The ticking of the wall clock's hands repeated rhythmically.
Pale moonlight filtered through the window at an angle, illuminating water stains slowly seeping from the corner of the wall.
A briny scent of the sea wafted into his nose.
Tick!
The clock chimed softly.
The boy sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring into the void, suddenly felt his hands resting on his thighs twitch violently.
"This... this is!"
[Passive successfully refreshed]
[1. Soul Tentacle: Due to unknown influence, the Pokémon's type has changed to Ghost-type] (Gold)
[2. Cognitive Disqualification: Due to unknown influence, the Pokémon and the Trainer will swap identities] (Gold)
[3. Mysterious Knowledge: Due to unknown influence, the Trainer's reading behavior will slowly increase the Pokémon's experience] (Gold)
[4. Garbled Code: Randomly obtain a Gold-tier passive move] (Gold)
Golden light erupted from the originally light-blue system interface.
Looking at these four golden options, Motomu's back was drenched in a cold sweat.
'All under unknown influence?'
'Could it be that the dirty thing from the last choice has come for me?'
'Are these all traps!'
Motomu remembered his previous special passive move, Call of the Abyss.
The passive's effect was: Submerge into the deep sea and reach an interesting agreement with a certain existence in the darkness.
In this current situation, no matter how he looked at it, the system was continuing to force him down this dead-end path.
Or rather...
The system didn't care at all whether he agreed or not; it merely selected passive moves based on his current state.
The Big Eyeball's Enlarge and Harden passive from before was like this.
The Heart's Fire Elementalization was also like this.
Motomu suddenly had an epiphany.
The system claimed to be a Pokémon system.
However, choosing organs as Pokémon was inherently wrong!
In the beginning, his strength was too low, and he couldn't refuse the power easily obtained through the system.
As his strength increased...
This point had been temporarily ignored by him amidst the selection of various active Pokémon moves.
Until now.
He finally realized.
To be able to choose such bizarre passive moves...
No matter how one looked at it, these didn't seem like things a Pokémon should have!
Under the massive increase in strength, he had actually subconsciously accepted it until now.
Motomu looked at the four options in front of him, feeling a bit numb.
If the system refreshed passives in a 'pseudo-random' way based on his current state...
Then these passives being influenced into this ghostly state...
Anyone could see it would be better not to choose at all.
Motomu immediately made a decision and issued a command.
"System, I waive the choice."
[If you waive manual selection, the system will automatically choose at random]
[YES/NO]
It wouldn't let him skip.
Motomu's eyelids twitched, and his brow gradually knitted into a frown.
It seemed he had to pick the safest one.
Of these four options, the last one, 'Garbled Code,' was definitely out.
When the system itself was unreliable, anything random would be the worst.
As for the second one, Motomu skipped it after a single glance.
Now, the only choices left were the third and the first.
The first option changed the Pokémon's attribute.
If it were any other attribute, Motomu wouldn't have hesitated.
But this just had to be related to the soul.
The name 'Soul Tentacle' sounded incredibly ominous.
In comparison, 'Mysterious Knowledge,' which merely increased Pokémon experience as he read, was much better.
Even if there was a problem, couldn't he just solve it by not reading?
He calculated silently, already having an answer in his heart.
Option selected successfully.
The system interface switched.
Tick!
The clock's hour hand passed twelve.
The chilly room returned to normal as if none of this had ever happened.
[POKÉMON: KIDNEY]
[LEVEL: 12]
[TYPE: WATER/FIGHTING]
[CURRENT EXP: 5.9/120]
[BASE STATS: HP: 50 | ATK: 0 | DEF: 0 | SP. ATK: 50 | SP. DEF: 0 | SPE: 5]
[IVS: 30/31]
[EVS: 10/100]
[NATURE: QUIET]
[MOVES: TACKLE, WHIRLPOOL, WATER SPOUT, HYDRO PUMP]
[PASSIVE MOVE: MYSTERIOUS KNOWLEDGE]
[DESCRIPTION: YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE REFUSED THE MESSAGE FROM THE UNKNOWN EXISTENCE (THIS EXISTENCE VIOLATED COOPERATION REGULATIONS AND HAS BEEN PUNISHED AND BLACKLISTED BY THE SYSTEM)]
After confirming everything was correct, Motomu quickly closed the panel.
[READING SUCCESSFUL, POKÉMON GAINED SOME KNOWLEDGE]
[EXP: 5.9 -> 6.0]
'Even this counts?'
Just by glancing at the system panel twice, the Kidney's experience increased by 0.1.
Motomu's gaze turned serious.
Pokémon gaining experience on their own was something he had wished for before.
But right now, it was definitely not a good thing.
From the description...
The system wasn't entirely letting him do as he pleased.
It seemed to have some unknown regulations.
The guy who tried to poison him had apparently been severely dealt with by the system for violating those regulations.
When he first chose a passive, that guy probably really wanted to cooperate.
It's just that Motomu completely ignored it.
Seeing that cooperation was impossible, the other party resorted to dirty tricks.
Even the Kidney's IVs, which were originally in the single digits, had turned into 30.
Having fallen into the trap, the Mysterious Knowledge passive definitely had issues.
For now.
He would resolutely avoid triggering this passive if possible.
He had to completely suppress the growth of the Kidney's experience.
He figured the Kidney was already becoming a rebellious child; he wasn't worried about ordinary active moves, but he feared the passive moves after level 20.
After thinking for a long time.
The drowsiness from several days of travel surged into his heart.
Listening to the whistling wind outside.
Tucking himself into the quilt, Motomu closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Thud, thud, thud...
Light footsteps drew closer.
"Hurry up and pack, we're leaving. The mission has changed."
Outside the sliding doors, a warm yellow light illuminated the shadows in the room.
In the shadows, Motomu, whose eyes were tightly shut, suddenly jolted awake.
[READING SUCCESSFUL, POKÉMON GAINED SOME KNOWLEDGE]
[EXP: 6.0 -> 102]
The system prompt sounded.
Motomu, woken by the captain, saw his pupils suddenly shrink as his gaze froze on the bookshelf provided for free by the inn.
On the shelf, an ordinary fashion magazine was open.
In the magazine, a dark-skinned bunny girl in a swimsuit was winking in Motomu's direction.
[READING SUCCESSFUL, POKÉMON GAINED SOME KNOWLEDGE]
[EXP: 102 -> 215]
[KIDNEY HAS LEVELED UP]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 13]
Amidst the system prompts, Motomu hurriedly looked away.
'This book...'
'Was it open before?'
Motomu had absolutely no memory of it.
A feeling of extreme oppression weighed heavily on his heart.
Motomu took a deep breath, and three tomoe spun into existence within the crimson of his left eye.
He didn't like this feeling—not one bit.
His smooth progress so far had given him a sense that he could control everything.
But the change at this moment pushed him directly into the unknown.
"Hey! Kid, did you hear the order?"
Pheasant's voice reached his ears from behind the captain. Motomu snapped back to his senses and suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his heart.
He nodded.
After quickly organizing his gear.
Motomu used the Body Flicker to catch up with Captain Kazama, who was already waiting outside the window.
Along the way.
The atmosphere of the team was somewhat heavy.
No one spoke.
Leaping forward across the treetops, Motomu's mind returned to what had just happened.
Guessing the worst-case scenario...
The act of flipping the book just now was something he did while asleep.
But since the Kidney could flip books, why didn't it just read while he was asleep?
For a rebellious child, wouldn't experience be gained as soon as it saw something?
Why did it have to wait until he was awake to read?
Was there something restricting it?
[ Author's Note : If you're loving the story, a power_stone, review or comment means the world!
Want 40+ chapters ahead right now? patre0n.c0m/Royal_ink ]