Chapter 693: Mega Evolution (3)

On the wide street.

A fleet of hover motorcycles sped past, the roar of their engines drawing attention from many passersby and some office workers with spare time in nearby office buildings.

It had been a long time since Huang Tie Town saw a motorcade of this scale.

When the commercial district was first being built, some young people were dissatisfied with the Salvation Organization's personnel arrangements, forming gangs to target the first wave of incoming aid enterprises.

Their main means of transportation was various flashy, noise-making firebikes.

Of course, this farce was quickly stopped by the Rainbow Team; their leader was captured just five minutes after stepping out, sentenced, and sent to the prison in the southeast.

Followers were forcibly assigned manual labor according to the severity of their involvement.

That battle propelled the previously obscure Rainbow Team into public view, eventually growing to its current scale.

Since then, the sound of revving motorcycle engines had vanished from the commercial street, and no one dared gather a sizable motorcade to parade through town.

Who are these people?

Someone with sharp eyes recognized one of the vehicles as Lady Ayana's ride, and finally understood.

Oh, it's the Rainbow Team. No problem then.

Although everyone wondered why Huang Tie Town's security wasn't handled by the Security Bureau and Young Lady Junsa, arriving in a new place meant adapting to local customs.

Besides, the Rainbow Team only had a strange name—its overall functions were nearly identical to the Security Bureau's.

But the lead rider looked a bit unfamiliar?

"Ah! He's that Baimu! The one who made the blog trending list! And he's the CEO of Rainbow Group—yesterday, to welcome him back, several streets in the east held a banquet!"

Explained the well-informed.

A chorus of sharp intakes of breath filled the surroundings. "Several streets? No wonder the east was so lively yesterday—it only quieted down past midnight! If it weren't so far, I'd have gone to see it myself!"

"Didn't expect him to be this popular…"

"More accurately, he's extremely popular in the east. I heard he once had a nickname—'Demon Tree'—said to be someone like a demon!"

"That's actually quite fitting, hahaha…"

More and more people in the office building joined the discussion, and Baimu's name spread widely throughout the commercial district.

Much of this chatter originated from several trainers from various corporations who had just left the arena; having witnessed Baimu's strength firsthand, they held him in the highest regard, even believing he might rival a Regional Champion.

Some thought this was exaggerated.

Others felt that with the first-ever League Conference coming to the Oure Region, Baimu had a strong chance of claiming the championship title.

Meanwhile.

Baimu arrived again beneath Rainbow Tower, turning to the group: "That's enough for the morning. I'm heading to Dashan—Gigalith and the others are already getting impatient. Do whatever you need to do. Meet here or at the arena entrance at 1:30 p. m."

"But we just filed a report to the team to operate alongside you—"

Cheng Hong hesitated.

Baimu frowned: "Operate alongside me? Unnecessary. What's the point of trailing behind me like a row of soldiers? If you're bored, go read! Only by absorbing more knowledge about Pokémon can you truly help me!"

"... Yes."

Cheng Hong exchanged glances with the others, then reluctantly agreed, heads hung low.

They had desperately hoped to serve Baimu as they once had, but now it seemed their boss no longer needed them.

Or rather, they currently lacked the ability to meet his needs.

"See you this afternoon."

Lady Ayana nodded to Baimu, twisted the throttle, and sped toward the eastern villa.

After stepping down, she held no position in the Rainbow Team, merely serving as a board member receiving year-end dividends; she had no desire to re-enter and create trouble for herself, and planned to return home to slowly browse the e-books Baimu had sent her.

In just a few short hours this morning, what Baimu had shown her had opened her eyes, and she was deeply glad she'd made her decision early.

Challenging other arenas…

Lady Ayana felt the hot wind blowing against her face, a faint smile curling at her lips—long-absent anticipation filled her heart.

Through this, she became even more certain that the Rainbow Team's power was not what she wanted.

—

The eastern entrance of Huang Tie Town.

Baimu drove here alone, greeted the forest ranger monitoring the plants and trees, and didn't immediately ride toward the mountains—instead, he raised his hand and released Gigalith.

"Roar!"

Gigalith excitedly reared up; even with only two-thirds of its body raised, it towered higher than the trees planted near the town entrance, granting it an unparalleled view.

And the reason he brought it out was—

Baimu: "Where's that underground tunnel you mentioned?"

He remembered Gigalith had once said that, to facilitate rapid movement between the mountains and Huang Tie Town, it had gathered a group of Gigalith and Onix under N's command and dug several connecting underground tunnels.

This had caused some impact on Dashan.

At the time, the underground city residents were being relocated, and many accustomed to subterranean life were unwilling to return to the surface.

Coincidentally, one of the tunnels dug by Gigalith lay extremely close to an underground city, causing the ceiling to collapse under the pressure of seismic vibrations, burying most of the settlement.

Fortunately, the residents there had evacuated early and left behind little property, minimizing losses.

Crucially, the buried underground city extinguished any desire among those residents to return, drastically reducing petitions.

So Dashan simply went all-in and, under the pretext of safety, buried all the underground cities.

Seeing there was no way back, the underground city residents finally gave up and joined the tide of surface reconstruction—today, it would be hard to convince them to move back.

"Roar~"

Gigalith scanned the surroundings, confirmed the direction, then lowered its head, inviting its trainer to climb aboard.

Baimu had planned to refuse, but seeing the giant's excited crimson eyes, he nodded slightly: "Fine. Haunter! Help me swallow the motorcycle!"

"Geng!"

A lively, heterochromatic Haunter leapt from the shadow, gripped its belly like unfolding a tablecloth, and engulfed the hoverbike within.

Its shadow storage isn't particularly large, but fitting one hoverbike is more than enough.

Baimu patted its head, feeling it cold, smooth, and fine as caressing a high-quality balloon, "Thanks!"

"Hehehehe~"

Haunter chuckled, but didn't retreat into the shadow; it raised its chubby ghostly paw like a sunshade and peered curiously around.

Then, one human and one ghost leapt onto the head of Steelix.

"Ha—klo—"

The giant Steelix let out a resonant, soaring roar, like a steam locomotive setting off; with flashes of electricity, it slowly rose, avoiding the dense trees as it flew toward the underground tunnel.

Among the woods.

The forest rangers scattered across the area looked up at the Steelix resembling an aerial carrier, then calmly resumed their work.

Steelix's unchecked dominance in this region was no longer anything new.

People had seen it flying overhead every few days; at first it seemed magnificent, but over time, it became no different from a Pidgey passing through the sky.

What was worth noting, however, was Baimu atop its head.

Steelix flew so high—it made one worry he might slip and fall.

Yet.

At this moment, Baimu cared less about slipping than about the rising temperature as sunlight directly struck Steelix's metallic surface; though the wind blowing against him carried away a little heat, this giant beneath his feet was still a steel lifeform…

As he pondered, a patch of shadow suddenly fell over his head.

"Hm?"

Baimu lifted his head—there, a large black umbrella shielded him, held aloft by Haunter's chubby paw, hovering beside him without warning.

Sensing his gaze, Haunter turned its head and grinned at him with a crescent-moon smile, "Genga~"

"No wonder it didn't retreat into the shadow just now—so thoughtful, Haunter, I'm truly moved." Baimu hadn't expected Haunter to be so considerate; he laughed and wrapped his arm around Haunter, squeezing its cat-like pointed ears.

The Steelix, focused on flying, glanced up and belatedly realized the altitude was generating uncomfortable heat for its trainer.

"Roo~"

Steelix growled, lowered its altitude, and increased its speed.

Shortly after.

It arrived at an abandoned minefield, ignoring the warning barriers at the entrance as it flew past the dilapidated guard post and let out a call-like roar, "Haklo!"

The roar echoed through the empty minefield.

Baimu raised an eyebrow, sensing the ground trembling continuously—as if some heavyweight creature was approaching.

The next instant.

More than ten Geodude and four Steelix emerged from different directions, surrounding the giant Steelix with low, answering roars.

They stared at Baimu atop the giant Steelix, their eyes filled with curiosity.

"Roo!!"

The giant Steelix raised its head and roared fiercely at each Geodude and Steelix before it; visible pale-white sonic waves rippled through their bodies.

Then, under Baimu and Haunter's curious gaze, they arched their long bodies, pressed tails and chins to the ground, closed their eyes, and assumed a posture of complete submission.

Is this… submission?

Baimu had some understanding of Steelix and Geodude's basic behaviors; he knew this act was like a dog exposing its soft belly to show weakness.

Both were voluntarily revealing vulnerability.

"Roo?"

The giant Steelix looked up at him with a hint of pride, as if saying, "Aren't I awesome?"

Baimu laughed and sighed—he hadn't expected Steelix to have so many little siblings and followers behind the scenes; it was probably one of the few Pokémon that truly valued pack bonds.

"Impressive, impressive."

He patted Steelix's scorching forehead; Haunter winked and made faces at the other Steelix and Geodude, its naturally mischievous nature tempting it to play a prank.

But it held back.

Because Steelix didn't linger long in the abandoned minefield; it carried Baimu and Haunter into a deep, dark mine tunnel beneath the rocky mountain.

Pokémon that dig tunnels usually behave similarly—they never simply carve out a single straight path.

So once Baimu barely adapted to the darkness of the tunnel, he quickly spotted countless openings leading in every direction.

Who knew if these bored Steelix and Geodude had completely hollowed out the underground.

Interestingly, Pokémon living in these tunnels weren't only them; Baimu also spotted Sandshrew, Sandslash, a family of Pancham, and even Zubat.

Compared to the sun-blasted open wastelands, dark tunnels were clearly more suitable for some Pokémon.

After ten minutes.

Baimu felt the Steelix, which had been descending steadily, now began ascending; when a sliver of light appeared at the edge of his vision, he knew they had reached their destination.

Boom—boom—boom—

The ground trembled.

In the quiet foothill area, a shimmering silver Steelix burst from the tunnel, its head bearing a half-crouching human and a chubby, adorable balloon-like ghost.

"Roo!"

It roared upward, announcing its arrival and startling several birds from a distant grove of trees.

"Phew… it was too stuffy inside."

Baimu removed his mask, breathing in fresh air; Steelix's land-travel trait stirred up massive dust and sand, which lingered for ages in the cramped tunnel environment.

But such dust posed no problem for Steelix; as a human, Baimu suffered greatly.

He leapt from the top of Steelix, using the horizontal steel bones along his back as a cushion, landing swiftly and steadily, then released his other Pokémon—except the heterochromatic Milotic.

Since you can't adapt to this environment, don't come out and suffer for now.

Galarian Lure Coral: "……"

It didn't understand why it had been let out—to sunbathe?

Letting a Ghost-type Pokémon sunbathe?

Does that even make sense!

Lure Coral drifted slowly above All Baimu's head, deciding to protest by occupying the high ground of his intelligence.

The Dreepy Mescia siblings saw this, their eyes lit up, and they stacked themselves atop Lure Coral like a human pyramid; Gengar, thrilled by the sight, "pressed" down on the elder Dreepy sister at the very top.

All Baimu saw Bossgodora and Blissey wearing expressions of wanting to laugh but holding it in, and scolded with genuine helplessness: "A bunch of lunatics!"

"Sha sao!"

Three-Headed Evil Dragon, unwilling to be "left out," flapped its wings wanting to join in.

All Baimu naturally couldn't let this nearly four-hundred-kilogram fellow press down on his head—Gengar at least knew to fake pressing down, its full weight carried by floating itself, but Hax-Dragon would definitely press down on him for real.

How much did Lure Coral and the two little Dreepy weigh?

Combined they didn't even amount to a fraction of Three-Headed Evil Dragon's weight!

He fled up the mountain as if escaping; Three-Headed Evil Dragon chased after him aggrievedly; Mawile jumped onto Bossgodora's shoulder, having run alongside the trainer for so long it didn't really want to run anymore.

Bossgodora, who had been longing for Dashan for a long time, stepped forward expectantly, with Steelix close behind.

Blissey looked around, and only after spotting Dragapult's tracks did it follow the main group at ease; as for Porygon-II… it had never come out of the phone in the first place.

Coming here this time, on one hand All Baimu wanted to familiarize himself with the mountain range he hadn't seen in a long time.

On the other hand, he was preparing to find a suitable spot to build a house, and to scout where would be good for a lake, waterfall, and the like—he hadn't forgotten his intention to settle here in the future.

Additionally, there was one very important matter.

Attempting Mega Evolution with Steelix.

"It's time for the first attempt."

He gripped the Mega Stone pendant in his arms, turned his head to look at Steelix—this fellow's Mega Stone was located on the back of its head, secured with a metal ring and then welded shut—

Steelix had requested this itself; it worried the stone would fall off while digging tunnels, and strongly demanded it be welded shut.

All Baimu had no choice but to find someone to help weld it on.

He still couldn't forget that welder master's wonderfully strange expression to this day.

"Let's try it first anyway."

He stopped walking and said to Bossgodora and the other Pokémon: "You all go look around first, I'll try Mega Evolution with Steelix."

Bossgodora glanced at Steelix, nodded in response: "Gu jiu!"

"Gen~"

Gengar carried off the elder Dreepy Mescia, who was holding the younger Dreepy, who was tugging on Lure Coral—a long string swaying in the wind.