Chen Shi spent the entire morning dealing with the Berries. By the time he finished just before noon, his back was sore and his waist ached—but at least the job was done.
The Chen family's Berry grove wasn't particularly large—only a few hundred trees—but every single one produced rare, high-quality Berries.
With Gardevoir and Metagross helping, harvesting itself wasn't difficult.
The real trouble was sorting.
Even Berries from the same tree could vary in quality. Some were imperfect, some were spoiled.
Each one had to be carefully selected.
Then bagged, labeled, and stored in spatial backpacks.
Looking at the backpacks in his hands, Chen Shi couldn't help but sigh.
The technological tree in this world was seriously… skewed.
They could make spatial backpacks—basically black-tech-level storage—
But in other areas, things were oddly underdeveloped.
For example, there were computers and networks—
But no mobile phones.
Only landlines.
Incredibly inconvenient.
In the future Pokémon world, the Pokédex basically functioned like a smartphone.
But right now, Professor Oak had only just started researching it—it hadn't been created yet.
Even Devon Corporation's battle pager hadn't shown any progress.
"Maybe I should convince Steven to develop something like a phone…"
"Something that makes money like this—he wouldn't refuse, right?"
As he walked back, a thought suddenly surfaced in Chen Shi's mind.
With Devon Corporation's research team, creating a mobile device shouldn't be difficult at all.
And something like that would practically be a necessity.
It would definitely make money.
The more he thought about it, the more promising it seemed. His eyes began to light up.
"Better yet, throw in a short-video platform…"
"I can just stay home, stream, scroll videos, watch batt—uh, I mean, watch Pokémon battles…"
"Wouldn't that be perfect?"
At that point, he stopped hesitating.
Picking up his pace, he returned home and headed straight for his grandparents' lab.
"Grandpa, Grandma—I've sorted all the Berries. I'll leave them here."
After saying that, he was about to head upstairs to call Steven—but suddenly remembered something.
"Grandma, Dragapult's Pokéblocks are gone. Could you make another batch for me?"
With that, he dashed upstairs in excitement, leaving the two elders staring after him in confusion.
"What's gotten into him now?" Grandpa Chen asked after a moment.
Grandma Chen shook her head. "Ignore him. He probably just thought of something that made him happy. Let's continue."
"Alright." Grandpa Chen nodded and returned to his work.
…
Just as Chen Shi was about to call Steven, he paused.
"Wait… if I get Steven to develop mobile phones… would that affect Professor Oak's Pokédex?"
The two were somewhat similar.
He couldn't quite tell.
If mobile phones existed, would the Pokédex still be as important?
After all, a phone could easily run an app that scanned Pokémon—
And phones would have far more functions.
Thinking it through, Chen Shi hesitated.
After a while, he gave up on the idea of pushing Steven to develop phones.
Instead, he decided to call Professor Oak.
Professor Oak had helped him a lot before.
This time… he could at least return the favor a little.
With that in mind, Chen Shi picked up the phone and dialed.
Before long, the call connected.
A youthful voice came through the receiver.
"Hello, this is Professor Oak's Lab. Who are you looking for?"
Hearing the voice, Chen Shi couldn't help but smile.
"Gary, how have you been lately? Studying hard?"
"Ah—Senior!" Gary's voice immediately turned excited. "Senior, when are you coming back to Pallet Town? I miss you!"
"You little brat, I just got home not long ago and you already miss me?"
"Yes, yes! I miss you so much! Please come back soon—I can't stand eating instant noodles anymore!"
"I feel sick just looking at them now!"
Chen Shi: "..."
So that's what this is about.
You don't miss me—you miss my cooking.
He had brought this up with Professor Oak before, but as a researcher, Oak simply didn't have time to cook.
So Gary had been surviving on instant noodles.
Poor kid.
Only occasionally would Delia bring him some proper food.
"Sigh…"
"There's nothing I can do about that," Chen Shi said. "If you really can't take it, go eat at Delia's place."
"Anyway, go get your grandpa. I need to talk to him."
"…Alright," Gary replied reluctantly. "Wait a moment, Senior."
"Grandpa! Grandpa! Senior is calling for you—!"
The line went quiet as Gary ran off.
Chen Shi waited patiently.
A few minutes later, Professor Oak's hearty voice came through.
"Chen Shi, what's the matter? What do you need?"
"What, I can't call my teacher unless I have a reason?"
"You brat, don't give me that. Spit it out—I'm busy with research."
"Alright then, Professor… I wanted to ask—are you still working on that device you mentioned before?"
"Yes," Oak replied. "Didn't I tell you? I want to compile all Pokémon data into a single device."
"That way, when young trainers go out traveling, they can avoid a lot of danger. If they encounter an unfamiliar Pokémon, they'll have a way to identify it."
"But it's not easy. I still don't have a clear direction."
Chen Shi smiled slightly. "I don't think the problem is the Pokémon data."
"I think the real difficulty lies in the device itself."
Professor Oak chuckled. "Stop beating around the bush. Get to the point."
Chen Shi curled his lips, then said:
"I have an idea."
"What if we create a compact device that combines photography, video recording, internet access, and real-time communication?"
"You can think of it as a small handheld computer—about the size of a palm, easy to carry."
"Then when trainers encounter an unknown Pokémon, they can just scan it and instantly access all its information."
"And if they run into danger, they can immediately make a call for help."
"In that case, wouldn't it greatly reduce risks during their journeys?"
"So… what do you think?"
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