C7

Isaac and Hana followed Kirlia to a nearby river.

Scattered footprints of various sizes and snake-like Pokémon drag marks dotted the riverbank.

Isaac bent down and took a quick look but did not find any footprints of Eevee, the small, four-legged land Pokémon. He was about to follow the riverbank to continue searching when he noticed Hana bouncing away.

Shaking his head to himself, he realized it wouldn't be so easy to find traces of Eevee.

He quickly walked over to Hana, who was kneeling on a small stone slab by the riverbank, leaning on her hands, and watching the Goldeen swimming around with great interest.

The Goldeen played happily with the little girl, who stirred the water with her small hands, while the Goldeen swam around her hand. Suddenly, seeing Isaac's big face, the Goldeen was startled and sprayed a stream of water at him before diving into the water in a hurry.

"What are you doing, Isaac-nii! You scared it away!" Hana scolded.

Isaac shook the water off his hair and stared resentfully at the spot where the Goldeen had been, muttering under his breath:

"If Goldeen's meat wasn't so bad, I'd have braised it right here."

"Oh no, Isaac-nii, you mustn't say that!"

"I mean it, but after catching a Pokémon, don't let your mother roast it."

"How could I?! You're just making things up!" Hana said, exasperated.

In the Pokémon world, most meat is made from soy-derived artificial meat, which is nutritious but not very tasty. There is also meat cultivated from Pokémon cells, but it's more expensive and naturally tastes better.

The meat in Bell's BBQ shop mainly consists of these two types. Except in less civilized areas, people generally don't choose to kill for meat.

While Pokémon predating each other is common in this world, humans stopped killing for food after technological advancements. The most famous Pokémon with its own seasoning, Farfetch'd, was nearly driven to extinction by humans eating it.

There's nothing to be done about it; their meat is delicious, and they come with their own leek—everything needed for a perfect dish...

Thinking darkly, Isaac reminisced about the taste of the first Farfetch'd BBQ he had, then stood up to continue searching for Eevee.

Since Goldeen had been scared away, the little girl needed a new place to play.

Just as Hana stood up, Isaac accidentally spotted a series of small footprints in the dirt beside the stone slab!

Bending down, Isaac compared these footprints to the Eevee's footprints in his mind and found them quite similar!

Moreover, there were footprints of different sizes in this series, making Isaac even more excited, as it indicated the possible presence of a whole group of Eevees!

Following the intermittent footprints, Isaac discovered that one of them was missing, while the other footprints were noticeably deeper.

"What's going on here?" Isaac was puzzled. Although he had a lot of knowledge about Eevee, this situation was a bit confusing for someone without practical experience.

As he followed the footprints closer to the forest's edge, they disappeared into a grassy area.

"Isaac-nii, have some fruit!"

The little girl had found some high-quality Oran Berries from somewhere and handed them to Isaac, who was still pondering the missing footprints.

Isaac took the Oran Berry and took a bite. Hmm, it tasted pretty good—sweet and refreshing, filling him with energy.

But now wasn't the time for energy; he had finally found traces of Eevee, only to lose the trail, which was frustrating.

"Is it good, Isaac-nii?" Hana asked with a smile.

"Yeah... it's good..." Isaac replied, his mouth full of the remaining fruit.

Hearing Isaac's answer, the little girl was delighted. "Let's go pick some more! There are plenty over there!"

Looking at the sky, Isaac guessed it was almost evening. Thinking it over, he decided not to worry about Eevee for now. He'd spend the rest of the day playing with the little girl and search for Eevee's trail again tomorrow.

Following Hana to a small depression where Oran Berry trees grew, Isaac saw the berries were growing well without any tall trees to block the sunlight. The berries were vibrant and of excellent quality.

With an old man's mentality, Isaac decided to call it a day and not tire himself out. He casually picked a dozen Oran Berries, washed them in the river, and sat on the grass, eating them while watching the little girl and Kirlia enthusiastically picking berries.

Bored, Isaac called out to the system in his mind. He hadn't really explored the system's capabilities in the past few days.

"Hey, system, are you there?"

[Ding!]

[What can I do for you, host?]

"Other people's systems in novels give out amazing items and skills right away. Why are you so lame?"

[...]

[Please distinguish the system prefix, host. The systems you described are for show-offs.]

[And let me remind you, host, you've had a newbie gift pack in your inventory for days without opening it. Don't blame the system!]

The system's intelligence was adequate; it directly called Isaac a dumb host. But it seemed a bit true. The newbie gift pack had been in the system's warehouse for days, and Isaac had forgotten about it.

"Huh? Ah, this... haha... haha..." Isaac laughed awkwardly. "My bad, my bad..."

He mentally opened the system warehouse and found a red gift box lying quietly on the ground.

"My empire still has such divine items; it was my oversight..." Isaac went into a chunibyo mode to cover up his forgetfulness.

"How do I open this? Just think about it?"

The system didn't respond.

Feeling guilty, Isaac didn't say much. He mentally said "open" to the newbie gift pack. The gift pack disappeared, replaced by a few items on the ground.

The first item was a small bag. Opening the bag, Isaac found ten inactive standard Poké Balls inside.

He remembered that the probing ability worked on Pokémon items too. The newbie gift pack couldn't just be ten regular Poké Balls, right?

Isaac mentally said "probe."

[Item Information]

Name: Poké Ball

Quality: Yellow

Purpose: Capturing Pokémon

Description: A low-level Poké Ball produced by the system. It has an 80% chance of capturing wild Pokémon of white quality and below the user's main battle Pokémon level, and a 50% chance of capturing green-quality Pokémon. The captured Pokémon's friendliness automatically increases by 50.

...

[Ding!]

[Friendliness function activated. Minimum value is -45, maximum value is 255.]

[Below 0 is hatred, -45 is mortal enemy, 0-75 is indifferent, 75-150 is friendly, 150-225 is warm, 225-254 is loyal, 255 is undying loyalty.]

[Friendliness probe is only applicable to the host. Human friendliness can be probed.]

...

Isaac raised an eyebrow. This wasn't bad. The system-produced Poké Balls were indeed better than regular ones.

Most wild Pokémon's quality was primarily white, with yellow being exceptional individuals.

The mainstream Pokémon on the market were mostly yellow. Some outstanding breeders could produce green-quality Pokémon, which could fetch a high price.

This friendliness function would also make Isaac's future career as a breeder easier. Many Pokémon evolutions required high friendliness.

In human society, friendliness represented the bond between Pokémon and their trainers or breeders, while in the wild, it represented the bond between Pokémon and their parents or mates.

Curious, Isaac used the probe skill on Kirlia and was shocked.

...

Kirlia

Lv: 23

Friendliness: 228 (loyal)

Type: Psychic/Fairy

Quality: Blue

Nature: Gentle

Gender: Female

Ability: Synchronize

Inherited Moves: Destiny Bond, Heal Pulse

Taught Moves: Hypnosis, Confusion, Psybeam, Teleport

TM Moves: None

Held Item: None

...

For a Pokémon that had only been with him for a few days, and a Psychic-type Pokémon at that, Kirlia's friendliness towards him was already at the loyal level!

Although this was largely due to Celebi, it was possible that she had genuinely been moved by his upright character over the past few days.