Chapter 39: Brock

"Sorry, very sorry!" A person stopped in their tracks and quickly bent down to bow in apology upon realizing they had bumped into someone.

"It's okay," Darren said casually. "Just be more careful next time."

"I'm really sorry... for bumping into you," the other person said awkwardly, relieved that Darren didn't blame him.

Darren looked up at the young man who was around his age. With his brownish-black skin and squinty eyes, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.

"Have we met before?" Darren asked, but then shook his head, dismissing the possibility.

"Met?" The other person was taken aback. "I'm from Pewter City in the Kanto region, and this is my first time in the Hoenn."

"I see, you're from Kanto," Darren said, then realized something was off. "Wait a minute, where are you from?"

"I'm from Pewter City in the Kanto region. Is there a problem?" the other person asked.

Darren rubbed his eyes and looked at him carefully. The young man's appearance was somewhat similar to the person he remembered, but his memory was fuzzy, and he couldn't be sure because their ages didn't match.

"No, by the way, what's your name?" Darren asked.

"My name is Brock," the other person said awkwardly.

Darren was stunned. It really was him. He never expected to meet one of the few original characters he remembered from his memory in this place.

Brock, the one who accompanied Ash through four league conferences?

Darren squinted his eyes. Brock in front of him was still very young and immature, only about ten years old, and hadn't grown to be the reliable and trustworthy character he remembered from the original story.

"As far as I remember, you're also a breeder, right?" Darren wasn't sure. The anime's description of breeders was very vague, but after learning more about this world, he realized that breeders' status was not inferior to that of trainers and, in some ways, even more rare and prestigious.

"I might have been mistaken. My name is Darren, and I'm from Fallarbor town in Hoenn, but my hometown is Cerulean city in the Kanto region" Darren said.

Brock was very enthusiastic and became curious about Darren, who looked about the same age as himself. "you said you're from Cerulean city? My dad and I have been there a few times. Maybe we met then?"

"Perhaps," Darren smiled. "It's possible."

"Um... I remember Fallarbor town is very far away. What are you doing in Lilycove City, Darren?" Brock chattered on. "As for me, I want to go read some books about breeders."

"Breeders?" Darren was a little surprised. "I'm planning to go to the 'House of Breeding' library."

"Really?!" Brock's eyes lit up. "That's great! That place seems to be the biggest library in this city... Are you interested in breeders too, Darren?"

"Yes, I want to check out some books about Pokemon training," Darren said. "Are you planning to become a breeder?"

"Breeder..." Brock was taken aback. "Of course!"

"My grandmother was a breeder. She taught me a lot when she was alive, so I'm interested in both breeding and taking care of Pokemon," Brock said. "Because my dad is a gym trainer, I often come into contact with Pokemon... and most of the Pokemon in the gym are taken care of by me. I hope that Pokemon can grow up healthy and happy under my care. That's what I'm looking forward to the most." Brock smiled.

"Well, that's really impressive," Darren laughed, feeling that his own intentions were much more mundane compared to Brock's.

Brock, at least, was the child of a gym trainer and was luckier than most people in this era of change.

Brock sighed. "Unfortunately, to become an official breeder, I still need to pass the assessment, and I don't know how long I'll have to study to pass it. The assessment covers basic knowledge from the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions, and I'm not very familiar with Pokemon from regions other than Kanto."

"There's no way around it. The breeder assessment is a comprehensive test," Darren said. He knew this well, and the test questions from the breeder headquarters in the Hoenn, accounted for the largest proportion of the test content.

"Fortunately, the Pokemon in the Unova region and even the recently newly discovered Kalos region, where a new alliance is planned to be established within a year, are not included. That area is even farther away from us. Although the knowledge in the four regions is complicated, it is not difficult to understand," Darren comforted Brock.

"Unova, Kalos?" Brock looked puzzled.

Darren smiled. For a ten-year-old boy, even ordinary geography knowledge is not something anyone would pay too much attention to. If he didn't have memories from his past life and deliberately paid attention to it, he wouldn't delve too deep into these things.

Darren didn't explain but continued walking towards the Breeding House Library with Brock. With simple words, Darren's image in Brock's mind suddenly became intimidating.

"Look, we're here."

The Breeding House Library is the most authoritative, largest, and richest collection of books in Lilycove and probably in the whole Hoenn region. It is known as the "Sea of Books." It has an unimaginable scale. It has six floors alone and It can accommodate tens of thousands of people at the same time.

However, although the scale is large, not everyone can freely access the books here. The first three floors require payment to access, and access to the fourth floor or higher requires some achievements or reputation, participation in competitions, certification as a gym trainer or a breeder, and various medals.

Moreover, to prevent some precious books from being stolen and the library, from being attacked, the defense here is also very tight. Officer Jenny patrols outside, and the trainers and police hired to monitor everything around them. Inside the library, there are Pokemon with psychic and ghost abilities secretly monitoring everything.

For Brock, entering the first floor can already make him excited for a long time. One should not underestimate the books on the first floor just because of their low level. Although most of them are basic analyses, even common effects of attributes and moves, these are the knowledge that most trainers and ordinary people do not possess. If a person can remember all the basic books on the first floor of the Breeding House, passing the assessment of a junior breeder would be a piece of cake.

The Breeding House Headquarters also carefully considered placing basic knowledge about Pokemon and trainers on the first floor for people with a household registration in Lilycove City to watch for free. However, most people still prefer the second floor, which contains biographical books that are almost like novels. Compared with boring knowledge, this kind of travel writing can make them enjoy it more, but whether they can learn anything from it remains unknown.

"Let's go in." Looking at the magnificent and huge building, a ridiculous idea suddenly popped into Darren's mind.

If a trainer could have all the knowledge inside this library, how powerful would they be?

However, this idea only flashed for a moment, and Darren laughed it off. How is that possible? Not to mention the vast number of books, just comprehending the thousands of aspects of knowledge contained within them with human brainpower is probably impossible in one's lifetime.