Island 7 was practically uninhabited, nothing but wilderness. Running into a challenge as early as Island 6 was a good thing for this practice session.
After ending the call, Shan Sheng leaned against his car and gazed up at the stars.
Tsareena came and went like a ghost, while Little Sheep cars were everywhere. Figuring out which one belonged to an expert was a real headache.
Shan Sheng had seen plenty of Little Sheep cars on the roads lately. They were the most practical model for ordinary households on Island 6, and he had ruled them out one by one.
The Little Sheep he had just seen far outclassed the others in stability, power, and its driver's skill. That was why Shan Sheng had followed it along the entire Marker Mountain road.
Still, it wasn't enough. It was only outstanding compared with others of its kind. That Little Sheep couldn't compete with the other somewhat interesting drivers on Island 6, so it wasn't worth investigating further.
"Nido, Nido!"
Nidorino, who had been running around outside, discovered something and called to his Pokémon Trainer.
"What is it?"
Shan Sheng straightened up from his car and walked toward the roadside, where Nidorino was crouching.
There had been nearly a week of continuous torrential rain a while back. Over the days since, a considerable amount of yellow mud, sand, and gravel had accumulated on the mountain roads and dried in the sun.
Their current location was especially bad: a low-lying stretch between Marker Mountain and Trail Mountain, where the road wasn't particularly even. Some sections were almost filled with dried yellow mud, bearing plenty of tire tracks, including Shan Sheng's own.
Nidorino was staring at a very fresh tire track. It was frighteningly deep, crushing all the earlier tracks beneath it and even forcing the surrounding layer of yellow mud to crack outward.
"What a heavy car."
Generally speaking, race cars prioritized reducing weight. Better to lose ten horsepower than add one kilogram.
Of course, if that added weight came from a bigger engine or a more powerful turbocharger, that was another matter.
Compared with the tracks Shan Sheng himself had left, that exceptionally deep tire track had been made around the same time.
Thinking back over tonight's drive, Shan Sheng had first encountered a Little Sheep. After deciding it posed no threat, he had accelerated away, then run into two mountain-road racers. One wasn't particularly good, and the other had already lost to him in an amateur race.
Neither of them drove a heavy race car.
Then Shan Sheng had rested on Island 5 for a little over half an hour before returning here.
That extremely deep tire track only ran in the direction of the main island...
"It was the Little Sheep!"
Comparing the tire marks and wheel spacing, Shan Sheng quickly narrowed it down to a Little Sheep.
That Little Sheep... had been better than the others of its kind he had encountered, and its driver had been more skilled. And...
"This... this was almost overloaded, wasn't it?!"
The dried yellow mud was solidly packed. Leaving such deep tracks and cracking their edges would have required an astonishing amount of weight.
If the Little Sheep had been carrying its full rated load or even more, its performance on the mountain road had been incredible.
If Shan Sheng had been driving a car burdened with several hundred extra kilograms... possibly even overloaded, he would never have dared to drive like that.
"Who on earth was that young driver?"
As Shan Sheng remembered it, the boy driving the Little Sheep had a fully summoned Chansey in the passenger seat.
The car was carrying so much cargo anyway that one Chansey's weight hardly mattered.
The problem was... Chansey didn't seem to know any Buff Skills, did she? Healing moves could be somewhat useful, though.
"Looks like that boy was a skilled Pokémon Trainer with more than one Pokémon. No wonder he managed to overtake me that night."
Shan Sheng touched the small pouch at his waist. There were two more Poké Balls inside.
Back then, Shan Sheng hadn't been familiar with Island 6's roads and hadn't dared to go all out. His current capabilities were on an entirely different level. He absolutely wouldn't lose to a cheap D-class grocery car again.
"Just you wait. There aren't many skilled Pokémon Trainers on Island 6, and there are even fewer young ones. Even if I can't track down Tsareena, surely I can track you down!"
With a cold chuckle, Shan Sheng picked up his phone.
"Sis..."
"What is it now?!"
"Could you help me look up the Pokémon Trainers registered on Island 6?"
Pokémon Trainer records weren't something people could freely search. At most, someone with close ties to staff at a small-town Pokémon Center could ask them to investigate a little local information.
"Pokémon Trainers on Island 6?"
"Right. The Little Sheep's driver was very young, probably a student under eighteen, and he had several Pokémon. That's extremely rare in a little place like Island 6, so if you asked the Pokémon Center..."
"You idiot."
"Why are you calling me names?"
"You've been on Island 6 for almost a month. Is there a Pokémon Center there?"
"Oh, right. I don't think there is."
"Honestly. Ten-odd years ago, you could've written down the license plate number. These days, forget it."
When Shan Sheng and his sister were children, cars hadn't been particularly widespread as a means of transportation, much less privately owned race cars.
Back then, cars had numbered license plates mounted on the front and rear.
Later, because of privacy concerns and various other issues, the front and rear plates remained, but they no longer displayed numbers. Instead, they looked like static on an old television.
Only official organizations such as the security forces could identify a vehicle's full information, either through surveillance or an on-site scan. Outsiders couldn't access it.
That meant the dozen or so Little Sheep cars on Island 6 all had gray-and-white static on their front and rear plates. Even if one parked right in front of Shan Sheng, he wouldn't recognize it.
"There's no other option. We'll still have to start with the Pokémon Trainer. The Little Sheep's owner you mentioned might not be an Island 6 resident."
The Little Sheep's tire tracks did indeed lead away from Marker Mountain, and several hours had passed without any sign of its return.
"True. He headed toward Island 5 and hasn't come back for two or three hours. His home is probably over there."
"I'll help you investigate, but you'd better put in the effort and become a professional racer soon."
"Don't worry. I'll beat Tsareena and that Little Sheep this summer!"
Chapter 47: Into the Ball
It was past midnight by the time he returned from Island 3. Outside Ruins Valley, Shen Qi waved goodbye to Chansey.
"Be really careful."
He hadn't heard of any further trouble in Ruins Valley lately, but he still worried about Chansey going into the mountains alone for ascetic training.
[I'll be fine.]
Among the mountain trees, Chansey turned around. [I'll get stronger, then come back.]
"Or..." Shen Qi hesitantly took out a Poké Ball. "How about claiming a ball of your own?"
This Poké Ball hadn't come from some promotional giveaway. Shen Qi had bought it himself.
Once a Pokémon entered a Poké Ball, the ball became linked to the Pokémon's Psywave Fluctuations.
Although Pokémon Trainers couldn't recall Pokémon from extreme distances regardless of range, holding a Poké Ball allowed them and the corresponding Pokémon to sense each other's locations over a considerable distance.
"Jili..."
Chansey had some reservations, and Shen Qi was quite nervous too.
["Crazy Quack", romance scenario completion: 46%]
Lately, Shen Qi had discovered that eating eggs and receiving massages weren't the only ways to increase Chansey's completion percentage. Fighting side by side during the Berry field rescue had earned points too.
Of course, the requirements were still stringent.
"Become my partner. From now on, I'll train with you and fight alongside you."
Under the moonlight, Shen Qi's invitation seemed a little abrupt, with no introductory words to ease into it.
But thinking it over, all the days since he had met Chansey were the best possible lead-in.
[Honestly...]
Pretending to brush away dust, Chansey secretly wiped her face.
[I'm very hard to get along with as a Pokémon Trainer, you know.]
"That's okay. I'm a player."
[What nonsense are you talking about?]
Despite her grumbling, Chansey quickly ran toward him.
Warmth welled up in Shen Qi's heart. Gripping the Poké Ball tightly, he ran toward Chansey too.
He held out the Poké Ball to touch Chansey...
And rammed it hard into her face!
[Ah-why are you hitting me with a Poké Ball?]
"Huh-? Doesn't this thing open automatically?"
Chansey rubbed her face. [You don't know how to use a Poké Ball?!]
"I've honestly never used one..."
Sweating profusely, Shen Qi hurriedly took out his phone to look it up.
To be fair, as a gamer, he had instinctively assumed that throwing a Poké Ball would make it work automatically. Thinking in real-world terms, though, it was just an ordinary product costing 200b. How could it possibly have that kind of intelligence?
Besides, Poké Balls could expand and shrink. An apple-sized Poké Ball became roughly the size of a walnut when shrunk. How could he possibly know how to operate those functions without learning?
"Uh, let me see... for an ordinary Poké Ball, you need to inject energy of any type into it to activate its simple pathways."
The Pokémon Trainer's Psywave Fluctuations reached the Pokémon along with the energy. Working together, they allowed the Pokémon to transform into energy and enter the little Poké Ball.
After transforming into energy, the Pokémon's body became smaller, reducing various forms of expenditure and allowing it to rest properly in the quiet environment provided by the Poké Ball.
Shen Qi had no experience using Poké Balls, and Chansey was merely an unowned Pokémon who had held a job in human society. The two spent more than ten minutes studying it in the hazy night before figuring out how to use it.
[Honestly, you need to train a lot more too, Shen Qi.]
"Of course I do."
Normal-type energy stirred, opening the Poké Ball.
Before you continue