Wandering in Hau'oli City

Hau'oli City was a joyful, peaceful city, yet Xingye sat on a street corner with a look of utter despair, unable to feel happy at all.

"I'm screwed..."

Assaulting a police officer was a serious crime anywhere. The body cam had definitely captured his face. A bounty would be posted soon, and getting away with only four dollars on his head would already be a success.

This was only his second day in this world. He was afraid he would be spending the rest of his days behind bars, singing prison ballads every day.

"Cycli, cycli~"

Having no idea what it had done, Cyclizar happily rummaged through a nearby trash can. The stray Meowth around it had all been scared away.

Hearing the noise, Xingye glanced over, casually picked up a broken piece of cardboard by his feet, and smacked Cyclizar on the head with it. "Don't touch a drifter bro's treasure chest. No matter how down and out we are, we can't go digging through those!"

"Cycli?"

Cyclizar looked back at him, then put the lid back on the trash can. It returned to squat beside him, constantly wagging its tail.

"Honestly... I still need to teach you some common sense, or one day you'll get yourself killed."

Xingye let out a long sigh. Still, after resting for a while, his body had mostly recovered. If he wanted to ride Cyclizar properly in the future, he would need riding gear so he could make better use of his talent.

But he had no idea where to get that stuff right now. He should find somewhere to stay first... and maybe avoid the police manhunt. If he got a chance to leave Alola, that would naturally be for the best.

He opened the map and confirmed his location. Although there were Pokémon nearby marked as needing help, it was better not to draw too much attention right now. He would deal with what was in front of him first, then worry about everything else.

He was currently near the beach district of Hau'oli City. This was a popular tourist area, though that only applied to the seaside. There usually was not anyone in the back alleys.

"I have to say, Hau'oli City is really huge. But as a popular tourist city, housing prices must be terrifying. Ordinary people probably couldn't afford a place even if they worked their whole lives. Which means there must be tons of abandoned buildings that nobody bought!"

"Anywhere near the beach or schools is obviously out of the question. Near Mahalo Mountain... it really is pretty average. There aren't many entertainment facilities, and you can't get to Lili'i Town from here either. But there should still be plenty of people living here. Everyone can't be idiots."

"I should take a look... Hm? What's with this area? Why isn't even a single shop marked here?"

Xingye's gaze suddenly locked onto an area north of Hau'oli City. Strangely, there were no labels for any smaller locations there.

After all, everywhere else on the map had even convenience stores marked. This was seriously strange.

When he zoomed the map all the way in, he finally saw the street's name and its note.

"Drifter District... a place inhabited by stray Pokémon. Please do not approach casually?"

Xingye silently repeated it several times before falling into thought. If no humans lived there, then naturally there would be no supermarkets. It was not like Pokémon could run stores, right? That would be absurd.

And this place seemed perfect for him. If people rarely came near it, that meant he could live there for free and use it as a hiding place.

With so many stray Pokémon around, he could help them whenever he wanted! Cast a wide net—there were so many of them, surely he could unlock at least one talent!

"But with a place this obvious, I probably won't have few neighbors, will I?"

He did not believe there were no other poor people drifting through a big city who had found such an obvious place to live. He still needed to go check it out first, lest he accidentally took someone else's home.

He pressed and held a finger over the Drifter District's location. The map instantly displayed the shortest route from where he was, and he could even select options to avoid surveillance cameras and crowded areas.

"This is way more useful than that scumbag map. Let's go. Maybe we'll have somewhere to sleep tonight."

"Cycli, cycli~"

"Don't go charging off blindly again. The city speed limit is fifty. You run at thirty, got it? And don't go picking fights with other Pokémon whenever you feel like it. I'll slowly teach you the rest on the way, understand?"

"Cycli, cycli~"

Xingye had no idea whether Cyclizar had listened. It always wore that cheerful expression, and it immediately pounced on him—with the hands it had just used to dig through a trash can—then hugged him and bit down on his head.

"I'm so tired..."

Xingye was feeling utterly hopeless. Why did everyone else have such awesome transmigration stories? They got a Rowlet, put on some clothes, and instantly became invincible. Meanwhile, his own experience after coming here really was like riding a roller coaster...

But no matter how tired he was, he still had to get up. A man could not give up! Even if he had to give up certain things! Like chasti... dignity, or his pride. Everything except ○○ could be abandoned!

He forcefully rolled over, broke free, and with a golden spin, mounted Cyclizar's back.

With someone on its back, Cyclizar instantly entered a ready-to-run stance. It was obvious that it really liked having someone ride it.

"Let's go!"

"Cycli!"

Cyclizar carried him straight toward the depths of the alley. This time, nothing unexpected happened. It was not moving too fast, which put Xingye somewhat at ease.

Traveling through these remote city alleys, it was hard to imagine that this was still Hau'oli City. Garbage bags tossed down from above occasionally littered the road, while stray Meowth and Rattata rummaged through them in search of food for the day.

But they were extremely alert. The moment they heard Cyclizar running, they immediately hid cautiously, only daring to reappear after the sound had faded away.

This allowed Xingye to see another side of this so-called "joyful and peaceful city." The enormous contrast made him feel as though he could sense the gap between those above and below.

"Is it the same even in this world? It's just that most of the burden has been shifted onto Pokémon. The Drifter District..."

"Most of the Pokémon there are probably like this too, right? And my goal is to help them? But can I really do that? I don't even feel like I can support myself and Cyclizar..."

These questions suddenly sprang into Xingye's mind, but he quickly cast aside those impure thoughts. He would think about problems when he encountered them. What mattered most right now was finding somewhere to live...

After a long while, Cyclizar continued weaving through one alley after another before finally reaching their destination.

If one did not take the back roads, there was only one main road leading in. That road had long since been closed to traffic, and there was not a single person on it.

"So this is the Drifter District?"

Xingye looked at the seemingly lifeless, utterly abandoned streets in the distance. Yet it felt as if countless pairs of eyes were hidden there, watching him from outside.

Compared with the outside world, this place was like the difference between an old district and a new one. As far as the eye could see, no building rose higher than five stories. They were all old houses from twenty or thirty years ago, and striking red slogans meant to intimidate and warn people were visible everywhere at the street entrance.

It was hard to imagine that a place like this existed within Hau'oli City, and that it had not been torn down by certain people for redevelopment and housing sales.

"This feels a little strange..."

Xingye could not say exactly what felt strange. But when he looked at the map again, a huge number of glowing dots had appeared on it. A casual glance showed more than fifty—more than even out in the wild!

A smile immediately appeared on his face. "I knew we came to the right place. Let's go in."

He did not climb down from Cyclizar's back, simply riding it inside at a moderate pace.

But the instant he ignored those slogans and truly entered the Drifter District's boundaries, his body trembled. In that moment, it felt as though those gazes had completely locked onto them, erupting with threatening warning intent, ready to kill them instantly.

Cyclizar sensed the aura rushing toward them. Its body reacted instinctively. It subconsciously closed its eyes, then suddenly opened them, its black pupils transforming into colorful OLED dot-matrix displays!

In that instant, purple currents seemed to flicker through the surrounding air. The next second, all those gazes vanished, making it feel as though it had all been an illusion.

Cold sweat seeped across Xingye's forehead. He did not notice Cyclizar's abnormality, only surveying the surroundings as he muttered, "What the hell was that? Don't tell me I wandered into some goblin nest..."