Slums

The next day.

Dawn tore through the night sky, and the morning sun looked down upon the earth.

On the westernmost edge of Goldenrod City lay a street filled with abandoned buildings.

Early that morning, Xia Yan arrived here with Weedle.

Rows of old residential buildings, more than a dozen stories tall and abandoned for who knew how long, stood before him. It was clear that no one had lived here for a very long time.

As the largest city in the Kanto Region, Goldenrod City appeared infinitely glamorous on the surface, but behind that facade were quite a few impoverished areas people did not want others to see.

The former Xia Yan, for example, had been one of the lowest forms of life in Goldenrod City, like a mosquito larva. No one would have cared whether he lived or died.

And the area he had come to now was a typical place where Goldenrod City's lowest-class residents lived and operated.

It was also known as...

The Slums.

Wearing the clothes Kenji had prepared for him, Xia Yan swept his eyes across the deathly silent surroundings from beneath the brim of his long cap.

He could not help frowning.

"To think it's here. Finding it is going to be troublesome."

In his hand was the mission file Supervisor Loto had given him yesterday. It contained a description of a Pokémon, along with its threat level and matters requiring attention.

His mission was to eliminate that Pokémon.

And this elimination was not as simple as driving it away. It meant eliminating it in the truest sense.

"This really feels strangely familiar, like a lifetime ago."

Xia Yan murmured.

His former self had spent plenty of time in this area and was fairly familiar with its environment.

He knew just how complicated the situation here was. Finding a Pokémon that had hidden itself would definitely not be easy.

At the same time, Xia Yan could clearly sense that quite a few eyes were hiding in the seemingly empty area, watching him.

Eyes filled with hostility and greed.

The way he was dressed truly stood out from this environment.

"Looks like I should find someone and ask about the situation first."

He put away the file.

It only contained a description of the target Pokémon. He knew only the general area where it was hiding, not its exact location.

Tap, tap, tap—

His footsteps sounded somewhat muffled against the shattered paving stones, with broken rocks and gravel scattered everywhere.

He headed straight toward a dilapidated house.

His sudden movement caught the person hiding inside the house and silently observing Xia Yan off guard.

The person hurriedly tried to flee, but then heard Xia Yan say,

"Stop him."

Whoosh—

A glistening white thread shot from Weedle's mouth and wrapped around the ankle of the person trying to flee in panic.

The man looked terrified and struggled desperately, but he could not move it at all. Instead, he was dragged closer and closer to Xia Yan.

With Weedle's current String Shot, an ordinary person had no chance of breaking free.

Xia Yan looked at him expressionlessly and met his panicked eyes.

When Xia Yan saw the man's face, he froze for a moment before quickly recovering. "Sanfu."

Hearing his name called, the man also froze.

Xia Yan had not expected that the random person he chose to question would turn out to be an "acquaintance" of his former self.

However, Xia Yan had changed too much now. Sanfu did not recognize him at all. Even if he found him familiar, he would never connect him to the old Xia Yan.

"This... sir."

Knowing he could not escape, Sanfu obediently addressed him.

One of the rules for surviving at the bottom of society was to admit defeat when facing someone obviously stronger.

Xia Yan took out a twenty Poké Dollar bill from his pocket.

"Answer my questions, and it's yours."

At the sight of the money, Sanfu's eyes immediately lit up.

Twenty Poké Dollars was not a small amount. For him, it could provide food for a week or even longer.

He nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes!"

"Recently... has anything Pokémon-related happened in this area? Anything unusual, or any unusual incidents?"

"This area... Pokémon... unusual incidents..."

Sanfu blinked and fell into thought.

Then he jolted and quickly responded, "Recently, Scarface from the southern corner suddenly died."

"Not that."

Before he could finish, Xia Yan cut him off.

Scarface was the man who had tried to steal his Weedle before. He had probably fallen into temporary weakness after being poisoned by Weedle's Poison Sting, then been killed while vulnerable.

That was common in the Slums.

It was not a major incident.

"Not that..." Sanfu muttered softly. Then he seemed to think of something else. "At the abandoned dump in the west, strange vehicles have been coming to dump garbage recently... There are also some strange creatures in the dump now. Someone said they're Pokémon, called Grimer..."

"Not that either."

Xia Yan interrupted him again, staring at him with an unquestionable gaze as he emphasized, "I mean something unusual. Something that should not have happened or appeared."

Scarface's death and Grimer appearing in the dump were both ordinary occurrences.

They had nothing to do with his mission.

Feeling Xia Yan's gaze, Sanfu's body trembled slightly. Sweat beaded on his dust-covered forehead, leaving streaks as his mind raced.

Xia Yan did not urge him. He folded his arms and waited silently.

After a moment, Sanfu finally said tentatively, "The western corner... Assef from the western corner tamed a Rattata. Does that count as something that shouldn't have happened?"

Before Xia Yan could speak, Sanfu seemed to realize that this might not sound unusual to him and quickly added, "Assef doesn't have a Poké Ball!"

Xia Yan's eyes narrowed.

He tossed down the money and immediately turned to leave.

It should be...

That one.

The western corner of the Slums.

"Wu!"

Weedle, which had been quietly resting on Xia Yan's shoulder, suddenly straightened up and raised its head toward a dilapidated residential building not far away.

"You sensed it?" Xia Yan asked.

"Wu..."

Weedle sounded uncertain. It was not sure; it had simply felt something strange all of a sudden.

"Then it should be here."

Xia Yan became even more certain of his guess.

The residential building was silent as he stepped directly inside.

"Who?!"

Suddenly,

As they approached, a voice rang out from a corner on the first floor.

A figure slowly emerged from the corner, followed by a somewhat skinny Rattata that did not look particularly strong.

But what was somewhat surprising was...

Both Assef and the Rattata looked dull, their eyes vacant.

They were like two puppets on strings.

It seemed as though something was controlling them.

Xia Yan was not particularly surprised to see them like this. Inwardly, he was already ninety-nine percent certain of his guess.

His eyes swept over the surroundings, but he saw no one else.

"Who... are... you?"

Assef asked again, one word at a time, stiffly. The Rattata beside him bared its teeth and claws.

"Wu!!"

Weedle answered.

Whoosh—

As if stimulated by something, the Rattata sprang forward on all fours.

"Take it out," Xia Yan said calmly.

Weedle understood. It shot off Xia Yan's body, its open mouth glowing with a cyan aura as it bit down on the Rattata.

In one move, the frail Rattata lost its ability to battle.

At the same time, Assef somehow produced a wooden stick and swung it at Xia Yan's head.

Whoosh—

But before he could get close to Xia Yan, Weedle immediately turned and shot out a thread, binding his feet.

Bang!!

Caught off guard, he tripped and crashed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Weedle then added several more threads, completely restraining him.

Yet Assef struggled and roared nonstop like a madman. He did not look like a person at all, but more like a crazed beast.

"Let's go. The real target is here," Xia Yan said to Weedle, glancing at Assef on the ground.

Weedle returned to his shoulder using its threads.

They climbed the stairs, heading toward the upper floors of the dilapidated residential building.

But the instant Xia Yan stepped onto the stairs, he heard—

Rumble—

The stairs began to tremble faintly. Countless footsteps came from above, accompanied by a large number of squeaks.

Then,

Dense clusters of tiny figures entered his field of vision.

Rattata!

A vast number of Rattata, too many to count, were frantically rushing down the stairs.

And their target was Weedle and Xia Yan, who had rashly entered.

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