"Streamer, streamer! Celadon City where I am is holding the first 'Magikarp High Jump Competition' soon.
If you bring your Magikarp to compete, you'd have a great shot at winning!"
"Magikarp High Jump Competition?" Caster's heart stirred. This was a small-scale competition that appeared in Pokémon Journeys, simply comparing whose Magikarp could jump the highest.
"I remember in the first ten Magikarp High Jump Competitions, the champion was always a Trainer named 'Kasukarp.'
His 'Muscle Karp' was a shiny Magikarp, covered head to tail in muscle with incredible jumping power."
Caster recalled the anime plot and thought to himself: "But my Magikarp's 'Bounce' skill is maxed out too, so I wouldn't necessarily lose to Kasukarp's Muscle Karp.
Participating in this competition would be a fun little side quest. Worth considering!"
Caster was tempted, but didn't commit completely, only saying vaguely: "If there's time, I'll consider entering this competition..."
After a few more exchanges with his fans, Caster ended the stream and walked out of Cerulean Gym with the Cascade Badge in hand.
Just then, a red luxury convertible stopped at the gym entrance, its back seat full of beautiful girls.
"Gary, Gary, you're the best! Gary, Gary, go for it!"
"Gary, Gary, you're amazing! Gary, Gary, you're so handsome!"
With exaggerated cheering sounds, a handsome young man with spiky hair stepped out of the convertible. This was none other than Professor Oak's grandson, Ash's original rival, Gary Oak, the youthful version of Blue himself.
"Thank you, my beautiful girlfriends!"
"Don't worry, I, Gary, won't let you down."
With that, Gary swaggered into Cerulean Gym with his girlfriend cheerleading squad. As for Caster, he was completely ignored by the group as if he were invisible.
"Gary's here to challenge Cerulean Gym. So the current timeline is shortly after Ash just got Pikachu and started his journey?"
Caster raised an eyebrow and thought: "Then it probably won't be long before I run into that goofball and Pikachu."
After all, as the protagonist he'd followed for over twenty years, Caster still had feelings for Ash and Pikachu.
If he could meet them once, this whole transmigration would be worthwhile.
"Let's go!" Caster had zero interest in Gary's gym challenge.
Gary's Pokémon lineup was way too luxurious. Forget the Cerulean Sisters, even if they called Misty back it wouldn't help.
If conditions allowed, Caster hoped to face Gary at the Indigo League.
...
"I've got money! Finally can have a decent meal..."
On the way home, Caster excitedly logged into the 'PokéTube' platform and applied for withdrawal. Days without money had been truly tough.
[Withdrawal Application Successfully Submitted!]
[Your withdrawal application has been received. The system will complete the review within 3 business days. The review results will be notified to you via internal message.]
"What? Three business days?" Caster groaned in despair. He'd not only won an important battle today but also had a hugely successful stream. He'd been planning to reward himself properly.
Of course, not that kind of reward! He just wanted to take Magikarp out for good food and then relax a bit. But now with the withdrawal failed, his plans had undoubtedly fallen through.
Returning to his cramped rental room, Caster could only continue eating plain rice and vegetables to fill his stomach. As for Magikarp, Caster gave it a few extra pokéblocks as a reward.
After eating and drinking his fill, Caster edited today's live stream video and uploaded it to his channel.
Although many viewers watched the live stream, even more hadn't seen it, and this video had great explosive potential.
He was sure the view count wouldn't be low. That's all money!
...
After lunch and a short rest, Caster once again brought Magikarp to the lakeside.
"Magikarp, thanks to you, we've got money." After placing Magikarp in the water, Caster said apologetically: "But the withdrawal takes time, so the feast is postponed."
"Karp~"
Hearing this, Magikarp wasn't disappointed. Instead, it nudged the shoreline Caster with its head, indicating he didn't need to feel guilty.
"Karp buddy, you..."
Caster's heart warmed, his nose tingling. If Magikarp weren't so large, Caster would want to kiss it, hug it, and lift it high.
"Karp~ Karp~"
Magikarp called out a few more times, a sly glint in its eyes. Trainer, the feast doesn't matter, just compensate me with Energy Orbs.
Understanding Magikarp's meaning, Caster instantly froze, pouting: "Knew it, I got happy too soon."
Glancing at Magikarp in the water, Caster pretended to be angry: "No Energy Orbs available, only one life to give."
"Karp~" Hearing this, Magikarp suddenly bit Caster's clothes, trying to drag him into the water.
"Wait! Phone, phone!" After securing his phone and other items, Caster got excited too and dove headfirst into the water.
After splashing and playing around in the water for a moment, Caster grabbed Magikarp's crown-shaped dorsal fin and shouted: "Magikarp, let's go!"
"Karp~" Magikarp understood and immediately shot forward like an arrow, swimming rapidly through the lake.
However, to accommodate Caster, it didn't dive underwater but swam along the surface.
"Whoa, so fast!" Feeling the strong wind blowing in his face and watching the light reflecting off the water's surface, Caster was thrilled. Exhilarating!
Getting into the excitement, Magikarp suddenly leaped up.
With its Mastered-level splash skill activated, Magikarp launched Caster several meters into the air, gliding together through the sky and covering dozens of meters.
"Wow, we're flying!" Caster released Magikarp's dorsal fin and spread his arms to embrace the sky. Then, trainer and Pokémon fell back into the water, splashing up tons of water.
Under the sunlight, the water mist formed a rainbow, becoming the backdrop for their fun.
After playing for over half an hour, trainer and Pokémon finally collapsed exhausted on the shore.
"Fishing to do, a beloved Pokémon companion, and making money from videos. Everything is so wonderful." Caster watched white clouds drifting leisurely across the sky, feeling like he was dreaming.
"But now's not the time to relax and slack off..."
Caster suddenly sat up. Having managed to transmigrate once and with a cheat ability to boot, he naturally wanted to get as strong as possible and then battle those Pokémon Masters.
Best case scenario: punch Elite Four members, kick Champions, catch Kyogre, marry a cutie, and reach the pinnacle of life... And all of this was built on strength.
After fantasizing for a moment, Caster remembered the airborne gliding scene earlier, the memory still fresh: "If only I could learn 'Bounce,' then maybe Magikarp could really fly in the future."
Bounce, a Flying-type move. The user bounces high into the air and then attacks the opponent, sometimes causing paralysis.
As a Flying-type move, Bounce undoubtedly greatly increased a Pokémon's airtime and gliding ability, hence it was also called 'Mini Fly.'
And when Magikarp evolved into Gyarados, it would also gain the Flying type. In that case, even if Gyarados couldn't fly freely like a bird, short-distance flight would be possible.
"I remember Azumarill, Horsea, and even Goldeen can all learn the 'Bounce' move.
Maybe going forward, I can consider targeting these Pokémon when fishing." Caster had a flash of insight.
Through this period of fishing, Caster had developed some theories about the skill TMs his cheat ability rewarded.
So far, everything Caster had caught had been Magikarp, and he'd only received four types of skill TMs: Chilling Water, Splash, Tackle, and Flail.
Of these, Splash accounted for the majority, Tackle for a smaller portion, Flail only three times, and Chilling Water just once as an extra reward for catching his first Magikarp.
Simultaneously, comparing this with the skills displayed on the caught Magikarps' status screens, Caster formed a hypothesis.
The skill TMs rewarded by his cheat ability would most likely be skills the caught Pokémon currently mastered.
There was a small chance of getting skills the caught Pokémon could master at its current stage but hadn't yet learned.
And an extremely small chance of getting skills the caught Pokémon could master after evolving but couldn't currently learn.
Splash and Tackle skills belonged to the first category. But relatively speaking, not every Magikarp could master Tackle, so the probability of receiving Tackle was much lower than Splash.
Flail belonged to the second small-probability category. As for Chilling Water, that was a skill only Gyarados could master, so it belonged to the third extremely-small-probability category.
And if Caster wanted to obtain the 'Bounce' skill TM, he had to target Pokémon that could learn that move.
"Horsea usually lives in the sea, but there's no sea around Cerulean City, so eliminate that first."
"Azumarill is common in the Johto region. Although they exist in Kanto too, the numbers aren't high."
"Goldeen is fairly common though, visible in most waters and in decent numbers..." Caster stroked his chin, his eyes lighting up.
But thinking about how his bait wasn't appealing to Pokémon other than Magikarp, he felt somewhat deflated.
As an eighth-rank Fishing Saint, Caster knew the bait formulas that various fish species on Earth loved to eat.
But now that his fishing targets were Pokémon, he was stumped.
"I remember Misty's bait was specially made and had strong appeal to various Water-type Pokémon.
She even once caught a Gyarados and Seaking with it. If I could get her bait, it would probably greatly benefit my fishing career..."
Speaking of bait, Caster couldn't help but think of Misty, the fourth of the Cerulean Sisters. Her specially-made doll bait was quite high quality and had been shown multiple times in the Pokémon anime.
"In the anime, Ash, Misty, and Brock's group departed from Pewter City, passed through Mt. Moon, and then arrived at Cerulean City."
After recalling for a moment, Caster pulled out his phone and opened a map of Kanto. After comparing the locations of several places, he said with pleasant surprise:
"My location happens to be right on the path Ash's group must take to enter Cerulean City. Maybe I can fish and develop here while waiting for them to come to me..."
Having made up his mind, Caster began fishing with his tackle. During the fishing process, Caster's thoughts wandered:
"Besides my cheat ability, as a transmigrator I'm also familiar with the Pokémon plot developments. There are actually many plot points I could take advantage of."
"Not to mention distant ones, just in this Kanto region alone, I could consider going to Porta Vista to fish for Tentacool, to Squirtle Island to fish for Squirtle, to the Safari Zone to fish for Dratini..."
Thinking of Dratini, Caster's face flushed. This was an extremely rare pseudo-legendary juvenile. If he could catch one, Caster didn't dare imagine how rich the rewards would be.
And if he could capture it, that would be even better! Evolving into the pseudo-legendary Dragonite in the future, its combat power would explode off the charts, and it could even Mega Evolve.
"However, the prerequisite is that I have sufficient strength!" Thinking of his situation, Caster couldn't help but sigh quietly.
Without enough strength, traveling around was actually very dangerous, and even if he caught a desired Pokémon, he might not have the ability to capture it.
But right now, he only had one Magikarp.
Maybe it could barely manage in water, but on land? Undoubtedly just a useless fish.
"To go fishing around, at minimum I need to wait until Magikarp evolves into Gyarados..."
"Thinking too much about this now is premature!" Shaking his head to clear away distracting thoughts, Caster began fishing attentively.
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones