Chapter 36: Trouble Comes Knocking

Baimu stood up and looked at Gaowu, who was clutching her arm.

The Chansey that had been hiding poked its head out, grabbed some medicine and bandages, and trotted over, its panic brimming with concern.

He said, "Are you okay?"

"... Am I free now?"

Gaowu turned her gaze over and asked, eyes blazing.

"Of course you're free." Baimu helplessly pulled out the Hound Squad wristband and tossed it over. "Here, call for rescue."

She trotted forward, picked up the wristband, and pressed the rescue key, finally letting out a long breath.

"Thank you."

Gaowu took the things from the Chansey that had chased after her, smiled and patted its head; her taut mood relaxed in an instant.

Although countless dangers still lay ahead, in this moment she had gained a sense of security.

"Lucky!"

The Chansey trotted in front of Baimu, its face full of delighted little expressions, its two paws waving back and forth, as if saying, "I did it."

Actively performing medical acts on others was indeed quite a big step forward for it.

"Very good."

Baimu smiled and patted its head.

The source of Chansey's nervousness undoubtedly came from its inferiority complex; it had probably rarely received affirmation before, leading it to have no confidence in doing anything, and to flinch at the threshold.

Half a problem child, but for Baimu it wasn't an unbearable flaw.

It was also working hard to improve, starting from these small medical acts; he believed that within a few months Chansey's confidence would return.

By then.

He would welcome a smiling angel, a pink devil.

Of course, for now it still needed to keep working hard.

Baimu watched as his empty Rotom-phone flew to his side. "You have received a total of one million five hundred sixty thousand in tips."

So much again—what on earth happened to make the tips exceed a million directly? Did the number of contestants decrease?

He glanced at the time on his watch.

By now, more than three hours had passed since the match began, and Baimu had only just welcomed his third prey.

He had originally thought that, at the rate from the very beginning, he could ambush the third person quickly, but the Hound Squad members seemed to know there was a tough customer here and avoided this area one after another.

He guessed that Kenya, located to the east, whom he had placed "great hopes" in, suddenly made a sharp turn, bypassed this spot and ran off elsewhere, mixing in with other red dots and impossible to confirm.

It left him and Gaowu going through a rather awkward two-plus hours.

Realizing it might be a problem from staying in one spot too long, Baimu had no choice but to switch locations several times in a row to confuse the enemy's radar; after much fussing, he finally got a fool.

And as of now, the match had clearly entered its white-hot stage. As far as he knew, only six contestants remained on each side; he believed it wouldn't be long before the "team battle" mode could be activated.

Once teammates were allowed to merge, Kenya's problem would no longer be a problem. As the saying goes, two fists are no match for four hands; Baimu knew Kenya was far from strong enough to take on many alone.

The two swapped the clothes on their bodies back.

At the edge of the sky.

A rescue Delibird flapped its wings and flew over.

It was hard to imagine that a Pokémon of Ice and Flying types could fly so long under the blazing sun.

Baimu looked up, shielding the dazzling sun with his palm. "It won't get heatstroke, will it... uh, it fell."

He seemed to have grown a crow's mouth; not long after he finished speaking, the Delibird's flight began swaying left and right, and it soon plummeted from the sky.

Gaowu's smile instantly stiffened.

But fortunately, after a few seconds, the Delibird took flight again, flapping its small wings unsteadily, barely flying up to them.

"..."

Baimu hesitated, then pulled out a canteen from the captives and walked over, pouring a little water on its head.

Cool water droplets splashed,

The dizzy Delibird froze for a moment, then excitedly flapped its wings, tilting its head back to receive the clear, cool water.

Its gaze also shifted from hazy to clear.

Gaowu's stiff expression softened; if the rescue Pokémon had a problem, she really would have lost it.

"Let's rest a bit first, or it might not even be able to fly out."

Baimu said softly.

"Mm." Gaowu nodded; a little while longer wouldn't matter—if the Delibird fell from the sky out of exhaustion, she'd have nowhere to cry.

Not long after.

The fully recovered Delibird flew off carrying a large cloth bundle.

Baimu watched it go, his gaze circling between the two captives on the ground, picking the next victim.

After much deliberation, he decided to wake both of them up.

Because judging from their respective performances, these two were both tough nuts—at least not soft in front of the cameras—so to make them useful he had to play a trick.

Such as a prisoner's dilemma.

Of course, since he had never used such a tactic before, awkwardness was inevitable; Baimu decided to study the strategy in advance.

"Let's rest while we think—it's really too hot."

He exhaled a breath of stale air.

The desert had an extreme temperature difference between day and night; now, approaching noon, it was when the sun was fiercest, and the ground baked by direct sunlight was hot enough to burn a person.

Even Aron couldn't stand this temperature, and ran back into the shade, hiding beside Baimu.

"Ah... you feel so cool."

He patted Roggenrola's head, and immediately felt a refreshing sensation like sticking his hand into a freezer.

"Goo?"

"You definitely can't feel it yourself, right?" Baimu smiled at it, then pulled Chansey over. "You want to feel it too?"

"Lucky~"

Chansey tentatively extended its paw, and only after seeing Roggenrola lean over willingly did it cautiously touch it.

When the coolness spread through, a look of pleasant surprise also rose on its face.

"I wasn't wrong, was I?"

Baimu smiled and rubbed its fuzzy little head.

The temp worker Unfezant had returned to its Poké Ball right after the battle ended, closing its eyes to rest.

This fellow only got close to Chansey; to it, Baimu and Roggenrola were probably just two coworkers, the sort who'd consider it friendly enough to say hi in their spare time.

But the other party would leave once the competition ended, so Baimu couldn't be bothered to care about their relationship — better to put that energy into Roggenrola and Chansey.

One hadn't evolved yet, the other had a psychological weakness it needed to overcome.

A short while later.

Seeing they had rested enough, Baimu began thinking of ways to wake those two good-for-nothings, to confirm the next tool.

But the moment he dragged one person out into the sunlight, his body suddenly stiffened.

He turned his head and suddenly saw, on the road swept by sand and dust, a blurry human figure had appeared at some unknown point.

The two of them were less than a hundred meters apart.

The air wavered with the heat waves, as if some kind of stage curtain was being drawn open.

Baimu stood in place and narrowed his eyes.

"So it really is you, that red dot that solidifies again and again yet always manages to hold out. I'm very curious how you do it — you only just got your Pokémon not long ago, right?"

The figure spoke, but its voice was eerily sinister.

"... Who says someone who just got a Pokémon has no fighting ability?" He tossed the Houndour squad member in his hand aside.

There were still at least ten-plus minutes before the radar finished cooling down, and at this hour, usually no idiot would actively search for opponents under the scorching sun.

If the search turned up nothing, it would be a pointless waste of stamina; even if it did, there was no guarantee of winning.

Who would have thought...

Miscalculated.

Ken let the arch-like shadow of a strange rock conceal his figure. "So confident — no wonder you're not afraid of me at all."

Scorching weather.

Baimu stood in the sunlight and couldn't help but sigh.

"If I say I'm afraid of you, will you leave this place?"

Ken grinned ferociously. "Nope, hehehe—"

"Battle request!"

Beep!

Two wristbands chimed at the same time!