Chapter 161

Affected by the broader environment.

Baimu had no choice but to shut down his restaurant and devote a small portion of his energy to rebuilding Magnetbar Street.

Fortunately, he no longer needed to attend literacy classes; apart from a few rarely used obscure characters, he had already gained a basic grasp of the Pokémon world's common language.

And in fact.

If Cheng Hong and Da Zhuang could hold the ground, as a cadre, he had no real need to spend half an hour or an hour each day visiting.

Yet their growth rate, though faster than those around them, was painfully slow compared to his; they lacked the strength to earn the genuine respect of the former Evil Dog members.

Of course, they could choose to complain.

But if they did so rarely, it was tolerable; if they complained too often, it would make those around them look down on them—Cheng Hong and Da Zhuang naturally refused to endure that, so lately they had been working themselves to the bone.

On the other hand.

Baimu's personal reason for going to Magnetbar Street was to cleanse its atmosphere.

On the first day of Magnetbar Street's reconstruction, he discovered that some former Evil Dog members forced civilians to build houses for him and his family first, before constructing a series of entertainment venues.

Only after all these facilities were completed would they be allowed to return and repair their own homes.

When the civilians saw this, they unquestioningly chose silent endurance, as they always had.

Upon learning this, Baimu immediately had several ringleaders—or those who had proposed the idea—hanged from flagpoles to be exposed to the sun; the remaining accomplices and even their families were ordered to help the civilians build their homes first.

Only when all the civilians' houses were finished could they begin building their own.

To prevent anyone from rescuing those hung from the flagpoles, Baimu specifically assigned Sandflow Team members to guard them—after all, guards were needed anyway.

Little Book Pavilion

After this brutal display, every former Evil Dog member began asking veteran members what this elder brother liked, to avoid triggering his wrath.

Showing compassion for the common folk seemed utterly incomprehensible to them—were these expendables even worth caring about?

Yet their superiors favored such actions, so even if they had to fake it, they had to put on the show, lest they be the next one strung up on the flagpole.

Leveraging this show of force.

Baimu successfully secured a relatively peaceful jurisdiction.

But soon another troubling matter arose—the resources needed for reconstruction.

Although the Sandflow Team had made considerable profits off the carcass of the Evil Dog Team, the amount they were willing to allocate for repairing the three streets under Luo Qi's control was minuscule.

No money meant no infrastructure; no infrastructure meant the civilians on the three streets could hardly live normally.

It was impossible to expect Baimu to pay out of his own pocket—he knew his meager savings would vanish without making any dent. He wasn't that generous—

Moreover, most of the reward money from this operation had already been converted into compensation payments for the severely injured members of the outer Qingyi Street contingent.

These people had received little to no reward money, and the Sandflow Team had given them almost no resettlement funds; if Baimu ignored them, they would struggle to survive.

The remaining reward money was reserved for Bonsly's food, massages, and other expenses.

He could eat poorly, but he wouldn't let Bonsly and the others suffer.

So he frequently went to the Sandflow Team headquarters building to beg for funds from the finance department.

This was, of course, extremely difficult—Baimu wasn't the only one reaching out to finance; lately, compensation payments alone had given the administrators headaches.

In the end, the Sandflow Team's leadership suddenly realized that their invasion of the Luo Qi Group had actually cost them money.

Hmm.

Excluding what they had taken, the spoils were insufficient to cover their losses.

So what should they do?

As the entire Sandflow Team began worrying about money—and dared not even consider who had been feasting greedily—

Something Baimu had never anticipated happened.

——

If one word were to describe what happened that day,

Baimu would call it a "Pokémon version of the Hongmen Banquet."

The specific context: the defected Jiemate Group, led by his inner circle, held a celebration banquet with three top Sandflow Team cadres and the Sandflow Team boss in Silicoberyllium City.

He didn't want to attend such a scene—he found it nauseating and stayed away.

As a result, he missed a grand spectacle.

Jiemate's own trusted subordinate, whom he had released, betrayed him from behind and killed him on the spot; his other trusted followers were likewise slaughtered by that madman.

Just days after carving up the Evil Dog Team like a pig's head, they turned around and slaughtered the defectors.

What an astonishing move.

Although the Sandflow Team later released the banquet's surveillance footage, which clearly showed Jiemate's subordinate stabbing him with a knife, whether the other factions in Huang Tie Town believed it was another matter entirely.

In any case.

After Jiemate's death, the Sandflow Team had to "weep" as they took over his territory and appointed Jiemate's son as a cadre to manage his father's former districts.

Jiemate's son happily accepted the position.

Having devoured two-thirds of the Evil Dog Team's power, the Sandflow Team's financial figures finally improved, and with the influx of former Evil Dog members and returning wounded, their strength rapidly expanded.

Ke Jieluo had originally planned to exploit the Sandflow Team's casualties for personal gain, but this move terrified him into retreating into his own territory and refusing to emerge.

But clearly, his earlier decision to defect to avoid Sandflow's invasion had invited a wolf into his home.

Just days after Jiemate's death, a shocking report came from Ke Jieluo's side: he suffered a sudden heart attack and could not be saved. His territory was naturally absorbed by the very faction he had invited in.

With this.

From the moment the Evil Dog Team's boss was arrested by international police, to the successive deaths of its three top cadres, the once peer-level second-tier faction—the Evil Dog Team—had completely collapsed and vanished from history.

Would the Sandflow Team feel sorrow at this sight, as rabbits mourn the death of foxes?

Baimu thought not—entirely because the upper echelons were lost in a frenzy of wealth, while the lower ranks saw little change.

It must be said.

Cang Zhi Lang may be the boss who likes to play PUA games, but he genuinely takes good care of him, even sending Baimu into Jiemarte's territory to recruit new underlings and snatch up the sharper ones.

And this time, Flobo gave him pointers, telling him to specifically go receive and rescue the members the Salvation Organization had hidden within the Hound Squad—

To be honest.

Before Baimu saw those people in person, he never would have thought he could run into someone he knew.

"Gou Wu?"

He looked at that dark-skinned, frail woman in utter astonishment—at the charity convention, this woman riding a Swablu had given him a great deal of help.

When Gou Wu saw Baimu, she was equally astonished, even unable to believe it.

"Y-you too?"

"Me too."

Baimu smiled and nodded—she had hidden herself deep enough. Thinking about it now, the reason she had her Swablu go up and snatch the bare-naked Quicksand Squad members was surely to save him.

Most of the people in the Salvation Organization had a kindness that the ordinary people of Iron Town lacked.

Fortunately, he hadn't pressed too hard back then.

Baimu thought to himself, completely unaware of how complicated the expression on Gou Wu's face actually was. Of course, even if he had seen it, he wouldn't have cared—he was more concerned with whether they could coordinate well with each other.

Coordinate what?

Of course, to seek development.

Staying under the big tree of the Quicksand Squad, they were few and weak, forced to use women like men and men like draft animals.