“I need to pick up my Junior Breeder knowledge again. It probably won't take long to reach Intermediate, after all, I inherited the original owner's genius breeder knowledge and abilities.”
“What the First Generation left me is probably just this muscular body, a Nidoking that just entered the Gym Leader Class, and about 3 million Team Rockets points. This guy was really something; he accumulated so many points in two years and didn't even spend them. The saddest thing in the world is when the person is gone, but the money remains. Thank you, First Generation!”
“Fortunately, the First Generation never left any loose ends when killing, so I currently don't have a warrant from the Alliance. So clean, so taciturn… Could this guy have been an assassin before he transmigrated?”
(The setting of this book is that only the memories of the Pokémon world are inherited; memories from before transmigration are not. So, the Second Generation doesn't know about the First Generation's life before transmigration, and later the male protagonist also doesn't know the identities of the First and Second Generations before transmigration, only able to guess.)
“Having Nidoking is enough for now. I definitely need to choose powerful Pokémon first, and then fill in the gaps. At least get a pseudo-legendary before building a team! So, first, I need to develop my own Psychic abilities!”
“There are even Psychic training methods and insights provided by Sabrina in the mall. These shouldn't be hers; they should be from the Saffron Gym, as she was born far stronger than most people.”
“Holy crap, Psychic training methods actually cost 500,000 points! Forget it, I'll exchange for them. Otherwise, I don't know when I'll be able to acquire them.”
“Next is to apply for a job transfer. I don't have the ability to kill, so I'll transfer to logistics. Oh, I've got it—Matori's secretary! Goodness! Transferring to this position actually costs 100,000 points! I'll transfer!”
“For future planning, I definitely need to add Pokémon. Let's go with the Team Rockets starters. No, forget it, I feel like Arbok isn't very useful. I can get several Koffing; Self-Destruct is a divine skill for saving lives and escaping. They all need to be Superior Class, orange aptitude is enough, and they cost 100,000 each. Alright, I'll get 5!”
“I have 1.8 million points left. I'll save them to buy top-tier Energy Cubes for Nidoking, after all, he's my ace! Top-tier Energy Cubes cost 1,000 points each. Nidoking eats one Ground-type and one Poison-type daily, and occasionally eats various elemental Energy Cubes to assist with skill practice. Just his food expenses alone will be over 700,000 points a year! The First Generation's points are only enough for 2 years!”
(Koffing's food? Isn't it better to eat free Pokémon food in the cafeteria?)
“Finally, for pseudo-legendaries, Dratini in the Safari Zone is out of the question. There's also no chance for the Larvitar rescued from the poaching group. That leaves Beldum from Rock Mountain in the Sinnoh region. Musashi and Kojiro's Ramen Shop! You're the one!”
“Next, I'll lay low, training Nidoking and practicing my Psychic abilities, slowly waiting for an opportunity to apply to join an exploration team heading to the Sinnoh region, capture Beldum, and take off!”
The time when he couldn't show off passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the Second Generation had been transmigrated for a year.
Matori's secretarial work was mostly completed within the Team Rocket HQ. Ye Mingcang spent most of his time meditating and training his Psychic abilities. Since the Newbie Gift Pack only helped awaken his abilities, and Ye Mingcang's own Psychic power wasn't particularly strong, after a year of repeated tempering, he finally became a Junior Psychic. Although he couldn't use Teleport, a flowerpot definitely couldn't kill him anymore! “I always subtly feel like something is hindering my Psychic abilities from getting stronger lately, perhaps my talent is too poor,” Ye Mingcang murmured.
A Junior Psychic could already use telekinesis. He could barely lift himself off the ground to fly, but Teleport required at least an Intermediate Psychic. To use Confusion attacks like a Pokémon and battle with Pokémon, he needed to become a Senior Psychic.
After Ye Mingcang decided to relearn breeder knowledge, it only took him half a year to successfully produce Intermediate Energy Cubes. “Finally, I can earn points by selling Energy Cubes to recover. As for Advanced or even Top-tier Energy Cubes, I can't even dream of them in the short term.”
Nidoking's training and breeding also didn't fall behind. It had been three years since the trial island ended. Nidoking's data is as follows:
Pokémon: Nidoking
Gender: Male
Category: Drill Pokémon
Type: Poison/Ground
Ability: Sheer Force
Aptitude: Deep Blue
Level: 37 Gym Leader Class
Held Item: Life Orb
Moves:
(Inherited) Confusion, Double-Edge, Thrash, Sucker Punch;
(Self-Taught) Megahorn, Focus Energy, Glare, Poison Sting, Double Kick, Toxic, Poison Jab, Earth Power;
(TMs) Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Mega Punch, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Venoshock, Protect, Substitute, Earthquake, Thunder, Blizzard, Fire Blast, Hyper Beam, Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Rest, Brick Break, Drill Run, Aura Sphere, Stealth Rock, Toxic Spikes;
The super-cannon Nidoking had completely taken shape. With an extremely wide offensive coverage and Sheer Force combined with Life Orb, his regular 2.25x output meant he had few rivals among Gym Leader Class Pokémon.
Most importantly, there was good news: Team Rockets' operations in the Kanto and Johto regions were fully retracting. At the same time, they planned to send teams into the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Kalos regions in six months to conduct preliminary activities.
Upon receiving this news, Ye Mingcang immediately found Matori and proposed a plan: Team Rockets would help him restore his original identity, and then, using that identity, he would legitimately operate openly in the Sinnoh region.
What was Ye Mingcang's identity? He was a legitimate trainer from a direct lineage of the Alliance!
His parents were Alliance trainers who sacrificed themselves in a wild Pokémon rampage. His adoptive grandparents were operators of an Alliance breeding house who died in a Team Rockets attack four years ago, at which point Ye Mingcang went missing.
In the Alliance's database, Ye Mingcang was always listed as missing, not deceased. As long as he could reasonably explain where he had been for these four years, he could reclaim his original identity!
Matori received the application and approved Ye Mingcang's plan, “symbolically” charging him 200,000 points. She had relevant Team Rockets personnel help him flesh out his experiences over the past four years: kidnapped by Team Rockets, fortunately escaped midway, stranded on an island, discovered and adopted by passing fishermen, suffered amnesia for a period due to excessive trauma, gradually regained his memories over the past two years, and finally returned to Goldenrod City for identity verification, etc…
At least, concealing it from Alliance Gym Leader Class authority queries wouldn't be a big problem. Elite Four-level individuals wouldn't discover an issue unless they actively investigated.
Furthermore, Ye Mingcang applied to go to the Sinnoh region, making it even more difficult for people in Sinnoh to query Ye Mingcang's data in the Johto region.
Another year passed in the blink of an eye. The Second Generation Ye Mingcang had been in this world for two years, and he had been at the Team Rockets Sinnoh regional sub-base for half a year.
During these six months, Ye Mingcang had been busy completing the base's construction and studying a large amount of information regarding the living habits and breeding knowledge of Steel-type Pokémon.
After half a year of effort, the base's construction was finally complete! The base was, not surprisingly, located in the suburbs of Xiaoshan City. Not far from the base was a barren Rock Mountain! According to the anime plot, this should be the place where Kojiro wanted to catch Beldum. This year, Ye Mingcang was 15 years old, and he officially began his Beldum capture plan!
..................
The Pokémon world as a whole was many times larger than Ye Mingcang's previous world, Blue Star. Even today, many areas remain untouched by humans.
The barren Rock Mountain area was neither particularly large nor small. The entire Rock Mountain area covered a full 7,000 square kilometers. It was 'small' relative to the Pokémon world, but 'large' because the Rock Mountain was slightly bigger than the entire Shanghai city in Ye Mingcang's previous world, China!
Trying to find a specific Pokémon in such a vast area was almost like looking for a needle in a haystack…
The only thing to be grateful for was that Ye Mingcang knew what Pokémon he was looking for and had a general idea of the area. This was much more reliable than blindly searching for various pseudo-legendary Pokémon across the entire Pokémon world. If rare Pokémon could be found by blind searching, they would have gone extinct in the wild long ago…
Steel-type Pokémon have certain requirements for their living environment: there must be iron ore present.
As its name suggests, the Rock Mountain area is mainly rock, and the Pokémon living there are primarily Geodude and Onix, with Marowak and Nosepass occasionally seen.
Based on Ye Mingcang's visits and investigations over half a year, nearby residents had found Silver Shock Steel in the Rock Mountain!
And one of Beldum's favorite foods is Silver Shock Steel. This means that if he can find areas in the Rock Mountain where Silver Shock Steel is concentrated, he will very likely find Beldum!
Unfortunately, the Pokémon world does not have instruments that can directly locate specific metals. Ye Mingcang could only use a metal detector to gradually search for underground metal veins. If a metal vein was found, he would have Nidoking Dig down to see if it was Silver Shock Steel. At the same time, Ye Mingcang would also use an ultrasonic detector to check if there were large underground mine shafts, as Beldum couldn't live in the dirt; they must live in mine shafts.
Thus, days passed. Ye Mingcang completed his base tasks in the morning, went out to search for Beldum's tracks in the afternoon, and trained Nidoking and his own Psychic abilities in the evening.
Fortunately, he currently only had one Nidoking to train. After Nidoking entered the Gym Leader Class, its training mostly involved energy accumulation and skill proficiency improvement, which it could accomplish on its own without Ye Mingcang having to spend too much effort.
Finally, after a full 11 months, and having almost traversed the entire outer perimeter of the Rock Mountain, Ye Mingcang finally found traces of Silver Shock Steel in a basin near the core area of the Rock Mountain. What surprised him even more was the presence of large underground mine shaft traces here!
After marking the location, Ye Mingcang returned to the Team Rocket HQ, rested for a day, gathered his equipment and supplies, and headed back to the Rock Mountain, returning to the previously marked spot.
“Boom,” accompanied by the sound of a Poké Ball opening, the purple giant Nidoking appeared in the basin.
“Nidoking, 45 degrees diagonally downward, use Dig. Dig until you reach the mine shaft, confirm the situation inside, and then come back to notify me.”
“Nido!” Nidoking nodded and immediately began digging towards the direction where the instrument indicated the mine shaft.
After waiting for a full hour, Nidoking returned to the surface. Behind him was a dark and deep passage.
“Nido! Nido!”
“You dug to a mine shaft? And found Silver Shock Steel inside?”
“Nido! Nido!” Nidoking nodded again.
“There are no Pokémon inside for now, can I go down?”
“Nido! Nido~” Nidoking nodded once more.
“Alright, let's go!” Ye Mingcang took out a diving respirator and oxygen tank, turned on a powerful flashlight, and had Nidoking lead him into the passage.
After walking slowly for 50 minutes, they finally arrived at the mine shaft Nidoking had mentioned. The inside of the mine shaft was pitch black. When illuminated by the powerful flashlight, the mine shaft's ceiling was about 4 meters high. The mine shaft walls had countless openings, which were branching paths, likely dug by Onix or similar Pokémon. Under the light, the rocks on the cave walls occasionally shimmered with a silver luster; those should be the ores.