Chapter 266: On the Correlation Between Ground-Type Pokémon and Civil Engineering

"Are you kidding me? Is there really such a cheat-like ability?"

Pipa and Mudan's faces turned slightly pale from shock; could Pokémon battles really be fought like this, where good luck meant constantly triggering move additional effects?

Observing the two's reactions, Luo Mu smiled; the combination of Meng Ya Lu's Zen Headbutt moves and the Serene Grace ability was nothing special.

It was Togekiss's Air Slash combined with Serene Grace that truly left opponents speechless; at its initial stage, Togepi might even get lucky enough to roll out Spatial Rend, Precipice Blades, Dragon Ascent, or Judgment.

Watching their two Pokémon being relentlessly attacked by the pair of Meng Ya Lu, accumulating injuries yet unable to move due to constantly triggered additional effects, Pipa and Mudan found themselves at a critical crossroads of decision.

Should they surrender?

Or fight until the very last moment?

In Luo Mu's unexpected line of sight, the one who stepped forward first was not Pipa, but rather Mudan, who usually couldn't even speak a complete sentence when facing strangers.

Mudan took a step forward, even her pale skin, whitened from long hours holed up in the dormitory with little sunlight, gaining a touch of color; gathering her strength, Mudan cupped her hands like a megaphone and shouted at the Sylveon being bounced around like a volleyball by the Meng Ya Lu:

"Don't give up, Sylveon—!"

Just as she had formed Team Star in the game to deal with bullying, even if Mudan was terrible at communicating with people, she would never lack the courage to give it her all.

Seeing Mudan like this, Pipa was momentarily stunned, feeling that Mudan was shining brightly; her sixth sense as a Fighting-type trainer and wrestling enthusiast told her that she and Mudan would definitely get along well.

Slightly excited command voices rang out across the battlefield once more.

"S-sorry, I couldn't keep up with your battle rhythm."

Planting her feet firmly, sinking her Qi to her dantian, Pipa responded in a loud voice: "Annihilape, show me your grit—!"

Whether it was the Annihilape that ate, slept, and trained alongside Pipa, or the Sylveon whose bond was deep enough to evolve via friendship, both met this condition.

Looking at Mudan and Pipa, whose fighting spirit had been rekindled, in Luo Mu's heart, they had already passed.

However, the battle was still ongoing.

Pipa's sudden silence beside her made Mudan panic and look over, only to see Pipa staring at her unblinkingly, an intense gaze that made Mudan a little flustered.

Believe in your partners; they will definitely respond to you.

Pipa plopped down on the ground, completely disregarding any notion of image, her face filled with unwillingness.

The Annihilape and Sylveon, being relentlessly battered by the two Meng Ya Lu's Zen Headbutt, seemed to hear their trainers' cries; they erupted with unprecedented potential, forcibly breaking free from the flinch state's constraints through their own thoughts and perseverance, as potent Fairy aura and Fighting spirit soared upward.

"Eh?"

"Grassy Terrain!"

"Fee-ya!" "Sha-lu!"

"Aaaah, we still lost—"

No way... since we lost the battle because of me, will Pipa beat me up?

"."

Accompanied by the hand chop falling from Annihilape and the sound-wave attack stained with Fairy energy from Sylveon, the consecutive Zen Headbutt attacks from the two Meng Ya Lu were forcibly interrupted.

Since this classmate Mudan was even more decisive than her, naturally she, Pipa, could not fall behind!

Watching the scene before him, Luo Mu chuckled lightly; the situation in Pokémon battles was always so unpredictable, and even if raw strength exceeded the opponent, Pokémon fighting for their trainers could unleash power and perseverance beyond imagination thanks to bonds forged over time.

Pipa's physique looked very strong (no derogatory intent intended); she felt like one punch could knock out a shut-in like herself who lacked exercise...

Just as Mudan grew extremely nervous under Pipa's gaze, suddenly, Pipa opened her arms, and when Mudan fearfully closed her eyes, what welcomed her was a warm embrace.

Meanwhile, Mudan wore a face full of regret; she had completely become the opponent's breakthrough point, and her support was always half a beat too slow.

A short, urgent gasp was squeezed from Mudan's throat; her nostrils flared, and her first reaction was actually that Classmate Pipa smelled nicely of faint laundry detergent, making her really want to ask what brand she used.

The next second, a warm large hand, covered in thin calluses and unlike the delicate small hands of ordinary girls, landed on Mudan's head, gently stroking.

"It's not Mudan-chan's fault; Mudan-chan did very well; it's just that the coordination between those Meng Ya Lu was too perfect, leaving us no opportunity—"

"Classmate Pipa..."

Mudan's eyes behind her round glasses went slightly blank, and she stood dazed, allowing Pipa to pat her head.

Was she being comforted?

Wasn't Classmate Pipa just too gentle?

"That's right; those Meng Ya Lu are companions who have lived together for a long time, and they often fought alongside other Pokémon on the farm; rather, the fact that you achieved this effect in your first doubles battle together is already quite good."

Luo Mu's voice came from afar to near, and Mudan and Pipa looked up toward the direction the sound originated.

Luo Mu swore he didn't intend to interrupt the incredibly harmonious atmosphere between the two; it was just that Annihilape and Sylveon had already recovered their stamina under the treatment of Comfey.

The two Pokémon came to Pipa and Mudan's sides, their expressions somewhat lost and self-blaming; they had still lost.

"It's not your fault..."

After softly comforting the two Pokémon for quite a while, Mudan picked up Sylveon, while Pipa clasped hands single-handedly with Annihilape, looking at the Meng Ya Lu beside Luo Mu with fighting spirit.

The experience of this defeat would definitely be applied to the next time!

Noticing their gazes, Luo Mu curled the corner of his mouth upward; stroking the fur of the female Meng Ya Lu beside him, he chuckled lightly: "Congratulations on passing the test; due to tight scheduling, next comes the tense and exciting special training session, which will continue until the day we depart for Blueberry Academy; can you handle it?"

"Yay!"

Mudan and Pipa exchanged a glance, joy climbing onto their faces as they jumped up happily.

The next second, after hearing Luo Mu's special training declaration clearly, Mudan's expression suddenly froze.

Could it be that she would have to undergo special training every single day from now on?

Mudan weakly raised her hand and asked: "Um... do we have weekends?"

Getting stronger was one thing, but surely there should still be holidays and rest time, right?

Luo Mu looked at Mudan with an expression of obviousness, smiling meaningfully: "What do you think?"

Under Pipa's surprised gaze, Mudan's legs went soft and she knelt on the ground, muttering to herself—

Oh no, I think I've boarded a pirate ship!

After finishing the interview with the Mudan and Pipa group and receiving a pleasant surprise, Luo Mu took the opportunity to summon Hearing Hearing Nimo and the Nimohe Sect; just as he had informed Mudan and Pipa, he explained to them the matter of going to Blueberry Academy and the upcoming month of special doubles battle training.

The battle maniac Hearing Hearing Nimo had not a shred of resistance toward this matter; in fact, since it involved doubles battles, which she hadn't tried yet, her enthusiasm grew even higher.

No matter how much Peony wailed, his words could not escape Luo Mu's grasp.

A single sentence, "Do you still want to go down into the Great Crater of Paldea?" completely ignited Peony's fighting spirit; Luo Mu scoffed at this, thinking he was just a brat, easily manipulated in the palm of a dirty adult's hand.

These four individuals were the team Luo Mu intended to take to Blueberry Academy.

Before leaving Naranja Academy, Luo Mu sought out the math teacher, Tyme, asking her to occasionally come over to monitor the progress of the four students' double battle practice, offer suggestions, and identify weak points Luo Mu had missed.

As the former Gym Leader of the Glaseado Gym, Tyme specialized in Rock-type Pokémon and possessed years of experience in double battles; even though Luo Mu held extensive theoretical knowledge, Tyme was far more likely to notice the minor practical issues and subtle details.

May 5th, inside Luo Mu's farm.

As truck after truck pulled up and parked outside the farm fence, ten to twenty workers wearing hard hats disembarked alongside Machop and Machamp, signaling that the Machamp Construction Crew had mobilized their entire force for this large contract, gathering all workers and Pokémon together.

Luo Mu and his Oranguru butler had been waiting here early; after shaking hands with the foreman, Luo Mu smiled slightly and said, "We'll be counting on your diligent supervision for this construction project, Foreman."

"Naturally, this is our duty; rest assured, Boss Luo Mu, I guarantee I will oversee these four engineering projects from start to finish!"

The foreman laughed heartily, looking at Luo Mu as if he were the God of Wealth himself.

This time, a massive engineering project worth over a million had fallen into his lap just like a pie dropping from the sky!

The entire construction crew had mobilized, and he had even used connections to invite electrical engineers from the big city to oversee the wiring layout and the installation of the power storage and generation facilities.

Indeed, befriending this farm owner who could casually raise quasi-legendary Pokémon was the right move; nearly every month, a large contract for farm renovation landed in his lap!

Thanks to him, the lives of the brothers had become much more comfortable lately; he could be said to be supporting their entire construction crew single-handedly.

After the pleasantries, Luo Mu stepped aside and invited, "Please, come in."

The foreman nodded slightly, first telling the brothers to rest outside, then followed Luo Mu into the farm.

After reviewing the specific plans and project proposal provided by the foreman, Luo Mu pointed to the underground circuit blueprint designed according to the farm map and asked, "Since this needs to be built underground, we have to dig tunnels, correct?"

Although he didn't understand why Luo Mu would ask this, the foreman still nodded and replied, "Ah, yes."

"How do you plan to dig the holes?"

"Well, generally speaking, we first use an excavator to roughly remove the solid surface layer, and then workers, Machamp, and the Diglett we caught specifically for this purpose perform the detailed refinement."

"What is the efficiency?"

"Given the area of your farm... it would take at least three or four days."

"..."

Under the foreman's nervous gaze, Luo Mu frowned and began to ponder, as if considering something.

At this moment, the considerate Oranguru resolved the foreman's confusion via telepathy:

【Young Master is worried that three or four consecutive days of construction noise will cause a certain degree of mental burden to the farm's Pokémon.】

The foreman froze; a voice had suddenly appeared in his head!?

Then, he looked at the Oranguru with shocked eyes; his intuition told him that the voice just now belonged to the Oranguru.

Good heavens, several Dragon-type quasi-legendary Pokémon, such a huge farm, and now a Pokémon that looked like a butler and could even speak, calling him 'Young Master'.

Indeed, Luo Mu must be a young master from some great family coming to the countryside to experience life!

"The noise caused by digging is unavoidable; just endure these few days, and the sounds from the subsequent engineering work will be much quieter..."

The foreman spoke, trying his best to persuade him, wanting to salvage this seemingly precarious large contract.

Before the Oranguru butler could respond to him, Luo Mu spoke up: "Hmm, how about this; let's strive to dig all the tunnels within today."

"Huh?"

The foreman was dumbfounded; in previous collaborations, Luo Mu wasn't the kind of unreasonable client, so why was he suddenly making such an unreasonable demand?

Seeing the foreman didn't understand, Luo Mu added a detail: "What I mean is, you guys divide up the routes where the circuits will spread across the farm; as for the matter of opening the tunnels, just leave it to me."

Beads of cold sweat instantly broke out on the back of the completely bewildered foreman; what exactly was this farm owner, who was suspected to be a young master of a great family, thinking?

"Tectonic Rage!"

Brilliant light ignited along with Luo Mu's voice, and under the stunned, slack-jawed expressions of the workers—mouths wide enough to stuff a duck egg—the light merged into the tall, muscular Mudsdale.

"Neigh!!!"

Mudsdale let out a thick yet domineering roar toward the sky, and its heavy front hooves, seemingly carrying the force of ten thousand jun, slammed heavily onto the ground; an earth-yellow shockwave shot out like an arrow, accompanied by the groaning boom of the land bearing an unbearable burden.

The ground cracked open.

"Th-this is!!!"

The foreman, dumbstruck, spoke with a trembling voice.

What appeared before their eyes was a tunnel matching the width and height requirements of their plan; originally, having excavators and workers collaborate to create such a hundred-meter-long tunnel would take at least half an hour.

Yet now, Luo Mu and this Pokémon called Mudsdale had accomplished it in less than a minute.

Before the foreman could recover, cries of surprise rang out from the other side; a Swampert, relying solely on its own power, shook the ground until it cracked, causing countless soils to churn out like an earth dragon flipping over, and in the blink of an eye, constructed a tunnel no inferior to the one Mudsdale created using "Tectonic Rage."

The foreman was completely dumbfounded; in his impression, the group of Diglett his team had specifically caught for land engineering could at most open small cracks in the ground, and while they were very good at burrowing through soil to loosen it for workers and Machop/Machamp to dig easier...

Why were his Ground-type Pokémon and your Ground-type Pokémon not even in the same art style!

The foreman, hesitating to speak, had already begun guessing Luo Mu's true identity; for a Pokémon to possess such tremendous power, he must at least be a powerhouse on the level of a Gym Leader.

Unaware of the psychological activities of the workers and the foreman, Luo Mu looked at the tunnels propped open according to the marked plans, smiled, and patted Mudsdale's body: "Your control over power is becoming increasingly precise; Tapu Tapu Moumou would surely feel proud upon seeing this."

Mudsdale let out a joyful cry and rubbed its head against Luo Mu's body.

While enduring Mudsdale's affectionate actions, Luo Mu simultaneously gauged his own physical stamina.

After all, since he hadn't released the Z-Move at full power, the loss of stamina wasn't significant; the Z-Ring and Z-Crystal should only need a short while to complete recharging.

Judging by this, the tunnels should be finished today!

Then we can proceed with laying the circuits!

(End of Chapter)