Dazhi Wasn't So Simple

What the unknown creature was no longer mattered. The main concern was that his Onix had been badly injured.

What could have inflicted such severe injuries on Onix in an instant? Hardly any time had passed.

Liu Xin charged down without a moment's hesitation.

He let Phanpy out to serve as a light bulb. It was simply too dark down there to see anything.

If Phanpy knew it had only been released to provide lighting, it would probably have gone berserk on the spot.

Everyone behind him immediately followed. They had heard that noise too.

Thud!

Another tremendous crash rang out. Onix was knocked flying, looking miserable, with quite a few new wounds on its body.

Only when they brought their lights together did they make out the enormous thing before them.

"An excavator?"

Of course, it wasn't an ordinary excavator. Others had one drill bit, but this one had five, and its overall size was about half that of Onix.

Clearly, this excavator was no simple machine.

A voice came from inside. "Where did this Onix and this bunch of brats come from?"

"Don't tell me they're students from the Pokémon Academy?"

After having Rapidash focus its light on one spot, Ito Hei exclaimed, "That emblem belongs to the Treasure Hoarders!"

The Treasure Hoarders again.

They really were everywhere in this region.

They had been involved in the lighthouse attack, encountered on the road, and now found digging tunnels too.

But what exactly were they planning?

Shinya said coldly, "So you're the ones behind the things going missing from our academy!"

"We've finally caught the real culprits. Make them pay!"

The students from the Pokémon Academy had some skill, and they immediately launched a fierce assault.

Most importantly, they had plenty of items that could restrict the excavator's movements and attack it.

Liu Xin's trio joined the battle as well.

The greatest contribution came from Liu Xin's Pokémon. In this terrain, they were in their element and completely trapped the enemy.

They restricted its movements while launching constant Ground Spike attacks.

"What's your problem?! You attack us the moment we meet!"

"We haven't even started doing anything bad, and you're treating us like this!"

Throughout the attack, the excavator's operator kept shouting.

"Shut up!"

Ito Hei's Metang and Liu Xin's Gabite closed in to attack simultaneously.

Metal Claw.

Dragon Claw.

They drove the excavator farther into the ground, while ground spikes erupted all around it.

Cubone followed up their attacks, bringing its bone club down from above.

Boom!

A tremendous crash rang out, and small dents appeared across the surface.

No matter how tough its shell was, it couldn't withstand the firepower and relentless bombardment before it.

"Trying to leave? Seal them in!"

The ground beneath them instantly softened, and sand gathered around their drive mechanism, jamming it.

Unable to move, they could only stay put and take the beating.

It took a full half hour of attacks to bring the excavator down, which showed just how sturdy its outer shell was.

But the mission wasn't complete. The system hadn't issued a notification.

The Treasure Hoarders before them looked deeply wronged, as though they truly hadn't been responsible for this incident.

Shinya wasn't about to believe them. He roared, "Don't play dumb with me! Who else could it have been?"

"And you've got an excavator with five drill bits! You must be the ones causing trouble at our academy!"

The other students agreed, firmly insisting that they were responsible.

The Treasure Hoarders looked bewildered. "What are you talking about?!"

"We only just drove the excavator here! Besides, we were only planning to dig a passage through here so our crew could use it as an escape route in the future."

"We've never even been to any Pokémon Academy!"

Shinya was displeased. They still had the nerve to deny it.

Liu Xin found it strange too. The system shouldn't make mistakes.

If these Treasure Hoarders really were the culprits, then capturing them and dealing with them should have completed the mission.

Why had there still been no message or notification?

There were only two possibilities. Either the system was broken, or they really weren't the culprits.

Liu Xin chose to believe the latter. He tugged at Shinya and said, "Maybe it really wasn't them."

"Take a closer look at those drill bits, and compare the tunnel they dug with these tunnels here. Aren't they very different?"

There was the excavator's tunnel, and then there were the tunnels they had come through.

On closer inspection, they really were different, and the difference was obvious.

The excavator's tunnel was huge, with everything concentrated into one spacious passage.

The tunnels they had come through, however, were scattered and narrow. Even one person could barely squeeze through.

What on earth was going on?

Shinya's head began to spin. How had he gotten so many things wrong in a single day?

"Mercury's in retrograde. Today has to be my bad-luck day!"

"From now on, I absolutely can't make assumptions or jump to conclusions. I have to stay calm and levelheaded!"

He muttered to himself, doing his best to settle his emotions.

Anyone would have started doubting themselves. First he had falsely accused Liu Xin's group, and then he had falsely accused a team of Treasure Hoarders.

Meanwhile, Dazhi tied up the people before them. "We'll hand them over to Officer Jenny later. These guys aren't good people anyway."

"Captain, you don't need to take it too hard. Even people can stumble on their hooves."

"Oh, no, I mean everyone makes mistakes."

Shinya actually accepted that and calmed down.

Liu Xin felt as though he had figured out Shinya's personality. Perhaps he was a bit of a tsundere, while Dazhi wasn't as simple as he appeared either.

That wasn't something he needed to concern himself with too much.

Suddenly, another rumbling came from within the tunnels.

Sen Anxiang said warily, "Something's coming from that tunnel. If I'm not mistaken, that's the direction of your academy, right?"

The entire tunnel shook as something kept drawing closer.

Chattering sounds rang out, and clusters of dark shapes approached.

"Rapidash, light up the entire tunnel with your flames. Let's see what these things are."

Whoosh!

Flames rose, revealing the true forms of the dark shapes before them.

They were Sandshrew and Sandslash!

That explained all those tunnels. They had spread out and dug separately.

The real culprits weren't the Treasure Hoarders, but the group of Sandslash before them.

Dazhi and everyone else reacted immediately, ready to give chase.

But Shinya stopped them. "Wait!"

"From now on, we need solid grounds and evidence for everything we do. We can't chase after them blindly. What if we falsely accuse someone again?"

He was genuinely afraid of wronging the innocent again. His conscience really couldn't take it.

"Ahem. That's why we need to observe more carefully. Once we're certain, it won't be too late to chase them."

Shinya made his argument sound perfectly reasonable, and he really had no intention of chasing the Sandslash.

His teammates from the Pokémon Academy exchanged glances, while the Treasure Hoarders looked at him as though he were an idiot.

Dazhi took a deep breath and said evenly, "I just saw that group of Sandslash carry off your treasured photo of Seina, so..."

"Damn it! You filthy thieves! How dare you?!"

"After them! Chase them down! How dare they touch my goddess's photo!"

He took the lead, sprinting after them as though he wished he had two extra legs.

Dazhi looked as though he had expected this all along.

Liu Xin asked tentatively, "Was there really a photo in there?"

Dazhi smiled. "Does that matter?"