"Finally back, Sally. Did you have fun out there?"
Philip's expression immediately turned kindly. He doted on this youngest son the most.
Looking back toward the door, the newcomer had red lips and a fair face—scratch that. Though the description was a little off, the newcomer was a man, or rather, a youth who could be described as bewitchingly beautiful.
Unlike the Bede Family's inherited brown hair, the youth named Sally had silver hair like the pale moon, simply tied into a ponytail behind his head, making him look dashing and capable. His traveling clothes were also quite refined, carrying the dust and weariness of the road. He looked like a handsome young man.
That was, if one ignored his gentle features and his height of barely 1.6 meters.
Calling him a femboy did not seem right either, because he possessed a manly air. Yet calling him a rugged man would be a waste of those beautiful features. He could only be considered a delicate, beautiful youth.
The more Philip looked at the boy, the more he liked him. Sally had perfectly inherited his late mother's beauty and the Bede Family's astonishing intelligence. At such a young age, he already had his own unique insights into business and could even lead a merchant caravan on his own. No matter how one looked at it, he was the best candidate to inherit the Bede Family.
Unfortunately, he was illegitimate.
He was the child Count Philip had with a commoner. Only after his mother died five years ago was he brought into the Bede Family.
Out of guilt toward his mother, Philip had always unconsciously favored Sally. Unexpectedly, this made Sally the target of his two older brothers' hostility, and even the servants privately held a poor opinion of him.
So after his coming-of-age ceremony, Sally often traveled outside on business and rarely returned home. In the end, he really did establish a fairly profitable merchant caravan.
"How much did you earn this time? Come, share the joy with your father," Philip greeted him enthusiastically.
"Same as usual, nothing much." Sally stood on tiptoe to hang his coat on the rack, then noticed the report on the table. "I heard that dungeon underwent some kind of change. Have you finished exploring it, Father?"
"Hehe, I'm afraid this time won't be easy." Philip laughed heartily and pushed the thick stack of reports toward Philip. "These are reports from the experts and adventurers the family hired, along with some scattered intelligence. Take a look and help me figure out how we can chew through this Hard Bone."
"Is it really as dangerous as the rumors say?"
Sally picked up the reports and began reading. The smile at the corners of his lips gradually faded, and in the end, he set the reports down expressionlessly, his brows still faintly furrowed.
Seeing Sally, whose intelligence was no less than his own, make such an expression actually made Philip feel a little happy. After all, he could not be the only one suffering a headache.
"Well? Isn't it difficult? There's simply nowhere to begin, right?"
"It really is different from what I imagined."
Sally rubbed the jeweled ring on his right hand and said with a frown, "It's too easy."
"What?" Philip suspected he had misheard. "Too easy?"
His instincts told him that this son of his seemed to truly have a way to break the deadlock.
"Do you remember the letter I wrote you, Father? I said that I met some friends during my travels and wanted to bring them home as guests."
"Could it be that your friends can..."
"That's right. I haven't told you who they are yet, have I?"
Sally smiled faintly, looking completely confident.
"They're Braves."
"Ah-choo!"
Gong Qiying suddenly sneezed, scratched his head, and muttered, "Can Living Dead catch colds too?"
He stared intently at the Crystal Ball. Watching how adventurers cleared the dungeon had become his favorite show. No television program from his previous life had ever been this interesting.
There were always some incredible people among the adventurers, clearing stages in wildly imaginative ways.
Someone used a flying pet to light the signal fires in their place, unlocking the Fortress Gate without taking a single hit.
Someone used a kind of magic to transform into a Fishman and infiltrate the monsters. After lighting two signal fires, he was surrounded by Fishmen, only then realizing that he had transformed into a female Fishman while all the Fishmen in the dungeon were male.
The humiliated adventurer ended up killing himself.
Someone discovered that when Skeleton Monsters fell apart, there were two possible outcomes. Some always landed with their skulls facing upward, while others landed facing downward. Combining the two gave them a perpetual motion machine!
The rotation ended up becoming so fast that it extinguished the soul fire inside the skulls, killing the Skeleton Monsters too.
Aside from these fancy tricks, there was another type of person who never failed to appear—those who cleared stages through brute force.
The most typical example was an adventurer with a trace of giant blood. This berserker, who stood around three meters tall, drank a bottle of berserk potion and hacked his way from the portal to the Fortress Gate with two axes. He then mindlessly chopped at the gate like a madman, nearly forcing his way through. Gong Qiying had been so frightened that he was considering bringing over the Crucible Knight to deal with him.
In the end, it was the heroic army of Curse Frogs that took him down with Curse of Death mist.
Curse Frogs truly were the greatest creatures in the world. He pressed his palms together.
"I really should add more monsters with instant-kill mechanics. Brute-force players are too terrifying."
Gong Qiying's gaze shifted, and after seeing a certain scene, he suddenly let out a surprised sound.
"What is this guy doing?"
The figure on the screen looked familiar: a thin frame, a pale face, refined clothing. Wasn't that Vierde?
"This guy isn't dead yet?" Gong Qiying remembered him. He had originally thought Vierde was just some stereotypical arrogant young master cannon fodder, yet he had survived until now. He had entered as soon as the dungeon opened, and it was nearly closing time, but he still had not died and been sent out?
There was nothing surprising about a mere young master surviving this long. What astonished Gong Qiying was the object in Vierde's hand. It was round, colored red and white...
Wasn't that a Poké Ball?
"I remember hiding the Poké Ball in a very concealed patch of grass, with Bulbasaur guarding the area. How could he possibly have gotten it?"
Fine, getting a Poké Ball was not that remarkable. With enough luck, anyone could find one. But—
"Go, Pikachu! Use Discharge!"
Vierde stood with one hand on his waist and fiercely hurled the Poké Ball at a Living Dead Soldier wandering nearby, striking a rather flamboyant pose.
A flash of light appeared the next second, and a Pikachu really did leap out of the ball!
"Pika pika—chu!"
Yellow lightning surged forth, instantly roasting the Living Dead Soldier to a crisp outside and tender inside. It let out a cry and collapsed to the ground, dead beyond doubt.
"Well done, Pikachu! As expected of this young master's partner!"
"Pika."
Though Vierde looked excited, Pikachu could not be bothered with him and simply hopped onto the top of his head.
"No, how could he possibly have caught Pikachu? There's no way he could have beaten it."
Gong Qiying did not know where things had gone wrong. He had considered that Pokémon might be caught by adventurers, but he had never expected one to be caught by a helpless young master.
Could Vierde be a One-Ball Superhero who could catch Pokémon even at full health?
And the moment he caught Pikachu, he was already able to fight alongside it. Their level of coordination made Gong Qiying feel that even if Pikachu were instantly defeated the next second, it would force itself back up just to keep its trainer from being sad.
"This guy has potential, specifically when it comes to training Pokémon."
Gong Qiying suddenly wanted to battle Vierde too.
Before you continue