As someone who had been reincarnated into another world, Jiang Ming had not been without his fantasies when he first arrived.
Just like the protagonists in the countless novels he had read in his previous life, he had imagined using the advantages of a transmigrator to accomplish great things.
Unfortunately, reality had delivered him a brutal slap in the face.
Because of the revival of spiritual energy, the world he now lived in was almost completely different from the one he had known in his previous life.
Back then, Jiang Ming had been nothing more than an ordinary university student.
The knowledge and skills he had acquired were practically useless in this world.
After suffering one setback after another, Jiang Ming had finally accepted reality.
All he could do was live his life one step at a time and place all his hopes on the Awakening Ceremony he would undergo at the age of sixteen.
Perhaps it had something to do with the unique nature of humanity.
Unlike most mutant beasts, which could begin absorbing spiritual energy from an early age, the majority of humans were unable to do so during childhood.
Under the current regulations, ordinary people were generally required to undergo an Awakening Ceremony at the age of sixteen, arranged by the federal government.
Those who successfully absorbed spiritual energy would become Tier One Awakened.
However, the proportion of people who succeeded was only around one in ten.
Even among those who awakened, most would spend their entire lives as nothing more than Awakened individuals, never advancing any further.
Of course, that was how things worked for ordinary people.
Geniuses like Jiang Ming’s older brother, Jiang Zheng, were different.
Jiang Zheng had begun absorbing spiritual energy instinctively at the age of twelve, without anyone teaching him how.
He was eventually selected by the City Guard and had remained with the organization ever since.
As for Jiang Ming, his older brother’s outstanding achievements had initially given him high hopes.
After all, he was Jiang Zheng’s own younger brother.
Surely, even if he wasn’t quite as talented as Jiang Zheng, he could at least rank among the top ten percent, right?
Instead, he ended up among the bottom forty percent.
After suffering yet another blow to his confidence, Jiang Ming had assumed that his life would continue along that disappointing path.
Then something appeared that would change his life forever.
Four years ago, on the night following his university entrance examinations, a translucent screen suddenly materialized before his eyes.
After confirming that he wasn’t hallucinating simply because he had finally relaxed after his exams, Jiang Ming nearly burst into tears.
Eighteen years!
A whole eighteen years!
His transmigrator’s cheat ability had finally arrived!
Words could hardly describe the storm of excitement that had surged through him at that moment.
There was just one rather infuriating catch: although the System had appeared, it still needed time before it could be fully activated.
Fortunately, by then, Jiang Ming’s ability to withstand disappointment had already been thoroughly tested.
He quickly managed to regain his composure.
He had a System now.
What more could he possibly ask for?
However, after carefully examining its main functions, Jiang Ming discovered that his System didn’t seem capable of making him stronger at all.
Because, unbelievably, it was something called a Pokémon Creation System!
And the Pokémon in question weren’t the beautiful, long-legged, fair-skinned elves commonly depicted in fantasy novels.
They were the fantastical creatures from a franchise he remembered from his previous life: Pokémon.
Although he was a little disappointed, the System had already arrived.
There was no way he could simply leave it unused.
Fortunately, this world, where spiritual energy had revived, was teeming with all kinds of mutant beasts and plants.
Once Jiang Ming began creating Pokémon, he figured that their existence wouldn’t necessarily attract too much unwanted attention.
Before that, however, he needed a legitimate reason for possessing the ability to create such creatures.
That was why, when choosing his university major, he had deliberately enrolled in biological cultivation, a field that was still relatively obscure at the time.
Jiang Ming rubbed his tired brow and examined his current Reputation Points, wondering how he could use them to give himself the best possible start.
The lottery was out of the question.
He had never tried it, but his many years of gaming experience in his previous life had taught him one thing: with a lottery pool like this, who knew what sort of random junk he might end up drawing?
If he received some useless, incomprehensible item, his only remaining option for earning more Reputation Points might be to reveal Dratini to the world.
That left him with only one choice: the System Shop.
Based on his observations over the past few days, Jiang Ming had already gained a basic understanding of how the shop worked.
It offered ten items at a time, including Pokémon, equipment, and materials.
Their prices varied, and the inventory refreshed once a month.
He could also refresh the inventory manually by spending 1,000 Reputation Points.
Uh…
Jiang Ming didn’t even have enough Reputation Points for a single refresh.
Damn it!
(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
As a university graduate who had only recently entered the working world, Jiang Ming hadn’t dared to reveal a creature like Dratini right away.
Even with Jiang Zheng backing him, there was no guarantee that someone with ulterior motives wouldn’t set their sights on him.
After all, Jiang Zheng had only the potential to become a Transcendent.
He hadn’t actually reached that level yet.
Consequently, Jiang Ming had already mapped out a relatively sensible course of action after obtaining the System.
The first step was to create a Grass-type or Bug-type Pokémon.
Such creatures would be much easier for people to accept.
Of course, another reason was that Jiang Ming simply couldn’t afford anything more expensive with his current Reputation Points.
Take the shop’s inventory for this month, for example.
A Cyndaquil priced at 30,000 Reputation Points and a Soothing Bell costing 10,000 were completely out of reach.
The remaining items were somewhat cheaper, but even those cost thousands or hundreds of points.
After excluding all those options, there were only two things Jiang Ming could afford: a Poké Ball, priced at 50 Reputation Points, and a Grass-type Pokémon called Sunkern, priced at 100.
Sunkern was one of the Pokémon with the lowest base stat totals of all.
Jiang Ming vaguely remembered that all six of its base stats were a mere 30.
Even so, he was already perfectly satisfied.
A low base stat total only meant that Sunkern would be at a disadvantage in battles.
But who said Jiang Ming intended to use it for battling in the first place?
Everyone knew that, regardless of the era, food production was always one of humanity’s most pressing concerns.
Following the revival of spiritual energy, humanity still occupied a relatively weak position on Earth.
People could only operate safely within areas centered around fortified cities, and this world lacked the high-yield crops Jiang Ming had known in his previous life.
To ensure an adequate food supply, humanity had no choice but to maintain vast areas of farmland.
That was precisely why the Third Technological Boom had taken place in the biological sciences.
Once equipment and potions had given humans the means to fight back against mutant beasts, problems related to food and consumption had naturally become the next major priority.
Jiang Ming’s plan was to begin by creating Grass-type Pokémon and see whether they could contribute to agricultural production.
After all, plant-type mutant beasts had been among the earliest experimental successes of the world’s pioneering factions.
Some had been developed by modifying the genes of existing species, while others had been created entirely from scratch.
There were already dozens of such artificially created species around the world.
One of them had even been developed by an established corporation in Coastal City.
Therefore, Jiang Ming’s chosen starting point was unlikely to attract much attention.
As far as outsiders were concerned, the most they would conclude was that Jiang Zheng’s younger brother had a certain talent for biological cultivation.
Once he had established that initial success, Jiang Ming could simply control the pace of his progress and develop gradually, keeping his true capabilities hidden until the day he finally astonished everyone.
Having made up his mind, Jiang Ming immediately selected Sunkern’s image and confirmed the purchase.