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"Ding!"
"Defeated Pokémon: Magikarp."
"Experience gained: 75."
...
The crisp notification from the system echoed inside Kael's mind.
Considering that the Magikarp's level had been nearly ten levels higher than his own, the experience reward felt somewhat underwhelming.
In Kael's memory, defeating an opponent far above one's level usually granted a huge amount of experience. At the very least, it should have been two or three times higher than what you'd get from a normal battle.
But the 75 experience points he had just received were only slightly higher than what he would earn from defeating a Pokémon at his own level.
Still, Kael wasn't disappointed.
In fact, he was faintly pleased.
After all, the fight with Magikarp had carried almost no risk at all. The entire battle had been completely one-sided and required virtually no technique.
This experience was practically free.
Originally, he had assumed the system might give him only a tiny bonus for defeating a higher-level opponent. He would have been satisfied with even that.
Getting seventy-five points instead was a pleasant surprise.
Looking around at the dense patches of swaying aquatic plants below, Kael could see large clusters of orange-red shapes drifting among them.
A satisfied smile appeared on his small blue face, marked with the faint blush-like spots beneath his eyes.
To him now, those blank-eyed Magikarp looked less like fish and more like swimming treasure chests filled with experience.
Adorable ones at that.
Just as Kael began imagining a bright future filled with effortless leveling—
Something suddenly caught his attention.
Tiny white specks.
They glowed faintly in the dark water, but against the dim surroundings they looked unusually bright.
The specks drifted upward slowly, like bubbles rising through the water. Their movement was light and uncertain, as if they might vanish at any moment, yet they continued floating steadily upward through the cold lake.
"Hm?"
Kael blinked.
Instinctively, he looked down toward the source of the lights.
Not far below him, near the lakebed, the Magikarp he had just killed was surrounded by a thin layer of delicate white light.
Those floating particles were drifting out from its body.
And something even stranger was happening.
The corpse of the Magikarp, which should have eventually sunk into the lakebed and become nutrients for the aquatic plants, was slowly dissolving.
As the white glow scattered into the water, its once-solid body began fading away like melting snow.
Its form grew increasingly transparent, almost unreal.
"How is that possible?"
Kael couldn't help exclaiming inwardly.
The phenomenon wasn't unfamiliar to him.
In his previous life, the Ralts he had once been and even himself at the end had faded away in the same way, their bodies dissolving as their life energy dispersed into the void.
But there was one critical detail.
That phenomenon only happened when a Pokémon had been struck by high-quality energy before death.
Kael remembered the battle clearly.
The Magikarp hadn't even put up physical resistance, let alone experienced any kind of energy surge before dying.
So how could its body dissolve like this?
It made no sense.
Filled with confusion, Kael slowly swam closer to inspect the body more carefully.
And the moment he approached, he discovered something unusual.
With his heightened perception, Kael sensed that the tiny glowing particles drifting from the Magikarp looked similar to life energy…
But their essence was completely different.
To his astonishment, these strange specks felt less like energy and more like something else entirely.
Something that resembled data.
As if information itself had taken on a physical form made of energy.
"What… is this?"
Kael stared at the dissolving Magikarp, his mind spinning.
The sight was shaking the very foundation of the worldview he had built over decades of life.
Like a spark igniting a fuse, the doubt triggered a cascade of thoughts.
All the strange details he had unconsciously ignored since being reborn suddenly surged through his mind like a tidal wave.
Newborn Pokémon were supposed to require massive amounts of nutrients to sustain their rapidly growing bodies.
So why had he never once felt hungry since hatching?
Everything around him felt incredibly real. His senses sight, smell, touch were all perfectly sharp and vivid.
Yet sometimes he still experienced a strange sense of unreality.
As if the world around him… wasn't entirely real.
Even the process of hatching from the Pokémon Egg had felt subtly different from what he remembered.
Why?
Why?
The questions swirled around him like a whirlpool, threatening to drag him into a dark abyss of doubt.
Fortunately, the iron will and hardened soul he had forged through multiple lifetimes held firm.
Even amid the storm of confusion, he managed to steady his mind.
"Ha… ha…"
His small chest rose and fell rapidly.
The cold lake water slowly calmed the turmoil in his heart.
What he had just witnessed filled him with a deep sense of unease about this world.
And when he thought back to the mysterious exchange shop he had seen before entering this reincarnation one even more advanced than the one from the previous nightmare world—
A quiet intuition whispered in his mind.
This world…
Was definitely not as simple as it appeared.
Behind this peaceful, ordinary surface, something far beyond his expectations was hidden.
But right now, he was far too weak.
The only places he had explored so far were a small stretch of forest and this quiet lake.
The deeper truths of this world hadn't even had the chance to reveal themselves yet.
The water that had once felt gentle and welcoming now seemed eerily cold.
Like the waters of some underworld river.
The vibrant underwater scenery that had moments ago seemed full of life now looked strangely sinister.
Like a nest of flesh and bone.
At the far end of the lake, the fading darkness seemed to stretch open like the jaws of some unseen abyss, quietly radiating a deep, oppressive malice.
"No. No, no."
Kael shook his head vigorously, as if trying to throw those disturbing thoughts out of his mind.
His heightened perception and the emotional shock from earlier had nearly caused him to trap himself in a nightmare of his own imagination.
Luckily, he had caught himself in time.
Letting out a helpless sigh, Kael raised both hands and lightly slapped his slightly chubby cheeks.
Whatever the truth of this world was…
It wasn't something a newborn like him could uncover right now.
What mattered most was getting stronger.
Surviving the fragile early stage of his life.
As for the deeper mysteries of this world…
Those could wait until later.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!