Back Mountain.
Wayne, who had just successfully caught the Silver Metang, heard his Pokédex watch ring. It was a video call from his father, Leon.
"Son!"
Leon's round face, though still handsome, completely filled the watch screen.
"Move over, let me talk to our son."
Fumie elbowed her way into view, successfully pushing Leon aside.
When the two of them walked together, people often assumed that Leon had married into wealth.
His father had once been a handsome young man, but now he'd become slightly portly...
Leon's voice came from off-screen. "Son, when are you coming back? We need to discuss something important with you!"
"I'm heading back soon. You can just tell me now."
Leon's eyes sparkled with excitement as he pushed back into frame.
"The demolition compensation for the old shop came through! Your mother and I want to open a Breeding House in Jubilife City—one with a yard where we can even grow Rindo Berries!"
"The place will need renovating, which should take about a month."
His mother's fist connected with his father's shoulder, shattering Leon's beautiful daydream.
Wayne's parents were both certified Pokémon Breeders.
Jubilife City was the most economically and technologically advanced city in the entire Sinnoh region, with dense crowds and extremely high property values.
Wayne mentally calculated the money his parents had saved over the years, plus the demolition compensation. But to actually buy a Breeding House with a yard in Jubilife City...
Wait, is my family actually that wealthy?
"Is there enough money?" Wayne asked cautiously.
Leon chuckled. "Not quite enough, but if we borrow a bit from your uncle, we'll have enough."
Wayne's uncle also lived in Jubilife City.
He was a famous Pokémon style designer, specializing in creating fashionable clothing designs for both Trainers and their Pokémon.
Basically, he was a designer and tailor.
"How much exactly would you need to borrow?"
"Around thirty million Pokédollars."
Wayne had just paid 880 Pokédollars for a single bowl of ramen.
Wayne thought for a moment. Both his father and mother were Senior Breeders, and he himself had decent breeding skills too...
If things got really tight, he could always ask his grandfather to come out of retirement.
Wayne nodded firmly. "I support you both."
"Then we're buying it!"
"Okay, I'll be back very soon."
"Alright, son. We'll talk more when you get home."
After ending the call, a mechanical female voice suddenly echoed in Wayne's mind.
"Ding. System binding in progress..."
"Ding. Detectable optional main quest available: Advancing Breeding House!"
"Newbie gift package activated..."
...
After simply treating Silver Metang's injuries with a Potion spray, Wayne descended the mountain and headed straight to the Pokémon Center.
"Miss Joy, I'm counting on you."
Standing across the counter from Wayne was Nurse Joy, dressed in her traditional nurse's uniform, with long pink hair and a warm, sweet smile on her face.
Nurse Joys, with their remarkably similar appearances, could be found working in Pokémon Centers across every region.
When she saw the Silver Metang inside the Luxury Ball, Nurse Joy's eyes widened with surprise.
"You actually caught it? That's incredible!"
Nurse Joy had personally treated many Pokémon that had been severely injured after challenging this particular Silver Metang.
The Silver Metang had the potential to become the true ruler of Back Mountain, and some locals had even privately started calling the area 'Metagross Mountain.'
"Yes, though the battle was pretty intense," Wayne admitted.
"It's wonderful that you managed to catch it. We were actually discussing whether we should post warning signs on Back Mountain to caution Trainers about getting too close. Don't worry—leave everything to me and Chansey."
"Chan~" Chansey patted its chest confidently with its tiny arms.
While waiting in the Pokémon Center, Wayne finally had time to properly examine the System.
Focusing his attention on the exclamation mark icon, a virtual pop-up message and a personal status panel suddenly appeared before Wayne's eyes.
"System successfully bound to host."
"Distributing newbie gift package: Super Aura Human physique, Identification Eye (Beginner), and one Random Pokémon Item Gacha Ticket."
The personal panel materialized next.
Name: Wayne
Age: 18 years old
Physique: Heavenly Aura Physique
(Dramatically enhanced physical fitness. Damage from Pokémon moves reduced to 0.01%.
Can withstand a Judgment attack head-on. If you throw a full-power punch, even Mewtwo would need to activate its defenses.)
Special Abilities: None
Special Cuisine Codex: Unlocked
Skills:
Center of Attention (Master Level): The most dazzling presence in any crowd. Comes with its own background music and spotlight effect. (Special skill, cannot be upgraded through experience.)
Identification Eye (Beginner): Can obtain basic information and identify learned moves of Pokémon. (Cannot be upgraded through experience.)
Command (Intermediate): You have skillfully mastered divine battle techniques such as Endure, Quick Dodge, and Now! (100 / 10,000)
Breeding (Intermediate): Your breeding abilities are quite proficient. (1,200 / 10,000)
Energy Cube (Intermediate): You can create delicious Pokéblocks according to Pokémon preferences. (2,500 / 10,000)
Poffin (Beginner): Your Poffins exist in a quantum state of quality—their actual taste can never be determined until they emerge from the Poffin Case. (0 / 1,000)
Cooking (Beginner): Your knife skills are decent, you won't burn ingredients, and you definitely won't poison anyone. (100 / 1,000)
Ancient Language (Beginner): Despite hailing from Celestic Town, you've somehow managed to drag down the town's reputation. How inappropriate. (0 / 1,000)
Just hand over the rewards—you can complain all you want, Wayne thought to himself.
He ignored the System's sarcastic commentary and continued reading.
Main Quests (Optional):
Advancing Breeding House: Join your family's Breeding House, expand its operations, and achieve new heights of success!
Stage 1 Goal: Satisfy 100 customers (including Pokémon).
Stage 1 Reward: One random unique dish recipe, one Random Pokémon Item Gacha Ticket, one random item.
Side Quests (Optional):
Mother's Wish: Now that Wayne has grown into an adult, Wen Hui's next wish is for her son to find a gentle and kind girlfriend.
Quest Reward: Unknown, awarded based on Wen Hui's satisfaction level.
Cynthia's Sister's Wish: Her wish is to become an even more outstanding mythologist and Trainer than her sister Cynthia. Please help the host fulfill this aspiration.
Quest Reward: Unknown, awarded based on her satisfaction level.
Special Notes:
This System serves only as guidance and will not force the host to accept quests. Please choose independently.
Quests have no time limits and carry no penalties for failure.
Side quests expand naturally as friendships develop (including with Pokémon).
The Random Pokémon Item list has been made available (click to view complete details).
Unique dish recipes?
Like the Pokémon Curry recipes from the Galar region?
Or maybe food that actually glows when prepared correctly?
"I'll research that later," Wayne muttered.
Wayne opened the Random Pokémon Item list to browse.
His eyes widened. Wait, you even have Master Balls in here?
Key Stone, Lucarionite, Electrium Z... Dynamax Band, Tera Orb.
Is this System supposed to be Doraemon or Arceus itself?
Wayne decided to accept both the main quest and the side quests.
Wayne would need to help out at the Breeding House anyway, so accepting them now made sense. Besides, there were no time limits or failure penalties to worry about.
Only one Random Pokémon Item Gacha Ticket sat in his System inventory, and Wayne chose to use it immediately.