11:47 PM – Crimson Reef Island
...
The moon was bright, and the stars were sparse. In the vast sea, there was a small island with dense trees—Crimson Reef Island, a place where survival meant everything and weakness was unforgivable.
A sallow and skinny young man sat on the beach, his eyes sunken deep like a bird's nest. He looked like a typical malnourished person, wearing tattered clothes, though one could still vaguely tell that the young man was about fifteen years old.
The young man—Jayden Cross—looked at a creature beside him with a complicated expression. It was small, about the size of a large insect, with a gray, hardened body and six short legs. A white, mask-like face stared back at him with unblinking compound eyes. If it wasn't for the bright moon overhead, one could hardly see its full appearance in the darkness.
His slightly trembling hand slowly reached toward the creature in front of him. The moment before contact, he unconsciously paused. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he touched it.
He retracted his complicated gaze and exhaled softly.
"I didn't expect that I would still come back," Jayden said indifferently.
Everything seemed vivid in his mind.
As a powerful trainer with the strength of a Quasi-Elite Four, Jayden vaguely remembered that after he was captured by Team Rocket for a trial, he had survived with great difficulty. With his abilities and special gifts from his previous life, he had made a name for himself in Team Rocket and gained a certain reputation in the underground world.
However, during one of the Alliance's raids, he was set up by a competitor within Team Rocket. Because of his overconfidence after advancing to the Quasi-Elite Four stage, he thought he would be able to survive the encirclement. In the end, he did not expect that the Alliance would actually send out two Elite Four-level experts specifically for him. The two furious trainers worked together to bury him underground.
When he opened his eyes again, he was already at the scene in front of him—back at the beginning, back on Crimson Reef Island.
Jayden stretched out his hands with great effort. All the scars from his injuries and years of training had disappeared. His hands were yellow from malnutrition, and he could clearly see the traces of blood vessels and bones beneath the skin.
He clenched his hands with all his might, and his nails slowly dug into his palms, drawing tiny beads of blood.
...
"Nin... nincada..." The Nincada beside him made a soft, chittering sound, its compound eyes gleaming as it looked curiously at the person in front of it who seemed to have suddenly changed.
Jayden heard the Nincada's cry and tried his best to pull the corners of his mouth into a smile. The muscles on his face, which had not smiled for a long time, seemed to have forgotten how.
He reached down and carefully touched the Nincada's hardened carapace. It was rough and uneven, clearly showing signs of malnutrition, just like him.
"Nincada, it's great to have you here!" Jayden said with a complicated expression, his voice thick with emotion.
In his previous life, his way of doing things had been rigid and cold. Even when he changed later on, it was too late. However, the Nincada—later evolved into Ninjask—as his initial Pokémon, had always been by his side. It was his closest guardian and friend. Even at the last moment in his previous life, it had protected him and never given up on him.
As for the "powerful" companions that he had forcibly captured, bought, and stolen, they had all left him when things went south. Only his first partner had never abandoned him. It was the only existence that he regretted the most—the one he had failed the most.
"Nincada!" The Bug/Ground-type called out. Although it didn't know why, it could clearly feel the closeness between the person in front of it and itself.
This was clearly the first time they had met, yet Nincada couldn't help but want to get closer to him. Therefore, after Jayden had released it from its Pokéball, it didn't attack or try to escape. It only looked at the person in front of it curiously, its antennae twitching with interest.
Jayden was stunned. He remembered that when he first encountered Nincada in his previous life, he had spent considerable effort to subdue it. He had also wasted precious time trying to completely grasp and understand this creature that he had come into contact with for the first time.
Even now, Jayden felt that it was a tragedy that he had wasted so much time back then.
As someone who had been reborn, he knew about Pokémon from watching a few cartoons in his past past life—something about a kid named Ash and a miraculous Pikachu. But he didn't even know all the species of Pokémon, let alone their characteristics, skills, and proper training methods.
In this world, there was a saying: the upper limit of a Pokémon's growth depended on the Pokémon's talent, and the lower limit of a Pokémon's growth depended on the trainer's cultivation.
In the past, Jayden hadn't known how much time he had wasted trying to completely understand all the characteristics of Nincada as a species. By the time he had properly cultivated it, much of its talent had already been squandered.
The reason he had been able to stand out in the trial in his previous life was entirely because of Nincada's own natural talent. The detours he had taken were countless.
Because he had wasted so much of his partner's potential, he had never fully utilized its abilities—and he had paid the price for that ignorance.
"Nincada, in this life, I will never give up on you again," Jayden said, his voice trembling slightly as his hands gently traced the Pokémon's rough shell. "I'll raise you properly this time. I won't waste your potential."
...
"Nincada!" The Pokémon responded with a soft cry, as if understanding his resolve.
Jayden took a deep breath, slowly calming himself down. In this life, he would not be weak. Being weak was the original sin.
Taking another breath, he focused his thoughts and whispered into the night air:
"System start."
"Beep... CIPHER is starting..."
After ten seconds—just when Jayden was about to give up—a mechanical voice sounded in his mind, emotionless and cold like a robot.
"Sure enough..." Jayden whispered, his eyes gleaming with newfound determination.
...
End of Chapter 1
"In the darkness, even the smallest light can become a beacon—or a target."