The blazing flames roared, and as Rudy's body gradually turned to ashes, Gu Yuan's heart slowly began to calm.
This was necessary.
If not for anything else, at least to ensure that he would never end up like Rudy one day.
To make sure that Charmeleon and the others would never become someone else's trophies, Gu Yuan had to find every possible way to grow stronger.
Grabbing Rudy's backpack and Poké Balls, Gu Yuan couldn't wait and headed straight for the cave where Rudy had been living.
Before entering, he carefully checked for any traps or mechanisms that Rudy might have left behind. Once he was certain it was safe, he stepped inside.
"Ding!"
[Host adaptation to wild survival detected]
[Challenge function activated.]
Whenever the host enters a Pokémon survival area, the system will automatically initiate. Defeating Pokémon of varying strengths will yield point rewards of different levels.The battle process must rely solely on the host and the host's Pokémon. If there's assistance from others, a point deduction will occur.
Listening to the system's explanation, Gu Yuan was momentarily stunned before slowly realizing the implications.
Since points are used to strengthen my Pokémon and I can acquire them by battling wild Pokémon, then isn't this like getting experience points in the games?
Looking at things from this point, he felt Rudy had been his lucky star. If he hadn't killed him, he wouldn't have received the 100-point reward, and this challenge function would never have been unlocked.
Thinking of it, if Rudy had known about this, he might have smiled even in the afterlife.
Suppressing his urge to immediately go hunt wild Pokémon for battles, Gu Yuan surveyed the cave, planning to arrange everything properly before studying this newly activated function in detail.
The cave wasn't very large, but it could comfortably accommodate Gu Yuan, Charmeleon, and Eevee. Even so, there was still plenty of space left over.
While letting Chameleon and Eevee play around inside the cave, Gu Yuan noticed some indentations on the walls, with traces of candle wax burning. It seemed Rudy had carved these spots specifically for placing candles as illumination.
The rest of the cave held little of interest. For safety, Rudy had stashed all of his belongings in his backpack whenever he went out on patrol. Taking out Rudy's backpack gave Gu Yuan a feeling akin to opening a chest, though the quality of this one was somewhat lacking.
Some potions for curing abnormal status effects were still there, but not many. Almost half of the medicine and bandages had already been used. Besides that, there were several water bottles, probably confiscated from the people Rudy had killed.
As for food, there were some jerky, general Pokémon food, and a few berries, enough to increase his stockpile. The only thing left that seemed useless to Gu Yuan was the Team Rocket badges.
From the information he had extracted, Rudy and his group, 100 people in total, had been sent to this island to participate in trials lasting two months. One month had already passed. Surviving was important, but more importantly, they had to collect badges.
Only by earning a certain number of points could one officially pass. Otherwise, even if someone survived until the end without points, they would still fail; though the difference was that they would die at the hands of others outside.
These badges were the source of points. Every person had a badge, and some Pokémon carried them as well. Some badges were even hidden in nests, spread far and wide, requiring trial participants to search for them on their own.
After interrogating Rudy, Gu Yuan learned an interesting piece of information.
The badges of other participants were worth 100 points, but his was different. Anyone who obtained his personal badge would immediately receive 1,000 points and an additional Pokémon as a reward.
Killing Gu Yuan would be worth ten people's points, plus an extra Pokémon. Few could resist that temptation. At this moment, Gu Yuan considered himself extremely wise for discarding his locator at the very beginning; otherwise, he would have been relentlessly hunted.
Master Shadow is as ruthless as ever. Is this his way of showing that he values my abilities?
After going through Rudy's backpack, Gu Yuan transferred all the useful items to his own, leaving Rudy's backpack empty for storing captured Pokémon. The so-called space-folding technology was genuinely impressive. Despite carrying so many items, the backpack felt light, not impeding his movements at all.
After this, Gu Yuan released Rudy's Arbok in the wild. He didn't want to keep it, and it deserved a chance at life.
Hopefully, it would have a good life here, but it's well being was none of his business.
Once that was done, Gu Yuan began reviewing the newly activated challenge function. The system had already explained how it worked, so Gu Yuan focused on the point rewards for defeating Pokémon of various strengths:
Newborn Rank: 1
Rookie Rank: 10
Junior Rank: 50
Intermediate Rank: 200
Senior Rank: 500
Ace Rank: 1000
Leader Rank: 2000
Elite Rank: 5000
Champion Rank: 10000
Legendary Rank: 50000
Seeing the increasing rewards, Gu Yuan wasn't excited; instead, he felt the system's intentions were suspicious. As Charmeleon and the others grew stronger, the points required to improve their abilities would become staggering. This was just a transitional phase.
After understanding this, Gu Yuan couldn't sit idle. Leaving massive amounts of points unclaimed would be wasteful. As a frugal and resourceful young man, he planned to collect all the available points efficiently.
Before the challenge function, Gu Yuan had planned to first familiarize himself with the situation, then hunt as many people as possible to get better rewards.
But now things had changed; he knew from Rudy that half the trial period had already passed. This meant his challenge would end simultaneously with the trial's conclusion.
Now, Gu Yuan's goal was to use the challenge function to collect as many points as possible, steadily improving Charmeleon and the others while maximizing move proficiency. By the last few days, he was confident that many hunters would converge, giving him the perfect opportunity to eliminate them first and wait for the next wave without effort.
With a clear plan, Gu Yuan got ready and called Charmeleon and Eevee to follow him. Unlike Rudy, before leaving, Gu Yuan set up small traps around the cave. While harmless to people or Pokémon, they would alert him to any intruders. Rudy had relied solely on his strength to dominate the area, keeping wild Pokémon away. With the traps, Gu Yuan could detect changes immediately, avoiding Rudy's fate of dying helplessly.