Pokémon: I have no choice but to do this old thing?

As far as the eye can see, all that can be seen is snow.

The endless frozen mountains were a solidified, deathly white. The boy stood atop the mountain, the wind and snow like knives, scraping across his tattered shirt and etching streaks of blue and purple on his exposed skin.

The biting cold almost froze his blood and mind, leaving only a chaotic, pale void.

"Snapped!"

A crisp slap, barely audible in the howling wind and snow, shattered the fog in his mind like a thunderclap. The burning pain on his cheek was so real, so precious.

He greedily swallowed the icy air, a sharp pain shooting through his lungs, yet it unmistakably proclaimed one fact—he was still alive.

His fingers instinctively reached into his pocket, groping for the non-existent cigarette pack, only to touch the cold stitching of the fabric and a deeper emptiness.

"It's not a dream..." His voice was hoarse, tinged with bitterness and disbelief. "At the very last moment, I actually caught the last train of the time-traveling army."

On the treetop, a silent, sculpted owl-like creature tilted its head, its amber eyes filled with an almost human-like bewilderment.

It had seen many bipedal creatures, but never one so... pathetic and contradictory.

The clothes were not only tattered, but also looked as if they had been forcibly stripped from a more robust body, ridiculously oversized, while the blackened, congealed bloodstains on the collar added a heavy touch of ominousness to this absurdity.

A moment later, it spread its brown wings, stirring up the wind and snow, but before leaving, it looked back and clearly "cooed" twice at the boy, then its wings deftly and firmly tapped a tree hole not far away that was half-covered by snow.

Young Zhang Jianying's heart skipped a beat.

As a former ranger who spent many years battling poachers in the wilderness, he is an expert in deciphering every language of animals.

Warnings, expulsions, curiosity... he had seen it all.

But such a clear, almost "guiding" action transcends the wisdom of any living being on Earth.

"Wait!" he blurted out, his voice shattered by the wind and snow.

There was no time for deep thought. The chill of death had already crept up his spine. Clutching his almost frozen body, he staggered and scrambled toward the only "life" in the snowfield.

The tree hollow was more spacious than he had imagined, enough for a boy to curl up and avoid the cold. The air was filled with the scent of hay, old wood, and a faint, minty freshness that strangely calmed his wildly beating heart.

A few rays of the setting sun seeped in through the cave entrance, outlining a tranquil band of light amidst the floating dust.

The warm environment gradually revived my frozen thoughts, and memories of my past life played out intensely in my mind like faded film reels...

The deafening sound of gunfire, the dying howl of a beast, the desperate roar of a companion, and... the excruciating pain that suddenly exploded in my chest and was then swallowed by endless cold.

His name is Zhang Jianying, and he was once an elite member of a global animal protection organization in China. The final crackdown on poachers on the African savanna, driven to desperation, ignited a cataclysmic event.

Amidst the deafening gunshots, he rushed toward the old professor who had treated him like a son, struggling to drag him toward cover. But the next moment, the scorching metallic touch pierced through his chest.

At the end of his fading consciousness, there was an endless spread of blood in his vision, and the old professor's eyes were filled with regret and tears.

"I'm not completely dead yet." He muttered to himself, his voice a mixture of bewilderment at being reborn and mockery of fate.

Similarly, as a seasoned Pokémon enthusiast, he almost instantly identified the creature as a Noctowl. Its appearance also helped him define this unfamiliar world.

However, the brief excitement brought about by cognition was quickly overshadowed by strange signals coming from the body.

He looked down at his hands—his knuckles, though stiff and white from the cold, were long, clean, and had delicate skin, showing no trace of the calluses and scars from his previous life of hardship and handling weapons.

A chill, more biting than the wind and snow outside, instantly gripped him. He trembled as he touched his cheek; the touch was smooth and youthful, and his Adam's apple appeared immature. A terrible thought slithered into his mind like a venomous snake, and almost reflexively, he reached for his crotch…

"...Phew." Only when his palm confirmed that familiar and crucial presence did he feel as if all his strength had been drained, and he leaned against the inner wall of the tree hole, letting out a long and trembling sigh. "Thank goodness...the core components are still there." This was clearly his body when he was fourteen or fifteen years old.

But at that moment, the instinct for survival overwhelmed all other thoughts. He forced himself to calm down, his gaze quickly sweeping across the makeshift shelter:

In the corner, there was a pile of dry grass, a few leftover fruit pits scattered to the side, three shriveled but intact fruits placed in a slightly cleaner spot (two resembling mangoes, one resembling a grapefruit), a stone that seemed to contain nebulae inside shimmering faintly in the dim light, and a badly worn old backpack.

He grabbed the backpack, which was empty except for a military water bottle and a red and white ball—a Poké Ball.

He picked up the sphere, its icy touch reaching deep into his heart. He pressed the button, and the cover popped open with a "click," revealing that it was empty inside.

"Empty..." Was it abandoned by its former owner, or had the Pokémon that once lived here met with misfortune? Years of professional intuition cast a shadow over his heart.

"Gurgle—"

A thunderous rumble in his stomach urged him to move. The intense hunger burned in his stomach. His gaze involuntarily fell upon the few remaining fruits that appeared edible. The will to survive was trying to overcome any moral constraints.

The moment he focused his attention on the fruit—a sudden change occurred!

A semi-transparent data frame silently appeared in his field of vision, and a cold, mechanical voice resounded directly in the depths of his mind:

【Pomelo】

[Condition: Normal (long-term storage, moisture loss)]

[Effect: Restores 1/4 of HP when HP is below 1/2]

Mango*2

[Condition: Normal (long-term storage, moisture loss)]

[Effect: Restores 1/3 of HP when HP is below 1/4. Sweet taste; Pokémon that dislike sweet tastes will become confused after consuming it.]

"Data-driven perspective... a cheat code?"

Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Zhang Jianying felt an indescribable surge of excitement mixed with a sense of security. "Is this... what I can rely on to survive in this new world?"

The scales of morality and survival swung violently within him. Ultimately, the instinct for survival prevailed. He took a deep breath, burdened by a heavy sense of guilt, and reached for a mango.

"I'm sorry, owner of the tree hole... I must live on." He murmured to himself, as if confessing to some unknown being.

He swallowed the fruit in a few bites. The sweet juice mixed with a slightly astringent taste exploded in his mouth, and a gentle yet firm warm current spread from his stomach to his limbs and bones, dispelling a lot of coldness and weakness.

The clarity that came with regaining his strength made him even more aware of his actions. He had been forced to steal the precious food that the tree hollow's owner might have relied on for survival!

In his past life, he had seen countless creatures struggling to survive in the wind and snow, yet he was powerless to help them. The old professor regretfully told him that no matter how agonizing the situation, one must respect the laws of nature, and unless a creature is extremely endangered, one should not intervene.

At this moment, the guilt in his heart, like tiny vines, quietly wrapped around his heart, tightening more and more.

Just as he was preparing to study the strange stone—

"Coo, coo—!"

A familiar call, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings, came from afar and drew nearer.

Zhang Jianying looked up abruptly, her heart clenching as if gripped by an invisible hand. Had the owner of the tree hollow returned?

Panic overwhelmed him instantly. Like a thief caught red-handed, he instinctively tried to hide the fruit pit, but there was nowhere to hide it. He could only sit there stiffly, awaiting his judgment.

The night owl, which had returned, landed lightly at the entrance of the cave, its broad back feathers covered with a thin layer of fresh snow.

At this moment, what attracted Zhang Jianying's attention even more was the figure that was even smaller, like an elf born in the snow, quietly curled up in its feathers.

It was a Ralts. It had a body as white as fresh snow, and the hem of its dress-like garment fluttered gently among the feathers of the Nighthawk.

A thick head of sky-blue hair, like the softest velvet, completely covered most of its face. The wind and snow seemed to soften around it, unwilling to disturb its tranquility.

Seemingly startled by the unfamiliar atmosphere inside the cave, it moved slightly, and a few strands of its azure hair slipped out of its shell.

In that instant, Zhang Jianying met a pair of eyes.

Like two meticulously cut crimson gems, set in the white snow, they shimmer with a pure and timid glow in the dim light of the tree hollow.

In that light, there was no anger, no accusation, only a trace of bewilderment at being disturbed, and a kind of instinctive, cautious observation.

Time seemed to be stretched out and frozen at this moment.

Zhang Jianying forgot to breathe, forgot his guilt, forgot everything around him. All his experiences in his two lifetimes seemed to pale in comparison to the purity of this one glance.