“The future?” Upon hearing the unexpected question, Kai paused.

  He wondered why Rick was asking him that, but also how he should respond.

  Truth be told, he hadn’t thought much about his future while on Earth.

  Back then, he wasn’t even a high school student, so the picture of him as an adult was very hazy. He could see himself becoming a doctor, but just as easily, he pictured himself as a teacher, a football player, or a pro-gamer.

  He didn’t have a big dream or a great aspiration, and after transmigrating to this Pokémon World, he had been focused only on surviving.

  When he first appeared in this world, he was transported to someplace inside the Viridian Forest with no clothes, tools, or food.

  For weeks, he drifted around this forest searching for other people, food, or shelter. He didn’t know where he was, and in his state, the realistic Pokémon seemed like fantasy monsters, ready to kill him.

  Thankfully, he found the Bug Catcher Club, otherwise it wouldn’t have taken much longer for him to die here.

  After that, he changed his focus to earning money. He needed money to buy basic supplies, and more importantly, to have a pokémon.

  With a pokémon his options would increase, and so would his safety, but did this mean that he wanted to be a Battle Trainer?

  He would be lying if he said this didn’t cross his mind; he as the champion of the region, the best in his field, living a comfortable life together with his many Pokémon; it seemed as good as it was a distant reality.

  This was a world based on Pokemon Extreme Red, so the difficulty would be, well, extreme. Finding and catching the right pokémon wouldn’t be as simple as running in circles on the tall grass until the RNG cooperated; he would have to put his life at risk, and even then, it was not guaranteed that he would succeed. And he needed to get the right team if he wanted to beat the league.

  Items were expensive, and Pokémon could actually get hurt or die when battling, so battles should be approached with care.

  Despite this, he still answered.

  “To be a Battle Trainer, probably,” he said, with a small smile forming on his lips.

  There were other professions that were safer, but he could always turn to them if being a Battle Trainer didn’t work out, and no one said that he needed to succeed at his first try.

  Not to mention that he had a few gifts that would help him on his journey, like the ability to see the levels of Pokémon and how many badges and Pokémon a trainer had. Not to mention his biggest advantage, his encyclopedic knowledge of the game and its hidden features.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “...” Kai then noticed that both of his friends were looking at him in silence, their faces showing a bit of surprise.

  “What? Is there something wrong with wanting to be a Battle Trainer?” He asked then, suddenly becoming suspicious. Maybe Battle Trainers suffer from a stigma in this world? He still didn’t understand much of this world, so it could be something he was ignorant about.

  “No, hahahaha!” Jo started laughing uncontrollably.

  “It’s just that it’s such a normal answer that it caught us by surprise.” Rick began to explain with a small, good-natured smile.

  “Yeah, I thought it would be something big, like International Investigator or CEO of a big company.” Jo completed, chiming in.

  “Well, sorry to disappoint then,” Kai responded, relieved that it was nothing big, but also annoyed with these two, especially Jo.

  “Tell me then, what are you going to do in the future?” He passed the ball to them.

  “Miss Kanto,” Jo said in a serious voice.

  “A Researcher,” Rick replied timidly.

  “A Researcher, huh? I think it suits you well. Will you specialize in Bug Pokémon?” Kai continued to ask Rick.

  “Oi, are you going to ignore me?” Jo tugged his shirt and asked him, her face getting uncomfortably close to his.

  He freed his shirt and took a step back before looking her up and down with eyes full of scrutiny.

  “What?” She began to feel embarrassed by the way he was looking at her.

  “Is Miss Kanto a title for a beautiful, elegant woman selected by a lot of judges in a competition full of other participants?” He asked, with the sober tone of a mother ready to destroy her daughter’s dreams.

  “Yes, but why do you ask? You think I’m not pretty enough for that?” She responded, teasingly.

  “It’s not that, you’re pretty, and should become prettier as the years go by,” Kai shook his head, while Rick and Jo opened their eyes wide at the words he was saying.

  “It’s just that I can’t picture you using a dress, that’s all.” He finished his piece and turned to Rick, intending to continue their conversation.

  Jo looked at her clothes. She was wearing blue shorts and a white tank top, the uniform of a bug catcher. Thinking back, she was almost always wearing these types of clothes ever since she came to Viridian. The last time she wore a dress was when she still lived in Celadon.

  She blushed hard, not knowing why she was embarrassed. Was it because Kai took her joke seriously or because he said she was pretty? It was hard to say.

  “It was a joke, you idiot.” She retorted, her voice almost a whisper.

  “Huh? Did you say something?” Kai asked when he heard her voice.

  “I said it was a joke, you idiot!” Jo yelled and then punched him in the chest to vent her embarrassment.

  “Hey, guys! What are you all doing?” At this moment, Sammy entered the base and saw the whole thing.

  “We’re talking about what we want to be in the future,” Rick, ever the informative friend, answered, glad for the chance to change topics.

  “Oh!” Sammy smiled, showing great interest in the topic.

  “I want to be a Battle Trainer!” He said, full of excitement.

  “Oh…” Kai, Rick, and Jo answered at the same time with an expression of ‘just as expected’ plastered on their faces.