At the entrance of the Seventy-Seventh Middle School in Jinghai City, Lingyao Star Minglong Kingdom. Xia Huna, with his hair a mess, rubbed his dead fish eyes as if trying to sober up.
"Yo, didn't sleep last night, huh?"
A hand landed on Xia Huna's shoulder, almost slamming him to the ground. Xia Huna rubbed his shoulder and turned to look. A young man with a score of over ninety in looks was looking at him with a smile.
"Wow, your dark circles are quite noticeable, but I can understand. It's time to choose your starter Pokémon tonight. Are you sure you're okay in this state?"
Xia Huna stared at the other person's face irritably. "I say, Zhang Hong, your dark circles aren't any smaller. I thought a gangster panda from some family had starved itself to exhaustion."
Zhang Hong let out a couple of laughs. "It's fine, it doesn't affect the big picture. Didn't you say it yourself? My looks start at ninety points, you know."
Xia Huna looked at the face that was a cut above his own. "Uh, Zhang, our exams are out of one hundred and fifty..."
...
In the classroom, Xia Huna, whose hair was already messy, now had his clothes a bit disheveled too. Coupled with the messy classroom, it was quite fitting.
Even though he ran quite fast, it didn't stop Zhang Hong from chasing him into the classroom to sort him out. Next to Xia Huna, his deskmate, Shen Yu, who possessed both the attributes of a childhood sweetheart and a surprise arrival, was scribbling meaninglessly on a piece of paper.
"What are you doing? Your mind is all over the place?"
Shen Yu put down the pen in his hand. "Aren't you excited? Your first Pokémon! Have you decided which one to choose?"
Xia Huna stretched his hands out from the desk. "I've decided. How about you?"
Shen Yu picked up the pen again. "Choosing one out of twenty-odd options, it's not that easy."
Seeing Shen Yu still seemingly struggling, Xia Huna couldn't help it. After all, this world was already bizarre enough, to have to choose one of the starter Pokémon from seven generations. For someone with choice paralysis, the starters from just one generation were difficult enough, let alone seven generations.
Just as Shen Yu was agonizing over his choice, the classroom door was pushed open, and homeroom teacher Bai Lan walked in. "Everyone, line up on the sports field now."
The students of Class Seven were accustomed to this style. Whenever there was a major event, Teacher Bai always looked as if she were facing a formidable enemy. Over time, the students of Class Seven had developed a habit of quick mobilization. From Bai Lan's entry to the assembly on the sports field, it took just over two minutes.
Looking at the more than forty students lined up neatly in front of her, Bai Lan nodded with satisfaction. "As everyone knows, today we will be obtaining our first Pokémon. The requirements are simple: maintain order and don't cause trouble. Now, board the bus."
With that, Bai Lan turned and boarded a large bus. The students of Class Seven followed their teacher's footsteps and boarded in an orderly manner.
Sitting on the bus, Zhang Hong asked in a low voice, "Sister Lan seems a bit off today. Although she's usually serious at times, is she being too strict today?"
Xia Huna also didn't know what kind of counterfeit pills their homeroom teacher had taken, but not courting trouble was the basic quality of an excellent class cadre. He just needed to sit there honestly and not court death.
With this thought, Xia Huna closed his eyes, feigning exhaustion from last night and the need to catch up on sleep. This left Zhang Hong with no choice.
On the other side, Bai Lan sat at the front of the bus, her face completely devoid of the previous seriousness. Instead, she looked relieved. "I should have kept these little guys in line. This way, they won't cause any trouble at the breeding base."
The young driver beside her turned his head. "I say, Sister Lan, you worry too much. With this situation, which rookie wouldn't be excited? We were all like this back then, weren't we?"
Bai Lan glared at him unhappily. "Just drive your bus properly. Are we the same as them? Did you forget, this generation of theirs is..."
The bumpy ride made Xia Huna, who was pretending to sleep, genuinely fall asleep. It wasn't until they arrived at the breeding base that he woke up to the dual wake-up service of Shen Yu and Zhang Hong.
He subconsciously wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth. "We're here?"
"Of course, we're here. Everyone's waiting for you."
Following the direction of Shen Yu's finger pointing out the window, Xia Huna finally reacted and quickly got off the bus.
Everyone reassembled at the entrance of the breeding base and then followed Bai Lan into the facility.
Jinghai City had four breeding bases. The one they were at was specifically for breeding starter Pokémon for new trainers. The entire base was basically composed of starter Pokémon.
The members of Class Seven arrived at the plaza of the breeding base. There were already four to five hundred people in the plaza. On the podium on the north side of the plaza, the Dean of Students of the Seventy-Seventh Middle School ran a hand through his sparse hair.
"Silence. Everyone, silence. Next, we will discuss the new rules for selecting your starter Pokémon."
Hearing the Dean of Students utter the words "new rules," everyone below the stage froze. Were they going to come up with new twists for the starter Pokémon selection process? Wasn't it just a matter of telling the staff your name and the starter Pokémon you wanted, and then picking up the Poké Ball?
The Dean of Students on stage cleared his throat. "To train everyone's ability to adapt to unexpected situations, we have decided that for this Pokémon selection, all Pokémon provided will be in their egg form. As for which egg it will be, you will need to choose it yourself in the breeding room..."
The Dean of Students' subsequent long-winded speech was all boilerplate and was completely ignored. Everyone was discussing the new rules. Meanwhile, in Xia Huna's mind, a rather schadenfreude voice appeared.
"This, this is mainly because there was a slight mistake by the staff at the base, resulting in the Pokémon that were supposed to hatch collectively last month not being born on time."
"System? You're awake? But speaking of which, this voice sounds familiar."
"Of course, it sounds familiar. This is your voice. It's like you're talking to yourself."
The system's reply caught Xia Huna completely off guard. He had considered many synthesized voices, but he had never expected it to be like this.
The system, quite kindly, explained to him that to make the auxiliary system more user-friendly, each auxiliary system's voice would be the host's voice, as nothing is more familiar than oneself.
"Then why did you activate so late? Sixteen years. I've waited sixteen years for you."
"Uh, actually, I activated when you were in elementary school."
Hearing this answer, Xia Huna was stunned, and then he started cursing the system. "Then you t/"
Looking at the rows of Pokémon eggs displayed in the breeding room, Xia Huna was a bit stumped. How could he choose? Even though he knew they were all starter Pokémon, there was still an inherent difference in strength.
"System, give me a tip. You've collected so much data, combined with knowledge from my previous life, you should be able to choose a relatively good Pokémon egg."
The system was quite straightforward. "Of course. But this is like choosing gemstones, and I can't do it remotely for you. You have to touch them, to give me time to judge."
Xia Huna thought it made sense and placed his hand on the Pokémon egg. The system continued to stir up trouble. "It would be even better if you could pat them a couple of times."
Hearing the system's words, Xia Huna almost blurted out a curse. Was it crazy? It was good enough to just touch them, and now it wanted him to pat them? Was it treating them like watermelons!
Xia Huna walked around, touching the eggs, which made the Dean of Students and teachers in the monitoring room unsure of his intentions.
"Hey Xiao Bai, what's wrong with your class? Do you have to touch them one by one? Can you really choose like this?" a fit male teacher asked suspiciously, looking at the monitor.
Bai Lan also didn't know, but these were her students. Even if it was a poor student, she had to protect them, let alone Xia Huna, who was ranked first in the class for basic Pokémon knowledge (this was the good part about being a transmigration...).
"Didn't you also get into a fight when you chose your Chimchar back then before finally making your choice?"
The two teachers were digging up each other's past mistakes while Xia Huna finally finished touching all the eggs...
"Sixth row, sixth one. This should be the best one in terms of potential."
Xia Huna didn't fuss and directly picked up the egg, handed it to the breeding staff, and completed the final registration.
After everyone had completed their registration, the intended individuals returned to the school in a grand procession. On the bus, Xia Huna sidled up to Shen Yu. "What did you choose?"
Looking at the Pokémon egg with faint red patterns on its surface, Xia Huna asked, "The fire-type one?"
"I'm not telling you. Why should I tell you when you didn't help me choose?"
"Who said I didn't help you choose? I gave you advice back then, but you rejected it all..."
"Well, I don't care. If you didn't help me confirm my choice, I won't let you know. Worst case scenario, you can wait for the egg to hatch."
In the end, Xia Huna couldn't extract any useful information from Shen Yu.
Upon returning to school, Teacher Bai Lan issued the latest instruction concisely and clearly. "Dismissed. Go home."
This was quite reasonable. After all, in previous years, students would receive Poké Balls directly. But this year, they had chosen eggs. You couldn't expect students to attend classes while holding a rather large egg. Who would have the focus to study?
Upon hearing Bai Lan's words, the students of Class Seven dispersed, and Xia Huna returned to his home in this world.