Does Luring a Wild Pidgey into Being a Free Moving Target Sparring Partner with Sandwiches Count as Freeloading?

Xinhua Community was an old residential complex that had been built nearly forty years ago.

Located on relatively remote terrain at the edge of the city, it had a low occupancy rate, and most of its residents were retired elderly people.

The blazing midday heat was at its peak. Whether elderly people or wild Pokémon, they would all choose to take a pleasant nap somewhere cool at this hour.

Yet in an old gazebo tucked away in a secluded corner of the community, one person and two Pokémon were conducting some kind of transaction.

"You want to eat this?"

Mu Yun held up a sandwich he had made that morning and looked at Pidgey.

Carried by the breeze, the sandwich's fragrance quickly spread through the air.

Drawn by that tempting scent, Pidgey braved Weedle's stare and cautiously flew closer. Seeing that Weedle showed no intention of opening his mouth and spitting at him, he began flapping faster and happily flew over to Mu Yun.

"Pidgey~"

Pidgey stopped a few meters in front of Mu Yun. His large black-and-white eyes were filled with longing as he nodded rapidly.

Watching Pidgey hover in midair, an idea suddenly came to Mu Yun.

During this time, Weedle had always practiced against stationary targets. He had never trained against moving ones.

But in actual battles, attacking moving targets—or even attacking moving targets while moving himself—was the most common situation.

As for String Shot hitting Pidgey yesterday, that was entirely because Pidgey had no instinct to dodge. On top of that, he had flown straight at them without any evasive movement, so getting hit was only natural.

Since this Pidgey had been captivated by his sandwiches, why not take this opportunity to have him spar with Weedle?

A sparring partner that cost only a few bucks—how was that any different from getting one for free?

"I can let you have some, but you need to do me a favor first." Mu Yun pointed at the sandwich and smiled.

"Pidgey?"

Seeing that Mu Yun agreed, Pidgey happily folded his wings and landed on the vines winding around the gazebo. But when he heard that he needed to help, he tilted his head at Mu Yun in confusion, seemingly curious about what he could possibly do.

"It's simple. You fly around in the air, and Xiao Du will use String Shot on you like he did yesterday. He'll use it fifteen times in total. For every five shots you dodge, I'll give you an extra sandwich. If you dodge all of them, I'll give you four altogether."

To make sure Pidgey understood numbers, Mu Yun took out three more sandwiches and stacked them together.

Ever since he began doing extra Calisthenics every day, Mu Yun's appetite had grown considerably. He had prepared quite a few sandwiches like these.

Seeing the towering stack of sandwiches, nearly half as tall as his body, Pidgey's eyes instantly lit up, and he hurriedly nodded.

Wasn't it just dodging that nasty Big Bug's attacks? No problem at all!

When he got serious, he could dodge rocks thrown by three children at the same time!

One lousy Big Bug would be a piece of cake!

Sandwiches, here I come!

"Then it's settled."

Seeing Pidgey agree, Mu Yun put the sandwiches back into his backpack and turned to Weedle.

"Are you ready, Xiao Du? This is difficult moving-target training. It won't be as easy as hitting cans before!"

"Wuo!!"

Weedle raised his head and puffed out his chest, brimming with fighting spirit.

What was so difficult about a mere big bird?

"Good, that's the spirit. Get ready to begin!" Mu Yun said.

"Wuo!"

Weedle straightened his body and fixed his little eyes on Pidgey standing on the vines. Bug Type energy surged rapidly within him, quickly gathering in his mouth.

Once he had locked onto his target, he opened his small mouth, and with a puff, sticky snow-white String Shot shot forth in an instant.

What he had thought was a sure hit turned out otherwise. With just one flap of his wings, Pidgey easily dodged it.

The snow-white String Shot all stuck to the gazebo's roof.

"Pidgey~"

After easily evading the attack, Pidgey even mischievously turned back to glance at Weedle, as though saying, "That's it?"

[ Ding! Weedle used String Shot in a simulated battle. Proficiency +2!]

[ Ding! The flames of battle ignited in Weedle's heart, granting him greater insight into the move String Shot. Additional proficiency +2!]

[ String Shot (Expertise, 152/300) → (Expertise, 156/300)]

"Four points at once? A fourfold boost?"

Hearing the system notifications, Mu Yun was pleasantly surprised.

He had only intended to let Weedle practice shooting at moving targets. He had not expected an unexpected gain.

Simulated battles doubled the experience gained from moves, and combined with Yanhuang Language's motivating effect, one use counted as four!

Not bad at all!

Meanwhile.

This time, Mu Yun's happiness did not rub off on Weedle. At this moment, he was staring solemnly and seriously at Pidgey in the air.

He had thought Pidgey was just a "greedy dumb bird" he could handle however he pleased, but it turned out that Pidgey was somewhat troublesome.

However, Weedle did not lose heart. Instead, he exerted himself again and fired String Shot.

"Wuo!!"

Another strand of snow-white String Shot shot out at high speed, but unfortunately, it missed.

As everyone knew, the most important thing when shooting at a moving target was leading the shot.

In other words, based on the opponent's movement trajectory, one had to aim in advance at where the opponent would land.

If one aimed at where the opponent currently was, by the time the move arrived, the opponent would already be long gone.

Clearly, Weedle, who had only been born a few days ago and had yet to encounter Pokémon Land or Pokémon Survival, did not understand this principle.

"Xiao Du, don't rush. Watch his movement trajectory carefully and look for where he might end up," Mu Yun reminded him at the right moment.

It was fine if Weedle did not understand leading his shots—Mu Yun did!

An average KD above 3, the prestige of a resort village chief—did he understand or not?

"Wuo!"

With Mu Yun's guidance, Weedle seemed to understand something and began trying to predict Pidgey's movements before attacking.

Although he still failed to hit, he had already made considerable progress.

His fourteenth String Shot in particular had nearly grazed Pidgey's left wing.

At this pace, in two days at most, Weedle's predictive ability would be enough to deal with Pidgey.

"Sorry for the trouble, Pidgey. Here are the sandwiches I promised you."

After the fifteen String Shot training attempts ended, Mu Yun handed the four sandwiches to Pidgey as promised.

The fourfold Harvest made Pidgey beam with delight as he happily began eating today's lunch.

After paying the training reward, Mu Yun went over to the silent Weedle. As he handed him an Energy Cube and a sandwich, he rubbed the little Pokémon's head and comforted him.

"You did great today. Training isn't something that happens overnight. As long as you keep at it, you'll definitely succeed!"

As he spoke, Mu Yun deliberately raised his voice, hoping to use Yanhuang Language's encouraging effect to lift Weedle's spirits.

Whether Yanhuang Language worked or Weedle simply adjusted his mindset quickly, after staring at the Pidgey wolfing down food for a while, he nodded forcefully and immediately began gobbling down his own meal.

Compared to training against stationary targets, this kind of continuous attack against a moving target not only consumed a great deal of Stamina and energy, but also took a heavy mental toll.

So after lunch, Mu Yun gave Weedle a massage, then held him as he said goodbye to Pidgey and returned home.

And just like that, the day slowly passed.

The 50 Points from the daily quest were deposited into his account without fail.

Mu Yun's various skills had also gained experience to varying degrees.

But the fastest-growing one was still Weedle's String Shot, which had already reached 272 points. Barring any surprises, after completing fourteen move-training sessions tomorrow morning, it would directly rise to the Perfected level.

He wondered how much experience it would take to break through Perfected.

The system had been activated for nearly ten days, yet the Limit-Breaking Points section on the Pokémon panel was still empty.

He also wondered how many Limit-Breaking Points potential upgrades and Ability enhancements would require.