[Qualification Quest Issued: Convince your Starter

Details: you have survived the journey to shelter, you have made acquaintances, but you have yet to prove you deserve to be even a basic Pokémon trainer. Convince Piplup to be your Starter Pokémon.

Reward: Keeps Starter.

Failure: Piplup Dies]

‘Wait what, where am I?’ Heath looked around and saw that he was shrouded by darkness. He remembered simply falling asleep next to Mudkip and Piplup.

[Running Simulation]

[Entering Matrix]

‘Fuck’

“Piplup?” Heath attention is now on the Pokémon that appeared out of nowhere. Heath looks around and sees a bed, a computer in the corner and a clock.

‘Sparse décor I guess. So what, I’m supposed to convince Piplup to journey with me else he dies.? Who thinks of this shit?’ Heath thought before looking around before it saw Piplup slightly cowering away from him, Heath tried to move forward but it was hard when Piplup didn’t exactly want anything to do with him.

Heath crouched down and went to touch Piplup but he backed out slowly once Piplup what about to use on of its moves.

“Hey Piplup, I’m not here to hurt you buddy.” Heath calmly addressed the penguin as he sat down. Piplup was seemingly still scared but putting on a brave face the Piplup chirp.

“Easy, Easy.” Heath tries to seem non-threatening, which just less the Piplup to be more wary. Heath retracted his extended hand and sat up straight.

“Piplup, do you want to be the best? Do you want to be the biggest, and the strongest Empoleon? Do you want to travel and meet people as well as other pokémon? Challenge beings others would be too afraid to murmur about?”

The Piplup suddenly relaxing, slowly grasping on the words of the person who slightly scared it, not that Heath fully understand.

“I want to be the best, the best that there ever was and that’ll start with the pokémon that’ll take me to the top. Help me reach the top and I’ll help you become history.” Heath pumped up his hands, and Piplup shouted.

“Piplup, PIPLUP!!” It raised its fins up and its fear melted away completely.

“So will you Join in this journey to become strong. Will you be my partner?” Heath outreached his hand and looked warmly at Piplup while Piplup immediately became wary again. It looked at Heath’s hand before looking at Heath. They stared at each other for a while before Heath’s eyes started to become dry.

‘Isn’t this a simulation, why the fuck is my eyes getting drier than the Sahara Desert.’

“Piplup?” Piplup leaned his head slightly for a while continuing to look at Heath.

“Is this a battle of wills?” Heath blurted before laughing, He rubbed his dry eyes and suddenly felt a warmth in his lap. He looked down and saw Piplup resting. Heath smiled before a translucent blue status screen appeared before him.

[Quest Completed: Convince the Starter.

You have successfully convinced your starter to be on your team. For your amount of success, it will follow your orders and will.]

[Implanting Memory]

[1…2….3, Successful]

[Exiting Simulation]

Heath’s vision becomes obscured by a shroud of Darkness once more and then he suddenly heard.

“Heath I’ve finished, you mind coming down for a second.” Birch yelled. Heath woke up and Piplup was seen next to him with a Mudkip. Heath remembered before he went to sleep that he was playing with Mudkip and Piplup. He thought about catching or taking Mudkip as even though he had already had a water starter, there was just something different about Mudkip and he could relate to it from his past life being the runt in the family but Heath eventually decided against it.

He found it hard to believe Professor Birch would let him take Mudkip, even if Mudkip wanted to go with him in the first place. Heath got up and looked at the time, realizing only a couple of hours had passed since he started researching. he did some stretches to get rid of his body’s grogginess and went downstairs. Looking around he saw Professor Birch typing on a keyboard, while simultaneously doing something on the Pokepad.

‘I guess, he has more than one?’ Heath questioned the situation transpiring and stepped on a stair that he found out croaked so he could alert his presence. Birch looked up and saw the drowsy Heath and smiled.

“Yeah, her cooking does that to you plus you probably had a lot going on upstairs. Mudkip and Piplup are seemingly becoming good friends.” Birch commented. Heath nodded slowly, glancing on the screen he saw his information or seemingly just his name and the words Trainer information.

“You see the problem I’m having. I got permission for the Guild and the Union saying I can register you instead of you going to the Pokémon Center in Oldale town but the lack of information makes my life difficult and I can’t just submit this to the database without a couple of answers. So can I ask you a couple of questions?” Birch asked.

“Sure??” Heath felt he should be apprehensive, but without knowing the questions, he couldn’t tell what he should really do.

“Should I put you as an orphan or should I say that your parents are MIA? Both options give you the choice of renaming yourself, but if you for some reason want to take your parents name once you possibly discover them you can do it?”

“Orphan, I want to keep my first name though. No last name, Just Heath. I don’t think I’ll find my parents any time soon in this big world.” Heath faked a smile. Birch typed the information, selecting the origin tab, and inputting the valid information.

“Next question, should I say you were born in Hoenn? Or Sinnoh?” Birch curiously asked.

“It makes sense that I would put Hoenn but because of your Piplup, it makes things complicated, and due to the fact that you only have Piplup at your age would normally indicate that you just started your journey where that pokemon is from.”

“Hmmmm…Which one makes more sense?” Heath asked. He wasn’t too sure how people would react if they were to search up his file, so he could only really on the professor’s intuition.

“I think Hoenn. Even if Piplup is extremely rare here, at most one could think you were gifted a Piplup egg.” Birch suggested. Heath thought about his options once more nodded not being able to come and Birch put in the agreed upon location. Birch also put his height which was currently 5’08 and his eye color being blue. Heath realized that he still didn’t know how he looked but he didn’t have to when Birch uploaded a head shot of Heath. Heath got extremely confused when he saw himself. He had seemingly flawless olive skin. His natural hair color was black as it turned out but he had a blue hair at the top which was the only thing Heath already knew as it was starting to get eye length. He cried joyfully inside as not only in his last life, but in this life as well was he at least decent looking. Birch gave him a tablet which held a lot of questions. Some of them read:

Did you go to school?

What is your current occupation, if you have one?

What pokémon profession are you going towards?

What guild are you joining?

How many pokémon do you have? (optional)

What was your first pokémon? (optional)

What are the rank of those pokémon?(optional)

All of the were either listed as no or unknown except the question ‘What is your current occupation, if you have one?’, which had ‘Pokémon assistant with had a daily wage of 7 pokédollars an hour’

“Is 7 dollars a month a lot?” Heath asked.

“For a non-confrontational pokémon centered occupation, kind of. It’s more average but I cannot afford to pay you much more since you’ll only be feeding the animals. I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.” Birch revealed.

Heath relooked over the information that was on the tablet and once satisfied gave it back to the professor, who accepted and handed it back.

“Please sign.”

Heath signed and handed it back once more before Birch turned the Poképad off and then clicked his mouse a couple of times. He then took the original PokéPad he was working on and gave it to Heath.

“Place your hand on the Poképad”

“For what?” Heath questioned

“It’s for security reasons, one I need it for the main entrance, the back door and for your apartment door. The other, it makes things easier with verification.” Birch replied. Heath nodded and placed his hands on the glass. It vibrated until a chime was heard and Birch smiled.

“You can now enter and exit free freely. Do you happen to have any generation of the PokéGear?” Birch questioned

“No, I don’t.” Heath replied.

“Okay, hmmm well should I place one for you to order?” Birch said as he turned back to the computer and started search for something, Birch then picked up the Poképad and gave it to Heath. He saw a marketplace site that listed a bunch of Pokémon communication devices that you would see in the games and anime. They each costed around 45,000 pokédollars.

“I can’t afford-”

“Think of it as a sign on bonus. We get them at an extremely reduced price anyways.” Birch consoled.

“The plain black C-Gear” Heath said as he gave back the poképad. Birch looked at it, and then said.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, not like it matters anyway” Birch shrugged at the choice and pressed a couple more problems. A notification appeared on the computer next to birch, and so did a chime.

“It’s at the town mail center, I’ll go get it and register it to your id while you do your thing. Don’t mess with the computer though” Birch warned Heath. Birch left, and Heath went back upstairs. He opened the door and went inside. He saw Piplup and Mudkip still sleeping on the bed. For once looking at the apartment it was equipped with a bathroom, a kitchen, and a fridge in the back while, looking towards the right he saw a door which he presumed led down to the ground floor outside. Next to the door, he saw a desk with a lamp, laptop, and a cabinet, so he grabbed the poképad that was still on the and sat down on desk chair.

‘Notifications’ Heath thought

[Quest Completed: Learn more information

[User has received skill: Observe]

[System has sufficient knowledge to update.]

[10]

[9]

[8]

[7]

[6]

[5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Done.]

‘Great’ Heath thought as he recalled all the differences when it came to this world’s pokémon. There was different type of pokémon ranks and their potential. The ranks and potential names being Copper, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Platinum, Legendary and Ex. Pokémon usually get their original potentials from their parents and can only increase from the food, item s and material that they are aware of, some needing high ranking pokémon carcasses to evolve and others even needing to eat legendaries which Heath found was also different from the games. There were pokémon considered legendary due to the rarity of the pokémon but there was multiple like the Kanto birds and the Johto dogs. What most pokémon trainers focused on at the beginning was potential, while later ranks becoming a huge thing for developing strong pokémon. Which confused him about the system’s benefits, but when he thought about it. Unlike regular pokémon, his have unlimited or essentially no potential so he wouldn’t need to search for as long or spend as much for a good pokémon team which he was already thinking about what pokémon he might want to get

Wanting to try his new skill, he looked at Mudkip who was sleeping soundly, and thought ‘Observe’.

Mudkip

Age: 6

Gender: M

Rank: Copper

Potential: Silver

Moves: Tackle, Growl

Ability: Damp

‘I think I would’ve guessed at least a gold potential.’ Heath thought. He saw Mudkip stirring and slowly it got up and looked around. He first spotted it’s cuddle partner and saw he was still sleeping. It then spotted Heath and went towards him.

“Muu”

‘SO cute’. The adorably blue mud fish pokémon looked so cute while it was drowsy, so Heath picked it up and hugged him. Similar to Piplup, Mudkip snuggled back and he felt a warmness which he didn’t expect. He put Mudkip on his lap and whispered.

“Did you have fun with Piplup?”

“mudkip mud” Mudkip nodded slowly and Heath could see it was still waking up. Heath was glad that Piplup had a friend but he was concerned with why Mudkip was here instead of with the other Pokémon in the back. After a little while, he decided to just take Mudkip down to his station in the back so he opened the apartment door and went down to the lab. He saw that Professor Birch still didn’t return from last night, so Heath went and took a sandwich from the counter. He observed all of the different type of sandwiches and he saw one of his favorites usually.

‘Tuna?’ Heath took a bite, immediately felt like this was the best sandwich he ever had. Mudkip’s stomach growled, which also confused Heath.

“Didn’t you eat this morning?” Heath asked. Mudkip looked a little sad when the mention of eating came out of Heath’s mouth. Mudkip looked hesitant to answer, so Heath got up and put Mudkip down on a random chair, and then went into the kitchen.

‘Bowl. Bowl. No not you cup.’ Heath took out a medium sized metal bowl and Went towards the back. He looked at the labels, and saw the general water type food, and it looked like the brown kible that the anime showed. He filled the bowl and brought it towards Mudkip who looked at the bowl with like he saw the holy grail.