“Boss Walker”

  Following Heracross, Dalton uedly saw Julian and was overjoyed. He rushed over excitedly.

  “Boss Walker, did you get lost too?”

  Julian looked at the man in front of him, w if this "fool" had spent so much time in the forest that his brain had started malfuning.

  He looked at Dalton for a while. Although the man looked a bit disheveled, he didn’t seem injured.

  “Where’s your shirt?”

  Sure enough, Dalton was bare-chested. The forest temperature was quite low—even at midday, it was only about 15 or 16 degrees Celsius.

  “When I woke up, my clothes were gone,” Dalton replied sheepishly.

  “Boss Walker, did you e looking for us?”

  Finally, some intelligeuro him. Dalton realized Julian wasn’t lost but had likely e to find them.

  “What else? You think I came here for a vacation?”

  Julian shot him an angry look, then pulled a mountain jacket out of his backpack. Julian was about 1.8 meters tall, while Dalton was over 1.9 meters.

  Fortunately, mountain jackets were usually oversized, so Dalton could still wear it.

  “Your mission deadline passed days ago, and none of you returo school or could be tacted. Teacher Frank got worried and asked me to e find you,” Julian said.

  He sidered himself lucky. First, he’d run into Barry and the others, who told him where Dalton might be. Then he sent Heracross to look, and it actually worked.

  “Here.”

  As promised, Julian handed over five jars of Tri-Hoo Heracross, whose eager, expet eyes made him feel too guilty to tinue chatting with Dalton.

  "As expected of Boss Walker. Only you could e up with such a clever way to find me.”

  Dalton gave Julian a thumbs-up, his face filled with admiration.

  With his build and that expression, however, it was hard for Julian to feel proud.

  “So, tell me, how did you end up separated from Luis, Shen and the research team? Weren’t your mission boundaries supposed to be oskirts of the White Mountains?”

  At this, Dalton’s face darkened with anger. “It was all because of that idiot leader from the research team. We spotted a Venusaur group oskirts, along with a bunch of Ivysaur and Bulbasaur.”

  “That idiot thought the Venusaur must have been leading the Ivysaur and Bulbasaur to some mysterious location for evolution.”

  “So he insisted on following them. So, we followed. With the three of us, we could handle being closer to the inner perimeter.”

  “But then we ran into a pack of wandering Haunter and Gengar.”

  “They used Hypnosis on all of us.”

  “When I woke up, Luis, Shen and the research team were all gone.”

  “I don’t even know what’s going on with those two now. If anything happens to them, I swear I won’t let that research team off the hook!”

  After hearing the full story, Julian finally had a clear picture of what had happened.

  “Luckily, the Haunter and Gengar didn’t mean to harm you. If it had been Mismagius or Bae instead, you’d all be dead by now.”

  Ghost-type Pokémon were notoriously dangerous, though some were less so than astly, Haunter, and Gengar fell into the tter category, being known more for their mischievous nature than ht malice.

  In the wild, it wasn’t unon for traio fall victim to wild Haunter’s Hypnosis. Upon waking, they might find themselves stripped of their belongings, missing important items, or dumped in an unfamiliar location.

  Dalton was lucky—at least his pants were still there.

  “If you’re unharmed, then Shen and Luis should be fioo. Plus, they have their partner Pokémon to protect them.”

  “We all have also taken survival training. Staying in a forest for ten days or so shouldn’t be a problem. The research team, though... I’m not so sure about them.”

  “If they’re all together, they might still stand a ce. But if they’re scattered like you were, that’s a different story.”

  The research team members were mostly academics with little to no bat ability. Even if they had Pokémon, their battle skills were usually ckluster. That’s why they issued escort requests in the first pce.

  “If they die, they die. As long as Shen and Luis are okay, I’m fih it,” Dalton said indifferently.

  Julian shot him a gre. “If they die, your mission not only fails, but you’ll also fa iigation from the Trainer Association. Your personal reputation will take a hit too.”

  A failed mission bined with the death of all escort targets? No one would want to hire you after that, especially for escort tasks.

  And orainer’s credibility rating dropped, certain tasks would bee off-limits.

  “The's find the research team quickly!” Dalton said, now anxious.

  It wasn’t that he cared about the research team’s survival or his credibility score. As a desdant of a prestigious family, he didn’t o rely on missions for resources.

  He had taken on this mission solely because of Shen’s invitation, with Luis also joining in.

  What truly worried him was the embarrassment. Failing his very first mission and losing the escort targets? That would be an embarrassment of epic proportions.

  Shen came from a third-tier noble family with many members, so she often o take on missions to supplement her ine.

  No one expected their first mission together to go so disastrously.

  “How do we even find them? I only found you because I got lucky,” Julian said, rolling his eyes.

  One by ohe Heracross returned i. They hadn’t found the humans they were looking for.

  Not finding them wouldn’t have been a problem—if none of the Heracross succeeded, they’d all be in the same boat.

  But one Heracross had succeeded, and that made all the difference.

  Jealousy burned in the eyes of the Heracross, their leader especially furious with the ohat hogged all the spoils.

  Five whole jars of honey, pletely devoured, not even a single drop left. The jar licked so it was almost reflective.

  'Who in the world raised this selfish brat? Oh, wait—it robably me'

  “Boss Walker, what’s wrong with them?”

  Dalton stared at the Heracross, whiow looked utterly disheartened. Its expression resembled someone who had just watched their girlfriend run off with someone else—pletely heartbroken.

  "Emo"

  Julian walked forward, from his seemingly small backpack—or rather, from the hidden ste of his system space—he pulled out over a dozen jars of honey.

  “One jar for each of you.”

  Though the Heracross weren't able to find Dalton, they had at least tried.

  Julian wasn’t the type to act like a heartless capitalist.

  Seeing the Heracross light up with joy as they received their own jars, Dalton watched Julian's bag with curiosity.

  That small backpack had already produced a jacket earlier, and now it had spat out all this honey. How did it hold so much?

  “What are you staring at? I got it off a shopping site after someo me a referral link. It has huge capacity.”

  Julian expined, as he slung the backpack over his shoulder again.

  “Boss Walker, do you have any food in that bag of yours? I’ve beeing nothing but tree sap and wild berries for days. My taste buds are about to shut down.”

  “Here.”

  Julian reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a of beef stew.

  Dalton blihat was definitely rger than the pocket it came out of.

  “Let me guess—also from that shopping site?”

  “Exactly. It’s pretty impressive, huh?”

  “Whe back, I’m signing up to shop there too!”

  Dalton wasted no time popping open the . “This beef stew is incredible!”

  “Eat up, once you’re done, we’re heading out to find Shen and the others.”

  *****

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