{T/N: Stones and Reviews, please...}
...
[Re-evaluating player's comprehensive strength rating...]
[Congratulations! Your ranking on the global player leaderboard has risen by 5382 places!]
[Current ranking: 29 916!]
[Congratulations! Your title 'Savior' has topped the title rankings! Please continue your efforts!]
Ignoring the commotion caused by the Achievement announcements, Caleb teleported back to his home the moment he returned to the Infinite World.
He opened his inventory to examine the rewards from this Instance run.
- Savior: Ultra-SSS grade rare title. When equipped, all Pokémon's favorability increases by 20! Wild Pokémon will not attack players wearing this title, and the success rate of capturing Pokémon is greatly increased...
- Ticket of Time: An admission ticket that can be used to open the large-scale special Instance [Appointed Time]. The Instance will begin after seven days. Missing the deadline will permanently void this ticket...
- Mewtwo's Heart: A Mythical item condensed from Mewtwo's emotions. Allows Mewtwo to freely switch between X Forme and Y Forme, increasing the duration of both formes by 100%. Exclusive to Player Caleb Chase...
- Special Attack Enhancer: A nutritional drink for Pokémon that increases a Pokémon's base Special Attack stat...
Caleb: "..."
Was the Special Attack Enhancer here just to look cute?
He silently placed the orange potion in a corner of his inventory, then took out a green ticket emitting a faint grassy scent and a crystal-clear pink heart that resembled a gemstone.
The rewards from this punishment Instance were overwhelmingly generous... so much so, that calling them exaggerated would be an understatement.
From the Warp Beacon that allowed instant teleportation regardless of time or location, to the Book of Answers that provided crucial Instance information, and finally to this Mewtwo's Heart... Their potential value far surpassed even that of the two pairs of Red and Blue Orbs.
However, these rewards had essentially been earned with his life on the line...
If he hadn't completed little Amber's hidden task in the first Instance... the course of events might have taken a completely different turn.
As for Mewtwo...
Caleb didn't feel much regret about not capturing it.
He had always believed that Pokémon were independent beings, and 'capturing' was a mutual selection process. That was why he had never gone out of his way to capture wild Pokémon en masse and keep them confined in the Infinite World.
After some thought, he took out the Book of Answers, wanting to ask about what happened to that world's Mewtwo afterward.
But he received a prompt:
[The Book of Answers cannot be used within the Infinite World...]
Seeing this, Caleb unceremoniously used it to prop up a wobbly table leg.
Aside from these item rewards, the points earned from this Instance run were also staggeringly high.
A single Instance had netted him 50 000 points, bringing him a massive step closer to the ultimate goal of 990 000 points.
Satisfied, Caleb checked his current points balance:
[57 650 points]
Then he casually exchanged for a transparent glass display cabinet, placing it in the living room to showcase the two pairs of Red and Blue Orbs and the Spear Key he had collected.
Only after finishing this did he turn his attention to the Pokémon Egg with black patterns.
This was the quest reward he had obtained during the Mt. Silver battle.
- Unknown Pokémon Egg: Can randomly hatch into a rare Pokémon...
Mimikyu, Dragonite, Lucario, and Caleb gathered around the egg on the table...
"Wuu?"
Dragonite curiously poked the round egg with its claw, causing it to roll along the edge of the table until Mimikyu caught it.
Mimikyu gave Dragonite a disapproving look.
"So... does anyone know how to hatch this thing?" Caleb asked them.
After all, weren't all Pokémon born from eggs?
"Wuu..."
Under their trainer's expectant gaze, the three Pokémon shook their heads innocently.
Caleb "Were all of you born from eggs too?"
Dragonite rested its chubby claws on its chin, recalling its days as a Dratini; The lake, the rainstorms, the sky... these three things had accompanied its early years. Anything before that was a mystery.
Those memories had grown increasingly hazy with the passage of time and the fullness of life.
Mimikyu also didn't know when it had been born. Ghost-type Pokémon tended to have long lifespans, and it had once lived in desolate wilderness far from humans.
Days passed one after another, the moon rose and set, and Mimikyu could no longer remember its earliest memories.
Sometimes, it even wondered if it hadn't been born from an egg at all, but rather evolved from will-o'-wisps emerging from graves.
Caleb, who was connected to Mimikyu via the Viridian Power: "..."
"Watch fewer human TV dramas from now on," he told Mimikyu.
Mimikyu nodded obediently.
Caleb then turned his attention to Lucario, the only one among his Pokémon still in its juvenile phase.
When he had first met Lucario, it had been a tiny Riolu.
Under its trainer's hopeful gaze, Lucario fell silent for a few seconds before also sinking into its own memories.
Wild Lucario spent their entire lives training in wilderness far from humans. For as long as it could remember, it had always lived on that island.
It did recall its own hatching, but... it had been the one inside the egg...
Caleb: "..."
'Alright, that was my oversight.'
For the next half hour, Caleb, Dragonite, Mimikyu, and Lucario brainstormed various methods for hatching the egg.
Dragonite suggested incubating it like a mother hen from TV, but Mimikyu quickly vetoed the idea. Neither Dragonite nor Mimikyu had feathers, and Lucario's fur was too short to cover the entire egg.
None of them noticed that while they were fervently discussing incubation methods, the egg Caleb had placed on a soft blanket behind them wobbled slightly.
*Crack*
A faint sound came from within.
The unreliable trainer and his unreliable Pokémon didn't hear it.
A small, black, fuzzy head poked out from the broken shell. Dragonite's tail swayed leisurely in front of it before drooping right before its eyes.
The newly hatched hatchling instinctively opened its mouth and chomped down.
"OWOOOO!"
Dragonite let out a pained howl, yanking its tail back as tears welled up in its eyes from the pain.
The others quickly turned around at the noise, only to see a black Pokémon sitting on the couch with its mouth wide open, revealing two sharp fangs...