The sun of Valyria hung in the sky, mercilessly scorching the charred earth covered in rubble and broken walls.
After landing, Raymond had been heading towards the volcanic range, which was rumored to be the birthplace of dragons.
Thanks to the special area around the stone gate in his mind, he had brought enough supplies and didn't need to worry about food spoiling.
"Running a horse to death by looking at a mountain, the ancients truly didn't deceive me!" he swallowed, his voice hoarse, "If it weren't for sufficient supplies, I'd probably be dried into a salted fish by this hellhole."
He kicked away a loose piece of rubble at his feet.
Then he took out a parasol and a lounge chair from his space, placing them in the shade next to a pile of stone walls.
He leaned back in the lounge chair and began his day of slacking off.
"Sigh! Should I just go back? Use the Shadow Guard to eliminate all high-ranking officials, control Volantis, then go to Westeros and kowtow to acknowledge my maternal grandfather... and beg for a dragon egg?"
Before he could catch his breath, a crisp "ding" sound shot straight into his mind! It wasn't tinnitus from the scorching sun; it was clearly the genuine sound of metal clashing!
Raymond's muscles tensed, and he sat up with a jolt, his short knife gripped tightly in his hand, his vigilant gaze sweeping like a hawk over the rugged ruins around him.
"Detecting target life form... System binding... Please wait!"
A cold, mechanical synthetic voice exploded in his mind!
Raymond was startled, almost biting his tongue.
He spun around twice in place, sending rubble clattering, but there was nothing in his sight except desolation.
"What is it?! A system?!" His surprise instantly turned to ecstasy, his voice trembling with excitement, "Hahaha~~ You're finally here! I've been waiting so long I'm practically withered! Do you know how I've endured these years? Treading on thin ice, constantly on edge..."
"Binding complete! Hello, Host, welcome to the Grand Trainer System!" Before he finished speaking, a light blue floating light screen unfolded out of thin air before his eyes.
"Newbie Quest Issued: Capture your first Pokémon! Quest Reward: Great Ball × 3..."
"Wait a minute!" Raymond didn't even think, slapping towards the light screen, but his arm passed directly through it as if through air.
"What did you say the newbie quest was?"
"Ding! Obtain your initial Pokémon by self-capture or any other means."
Hearing the system's reply, Raymond almost laughed in exasperation, pointing at the scorching sun above his head and the desolate land around him, "Big brother! Please, just look at where this is, okay? There aren't even many normal living creatures! Where am I supposed to find you a Pokémon?! Don't joke around, okay! This isn't funny at all."
The light screen distorted for a moment, and as ripples swayed, it condensed into a round, pixelated cartoon smiley face with a wide grin: "Detecting host's resistance, according to the user protection agreement, starting psychological counseling... Oh dear! Dearie~! Why make things difficult for a fellow worker..." The tone instantly switched, carrying a syrupy, Japanese-style customer service accent.
"Stop! Immediately! Stop right now!" Raymond's temples throbbed, feeling his blood pressure surge.
"In this world, you want me to find dragons! That's fine! If there are no dragons here, I'll cross the ocean, kneel, and kowtow to call someone my maternal grandfather! But where are the Pokémon in this world?! Do you systems not do background checks before connecting with users? Or is there no mission instruction manual?"
The cartoon smiley face on the light screen instantly froze, like a skipping disc.
After a moment of dead silence, the cold, mechanical voice sounded with a hint of surprise: "...Scanning, please wait... Ding! ...Detected target world error... Target world positioning error... Predicted target: Pokemon parallel world... Current coordinates: Westeros Continent parallel dimension... Target binding error!"
Raymond plopped back down onto the scorching rubble, looking at the clearly glitching expression on the light screen, feeling both annoyed and unable to help but laugh.
After all that, it turned out they sent the wrong item?
"Ding... Querying binding Termination of Agreement..." The light screen flickered to itself, the voice intermittent, "...Applying for emergency unbinding... Application approved! System will unbind in 10 seconds..."
"Wait!" Raymond's heart leaped, and he almost instinctively shouted to stop it!
He narrowed his eyes, his finger habitually rubbing his chin—the scenes from his previous life about "transmigrators encountering systems" flashed through his mind like a movie.
No matter how absurd this thing was, a system falling from the sky!
Could he let it make a wasted trip? A goose leaves feathers, a beast leaves its hide.
Want to run? No way!!!
"Just leaving like that?" Raymond's eyes instantly sharpened, and a shrewd, worldly expression appeared on his face.
"System-kun, you see, with all these protocols and such... I suppose you're also a legitimate employee of a proper company, right? Causing such a big 'mistake' and not even offering a single token of apology? Not even compensating for lost work? This... this isn't right! If this gets out..."
The cartoon emoji on the light screen visibly stiffened for a moment, as if one could hear the sound of a sharp intake of breath from behind the program.
The pixelated face switched to an embarrassed expression with a few beads of sweat: "...Ding! ...Host soul signal abnormal fluctuation... Not native to this plane... Zzzzt... Although not exposed yet, prolonged presence will inevitably lead to rejection by world rules."
"Upon binding, this system... has legally 'registered and filed' your soul fluctuations at the local world rule level, making you no longer an illegal 'black-registered' individual and granting you a legal identity in this dimension.
At the same time, underlying programs have been activated... forcibly clearing two hidden curses from this body.
These... are the substantial compensations made by this system..." Its voice tried to remain calm, but it carried an air of "less trouble is better than more trouble" evasion.
"Heh... heh heh..." Raymond let out a series of exaggerated sneers, crossing his arms, adopting a stance of "you keep making it up, I'm listening," "Do you really think I'm some ignorant layman? Let me tell you, I have connections! I'm a legitimate reincarnation."
"Ding!! ...Your connections..."
"Don't interrupt, I was already legitimate when I was sent here, certified by this world's Heavenly Dao. You think you can trick me? Do you think that's possible? So you'd better figure out how to compensate me! Otherwise, I'll complain about you!"