My name is Lin Yu.
And against all odds, I finally have my first Pokémon.
Not just any Pokémon, either.
A starter.
A Charmander.
That's right—this is a world where Pokémon and reality have merged.
Over two hundred years ago, the first Secret Realm descended upon Earth. From it emerged all kinds of extraordinary creatures.
They breathed fire.
They commanded lightning.
They summoned torrents of water.
They were beings of near-limitless possibility.
At first, humanity—driven by ambition and greed—attempted to subjugate these creatures through force.
What followed was war.
It didn't take long for humans to realize something important:
These creatures might be pure-hearted.
But they weren't stupid.
After repeated failures, Huaguo chose a different path—coexistence.
And thus, the profession of Pokémon Trainer was born.
Still, two hundred years of integration wasn't enough to eliminate friction entirely.
For example—
An abandoned Charmander.
After carefully drying the rain-soaked little lizard with a towel, Lin Yu draped the cloth gently over its shoulders before shifting his focus to the System interface hovering before him.
[Ding. The Trait System at your service.]
[Traits refresh daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually.]
[Trait quality tiers: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Red, Gold. Each tier corresponds to higher refresh intervals with greater probability.]
[Note: Even daily refreshes have a small chance to produce Gold-tier traits.]
[Trait Shop: Unwanted traits may be dismantled into Trait Coins for purchases.]
[Today's Shop:]
• Standard Poké Ball ×1 — 1 Trait Coin
• Premium Pokémon Food ×10 — 5 Trait Coins
(Small text: 5 Trait Coins can refresh the shop once.)
Lin Yu nodded slowly.
So today, he could refresh every tier once—from daily all the way to annual.
[Open Beginner's Gift Box?]
The System's voice was cold and mechanical.
To Lin Yu, it sounded like spring sunshine.
"Open it. Absolutely open it."
A golden illusory gift box materialized, bursting with celebratory sparkles. Two beams of light shot upward—
One purple.
One gold.
His eyes nearly went blind.
A golden legend!
He rubbed his hands together in excitement.
[Congratulations. Purple Trait acquired — Side Profession Expert: Upon contact, you instantly reach expert-level proficiency in any secondary profession.]
[Congratulations. Gold Trait acquired — Divine Beast Affinity Physique: Any Legendary or Mythical Pokémon you encounter will immediately regard you as friendly.]
"…Right."
Lin Yu stared at the traits.
For his current situation?
Completely useless.
Side Profession Expert? That basically meant becoming an elite breeder or other support-class professional.
Divine Beast Affinity?
Sure, if Ho-Oh happened to fly down right now, he could beg it to restore Charmander's damaged potential.
But the problem was—
Who knew which Secret Realm Ho-Oh was hiding in?
These traits sounded incredible.
They were incredible.
Just… not helpful right now.
What he urgently needed was something that could solve Charmander's damaged potential.
"It's fine. I still have refreshes left."
The daily, weekly, monthly… all the way to annual refresh buttons glowed invitingly.
He decided to start from the bottom.
He tapped Daily.
The button dimmed.
[White Trait — Thick Hide: Slightly increases physical durability.]
…Not terrible. At least it boosted defense.
He frowned and tapped Weekly.
[Green Trait — Drift King: Greatly increases speed while riding.]
"…Excuse me?"
His frown deepened.
Wasn't quality supposed to increase as you went up?
Unconvinced, he tapped Monthly.
[Blue Trait — King of Slackers: You grow stronger even while slacking off. Growth rate depends on how hard you slack.]
His eyes lit up.
Now that was good.
No training required and still getting stronger?
Slaking and Snorlax would worship this trait.
Hope surged within him as he tapped the next tier.
[Purple Trait — Effort Always Pays Off: As long as you put in effort, you will gain returns. The longer the sustained effort, the greater the improvement to potential.]
"The Overachiever's Dream."
Lin Yu finally relaxed slightly.
This gave Charmander hope.
As long as it worked hard, it could grow stronger.
"Char?"
Charmander tilted its head, watching its new trainer cycle through joy, frustration, and excitement like a Sichuan opera face-changing act.
Lin Yu, meanwhile, clasped his hands.
Please let the final one be something good.
After silently "sacrificing" Arceus for luck, he tapped Annual.
Golden light erupted.
It condensed into a single line of text.
[Gold Trait — Purification: All negative effects are completely cleansed.]
Lin Yu's mouth fell open.
He'd assumed the annual refresh might give him a Red-tier trait.
Instead—
Another Gold.
And an absurdly powerful one at that.
In battle, Pokémon moves came with countless debuffs:
Poison.
Burn.
Confusion.
Weakness.
This trait erased them all.
More importantly—
Charmander's Ability was Solar Power.
Under sunny weather, its Special Attack increased dramatically—
But it constantly drained HP in exchange.
Now?
With Purification—
That drawback vanished.
"Good. Good. GOOD!"
He said it three times in a row, unable to contain himself.
Without hesitation, he attempted to equip Thick Hide, Effort Always Pays Off, and Purification to Charmander.
[Ding. Target Pokémon has not been captured. Please capture before applying traits.]
Right.
Lin Yu immediately pulled out the standard Poké Ball he had prepared.
He knelt in front of Charmander, expression serious.
"Charmander. Will you become my Pokémon?"
"Char!"
The little fire lizard nodded firmly and bumped its head gently against the Poké Ball in his hand.
Red light enveloped it.
The ball shook once.
Twice.
Then stilled.
In that moment—
Charmander became his first Pokémon.
Even as a transmigrator who'd seen countless tropes, Lin Yu's heart trembled.
Fifteen years.
He was finally—
A Trainer.
And now…
It was time to equip the traits.