Chapter 041

Alex was walking towards Professor Oak's office. After he finished distributing the starters, Pokedex, Pokeballs, and answered all kinds of questions, he was left alone in the lobby. Alakazam flashed in front of him and took the remaining Pokemon and Pokeballs away, but not before clicking another 2 cushions at him.

He found himself with nothing to do, so he decided to go see Professor Oak to see if he would tell him what to do next.

He walked to the door of the office and knocked.

"Come in" came a voice. Alex entered to see Professor Oak sitting on his chair and reading a book.

"Professor, I finished distributing the starters. 4 choose Charmander, 3 choose Squirtle, 6 choose Bulbasaur. I also give out the Pokedex to their respective owners and distributed the unregistered Pokeballs, and answered all questions they had. I told them to come to the lobby at 4 for your address" reported Alex.

"Well done. So I assume you have come here asking what to do next? Well, actually we are on a break from most of our important researchers. The Indigo League will begin soon, and as a former Champion I am expected to attend the last few rounds. Since I will have to leave soon anyway, I gave most of my staff a holiday. This is the reason why this large lab seems mostly empty" said Professor Oak.

"But you still have to have something to do" continued Professor Oak. "Do you know how to use a computer and the internet?" he asked.

"I used the computer and the internet in the Hurik Town Pokemon Center several times" replied Alex.

Professor Oak reached into his desk, and handed a red sleek compact device, saying "This is your Pokedex. As you know, it functions like your phone, identification, and a reference for stored data. For the rest of the day, get acquainted with the Pokedex and its features. Also, create a personal email address for yourself. You can use the computers in the lobby for this" said Professor Oak.

Alex nodded, took his Pokedex, and went back to the lobby. He booted the Pokedex and checked it out in the meantime. The Pokedex resembled the smartphone he remembered from his previous life. It had an app called identification, that showed his official Alliance number, trainee id, name, date of birth, place of origin and other such details. There was an app called Alliance Bank Incorporated.

Alliance Bank Incorporated was the only official bank in the Alliance, established by: you guessed it, the Pokemon Alliance. While there were a few private banks here and there, none could compare to the ABI in terms of security or convenience.

The currency of this world was known as Poke. It was never circulated as paper money or coins. Rather, it was a purely digital currency guaranteed by the ABI with rare and precious Pokemon resources. There was no interest for any Poke stored in ABI, but its value was guaranteed. All official entities of the alliance, including Pokemon Center and Pokemarts, only accepted Poke.

All Alliance citizens, upon coming of age, would automatically have a bank account registered in the ABI, with a balance of 0.

If you did not want to use it, you were free to do so. You could register multiple ABI accounts, including anonymous ones.

The ABI headquarters was known as one of the most secure places in the world. It was heavily guarded in all aspects, including from cyber attacks. There were no instances of the ABI servers being compromised or being cheated out of Poke, so Poke is considered a strong currency.

In his bank account registered to the Alliance, he had 50,000 Poke. He remembered that this was the first payment of the adventure sponsorship. The fact that he had this money meant that Professor Oak did not cancel the stipend he would receive if he went on an adventure even though he decided to stay in Pallet Town as a research assistant.

There was also an app that could make and receive calls. He has to register for the service though. He decided to register and call Roger in the evening.

There was an app for sending and receiving emails and one for browsing the internet. There were apps that functioned as an alarm clock, stopwatch, camera, recorder, and all other functions you might expect on a modern smartphone.

Finally, there was the app that defined the Pokedex, known as the Pokemon Scanner. If activated, a part in front of the device would scan any Pokemon within a few meters and display some basic information about them.

It also was a database of Pokemon knowledge. You could also learn about Pokemon, find out the common foods to feed them, areas they dwell etc without needing to scour the internet if you have a Pokedex.

No wonder it was touted as the ultimate learning tool for aspiring adventures!