He opened his eyes.
Everything around was quiet.
The pendulum of the old-fashioned clock hanging on the wall swung silently.
Naoki suddenly sat up from the bed, his chest rising and falling, breathing heavily.
What is this place?
Naoki instinctively observed the surroundings, feeling confused and puzzled.
This was a small log cabin.
A single bed was placed against the wall inside the room, and opposite the bed was a desk with a natural wood finish, casually adorned with a bulging backpack.
A yellowed calendar, looking aged, hung on the wall beside it, and on the other side of the room stood a wooden cabinet, next to which the stove was piled with coal-like things and kitchenware such as pots and pans.
Staring at this unfamiliar scene, Naoki felt even more bewildered.
What is going on?
Shouldn't he be working overtime at the company right now? Why is he here?
"Ow... my head hurts!"
Suddenly, something extra appeared in his mind, causing Naoki's brain to swell.
A flood of memories rushed in like a tide, and once he digested it, Naoki's face instantly showed an expression of disbelief.
Time travel?
After a brief moment of astonishment, Naoki slowly sorted out his current situation.
He had indeed traveled through time.
Fatigue from five consecutive days of overtime had led to his sudden death, bringing him to this world.
This was a world entirely different from Earth.
Besides humans, it was inhabited by creatures known as "Pokemon." Whether in the sky, the ocean, or on land, you could see them in every corner of this world.
"It's actually the Pokemon world!" Naoki was somewhat delighted.
He couldn't claim to know everything about Pokemon, but he had played and watched both the games and the anime.
In his youth, he had once yearned to live in this world.
As everyone knows, this world is famously relaxed and leisurely; as long as a person is ten years old, they can receive an initial Pokemon and travel around the world with it.
Since he had traversed it, could he also travel freely like Ash in the anime?
The thought of escaping the 9-to-9 work schedule, the housing and car loans, of no longer being a useless corporate drone stirred something within Naoki.
But soon, he calmed down again.
Reality is often bitter compared to one's dreams.
The person Naoki crossed into shared his name and was originally from the Paldea Region, having moved with his parents to the Hoenn Region when he was young.
Shortly after that, both of the original's parents passed away due to illness—their move to the Hoenn Region was in pursuit of recovery.
After their passing, the original sold off property, seemingly disillusioned with worldly affairs, and wandered without attachments for many years.
Finally, at the age of twenty, he chose to return to his hometown in the Paldea Region, to the ranch left by his grandfather who died early and ended his life there.
Although this was the Pokemon world, the original never captured any Pokemon, as he did not want to form attachments.
These memories surfaced in his mind, leaving Naoki a bit sentimental, prompting him to sigh.
"Gurgle, gurgle..."
His empty stomach protested loudly, and Naoki glanced at the time.
2:00AM
Two in the morning, and from the looks of it, the original had probably not had dinner.
Naoki sighed, whispered an apology in his heart, then got out of bed. Based on his memories, he opened the original's backpack, took out a packet of instant noodles, fetched some water into a pot, and set it to boil on the coal stove.
While waiting for the water to boil, Naoki searched around but found nothing edible aside from some basic seasonings.
Though this was a ranch, it had been abandoned for years. The fields of the ranch were already overrun by weeds and stones, making it impossible to have any vegetables or fruits, let alone eggs.
Memories of the ranch's prosperity still lingered in his mind.
At that time, the ranch was lively and thriving, with orderly fields growing various crops, and the branches of fruit trees laden with heavy fruit.
The Pokemon House housed a group of Miltank imported from the Johto Region and Wooloo from the Galar Region, with rows of beehives placed on the grass outside the house.
Combee would collect nectar from outside and produce honey in the hives, yielding jars of crystal-clear, fragrant, rich, golden, and sticky honey every few days.
At this point, the water was boiling.
Just as Naoki tore open the ramen package and was about to drop it into the water, a piece of information suddenly appeared in his mind.
[Instant Ramen: A basic food of low quality with little nutritional value, but due to its convenience in cooking, it is favored by many outdoor workers and travelers, effect unknown.]
Huh? What is this...
Naoki inexplicably felt this was somewhat familiar.
When the ramen was placed into the water, with the boiling water, the once hard noodles quickly softened.
Naoki added some seasonings to it.
He wasn't exactly skilled in cooking, only knowing a little bit.
Due to living alone, he prepared most of his meals himself because it was more economical, eventually learning to cook over time.
Soon, the ramen was ready.
Naoki didn't think much of it, poured it into a bowl, then sat at the desk ready to fill his belly.
But just at that moment, the familiar information reappeared in his mind.
[Salt-Overloaded Clear Soup Noodles (D-): A low-tier dish, whose added excessive salt has removed its original bonus effects. It merely fills the belly, but consuming too much of it will cause thirst. Pokemon that like salty flavors might enjoy it, Evaluation: Terrible, but not bad enough to cause Pokemon to faint after eating.]
Naoki's brow twitched.
Good grief!
He finally remembered where this familiar feeling came from!
Isn't this from the cooking introduction interface in a game called [Culinary Master] developed by their game company?
It was a trash game marketed under the guise of gourmet food to scam money.
The game was a nurturing type, with settings where players possessed magical abilities.
The dishes they made could provide various attributes and bonuses to the characters inside, along with other strange and wonderful magical abilities.
The range and quality of bonuses linked to the players' cooking levels—like most junk games, the cooking levels in it ranged from F- to SSS.
The level of dishes also depended on the rarity of the ingredients, the quality, and the player's cooking skills.
D- could only be described as mediocre; if it tasted worse, like F-, it might even apply debuffs to the game characters, reducing their attributes and causing them to die quickly in battles with enemies...
"What's going on?" Naoki was slightly dazed, recalling the web novels he had read in the past, "Could this be my Golden Finger?"
Naoki, staring at the Pokemon mentioned in the description above, picked up the bowl and began eating the noodles.
As the noodles entered his mouth, a salty taste filled his entire palate.
Naoki: "..."
Sure enough, there's too much salt.
Though he wasn't used to eating it, it was the only food left in the house.
Naoki endured, eating while continuing to explore the situation with his Golden Finger.
It seems that the dishes he now made could grant various magical abilities and bonuses to the Pokemon that consumed them.
Probably?