Chapter 2: The Bug Catcher

On the screen.

A little figure wearing a straw hat stood in the grass, looking around.

【You were born in Evergreen City, an ordinary household.】

Suddenly, a Caterpie popped out of the grass. The straw-hat figure tossed a small red ball, and the ball sucked the Caterpie inside.

【At age ten, you met your first partner in Evergreen Forest: Caterpie. You set off on a journey.】

After this line appeared, a pixel animation of Caterpie was added to the bottom corner of the screen.

Baimu, lying on his back, shifted position, thinking that this first simulation had actually started out as a Bug Catcher's run.

The scene shifted.

The Bug Catcher appeared in front of a large house, stepped inside, and immediately ran into a middle-aged man with a slicked-back pompadour.

A "fierce" battle began.

The specific process was basically: Caterpie was released, then immediately sent flying by the opponent's Pinsir ramming into it.

Even without background music, the burst-effect bubbles that appeared when Caterpie slammed into the wall alone made it clear just how brutal that hit had been.

【You lost to the Evergreen Gym Leader and failed to obtain your first Badge.】

Baimu: "?"

Wait!

Challenging a Gym without grinding? And with a Caterpie?

The screen went dark, then bright again. The Bug Catcher entered the Evergreen Gym once more under Baimu's bewildered gaze.

What had just happened replayed itself exactly, and the identical text appeared.

The third time, the fourth time, the fifth time…

Wait, wait, wait—!!

A single Caterpie challenging a Gym without grinding, not learning a single lesson?

Where was this a hot-blooded rookie? This was clearly a brain-dead kid who never learned his lesson!

Baimu silently watched the illusory screen replaying the same content.

The tenth challenge failed.

The content finally changed.

【You lost to the Evergreen Gym Leader, but your tenacious perseverance earned his recognition, and you received the Green Badge.】

A cyan wheat-ear emblem appeared beneath Caterpie.

Baimu was speechless. This Badge was purely given because Giovanni got annoyed, right?

And at the very moment the Bug Catcher received the Badge, Caterpie's appearance suddenly changed—from a caterpillar into a cocoon.

【Your Caterpie evolved into Metapod.】

It finally evolved…

Though it had only just begun, Baimu inexplicably felt weary.

In the scene, the Bug Catcher left Evergreen City and arrived at a dense forest. Facing a golden caterpillar that burrowed out of the grass, he sent out Metapod.

Just as he was wondering how he was supposed to catch it, the former suddenly rammed the latter, knocking itself out cold.

【You caught your second Pokémon in Evergreen Forest: Weedle. Your journey's partners have increased.】

…A dumb Trainer and a dumb Pokémon, a match made in heaven. Great.

Baimu suddenly really wanted a speed-up button.

The scene changed.

The Bug Catcher arrived at a stone city at the foot of a massive rocky mountain.

【You arrived at Pewter City. The towering Shishan set your blood boiling, so you decided to challenge the Gym.】

Just as expected.

Grinding?

What is grinding?

At the very least, Baimu had never once seen this guy let his Pokémon battle wild Pokémon. He was a straight-up Gym-challenging machine, completely ignoring the fact that after a loss he could rely on special training to make his Pokémon stronger.

Ash may have gotten several Badges through handouts, but at least he knew to catch a few more Pokémon!

Your Metapod, your Weedle—can they fight? They can't. They don't have that ability, got it?

Just like with the Evergreen Gym, the Bug Catcher failed his tenth Gym challenge and also won the Gym Leader's appreciation through sheer perseverance.

【You obtained the Gray Badge.】

An octagonal gray gem emblem appeared beneath Weedle. At the same time, Metapod and Weedle were both enveloped in Bai Guang.

A large butterfly and a golden cocoon-like form took shape.

【Your Metapod evolved into Butterfree. Your Weedle evolved into Kakuna. Overjoyed, you decided to set out immediately for the next city.】

At last, one had reached its final evolution.

Baimu let out a sigh of relief. What made him even happier was that the Bug Catcher seemed to have finally gotten a clue.

【You caught your third Pokémon at the foot of Mt. Moon: Jigglypuff. Your journey's partners have increased.】

【You caught your fourth Pokémon in the Mt. Moon cave: Paras. Your journey's partners have increased.】

【You lost to a strange Trainer.】

【You defeated a strange Trainer.】

【Your Kakuna evolved into Beedrill.】

One heartening scene after another appeared step by step after the Bug Catcher entered the Mt. Moon area. The hot-blooded rookie seemed to be turning into a proper Trainer.

Until—

【You have arrived at Cerulean City, surrounded by waterways and rich in water resources】

The Bug Catcher headed to the Cerulean Gym as usual, only to be told the Gym Leader had gone out to do a Mermaid performance.

A performance?

Is this an anime setting?

All Baimu was greatly shocked; he had always assumed the setting was based on the games, since only the cities from the games had appeared, while the anime had many original towns.

He suddenly had a bad premonition, and that premonition was quickly confirmed.

When the Bug Catcher arrived at the place where the Cerulean Gym Leaders were performing, an encounter occurred.

【You accidentally bumped into a girl; mutual apologies lifted your moods, and you exchanged contact information】

【You contacted that girl, the two of you hit it off wonderfully, and decided to travel together】

【You began challenging the Cerulean Gym; though you failed, the girl's presence made you bravely challenge it again】

【You have started dating】

That's not right, is it? It can't be, right?

What's with this dog food practically spilling out of the screen — when did the Trainer Simulator turn into a Dating Sim?!

Didn't we agree there was only a chance of getting romantically involved with the opposite sex? Isn't this basically forcing a relationship?!

All Baimu abruptly flipped over and sat up.

The Bug Catcher was originally a hot-blooded, dim-witted Trainer; after getting a girlfriend, his fighting spirit hadn't changed, but scenes of the two of them alone together clearly increased.

The rough-and-tumble battle details were off too.

Originally, by the seventh or eighth try, he'd always figure out the pattern and trade a hit or two.

But at the Cerulean Gym, it turned into being able to trade a few blows at the start, then getting one-shot for the rest of the fight.

By the tenth loss, when the Effort Ribbon was praised, he'd completely devolved into a noob.

His Pokémon wouldn't even evolve anymore.

Watching the two little figures on screen holding hands, encountering no wild battles, and arriving at Saffron City without catching a fifth Pokémon, continuing battles just like before—

All Baimu's heart kept sinking.

Saffron City Gym Leader Sabrina, a rigorous psychic. With a personality completely different from the previous three, even after the Bug Catcher lost ten times, she still refused to hand over the Gold Badge.

Just as he was thinking about how the Bug Catcher would break the deadlock, the ending suddenly arrived.

The画面 suddenly turned grey.

【The Indigo League Conference has officially begun; you, with only three Badges, have missed the Indigo League Conference】

【Simulation Ended】

The virtual screen froze on the Bug Catcher's fifteenth defeat.

"…So this simulation was the story of one Conference cycle."

All Baimu's expression at this moment was like someone who'd just finished watching a bad movie — who could've imagined a perfectly fine hot-blooded Bug Catcher suddenly turning into a love-struck kid.

Challenging the Gym that many times was already a waste of time; adding a girlfriend made it even more of a waste — if you could say the girlfriend made the Bug Catcher stronger, fine.

But getting weaker? What's that about?

Love is supposed to fill people with power, right? What kind of simulator is this?!

Thinking this, several lines of text popped up before his eyes.

【Reward Choice One: Any Pokémon gains one level (below Lv. 30)】

【Reward Choice Two: A clue to an obtainable Pokémon】

【Reward Choice Three: Move — String Shot (can be taught to a chosen Pokémon)】

【Reward Choice Four: Carry over the 【Peach Blossom Luck】 talent to the next simulation】

As expected, there were rewards.

All Baimu tried it and found he could pick two.

Pick two out of four — that's pretty decent.

It's just that if he didn't choose, he couldn't start the second simulation, and whether Reward Choices One and Three could be carried over, he wasn't sure either.

Let's try it.

Gotta try it.

All Baimu lit up Choices Two and Three, not even glancing at the fourth.

Fortunately, the rewarded Move could be carried over.

The simulator's attempts could also be accumulated; the countdown kept running, not skipping numbers just because one attempt remained.

All Baimu felt the level-up reward might also be accumulable.

But right now, more of his attention was on the clue—

【Please carry an iron ingot of no less than 1kg with you】

What kind of clue is this? At most it's a hint.

All Baimu glanced at the time and the sky outside; Iron Town had already sunk into the night, yet the sounds from the mines and smelting works kept coming without end.

Still early.

He washed his face and headed out to figure out how to get an iron ingot.

Once the iron ingot was sorted out, he'd start the second simulation.