Chapter 44: A Perfect Conclusion

He watched the Delibird carry Otsuka away.

Baimu found a spot that was barely cool and rested for a bit. Once the radar had cooled down enough, he slowly made his way toward where the other two unlucky ones were.

If he could save them, he still ought to.

Though there wasn't much camaraderie between them, right now he had a full twelve Pokémon from companions in his hands alone.

If the trainer wasn't dead, once it was over that person could come to retrieve them and there'd still be room to haggle. If the trainer was dead, the Quicksand Team would reclaim them uniformly at a fixed price of one hundred thousand each.

You couldn't exactly refuse to sell.

Baimu naturally wanted to earn a bit more. You could fall out with anyone, just not with money — besides, he was short on cash right now.

Halfway there.

"Beep."

The Rotom Drone flew down. "Player count requirement met. Team function unlocked."

That fast, and not a single one again?

Baimu glanced at his wristband. The radar countdown still had half a minute left. He didn't know whether the one gone was his side or the opponent's.

A short while later.

He opened the radar and found the fallen was indeed his side. The original six red dots minus Ken were five; now a look showed still five, scattered all over like stars in the sky.

They said the team function was unlocked, yet they didn't mark the teammates' locations — really stingy.

Fortunately, no matter which enemy, they were all a thousand or eight hundred meters from him, and along the route he had to take to save people, there were none of them either.

"Hope the teammates can pull their weight. If you can avoid fighting, then don't. What do you think?"

He turned and asked Roggenrola.

"Dola!"

Roggenrola saw the slightly weary look on Baimu's face and nodded.

To be fair, it actually kind of wanted to move this new body around. During the emergency earlier, its inner universe exploded out and it didn't pay much attention. Now it just felt a tiny bit unaccustomed.

Its mouth had become huge — things it used to eat one grain at a time, now half a small basin in one bite was no big deal.

Its toes had gone from one tiny digit to three, making its walk more stable. Even standing on its hind legs with its front paws raised, it didn't wobble like before.

And although its body had clearly gotten much heavier, its four legs stepped out with more force, and its running speed had increased rather than decreased.

All in all, just three words—

It got stronger!

This unprecedented experience made Roggenrola feel genuinely delighted from the heart, so excited it even got itchy all over, wishing it could find a Pokémon on the spot to throw down with.

Unfortunately, throwing down at this point could pretty easily cost lives. After thinking it over itself, it decided to go along with its trainer's idea.

"Don't be impatient either. I know you're happy right now, and I'm happy too, but everything has to be done step by step. You need to learn to stay calm…"

Baimu patted its head, which had been baked scorching hot by the sun. "Besides, you still have evolutions coming."

He remembered Aggron only needed a little over level forty to evolve. If he pushed a bit harder, he could meet the level condition before next month, and then look for a new opportunity.

The steady kind. Going all-in with your life every time — who could take that?

"Dola!"

Roggenrola raised its head, its tone low like a boulder hitting the ground.

Although not as pleasant as in its Geodude days, this too was a sign of growth.

And evolution was undoubtedly worth rejoicing over. It was just a pity that the nicely rounded, smooth head was gone. With this evolution, not only did the surface become rough, it also turned into the shape of a shovel.

Truly a shame.

——

Half an hour later.

Baimu once again successfully rescued a half-unconscious teammate and sent them into Delibird's pouch. Unfortunately, when he finally tracked down the last one, he found the other party had been dead for quite some time.

Suspected broken ribs piercing internal organs — the chest area was caved in entirely.

"…Rest in peace."

Baimu sighed and used his hand to close the other's eyes. "Once you get to the Spirit World, remember to find Ken and get your revenge."

In the animated world, real ghosts exist, and so does the land of the dead — the Spirit World, created by some little genius screenwriter during the fourth generation of the anime.

And most of the time, wild Dusknoir are hailed as the gatekeepers of the Spirit World, preventing things inside from coming out and the living from going in.

At first hearing, it really does have a few shades of horror.

But there's really nothing to be afraid of. Even after death, humans would have a hard time beating Pokémon. As long as you overcome the fear in your heart, ghosts aren't really anything.

He moved the corpse to a shady spot. Supposedly someone would come to collect it after the match — whether that was true or not, he didn't know.

At this time.

Only a little over an hour remained until the match ended.

Baimu ran back to the spot where the fight had happened and checked on Ken's condition. Finding the guy was truly dead as a doornail, he finally relaxed and silently rested on the spot.

The east side seemed to have become a forbidden zone. Not a single one of the red dots on the west side had shown any intention of coming over from start to finish, preferring to operate in small ranges.

What troubled him was that during the time spent rescuing people, another red dot representing the enemy had disappeared.

What about the teammates?

How many people were left?

If the numbers on both sides remained equal, following this trend the two sides would undoubtedly end in a draw.

He alone had taken out four, plus the captured Pokémon and the reward money — even if he lost, he couldn't take too much of the blame…

This kind of wishful thinking couldn't be indulged.

Baimu understood that the bigwigs above didn't really care for reason. When the time came and they took out their anger, who cared how big a contribution you'd made. So he began planning to head west to harvest the remaining few.

But when the radar had cooled down once more.

He opened it to look, and the red dots on it had dwindled to just two, one of which had already solidified, clearly entering combat mode.

One minute later.

The red dot vanished.

Only the last lonely red dot remained.

Which brother suddenly erupted with squad-leader-level combat power?

Ah.

It's also possible several people teamed up.

All Baimu suddenly realized, staring fixedly at that last red dot—the latter seemed to sense something was wrong and was desperately trying to flee. And the instant the radar technique ended, the red dot also solidified.

Half a minute later.

The aerial Rotom descended, "Match over. Quicksand Team wins. Please wait in place for staff to arrive."

It's over?

They won.

His teammates were unexpectedly capable, which surprised All Baimu somewhat. He had assumed teammates were only good for holding him back, never expecting them to be this impressive.

He recalled his Aggron into its Poké Ball. After just a few minutes, he saw a hover-freight truck carrying a large cargo box drive over from the distance and stop in front of him.

The cargo box's side door opened, revealing several faces that were first curious, then turned astonished.

"It's you!"

"It's me alright, didn't expect four of you still here… huh? Where's Shi Yuan Du?"

All Baimu stepped into the air-conditioned cargo box, sighing that he'd come back to life, but after scanning around he couldn't spot Shi Yuan Du. "He actually lost?"

Those four shook their heads with complicated expressions, indicating they didn't know. One of them couldn't help but ask:

"…All those people on the east side were taken care of by you?"

"Of course not, you're overthinking it. Where would I get that kind of ability?" All Baimu waved his hand. Seeing their relieved expressions, he continued: "Just got lucky and took out four, that's all."

"Hiss!"

The few sucked in a cold breath and pressed on: "What about Jian? I secretly spotted him earlier! He went east too, didn't he!"

"Got lucky and buried him in the dirt. Don't keep asking about me—after the team-up started, those five were all taken out by you guys together, right?" All Baimu didn't want to talk more and directly changed the subject.

Those Quicksand Team members exchanged glances, their eyes toward him full of wariness.

One said: "More or less, yeah…"

In a normal match flow, victory is basically decided by the late-game team-up mode—whichever team can gather more teammates first has a higher chance of winning.

Solo fights are just too hard. Unless someone truly has confidence in themselves, or has really rotten luck, not many people would engage in those kinds of encounters.

The result.

All Baimu soloed four! Jian was among them!

How could they not be shocked?