"Yes—Houndoom, it's Houndoom! That's right, you really are Lord Proton, my idol!"
The suspicion and resistance vanished from Boqi's face. Though he was still trembling with excitement, the pressure on Gengar's side suddenly eased. "Lord Proton, do you know? It's because I admired you so much that I chose Houndour as my starter Pokémon. After countless battles and training, it finally evolved into a mighty Houndoom, just like yours!"
Kanto and Johto were tightly linked.
Though Team Rocket's headquarters lay in the Kanto Region, their influence stretched deep into Johto as well.
Both Proton and Boqi were talents who had clawed their way up through Johto's underworld.
And both Houndour and Houndoom were native Pokémon of Johto, extremely rare in Kanto.
"Yes, I know… I know all of that. Hurry up—I need money urgently right now. I want you to help me." Yozora's tone was cold.
"Of course! As long as you need it, Lord Proton, I, Boqi, will give my life without hesitation!" Half-delirious, Boqi nodded heavily and immediately transferred the money to Yozora.
Ding… Sure enough, ¥120 million appeared in the account instantly.
But Boqi, already pierced through the stomach by Beedrill's stinger and drained of life energy by Gengar, had become a skeleton-thin husk. At last, he collapsed.
Together with his Houndoom, he fell into an eternal sleep.
Truly, Boqi was worthy of being a Team Rocket officer—iron-willed to the very end.
Even with his abdomen pierced, even with his life siphoned away by Gengar… until the moment of death, he never cried out in pain, never whimpered of the cold.
It was proof of his character—tragically wasted in Team Rocket's service.
Had he walked a righteous path, perhaps he could have become a first-rate Trainer admired by many.
…
After dealing with Boqi, Yozora had Gengar hypnotize the rest of his subordinates, forcing them all to wire over their funds.
Including Boqi's ¥120 million, the total reached roughly ¥200 million.
And that wasn't all. Yozora also confiscated all their spatial gear, which held plenty of valuable goods—most notably, five Never-Melt Ice.
Each piece was worth at least ¥30 million. Five of them amounted to ¥150 million—a massive fortune.
On top of that…
Through Aura, Yozora sensed something beneath the glacier. There were ten more pieces of Never-Melt Ice buried under the frozen river, untouched.
That meant another ¥300 million!
Splash! Yozora didn't bother with a diving suit. He leapt straight into the icy river. At once, a bone-piercing chill surged over him, making every pore on his body tighten.
Cold.
So cold.
Yozora gritted his teeth, but his body was incredibly resilient—comparable to a Senior-level Pokémon. In the freezing river, he felt the chill but suffered no actual harm.
In fact…
The harsher and more extreme the environment, the more it tempered his spirit and willpower.
But right now, Yozora had no mood for training. What mattered was securing those ten pieces of Never-Melt Ice.
And for him, it wasn't difficult.
Within the magnetic field of Aura, the pure, surging energy of Never-Melt Ice shone like lanterns in the dark. Hidden deep within crevices and cracks at the bottom of the river, they could not escape his perception.
With Aura at his command, Yozora was like a king of mining—no ordinary human or Pokémon could compare.
Take Boqi's Houndoom for example. At the very peak of Gym Leader level, it had certainly mastered scent tracking, and was extremely strong.
But across a whole frozen river? No matter how sharp the nose, no scent could carry through that barrier.
At best, scent detection could find ores shallowly buried in earth or rock. Any deeper, and it failed completely.
And in flowing water, scent was cut off entirely.
Bang! Suddenly, a white flash burst from Yozora's belt. Charmeleon emerged from its Poké Ball.
Sensing its partner's peril, Charmeleon took the initiative to come help.
There was no need for Yozora to give commands—down here, issuing them would be difficult anyway.
Like a fish in water, Charmeleon dove to the riverbed. With a swift flip of a stone, it easily uncovered two gleaming white chunks of Never-Melt Ice.
Charmeleon and Yozora were linked in mind and spirit.
The visions Yozora perceived through Aura were instantly shared with Charmeleon, as if they saw through the same eyes.
Ordinary telepathy could never achieve such clarity.
Here, Aura combined with their mental link, magnifying its power to extraordinary levels—far beyond what normal Trainers could accomplish.
Being a Fire-type, Charmeleon naturally resisted the cold.
And as for the river itself…
Charmeleon possessed the Water Absorb ability. In this icy current, it suffered no hindrance at all—on the contrary, it moved more freely, as if it truly belonged here.
In short order…
Working together, Yozora and Charmeleon extracted all ten pieces of Never-Melt Ice from the riverbed.
When they returned to the shore, Gengar was sitting on the ground, its belly swollen. Boqi's subordinates had been drained into withered husks.
In this frozen wasteland, stripped of their life energy, they soon perished—falling into an eternal slumber.
Yozora felt no pity. It had been his order, after all. Eliminating people like them was equivalent to saving countless innocent humans and Pokémon.
"Lord-tier… High rank?" Yozora probed Gengar's aura and was stunned. This glutton had advanced far too quickly.
"In terms of level, aside from Beedrill, Gengar has now surpassed all the others… and yet, its potential was only ever Elite Four-tier at best."
By ordinary growth—training, battles, nutritional supplements—Gengar's progress should have been much slower than Charmeleon's or Golduck's.
Potential dictated growth speed.
The higher the potential, the faster the natural growth.
Yet Gengar had suddenly skyrocketed, surging all the way to the high ranks of Lord-tier. It was nothing short of astonishing.
"Jie-jie-jie…" Gengar's eyes curved into crescent moons as it revealed a satisfied grin.
"Rooaar!" Charmeleon roared, raising a clawed thumb in praise for Gengar's rapid progress.
Charmeleon and Gengar were both battle-hardened fighters, and so a mutual respect naturally formed between them. Beedrill, however, stood aloof to the side, cold and detached.
To Beedrill, both Charmeleon and Gengar were still far too weak. In its eyes, their so-called power was nothing more than child's play—completely unworthy of serious attention.
Looking at the three Pokémon before him, Yozora couldn't help but feel a wave of satisfaction. With Golduck and Aegislash added into the mix, his lineup had already become tremendously strong.
With such a team, how could he not rise to prominence?
At that thought, a surge of heat filled Yozora's chest. Compared to the League Conferences, what he truly yearned for was the world stage, where regions clashed at the highest level.
In contrast to that world-class arena, the League tournaments of each region were nothing more than warm-ups.
…
…
(End of Chapter)