Pokemon: A Fisherman's Tale

On the sixth day of survival on the desert island, there was no rain today, no clouds in the sky, and it was still a sunny day.

Ryan had long gotten used to such sunny days. Yesterday, his sleep quality was pretty good. He slept until dawn, thanks to the little guy. But he decided not to let that happen again, because he was worried about being caught by a trap or a wild bear.

After waking up, he didn't disturb the sleeping Poliwag, but instead stretched and moved his body.

After doing a few warm-up exercises, he went to the water collection point alone and replaced the plastic bucket that had been filled with fresh water for a day and a night.

The plastic bucket had already been filled with fresh water, and he hadn't replaced it at all yesterday. There was nothing he could do after being distracted by that little troublemaker the whole day. He simply didn't have the energy to replace the bucket in the evening.

Even after resting all night, he still felt a little sore in his body this morning. This might be the price a fisherman pays for catching a big fish.

When he arrived at the water collection point, he saw a large bucket of fresh water. It was too heavy to lift, so he had to transport it in two parts. First, he poured half the bucket of fresh water into the bucket he brought.

Carrying half a bucket of water back to the shelter, he now had a bucket and a half of fresh water.

There used to be a bucket and a half of fresh water. Last night, half of it was consumed, so it became just one bucket. Now, with the extra half bucket, he had two buckets of fresh water.

This amount of fresh water was enough for drinking and cooking, but he would need to keep collecting more for a shower.

When he returned to the shelter with half a bucket of water, the Poliwag had already woken up, though not completely. Its big black eyes were still drowsy, and its round pink lips were puckering.

But after seeing Ryan, the Poliwag fully woke up and ran out of the shelter to greet him.

"Yo yo, yo yo..."

"Don't make trouble, can't you see I'm busy?" Ryan waved his hand to stop the Poliwag from jumping at him. He was still holding the bucket, and it wouldn't be nice if the Poliwag knocked him over.

"Yo yo, yo yo," the Poliwag, being obedient, stopped in its tracks when it saw what Ryan was holding and stepped aside.

Ryan moved the bucket into the shelter and then prepared to carry it out again. The Poliwag looked down at its chubby body. It seemed to have no hands. Even though it wanted to help Ryan carry the bucket, it couldn't.

Staring blankly at Ryan's hands lifting the bucket, the Poliwag wished it had hands too. This made it think of its evolved form, which seemed to have hands.

It didn't know when it would evolve and have hands to truly help Ryan.

Thinking about this, the Poliwag followed Ryan's footsteps, lost in thought and not paying attention to the road. It accidentally bumped into Ryan, who was about to return to the shelter after switching the bucket.

"Yo yo, yo yo," the Poliwag was still a little upset after being bumped, but when it saw that it had hit Ryan, its anger immediately melted. It would never get mad at Ryan.

"What's wrong? Poliwag, you seem to have something on your mind," Ryan put down the bucket, squatted in front of the Poliwag, and reached out to pat its head.

From the beginning, Ryan had noticed the Poliwag seemed absent-minded, but he didn't quite understand what a simple Poliwag could have on its mind.

After all, it only took him three days to tame the little Poliwag. If he could always read its mind, he wouldn't just be him anymore; he'd have superpowers.

Unfortunately, he didn't have that ability. He was just an ordinary person.

At best, he could be considered a high-dimensional human being dropped into the Pokémon world, but after his dimension was reduced, he became just like everyone else.

The only special thing about him was that he had a proficiency panel, which was slightly better than ordinary people.

"Yo yo, yo yo," The Poliwag didn't know how to express its thoughts, so it opened its mouth and bit Ryan's finger before drawing a simple picture of Mr. Poliwag in the sand.

After the Poliwag finished drawing, Ryan recognized it instantly. Wasn't this Poliwirl he had drawn for the Poliwag before?

But his drawing skills were much worse than the Poliwag's. He could only make out the basic shape of the Poliwag.

The Poliwag first drew a circle and pressed its body into the soft sand. Then it stepped on the edges of the circle with its four feet. The soft sand left prints of the Poliwag's footprints.

The four feet represented the four limbs of the evolved Poliwag. Finally, it stepped two more times on the top of the circle, creating two half-prints, symbolizing the protruding eyes of the evolved form of Poliwag.

At this point, the simple drawing of Poliwirl was complete.

Afterward, the Poliwag walked around the drawing, came to the hands of Poliwhirl, stepped on them with its blue soles, and called out to Ryan, "Yo yo, yo yo..."

Then the Poliwag came back to Ryan, bit his finger again, and pointed at the bucket that Ryan had set aside.

Seeing all these gestures, Ryan quickly understood what the Poliwag was trying to say.

It seemed to want to evolve, and there was a bucket?

"Are you trying to help me carry the bucket?" Ryan thought.

"By the way, it does want hands." After realizing that the Poliwag had bit his finger twice and linked its body language to the bucket, he finally figured everything out.

The Poliwag probably wanted to express that it wanted hands to help him carry water.

"Haha," Ryan smiled helplessly. The little Poliwag was really thoughtful.

But evolution wasn't that simple. The Poliwag needed to reach level 25 to evolve. Right now, it was still 19 levels away, so it had a long way to go.

However, Ryan was already satisfied with the Poliwag's thoughts. This showed that it was growing up and learning to help him with chores. It was no longer just the playful, cute Poliwag—it was becoming a helper.

It was a good start, and he couldn't let the little guy's enthusiasm be dampened.

"So, that's what it is. Don't worry, you'll get hands," Ryan patted the Poliwag gently, then turned serious, "It'll be tough to get those hands. Are you sure you can handle it, Poliwag?"

"Yo yo, yo yo," The Poliwag, no longer lost in thought or down, looked up at Ryan with determination in its eyes. It nodded seriously.

It was probably saying that it would definitely persevere. After all, it was just a Poliwag that had almost starved to death.

Ryan smiled and didn't say anything else. He just hoped that the Poliwag would remember its current resolve.

"Come on, let's head back, Poliwag. There's a lot to do today, and you have training tasks..."

After comforting the Poliwag a bit more, Ryan picked up the bucket and walked back to the shelter, with the Poliwag following closely behind.