2 Chapter 2 Situation and the System
[ Pokemon: Squirtle(♂)
Ability: Torrent
Type: Water
Aptitude: Yellow
Strength: Early Junior(Lvl. 13)
Moves: Tail Whip, Tackle, Water-Gun,
Withdraw, Rapid Spin, Bite]
The blue screen next to the Squirtle displayed all the necessary information about the Squirtle. Faust dazedly stared at the screen and suppressed his desire to explore the system. After all, he was still in the middle of the class and the teacher's face looked like he had been force-fed shit.
"Umm, err, actually I have not decided yet and will decide once I get my Pokemon egg. After all, depending on the type of Pokemon that hatches I shall decide my future path," Faust stuttered a bit while answering the teacher's question.
Giving Faust a look that would upset babies into crying and make any sane person steer clear, the teacher grunted and waved for Faust to sit down.
"Despite his lack of competence Mister Williamson's decision is a wise one. Unfortunately for all of you, the Alliance will not be sending appraised eggs for you to choose from. Why? Because all appraised eggs are sent to the First and Second-tier cities where the Alliance believes there are more opportunities for competent trainers to emerge."
The teacher looked around once and saw the questioning looks on the faces of the students. He sighed and continued, "Actually this is not a secret. Egg appraisal is a lucrative business opportunity and there aren't many breeding companies capable of doing it on a large scale. As a result, those who can do it charge exorbitant prices and the Alliance has to pay due to the influence of the families that own these breeding houses. This is why the appraised batches are sent to schools in the capital and more prosperous cities. Simply put: they pay more and hence receive better things. Now an unappraised egg is not entirely a bad thing. You may end up Pokemon of higher aptitudes and species that are stronger than others. At the same time, you may end up with something as useless as a Magikarp or weaker Pokemon like the bug-types. Nonetheless, you should not be discouraged. A founding trainer of the alliance has said there are no useless Pokemon only useless trainers. So you must work hard and not waste your time."
The teacher looked at the faces of the students and as he said the last part his gaze lingered on Faust as if he was specifically talking about him. Faust just smiled awkwardly and lowered his head. Luckily for him, the bell rang out at that moment signaling the end of the school.
Faust wanted to leave quickly and not deal with the cliché situation of meeting the best friend or the greatest enemy of the protagonist.
Did he consider himself a protagonist? Not really but transmigration and getting a cheat ability were indicators of being a protagonist.
Unfortunately, before he could even begin gathering up his things he heard a sweet voice call his name.
"Faust!"
'Fuck my life.'
Cursing in his heart he turned to the person with a smile. He quickly searched the memories for information about this person.
Marcie Hawkins, brown-eyed and brown-haired with a kind smile. She was a childhood friend of Faust and quite naturally the object of his affection. Too bad she did not think of Faust in the same way and the former Faust could not understand that he had been friend-zoned a long time ago.
Faust couldn't blame the former occupant of his body. After all, he had grown up alone with any parents and the only place he could find love was the Hawkins house.
The Williamsons and Hawkins had been close. Faust's parents were Alliance affiliated explorers whose job was to explore rifts. Rift exploration was a job with a very high fatality rate but at the same time, it was quite lucrative. People did die but some survived to live long enough to accumulate enough wealth to live lavishly for the rest of their lives.
Unfortunately, the Williamsons had been the former. They had passed away when Faust was 7 and Marcie's father had taken up the guardianship handling all the affairs of Faust. Of course, Faust was not left penniless because the Alliance paid out compensation for the family of the deceased. If the deceased had any underage children they would receive a monthly pension until they became adults.
Faust lived with the Hawkins for a short time and developed quite a bond with Marcie. When they entered middle school Faust moved into his parent's house.
Seeing Marcie now did not elicit any intense feelings but Faust had to admit she was one of the most beautiful girls he had seen in his life.
"Hey, Faust didn't you get enough sleep last night? You do realize that you were sleeping the entire day even before Mr. Flint finally called you out?", Marcie asked leaning against the desk in front of Faust.
"Yeah, I wasn't feeling well since waking up this morning.", Faust replied not putting much thought into the matter.
"Oh, are you better now? Maybe I could accompany you to the infirmary?", Marcie said with a concerned look on her face.
Faust was about to reply when a voice suddenly interrupted the conversation.
"Marcie, he looks just fine why are you being such a busybody? Besides don't we need to go see the new egg that your father got for you."
Faust saw a tall and bulky teenager walk up to them. According to Faust's memory, this was Joel Hanson. Not only was he a looker but he also was the former Faust's rival in love.
Perhaps calling him a rival would be kind. He was way ahead of Faust in this relationship and while the former Faust didn't realize it, Marcie and Joel were more than just friends. Faust did not want to get involved in a love triangle here. After all, Marcie was good looking but to him, that was all she was. Luckily the crossing didn't leave him with any emotional burdens and he didn't feel anything for Marcie. To the 'new' him she was little more than a stranger.
"Hey Marcie thanks for the concern but I am much better now. Joel is right you should go ahead if you already have plans. I also need to organize my place to make room for my future partner and buy some stuff for it. Well, then I'll see you guys tomorrow."
Faust waved at them and walked out of the classroom. Back in the classroom, Marcie turned to Joel angrily.
"There was no need to do that!"
Joel looked at Marcie innocently and asked, "Do what?"
"Joel you didn't need to tell him to fuck off! He is a friend of the family and a decent one at that!"
"Marcie we both know he's got the hots for you and delaying the inevitable will not make the confrontation any easier."
"I know and I will tell him but that doesn't mean you have to be so hostile to him every time you see him talking to me."
Joel smirked and suddenly pulled Marcie into his arms.
"Is that right? But I need him to know that you are mine and he shouldn't be looking at you with such longing."
Marcie blushed and softly hammered Joel's chest muttering, "Who belongs to you..."
As the two were flirting Faust had already reached home. Pulling out the keys he opened the door and locked it behind him. He couldn't control his excitement and called out to the system in his head.
A tri-partitioned interface appeared in front of him.
[Pokemon Master System
Daily Item
Storage
Identification
]
Faust excitedly tapped the [Daily Item] option and the screen changed into a list of items.
[Daily Item- Allows the user to choose one item from the list. The list is random and contains all items that have appeared in the Pokemon Video Games and the Pokemon Animation.
Today's List:
1) Pokeballs x10
2) Oran Berry x50
3) King's Rock
4) TM47 Steel Wing
5) Potion x10
6) Calcium Tablets x25
7) Water Stone(mid-grade)
8) Black Belt
9) Moomoo Milk x20
10) Pokemon XY Series Ash Outfit x1
The items are refreshed every day at 00:00 am.]
Faust decisively redeemed the XY series outfit and the items screen disappeared returning to the original tri partitioned screen. With a short message at the bottom that read.
[The item has been deposited in the system storage. To use please access the storage option and tap on the item icon]
Faust tapped on the storage option and the screen changed again.
[System Storage
Consumables
Pokeballs
TMs/HMs
Miscellaneous Items
Outfits]
Tapping on the outfit option it expanded and there was a single outfit set. Choosing it the entire screen disappeared and a set of clothes appeared in his hands.
'Damn that's convenient and cool. Though I can't be using it outside otherwise I'll end up in a lab to be dissected.'
Faust kept the outfit on the bed and finally accessed the last option.
[Identifier
Please look at the item, egg or Pokemon to be identified]
Faust knew this option since it had automatically activated when he had seen Mr. Flint's Squirtle. Nevertheless in order to test it, he looked at the outfit he had just redeemed.
[Item: XY Character Series Ash Outfit
The outfit worn by Ash Ketchum in the XY series of the Pokemon Animation. Consists of a collared shirt, black undershirt, dark blue jeans and red high-top sneakers. The iconic cap with a white, semi-circular Poke Ball design in the front. The outfit has been customized to self-repair and self-clean.]
'So that's how it works on items. Well this system sure is helpful especially with the bottleneck levels of Pokemon, if I get a rare candy I could use it to help break my Pokemon through the bottlenecks.'
The Pokemon in the real world could not continuously level up and break past levels with constant fighting. Not all Pokemon could reach level 100 either, the maximum level depended upon the aptitude of the Pokemon and also its nourishment and training.
Pokemon were divided into nine stages according to their levels and strengths. A newly hatched Pokemon was said to be in the Infant Stage. This stage lasted till the Pokemon grew past level 5 and then entered the Novice Stage. When it broke past level 10 it entered the Junior Stage. From here began the trouble. Many trainers could not level past the Junior level Bottleneck which came at level 20. If a Pokemon managed to get past the first bottleneck it entered the Intermediate Stage which lasted from level 21 to level 35. By this time most known Pokemon having evolved reached the end of their potential. Therefore the number of Pokemon in the Senior Stage beyond level 35 was drastically lower than the stages before it.
If a person somehow managed to get their Pokemon beyond the level 35 bottleneck they would become Senior Trainers. The Senior Stage stretched from level 36 to level 50.
Senior Trainers were those who had at least one Senior Stage Pokemon in their party. Beyond the level 50 bottleneck lay the Elite Stage. This was a very difficult stage to reach and the Elite Stage was the limit of most trainers registered with the Alliance.
The Elite Stage was from level 51 to level 70. Beyond the Elite stage was the Pseudo-King Stage which included Pokemon from level 71 to level 90. The trainers who had such Pokemon could be counted on the fingers.
Then came the King Stage from level 91 to level 99. The regional representatives from the Capitals all had at least one King Stage Pokemon in their party and the top brass of the Alliance probably had a decent number of trainers with as well. This stage lasted up to level 99.
Finally came the bottleneck that had only a few instances of being broken in the past, the level 99 bottleneck. Once a Pokemon broke to level 100 it would be considered a Champion of its species. Hence this stage was called the Champion stage. As far as people knew there were currently no known Champion Stage Pokemon trainers.
As Faust thought about the biggest advantages he had in the form of his knowledge about Pokemon and the system, he realized that he was already ahead of most trainers in this world. All he needed was time, given enough time he would surpass them all.
The people in this world were just beginning to understand Pokemon. There were countless misconceptions and confusions. People often confused Ground-types and Rock-types for each other, classifying them both together under a misconceived Earth-type. Magikarp was considered a useless Pokemon and no one had ever had the idea that it evolved into a Gyarados. The Eeveelutions were not known and neither were Fairy types. Breeders and Pokemon Nutritionists did not know about Pokeblocs. People had no idea about special evolutions using trades or special items such as King's Rocks, Electririzer, Metal Coat, Dragon Scale and so on.
Z-moves and Mega Evolutions.
Faust could be to this world what Newton, Einstein, James Watson and Bob Kahn were to his.
Clenching his fists he swore in his heart that in this life, he would strive to be the best.
