Chapter 626: Wow! Golden Legend!

Even though the number of swimming fish and wild Magikarp was large, filling the narrow stream with their presence.

But this time, Luo Mu did not miss that glimmer of golden light.

Rather, precisely because he had heard about this matter from Serperior, he had been keeping a close watch on the water situation at all times.

Watching that golden Magikarp, which had blended into the Magikarp group, using their body size to cover its existence, and then recklessly devouring several mouthfuls of bait in the murky water.

Luo Mu sighed: "It really exists!"

At this moment, the Magikarp did not know it had already been exposed, happily flapping its tail and enjoying this long-awaited underwater feast.

Who knows how long it had been starving to survive this long winter!

Due to the limitations of its physical hardware, its brain could not support Magikarp in performing overly complex thoughts.

No matter how "smart" it was, there was a limit; at least the Magikarp at this moment could not perceive at all that this was an environment Luo Mu had deliberately created!

Hmm, Luo Mu was certain that he had deliberately used a large amount of bait to create a feeding spot, and only then attracted this Golden Legend Magikarp in one go!

No rebuttals accepted!

Luo Mu patted the Gyarados, which was staring idly at a small tree that had lost all its leaves, and asked with slightly glowing eyes: "Is that the thing you are looking for?"

"Roar-ao?"

Gyarados blinked its eyes and did not react immediately.

But when it looked in the direction Luo Mu pointed, its eyes instantly lit up, and it roared loudly at Luo Mu due to its excited mood.

"Roar-ao!"

Yes, that is the one!

That is the golden, brilliant appearance in its memory!

Gyarados could already imagine how happy Milotic would be after receiving this gift Luo Mu had prepared for it.

"You kid, you really don't treat it as your own kind."

Watching Gyarados's excitement, Luo Mu was somewhat speechless.

Although he had heard that most Gyarados do not regard Magikarp as their own kind, seeing it in person was indeed somewhat hard to bear.

This probably had nothing to do with whether the Magikarp was a shiny variant.

Because Luo Mu could see it from Gyarados's eyes.

Whether it was that shiny Magikarp currently crazily gnawing on the bait, or the other group of normal-colored Magikarp.

Gyarados treated them all equally, simply not regarding them as its own kind at all.

The creature he had been lying in wait for for several months, Luo Mu encountered in just one visit.

It could be said that at this moment Gyarados was already convinced and convinced of Luo Mu, looking at Luo Mu with eager eyes, as if taking him as its leader.

Boss, how do we get it up?

"Can't you just swallow it in one bite... never mind, with your size and presence, you would definitely scare them away directly."

After all, Magikarp are "swimming dragons in the water" with a base speed stat of 80; if Gyarados rashly dives into the water, it is foreseeable that the gathered ones would definitely scatter like birds and beasts.

At that time, if one wanted to catch the fleeing golden Magikarp inside, it would be somewhat difficult.

At least looking at the lineup of the three Pokémon currently by his side, Luo Mu felt the probability of catching up was very slim.

As for contacting someone to help, given the current situation where the opponent might leave at any time, Luo Mu did not think he could win the gamble.

Since that is the case, then there is only one answer.

Several plans flashed through Luo Mu's mind, and he finally locked onto one of them.

"You three, come over here."

Luo Mu waved his hand at Gyarados, Sister Shuckle, and Brother Shuckle.

Only when they gathered close to him did he speak: "We just need to do this and then that!"

"Roar!" "Sizzle-pop!"

The eyes of the three Pokémon instantly lit up; they thought Luo Mu's idea was absolutely amazing!

"The key is you, Gyarados; are you sure there is no problem?"

Luo Mu was quite confident in Sister Shuckle and Brother Shuckle.

Especially since Brother Shuckle had already received his training and was skilled in move accuracy.

Sister Shuckle also had a considerable degree of tacit understanding with him.

The only variable was Gyarados; this fellow was captured from the wild Crystal Pool and had not undergone any trainer's training, so Luo Mu was unsure if it could do what he required.

"Roar-ao!"

In response to Luo Mu's doubt, Gyarados did not protest with emotional agitation, but looked into the stream with a rare expression of determination, its gaze burning.

It will try hard, no, it will definitely succeed!

Everything, for the gift to Milotic!

As it feasted wildly, due to its size being right there, the shiny Magikarp, which had a slightly more lively expression in its eyes compared to its peers, had already begun to consider retreating.

Although it did not understand this matter very well, it was still clear that its appearance seemed to have a strong attraction to those two-legged upright apes.

Especially that unlucky guy who couldn't even catch a small fish and had added several meals for itself, who was right by the stream.

Even though it was confident it had properly used other Magikarp to hide its tracks, the shiny Magikarp still decided to stop while ahead.

To avoid really making that unlucky guy on the shore turn red with anger and recklessly pump the water, which would be troublesome.

The shiny Magikarp, vaguely remembering that it had almost crashed because of this matter before, decided to avoid such risks.

—But plans always fail to keep up with changes, let alone the shiny Magikarp's "plan," which at best could only be considered a slightly more intelligent instinct.

Accompanied by a roar that vibrated the fish's heart, on the shore, the fierce aura that had been lurking nearby for a long time approached rapidly.

In the shiny Magikarp's view, Gyarados was probably furious because the food in its territory had been eaten, and handling it was very simple.

When the opponent leaps into the stream, just take the opportunity to use the turbulence as cover and retreat quickly.

But this time, Gyarados's behavior was completely different from what the Shiny Magikarp had expected.

It did not rush into the stream all at once, churning the water muddy and throwing the scene into chaos.

Instead, it braked just a step away from the creek's edge, and taking advantage of the school of fish being intimidated by its aura, Gyarados swung its long tail, flinging a purple whirlwind directly into the water!

The move "Hurricane"!

However, this "Hurricane" was a version where Gyarados suppressed its power as much as possible, so it wouldn't directly knock all the loafing fish unconscious.

After all, Luo Mu wasn't so cruel as to go to such extremes just for a single Shiny Magikarp.

Perhaps bolstered by the power of "love," Gyarados, which normally couldn't even control its own emotions let alone suppress its strength, had actually managed to reduce the Hurricane's power to the absolute minimum.

All that remained was a pure whirlwind.

The moment the formed tornado plunged into the creek, it instantly sent water splashing in all directions.

At the same time, under the effect of an upward force, countless Magikarp with glazed eyes, along with innocent freshwater fish, were immediately swept up into the sky by the tornado!

Among them was even the Golden Magikarp, which hadn't had time to flee because Gyarados had acted so unpredictably!

At this moment, the brain of the airborne Magikarp, which usually held nothing and never thought about anything other than eating, rarely entered a state of enlightened detachment.

Who am I?

What am I doing?

Why am I in the sky?

In the Shiny Magikarp's dull, wooden fish eyes, a spark of insight akin to the birth and destruction of the universe flashed instantly, finally coalescing into a single thought.

—So this is what it feels like to leap over the Dragon Gate.

Unfortunately, perhaps because it relied on external force, the evolution that should have triggered upon reaching its limit height did not occur this time.

After all, they had neither swum against the current nor leaped over a high waterfall using their own power.

Immediately after, amidst the tornado that was turning into a water spout due to the added spray, the Shiny Magikarp noticed a certain object rapidly enlarging in its vision.

Then, it was neatly caught in a net, fresh and dripping.

Of course, this was not a Poké Ball thrown by Luo Mu, since he hadn't brought any Poké Balls with him at all.

—That was the "Sticky Net" spat out jointly by Shuckle Brother and Shuckle Sister!

The Sticky Net, full of viscous fluid, hit the Shiny Magikarp with pinpoint accuracy, incidentally netting a few lucky fish as well.

This large net, stickier than a spider's web, left the Shiny Magikarp with no sign of breaking free no matter how much it thrashed its body.

"Gyarados, pull hard!"

Accompanied by Luo Mu's excited shout, Gyarados also excitedly bit down on one end of the net, and with its strength, the Sticky Net capturing the Shiny Magikarp was easily dragged ashore.

It was only after bouncing back and forth on the muddy ground, which had few weeds, and unleashing the "Splash" ingrained in its genes, that the Shiny Magikarp's dull brain finally realized what had happened to it.

It had been caught by this fisherman who had gone empty-handed every single time he fished!

It was simply a lifelong humiliation; it would no longer be able to hold its head high among the Magikarp clan!

Meeting the gazes of Luo Mu, the Shuckle siblings, and Gyarados who had surrounded it, a clear tear silently streamed from the corner of the Shiny Magikarp's protruding fish eye.

Fortunately, Luo Mu lacked telepathic abilities; otherwise, he would have known how this seemingly dazed Shiny Magikarp was slandering him in its heart, and there would be a high probability of him flying into a rage.

At this moment, he was merely happy that his plan had succeeded; after pulling the Shiny Magikarp out of the Sticky Net, he lifted it up like a rare treasure, holding it high with the same motion a baboon uses to raise Simba.

"Wow! A golden legendary!"

Even though it was smeared with mud and the slime from the Sticky Net, under the sunlight, the Magikarp's body of glittering golden scales was still dazzlingly bright.

If it remained perfectly still, someone might truly mistake it for a statue of a Magikarp cast from solid gold.

This luster and color were absolutely pure!

Gyarados's level of excitement was evidently even greater than Luo Mu's.

Its persistent efforts in lying in wait had finally borne fruit!

Gyarados couldn't wait to gift this glittering fellow to Milotic!

After cleaning up the mess left by the "fish bombing" and ensuring all other Magikarp were released back into the creek, Luo Mu finally packed up his fishing gear to head home.

It was just that his bucket, which had been empty moments ago, now contained several plump-looking freshwater fish.

This was the first time Luo Mu had ever done something like this, and his mindset was slightly nervous.

He wondered if Serperior and the others would discover that these fish weren't caught by fishing, but obtained by bombing.

Regardless, the fact that he was no longer returning empty-handed would surely astonish them!

The Shuckle siblings wouldn't talk too much, and this simpleton Gyarados currently had its mind full of giving a gift to Milotic; as long as he didn't say anything, who would know the truth?

After lowering his head and secretly rejoicing for a while, Luo Mu finally looked up at the Gyarados flying low beside him.

More accurately, he was looking at the Golden Magikarp tied up within Gyarados's coiled large tail, wearing an expression that said, "I am already a salted fish, do not disturb."

Through his observation, Luo Mu discovered that the whiskers of this Golden Magikarp were a color similar to its glittering golden fish scales.

That is to say, golden-yellow.

The method to distinguish the gender of a Magikarp is by judging the color of its whiskers.

Typically, male Magikarp, which are the color of braised carp, have yellow whiskers, while females have white ones.

From this, one could conclude that this Shiny Magikarp was male.

Although Gyarados was giving it as a "gift" to Milotic, in terms of final care, it would still be provided with the best food and drink.

If this fellow evolved once more, it was hard to say whether a Red Gyarados with a body of handsome red scales wouldn't win Milotic's favor.

In Luo Mu's view, this simpleton Gyarados might have just found itself a rival in love!

Unfortunately, no matter what he said now, it was impossible for Gyarados, which had been lying in wait for two months with enormous sunk costs, to give up.

"Sigh, I hope nothing goes wrong later."

Luo Mu sighed, and then his gaze met again with the dull fish eyes of the Shiny Magikarp.

The other party glanced at him, then shifted its gaze away with an expression of utter disdain.

Luo Mu: ".?"

No way, is this guy looking down on me?

Not to mention Milotic's indescribable expression upon receiving Gyarados's "gift" and seeing that living Shiny Magikarp.

And that silly, dopey Gyarados kept grinning foolishly, thinking its gift had moved Milotic.

It completely failed to notice the resentful glance Milotic shot it, as if saying, "Are you making me spend energy raising another Gyarados again?"

At noon, Luo Mu, who was "no longer air force," had his Falinks and Audino prepare an all-fish banquet for him.

There was steamed fish, braised fish, snakehead flower soup...

It was indeed delicious; the steamed fish meat was tender and smooth on the tongue.

The braised fish had an authentic flavor, its unique sauce aroma perfectly complementing the taste of the fish meat.

The snakehead flower soup was simply divine; slices of snakehead flower floated in the milky-white broth, a sight that whetted the appetite.

It was just the profound expressions on Oranguru and the others' faces as they looked at him that left Luo Mu, sweating profusely, utterly puzzled.

That can't be right; there shouldn't be any channel for the news to leak out.

Besides, how long has it been since I just returned? Even if it did leak, there's no way it could have reached their ears so quickly.

Nearly scaring himself, Luo Mu tentatively interpreted their gazes as looking at him with new respect.

Now, once we reach the Hoenn region with its abundant rivers and seas, my honed fishing skills will soon shine brilliantly!

By then, catching a Kyogre in front of Wallace might not even be a dream!

(End of Chapter)