A Windfall

Boom!

The rocks shattered, sending dust and smoke flying!

Beneath the dust lay Spinarak, collapsed amid the rubble.

It had completely lost its ability to battle.

Quan You stared at everything happening in the arena in disbelief, dropped to his knees, clutched his head, and wailed loudly.

"Impossible! Impossible! Your Ekans can't possibly know Rock Slide!"

The onlookers stared at Heiduo in shock, not because of his formidable strength, but because they had not expected him to be so patient and restrained.

This kid had actually hidden a move for so long!

Was he really a rookie Trainer?

[ Ding! Ekans leveled up! Current level: 16! ]

[ Ding! Ekans leveled up! Current level: 17! ]

[ Ding! Ekans learned *Glare*! ]

It had gained two levels in a row! And learned Glare!

"Huff... huff..." Heiduo ignored Quan You's tantrum and everyone watching him. Panting heavily, he slowly approached the equally exhausted Ekans.

He lifted Ekans high into the air and walked a lap around the arena.

"Win!!!!"

At that moment, Heiduo was ecstatic. Twenty thousand was about to be his, and Ekans had brought him surprise after surprise.

The Team Rocket members watching all wore different expressions—disdain, admiration, contempt, and speechlessness.

Heiduo set Ekans down and recalled it with its Poké Ball. It was so exhausted that even moving had become difficult.

Unlike in the games, where the HP bar changed only after taking an attack, every action in reality silently drained one's strength.

Not to mention Ekans's final move, gathering a massive rock and batting it forward with its tail.

At that moment, Ekans had nearly lost its ability to battle. Unlike Spinarak, which had fainted outright, it still had the ability to dodge and counterattack at close range.

Like a desperate struggle on the brink of death.

"I don't believe it! I don't believe it!" Quan You pointed at Heiduo and roared, "I checked your records! Your Ekans clearly only knew Acid, Poison Sting, Poison Fang, and Bite! Where did Rock Slide come from? That Ekans definitely isn't the one you received!"

The crowd erupted in an uproar!

Everyone looked at Quan You, but unlike the varied expressions they had shown Heiduo earlier, they looked at Quan You as though he were a corpse.

Article Eighteen of Team Rocket's Rules and Regulations:

Non-captain-ranked members did not have permission to access official members' records! Captain-ranked members could only review the records of subordinates under their command! Violators would receive different punishments depending on the severity of their offenses!

Honestly, if you had the ability to look up someone else's records, no one would come after you. After all, everyone would want to check up on their competitors sooner or later.

But that was an unspoken rule!

A rule that did not exist and could not be spoken of openly!

On the surface, every one of them had to obey Team Rocket's rules and regulations without condition!

Someone like Quan You, who openly spoke of an unspoken rule, was nothing but a clueless idiot!

This guy was definitely finished!

The onlookers began to disperse. Team Rocket's handling of a rule-breaking member was not a spectacle they could safely watch. If they got dragged into it, they would not even have a place to cry.

Quan You noticed the crowd leaving and recalled their looks. His fury instantly cooled.

His face turned ashen in an instant.

"You... are seriously something else." Heiduo had nothing to say to the man.

Was this Quan You smart or stupid?

He could be smart enough to set a trap for Heiduo without anyone noticing, yet stupid enough to say things that should never be said.

A muscular man in a black tank top marked with an R on the chest strolled casually into the battlefield.

"Captain Lan!"

"Lan... Captain Lan."

Quan You's lips trembled, forming a stark contrast with the calm and composed Heiduo.

Lan ignored Quan You and looked at Heiduo. "You're quite good. It's a shame for Ekans to be with you."

After saying that, he turned and left, seeming rather abrupt.

However, Heiduo frowned and shouted after him, "No! Captain Lan, you're wrong! I'm the one who doesn't deserve Ekans!"

He knew very well that he had little to do with the two battles. They had been carried entirely by Ekans's exceptional physical qualities and powerful strength.

Lan paused slightly, but said nothing and left without looking back.

Quan You had only just breathed a sigh of relief when he felt himself being seized and forcibly held upright.

Two stern-faced Team Rocket grunts stood behind him, one on each side.

"Y-You! What are you doing—Aaaah!!!"

Before he could struggle, one of the grunts pulled out a round rod-like device and viciously jabbed it into Quan You.

Quan You immediately lost consciousness.

"Hey—"

"The amount from your wager will be transferred to your personal account. Please rest assured!"

Heiduo had been about to take Quan You's money himself when the other grunt told him directly.

Helplessly, Heiduo could only nod. "All right."

They were probably Lan's personal guard. Their word was final, and there was no place for a newly recruited member like Heiduo to interrupt.

Right! Where was Guifu?

Heiduo suddenly remembered the instigator behind all this.

He looked around and searched for a long time before finding Guifu trembling in a corner of the training grounds.

Tsk, tsk. What a terrible relative.

Heiduo shook his head. The urgent matter was to get Ekans treated in the medical room. He could not mistreat his greatest contributor.

"It's already fine now."

A gentle-looking young woman in a Team Rocket uniform handed the Poké Ball containing Ekans back to Heiduo.

"Thank you." Heiduo nodded at her.

Naturally, Team Rocket did not have genetically powerful beings like Joy, so their medical staff generally consisted of experienced senior Pokémon doctors.

Right!

Pokémon doctors were also a profession of extremely high status in this world.

Just look at Joy. Villains might dare bomb a Pokémon Center, but when facing Joy, they would only dare tie her up.

They were the reborn mothers of all Pokémon Trainers!

Heiduo clipped the Poké Ball onto the clasp at his waist and turned to leave the medical room.

Although Ekans's injuries and stamina had recovered, its mental state probably had not caught up yet.

He would not let it out for now.

It should get some proper rest inside its Poké Ball.

Just as Heiduo stepped outside, Serea, the beautiful silver-haired young woman, walked toward him.

"I heard about it," Serea said flatly, though concern showed in her eyes.

Heiduo gave her an awkward smile.

Honestly, he always felt extremely awkward talking with Serea, as if they were forcing a conversation.

He said, "Ahem! Thank you! Thanks to Ekans, I barely managed to beat him."

As a realist, Heiduo had never believed that people's eyes could speak. All that nonsense in novels about "indifferent eyes," "wickedly charming eyes," "eyes filled with sadness, joy, and pain," or "a shadow flashing through the depths of one's eyes" was complete bullshit! Eyes were not Ditto. How could they possibly change that much?

Normally, changes in demeanor had to be read through expressions and eyes together. That applied to Ekans and Zubat as well.

Their faces showed changes in expression too.

But Serea had brutally punched a hole through that belief of his.

He was truly curious how Serea could convey emotion through her eyes alone without the slightest change in expression.

"...Congratulations," Serea said.

"...Thanks." Heiduo forced out a reply, then could no longer stand the atmosphere that was gradually reaching a deadlock and said goodbye to Serea.

Serea watched Heiduo leave.

Her gaze was somewhat complicated, but in the end, it all turned into determination.

Heiduo sat before the computer and looked at the extra 20,000 Trade Points in the lower-left corner of his personal user interface, marveling at those people's efficiency.

He opened Ekans's status screen.

[ Pokémon: Ekans / Gender: Female / Level: 17 ]

[ Ability: Shed Skin / Type: Poison / Status: Asleep ]

[ Bonus Attributes: 3 / Friendship: 85 ]

[ Moves: Acid Lv. 2 / Glare Lv. 1 / Poison Sting Lv. 2 ]

[ Rock Slide Lv. 2 / Poison Fang Lv. 2 / Bite Lv. 1 ]

It had learned a new move called Glare.

The move had a 100% chance of inflicting Paralysis on the opponent. This was an extremely important move for Ekans, because it determined whether Ekans could control the field.

Paralysis might not deal damage over time, but it could halve a Pokémon's speed and occasionally immobilize it.

He believed it would become one of Ekans's core moves.

He then opened his personal attributes screen and discovered that Quan You's Spinarak had actually provided him with five Attribute Points!

Were Attribute Points really that easy to earn?

Could it be a reward for challenging someone above his level?

Heiduo fell into thought, then added all five Attribute Points to Ekans's bonus attributes.

Move levels could grow through training, but bonus attributes were difficult to increase. Ekans had to fight for its life just to earn five points now. When would it ever reach 200 points?

He resisted the urge to open the Pokémon trading page. Heiduo did not yet have the means to train a second Pokémon.

Reality was not a game, where you could mindlessly grind wild monsters and become stronger by leveling up.

Pokémon here could cry and laugh. They knew pain and exhaustion. They were not strings of computer data, but real lives existing beside him.

Team Rocket Electronic Library.

Heiduo flipped through seven or eight pages before finding what he wanted.

"Basic Guidelines for Raising Poison-type Pokémon"

"Advanced Guidelines for Raising Poison-type Pokémon"

"Arbok/Ekans Training Insights—Beginner and Intermediate Edition, by Koga"

"Fundamentals of Pokémon Battles"

"Battle Insights from Past Champions"

"Positioning and Science"

"Pokémon Nutrition"

"Cooking Represents the Future!"

"He Became a Breeder"... and more.

These were the books Heiduo had spent a hefty sum to purchase, along with various bonus videos.

Altogether, they had cost Heiduo nearly a thousand Trade Points. The most expensive were the Poison-type Pokémon training guides and the Ekans training insights.

However, Heiduo knew these books were only useful as references. Just as people differed from one another, one Ekans could be vastly different from another.

Their main purpose was to provide inspiration.

"I'll definitely raise you into the strongest Ekans in the world!"

Heiduo looked at the Poké Ball by his right hand and made the promise softly.