Chapter 48: What The Hell Are You Proud Of?
“So, it’s happily decided then?”
Speaking, Li Wei turned and said to the Magikarp splashing wildly in the lake.
“Karoo!”
【 Yay! 】
While thrashing about, the Magikarp stirred up almost all the life in the entire lake.
“Karoo karoo~”
【 Do you know~ The diligent trainer I liked agreed to capture me~】
“Karoo karoo~”
【 Nya nya nya~ Do you know~ I’m leaving here soon~ Yes, yes, the diligent trainer I told you about last time~ I succeeded~】
······
For a time, the other Pokémon living in the lake, such as Magikarp, Goldeen, and Poliwag, suffered immensely.
There was nothing they could do; they couldn’t win in a fight, and they were incredibly annoyed. Plus, they had years of ‘fond memories’ of living together in this lake. What else could they do but listen to him drone on?
Originally, this group of Pokémon thought that if they just endured it and waited for the Magikarp to tire itself out, they could continue floating around the lake, blowing bubbles to pass the time.
But the naive Pokémon never imagined that their ‘nightmare’ was just beginning.
This time, it wasn’t the Magikarp about to leave the lake that dominated them, but Li Wei.
Because he had to wait for Dragonair to buy things and return with Poké Balls, Li Wei decided to find something to pass the time and train Riolu and Eevee at the same time.
Thus, driven by boredom, Li Wei set his sights on the large number of aquatic Pokémon in the lake for today’s activity.
Today’s activity transformed from the original tennis match into ‘goldfish scooping’.
The tennis racket he brought had already been broken, so continuing to play tennis was out of the question; he’d have to wait until they passed by a supermarket tonight to buy a new one.
If he absolutely had to have those two Pokémon continue their basic training, it would be too monotonous, and Li Wei had promised Riolu and the others this morning that today was a ‘rest day’.
Since it was a rest day, ordinary training was out of the question. He had to keep his word, and the extracurricular activities must include ‘entertainment activities’ to make it a true rest day where they could ‘game the whole time’.
The deranged Li Wei had a sudden inspiration and came up with such a brilliant idea.
——The only usable item was a broken tennis racket, with no external assistance other than his own abilities. The Pokémon that scooped the most Magikarp from the lake within the allotted time would win today’s game.
There was no reward for winning, but the loser of the game would receive a severe punishment!!!
Eating Oran Berries raw!!
A Berry that only has a sour taste, and with a sourness value of 15 during the game, eating it raw was no joke.
To avoid this ‘severe punishment’, Eevee and Riolu also gave their all.
Magikarp, the newcomer to the family, was also forced to join the group activity.
Holding the ‘broken tennis racket’ in its mouth, it was forced to start scooping fish.
And when Dragonair returned diligently carrying a bag, the scene it saw was—a spectacular sight of Magikarp splashing in the water by the lakeside.
????????
Li Wei took the bag from Dragonair, placed the ingredients on the ground nearby, and took out the Poké Ball Li Yuan Sheng had given him.
As expected, it was a Luxury Ball.
Walking to the lakeside, he shouted, “Magikarp, stop scooping fish for now, the ball is here, come out!”
Instantly, a yellow, crown-shaped fin appeared in the lake.
At this moment, the yellow fin was rushing towards him at an extremely fast speed.
Splash.
With a ripple of water, Magikarp leaped out of the water and straight towards him… towards the Poké Ball in his hand.
Click.
A precise impact opened the Poké Ball’s switch. With a flash of red light, Magikarp disappeared before his eyes.
Stunned, Li Wei shifted his gaze to the Poké Ball in his hand. Through the gray transparent area on the upper part of the Poké Ball, Li Wei saw a mini Magikarp.
······
It seemed Magikarp also noticed Li Wei looking at him, its big face came closer, and it gave Li Wei a big smile.
(*^▽^*)
But no matter how he looked at the expression, Li Wei felt it was a provocation from Magikarp.
So Li Wei was furious, so angry he could spit fire. The inexplicable sense of emptiness and anger made him want to throw the ball in his hand away.
What, is it so hard to capture a Pokémon with your own hands now??
He was resentful, but helpless.
He took out his mobile phone to check the time. The fishing game was over, and he prepared to go home.
Getting up, Li Wei had Eevee push the fish back into the water and sprinkle some snacks, as compensation for them being scooped out.
Without waiting for the Pokémon to clean up the area, Li Wei turned and walked towards the exit.
He wanted to be alone for a while.
Since he walked slowly, the Pokémon would catch up soon.
“Why? I feel like my status as a Trainer is ridiculously weak!!”
On the way home, Li Wei kept thinking about this problem.
At this moment, he was like someone who died in a game because they didn’t press the flash ability in time, constantly reflecting during a post-game review.
Even if he wanted to sleep to escape the problem, his mind kept echoing, ‘Why didn’t I press flash?’
This was exactly how he felt now.
His mind kept replaying, ‘Why didn’t I throw the ball before it crashed into me?’
“Sigh.”
Unsolvable topics would inevitably go unanswered. On the way back to the dormitory, adhering to the strong mentality of being “always kind,” Li Wei went to the supermarket and bought the largest inflatable pool, planning to place it in the activity area of their dormitory room to raise the Magikarp.
Even though this Magikarp was so strange, so infuriating to him, he still had to dote on his own Pokémon.
Li Wei felt it would be too pitiful to keep Magikarp in its Poké Ball all the time. Seeing other Pokémon enjoying themselves outside while it had to stay cooped up inside would be too difficult.
It was like when he was a child and was forced to study and practice various things in his room, he would look out the window and see other children playing, and he would feel very sad.
Putting himself in their shoes, even though the process was difficult, Li Wei was willing to pay more money and wait for the supermarket staff to retrieve the item from the warehouse.
The item was large. Li Wei held the front, Riolu held up the middle section with its hands raised high, and Dragonair coiled around Li Wei for a couple of turns, dragging the box containing the ‘inflatable pool’ with its tail. Eevee, perched on its throne, was responsible for shouting “Buyi buyi” to passersby to warn them to avoid it.
In a grand procession, the group returned to the dormitory.
Naturally, the first thing they did upon returning to the dormitory was not to go to the kitchen to make chicken legs, but to inflate and fill the Magikarp’s ‘home’ with water.
For the water, Dragonair’s Water Gun was used. It could quickly fill the pool while providing excellent quality water containing a large amount of Water Attribute Energy.
This energy, for a Magikarp with less strength than Riolu, was more than enough to be called a ‘great tonic’.
As soon as this ‘new residence’ was ready, Li Wei released Magikarp.
“How is it? Comfortable enough?” Li Wei asked Magikarp.
“Karoo karoo!”
【 So cool!! 】
(*^▽^*)
“Alright, you play here for a bit. We’re going to the kitchen to prepare something to eat and will be back.”
Afterwards, Li Wei, along with his future chef trainees, left the house.
￥￥￥￥￥￥
The next day, at precisely four thirty in the morning, Li Wei, as usual, woke up early.
He pulled open the curtains and looked outside. Oh, it was raining heavily.
The pouring rain and the thunder that occasionally rumbled across the sky made Li Wei pause at the window for a moment. Then, he patted Riolu’s head, who was washing up, and said, “Let’s go back to sleep.”
“Riolu?”
【 Training? 】
“No training today.”
“Riolu?”
【 But didn’t you say morning exercise should be persistent? 】
Riolu, with its eyes full of doubt, asked Li Wei.
“Riolu, you must understand that this kind of thunderstorm is a gift from nature. We naturally cannot resist such a gift.”
?
“There’s a saying: ‘When a gift is bestowed by an elder, one dares not refuse; to refuse would be disrespectful, and to accept it would be without shame.’ Isn’t Heaven more noble than an elder? How can we refuse the blessings of nature? Facing such a rare gift, we must naturally accept it with reverence!! Riolu, you are still too young; if only you read more.”
Li Wei’s string of words, complete with classical Chinese and reasoning, stunned Riolu into place.
After silently repeating the phrase Li Wei had first quoted from 《 Common Etiquette Essentials 》 several times, Riolu nodded thoughtfully, stating that learning is endless and he still needed to work hard.
After wiping his face with a towel, he silently followed behind Li Wei, helping to close the curtains, and then lay back down on the bed to catch up on sleep with Li Wei.
The soft bed, the room filled with lazy-inducing factors, and the faint scent of daisy-fragranced mite-repelling spray could be detected from within the quilt.
Riolu yawned, reached out to hug Eevee’s tail, who was lying horizontally beside him, and closed his eyes, enjoying this rare lazy morning.
After sleeping for another two hours.
“Knock knock knock.”
Hearing the knocking sound, Li Wei suddenly sprang up from the bed. After a few seconds of stiff, dazed stillness, he rolled out of bed and went to open the door.
Upon opening the door, he found Yu Yixian standing there, holding a stack of exam papers.
“Yo~ Li Wei~ I’ve brought you your papers.”
“Huh?”
Taking the stack of exam papers from Yu Yixian, Li Wei squinted and flipped through them.
Placed on top were the exam papers from yesterday.
OH NO!
The drowsiness instantly disappeared, but it was already too late to throw the papers far away.
He had already seen the scores written in red ink on the papers.
Converted to a percentage, the score was 80.2%.
Seemed pretty good? At least it was an A grade? Although it was just 0.2% more.
“If I hadn’t seen your paper, I wouldn’t have known that someone would fail to even reach 90% on such a simple exam.”
?
What’s going on? This Yixian guy is quite bold today?
Feeling a bit indignant, Li Wei leaned against the doorframe and asked, “What did you get?”
“90.2.”
Yu Yixian proudly stated his score.
“You’re proud of just 0.2 more?”
“0.2 is also something I earned with my own skills!”
······
Too lazy to argue with Yu Yixian, Li Wei pointed to the thick stack of papers in his hand and asked, “Then what are these?”
“Oh, it’s raining heavily today, so the instructor said we’d have self-study, and the afternoon training session has been changed to independent training.”
“That casual?”
“Mm.”
A sense of déjà vu of military training being suspended due to rain arose.
“Oh, right, but the instructor also said that tomorrow we’ll have a test on memorizing and reciting the content of today’s documents.”
“Okay, got it. Ah, wait, how do you know these things?”
Thinking he had missed ‘early self-study’ by sleeping, Li Wei asked Yu Yixian with some confusion.
“The instructor just knocked on the dormitory door to inform us, and I opened the door, so he asked me to inform you all.”
“OK, understood. Yixian, you can leave now.”
Saying this, Li Wei waved his hand as if shooing away a dog and closed the door.
······
“Damn it!”
Even though he had already left the doorway, Li Wei could clearly hear Yu Yixian’s belated, explosive greeting from the doorway.
“Heh, little brat, you want to mess with me? I’ll disgust you to death.”
After placing the papers on his desk, Li Wei curled his lips, mockingly scoffing at Yu Yixian’s impotent rage at the door.
￥￥￥￥￥
Today’s recommendations: 《 It’s not me who taught the Pokémon to be cunning 》, other titles for this book include 《 What to do when my Pokémon have unique personalities 》, 《 The actress Pokémon who wants to act becomes a champion 》, 《 The Pokémon who wants to act becomes a champion 》
If you like it, feel free to grab the links from the author’s notes.
Timo’s Flop Diary
July 21st
【 July 20th, 1144 votes, plus 2 more updates 】
*What I want to say is in the separate chapter later
*I’ll keep the chatter here to a minimum
Today, for some reason, I received food at three thirty in the afternoon.
Is this my dinner?
I’m very nervous right now, a bit worried.
Will I not have dinner tonight?
It’s already this late, and no one has called me to eat/get food yet.
Oh no.
There’s really no dinner, is there?
Crying.
But the food was very delicious.
Expected pan-fried beef.
The meat is truly fragrant; you only need to sprinkle a little salt, pan-fry it, and then eat it with rice and vegetables. Wow, enjoyment.
A feast for the taste buds.
Burp
Although I’m not hungry now, I suspect I’ll cry out loud in the middle of the night.
There are only snacks at home, but I want to eat rice.
I feel like I’m a bit abnormal.
┓(`)┏
