As the sun set and summer had just begun, the evening sky was stained crimson, the rice seedlings in the fields grew uniformly, and wisps of cooking smoke curled upwards.
Children were playing boisterously on the basketball court at the village entrance, while leisurely old men sat under trees, enjoying the cool breeze—a scene of peace and tranquility.
Lin Zhi took in all these sights. He entered the village, walked down a small path, and arrived home. His mother's electric scooter was parked in the open space in front of the door, and the wide-open door indicated that his father or his younger brother, who was in elementary school, was home.
He stood at the doorway for a long time, gazing into the living room. The decorations, layout, and various objects stirred memories, yet also brought a strange sense of discomfort.
"Mom!... Brother Zhi." Lin Dong, hearing the commotion, ran out, his happy expression instantly replaced by a slight unease.
"Little Dongzi," Lin Zhi murmured, his voice low.
His father, who had been resting in the tea room, also came out. He immediately spotted his eldest son, his face darkening as he questioned, "You're not sick, so why are you taking time off to come home? Do you still look like a student?"
Then he turned to scold his mother:
"You're enabling him! Why bring him home when school isn't out? So he can just play on his phone all day?"
Lin Zhi remembered. At this time, he had called home from school, only to be met with a furious scolding from his father, which led to the current scene.
Back then, he was honest and naive, but he slowly came to understand one thing: the control over his body was his own, and if he wanted to leave, no one could stop him.
This was what his parents, and so-called adults, perceived as "rebellion"—the beginning of Lin Zhi's "demonic" transformation.
Among his peers at school, did all students truly love to study? Not necessarily. In the public high schools with their worrying environments, more students were just drifting along, slacking off, and wasting time.
After all, the current reality of this school was that 90% of its students failed to get into a proper university each year. Most were mediocre individuals unwilling to put in the hard work of studying, their minds already dulled by their parents' lectures, like walking corpses.
They hated everything they were forced to accept, dared not resist, and didn't know what to do after graduation.
They feared both resisting and losing their financial support, and facing the cruel society alone. They could only pretend not to know, continuing to be submissive "students."
Living in their parents' shadow, overly concerned with others' opinions, filled with confusion and suppression.
Ah, what kind of life should one live!
Now that things had come to this, Father Lin Juemin snorted and returned to the tea room, but behind their backs, he sighed deeply.
Lin Zhi keenly noticed this subtle change but took no action. A thousand words would not be as effective as proving himself with concrete strength.
He then got on his electric scooter: "I'm going out now."
His father always spoke with harsh criticism, and his words and actions rarely showed approval for his son.
"Where are you going?" his mother asked.
"Into the mountains." Remembering the route, Lin Zhi left without looking back.
Qin Huayu didn't think much of it, simply assuming her son was just going for a few loops around the forest guarded by Old Lin—her husband Lin Juemin's workplace, a temporary dwelling built at the very edge of the village, complete with a pond where he usually raised some chickens, ducks, and fish.
His days were leisurely, and he once possessed strength close to a veteran Ordinary Rank, but he had regressed considerably.
Ordinary creatures also existed in the pokémon world, but they were merely the lowest rung of the food chain, highly reproductive, yet unable to provide the elemental energy that pokémon required, at best offering mere sustenance.
But she could never have imagined that Lin Zhi was preparing to venture deep into the wilderness beyond the mountains, where wild pokémon truly thrived in dense populations!
Rural areas were supposed to be the fringes of human habitation, but to prevent wild pokémon attacks and numerous casualties, the City Defense Team regularly dispatched Trainers each month to clear them out.
Therefore, the area within dozens of kilometers outside the village was considered the outskirts, with only some weak Ordinary Rank pokémon remaining.
The wilderness, however, was different—full of hidden dangers yet rich in resources, often the primary target for Trainers to explore.
"Woof! Woof!..."
Upon arriving at the forest ranger's residence, two Pokémon immediately greeted him, wagging their tails. pokémon: Poochyena, Rank: Ordinary Mid Rank, Talent: Orange... pokémon: Poochyena, Rank: Ordinary Mid Rank, Talent: Orange.
The two data maps from the detection ability were unremarkable. These two Poochyena were his father's pokémon, usually responsible for accompanying him on patrols through the planned logging areas and guarding the residence to prevent wild pokémon intrusions.
If they had encountered an enemy, they would have bared their teeth and assumed a fighting stance, but seeing their young master, they naturally showed affection.
"Wangcai, Xiaohua, hello," Lin Zhi said with a smile, stroking their heads.
The path ahead was overgrown with weeds, winding and rugged, making the electric scooter useless; he could only proceed on foot.
He walked to a rock crevice by the residence wall, retrieved a key, opened the door, and went inside to change into an off-road suit, put on a felling axe and some necessary resources, and took two spare red and white balls from a drawer. Lin Zhi resolutely headed into the wilderness.
No Pokémon, no adequate equipment or facilities—just him, alone, wanting to capture pokémon in the wild.
Anyone who knew would probably laugh their heads off, calling him ignorant and suicidal!
If it were a defenseless ordinary person, that would indeed be true.
But Lin Zhi, in his previous life, was a powerful individual at the Quasi-Heavenly King Peak level! After rebirth, it was a fact that he no longer had his main pokémon team, but as the saying goes:
A lean camel is still bigger than a horse!
His own Martial Artist attainments were not low, and coupled with the life-and-death experiences he had undergone, he wouldn't lack the courage to enter the wilderness.
Moreover, aura was a good thing. Apart from half-baked Trainers, everyone who trained pokémon to Ordinary Rank and experienced the thrilling battles of the wild possessed a "Willful Presence."
Initially, when Lin Zhi learned about it, he felt it was quite similar to the Conqueror's Haki in One Piece—a low-tier version, one might say.
Aura would grow stronger as a Trainer's pokémon team level increased, eventually even causing substantial damage!
This also indirectly indicated that the Trainer and pokémon were one, indispensable to each other.
Excellent Trainers would never treat the pokémon they painstakingly nurtured as mere tools!
Rebirth was wondrous. Lin Zhi's aura needed to be re-honed, but his Willful Presence still remained, which was quite strange.
Along the way, Lin Zhi tried to utilize his aura several times.
It worked!
However, under the Quasi-Heavenly King Peak Will he could unleash, the aura inexplicably lacked substantial damage.
No damage, but it could scare people to death!
Lin Zhi guessed that he would have to train pokémon back to their peak for his aura's power to truly live up to its name.
Under the true Quasi-Heavenly King Peak pressure, it would be at least a thousand pounds of crushing force!
Regardless, even a "fake" was a godsend. Lin Zhi felt more confident in dealing with Elite Level wild pokémon.
The Elite Level was like a threshold; it didn't possess the terrifying power to move mountains, yet it could crush ordinary people like ants.
But with the aid of various methods like traps and poison, even an ordinary person still had a slight chance of winning.
What he needed to do was first capture a few Elite Level pokémon to serve as tools, and then quickly complete his current primitive accumulation.
Elite Level strength would be enough to refute all the doubts Lin Zhi currently faced! And he would be capable of carefully choosing an initial Pokémon and slowly building a team that truly belonged to him!
"Unfortunately, the strength of my current body isn't as good as it was in my middle-aged period.
For safety, the target prey will be Elite Mid Rank and below..."
After walking for some distance, Lin Zhi gasped for breath, sweating profusely. He stopped at a safe spot, sat down, and thought to himself.
The sky gradually darkened, night enveloped the forest, which became utterly black and silent.
It was as if at any moment, a ferocious beast would charge out from somewhere, filling one with dread.
"Rustle—Rustle—"
The wind blew, and a fleeting red glow flashed in the distance, accompanied by a low growl. Clearly, an unknown creature had targeted Lin Zhi and was attacking at an extremely fast speed!
Pokémon: Rattata, Rank: Ordinary Low Rank, Talent: Orange...
However, Lin Zhi's expression remained calm. He drew the felling axe from his back, holding it in front of him. A flash of light under the moonlight, "Bang—," and the Rattata's attack struck it.
The hand gripping the axe handle nearly slipped due to the immense force.
Lin Zhi immediately used the recoil to dodge backward, while the Rattata couldn't help but continue forward.
Suddenly, the young man sneered. As he sidestepped, he lowered his stance, used his waist strength to swing the axe back sharply, and twisted his body to add more force.
The sensation transmitted through the blade was like cutting into a soft object, gushing out like a punctured balloon.
"Squeak! Squeak!..."
In a single encounter, the Rattata, glowing red, lay on the ground struggling, its body almost separated from its head, with a clear, still-bleeding wound on its neck.
It had considered this human no threat, yet was easily killed. Its dim pupils were filled with fear and regret, and its body gradually stiffened.
Lin Zhi indifferently drew his axe, flicking off the still-warm blood onto the ground, then lifted his foot and walked away.
Actually, he could have instantly scared off the Rattata by releasing his "Quasi-Heavenly King aura," but having just adapted to his reborn body, he wanted to test his skills.
The Rattata's corpse was a common Pokémon material, which could fetch a few hundred yuan on the market.
Lin Zhi was unprepared, focusing primarily on capturing pokémon. He might consider it on the way back, but the space in his ordinary backpack was too small.
And the smell of blood was too strong, so he decided against it