The moon shone bright amidst sparse stars over a vast, boundless ocean, where a dense, tree-covered island sat in isolation.
On the sandy beach sat a gaunt, sallow youth with eyes sunken deep into their sockets—a picture-perfect image of severe malnutrition.
Though his clothes were tattered rags, one could still vaguely discern that he was about fifteen years old.
The youth gazed with a complex expression at the creature beside him.
Standing roughly as high as a child’s knee, it was wrapped entirely in pitch-black feathers without a single speck of another color.
Had it not been for the bright moonlight, it would have been nearly impossible to make out its form.
With a slightly trembling hand, he slowly reached out to touch the creature before him.
Just before making contact, he hesitated involuntarily for a moment, only placing his hand down after steeling his resolve.
Feeling the tangible warmth beneath his palm, he pulled back his conflicted gaze and let out a soft breath.
“To think…
I really came back,” Aoki murmured into the silence.
Everything felt as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
As a powerful trainer who had once reached the Quasi-Elite Four rank, Aoki still remembered how he had been dragged away by Team Rocket for their trial and barely managed to survive.
Relying on the skills and special abilities from his past life, he had eventually thrived within Team Rocket, earning quite a reputation even in the underground world.
However, during a League ambush, he was set up by a rival within Team Rocket.
Blinded by the overly inflated confidence that came with reaching the Quasi-Elite Four rank, he believed he could survive the onslaught.
He never expected the League would send two Elite Four powerhouses specifically for him.
Even though his opponents hadn’t deployed their ace Pokémon, it was still far beyond Aoki’s ability to resist.
With no avenue of escape, he fought with everything he had, managing to kill two of their second-tier Pokémon before the enraged duo joined forces to bury him beneath the earth.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in this very scene.
Aoki extended his hands with great effort.
All the scars left by past injuries and training had vanished.
On his yellowed, malnourished hands, the outlines of his veins and bones were clearly visible.
He clenched his fists with all his might, unaware that his fingernails were digging deep into his palms.
“Gah…” Murkrow uttered a soft call, looking curiously at the person before it, who seemed to have suddenly changed.
Hearing Murkrow’s cry, Aoki forced the corners of his mouth to turn up.
The facial muscles he hadn’t used to smile in so long seemed to have forgotten how to do so.
He stroked Murkrow’s back once more.
It was far from smooth—clearly, like him, it suffered from severe malnutrition.
“Murkrow, it’s so good to have you here,” Aoki said with mixed emotions.
In his past life, Aoki had been cold and rigid in his interactions.
Even when he tried to change later on, it was already too late.
Yet Murkrow, as his starter Pokémon, had stayed by his side from beginning to end, serving as his closest guardian and friend.
Even in the final moments of his previous life, it had guarded him to the end, refusing to abandon him.
Meanwhile, the “powerful” partners he had forcibly captured, bought, or stolen had all deserted him.
Only Murkrow remained loyal through thick and thin.
And it was Murkrow whose plight he regretted most.
“Gah!” Murkrow called out.
Though it didn’t understand why, it could clearly feel a profound sense of warmth and affection from the person in front of it.
Even though this was supposed to be their first meeting, and even though it couldn’t comprehend the reason, Murkrow felt no desire to attack him.
That was why, after Aoki released it from its Pokéball, it hadn’t attacked or fled.
It simply stared curiously at the youth before it.
Aoki was slightly taken aback.
He recalled that during their first meeting in his previous life, he had spent immense effort just to capture Murkrow, and even more effort to master and understand a creature he was coming into contact with for the first time.
Even now, Aoki felt regret over the time wasted back then.
As a former Pokémon fan, he had only watched a few anime seasons in his original world, knowing little more than the vague, complicated bond between a boy named Ash and a magical Pikachu.
He couldn’t even recognize every species of Pokémon, let alone their abilities, moves, and training methods.
In this world, there was a saying: the ceiling of a Pokémon’s growth depends on its natural talent, while the floor depends on the trainer’s cultivation.
In his past life, Aoki didn’t know how much time he had squandered before fully understanding all of Murkrow’s traits.
By the time he truly began raising it properly, it was already too late; a portion of Murkrow’s potential had already been wasted.
As for how he managed to stand out in the trial back then, it was entirely reliant on Murkrow’s innate talent.
He had taken countless detours along the way.
Furthermore, because he overused Murkrow’s potential, it was gradually sidelined in his later years.
“Murkrow, in this life, I will never give up on you again.” The hands touching Murkrow trembled slightly.
“Gah!” As if sensing the complex emotions in Aoki’s heart, Murkrow cried out at just the right moment.
Aoki smiled faintly as his body slowly readjusted to the feeling of smiling.
Immediately after, however, his heart tightened.
Judging by the current situation, he had likely just been brought to this uninhabited island and forced to take his allocated Pokémon.
The reason he was able to survive this trial in his past life was entirely thanks to Murkrow.
Most recruits in Team Rocket were assigned Zubat, Koffing, or Ekans.
Murkrow was one of the rarer Pokémon available among the starting pool.
After receiving their Pokémon, the first hurdle everyone faced was taming the creature inside the Pokéball.
This was no anime; this was a realistic world, and none of Team Rocket’s distributed Pokémon were tamed.
Wild and fierce, these Pokémon would often launch an attack the second they were released, sometimes even killing their new trainer before escaping.
In Aoki’s memory, there were 300 teenagers aged fifteen to eighteen participating in this trial.
After the first test of taming their Pokémon, only about 150 to 160 survived.
That illustrated the cruelty of this place: nearly half the participants were eliminated in the very first stage.
And elimination meant death.
By the time the entire trial concluded, only fifty people would be left alive.
These fifty would be absorbed into various Team Rocket squads and branches, becoming expendable pawns.
Only those in the top ten could choose which branch they wanted to join, and only the top three would report to their assigned branches as squad leaders.
Furthermore, the first-place winner of this trial would receive a precious starter Pokémon.
Indeed, starter Pokémon were extremely rare here; aside from high-ranking League members who paid regular fees, it was almost impossible to obtain them in the wild.
The starter Pokémon awarded by Team Rocket was guaranteed to possess exceptional talent and lineage.
Aoki vaguely recalled that the winner in his previous life had chosen a Bulbasaur.
Relying on that remarkably gifted Bulbasaur, he successfully became a regional executive for Team Rocket, reaching the peak of the Quasi-Elite Four rank, just a step away from becoming a full Elite Four trainer.
As a key target of Team Rocket’s nurturing, he had been showered in glory, supposedly being groomed as one of the next Four Generals.
Although Aoki had performed decently in his past life, there was still a massive gap between him and the champion.
Later on, he even served directly under that person, making him all too familiar with the man’s rise to power.
Patting the dust off his clothes, Aoki slowly stood up.
He suddenly froze mid-motion as a thought struck him: if he had truly been reborn just as before, then *that thing* ought to exist as well.
He uttered a silent command in his mind: *System, activate!* [Beep…
Microchip initializing…] After ten seconds, just as Aoki was about to give up hope, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind, devoid of any human emotion.
“As expected…”