Headache...
It felt as though someone was taking a chisel to his temples; dull, heavy waves of pain surged up incessantly.
Ash struggled to pry his heavy eyelids open. His vision was filled with blurry, shifting blocks of color, and it took a long while before he could barely focus.
A strange ceiling, adorned with several stickers and a pattern of a red and white sphere.
"Where... where have I ended up?"
The voice that came out was dry and unfamiliar... Why did it sound like a ten-year-old child?
Ash was startled and subconsciously raised a hand to touch his throat.
He saw his own wrist—slender, with soft, tender skin.
This isn't my hand!
Panic instantly overwhelmed the headache.
Ash propped himself up to sit and looked around.
The room wasn't large and was tidied reasonably well, but everywhere exuded a peculiar sense of familiarity:
The walls were plastered with colorful posters of various strange creatures.
Piled on one corner of the desk were several red and white spherical toys.
In the corner sat a plush Snorlax doll, half the height of a person.
Wait?
That doll...
"Pokémon?" The word slipped out, carrying a tremor of disbelief that even Ash found hard to accept.
Pokémon?
Countless fragmented, blurry memories began to surface, and he finally understood his identity.
I've transmigrated into Ash Ketchum?!
Ten years, ten months, and ten days old. Birthday: May 22nd.
Pallet Town?
The goal... is to become a Pokémon Master?!
This situation was a bit too impactful.
Ash practically rolled off the bed and rushed barefoot to the other side of the room.
The touch of the icy floor made the soles of his feet recoil, but he couldn't care about that right now.
A round mirror hung on the wall, and Ash grabbed the edges of the frame.
In the mirror, a strange young boy was staring back in horror.
The reality of it was simply too shocking.
The soul of a transmigrator had arrived in the Pokémon world and become Ash Ketchum.
"Damn it..."
Ash pinched his arm hard, and a clear sensation of pain followed—this was no dream.
What an absolutely absurd development.
"I..."
Ash's gaze swept frantically across the room.
Finally, it settled on a somewhat old alarm clock shaped like a red and white Poké Ball on the desk.
On the round face, the hour and minute hands pointed lazily to—12:12.
And on the calendar hanging on the wall next to it—April 1, 1997.
April Fools' Day?
What kind of cosmic joke is this?!
Stimulated by his mental state, more memories surfaced in his mind.
Memory fragments belonging to "Ash"—those eager expectations regarding "dreams," "departure," and "partners"—surged up like a tide, mixing violently with the "transmigrator's" god's-eye view knowledge derived from the anime.
Memories that were originally blurry became increasingly clear.
Two different cognitive memories achieved unification in this moment.
The transmigrator finally clearly recognized the fact that he had become Ash.
"Today is..." Ash heard his own voice drifting, "the day to receive my starter Pokémon..."
No.
Calm down.
I need to be calm.
Count prime numbers first.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6..."
Crap... I can't calm down.
Subconsciously following the memories in his mind, Ash walked to the bathroom.
Splash.
A handful of cold water against his face, and he instantly felt much more awake.
"Eh?"
After his brain cleared, Ash suddenly noticed a small screen in the upper left corner of his vision.
The kind you couldn't see at all unless you focused your attention on it.
[Pokémon Master Achievement System · Inactive]
[Would you like to activate?]
[Yes / No]
"..." Ash stared blankly into the mirror.
Okay, not a hallucination.
I think I need to understand this world further.
Ash rubbed his face vigorously.
"...The study... need to confirm..." Ash briefly recalled the memories in his mind.
As a Trainer about to embark on a journey, Ash did understand some basic Pokémon knowledge.
For example:
Gastly—Born from poison gas, 95% of its body is poison gas, the rest is a soul.
Countermeasures—Gastly cannot be harmed by ordinary physical attacks. When encountering a Gastly, one can use wind to blow away its body, or fire to ignite it.
...This world is very wrong; it's not the standard Pokémon world.
Is it the Pokédex version of Pokémon?
More than just the Pokédex?
A realistic completion of the world view?
Ash dug out two more pieces of information from his mind:
Gyarados generally has a body length of 6.5 meters and weighs 2.5 tons.
Onix generally has a body length of 8.8 meters and weighs 30 tons.
Pondering the situation, Ash went to the study.
He turned on the computer.
Internet search initiated.
"Kanto Region, Johto Region, Hoenn Region, Sinnoh Region, Unova Region, Kalos Region, Alola Region, Galar Region..."
Ash thought about the timeline.
Although the Pokémon IP has the joke about a 10-year-old boy traveling for 20 years, making it impossible to copy the plot exactly to understand the world.
But the general plot information still had reference value.
"Kanto Elite Four... Lance."
"...Champions of other regions... Steven Stone, Cynthia, Alder, Diantha, Leon..."
Ash looked up information about this world on the computer.
These were surface-level intelligence, basically unconcealed.
"Amazing..."
...But aside from that, Ash recalled some less-than-pleasant news:
① Team Rocket · Giovanni is creating Mewtwo.
② Team Magma · Maxie wants to awaken Groudon.
③ Team Aqua · Archie wants to awaken Kyogre.
④ Team Galactic · Cyrus attempts to awaken Dialga and Palkia to create a new world.
⑤ Team Plasma · Ghetsis, compared to the others, isn't too excessive; he just wants to rule the world.
⑥ Team Flare · Lysandre feels that other people and Pokémon are hindrances and wants to destroy them to realize his so-called "Ideal World."
What?
You say Team Skull? Team Yell? Team Star?
...Isn't it a bit excessive to rank them with the ones above?
Their crimes don't warrant death!
It feels like things are doomed... Ash thought of Eternatus, Necrozma, and Arceus.
Now I can't just lie flat and do nothing.
Ash focused his attention on the upper left corner of his vision.
[Yes / No]
Of course [Yes].
If I don't put in some effort, I'm probably dead meat.
In this mixed world, the villains are mixed together too.
These villains are often preparing to pull off something huge.
If I don't have enough combat power to participate, I might just inexplicably get a Game Over.
[System Activated]
[Name: Ash]
[Age: 10]
[Held Pokémon: None]
[Achievement: First Journey Departure (Unachieved)]
Ash roughly looked over the system; there were many panels not yet unlocked.
It seems the current Achievement System is the main storyline?
[Achievement: First Pokémon Capture (Unachieved)]
[Achievement: First Trainer Battle (Unachieved)]
[Achievement: ...]
"Sleep." Ash looked at the moon outside the window.
The first thing to do is verify exactly how much this world shares with his knowledge, and how much is different.
So when going to receive a Pokémon, he cannot go early.
He must be late, and then determine if he gets Pikachu or something else.
This determines what to do next.
After all, when he moved his body just now, Ash tested it.
He couldn't touch the ceiling when jumping, and holding the water cup felt a bit heavy.
This proves he doesn't have that terrifying physical constitution of a "Super Palletian."
The various exaggerated feats of Ash in the original anime... currently, he definitely cannot achieve them.
____
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