"Alice, take the chance! Throw the ball now!" Feng Che shouted, turning to Alice.
"Sorry, Houndour. I'll fight you fairly and square next time!" Alice cried out, hurling a Poké Ball directly at the Houndour leader's head. The Pokémon dissolved into a beam of red light and was sucked into the sphere.
The ball wobbled once, twice, three times—and then clicked shut with a flash of three stars. The capture was a success.
"Great! I caught it!" Alice picked up the ball and immediately handed it to Feng Che. "Kongjian, I'm sorry to trouble you, but could you help treat her?"
"Let's head back to the capsule house first. I'll treat her there," Feng Che agreed without hesitation.
Back at Alice's high-tech portable home, she released the Houndour. The creature was in a pitiful state, its body twitching from paralysis and covered in the dense cluster of Arbok's poison needles. It looked like a macabre pincushion.
"Don't worry, Alice," Feng Che reassured her. "The needles only pierced the surface; they didn't reach the dermis. She won't be scarred, I promise."
Feng Che quickly mixed an anti-paralysis and anti-venom draught. After feeding it to the Houndour, the Pokémon's pained expression softened, and its breathing steadied.
Wearing disposable gloves, Feng Che skillfully pulled out the needles one by one. He then ground a fresh batch of herbs into a soothing green paste.
"You do it, Alice. It's a good way to build trust and affection," Feng Che said, handing her a glass jar of the ointment.
Alice took it and began carefully applying the medicine to the small wounds. The Houndour's eyelids fluttered; it saw the red-haired girl tending to its wounds with such gentleness. It felt a surge of gratitude before slipping into a restorative sleep.
"Alice, with this Houndour, your defensive and offensive capabilities are much higher now," Feng Che noted.
"Now, I intend to leave the squad for a while. If the three of us stay together, our resource gathering efficiency won't improve—it might actually drop. That isn't good for our Pokémon's growth."
"To get enough points to rank at the top, we need to spread out."
Jiade Tianchen looked like he was about to burst into tears. He had finally found a "Golden Thigh" to cling to, only for that thigh to grow wings and fly away.
"He's right," Alice nodded. "With your current strength, the common supply caches aren't enough for you. You'll do better on your own."
She looked at Feng Che with genuine respect. "Kongjian, I owe you two favors now. Once we pass this trial, you can ask for anything." She saw him as a "Golden Dragon" waiting for the right storm to ascend.
"Kongjian, I just met up with you and now you're going solo? My life is so bitter!" Tianchen wailed.
"But wait—I got the backpacks of the four guys who were after you." He pulled four heavy bags from his spatial ring, filled with explosives and high-caliber weaponry.
"Thank you, Tianchen. I owe you one for this." Feng Che felt a chill. He wasn't afraid of a fair fight, but that much C4 would have sent him to the afterlife without a respawn point.
"You two stay together and watch each other's backs," Feng Che advised. "Fletchling handles scouting, Drowzee handles escapes, and Houndour handles the frontline. Combine that with Alice's combat skills and Tianchen's psychic utility, and you'll be safe."
"If there's an emergency, use signals—heavy smoke or carve a 'Q' on the trees."
"No need for smoke signals," Tianchen said, pulling a specialized GPS communicator from his gear. "I've set up a private chat group for us. Just message the group if there's a problem."
Wealthy kids and their toys, Feng Che thought, taking the device. "It's noon. I'm heading out. Alice, once Houndour wakes up, the key she was wearing is yours to use."
He opened the door and vanished into the jungle.
The Other Side of Death Island.
"Dammit! We've been searching for days and haven't seen a shadow of that kid! Is the food ready? I'm starving!" Seita grumbled loudly.
"Almost ready, Master Seita!" the scrawny lackey replied, roasting a wild rabbit. The fat sizzled as it dripped into the fire.
"This island is too huge. We haven't seen a single human, just endless wild Pokémon. At least we used the 'clones' to catch some permanent team members. If we wait until the clones dissolve, we'll be sitting ducks."
...TWO BONUS CHAPTERS ARE COMING...
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