Chapter 139: The Mystery of the Moves

The third day after the mayor left.

The atmosphere in Huang Tie Town seemed to grow heavy.

Baimu picked up some rumors at the restaurant — about the mayor's underlings using the chance to amass wealth brazenly. They had set up checkpoints at the necessary transit hubs, and no matter which faction you came from, anyone wanting to leave Huang Tie Town had to pay a not-inconsiderable fee.

Refuse to pay, and you'd be suspected of theft — dragged back for a thorough interrogation.

Most people chose to swallow it, but there were also stubborn ones who wouldn't. Those hard-nosed types, once the interrogation cleared their "suspicion" and they were released, were basically broken.

Not only that, the toll over these days had grown more expensive each time, with different prices set for different people.

After several days, nearly everyone was grumbling, and the looks they gave the mayor's faction grew increasingly hostile.

Baimu couldn't help but find it strange. The mayor's faction normally wasn't above taking bribes, but it had never been this "flagrant" before — the ugly, ravenous way they were raking in money was practically frenzied. Did they not realize what they were doing?

It wasn't until he went to ask Shanren that he understood the reason.

Someone had spread the news within the mayor's faction that the mayor was about to step down, causing internal panic. The mayor's trusted retainers left in Huang Tie Town believed he would return to Silicon Beryllium City, and they couldn't wait to harvest one last wave of leeks.

When the top goes wild, those below follow suit. The middle ranks couldn't be sure they'd be able to tag along, but the money-making opportunity right before their eyes was simply too good to pass up — and on top of that, they could shift the blame upward — so they gradually went mad with it.

As for the lower ranks… they certainly got their share of profit, but they were also the first to bear other people's wrath.

Taking the least money, carrying the biggest blame.

But Baimu had a question about this — such a lie should be easy to puncture. Could the mayor's trusted retainers really not get in touch with the mayor?

Of course they could. The key was that the mayor himself believed he might be stripped of his official hat.

"He's already been given the cold treatment for two days. His direct superior still hasn't summoned him — he must be extremely panicked inside." Shanren's tone was not without a hint of schadenfreude.

"The Skeleton Farmer's Frontier Cultivation"

"Your father's side is pulling strings?"

"Of course. From the moment he was summoned and forced to sit on a cold bench for two days straight, it was all arranged by the Silicon Beryllium City side."

Shanren said: "Tell A-Wu, the time to leave is almost here — have him get ready. Same for you. The Quicksand Team's next project isn't far off."

"Got it."

Baimu nodded in acknowledgment and passed the message along to A-Wu.

"Understood!"

A-Wu nodded vigorously, then added: "You guys wait for me — I'll be back once I deliver the Dreepy!"

Baimu said in surprise: "You're coming back?"

"Of course I am! Now that I've seen what the situation here is like, how could I sit by and do nothing? Not only that — I'm going to rally more tamers!"

The young man, whose hair was as exaggeratedly wild as a lion's mane, had a fire burning in his eyes. Clearly, all those days of hiding had been building up quite a reservoir of anger in him — he was clearly at the very limit of his patience.

Yet Baimu couldn't help but feel worried. Saving Oure was, after all, an internal affair — would the involvement of outside forces make the situation even more complicated—

Overthinking, overthinking.

In his previous life, every aspect was vastly different from the Pokémon anime world. At the very least, the regions didn't have that clear sense of distance between them like separate countries — otherwise, how could Ash, a kid from Kanto, become the Champion of Alola?

The Elite Four of each region weren't necessarily even locals.

Let alone when the International Police lent a hand — Oure's problems would no longer be just an internal matter, but a problem for the whole world.

Baimu watched A-Wu's intensely excited appearance and had a premonition that the situation was about to grow more complicated.

Originally.

The dark forces of the Oure region only had to face a bunch of internal resisters who refused to kneel.

But once outsiders joined in, things became hard to say.

——

During these days of outside turmoil.

Baimu made more efforts in getting closer to the Dreepy.

Despite the interference from its siblings, the Dreepy gradually figured out how it differed from the other Dreepy — for instance, its strictly controlled single-meal portion.

Like being secretly called out in the middle of the night for an extra meal, or tossing a ball back and forth in the yard under cover of darkness, and finally just falling asleep cuddled together in the living room.

Of course, the ball was definitely held in its mouth.

Each and every one of these little incidents seemed to herald something.

Although the Dreepy was admittedly rather childish in mind, it had developed a certain understanding of certain things — after all, from the moment it was born, someone had always been whispering in its ear:

One day, you'll find the trainer you'll spend the rest of your life with.

Trainer?

The Dreepy of the past couldn't understand — it just thought it was something tasty or fun.

But after seeing Baimu and spending more time with him, that vague word suddenly became a lot clearer, and it felt a genuine joy from the heart.

And after experiencing such a complex emotional shift for a Dreepy.

Baimu soon discovered that this little fellow's obedience had grown stronger — it felt like its affection had suddenly jumped.

Only its temper was still the kind that couldn't take provocation — a couple of taunts from Aggron and Mawile, and it'd easily flare up and charge over to bite everything in sight.

Unfortunately, that was nothing more than impotent rage — it didn't accomplish anything. The latter two either had absurdly high physical defense, or could float in the air via electromagnetism.

But from the Dreepy's instinctive behavior when angered, Baimu could easily tell that this little fellow clearly used biting and ramming as its primary attack methods.

In his vision for the Dreepy's future, the ranged special-attack artillery role took first place — it would maximize the advantages of a Dragapult.

After all, physical attacks were already plentiful enough — if it was all physical attacks, wouldn't that just be a team of glass cannons?

So its attack instincts had to be steered in a different direction, one way or another.

The day it instinctively unleashed Dark Pulse at Aggron and the others instead of blindly charging in to bite, that would count as success.

What Baimu found dramatic, though, was that Mawile had actually learned Taunt.

Despite practicing Swords Dance and Play Rough every single day, the move it ended up learning first was this one.

He didn't know whether to call it a fortunate coincidence or say Mawile had a talent for this.

Boss Cordola's electromagnetic levitation had made no progress at all; lately the thing it enjoyed most was brawling with Haxorus, and it took pride in the new slash wounds on its body, becoming tougher all around.

Chansey's dual-wall progress was also not going very smoothly.

In terms of learning moves, they seemed to have hit some kind of stagnation zone, not progressing as smoothly as in other directions.

Was it because there were too many moves?

All Baimu couldn't help but start guessing, and took out his phone to search for Dr. Kukui.

This young doctor was located in the Alola region, and was a figure famous for specializing in the study of Pokémon moves; his research projects covered not only the Alola-native Z-Moves, but ordinary moves were likewise within the scope of his research.

After all, Z-Moves were born from ordinary moves, and the connection between the two was also a key focus of the research.

He thought for a while.

He sent a question to Dr. Kukui from the PokéBlog.

Additionally, at the present stage, Boss Cordola and the others spent a considerable portion of their day merely practicing and familiarizing themselves with old moves. Should he temporarily slow the pace of learning new moves, free up that portion of energy, and pour it all into familiarizing themselves with old moves?

Considering the things gradually happening within Ironhaven, he felt it was necessary.