I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse, but when you see the summary of your Pokémon, you are granted the IV (Individual Values) by pressing A on the Skills Page, where you can see the Pokémon's stats like HP, ATTACK, DEFENSE, etc.
To those who don't understand what the values are, basically IVs are the values that a Pokémon can genetically have an advantage in, with the range being from 1 to 31. A Pokémon with an IV of 31 in a specific stat is always going to be superior to a Pokémon with a lower IV stat.
IVs are fixed, though, so not only am I soft-resetting for a good nature on my future Charizard, but I'm also soft-resetting for perfect IVs of 31.
Sigh... This quality of life change hurts really bad in the early game. If this feature weren't in the game, I'd be only soft-resetting for either a good nature or a shiny Charmander, but now I'm resetting for a good nature, perfect IVs, and a shiny.
Anyways, I think I spent over an hour soft-resetting the game before I went back home; my food and beverage long been finished prior.
I thought of going back to the library, but I'm done with all the research for today. I needed a break before planning my steps to become a PokémonTrainer.
The only people at home were my mother, who was busy taking care of Isaiah, a cute baby that our neighbors next door left for babysitting before heading out to work, so I didn't need to explain the problems that I had as I instantly went to my room.
Usually I'd be doing my studies early before relaxing, but I decided to just skip it for the day and play Fire Red. After taking a quick shower and changing into fresh, new clothes, I flopped onto my bed with the Arc—yes, I'm calling the device the Arc since it has the graphic of Arceus on the back—and resumed playing the game.
It took 2 hours of soft resetting, and thank goodness YouTube was still a thing here, before I finally got something to work with.
---------------- Pokémon Summary ----------------
[Nickname: Zardon]
[Species: Charmander (M)]
[Typing: Fire]
[Level: 5]
[Nature: Lonely]
[Ability: Blaze (Boosts the power of Fire-Type moves when HP is below 1/3rds)]
[HP: 20 IV]
[Attack (UP): 31 IV]
[Defense (DOWN): 18 IV]
[Sp Attack: 31 IV]
[Sp Defense: 25 IV]
[Speed: 31 IV]
[Moves: Scratch, Growl]
[Held Item: None]
---------------- Pokémon Summary ----------------
The nature is meh; I wanted to get at least a Timid or Modest nature for a Special Attacker Charizard, but those IVs are amazing on all of Charizard's main stats, so I guess I'm running Physical Attack Charizard.
I made sure to save the game once I nicknamed the Charmander Zardon, since the Japanese name of its final evolution was called Lizardon, and its name stuck to me since it was pretty cool.
I paused when a prompt appeared when I was saving the game after the prompt to save the game passed.
[Would you like to retrieve your Pokémon?]
[Yes / No]
"Retrieve?"
Confused, I decided to test it out by pressing on the YES option. The familiar words of [Saving... Don't turn off the power.] prompted as the game saved before the words, [JOSEPH saved the game.] confirmed that the game is saved.
(THUD)
Out of nowhere, the sound of something metallic hitting a surface sounded next to my body. Startled, I sat upright in my bed to investigate the sudden sound only to stare at the iconic red and white ball lying down on the ground next to my bed.
...
"No way, right?"
I swallowed as I started chuckling nervously.
"I mean, I think I read this kind of scenario before on a fanfiction website before, but this is real life. No way this is happening."
Soul transmigration, real-life Pokémon in the world, and now a random Pokéball appearing once I saved a Pokémon game that doesn't exist?
Grabbing the Pokéball from the ground, I inspected it. It had a metallic feel to it, the sort of metal that you'd see on a high-quality cosplay Pokéball that one could buy online.
It is light, though, impossibly light. Even though the makeup of the Pokéball was made of metal, the Pokéball in my hand was as light as a tennis ball. Licking my dry lips, I took a breath and prayed to Arceus that this was what I thought it was before pressing on the Pokéball's button and tossing it into the air.
The ball rotates midair once... And a white light shined luminously, the brightness causing me to close my eyes due to how bright it was. White coated my whole room for a second before it dimmed down as I uncovered my eyes.
On my bed was a small, lizard-like creature with bright orange skin and a flame burning at the tip of its tail. Its large eyes looked up at me curiously, and its mouth curled into a smile as its tail started wagging as the Pokémon shyly greeted me.
"Charmander! [(〃＾▽＾〃)]"
My hand trembled slightly as I whispered to myself in shock, reaching out to pet the Pokémon. Charmander understood what I wanted to do as it smiled, pushing its head close to my palm as I made contact.
"A real Charmander..."
Its skin was warm to the touch, almost like a heat lamp, radiating a gentle warmth that was comforting rather than the scorching that I thought was going to happen since it was a Fire-Type.
It cooed as the Charmander got closer, nuzzling itself onto my palm as I continued petting it, my eyes moving to the Arc, the graphic of Arceus seemingly staring back at me.
I had to do more testing.
"Char?"
It tilted its head confusingly, which looked so cute at my hardened expression.
"No, nothing... Zardon?"
I tested if this Charmander was actually the Charmander that Professor Oak gave in Fire Red, and to my joy, it responded to the nickname by giving me a large toothy smile.
This... This changes everything. With the ability to be able to bring Pokémon from the games into the real world, the problem of not having enough resources will be a thing of the past!
I could get pseudo-legendaries, perfectly bred Pokémon, shiny Pokémon, even gods of nature. Presumably, I could change the versions of Pokémon games since the main game on the Arc was called Pokémon Generations, meaning I could get even Arceus himself into my team.
"Hahahaha!"
I stood up as I grabbed Zardon by the side and started to spin around in my room. Especially with this little thing's god-like status of perfect IVs and decent nature, I could breeze through anything that comes my way both in the real world and in the games!
"Char! Charmander! [＼(＾▽＾)／]"
Zardon didn't understand why I was so happy, but settled with happy cries once it saw me looking so joyful, its cuteness something that I grinned heartfully at. God, this thing was just so cute.
And this Pokémon is mine. My own Pokémon. I think I would be sobbing with tears of joy if it weren't for the fact that the house was not empty.
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I didn't do anything else in Fire Red, opting to spend my time with Zardon for the whole day until members of my family started coming back home, to which I reluctantly sent Zardon back to the game using an option called RETURN in the Pokémon Page of the main menu.
From what I've already experimented with, food was something that Zardon didn't require when inside the game, as it automatically replenishes his nutrients somehow, something that I'm going to abuse temporarily until I get my Pokémon License.
Turns out, you can't even get Pokéblocks, which are blocks of dried and crushed berries, unless you are a licensed user, something that is really stupid, but I didn't make the rules. And even when I get the license, each Pokéblock averages around 8 to 10 Pokédollars a block, with the more luxurious types of berries costing up to 50 Pokédollars.
Seriously, being a Pokémon Trainer really is expensive in terms of cost. And lucrative from how easily top-level Trainers would spend alone on just food for their Pokémon.
Dinner was a quick affair as I quickly ate my meal consisting of the norm: rice, vegetables, meat, and a bowl of soup, a very simple Chinese dinner that's both cheap and filling.
The conversation at the dinner table ended early too, as my father had to send my sister back to her college by nightfall. Since it was Friday, usually the entire family goes along to drop her off, but I told them that I was quite busy with my studies as an excuse, so it would only be me left in the house.
Waving goodbye to my family, I watched the family car start its journey to college and back home. The moment the family car disappeared from my vision, I light-jogged to the fridge and grabbed a few bottles of energy drinks that I had stocked up earlier and sat on my desk in my room.
Today, I have about... 3 hours at the minimum to grind my ass off without any interruptions. Sadly, I'm not going to hop on League with the boys; I just got a message to come online, but it is a necessary sacrifice to become a Pokémon Trainer, so I declined the invitation.
Grabbing my pillow for maximum comfort, I cracked a can of 100-Plus open and took a sip before booting up the Arc. Resuming the game where I left it, I navigated my avatar down Professor Oak's lab to exit it only to be stopped by Blue, who challenged me to a Pokémon Battle.
... Huh, surprisingly you can deny a Trainer Battle! That's really useful when my team is in a pinch! I pressed accept, though, since I needed the level-up experience points for Zardon.
The battle was quick; I just kept using Scratch on the Squirtle, who spammed Tail Whip to lower my Defense until it fainted.
The reward for winning the fight was experience points to just barely not hit the level-up requirement and 80 Pokédollars. I frowned slightly at the experience gauge of Zardon.
Usually, you will get a level and some extra experience points by defeating your rival at the start of the game, but for some reason it didn't even give enough for a level up!
Watching Blue walk away to start his own journey, I controlled my own avatar to do the same, walking out of Pallet Town to begin the journey of becoming the Pokémon Champion.
And it starts by heading to Viridian City, where I had to grab Professor Oak's package from the Pokémart.
Passing through the tall grasses of Route 1, eventually I was halted from my progress as a Pokémon encounter occurred. The jingle of a Pokémon Battle against a Wild Pokémon played as a Pidgey stood at the other side of the screen.
Less than a dozen Scratches later, the Pidgey fell as Zardon finally leveled up with the experience points from the Pidgey.
This happened a few more times when walking through the tall grass to progress, with multiple Pidgeys and Rattatas fainting from Zardon's claws, and at last, I reached Viridian Town with a level 7 Charmander.
This experience (EXP) deficit is quite substantial, I noted as I walked to the Pokécenter to heal Zardon and to restore his PowerPoints (PP) of his Scratch move.
At this point, with how many encounters that I've met, my starter would have at least been level 8 or higher, but Zardon's still only halfway to level 8. Strange, but it's a challenge that I took in stride, as once Zardon was done healing, my avatar walked to the Pokémart for Professor Oak's package.
Grabbing the package from the Pokémart attendant, I blitz through Route 1 to continue the main story, arriving at Professor Oak's lab in less than a minute with how powerful Zardon was against level 2 to 5 fodder.
Delivering the package to the professor, Blue waltzed into the lab since Professor Oak called him too to give each of us the Pokédex and 5Pokéballs before ushering us to resume our journey.
Now with the ability to catch Pokémon, I started to wonder about my future team. Since I could pull the team here into reality, I could technically perfect my team in the game before pulling them into the real world when I need to use them.
Pidgey was not useful since I'd get a Charizard, which was a Flying-Type too soon; Rattata is just, no, even if early-game Raticate is decent. Besides, both of them would not be useful when going up against the first gym leader, Brock.
I am, however, going to be catching an early game Pokémon and placing it onto the team temporarily, since Zardon could not solo Brock's Onix with Metal Claw that's learnt at level 12 unless he's more than 5 levels up to overpower that tanky Onix with higher stats, meaning he'd need to evolve into a Charmeleon at level 16 to tank that Onix's Rock Tomb.
So, a temporary party member would be needed to sweep Brock; first, I'll have to get to Viridian City.
Passing through Route 1 and leveling Zardon to level 9 with the massacre of entire families of Pidgeys and Rattatas, I made it back to Viridian City. My destination for the party member is due west of the city at the earliest patch of tall grass, but first I had to restore Zardon back to full health with the help of the Pokécenter and to stock up on some more Pokéballs and Potions for emergencies at the Pokémart.
Navigating inside the Pokémart, I talked to the cashier that manned the store and opened up the Pokémart Menu. Selecting the BUY option, I looked through the items that they sold only to stop as my eyes drifted to the amount of money JOSEPH had on him.
[210P]
210 Pokédollars. That was... a little less than usual. And familiar too. Wait, so if Blue gave me 80 Pokédollars earlier when I defeated him in a Pokémon Battle, that meant that initially JOSEPH had... 130 Pokédollars prior to this.
130 Pokédollars... Wait a second. Realizing that something was amiss, I quickly grabbed my phone from the table and unlocked it, my thumb darting to the bank app on the phone as I logged in with facial recognition.
Oh shit. Exactly 210 Pokédollars with a recent transaction of 80 Pokédollars by an anonymous person. That means...
Testing my hypothesis out, I bought the pricy 200P worth Pokéball, dropping JOSEPH's balance down to 10P as I refreshed the bank app to check my latest balance.
I had 10 Pokédollars left in my account! It's linked to my bank account!
I couldn't help but start to cackle uncontrollably. This was it, the chance that I had to get as much money as I needed for both tuition and life! In Fire Red, there are many ways to farm money, meaning I had infinite money both in-game and in real life!
With this new discovery, my excitement surges as I quickly continued on my journey. To get started with money farming, I had to clear Misty for the earliest chance to start grinding for money, and I had all night to push through the early game.
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Come support me on my Pa tre on where I post early chapters (sometimes) and new story ideas not on any websites yet.
There's currently extra chapters that I haven't posted, want to stockpile them beforehand, so if you want to read early come join!
pa tre on .cōm / damaine_n
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