External Influences

Outside the arena, the atmosphere boiled over completely as the big screen showed Baimu defeating Jian.

"He won? For real?"

"Are you blind? This guy actually's got some chops."

"Stop blowing smoke, he only pulled off a comeback because his Pokémon evolved. I could do that too."

"Heh, and was Jian's Bewear dropped from the sky?"

"Are those Hound Team trash brainless or what? What kind of garbage tactical call was that—first they do this, then that, and finally whateverthefuck, wouldn't they have avoided losing?"

"If you ask me, they should've just charged over and sliced that little brat. Seriously brain-dead."

"Can you fly? There are four Pokémon between them, not to mention a twenty-to-thirty-meter walk!"

"Climb the wall and go around!"

"Are you out of your mind?"

The spectators in Pyrite Town argued wildly, evaluating the battle from every possible angle, with some even coming to blows in the heat of their shouting.

Ultimately.

Even though quite a few people concluded that I could do that too, very few actually underestimated Baimu.

After all, they believed in the law of the jungle.

No matter how much people hyped things up or what brilliant achievements were claimed, if you got wiped out, it all amounted to nothing.

Only those who survived to the end could laugh last.

Inside the main control room.

The dark-faced man leading Hound Team had already smashed his table in a rage and stormed out, leaving only Ayana behind with a burst of unbridled laughter that drew sideways glances from those around her.

The two organizations had been at odds for years, engaging in over a hundred clashes of varying scales, even losing executives, not to mention countless squad leaders and ordinary members.

Yet this was the first time either side had suffered such a severe snub and lost face so thoroughly.

Ha?

The ones Jian took out?

They were just insignificant small fry, incapable of winning back the dignity Hound Team had lost.

Returning to their base, the dark-faced man felt a mix of rage and anxiety in his heart.

Jian was a talent favored by the top executive, and to die in a place like this meant he would have a really hard time explaining himself; as the team leader, he bore primary responsibility.

Heaven only knew how much blood he would have to pay this time, and in the event someone tried to make an issue of it, he might even face punishment.

"Where's Huo Wu! Tell her to get her ass out here and see me!"

The dark-faced man roared in anger, trying to find someone to share the blame.

When all was said and done, Huo Wu had indeed betrayed Hound Team by helping a member of the hostile organization successfully ambush the pair.

Seeing him lose his temper, a logistician stepped forward trembling, shoulders hunched. "Sir, Huo Wu rode a motorcycle back to headquarters on the pretext of a physical examination."

"She left!?"

The dark-faced man widened his eyes, kicked the man flat to the ground, and cast a grinding glare toward the nearby Quicksand Team base.

If not for the Rotom Drone keeping watch overhead, he likely would have charged over there on a rampage.

After mulling it over, he still couldn't easily swallow this insult, so he pulled out his communicator and began contacting someone inside.

"Boss, you've gotta find a way to save me!"

As soon as the call connected, the dark-faced man started crying for help.

Silicon Beryllium City.

The banquet hall.

Numerous high society figures conversed in low voices, their gazes occasionally sweeping toward the second floor.

Just moments before, someone had lavishly thrown down three million, gifting it to the victorious young man on the big screen. Had the host on the second floor not stepped in and called a halt in time, that person likely would have continued tipping.

Naturally, everyone grew curious about the person who had been summoned to the second floor.

"Does anyone know who that is?"

"You don't even know him? He's a famous mining tycoon in the Orre region! He practically monopolizes the mineral import and export industry across Orre!"

"Monopolizing imports and exports! Such a massive business!"

"I heard he even has some distant family ties to Lord Ejin."

"One of their own... No wonder."

Business owners successively wore enlightened expressions, their eyes filled with envy as they looked toward the second floor.

As the universally acknowledged premier city of Orre, Silicon Beryllium City had a mayor practically indistinguishable from the Noble of Orre, and the vast influence he wielded caused countless people to give him a wide berth.

Perhaps only those powerful Trainers at Battle Mountain could rival him.

The day the Pokémon League was officially established, Ejin would most likely smoothly assume the role of president of the Pokémon League Executive Committee.

Being able to claim family ties with such a towering figure naturally made people green with envy.

On the second floor.

The man envied by numerous business owners was currently on the receiving end of Ejin's reprimand.

"Just some lowlife tipping three million? What were you thinking? Do you think money grows on trees for you to waste it like this!?"

"I handed the mining business over to you out of trust, and this is how you repay me?"

"You're no spring chicken, and your son is turning twenty soon, too. Your old man handed you over to me many years ago, yet you let yourself lose your head over something like this!"

"Get back and reflect on yourself properly! You're stepping down from the chairman's position for now... Forget it, we'll discuss your disciplinary action later, but I don't want to see this kind of thing happen again. Get lost!"

Following a string of remarks that belittled him to the utmost degree.

The man lowered his head, mumbled an acknowledgement, and concealed his apathetic expression as he walked down from the second floor.

Behind him came the sound of a crowd scrambling over one another to comfort Ejin, along with Ejin's tone of bitter disappointment, but he treated it as if he heard nothing at all.

Having spent so many years by Ejin's side, the man knew very well that the old man possessed a borderline pathological desire for control, alongside a greedy nature where money only ever came in and never went out.

Not to mention being extremely obsessed with his own prestige, on top of being terribly stingy.

This was amply evident from the fact that ordinary tipping amounts were restricted and couldn't possibly exceed his own standards.

Had the man not possessed a certain level of auxiliary authority, he wouldn't have been capable of a stunt like dropping a three-million tip.

And without a doubt.

The reason the man had been summoned up to be chewed out was simply because he hadn't left Ejin any face, interrupting the latter's grandstanding plan.

When all was said and done.

Three million was nothing more than a drop in the bucket to them; what mattered was that the man was firmly kept under Ejin's thumb.

On the surface he was a mining tycoon, but in reality, many people around him were Ejin's direct loyalists, firmly controlling everything within the company. The actual authority he held was minimal.

At times, the man was little more than a mascot.

Consequently.

He was well aware that his status was low, and Ejin, feeling he had been slighted, must have already begun contemplating how to punish him.

Regret? Not at all.

He had long grown weary of many things, and the moment he witnessed Baimu defeat Jian, a sudden surge of courage had driven him to make a certain decision—

I need to fight for a bright future for Shan Ren.

Thinking of his son returning from studying abroad before long, the man—Dinis—realized he actually had nothing left to lose.

He cast one final glance at Ejin on the second floor, pulling the sharp edge back into his eyes.

Inside the arena.

Baimu walked as much as possible in the shade, occasionally replenishing his fluids.

He felt extremely grateful that Lairon was the kind of Pokémon that required relatively little water, otherwise he would inevitably have had to prepare extra water skins, increasing his burden.

The midday sun was far too blistering.

Judging by his physical sensations, he figured the temperature might exceed forty-five degrees Celsius, and the dust-choked ground was hot enough to roast a person.

If Otsuka were to just lie there under the sunlight, there was a good chance he'd get heatstroke.

Did heatstroke exist in the Pokémon World?

Baimu wasn't sure, and he fervently hoped it didn't, terrified of baking Otsuka into a mental disability.

The kid wasn't particularly bright to begin with.

"Dora!"

Lairon's cry drew his attention.

Baimu leaned in toward the direction the Pokémon was raising its head to indicate, and abruptly spotted a human figure under a giant boulder, half of its body hiding in the shade while the other half was baked by the blazing sun.

Hm.

Indeed a person.

His eyesight was still pretty decent.