Chapter 34
Mimikyu wanted to raise livestock.
The tenth day since the Pokémon arrived.
Nothing happened.
The whole day consisted of feeding the fish and eating.
The eleventh day since the Pokémon arrived.
A few more newcomers arrived at the Camp from Star Sea Residential Community, and Lu Li made a point of meeting them.
The new arrivals were a mother and her two children. According to her, her husband had gone out looking for food yesterday morning and had not returned after a full day and night.
Both children had been crying from hunger at home. With nowhere else to turn, she could only bring them to the Shopping Mall and try her luck.
Lu Li did not ask what would happen if her husband had merely been delayed and came home to find them gone.
After all, he had been missing for a full day and night. Even if he had encountered a Pokémon like Mimikyu, he should have returned by now.
Seeing that she had brought both children to the Shopping Mall, Lu Li asked curiously, "You brought both children with you to look for food. Did you know beforehand that there was a Survivor Camp here?"
The woman's face was bitter as she answered, "I didn't. I just thought that if I couldn't make it back either, I might as well bring them with me. At least we could die together."
"Settle down here in the Camp. It's pretty good to children. You won't have to take them with you when you go looking for food anymore. Even if something happens to you, the Camp will help raise them."
Although Lu Li sympathized deeply with the mother's plight, such things were undoubtedly common in an apocalypse like this.
Besides, she was already lucky enough.
She had managed to reach the Shopping Mall safely with two burdens in tow and happened to be stopped at the entrance. Most importantly, she had listened to what she was told.
If even one of those three conditions had not been met, all three of them would have died.
After seeing off the unfortunate yet somewhat lucky mother, Fatty Lei took the opportunity to report, "Lu Li, Zhao Zhu came back today. That Ghost Magical Beast kept them there for a day."
Lu Li nodded at this.
Mimikyu had eaten its fill yesterday, so it should not be hungry today.
With that in mind, Lu Li decided to visit the Arcade, chat with Mimikyu, and build a rapport.
In Mimikyu's eyes, he was a fake human.
And in Mimikyu's own eyes, it was a fake Pikachu.
Close enough. They were both fakes.
Under those circumstances, Mimikyu probably would not look down on him, right?
Letting his imagination run wild, Lu Li told Fatty Lei that he was going to the Arcade to have a look at that Ghost Magical Beast, then left the Camp alone.
Fatty Lei did not stop Lu Li. After all, the reason Lu Li had become the Camp's deputy leader was his extensive research into Magical Beasts.
Naturally, he would not stop Lu Li from studying a Ghost Magical Beast. Besides, even if something really did happen to Lu Li, it would benefit him somewhat.
After arriving at the Arcade, Lu Li first knocked lightly on the door.
"Pikachu, may I come in?" Lu Li asked softly.
Inside the claw machine, Mimikyu looked curiously at Lu Li in the doorway.
It remembered this fake human well-very well, in fact-because Lu Li was the only person it had met since coming to this world who was not afraid of it.
That made Mimikyu, which was a little afraid of loneliness, somewhat happy. The only pity was that he was a fake human.
If only he were real, Mimikyu thought.
When Mimikyu did not respond, Lu Li took its silence as permission.
After entering the Arcade, Lu Li walked straight up to Mimikyu.
This time, he came closer. Before, he had deliberately stopped a meter away from the claw machine, but now he was barely a fist's width from it.
Lu Li switched on the cordless desk lamp he had prepared beforehand and set it beside the claw machine.
"Pikachu, let me tell you..."
Acting as though they were old friends, Lu Li shared the recent happenings with Mimikyu, making a special point of mentioning how the "evil" Rattata had tried to destroy the Shopping Mall.
After recounting his experiences over the past few days, Lu Li began trying to manipulate it.
"Pikachu, those Rattata are awful. They're practically trying to gnaw this building down. If that happens, you'll lose your home."
"And if everyone in our Camp is gone, you won't have anywhere to eat anymore. I think you should go warn those 'evil' creatures."
Rather than guilt-tripping Mimikyu, Lu Li tried to use tangible benefits to carry out his plan of pitting one threat against another.
Mimikyu would not fight other Pokémon for humans, but it would fight them to protect its food.
That was why Lu Li had deliberately framed them as food Mimikyu was raising in captivity.
It was not wrong, either. After all, the Camp sent people to deliver food every day. Was that not exactly what being raised in captivity meant?
In truth, Mimikyu could not understand what he was saying. It only grasped the general idea.
In Mimikyu's simple little mind, fake humans like Lu Li were its "emergency rations." Since it could not be bothered to go out foraging, it had simply kept a group of them in captivity.
Food delivered itself to its door every day. What a wonderful arrangement.
Although it never got to eat its fill, Mimikyu was not greedy. It thought that simply not starving was good enough. After all, the fear these fake humans produced really was rather poor in quality.
But today, this fake human had brought bad news.
Someone had their sights set on the fake humans it was raising!
How could I allow that? They're a vital part of my grand plan to live without lifting a finger!
Mimikyu's first reaction was anger. Its second was to go pick a fight with those Raticate.
But there were too many Rattata downstairs, and it did not seem to know which one was plotting against these fake humans.
At that thought, Mimikyu decided it should ask the fake human in front of it some more questions.
But this fake human had babbled on and on, and it had only understood the gist of what he meant.
Forget it. I'll keep a closer eye on those fake humans from now on. If something really happens to them, I'll step in then. In the end, Mimikyu chose the more laid-back approach.
Rather than racking its brains to guess what Lu Li meant.
After all, once they had spent enough time together, they would naturally come to understand each other.
That was an innate gift of Pokémon-or, more precisely, a two-way gift that Pokémon brought with them.
Lu Li, who felt as though he had talked himself dry, was equally helpless.
He had noticed that Mimikyu still seemed utterly unmoved.
Realiz-
-ing that he was very likely wasting his breath, Lu Li sighed, continued talking to himself for a while, then stood up.
"Do you still need this desk lamp? If you do, I'll leave it here." Lu Li pointed at the lamp beside him.
As a Ghost-type Pokémon, Mimikyu naturally did not need a desk lamp for illumination. But as a Fairy-type Pokémon, it was rather fond of things that glowed.
Mimikyu could not understand human language, so it chose to express itself through action.
Confuse Ray activated.
At the sight of that familiar pink light, Lu Li instantly fell into a daze.
By the time he came out of it, he was already standing outside the Arcade.
Glancing at the desk lamp glowing faintly inside, Lu Li's lips curled up slightly.
The good news was that communicating with Pokémon really was possible. That was all but confirmed now.
The bad news was that humans could not understand the Pokémon's "language," and Pokémon could not fully understand human speech either.