Chapter 5

Night Ziyun stood at the classroom door, took a deep breath, and firmly held the letter containing secrets that his mother had given him.

Finding a thin, flat stone, he placed fresh orange fruits on it and used the stone-grilling method to remove the moisture from the oranges. As for starting a fire? One achievement point could buy a box of matches, which seemed like a good deal... or not so much! When buying the box of matches, Night Ziyun really hoped that his Wisp could turn into a Candlelight, a fire-type Pokémon, but unfortunately, he was participating in the World Fishing Game Championship, not the World Barbecue Game Championship.

After cooling the dried oranges, the fruits, now devoid of moisture, were as crisp as cookies. Although they were still a bit hard and didn't taste good, Night Ziyun forced himself to eat several of them, his expression similar to that of a child taking medicine. Although Night Ziyun was indeed a child again, what he was eating was not medicine but the food he would have to treat as his main meal for some time...

He spent the whole day following the stream, collecting several types of tree fruits, most of which were oranges, along with some chestnuts, bitter berries, and spicy cherry fruits.

As dusk approached, Night Ziyun found several peach trees. The peaches in this world were not only delicious but also had detoxifying properties. These highly useful and relatively rare tree fruits were generally shared resources in any given area. After defeating a few Rattata with his Wisp, Night Ziyun earned the right to pick and obtained three sweet peach fruits.

In the evening, while roasting by the fire, Night Ziyun set aside a portion of the tree fruits, except for the sweet peach fruits, and dehydrated them using a primitive method. This not only made them easier to store but also lighter, reducing the weight he had to carry. The backpacks and other travel gear in this world mostly used spatial compression technology. Even though the price was not expensive due to high production, Night Ziyun, who had no money, could not afford them. Buying from the system? He was sure the price would be exorbitant.

So, at the age of 9, Night Ziyun had no real way to earn money. Battling as a trainer might be a viable method in this real world, but he was not yet 10, and thus not eligible to apply for a Trainer ID card. Therefore, he was temporarily ineligible for the free services at Pokémon Centers. He could consider part-time jobs, but places that would hire a 9-year-old child were questionable in their legitimacy...

Of course, this did not mean there was no way to earn money at all. The fastest method would be to catch a Meowth that knew the Move Tackle. However, Meowth that knew Tackle were generally level 30 or higher, and with Wisp's current single-digit level, it was uncertain whether he could defeat them. Even if he could, it was uncertain whether there were any wild Meowth in the area. Even if there were, and Night Ziyun could defeat one, he still had no Poké Balls! Moreover, the system store did not sell Poké Balls, which were considered common items that could be found anywhere.

Excluding the Move Tackle, the only way for Night Ziyun to earn money was the reason for his穿越—fishing!

Yes, fishing. This activity could earn money in this world, not by selling Pokémon, as Night Ziyun had no spare Poké Balls. What he planned to do was sell photos and information, such as what Pokémon could be caught at certain locations, along with pictures. The saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" held true, and those who enjoyed fishing would be willing to pay for information about Pokémon they liked or had never seen before. The internet in this world was just beginning to spread, and computers were mainly used by research institutes for storing data and sending emails. In other words, the information age had not yet arrived!

According to the news brought by his classmate, Koyasu, who had been traveling for a year, most fishermen were still competing over who could catch the largest Magikarp. It was not that they did not want to catch other Pokémon, but compared to the widespread distribution of Magikarp, other Pokémon were much harder to catch. Just finding their habitats could be exhausting. Moreover, successfully catching a Goldeen could fetch a high price from wealthy buyers. Over time, information about the habitats of Pokémon other than Magikarp was known only to a select few.

Therefore, Night Ziyun was not worried about his information not selling. He planned to sell only to those who genuinely loved fishing, not those motivated by money. Although this would earn him less money, it was enough to cover his meals and save up for a backpack. Additionally, this approach would earn him many achievement points. What was the main source of achievement points in fishing competitions? The answer was obvious.

So, Night Ziyun was now selecting branches from the ground by the firelight. Even though he had collected these branches for firewood, he could still pick out the best one in terms of strength and flexibility. He had done this often in his previous life, when he was poor and had to make fishing rods from strong branches, fishhooks from heated and bent sewing needles, and fishing lines from sewing thread. Floats were made from small sticks, and if he was lucky, he could find foam plastic, which was a resourceful era.

Thus, he selected the strongest and most flexible branch, broke the rest, and threw them into the fire. He took the elastic band from his pants, removed the rubber core, and split the outer layer into several thin threads. He chose a thread of appropriate length and tied it to the selected branch. From his pocket, he took out a few safety pins he had taken from the small black room and tied one to the other end of the thread. In this world, lures or artificial baits were used for fishing, with hooks attached to the lures, which were optional. Thus, the fishing rod was now complete.

[Ding! You have successfully made a fishing rod and learned the skill <Fishing Rod Making>]

A prompt sounded as the fishing rod was completed, and Night Ziyun's mind was filled with new information. After browsing through it, he felt the skill should be called "Fishing Rod Material Science." The information was about identifying and processing materials to make them more effective in fishing rod construction, and it was a passive skill...

Wearing the polarized glasses that were supposedly harder than dog eyes, Night Ziyun began examining the fishing rod. As a product of the system, it had more functions than described. It had an appraisal function, but it did not provide detailed data, only a simple description and some sarcastic suggestions. The quality evaluation function of the glasses was only effective for Pokémon.

[Unsightly Fishing Rod]

Description: A fishing rod even more crudely made than a poorly made one. However, even as the best of the worst, it is still a fishing rod. Can such a low-quality rod actually catch anything? Regardless, be careful when using it.

Although the system's appraisal matched Night Ziyun's thoughts, he had to make do with it for now. After making the fishing rod, the next step was to create a lure. With limited materials, he had to make do. He ground some dried spicy cherry fruits into powder and mixed it with water. He picked up a thumb-sized pebble from the ones he had collected earlier and used his energy to create a continuously rotating micro-space blade vortex. He threw the pebble into the vortex to grind it for a few seconds.

"Snap!"

The small stone shattered into pieces.

Night Ziyun reduced the energy output and picked up another pebble, throwing it into the vortex.

"Snap!"

This small pebble also met a tragic fate, but compared to the previous one that had been completely pulverized, this one was only broken into smaller pieces.

The firewood crackled, and the young boy's expression was very focused. The sound of stones breaking continued for several hours. Finally, Night Ziyun obtained a thumb-sized, grain-shaped stone with needle-sized holes all over it. He casually dropped the stone into a wooden bowl containing the spicy cherry fruit juice. After practicing his spatial abilities all night and making a lure prototype, Night Ziyun felt extremely sleepy. He forced himself to stay awake, released his Wisp from its Poké Ball, and then fell asleep.

The next morning, Night Ziyun and Wisp had breakfast, and he fished out the stone that had soaked in the juice overnight. The stone had absorbed most of the powder, turning the juice a light pink, while the stone itself turned a bright red!

He took another safety pin and used his spatial abilities to embed it into the stone, then attached it to the safety pin on the fishing rod. The complete fishing rod was now ready.

[Clang! You have completed the achievement [All Prepared], +15 achievement points.]

Listening to the achievement completion sound, Night Ziyun called Wisp and picked up the fishing rod, heading towards the stream.

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