Chapter 329: The Antagonist

Magma Suit.

A divine outfit that lets a player stand atop a Mega Rayquaza's head and break through a planet's atmosphere.

Of course, that's the space-suit version.

What Team Magma made for All Baimu this time was the suit version and the casual version—

Two League Conference outfits, two Contest outfits, and two casual outfits, with black and silver-grey as the main colors. Originally, according to Captain Huoyan's idea, they were going to be made in the black-and-red color scheme like Chief Chiyansong's.

All Baimu flatly refused.

A black-and-red suit — isn't that just Fladry? He didn't want to wear outfits too similar to the lion-head guy's.

Captain Huoyan, whose proposal had been rejected, was very sad, so she proposed embroidering a few more Team Magma emblems in other places, such as on ties, underwear, and the like.

All Baimu, who caught it in time, refused a second time.

This kid's train of thought is rather bizarre; he really couldn't handle it.

Meanwhile, during this period, Himura, who had appeared in the anime, also showed up. In his memory, this person was also a square-faced, thin-built man, but meeting him in person, he saw a fatty.

Mm.

Himura had gotten fat.

He'd ballooned from his game-version appearance all the way to his anime-version appearance, which looked especially weird. Clearly Izumi was still the red-haired, pale-skinned version from the anime…

Don't you two opposing organizations coordinate your skin-change timing in advance?

The other party had shown up mainly to see just who had the ability to make the team offer such a large sponsorship fee.

There was even a certain implication to it.

But when he saw Captain Huoyan clinging to All Baimu, the provocation on his face instantly vanished, replaced by an emotion called pity.

Himura even quietly pulled him aside and warned him to be a little more careful.

"Once this kid takes an interest in someone, she'll lock onto the target tightly, and often can't grasp the concept of keeping distance. Be careful — at night when you're sleeping, she might crawl out from under the bed, or the wardrobe, the curtains, the sofa…"

"Is she a female ghost?"

"You can absolutely say that!"

"Eh?"

All Baimu was creeped out by what he said.

"You're on your own. Of course, it's also possible I'm overthinking it — after all, she's been a lot more normal these past two years." Himura regretfully patted the former's shoulder. "Best to seize an opportunity and tell her clearly that you don't like this."

From what he said, the last person tormented by Captain Huoyan was Chief Chiyansong.

From this, one could see that Chief Chiyansong's leadership magnanimity was truly great.

All Baimu looked at the utterly serious Himura and at Captain Huoyan nearby, whose eyes had never once left him, and fell into deep thought.

How about…

Slip away?

——

Five in the afternoon.

With Himura's friendly help, All Baimu slipped away with six Magma Suits.

Of course, he had mentioned to Captain Huoyan that her staring at him like that all the time would make people feel scared, but the latter simply didn't understand, and even asked him why he would be scared.

Isn't liking someone supposed to mean following them closely?

All Baimu looked at those pure eyes filled with "curiosity," and for a moment was at a loss for words.

He knew this one was just like Gulpin — until she had her awakening, no amount of talking would do any good. One didn't understand the meaning of "like," and the other couldn't tell the difference between curiosity and affection.

Overall, Gulpin was still cuter — mm, much cuter.

Before departure.

"I'll suggest to Chief Chiyansong that he assign her more missions. That's all I can help you with." Himura, with his round, plump belly, said earnestly.

"Good man!"

All Baimu was deeply moved, and his impression of him instantly changed from a former villain to a not-so-villainous villain.

Then he slipped away without looking back.

Although Captain Huoyan actually couldn't do much — at most clinging to people all day long, plus being eager to battle. But for him, who valued his personal space, the clinging part alone was hard to accept.

Just thinking about being watched by someone all day, he really couldn't take it.

Meanwhile.

Considering he'd been making too much of a splash lately, he was always being stared at when he went out.

All Baimu decided to give up on going to New Zi Jin City to get his fourth Badge, and instead take a detour to Greenfield Town to live for a while.

Not just to avoid Captain Huoyan, but also to avoid other people's attention.

Becoming famous and making a glorious return to the Orre region was the ultimate goal. Before he had fully grown, being too famous would only affect his future Pokémon training.

Anyway, there was still a long time before the League Conference and the Grand Contest began. He'd properly level up Porygon, Galarian Corsola, even Zweilous and the others, learn more moves that could be used in official battles, and then go challenge the Firebreathing Gym, the Autumn Leaf Conference, and so on.

Forget about the Verdanturf Conference.

Always sending out Aggron and the others also made it easy to lack real combat experience against other Pokémon.

Mm… Galarian Corsola has already been in two battles.

The first three gyms mostly had a lot of physical attackers, and with its ability to drain power, it was very suited to come out and battle.

All Baimu was clear that he currently lacked overall team strength — there were simply too few usable Pokémon, and his choices were always stuck on the very first few.

It wasn't that relying on Aggron and the others' combat power was bad, but Pokémon battles ultimately came down to three-on-three or even six-on-six team fights. He had to get his other Pokémon to coordinate with the ones in front.

Like most trainers in the anime, who seemingly had six-on-six but were no different from singles in practice — he didn't want to learn from those guys.

And not long after he left.

A message came into his phone — it was unmistakably from Captain Huoyan.

The message's she had much more normal punctuation, saying she would be taking on missions for quite a long time, and would come find him for a battle when she got back.

"Looking forward to battling you next time, so I can analyze you plenty."

What terrifying content!

It was clearly a normal challenge, yet All Baimu felt a chill run down his spine, and at the same time he was grateful for Fire Village's reaction.

Truly a man whose goal is to be Team Magma's most outstanding member!

——

Route 103.

This route connected to Route 110, and just happened to be where Team Magma's base was located.

Starting from here, going left-forward led to Greenfield Town, and going right-forward led to New Zi Jin City.

However, going to Greenfield Town required crossing a vast inland lake, and the area around Greenfield Town was Chongshanjunling — without taking Route 117 and the Karat Tunnel, one would have to climb over mountains or go around.

In terms of one-way distance, going around was definitely longer.

But along the way he would surely encounter more wild Pokémon, and occasionally bump into trainers for an intense Pokémon battle — All Baimu was happy about this.

So.

He began a rather long wilderness adventure.

Training his own Pokémon while making his way toward Greenfield Town.

However, one afternoon.

All Baimu by the river was about to start his daily ordinary simulation, but on the selectable talent column he saw a talent that greatly surprised him.

【Villain (Join a Villainous Organization)】

A white talent?

It's a white talent, right?

All Baimu rubbed his eyes, confirming this was indeed an ordinary talent. But across his dozens of simulations, this was the first time this talent had appeared.

Has he been hanging around villains too much lately, so it gave him a villain character?

But back when he was still a villain grunt, he never saw this thing appear either!

He quickly recalled the region he had previously chosen —

Johto!

Holy crap, it's Team Rocket!