-type, or a Pokémon the system could classify as a [Speedy Attacker].

That way, Sprigatito could enter the Shanghai Pokémon Cup in half a month with a second bond.

As for Grass-type Speedy Attackers, Xia Chi wasn't considering them.

For one thing, there were very few species. The only ones Xia Chi could think of were Treecko, Leafeon, and Shiftry.

Perhaps Sky Forme Shaymin and Virizion also fell into that category, but those two were Legendary Pokémon.

Xia Chi figured that even if he got lucky enough to transmigrate back to the real world, he would still struggle to get lucky enough to encounter and catch them.

Besides, raising another Pokémon of the same type and battle style wouldn't significantly help with building his overall team later.

Perhaps he would consider it much later, once he had caught a full team of six Pokémon, but certainly not now.

Something suddenly occurred to Xia Chi, and he gave a wry smile.

"No, I should first figure out how I'm going to get a second Pokémon."

First, buying one from a Pokémon Day Care or breeding center was out. The reason was simple: Xia Chi really had no money left.

It was true that he was earning a lot from streaming now, but all of that was earmarked for raising Sprigatito and his future Pokémon.

If he had to shell out hundreds of thousands to buy a Pokémon, his only option would be a "Pokémon Loan."

Xia Chi certainly wasn't going to consider that.

And is there any point in buying a Pokémon that costs a few thousand or a few tens of thousands?

I might as well catch a wild Pokémon.

After thinking it all through, Xia Chi decided to try his luck in the wild in a few days.

Shanghai was one of the largest cities in the Donghuang Region. There were virtually none of the vast, uninhabited wilderness areas found in Western Xinjiang, Mobei, or Southern Yunnan.

Although that meant rare Pokémon were hard to find in the surrounding wild areas frequented by humans, it also meant dangerous Pokémon were hard to encounter.

After all, the only Pokémon Xia Chi currently had with him was a weak, adorable Sprigatito with a hearty appetite.

If only I could rent the Pokémon from the game and bring them out here. I'd steamroll the whole damn Mobei wilderness!

As Xia Chi indulged in that fantasy, he suddenly felt a little wistful.

Sure enough, Uncle Long hadn't lied to me.

No matter how strong you are in a game, it's all fake.

After dinner, Xia Chi looked up guides on the Little Blue Book.

There were several famous "starter villages" around Shanghai. With plenty of baby Pokémon that were relatively friendly toward people, they were popular with beginner trainers.

Little Lotus Lake, Mingchong Island, and the Bay.

After some thought, Xia Chi settled on Mingchong Island, which had the largest area and the greatest variety of Pokémon among the options.

Because of its size, Mingchong Island had quite varied terrain.

Wooded hills, wetlands, beaches, plains... These areas were home to large numbers of Pokémon.

Xia Chi even found a post by some dude on the Little Blue Book who had encountered a fairly rare Horsea.

Unfortunately, the guy hadn't managed to catch the Horsea in the end, and the Pokémon had escaped.

By the time he had chosen his destination for the trip in a few days, it was nearly seven.

Xia Chi sighed. Time to clock in.