I finished placing the Potion on the shelf and turned to shout at Marty.

“Hey Marty! I’m done restocking the Potions. I’ll be in the back if you need me.”

“Yes, yes,” He shouted back, “Go enjoy my laptop. Mew knows you’ve made use of it.”

Marty waved me off and I walked past the front counter to enter the back room. I sat in my usual position on the couch and opened up his laptop. Honestly, after agreeing to Marty’s job proposal I didn’t expect to be able to use his laptop so often.

Working at the Pokémart had been extremely lax for a job. The store itself looked and acted like a mix of a 711 and a Walmart. It was located right on the edge of a residential section of Olivine so most of the products were marketed towards home life rather than trainers. We didn’t get many customers, since the majority of trainers shopped at Pokémarts closer to Pokémon Centers in the center of the city. Most of our customers were locals, but every so often we would get a trainer or two still taking on the Gym Challenge in Johto.

Marty’s laptop finished booting up and I launched the internet browsing app dubbed the “Pokénet.” Despite its horribly clichéd name, it functioned similarly to the internet of my old world. There weren’t any primary sites like social media for people to congregate on, nor did it have a Wikipedia or YouTube equivalent. However, it did have forums dedicated to Pokémon Types as well as an official Pokémon League website that hosted recordings of battles from previous Conferences.

I typed in the address of a forum dedicated to generalist trainers in the Johto region. I browsed the inane recent threads with subjects like “MY FURRET WON’T EVOLVE INTO SENTRET'' or “ZUBAT SHOULD BE SOUND TYPE.” Most of these threads were just mindless nonsense or complete conspiracy theories, but that was frequently the case for threads on the generalist forums. If I had wanted useful advice, I would have visited a more actively moderated forum like the forums dedicated to specific Pokémon Types. At the moment I just wanted entertainment, my job was informative enough.

My job at the Pokémart had seriously helped me acclimate to the Pokémon world. Working with Pokémon trainers and owners, as well as the numerous brands and products targeting Pokémon, allowed me to gain insight on how the world worked and get a grasp on its culture. Everyone here was far kinder and more helpful than in my old world, and everything revolved around Pokémon. The vast majority of customers worked at businesses that in one way or another, worked for or with Pokémon.

Remembering a conversation I had earlier in the day, I went to use the search function of the generalist forum. I typed in the relevant keywords and hit enter and the site slowly combed through its archives to find the threads I wanted. It wasn’t often I needed to specifically search something up, but the gap in my knowledge from earlier was too big to simply ask.

Marty was kind enough to give me a low-down of how things worked around here. I blamed cultural ignorance for any of my misunderstandings and he was more than happy enough to answer questions I had. I restricted my questions to the topics I dubbed “nonessential” and solely corrected any large gaps in my knowledge through the computer. Marty answered any question I asked and even gave me advice like which products in the Mart were essentially scams and which Pokémon food brands were worth buying. When he didn’t have the answers I sought, he introduced me to some of our customers who had lived as advanced Pokémon Trainers.

The conversation that revealed a large gap in my knowledge was with one such advanced Trainer. Old Man Harvey was an experienced trainer that retired to Olivine to be able to enjoy the sea breeze. I called him “Old Man Harvey” intentionally, since that was what he essentially demanded to be called. His grandson started to call him that when his grandson became a teenager, and now he refused to respond to anyone that didn’t grant him the title of “Old Man.”

Old Man Harvey told me a story from back when he was a trainer, much in the same way an old man wistfully told stories of how much harder the old days were. He spoke about how he had to earn every Gym Badge in the region through Gym Leader battles, and didn’t have the option to go through any “easy-peasy” Gym Trials. I nodded along with that point, pretending that I understood exactly what a “Gym Trial” was and wasn’t just going to look it up later.

The search finished and the site gave me a list of threads that discussed Gym Trials. I selected the one that seemed most relevant and scrolled through it, skimming the replies. A series of comments discussing the number of badges earned caught my eye.

The users, choosing to post under anonymous pseudonyms, had argued with one another about what was most impressive. A small section of their page long argument revealed what I wanted to know.

FreeTheParas:

I’m not saying it isn’t impressive you earned 5 badges, but basically everyone earns that many. Gyms don’t start requiring you to beat the Gym Leaders until you reach the sixth Gym. Almost anyone can get 5 badges with enough spare cash to travel to all the different cities.

GoldenHugeRod:

You aren’t a real trainer unless you fight the Gym Leaders all the way. xx_DarkLord:

I DID EARN ALL MY BADGES! GYM TRIALS GRANT BADGES! MY MURKROW IS STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAT ANY GYM FreeTheParas:

Calm down, I just said it isn’t not impressive you have five gym badges. GoldenHugeRod:

lol My mom earned five gym badges, you havent done anything worth bragging about FreeTheParas:

Can you stop being such an obvious Magikarp poster? xx_DarkLord:

FIVE BADGES IS FAR MORE THAN HALF, YOU PROBABLY HAVENT EVEN EARNED YOURE FIRST!!!!

The argument derailed from there, turning into insults slung between the posters and the occasional random person before the thread was locked. Despite the fact that it was what I would have expected from the internet back home, it still gave me useful information.

First, I learned that for the first five gyms a trainer attempted, there was an option to earn a Gym Badge through a Gym Trial rather than a battle. While it was easier to earn a badge through a trial over a battle, it was also looked down on. I hoped it was possible to try both the Gym Trial and Gym Battle so I could learn what the average trainer went through.

Also, it seemed that not everyone earned the full eight badges. Money and travel looked to be the limiting factor for how many badges people earned.

Most of our customers had earned 3 or 4 badges, which fell in line with the information provided in the thread. Earning 5 badges would definitely be impressive to a normal person, but probably not to Pokémon Trainers. While people were technically considered “Pokémon Trainers” when they were out on their journey, it was only the people who earned all eight badges who were considered true “Pokémon Trainers.”

A big reason for that distinction is that a trainer who earned all eight gym badges had the right to compete in their region’s Conference at the end of the season.

I closed the browser window I had opened for the Johto generalist forums and went to the forums dedicated to training Pokémon in Galar.

I had entered this world towards the end of August, which let me catch the end of the Manalo Conference, Alola’s Regional Conference that took place that month. The generalist forums for each region pinned a thread to the top of the forums for discussion of trainers and battles within the Conference for the duration of their region’s Conference. Right now it was December, which meant that the end of Galar’s year-long League season was taking place.

Galar’s season was slightly different to other regions' League seasons. Other regions followed a nine-month-on, three-month-off cycle, but Galar’s season was active year round. Where most other regions took a break for three months to prepare for the next season, Galar’s Gyms were only active for three months of the year and cycled their breaks to funnel Trainer towards the Conference location in Wyndon. The dedicated thread contained a massive bold announcement stating that the semifinals were streaming on the League’s website. I clicked on the link to watch.

The semifinals’ fight was between a young Fighting specialist and an even younger Ghost specialist. Specializing in Ghost Type Pokémon was especially impressive since Ghost Type Pokémon tended to be dangerous if trained improperly. Watching the trainer’s Gengar practically coat its opponents Machamp in Shadow Balls reminded me of a thread I found in the Ghost Type forums - a complex topic that never reached a conclusion. A woman’s Gengar stole her child. Yes, her Gengar grabbed her child and they both disappeared. Most comments offered their condolences and the mother refused to accept the situation. She made a comment about going to get her child back, but never posted a conclusion to what happened.

It was a chilling story that was all too common when it came to improperly prepared Ghost Type trainers.

Shaking my head to stop myself from getting lost in my thoughts, I continued to watch the battle. The battle had an unusual conclusion in that the Fighting Type trainer ended up winning. Despite Ghost Type Pokémon’s almost complete immune to physical moves, somehow the Fighting Type Pokémon were able to deal enough damage to the Ghosts’ relatively fragile forms and knock them out. It was another reminder that this world was not like the games: Type matchups were not crucial for victory.

After the battle, many posters were demanding that the Fighting Type specialist, Bea, get added to their forum’s “Hall of Fame” thread. The “Hall of Fame” thread, named after the building located within each region’s Conference site, is where forum users recorded powerful trainers and links to battles within the League website’s archives. I recalled two specific names on the Kanto forum’s Hall of Fame that had caught me off guard when I saw them.

First off, Ash Ketchum existed. After I looked through the forums in a frenzy after seeing his name, I found several old threads dedicated to his victories in Kanto and Johto. There was a bit of a stir on the forums when they discovered he was both sponsored by Professor Oak and was traveling with two different Gym Leaders, which, when combined with his showing in the Indigo League Conference, generated a small but dedicated fanbase. As far as I could tell, Ash was last reported to be traveling through Hoenn to take part in the upcoming Ever Grande Conference.

Second off, Red existed. As in Red, the protagonist of the original Pokémon games, Red.

Roughly a decade ago, Red and his Pikachu took Kanto by storm, crushing several Team Rocket operations in the region and flawlessly sweeping the Indigo League Conference. He went on to use his right as Indigo champion to challenge the Elite Four before completely disappearing off the map. He was the reason why Kanto and Johto adopted the same Elite Four structure as the other regions. Originally they wanted to claim that “our Elite Four are all as strong as a Champion so we don’t need a Champion” but Red took the throne as regional Champion and threw everything out of balance.

The generalist forums alleged that Lorelei lost so hard she retired, but the official League statement was that she retired to take care of her home on the Sevii Islands. I chose to believe the League’s statement.

After Red’s complete domination over the region, he disappeared and Lance took over as interim Champion. Red hadn’t reappeared since then, and some theorize that he died. If the games had any truth in them, he’s probably up training on Mount Silver with his monstrous level 80 Pikachu.

I sighed and closed the laptop. I caught an interesting battle and found the information on Gym Trials I was looking for. As relaxed as a job working in the Pokémart was, I needed to take inventory before the day was over. I walked to the numerous shelves that filled the backroom and picked up a clipboard. I had a lot of items to count.

Occupied by a tedious job, I found my thoughts wandering to what I wanted to do next. It was currently early December, which meant I had been in this world for just over four months, and I was getting a bit stir crazy. I had entered the world of Pokémon and spent months working a minimum wage job, but I didn’t have a choice.

I wanted to become a trainer, but I needed money. I had a decent amount saved so far, and could afford to go on a journey as a Pokémon Trainer soon. Once I was a trainer, more avenues of earning money would open up and hopefully fund my entire time as a Pokémon Trainer. Unfortunately I couldn’t bypass the initial funding to start my journey in the first place.

Stop getting yourself worked up over the money Alex, think about something more practical.

I decided the best use of my time was to decide what region to go to. I had done my research and knew my opinions, so it was best to get the choice made now so I could spend tonight booking tickets for transportation to my targeted region.

Both Kanto and Johto were out. As nice as they were, especially the beaches of Olivine in Johto, I wasn't the largest fan of their local Pokémon. I also had an old bias that carried over from my previous world in which I felt those regions were overdone. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in those regions, it was just that the other possible regions interested me more.

I also quickly determined to avoid Unova at all costs. My American accent was considered to be “Unovan” by Marty and other people I had talked to, and I didn’t want anyone to catch me in a mistruth about my background if they got suspicious.

I also considered both Kalos and Alola but ultimately decided against them. I wasn’t that familiar with Kalos, and Alola had a strange alternative “Island Challenge” where instead of gyms, they used tests from Trial Captains that were different enough to not be considered gyms. I wanted to stick to the classic Gym Leader battles rather than fights against Totem Pokémon to start my journey.

Galar was also not on my list since I did not want to deal with giant Pokémon. Dynamax was a little too much for me, especially since I was still adapting to the culture of this new reality. Like Kalos and Alola, I would still want to visit it later, but it wasn’t what I felt would be a choice for my first region.

After the process of elimination, my options were limited to both Hoenn and Sinnoh. However, my decision was made for me. That decision’s name? Ash Ketchum.

As it stood, Ash was in the middle of his Hoenn challenge. I needed time to earn funds from my job to start as a Pokémon trainer, so no matter what I had to wait for the next start of the league. Sinnoh would have been my first choice, but since I had to wait, Ash was guaranteed to travel to Sinnoh for his next active season.

As an anime protagonist, Ash had trouble following him at every turn. I needed to avoid being in a region with him at all costs. Even excluding the trouble he created, if I was in Sinnoh at the same time as him, I would need to fight either him, Paul, or that asshole with multiple Legendaries in the Conference. Every one of them would be far too strong to beat as a first time trainer.

So in the end, I decided to go to Hoenn. There were still many months before the start of the next Hoenn League, so I had plenty of time to earn more money. I would leave sooner rather than later because working in a convenience store when I could be a Pokémon Trainer is not how I want to spend my life. It’s a world of Pokémon, not a world of sales.

I put the clipboard down on the counter and massaged my hands. Inventory was complete and Marty just had to put in an order for what we needed to restock. I sat back down on the couch and closed my eyes. It was already dusk so it was near time to close up for the day. I could spare a few minutes to relax.

Now that I chose my region, I needed to research what steps I had to take to become a Pokemon Trainer within the next Hoenn season. I also needed to find out how to obtain tickets for a boat or plane to reach the foreign region. No matter what, that required even more use of Marty’s laptop. I opened up my eyes and pulled the computer in my lap.

He’s not that annoyed I spend more time on his laptop than working in the Mart, right?

The day after I had decided to go to Hoenn, I struck up a conversation with Marty.

“So I know you caught Trubbish recently, but how would I go about getting a starter Pokémon?”

Marty sat at the register while I restocked the shelves with Pokémon food. We had just entered the Pokémart together to start the day. He rubbed his chin to think before responding to my question.

“Outside of catching one yourself? There’s only a few options. The first would be to test into it. You can be given a starter by the region’s professor if you rank high enough. That’s limited to the top few trainers under 20 so it’s not an option for you.

“You can also get a Pokémon from the local Gym Leader, but that’s also limited to locals, which you aren’t. The only other option would be to get one as a gift. That’s how most people get their Pokémon. Parents or a relative will go out and catch a Pokémon for a kid to start their journey. If someone is lucky enough, their family will have one especially bred for them.”

“What did you do?” I asked him.

Marty hopped off his stool to go to the front doors of the Pokémart to unlock the doors for the day. “Me? I didn’t go on a journey. Too much danger for my taste. Nah, I took my break year off to work with my parents in their store.”

I blinked. “I’m sorry, it might be cultural thing, but what do you mean by ‘break year?’”

“Oh, well some people take a year off of school to go on their journeys. Generally people don’t take it off younger than 14, but sometimes you’ll see a kid off as young as 12. Not everyone goes on a Pokémon journey, so some people, like me, do other things instead. Most trainers only travel to nearby cities to earn three or four badges before returning anyway so most ‘break years’ aren’t even years, more like a ‘break few months.’” He chuckled at his own joke and went back over to sit on the stool behind the register. I finished up what restocking needed to be done and was heading to the back room to use Marty’s laptop.

“Huh, I didn’t know that. But what I don't get is if there’s a young kid who doesn’t test into it, can’t ask the gym leader, and their parents don’t give them a Pokémon, how do they get one?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Generally they go out and catch one.”

I sighed. “Well, I suppose I just have to catch one myself.”

“No, no, no!” He shouted while waving his hands, “Wild Pokémon are dangerous! You might be able to find one in the city familiar with humans, but most of those Pokémon aren’t suited to battling. You should consider putting up a job.”

“A job? What do you mean?”

“Well, it costs a fee but if you fill out some forms and submit a payment to your local Pokémon Center, you can put up a job notice for trainers to perform for you. Most jobs are simple labor that require certain Pokémon, but other jobs might ask for a specific Pokémon to be caught or a rare item to be found. If you want to be a trainer it’s a good way to make money.”

I hummed in response. Posting a job was definitely an idea. I didn’t have enough experience with Pokémon to go out on my own and catch one, and I certainly didn’t already have a Pokémon to use to catch a Pokémon. I suddenly understood why Wally from Hoenn caught his Ralts using a loaned Pokémon.

I wasn’t a fan of using a job to obtain a Pokémon, especially since it was bound to be expensive, but I had looked up a list of Pokémon available in Hoenn last night and was eyeing a specific Pokémon. I hadn’t considered training one to be feasible, but if I got a specific extremely rare item, I would be able to train it in ease.

My mind began to whir as puzzle pieces fell into place.

“Thanks for the info, Marty. You just told me exactly what I needed to know.”

“That better be a plan to post a job to get a starter. Just because you like Pokémon, doesn’t mean it's smart to catch one alone.”

I waved off the warning nonchalantly as I strode into the back room. “Just because wild Pokémon can be aggressive, doesn’t mean they will be aggressive.”

I could feel Marty’s stern glare burning into the back of my head.

I decided not to react.

In the end, I worked in the Pokémart for just under six months, ending my time with a scheduled departure at the end of January. My timing coincided with the Ever Grande Conference in Hoenn, which meant I would have three months to prepare before the start of the season. Marty was able to hire someone to replace me as my time ran up, since there was no longer the issue of the new employee being bothered by Trubbish. I may have entered the Pokémon world and immediately started to work at a convenience store, but I now had the initial funds and information I needed to be successful

Pokémart work wasn’t too profitable, the wage only netted me 20 Pokédollars an hour. Luckily, one Pokédollar was equal to about one American Dollar, so adjusting to a new currency was easy. I only had to pay for food and utilities since Marty let me stay with him. After paying an unfortunately large percentage of my income in tax, I was left with an uncomfortably small amount of just under 7000 Pokédollars. Almost 1000 hours of work over six months was reduced to that little.

What hurt me even more was that 3000 Pokedollars out of my funds went to a bounty for a rare item, and another 500 of that went to buying the variety of tickets I needed to get to Hoenn.

In reality, I was left with a pitiful amount of 3500 Pokédollars to fund my new life as a trainer.

At least earnings as a trainer won’t be taxed.

I had a complicated plan to reach Hoenn, as Olivine didn’t have much for consumer transportation. The whirlpools in the sea outside the city meant not many ships stopped in port, and the vast majority of the local boats were either fishing boats or cargo ships from Cianwood.

My route to Hoenn consisted of a series of different modes of transportation. I would start in Olivine and take a bus to Goldenrod. From there, I would board the Magnet Train to arrive in Saffron and call a taxi to take me to Vermillion. At Vermillion’s port, I would board a ship I had already bought a ticket for and sail to Hoenn. The ship would land in Mossdeep, where I would start my journey.

I purposely would not be arriving in Hoenn with a Pokémon as Mossdeep was the perfect location to catch the specific starter Pokémon I wanted.

I woke up early in the morning to reach the bus in time. Marty had already left to work in the Pokémart for the day so I was alone. I packed up my stuff into a low-quality backpack I bought at the Pokémart and headed out.

When I arrived at the bus scheduled to leave the city, I was shocked to see that Marty was there leading a group of some of our regular customers.

“Wow, I didn’t expect anyone to send me off”

Marty chuckled at that. “Well, you were only around for half a year but you made a big splash. We all wanted to support you on your journey. It’s tradition to see off new trainers, and since you don’t have anyone for that we wanted to do it for you.”

I was touched. I had only been in this world for a few months and I already had people supporting me.

I smiled and grabbed the straps of my backpack. “I don’t know what to say. I’ve never had this many people support me before.”

There was a small cough before one of our regulars stepped forward. I immediately recognized him as Old Man Harvey, who was the one person who helped me the most in filling in the basics for me.

“Well kid, it took a lot of discussion but we decided to all chip in and get you a little something from our community. It’s not often we get a young’un who actually listens to us old trainers. You really made us feel like we were back when we were young and competent and not miserable old farts.” There was a bit of grumbling behind him after his comments, but they quickly silenced themselves when Old Man Harvey held out a neat wooden box. I carefully took it from his hands and slowly opened it.

I took the lid off and saw a small handheld device that was reminiscent of a flip phone. Looking at it carefully, I realized the device was actually a Pokégear. A Pokégear was equivalent to an old cell phone that could make calls, use the radio, and display a map. It was possible to install chips to upgrade the Pokégear to get other functions, but it couldn’t get any advanced functions like access to the Pokénet.

As I was about to say thanks once more, I noticed another object at the bottom of the box. I carefully lifted it up from the edge and held it in my hand. I almost dropped the box in surprise.

When I held it up, the crowd gasped. Marty’s jaw almost touched the floor.

Old Man Harvey simply looked on with mild amusement.

“Well, I wasn’t getting much out of it, but maybe you will? You know how key those are, so you better make the most of it.”

What I held in my hands was a journal, but not just any journal. It was old and yellowed, and contained spots where water had clearly fallen on it and dried. I opened it up to a random page to confirm my suspicions, and saw what I expected. It was a collection of notes that Old Man Harvey had taken while he went on his journey. As a new trainer, this journal was priceless. This journal contained tips, tricks, and trainer secrets that Old Man Harvey collected over the years of his journey as a Pokémon Trainer through multiple regional Conferences. This journal guaranteed to have better info than anything I could get from forum users online.

Someone smacked Old Man Harvey in the back and I heard a woman’s voice speak out. “If I knew you were going to give him that, I would have given him mine too.”

“No! No! This is enough!” I quickly shouted in response. Both of these items were genuinely the most valuable presents I had ever received.

“I... I don’t have any words. I can’t even begin to say how much I appreciate these gifts.”

Old Man Harvey spoke once more, a massive smile on his face. “Well then, don’t say anything. Show us. Go far, compete in the Conference. We’ll be cheering for you all the way, kid.”

I smiled and nodded, eyes locked in a look of fierce determination.

I turned to step on the bus but before I could I heard a cough behind me. Marty stood there, trying to get my attention and holding an item behind his back.

“I uh, don’t mean to ruin the moment or anything but I did get you something too. It’s not as valuable as a Trainer’s personal journal, but it is this.” And Marty then held out a hat.

It was a basic, black baseball cap with a white Pokéball symbol on the front. The Pokéball icon was the same logo that showed up on Pokémart merchandise.

“It’s a simple hat, but don’t underestimate owning one. With all the traveling you plan to do, owning a hat is extremely valuable. All the best trainers have one, you know.”

I smiled at Marty and took the hat from his hands. I put it on my head and nodded at him.

“Thank you for everything. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”

Marty smiled before he suddenly pulled me into a hug. I hugged him back but immediately tried to pull away. Quietly, I whispered in his ear to inform him of his own situation.

“Be careful going back to the crowd, I can smell Trubbish on you.”

He released the hug and jumped back. He put his arms behind his back and stood up straight, pretending nothing had just happened.

“Well good luck on your journey! Be sure to stay in touch!”

I laughed. “I will.”

I looked at the crowd gathered. “Thank you, everyone. The support you’ve given me and the faith you’ve shown in me with these gifts means so much to me. The next time you see me, it’ll be on T.V.. I will compete in the Ever Grande Conference. You can bet on it.”

Waved goodbye just a moment longer as they all said farewell. I stepped onto the bus, ignoring the smirking driver and I flashed him my ticket.

I sat down on a free seat and rested my head on the window. The crowd was already breaking up, but the fact that so many people would wake up so early just to say goodbye made me feel warm inside. The bus heading to Goldenrod would leave soon, but instead of nerves all I could think about was how grateful I was to have woken up in this city.