Chapter 30: First to Be Eliminated

Bumping and jolting.

Baimu was shoved to some place.

He pricked up his ears and listened carefully, his taut body slowly relaxing.

Beep.

A soft sound.

As agreed, he removed the blindfold and opened the Poké Ball.

Pop!

A white streak shot out, transforming midair into a Lairon the size of a Border Collie as it landed.

"Gug!"

"Don't panic, we're safe right now."

Baimu looked around.

His luck wasn't bad—the landing point was a long slope strewn with jumbled rocks, surrounded on all sides by towering stone peaks of every bizarre shape, with not a single soul in sight.

He pulled a dull yellow cloak from his backpack and threw it over himself to block the vicious sunlight, then glanced at Lairon, which had already been fitted with its desert camouflage gear, confirming there would be no reflection before nodding in satisfaction.

"Money well spent."

The most awkward thing about Lairon moving through the wasteland was that its metal shell easily reflected sunlight, drawing the enemy's attention.

So to keep the smooth shell from reflecting, he had specially made several cloth dull-yellow protective covers.

But he figured they wouldn't last long either—a single burrow or battle could wear them down; better than nothing, he supposed.

"Next… as expected."

Baimu rummaged through the backpack, and sure enough, on the underside of the bottom he found an extremely tiny slit, inside which was stuffed a rice-grain-sized black object—

A transmitter.

Were they treating people like fools, or had the operatives and their support failed to coordinate?

He tossed the transmitter to Lairon, ordering it to chew it into fine powder before stopping. "We need to move ASAP—our position might already be compromised."

"Gug!"

Besides the battle-initiation function, the wristbands distributed by the organizers also had a radar search function, which would display nearby enemies as red dots, usable once every half hour with a duration of three minutes.

In other words, simply trying to dodge and hide wouldn't be enough.

Also.

Buzz buzz buzz—

A sound like a mosquito's whine gradually drew closer. Baimu looked up and suddenly spotted a pale-green Rotom Drone flying in from somewhere, hovering above his head.

Roughly three meters off the ground.

A follow-cam.

Fair enough—since this was a spectator sport, how could it do without a follow-cam?

Only, with this thing hovering overhead, the risk of his position being exposed rose sharply, making ambushes and the like rather difficult to pull off.

Baimu and Lairon spread out into a formation five meters apart, and he raised his arm to activate the search function.

Beep!

A light screen popped up on the wristband, revealing an extremely simple map and several red dots that flickered as a vertical bar rotated.

Contestants couldn't see where their teammates were; if they really wanted to know, they could only judge their approximate location through the Rotom Drone's stop prompts.

They had to avoid entering an "encirclement."

Baimu glanced at the map—there was at least one red dot in every direction—and chose the one farthest away.

Stay as far from densely populated areas as possible, then catch that farthest one and battle it.

But just as he was about to set out, a small red dot on the radar suddenly stopped flickering and solidified.

"This is… an engagement?"

He froze for a moment, not expecting someone to start fighting so soon, and immediately left with Lairon.

——

Three kilometers away from Baimu, on the other side of the towering stone peaks.

Among the tangled, labyrinthine paths, several figures fled or pursued.

"Don't push me too far!"

The fleeing one ahead roared furiously, "Nidoqueen, use Pin Missile!"

As the words fell, a faint green halo surfaced on the dark-brown giant spiked ball rolling beside him, and several cone-shaped light arrows as thick as a forearm suddenly shot toward the rear!

Fwip fwip fwip!

The light arrows trailed fiery tails like fireworks, looking quite terrifying.

The pursuer let out a cold laugh, not a trace of fear on his face.

"Pursuit!"

"Ao!"

After the howl came a gray-black monstrous shadow swift as lightning. It easily dodged the faint green light arrows, ignored the Nidoqueen curled into a ball, and went straight for the trainer!

Bam!

"Ah!"

The fleeing one let out a violent scream, crashed to the ground, and was pinned down hard.

And that gray shadow was a Houndoom standing over a meter at the shoulder, roughly one-point-three meters including the head.

"Sang duo!"

Sensing its trainer's dire situation, the Nidoqueen in spiked-ball form howled and charged at the Houndoom, suddenly leaping up!

"Ice Beam!"

A bolt of icy-blue lightning answered the shout, striking its body dead-on!

Bang!

White mist drifted away.

The Pangking, out of its spike-ball form, was half-embedded in the ground, both claws coated in snow-white frost, unable to move.

"Pangking…"

The Quicksand Team member pinned by the Houndoom gritted his teeth, struggling to reach for a Poké Ball, only to have Ken, who had just arrived, stomp on his wrist.

"You're really gutless, running the moment you see me. Where's that big mouth you had trash-talking outside?"

He spat in disgust, and the black-and-white honey badger at his side let out a thin, cackling laugh.

"Maas!"

Without a doubt, it was this Galarian Obstagoon that had just taken down the Pangking.

Ken looked around, then poked the man's face with the tip of his shoe. "Among you lot, where's the one called All Baimu? Have you seen him?"

"Grrrr…"

The Houndoom lowered its head, letting its sharp teeth graze the Quicksand Team member's neck — whether by accident or design.

"…Gulp."

Terror filled the Quicksand Team member's eyes; his fury had long since evaporated before the will to live. "If I talk, I get to keep my life, right?"

The corner of Ken's mouth curled up. "Haggling? You won't shed a tear till you see the coffin."

The Houndoom lunged to bite down without hesitation.

"East!"

The man screamed at once, shrill and desperate. He had no idea at all, but to save his life he had to make something up. "He's in the east!"

Ken raised his right hand, and the Houndoom's bite froze mid-motion.

Seeing the man's face twisted in terror, his body trembling nonstop, he burst out laughing. "Coward! Weakling! Is this what the Quicksand Team breeds?"

He turned to look at the Rotom Drone hovering in midair, his expression dripping with mockery.

After that—

Ken first took every Pokémon from the Quicksand Team member, then stripped the man of all his clothes, had the Houndoom burn them away with Fire Fang, and stomped both of the man's ankles to pieces.

Listening to the howl-like wailing, he said cheerfully, "Don't worry, I'm a real nice guy — I don't like killing people.

"But whether you'll fall to your death before someone comes to rescue you… I'm not so sure about that."

Ken recalled the Houndoom and the Galarian Obstagoon, then released a burly raven wearing a top hat, ordering it to hang the man on a bamboo-shoot-shaped giant rock in the distance.

The Quicksand Team member wept and thrashed, but powerless to resist, he let himself be dragged by the Honchkrow, swaying until he hung from the peak of the crag.

With no other choice, the Quicksand Team member could only cling to the peak with both hands.

That giant rock was easily dozens of meters tall — even if a fall didn't kill him, it would take half his life.

"Go ahead and scream for help! Hahahaha!"

Down below, Ken doubled over laughing.

One Rotom Drone circled the naked Quicksand Team member, filming as it spun, while the other descended to Ken's side.

"You have received a total of four hundred and fifty thousand in tips."

"Heh, thanks, everyone."

Ken gave a slight bow toward the Rotom Drone's camera.

In fact, the ones who could tip weren't only the VIPs at the very top — anyone following the match, no matter what faction they came from, could tip.

So his targets also included those who were dissatisfied with the Quicksand Team, those who loved the spectacle and wanted things to get messier, and a few with twisted mindsets.

He didn't go for the kill only because he didn't want things too bloody — he knew there were plenty of women among the VIPs, and certain sights were too stimulating and would easily upset them.

And breaking bones barely shows any blood on the outside; stripping the clothes was just humiliation.

He didn't even care whether the man's words were true or false — it only served to show that his own people would sell out their own.

Perfect!

As for what the Quicksand Team thought…

Who cares!

He'd let the man live — what more did they want? First, they should think about how much money it'd take to ransom this guy's Pokémon back!

Battle victory rewards, tip rewards, plus the money from the opponent ransoming his Pokémon—

What a fortune!

Ken excitedly licked the corner of his mouth, swaggered, and pulled a small box from his pocket. He glanced at it twice, then frowned.

No signal?

Whatever.

The match arena was only so big — they'd run into each other eventually.

Outside the arena.

A heavy atmosphere hung over the Quicksand Team's base camp, and many passersby glanced their way with mocking eyes.

In the match control room, amid the noisy crowd, Lady Ayana ignored the strange looks around her — and the smug expression on the black-faced man's face not far away — and stared at the screen with an utterly cold expression.