I don’t get it.
After tinkering with it for a while, Kaname had to admit a fact.
The computer in front of her was indeed harder to use than she had imagined.
The first computer she owned in her past life at least had an operating system, and if she wanted to Surf the web, there were corresponding portal site navigations.
But the screen of this machine only showed a blinking green cursor and a command-line interface with white text on a black background.
To perform any operation, one had to input specific code commands.
This was clearly a much more primitive version.
Having confirmed this, Kaname decisively abandoned the idea of searching for massive amounts of knowledge through the network.
However.
She was still excited about the long-awaited online experience.
Kaname closed her eyes and quickly searched the information she had just absorbed in her mind.
She remembered that among the books she flipped through that morning, there was an inconspicuous cross-regional communication monthly, with a website printed in the corner of the back cover that had left a deep impression on her.
“Pokémon Center’s Global Pokémon Trainer Mutual Aid Forum…” This was probably the prototype of the League Network that would connect Pokémon Trainers worldwide in the future.
Although it might be quite rudimentary now, it was at least a place where industry insiders gathered.
She just didn’t know what it actually looked like.
Kaname placed her hands on that mechanical keyboard which made a loud clicking sound.
[pokédex system assistance activated.] [External input device detected…
Taking over command-line input.] [Parsing communication protocol…
Dialing connection…] Zzzt— Accompanied by the harsh sound from the computer case, the code on the screen began to Rollout frantically.
Kaname’s fingers flew across the keyboard.
Actually, she was just following suit; the pokédex system pre-displayed all the codes that needed to be entered in front of her.
It seemed the books she scanned earlier really did help.
After some effort, the screen finally flickered and jumped to an interface with crude pixel icons.
Kaname finally entered the forum and quickly completed her account registration.
“Let me see what the Pokémon Trainers are talking about these days…” The faint fluorescent glow of the computer screen reflected on the little girl’s focused face.
…
At the same time.
Hoenn region, Rustboro City.
As the largest industrial city in the Hoenn region, the huge industrial chimneys outside the window were spewing gray exhaust into the sky, obscuring Mt.
Chimney in the distance.
Inside the luxury penthouse of the Devon Corporation headquarters.
A young boy with silver-blue hair was sitting cross-legged on a priceless velvet carpet, completely lacking any formal posture.
He was wearing an old vest stained with lime powder and dirt, with his pant legs rolled up high; this outfit was completely out of place with the luxurious European-style decor around him.
The air conditioning in the room was blasting, yet beads of sweat hung on his forehead.
The boy was fretting in front of a floating, one-eyed iron lump.
“Still not working…” Steven irritably scratched his signature silver-blue hair and pushed several pieces of high-purity magnets aside.
“Du-bei…” The silver Beldum in front of him made a listless mechanical sound, its single eye half-closed, its body swaying in mid-air, clearly weak to the extreme.
Steven couldn’t understand no matter how hard he thought.
Why was this Beldum not at all interested in the top-grade magnets he had specifically ordered people to collect from the depths of the mines?
Textbooks and the pokédex clearly stated that if a Beldum was unwell or lacked energy, feeding it high-quality magnets was the best solution.
As the young master of Devon Corporation, which was world-renowned for heavy industry and mining, Steven had recently expressed his intention to try raising Pokémon, and those around him immediately found many rare Pokémon for him to choose from.
Among a pile of Starters and rare Dragon-type Pokémon, Steven took a liking to this special Beldum at first sight.
Unlike the bluish-blue metal shells of its typical kin, this Beldum had a unique silver radiance, like a piece of unpolished, top-grade silver ore.
The unique metallic texture instantly struck Steven’s heart.
But after getting along for a few days, Steven began to worry about the Beldum’s hunger strike.
He tried to solve it using knowledge from books and also asked the servants and company employees around him.
But the answers he got were often unsatisfactory.
“Young Master, this one might be a defective product.
Let’s exchange it for a more obedient one.” “Young Master, why not send it back to the lab for the technicians to take a look?” Every single sentence was annoying.
Steven just happened to be stubborn about this particular one.
It wasn’t that he was throwing a tantrum like a spoiled young master.
Although he was often jokingly called the “Noble Son of Devon Corporation” by outsiders, he had absolutely no interest in inheriting the family business; at a young age, he was obsessed with mining in caves and collecting various stones.
However.
Pokémon were different from stones, after all.
Stones are static; you just put them in a display case, turn on the lights, treasure them, and occasionally take them out to admire and handle.
But when he met the gaze of this Beldum’s single red eye, Steven deeply realized that even though it had a cold, mechanical metal body, it was a living being.
And he would become partners with it in the future, exploring more ruins and facing more challenges together.
“How could he back down and swap it out just because he hit the first problem!” But that was easier said than done; reality was harsh.
He was surrounded by company employees and servants who only knew how to take care of daily life.
If they were discussing the excavation efficiency of a new mining machine, they could talk for three days and nights, but when it came to Pokémon breeding, most of them were completely clueless.
After all, the people who would directly give a hard-to-raise Beldum to Steven as his first Pokémon didn’t have much breeding common sense to begin with.
Steven felt that the people around him were more unreliable than the next, and the knowledge he found in books was also completely useless.
To make matters worse, he had ambitiously promised his father a while ago that in order to prove he was qualified to pursue freedom and not inherit the family estate, he would make a name for himself as a Pokémon Trainer and carve out his own path.
Now, if he went to his father for help over such a small matter, it would be no different from waving a white flag of surrender.
“Du-bei…” Watching the Beldum’s magnetic levitation reaction grow weaker and weaker, Steven gritted his teeth.
…Now that things had come to this, it seemed there was only one way.
Steven turned around and looked at the computer in the corner of the room that he had always used to check ore market prices.
He sat in front of the computer, and with practiced movements, quickly logged onto a website, posted a thread, and described the Beldum’s symptoms in detail.
…
[Bounty] Regarding Beldum’s anorexia, urgent!
Waiting online!
…
After waiting anxiously for a few minutes.
Soon, the first reply appeared before Steven.
[X: Is it because you fed it too much?]