The upperclassman didn't stay long after collecting the materials. She said goodbye and went home, leaving Minato alone in the club room.
Minato didn't idle. He digested his newly acquired memories by consulting the books here and searching for information on his phone.
However, while reading, Minato suddenly patted his stomach.
Gurgle...
His stomach growled.
"I forgot to eat. I wonder if the school cafeteria is still open during the entrance exams."
"Better go check..."
Minato tidied up and checked the time. It was almost two o'clock. The cafeteria probably wasn't serving food anymore, but he mainly wanted to buy bread from the small store inside. Ideally, a bottle of nutritional drink, too.
But reality proved otherwise. On a day like this, the store auntie had already closed up. She wasn't manning the counter.
Minato left the school empty-handed and found a random restaurant outside to order a rice bowl.
"Waiter, fish-flavored pork rice bowl."
"Coming right up," the waiter said.
Wait.
After sitting down in a cool spot near the air conditioning, Minato suddenly fell into thought.
Fish-flavored pork? What meat was that?
Right. According to his memories, this world had both Pokémon and ordinary animals coexisting.
Although the ecosystem had suffered severe damage when the Special Zones first appeared, after decades of human intervention, the environment had gradually stabilized.
The price of maintaining the wild ecological balance was that most ordinary animals could only live in zoos, farms, and designated protected areas. The wilderness had become Pokémon paradise.
How to make Pokémon and ordinary animals coexist harmoniously in one ecosystem had always been one of the major problems humanity struggled to solve.
Experience proved it was best not to keep Pokémon and ordinary animals together. Once, a Trainer made the news for doing exactly that. He left his pet poodle and his Fire-type Pokémon Growlithe at home alone. When the Trainer returned that evening, he found the poodle nearly burned alive...
"Pfft..." Minato laughed at the memory. What a genius. That was actually a mild example. Ordinary animals becoming Pokémon food wasn't rare. After all, their combat power wasn't even in the same league.
Soon, the food arrived. Minato was truly hungry. He finished the plate in a few bites, then grabbed an iced cola to drink. Very satisfying.
"Check, please. Scanning the code." Looking at the empty plate, Minato wiped his mouth with a napkin and took out his phone.
...
After leaving the restaurant, Minato thought for a moment. He didn't return to school. Instead, he went straight home.
Between six in the morning and ten at night, Minato's home was always empty. His father worked as an electrician. His mother sold clothing at the shopping mall. Both got out of work late.
Right now, Minato had only one thing on his mind. What kind of starter Pokémon suited him?
Although it would be some time before he could purchase a Pokémon egg from the Breeding Center, thinking ahead wouldn't hurt.
Hmm...
Suicune was quite beautiful...
Articuno was acceptable too.
Or perhaps... Diancie?
A moment later, Minato realized his fantasies were unrealistic.
"For someone whose family conditions aren't great, Grass-type Pokémon are definitely the first choice."
"The class teacher hinted at this obscurely. Teacher Sato also gave me that advice."
After checking online, Minato discovered that the Heiwa City Public Breeding Center officially sold quite a variety of Grass-type Pokémon eggs: Bellsprout, Oddish, Hoppip, Sunkern, Paras...
But...
"No Bulbasaur... No Treecko... No Turtwig... Not a single starter trio member!"
After checking carefully again, Minato spotted a reservation notice in the upper right corner of the webpage.
Clicking the small question mark icon, he understood. If one wanted to purchase eggs of rarer Pokémon, one needed to submit a request to the Breeding Center in advance.
"Forget it. I definitely can't afford rare Pokémon anyway."
Minato did the math. He had huge tuition fees to pay for his third year. Everyone had to pay at least five years of taxes when registering as a Trainer for the first time. Then he needed to set aside money for nutritional supplements and food for his Pokémon that year. The remaining money was for the egg. Insufficient budget.
Everyone wanted to choose rare and high-potential Pokémon as their starters. Minato was no exception, but considering his family's finances, he could only cough dryly at the X mark.
"Easy to raise, high potential. Focus on these two tags. Looks like I still need to search among Grass-types. Besides, Grass-type eggs seem to have the lowest average price."
When it came to ease of raising, Grass-types absolutely ranked first. Most Grass-types could survive just by sunbathing. Of course, if any fool dared to raise one that way for a year, that Pokémon would definitely be pathetically weak in battle.
After researching for a while longer, Minato grew distressed. He realized his choice paralysis was acting up. Everything looked good to him.
"There's no other way?"
"Wait... there is."
Minato's eyes brightened. How could he have forgotten the anime? Apparently, the Breeder exam questions had dealt him a heavier blow than he thought.
During the protagonist Ash's long journey through multiple regions in the anime, there were definitely experiences that could inspire him.
"I remember an episode where Ash's Grotle accidentally swallowed its own Energy Ball move, then suddenly exploded with power and displayed incredible strength."
Thinking of this, Minato quickly searched for information on the move Energy Ball. Unfortunately, the information was scarce. Online sources only stated that Energy Ball was a move containing tremendous power, and listed which Pokémon could learn it.
No information online? That was fine. He had other impressions of this move.
"Energy Ball. The principle is to fire life force collected from nature. That's the description from the games. I shouldn't be misremembering. But what does that have to do with Grotle swallowing the Energy Ball to power up? Also, besides Grotle, would this power-up method apply to other Grass-types... Never mind, mark it down first. Must have Energy Ball."
Minato smiled proudly. He felt he had found a clue.
"Mm, perhaps I could create my own breeding plan around the concept of 'swallowing Energy Ball to power up'?"
"But it feels somewhat unreliable. Wouldn't Energy Ball cause internal injuries?"
"Assuming it does cause internal injuries, can they be healed?"
"Let me think. Synthesis is necessary. Giga Drain, necessary. Growth is also very useful. Also Ingrain, Grassy Terrain..."
Minato took out a pen and paper and took serious notes, immediately immersing himself in the task.
The pen tip scratched across the paper. Looking at the content described by the text, Minato suddenly realized something. Regardless of whether this concept was feasible or whether he would actually buy a Grass-type egg, he couldn't abandon this task halfway. Because this was his first independent thought as a Trainer.