Five o'clock in the evening, Zack arrived on time to collect the goods.
However, today Naoki had nothing to sell.
Perhaps Koraidon was too aggressive with frying fish the previous days, causing a significant reduction in fish in the nearby river, and he only caught three normal bass.
Zack seemed accustomed to this and instead started comforting Naoki.
"This kind of thing is normal. Fishing is about luck. You've already done well, you know. Some people sit by the river all day without catching a single fish!"
Naoki: "..."
Empty-handed, huh?
After selling the three bass and accepting the 600 League coins Zack handed him, Naoki pondered whether to go fishing in the sea west of Porto Marinada Town.
The fish in the river were almost all caught, it might take a while for them to recover.
At this time, the crops on the farm hadn't matured yet, and besides fishing, he didn't have other ways to make money.
But Naoki wasn't worried, because the most important thing for now was to sort out the Chicken House.
After washing himself and his two Pokemon with the tap water, Naoki returned to the wooden house to prepare dinner.
The rainbow trout was gone, leaving only some smoked sausages and ham, which were common ready-to-eat foods at the Porto Marinada Market.
They were easy to store and would keep for days at room temperature, perfect for places without a refrigerator.
However, sandwiches made with smoked sausages and ham lacked any special effects.
Despite this, both Koraidon and Cyclizar were eating happily.
This made Naoki think of an old saying from his previous life—A dog doesn't despise a poor home.
In this world, Pokemon are like domesticated dogs, once they accept you as their owner, they won't disdain you no matter how poor you are.
Moreover, Pokemon will live together with humans, and with the emotion and intelligence they possess, Naoki thought it might be more appropriate to call them family.
As for Caterpie…
Naoki knew it had been outside all day diligently practicing moves, and when it got tired, it would munch on fresh green leaves from the trees.
After a whole day of munching, it probably wasn't very hungry now.
Not even returning yet, Naoki went out to take a look and found it had fallen asleep on a big tree in the farm.
Compared to the house, Caterpie seemed to prefer the big tree outside.
After dinner, a busy day led Naoki to choose to go to bed early for rest.
At the same time, in the back mountain.
A blond boy, around ten years old, crawled out of the ditch in a sorry state.
The uniform with the Orange Academy emblem was covered in mud and damp, decaying leaves.
The boy looked at his dirty clothes with disdain, sitting on a tree with a face full of helplessness.
The boy's name was Carter, a first-year student of Orange Academy. He had left school two days prior to participate in an outdoor course, only to unexpectedly get lost along the way.
He initially planned to keep moving forward to see if he could find a place where people lived, but then it started to rain.
The rain lasted all day, trapping him in a cave for the entire day.
Once the rain stopped, he tried to get out and look around, only to fall into a ditch that not only dirtied his clothes but also scraped his leg.
With all his food eaten, Carter leaned against a tree, enduring hunger, his face filled with helplessness.
"I wonder if Delibird has found the location of the town. Ah, it's really annoying. If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have come to this extracurricular activity."
In the afternoon, Carter released his only Pokemon, Delibird, and asked it to use its sense of direction from the air to find a place where people lived.
Suddenly, the sound of Delibird's voice came from the sky.
Carter quickly looked up, his face full of surprise.
Looking at Delibird landing in front of him, Carter urgently asked, "Did you find a town nearby?"
"Bibi!"
Delibird nodded while taking out a blue berry from its white bag and handing it to its Trainer.
"You specially found food for me?" Carter held the berry, tears of gratitude welling up, and hugged Delibird tightly: "Thank you so much, Delibird!"
"Bibi!"
Delibird was squeezed so tightly it almost couldn't breathe.
Fortunately, Carter soon let go, took a bite of the berry, and regained his energy: "Alright! Then let's continue on!"
"Bibi!"
With Delibird leading the way, Carter followed closely behind it.
After walking for about an hour, under the moonlight, a dark wooden house appeared ahead.
"Is that...a wooden house?" Carter felt a bit disappointed; he initially thought it would be a bustling human town.
Besides that, Carter also saw farmland; it seemed to be a farm.
"Bibi!"
Delibird nodded its head, indicating it had seen traces of human activities here before.
"That's still better than getting lost in the mountains." Carter thought as he knocked on the door: "Hello, sorry to bother you, is anyone living here?"
Soon, footsteps were heard inside.
The lights came on inside, and as the door opened, a tall and skinny young man appeared in the doorway.
Naoki looked at the dirty boy in front of him, a flash of surprise crossing his face: "You are?"
Carter hurriedly introduced himself: "Hello, my name is Carter! I'm a student at Orange Academy, I accidentally got lost in the mountains... I wanted to ask, is the town far from here?"
Naoki glanced at him briefly and said: "It takes about three hours to walk there."
"Ah? That far?" Carter was dumbfounded, not knowing what to do.
His stamina was severely depleted, and he probably couldn't make it there.
Naoki looked at the emblem on Carter's chest, raised an eyebrow slightly, and then said: "Come in, you don't look like you can make it, you can stay here for the night."
Carter gratefully said: "Thank you so much! I won't stay for free, I will pay for the room!"
"Forget it, it's just a small gesture, no need for room fee."
From the original memory, Naoki knew that hotel fees in this world were not high, the cheapest one was about two hundred a night.
Thinking about it, Naoki stepped aside.
Hearing this, Carter is even more grateful.
Truly a good person!
He walked into the room with Delibird.
Judging from the outside, the wooden house wasn't large, but its interior was well-equipped.
A single bed, a desk, cabinets to partition the space, and a lit fireplace.
The wooden floors were spotless, and the room was impeccably clean and tidy.
"The owner of the house loves cleanliness," Carter thought.
Worried his shoes would dirty the house, Carter took them off before entering, stepping inside wearing only his long socks.
At this moment, his gaze suddenly landed on two Pokemon lying beside the bed.
A Cyclizar, and a completely crimson one, a stranger Pokemon he had never seen before.
Although he hadn't seen it before, his Trainer's intuition kept telling him that this Pokemon was extraordinary!