Chapter 1: Rain Gutter Fishing Rod

"Damn it, system, can this busted gutter really have a Golden Magikarp?"

Huo La pressed the brim of his raincoat down, trying to shield himself from the drifting cold rain, but the knuckles gripping the bamboo rod still went white from the effort. The rod was a five‑year‑old relic from the old woman next door; a fine crack ran along its tip, and the line was frayed to fuzz. Now it hung limp over the murky surface, unable even to stir a ripple.

The gutter before him could hardly be called a place with fish—no wider than two meters, shallow enough to see the pebbles on the bottom, occasional orange‑tailed goldfish flashing red fins, or Poliwag drifting lazily with translucent tails. Not a single ordinary Magikarp silhouette was visible, let alone the legendary golden‑glowing rare specimen the system bragged about.

"Please, Host, do not question this system's accuracy and authority."

A cold mechanical voice rang in his mind on schedule, flat as a rusted gear turning in the void.

Huo La rolled his eyes, his gaze landing on the floating icon only he could see—a palm‑sized Pokeball shape, its shell glinting cheap metal, which hadn't lit up a second time in three years.

"Is it me who wants to doubt?" he muttered low, spitting almost onto his raincoat. "Two hours! I've been standing in the rain for two hours! All I catch are goldfish or Poliwag. Even a regular Magikarp would do, okay? Golden? I think you've mixed up 'golden' with 'yellow mud'!"

The icon stayed motionless, and the mechanical voice repeated: "Please, Host, do not question this system's accuracy and authority."

"Dammit!"

Huo La slammed the rod onto the ground; the bamboo struck the wet mud with a muffled 'thwack', widening the crack at the tip. Rainwater dripped down his jawline, mingling with an unknown warmth, sliding along his neck into the collar—cold and clammy.

"Garbage system! Are you even functional?" he glared at the Pokeball icon, his voice laced with three years of pent‑up fury. "I've been transmigrated for ten years! I've been fishing in this busted gutter for almost three. Next month I'm supposed to get my TrainerID and set off, and I haven't even seen a single Magikarp scale, let alone a Golden one! You said 'the outer gutter of Pallet Town is the Golden Magikarp habitat'—were you kidding me, making me feed Poliwag?"

The mechanical voice in his mind, like a preset loop, kept delivering the same emotionless reply: "Please, Host, do not question this system's accuracy and authority."

"...... Fuck your damn system."

Huo La let the profanity trail off as his voice lowered. He crouched, prodding the murky water with his fingertips, then resignedly lifted the rod and brushed the mud off its shaft.

The rain eased, a grayish light breaking at the horizon, and the woods echoed with the cooing of returning birds, carrying the damp scent of after‑rain.

He hoisted the rod and walked out of the forest, his steps kicking small stones on the path, still cursing the system in his mind yet unable to shake a faint hope—what if he catches it tomorrow?

The name Huo La was given by his parents in this life.

Ten years ago, he was a lonely 77‑year‑old old man in Earth year 2070, taking his last breath in the decrepit house his parents left, the ceiling long peeled away like dog‑mold.

When he opened his eyes again, two smiling faces stared back—a man with short deep‑purple hair, slender, slightly sunken eye sockets, faint lines fanning from the corners when he smiled; a woman with shoulder‑length green hair, a tiny white wildflower tucked at the tips, her fingertips brushing his cheek with a spring‑like gentleness.

At that moment he was still swaddled, barely able to lift a hand, yet seeing these two characters step straight out of a comic made his heart thud—this wasn't an ordinary rebirth.

Until one day, his mother cradled him on a wicker chair in the courtyard, and he spotted a blue giant toad, half a man's height, perched at the base of the wall, a pink Coconut Flower on its back glistening in the sun as it gently swayed its bud.

"Ribbit~" the massive blue toad croaked low, nudging his mother's hand with its head.

Huo La's pupils snapped shut— it was a Venusaur! The Venusaur from the Pokémon books he'd leafed through as a child!

Just as his mind went blank, the mechanical voice rang in his head for the first time, crystal clear as if beside his ear: "Pokemon detected, 'Pokemon Rare‑Entity Locator System' activating… activating…"

He almost couldn't restrain his newborn instinct and burst into tears—not from fear, but from excitement. Transmigrating into the Pokemon World with a system built‑in—wasn't that the protagonist's script from a novel?

But he was thrilled far too early.

For the next three years, the system lay as if dead, staying 'active' but never speaking again.

Their home was in a villa district on the outskirts of Pallet Town, not far from Professor Oak's research institute; the Venusaur in the yard had evolved from a Bulbasaur the mother befriended on a youthful trip, now retired to the second tier, spending its days basking in the yard.

In the neighboring block lived a kid named Ash, his age, who every meeting argued about 'becoming the world's number‑one Pokemon Master'.

As a peer, he naturally played butt‑naked with the future world champion Zhi Ye.

When he was seven, he backpacked to Pallet Town's Basic Trainer School for enrollment, and just as he sat in his assigned seat, the system's mechanical voice he'd long forgotten suddenly rang in his mind again:

"System activation complete."

【Task Release:

Task Type: Initial Task

Task Content: Capture the rare entity—Golden Magikarp, at the outer gutter of Pallet Town (coordinates X39 Y11)

Task Time Limit: Five years.

Task Reward: Unknown.】

The moment the voice vanished, a floating Pokeball‑shaped icon, visible only to him, materialized before his eyes.

He suppressed his excitement, tried to touch the icon with his thoughts, and a map then appeared before him.

Not to mention, the map was genuinely high‑tech; his location was shown as a chibi avatar of himself, and the mission's target point was a Golden Magikarp icon, its edges flickering faint red.

Then, those three years.

Huo La hoisted the rod and left the woods, the lights of his little courtyard visible in the distance. Venusaur, perhaps hearing his steps, poked its head out from behind the garden wall, its blue skin glowing softly in the dusk.

He inhaled deeply, leaned the rod against the garden wall, and brushed the top of Venusaur's head— at least this world still held genuine warmth.

"Tomorrow, I'll fish another day," he whispered to Venusaur, as if urging himself, "If I still don't get it, I'll move elsewhere; who'll keep hanging out with that damn system."

Venusaur blinked, gently nudging his palm with its bud, as if offering comfort.

Huo La didn't notice; the moment he turned and stepped into the house, the Pokeball icon before his eyes flickered faintly, swift as an illusion.

And in the gutter he'd fished for three years, beneath the murky surface, a faint streak of gold slipped by, then sank swiftly to the bottom, vanishing.