"Ding-a-ling—ding-a-ling—"
John Smith suddenly opened his eyes, staring blankly at the white ceiling for a moment.
"Am I dreaming again?" Feeling his forehead somewhat damp, John reached out and touched it. It was sticky. "Looks like it was a nightmare."
John picked up his phone from the bedside. "It's already ten o'clock. I slept for quite a long time."
He got up, dressed, and went to the bathroom, splashing some water on his face. Feeling a bit more awake, John then belatedly realized his body was also somewhat sticky.
After plugging in the water heater, John returned to the bedroom, picked up his phone, and ordered takeout from an app.
"That dream just now," John inexplicably thought of it. "It felt strangely familiar. Was it my imagination?"
"Forget it, I don't care. It's just a dream, what's the big deal?" John's lazy attitude kicked in, and he gave up thinking.
Picking up his phone, John decided to check the news while waiting for the water to heat up.
He unlocked his phone and swiped down, and a night's worth of news articles popped up.
"College entrance exam results announced yesterday, some happy, some sad!"
"Shocking! The real reason for Bao Bao and Ming Ming's divorce was TA!"
"The Large Secret Realm that appeared near Jingzhou three years ago has officially been declared fully explored by the Elf Alliance yesterday!"
"College entrance exam over, the new Elf Alliance Conference is about to begin. Three things Rookie Trainers must know before challenging a Gym!"
...???
The first two news items were normal, but what on earth were those later ones?
Secret Realm? Alliance? Challenge a Gym? Are you trying to tell me Pokémon have arrived?
John, who had recently been immersed in Pokémon web novels on Qidian, was full of complaints and didn't know how to voice them when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, and then John knew nothing more... "Thump thump thump, thump thump thump"
A sudden knocking on glass pulled John from his unconsciousness. "Hiss, my head hurts. So, did I transmigrate or get reborn?" John gently rubbed his head. "Couldn't there have been a gentler way? This is so violent."
"Thump thump thump, thump thump thump"
Apparently, because no one came, the knocking on the glass started again. John's thoughts had been interrupted, so he got up to find the source of the sound.
"Thump thump thump thump, thump thump thump thump"
Seemingly anxious, the knocking on the glass became more urgent.
At this point, John also noticed that the source of the sound seemed to be from the window, so he quickly got up and walked towards it.
As he got closer, John saw that it was a bird knocking on the glass.
"This bird, is it a Pidgey?" Through the memories he had just gained, the name of this bird, wearing blue clothes and carrying a blue takeout box on its back, immediately appeared in John's mind.
"It really is the arrival of Pokémon." John said, opening the window and taking out his phone.
"8507," John said, looking at his phone and speaking the numbers to the Pidgey.
"Coo." After verifying the code, the Pidgey extended the takeout box from its back. John reached out, opened the box, and took out his order.
"Thanks."
Pidgey: "Coo ∩_∩"
With a coo, the Pidgey spread its wings and flew away.
He casually placed the takeout on the table. "What time is it now?" Finally getting a moment of leisure, John opened his phone.
"10:26."
"Only this much time has passed?" Looking at the time displayed on his phone, John thought, "The water should be hot by now. I'll take a shower to clear my head." With that, he casually tossed his phone onto the bed and went to the bathroom with his towel.
"Splash, splash, splash—"
As the water from the showerhead poured over John's body, he finally fully woke up and began to sort through the memories in his mind... A hundred years ago, many spatial rifts suddenly appeared around the world. Behind these spatial rifts was a mysterious, special space, which humans called "Secret Realms."
Investigations revealed that each Secret Realm was a space independent of Earth. Within these Secret Realms, creatures that seemed to come from a fantasy world appeared and began to invade the human world through the spatial rifts, starting a war with humans over the right to survive.
These fantastical creatures all possessed unique abilities to varying degrees. Some particularly powerful ones could even contend with all of humanity's weapons at the time. Left with no choice, humans could only retreat on a large scale.
Fortunately, many Secret Realms later began to merge with Earth, causing Earth's surface area to continuously expand. After obtaining a relatively stable living environment, these fantastical creatures temporarily ceased their attacks, giving humanity a moment to breathe.
To thoroughly understand where these fantastical creatures came from, various countries around the world began to unite and organize expedition teams to investigate the Secret Realms.
During the investigation, suspected remains of civilizations were discovered within these Secret Realms, and from them, many technologies beyond their era were acquired, allowing human technological civilization to develop rapidly. This also led to a greater understanding of these fantastical creatures, revealing that they were called "Pokémon."
In a later Secret Realm exploration, humans found a mysterious Pokémon research institute and discovered the Poké Ball, an item capable of capturing Pokémon. People then began to use Poké Balls to capture Pokémon and, based on this, formed the Elf Alliance to continue fighting against hostile Pokémon.
It wasn't until the last thirty years that Pokémon, as an entirely new form of life, fully integrated into society, giving rise to Pokémon Trainer, Pokémon Researcher, Pokémon Breeder, and other Pokémon-related professions.
Human life also underwent earth-shattering changes because of Pokémon!
After reviewing the history, John began to search his memories for his experiences in this world, to see how they differed from his original world.
However... "What the hell, is this a joke?!"
After sorting through some of his experiences in this world, John couldn't help but exclaim this.
The original John was just a freshly graduated wage earner, who found a job that couldn't be more ordinary, living a relatively comfortable life.
As a homebody and a single guy, he didn't have much other entertainment, just playing games and watching videos.
But in this life, John was only eighteen, having just completed his second college entrance exam (because the protagonist started school a year early).
Yesterday, the college entrance exam results came out, and his scores were not ideal.
520 points—this score was only average in his city, but getting into a decent university was still possible.
In this world, John's goal was to study in the Pokemon Department. The problem was, although Pokémon had fully integrated into this world, universities with a Pokemon Department were roughly equivalent to top-tier universities in his previous life.
After all, the Pokemon Department was considered to be superior to all other disciplines in this world.
The reason he wanted to study in the Pokemon Department was largely related to John's family situation in this world.
Although John's parents and relatives were all the same as before, the appearance of Pokémon had caused their professions to change to some extent.
Especially John's parents, who were just ordinary company employees in his previous life, but in this life, for various reasons, became a Pokémon Trainer and a Pokémon Breeder.
Perhaps the two elders were talented; John's Father was now an Advanced level Pokémon Trainer, and John's Mother was an Advanced level Pokémon Breeder.
[In this world, Trainer and other professions are successively divided into Junior (11-30), Intermediate (31-50), Advanced level (51-70), Elite Four-level (71-80), Champion-level (81-90), Master-level (91-100). Those below level 10, except for some Bug-type Pokémon, are considered juvenile Pokémon and are not included in the grading.]
So, John in this life was half a young master. But because of this, this John's mindset couldn't compare to his previous life. A regular university simply couldn't satisfy John's ambition and his parents' expectations for him.
But perhaps John didn't inherit his parents' talent; no matter how hard he tried in this life, his grades remained mediocre.
After the college entrance exam results came out yesterday, because he scored even worse this time than last, the originally arrogant him couldn't accept it. He couldn't catch his breath and was replaced by the current John.
"So, this is why I came over? This me has such a terrible mindset."
John was speechless about this situation.
But it was normal. In this life, from birth, due to the huge changes in his parents' work, his family became wealthy, transforming from ordinary commoners who barely made ends meet into a comfortably well-off family.
From then on, he stood tall; he could eat KFC if he wanted KFC, and McDonald's if he wanted McDonald's.
He didn't have to walk to school alone; he had a dedicated car for pick-up and drop-off.
Cars, houses, and money for marriage—his parents had prepared everything for him long ago.
In short, after his family environment changed, John had never experienced any hardship growing up. His parents were also senior expedition members of the Elf Alliance, making him the object of envy for all his childhood friends.
Coupled with his parents' doting on John from a young age, John's psychological resilience was even worse than some ordinary people his age... After recalling everything, the now calm John recovered from the joy of transmigrating to the Pokémon World and the pity for his other self. He sat on the bed, eating a hand-held pancake, and began to plan how he should continue in this world.
"The first step definitely doesn't need consideration: get a starter Pokémon."
In this world, all citizens, upon reaching eighteen years of age, as long as their family has no criminal record for three generations, can purchase a starter Pokémon.
As John was sorting through memories related to starter Pokémon in his mind, a particular memory suddenly surfaced.
"John, don't be discouraged. Even if you didn't do well this time, it's alright. If you can't get into the Pokemon Department, you can still be a Trainer by studying a regular major. Your father and I never studied in the Pokemon Department, and aren't we both Advanced level Pokémon professionals now?"
In the memory, a gentle middle-aged woman softly spoke to John.
"Look what this is. This is a Pokémon Get Card, a Pokémon Get Card that Mom got for you with great difficulty. It allows you to go to the Alliance's Conservation Base and choose any Pokémon. Alright, cheer up."
After comforting John, the woman took out a black card printed with "Pokémon Get Card" and handed it to John.
"Alright, as expected of a young master's treatment, the family has prepared everything," John thought.
Then he got up, went to the desk, opened the first drawer, and took out the box containing the Pokémon Get Card.
"It's a pity my parents went to work. Otherwise, it would be great if they came with me. They could also witness their son getting his first Pokémon." Through the fusion of these memories, John began to adapt to his new identity.
In the memories he had just gained, John's parents had left a few days ago for an urgent mission. According to the little information they revealed, it seemed another Large Secret Realm had appeared in the southwest, and the official authorities had urgently summoned personnel to explore it. Both of John's parents were on the conscription list.
"Forget it, with a car, a house, busy parents, and a seven-figure bank account, this is already a god-tier start."
John's experiences in this short period had a huge impact on his mind, so he quickly tried to think of good things to distract himself and relax his mood.
After his mood temporarily calmed down, he quickly finished his takeout and began the next step of his planning.
"I have a starter Pokémon. So, should I continue to retake the exam to get into the Pokemon Department, or should I go to a regular university?"
"Given my current state, I feel that retaking the exam would still be quite difficult. I don't want to waste another year for nothing."
"But if I just go to a regular university, I'm a bit unwilling. With such good conditions in this life, it feels so unsatisfying to just accept my fate."
After thinking for a while, John realized he still didn't know how to choose.
"Forget it, I'll wait until my parents come back, and we can discuss it properly. It's only June twenty-fourth now. Based on past experience, even if they go to a Large Secret Realm, they should take a rotational break after about a month of exploration."
John's lazy attitude kicked in again, and he temporarily set aside the problem he couldn't solve.
Picking up his phone, John planned to go online and thoroughly search for information about this world to deepen his understanding.
Then, after opening his phone, John was startled by something extra on the screen.
Esteemed Readers, this is my first time writing a book, and I really couldn't think of a good opening. I could only refer to and learn from the openings of many novels where Pokémon appear in the real world. If you find my opening seems familiar, don't worry, you are correct. I am simply a pure fan of Pokémon, and after reading books for many years, I really couldn't hold back anymore. But I promise that the rest of the story is absolutely my own idea. I hope Esteemed Readers will be forgiving and read a few more chapters. I humbly thank you here.