Mole Poaching Group

But the heart of the incident was that the Pokémon released afterward had vanished without a trace. Evidence showed that they had appeared in the underground Black Market, sold by people who looked remarkably like the organizers of the advocacy rally.

The people of Unova called this incident the greatest scandal in recent years. Public outrage nearly drowned the Pokémon League's officials. The chairman of the Unova Pokémon Association resigned to take responsibility, two members of the Elite Four were dismissed, and the Champion was punished with three years of community service.

Even so, the Pokémon League still failed to recover those released Pokémon.

"Remember it... what about it?" Sari blinked. She had still been young when the Great Release Event happened, so she had little impression of it and no particular feelings about it.

Shuangye pointed at Ghetsis's face. "He was one of the masterminds behind the exposed Pokémon trafficking back then!"

A mastermind!

Heiduo glanced at Ghetsis, unable to help wondering whether this guy was still connected to those sanctimonious people from Team Plasma.

Or perhaps Team Plasma had been backing them from behind the scenes.

National Park... It was not close to Azalea Town, but that did not rule out the possibility that they had come here.

After all, there was Ursaring Mountain and Pineco Forest here. The former had always been a hot commodity on the Black Market. Ursaring with the Guts Ability had explosive offensive power while also being incredibly durable, and they looked especially fierce.

They were deeply loved by certain Trainers.

The latter were disposable tools for escape. Having learned Self-Destruct early on, they were always passively forced into a near-fainting state.

And once they were near fainting, their Trainers might not be willing to recall them. At that point, unable to resist at all, they could only wait helplessly to die.

Nothing could be crueler than that.

"One day, I'll bring them to justice!" Shuangye turned her gaze away bitterly. What she did not tell Sari was that during the Great Release Event, criminals had forcibly seized her sister's Pokémon and made her release it.

When her sister went looking for that released Pokémon, she discovered that someone else had already caught it.

If not for an older brother they knew later catching that guy and forcing him to return the Pokémon, they might have only seen it again on the Black Market.

That incident had left a deep psychological scar on her. It was also one of the reasons she became an International Police officer.

Heiduo glanced at Shuangye. This little girl had unknowingly raised a flag. Usually, anyone who raised that kind of flag would run into the subject of it within a week.

But that was in anime and novels. Reality was generally not that absurd, because reality had no logic or sequence. Misfortune powerful enough to knock you down might appear before you had even gathered the courage to face hardship.

It was four in the afternoon. Summer nights were relatively short, so the sun still hung high in the sky.

Azalea Town was peaceful. This small town that survived on Slowpoke Well had not produced many famous or great figures, but the breeders who came from Azalea Town had always been the backbone of the Pokémon League.

Speaking of famous people, no one in Azalea Town was more respected than Kurt.

In an age when Poké Balls were basically mass-produced on assembly lines, it was hard to imagine that someone could make all sorts of Poké Balls with different effects using only his own two hands.

If Kurt had not later suffered threats and coercion from the Masked Man, then, disheartened, handed over the Apricorn cultivation techniques and special Poké Ball crafting methods to the Pokémon League, most Trainers in the world might never have had the chance to use those unusually effective Poké Balls in their lives.

But Kurt was still an old-fashioned stubborn man at the moment. Without earning his approval, there was no chance of getting a Poké Ball made by him.

Unless you paid.

One cost a thousand. No haggling. If you thought it was too expensive, don't buy one.

If Kurt's granddaughter Chie had not been only three years old, Heiduo would really have wanted to catch her a Teddiursa in exchange for a chance to get free Poké Balls.

Wasn't that what Gold had done? Though Gold had not been motivated by personal gain.

"Mii~" Espeon rubbed against Heiduo's stomach. He felt so comfortable to touch. As expected of someone who had learned massage—this was amazing~

Heiduo laughed. He had not expected his unconscious petting to have that kind of power. It was even purring now.

But Espeon really was adorable.

Heiduo wiped away his drool. Having once been a cat servant and a former poop-scooper, he had absolutely no resistance to small cats or dogs like this.

"Hiss!" Jealous, Arbok directly placed its huge head on Heiduo's lap, mercilessly crushing Espeon beneath it.

Espeon was nearly knocked unconscious under Arbok's body. Just think about it—how light could a Pokémon capable of learning Body Slam possibly be?

"Mii!" Blue light shone from Espeon's eyes as it moved Arbok away. It was angry!

Then Heiduo immediately began petting it all over.

"Mii, mii, mii, mii, mii~" Espeon let out an embarrassing sound as its sensitive spots were fiercely attacked.

Beside them, Shuangye wore a look of disgust. This was not her Espeon!

Arbok cried pitifully. This was bullying a snake too much! Were you even my Trainer?!

Helpless, Heiduo could only release the limp Espeon and give Arbok a massage instead.

Tuo Nan had taught him that, with Heiduo's current massage skills, the ideal massage duration was between one and two hours. Beyond that, it would not benefit the Pokémon itself; it would merely feel good.

Once Heiduo truly mastered it, ten minutes would be enough to achieve the desired effect.

It would be great if a skill like this could be improved through cheats too.

Heiduo sighed, then felt ashamed of his own shamelessness. The Golden Finger was already absurdly overpowered.

Strength had given him solid muscles and a high degree of bodily control.

Agility had given him nimble movements and swift reflexes.

Constitution had given him a powerful body and healthy internal organs.

Spirit had given him sharp thinking and terrifying comprehension and memory.

Even Perception, the stat Heiduo considered the least useful, had granted him powerful observational abilities.

Sometimes, Heiduo did not even need his eyes. He could identify an approaching person solely by their scent and footsteps.

The six attributes had given Heiduo far too many benefits, benefits that could not be described with words.

Deep within the dark forest.

A large cargo truck was parked among the mountains and woods, its tires resting on thick layers of dry yellow leaves and soft soil.

The forest, which should have been peaceful and tranquil, had become far less beautiful because of certain people.

Bzzzzzz—

Several off-road motorcycles raced through the forest, crushing the plants beneath them. Beside them followed several Pokémon resembling Dobermans, with either bone plates covering their heads or a pair of goat horns growing from them.

Several cicada-like Pokémon flew through the air. They were extremely fast and had a pair of sharp gray forelimbs.

Together with the people on the off-road motorcycles, they pursued several Ursaring and Teddiursa fleeing in panic.

These Pokémon, which would normally drive away intruders without mercy, now looked like homeless dogs when facing so many pursuers.

"Catch up! Grab them! That Shiny Teddiursa belongs to our Third Squad!" A scruffy man wearing a headscarf roared, urging the Pokémon beside him to chase down the Ursaring.

Meanwhile, the Shiny Teddiursa he spoke of lay quietly in an Ursaring's arms, sleeping soundly.

Hearing the headscarfed man's shout, the three people behind him cheered excitedly.

Beside them, a curvaceous woman dressed in revealing clothes shouted unwilling to be outdone, "Don't let those Third Squad rookies succeed! The Shiny Teddiursa belongs to our Second Squad!"

Several lackeys from the Second Squad behind the woman howled like gorillas to boost morale.

"First Squad! Get moving!" A youthful voice rang out, followed by countless cries of agreement.

The captains of the Second Squad and Third Squad looked over and both laughed. "Young master! We didn't expect you to come too!"

The person they called young master was a young man wearing a face mask and sporting a wild, unruly hairstyle.

He rode a four-wheeled off-road vehicle. Perched on his shoulder was a Pokémon with an axe blade atop its head, blades all over its body, and an appearance like it wore armor.

"How could I miss something this exciting?" The masked man's visible eyes brimmed with excitement. He thoroughly enjoyed watching prey flee before him, yet remain unable to escape.

"Hahaha, then let's see who catches them first!" The Third Squad captain laughed loudly and twisted the throttle, speeding after them.

The Houndoom beside him rapidly moved all four legs, accelerating to keep pace.

The Second Squad captain refused to be outdone and shouted as she twisted her throttle.

The large group raced through the forest.

Meanwhile, at the foot of a mountain dozens of kilometers away from them, a man dressed in green wilderness exploration gear wore a grave expression as he activated his communications device.

Beep—beep—click!

"Hello! What happened?"

A stern female voice came from the other end of the communications device.

The man remained calm and said steadily, "Mole Poaching Group traces discovered at coordinates 16668, 5353. Estimated number exceeds twenty. They are massively hunting Ursaring. Requesting support!"

"...Repeat the coordinates! We'll head over to provide support as soon as possible! Please delay their retreat!"

The most troublesome thing about poaching groups was their extreme mobility. They were equally willing to abandon their targets. The moment something went wrong, they would turn and run. Sometimes, they would abandon not only the Pokémon they had captured, but even their own Pokémon!

The man repeated the coordinates in detail. Beside him stood a blue Pokémon that walked upright and was covered in extremely sticky slime.

"Quag—" Quagsire looked worried. It could hear unease and fear in its Trainer's voice.

The man put down the phone and forced a smile at Quagsire. "I'm fine. Keep it up, Quagsire! Those poached Pokémon are counting on us!"

Aside from forest fires, poaching groups were the second thing rangers feared most. Poaching groups often had large numbers and their Pokémon worked well together.

As the saying went, enough ants could bite an elephant to death; enough people could beat a god into ruin. A lone ranger could never defeat an entire poaching group.

Unless they were monsters like Red or Green, who could take down an entire organization by themselves.

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