"Streamer, Streamer! Cerulean City, where I am, is hosting its first 'Magikarp High Jump Contest' soon. If you bring your Magikarp to participate, you have a great chance of winning."
"Magikarp High Jump Contest?"
Adrian's heart stirred.
This was a small competition that appeared in "pokémon Journeys," where trainers simply competed to see whose Magikarp could jump the highest.
"I remember that for the first ten Magikarp High Jump Contests, the Champion was always a trainer named 'Kasukarp.' His 'Muscular Magikarp' was even a shiny Magikarp, covered in muscles, with astonishing jumping power."
Adrian recalled the pokémon anime plot and thought to himself, "However, my Magikarp's 'Splash' skill is also maxed out, so it might not necessarily lose to Kasukarp's Muscular Magikarp. Participating in this competition would be a fun little stunt. It's got potential!"
Adrian was tempted, but he didn't commit too strongly, merely saying ambiguously, "If I have time, the Streamer will consider participating in this competition…"
After interacting with his fans for a few more sentences, Adrian ended his stream and walked out of the Cerulean Gym with the blue badge.
Just then, a red luxury convertible stopped at the entrance of the Gym, its back seats filled with beautiful girls.
"Gary, Gary is the best! Go Gary, go!"
"Gary, Gary is so good! Gary, Gary is so handsome!"
As the exaggerated cheers rang out, a handsome young man with spiky hair stepped out of the convertible.
It was Professor Oak's grandson, Ash's initial rival, Gary, also known as the youthful version of Blue.
"Thank you, my beautiful girlfriends!"
"Don't worry, I, Gary, won't disappoint you."
With that, Gary, accompanied by his group of girlfriends acting as cheerleaders, swaggered into the Cerulean Gym.
As for Adrian, he was completely ignored by the group, treated as if he were air.
"Gary is here to challenge the Cerulean Gym. So, at this point in the timeline, Ash has just started his journey with Pikachu, right?"
Adrian raised an eyebrow and thought to himself, "Then perhaps it won't be long before I run into that idiot and Pika-God."
After all, Ash was a protagonist he had followed for over twenty years, so Adrian still had feelings for Ash and Pikachu.
If he could meet them, it would make his transmigration worthwhile.
"Let's go!"
Adrian had no interest in Gary's Gym challenge.
Because Gary's pokémon lineup was too luxurious; never mind the Cerulean Sisters, even if Misty were called back, it wouldn't make a difference.
If conditions allowed, Adrian hoped he could battle Gary at the Indigo Conference… "I have money now! I can finally eat a good meal…"
On his way home, Adrian excitedly logged into the 'PokéStation' platform and applied for a withdrawal.
Life without money was truly too hard.
[Withdrawal application submitted successfully!]
[Your withdrawal application has been processed. The system will complete the review within 3 business days, and the review result will be notified to you via an in-site message.]
"Ah? It'll take three business days?"
Adrian wailed.
Today, he not only won an important competition but also had a hugely successful stream, and he had originally planned to reward himself handsomely.
Of course, not *that* kind of reward!
He just wanted to treat Magikarp to some good food and then relax a bit.
But now that the withdrawal failed, his plans were undoubtedly ruined.
Back in his cramped rental apartment, Adrian could only continue to eat plain rice and vegetables to fill his stomach.
As for Magikarp, Adrian specially gave it a few extra poffin as a reward.
After eating and drinking his fill, Adrian edited the video of today's stream and uploaded it to his channel.
Although a good number of netizens watched the live stream, even more did not, and this video had a lot of explosive content, so he believed the playback volume would not be low.
That was money!
...After lunch and a short nap, Adrian once again brought Magikarp to the lake.
"Magikarp, thanks to you, we have money now."
After placing Magikarp in the water, Adrian said apologetically, "But the withdrawal takes time, so the big meal is postponed."
"Karoo~"
Hearing this, Magikarp wasn't disappointed; instead, it nudged Adrian on the shore with its head, indicating that he didn't need to feel guilty.
"Haji fish, you rascal…"
Adrian's heart warmed, and his nose tingled slightly.
If Magikarp weren't so large, Adrian would have wanted to kiss, hug, and lift it high.
"Karoo~ Karoo~"
Magikarp called out a few more times, a hint of cunning flashing in its eyes.
Trainer, whether there's a big meal or not doesn't matter. Just compensate me with energy cube.
Understanding Magikarp's meaning, Adrian instantly froze, pouting as he said, "Sure enough, I was happy too soon."
Glancing at Magikarp in the water, Adrian feigned anger and said, "No energy cube, only my life."
"Karoo~"
Hearing this, Magikarp suddenly bit Adrian's clothes, trying to drag him into the water.
"Wait a minute! My phone, my phone!"
After putting his phone and other items away, Adrian also got excited and dove straight into the water.
After playing and wrestling in the water for a while, Adrian grabbed Magikarp's crown-shaped dorsal fin and shouted, "Magikarp, let's go!"
"Karoo~"
Magikarp understood and immediately shot out like an arrow from a bowstring, swimming rapidly in the lake.
However, to accommodate Adrian, it didn't dive underwater but swam along the surface.
"Whoa~ So fast!"
Feeling the strong wind blowing in his face and seeing the reflections on the water, Adrian was incredibly excited.
Thrilling!
Caught up in the fun, Magikarp suddenly used Splash.
With the perfected Splash skill, Magikarp directly carried Adrian several meters high, gliding together in the air, crossing dozens of meters.
"Wow~ We're flying!"
Adrian let go of Magikarp's dorsal fin, spreading his arms to embrace the sky.
Then, one person and one fish fell back into the water, splashing up a large amount of water.
Under the sunlight, the water mist formed a rainbow, becoming the backdrop for their play.
After playing for over half an hour, the person and the fish finally lay exhausted on the shore.
"I have fish to catch, beloved pokémon for companionship, and I can earn money by making videos. Everything is so wonderful."
Adrian watched the white clouds drift leisurely across the sky, feeling as if he were dreaming.
"But now is not the time to relax and be complacent…"
Adrian suddenly stood up.
Having transmigrated, and with a cheat ability by his side, he naturally wanted to become as strong as possible and then battle those pokémon Masters.
Ideally, he could punch Elite, kick Champion, then capture Kyogre, marry the adorable one, and reach the pinnacle of life… And all of this was built upon strength.
After fantasizing for a moment, Adrian recalled the scene of gliding in the air just now, the memory still fresh: "If only it could learn 'Bounce,' then Magikarp might really be able to fly in the future."
Bounce, a Flying-type skill, Bounces high into the air and then attacks the opponent, sometimes causing paralysis.
As a Flying-type move, Bounce would undoubtedly greatly increase a pokémon's airtime and gliding ability, hence it is also known as 'Mini Fly.'
And once Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, it will also gain the Flying type.
Thus, even if Gyarados couldn't fly as freely as a bird, short-distance flight would still be possible.
"I remember Marill, Horsea, and even Goldeen can learn the 'Bounce' skill. Perhaps next, I can consider targeting these pokémon for fishing."
Adrian had a flash of insight.
After this period of fishing, Adrian also had some guesses about the patterns of the TM rewards from the cheat ability.
To date, all of the pokémon Adrian had caught were Magikarp, and he had only received four types of TMs: Soak, Splash, Tackle, and Flail.
Of these, Splash accounted for the majority, Tackle for a smaller portion, Flail only had three, and Soak only one, which was an extra reward when he first caught a Magikarp.
At the same time, by comparing the skills displayed on the caught Magikarp's stats, Adrian came up with a hypothesis.
The TMs rewarded by the cheat ability would most likely be skills that the caught pokémon already knew.
With a small probability, they would be skills that the caught pokémon could learn at its current stage but had not yet mastered.
And with a very small probability, they would be skills that the caught pokémon could learn after evolving but could not master currently.
Splash and Tackle skills belonged to the first type.
However, relatively speaking, not every Magikarp could master Tackle, so the probability of being rewarded with Tackle was much lower than with Splash.
Flail skill belonged to the second, small probability type.
As for the Soak skill, that was a skill only Gyarados could master, hence it belonged to the third, very small probability type.
And if Adrian wanted to obtain a 'Bounce' TM, he would have to target pokémon that could learn that skill.
"Horsea usually lives in the sea, but there's no sea around Cerulean City, so that's out first."
"Marill is a common pokémon in the Johto Region, and while it exists in Kanto, its numbers aren't high."
"Goldeen, however, is relatively common; it can be seen in most bodies of water, and there are quite a few…"
Adrian rubbed his chin, his eyes lighting up.
But thinking that his bait wasn't liked by pokémon other than Magikarp, he couldn't help but feel a little deflated.
As an eighth-tier fishing saint, Adrian knew the bait recipes for various fish on Blue Star.
But now that he was fishing for pokémon, he was completely at a loss.
"I remember Misty's bait was specially made and had a strong attraction for various Water-type pokémon. She even once caught a Gyarados and a Seaking with it. If I could get her bait, it would surely be of great benefit to my fishing career…"
Speaking of bait, Adrian couldn't help but think of Misty, the fourth sister among the Cerulean Sisters. Her special doll bait was quite good quality, having been shown multiple times in the pokémon anime.
"In the anime, Ash, Misty, and Brock traveled from Pewter City, through Mt. Moon, and then arrived at Cerulean City."
Adrian recalled for a moment, took out his phone, opened the Kanto map, and after comparing the locations, he exclaimed in surprise, "My current location is exactly on the path Ash and his companions would take to enter Cerulean City. Perhaps I can fish and develop here, and also wait for them to come to me…"
Having made up his mind, Adrian began to take out his fishing gear and fish.
During the fishing process, Adrian's thoughts wandered: "Besides the cheat ability, as a transmigrator, I also know the plot progression of pokémon, and there are actually many plot points that I can utilize."
"Without going into distant examples, just in the Kanto Region alone, I could consider going to Vermilion City to fish for Tentacool, to Squirtle Island to fish for Squirtle, to the Safari Zone to fish for Dratini…"
Thinking of Dratini, Adrian's face flushed.
This was an extremely rare pseudo-legendary larvae, and if he could catch it, Adrian couldn't even imagine how generous the rewards would be.
If he could capture it, that would be even better!
Evolving into the pseudo-legendary Dragonite in the future, its combat power would directly skyrocket, and it could even Mega Evolve.
"However, the prerequisite is that I have enough strength!"
Thinking of his situation, Adrian couldn't help but sigh.
Without enough strength, traveling around was actually very dangerous, and even if he caught a desirable pokémon, he might not have the strength to capture it.
But now, he only had one Magikarp.
Perhaps it could barely hold its own in the water, but on land, it was undoubtedly a useless fish.
"To go fishing and traveling, I'll at least have to wait until Magikarp evolves into Gyarados…"
"Thinking too much now is still too early!"
Shaking his head to clear his mind of distracting thoughts, Adrian began to concentrate on fishing.