Foolish

Chinese!

Heiduo opened his mouth, so stunned that he could not make a sound for a moment.

The voice was extremely faint. If not for his twenty points in Constitution, he would never have heard it clearly.

Since most places in the Pokémon world were modeled after Japan, its language was extremely similar to Japanese, proving what it meant for everyone to speak Japanese.

But Japanese obviously could not possibly exist in this world. Even Kalos, modeled after Paris, France; Unova, modeled after the western United States; Alola, modeled after Hawaii; and the soon-to-appear Galar region, modeled after the United Kingdom, all spoke languages similar to Japanese rather than English, French, or any other language.

A second transmigrator! And they had been captured?

Did the Mole Poaching Group traffic people too?

Heiduo shuddered. Human traffickers! Those scum deserved to be killed a thousand times over!

Faced with a fellow countryman being trafficked—very likely someone from the same place as him—Heiduo hesitated.

If he turned away, this fellow countryman, who had finally made it to this beautiful world, would likely receive anything but beautiful treatment.

Heiduo did not believe people who bought and sold humans could possibly be good people.

"Damn it!" Heiduo bit his fingernail. If only the fog from Ursaring Mountain could drift over here!

Fog... fog!

Heiduo's eyes lit up. Didn't Arbok's move pool include a move called Haze?

He looked around at those people's Pokémon and found that several of them knew fog-related moves. Since that was the case, they surely had items to counter heavy fog, something like night-vision goggles.

However...

Looking at their outfits, Heiduo saw that they were generally dressed very simply. Even if they had night-vision goggles, they would need some time to react.

He would probably have only twenty to thirty seconds to move freely.

In a mere twenty to thirty seconds, he had to cover nearly three hundred meters, climb down a cliff, and snatch back the Pokémon?

That was impossible for an ordinary person.

But... it was enough!

Heiduo stepped back, took a deep breath, and began warming up. There were eight people and thirteen Pokémon below. Alone, he stood no chance against them.

But perhaps he could outsmart them.

The timing, terrain, and people were all on my side!

Heiduo looked up at the thick, dark clouds overhead. With Elekid's Rain Dance, the weather boost should be enough to create a torrential downpour.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

With three soft sounds, Heiduo released the other three Pokémon.

"Do you see those people down there? Today, we're taking a huge gamble! If we win, the good days will come!" Heiduo gave them a pre-battle pep talk. He was not talking nonsense. If he could wipe out those people below, the Pokémon League's bounty would definitely be substantial.

Arbok and the others looked at one another, each seeing the helplessness in the others' eyes. To them, every day of their current lives was already a good day. They had food, drinks, and massages, and they did not need to worry about their lives being in danger.

They had no idea what Heiduo was talking about.

"Hiss!" "Beep beep!" "Buzz!"

Still, they had to give Heiduo some face. They could not let him embarrass himself.

The four Pokémon put on excited expressions with remarkable coordination.

Receiving their response, Heiduo clenched his fist and explained his plan to them in detail.

"Hiss!" "Gah!"

Arbok and Gible, the first to understand, immediately protested. This was far too dangerous for Heiduo.

The other two opposed it as well.

In the end, Heiduo refuted them one by one, saying that unless they had a better plan, there was no need to keep talking.

Gible's suggestion that they return and call for reinforcements was not rejected.

"No more talking! Stay concealed! The plan begins!"

Heiduo tensed, ready to move.

Arbok and the other Pokémon were helpless. For the first time, they realized that their Trainer was even more impulsive than they were.

Bucktooth sat on an off-road motorcycle, tightly hugging a black bag.

They had been waiting here for nearly three hours.

He had no idea whether the boss and the others had escaped. He just wanted to get back to base already. Johto really was too unfriendly.

Why were these Police officers so dedicated? Couldn't they leave people a way out?

Bucktooth's mind wandered.

Suddenly, cries rang out beside him.

"A gust of wind is coming! And Haze! We've been discovered!"

"Enemy attack! Put on the infrared goggles, now!"

"Where are the Pokémon that can use Defog?"

"With the boss!"

"Move! Hurry up!"

Bucktooth raised his head and saw a fierce wind sweeping countless streams of Haze toward them, gradually covering the entire convoy.

What was happening?

An enemy attack? Impossible!

Before Bucktooth could make sense of the situation, a scream suddenly came from beside him.

It was one of the squad members!

Before Bucktooth could react, powerful moves began erupting all around them, indiscriminately striking friend and foe alike.

"Stop! Stop!"

"We're allies!"

"Don't use moves!"

"Put on the goggles! Are you blind?!"

"An enemy has infiltrated us! Don't believe what he says!"

As soon as those voices fell silent, a Hyper Beam grazed Bucktooth's ear and blasted into the ground behind him.

"What the fuck! Rage Powder!" Bucktooth cried in terror, hurriedly ordering Amoonguss to use Rage Powder while reaching for his infrared goggles.

Rage Powder made the Pokémon itself stand out, drawing others' attention and moves toward it.

Using it, Bucktooth blocked the attacks headed his way.

Faint footsteps entered his ears.

"Energy Ball!" Bucktooth hugged the black bag tightly and pointed toward the sound.

Having just used Rage Powder, Amoonguss hurriedly fired a green ball of energy in the direction Bucktooth indicated.

The Energy Ball quickly disappeared into the thick fog.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" An irritable shout came from within the fog. "Are you blind? Can't you see who it is?!"

"Ah! Sorry, sorry!" Bucktooth quickly apologized. His status in the Third Squad was extremely low, and his strength ranked near the bottom. He could not afford to provoke anyone.

But that voice...

A figure appeared beside Bucktooth almost as if teleporting and chuckled softly. "It's fine. I forgive you."

"Who?!" Bucktooth whirled around in horror. That was not a companion's voice at all!

"Mushroom Spore—"

A sharp pain struck the back of his head, and he immediately passed out.

"Moo!" Amoonguss shrieked. Its Trainer falling made it furious. Its body suddenly contracted, and just as it was about to release Spore, a burst of Flamethrower struck it from behind!

Boom!

Amoonguss fainted on the spot, black smoke rising from its body!

The captain of the Third Squad dispersed the Haze and approached with a Houndoom, but he found no enemy—only Bucktooth and his Amoonguss.

"Fuck! Useless idiot!" The Third Squad captain spat with a dark expression.

The enemy had attacked too quickly. Most of their people had been knocked unconscious before they could react.

The Pokémon had not been attacked by the enemy, but they had been injured by friendly fire from all the moves being thrown around.

The Third Squad captain had finally spotted the ambusher, but Amoonguss's Rage Powder had diverted Houndoom's Flamethrower.

He had been so close, but the target had vanished again!

"Did you catch his scent?"

The Third Squad captain asked Houndoom. Houndoom sniffed the ground and used Odor Sleuth, but it found no unfamiliar scent.

Houndoom shook its head at the Third Squad captain, its expression equally grim.

"Impossible!" The Third Squad captain could not believe it. Every living thing had a scent. No one could escape that.

In that case, he might as well wait for that guy to show himself!

The Third Squad captain retreated toward the truck. Since the other side had dared to attack, they definitely would not let the cargo inside the truck go!

A raindrop landed on the Third Squad captain.

"It's raining!" The Third Squad captain's expression turned even uglier. Houndoom was a Fire type, and its combat strength would be greatly weakened in rain. Its Fire-type moves would barely deal any damage!

His hand reached toward his waist. He still had a Seismitoad that was both Water type and Ground type. Its ability was Swift Swim, which increased its speed in rain.

"Hm?" His hand grasped empty air.

The Third Squad captain's face changed. His Poké Ball was gone! How was that possible? No one had come near him at all!

It was Thief!

When had it happened?

The Third Squad captain spun around, his gaze searching through the Haze beneath the rain curtain. All the Poké Balls on him had been stolen!

Do not ask why he was not wearing infrared goggles. His had been destroyed by someone at the very beginning.

He had to find a functioning pair of goggles now, but for some reason, every pair had been damaged.

How many enemies were there? How had they moved so quickly?

The Third Squad captain began questioning his life. Only three minutes had passed since this started, yet most of their people had been taken down, the infrared goggles had been destroyed, and the sounds had been trapped within the Haze.

If the radio had not remained intact, and if he had not already reported the situation, the Third Squad captain would truly have thought Secret Power had transported him into another dimension.

It was too quiet.

Where were the Pokémon?

"Awroo!" Houndoom pawed at the Third Squad captain's leg.

The Third Squad captain looked over and found a rather deep hole in the ground not far away.

"Dig! Why didn't I feel any tremors?" The Third Squad captain's pupils shrank. The simplest way to tell whether an opponent was underground was to check whether there were tremors beneath one's feet. Normally, moving quickly underground would create vibrations.

"This is bad!"

The Third Squad captain suddenly realized that the hole meant the Pokémon inside had already come out. So where was it?

The ground beneath Houndoom suddenly bulged.

"Flamethrower!" the Third Squad captain shouted, then immediately realized that it was raining! Flamethrower's power would be severely weakened!

But Houndoom had already strictly followed the Third Squad captain's order and spewed flames at the ground.

A small figure ignored the flames entirely and viciously struck Houndoom with claws glowing blue!

"Foul Play! Use its own strength against it!" The Third Squad captain retreated. Staying close to Pokémon while they fought was practically asking for death!

Fortunately, he had a backup plan!

The Third Squad captain slipped his hand into an inner pocket. Inside was a Ferrothorn. It did not have much offensive power, but it possessed the life-saving move Protect!