Heracross #1: "Human, I am willing to bee your Pokémon."

  Heracross #2: "Both my wife and I are willing to follow you."

  Heracross #3: "Choose us—a family of three."

  Heracross #4: "Pfft, you shameless lot. Don’t think I don’t know why you all want to follow this human."

  "Human, they all have ulterior motives, but I truly want to follow you with a sincere heart."

  Heracross Leader: "All of you, shut up! Are any of you strohan me? any of you fight as well as I ? And most importantly, my appetite is smaller than all of yours."

  As Julian and Dalton were preparing to leave, the group of Heracross swarmed around Julian, insisting on following him.

  Each of them expressed their desire to be chosen, which made Dalton look at Julian with admiration.

  'As expected of Boss Walker, he subdued all these Heracross effortlessly!'

  Julian, however, remained expressionless as he stared at the Heracross. If anyone ever cimed Pokémon were simple-minded and pure-hearted, he’d make them e ahis lot.

  They cimed they wao follow him, but wasn’t it just because of his honey?

  Eae spoke as sweetly as a song.

  If one of them had -tier potential, he might relutly accept it. After all, Heracross are strong Bug-types.

  But they were all green-tier, so they coulder Julian's and their typing wasn't suitable for him either.

  “You’re all rubbish,” Julian said ftly.

  The Heracross didn’t seem the least bit disced by his words. Instead, they enthusiastically volunteered themselves one by one, as if they hadn’t uood him at all.

  Julian was at a loss. 'I just called you weak, and not only are you not offended, but you look thrilled. Do you even uand what I’m saying?'

  "Roar"

  Suddenly, a roar echoed from the sky.

  Julian looked up and saw Dragourning.

  “Dragonite? Boss Walker, there’s a Dragonite here? Wait—it’s ing down... Oh, it’s yours.”

  Dalton said, his excitement quickly fading into disappoi.

  For a moment, he thought it was a wild Dragonite, but now he realized he’d been mistaken.

  “Did you find anything?” Julian asked.

  Dragonite shook its head and handed Julian the location tracker it was carrying.

  “Boss Walker, the iigation team’s tracker is broken.”

  Dalton expined after seeing the device.

  Julian sighed in frustration.

  "How does something like this even break? What are you people doing out here?"

  The tracker was the only way to rey one’s location in the wild.

  It was desigo be shockproof, roof, moisture-resistant, and could st six months without needing a battery rept. Aside from not being fireproof, it ractically iructible.

  Now Dalton was telling Julian that the tracker was broken.

  No wonder Dragonite searched for aire day and night and still found nothing. With Dragonite’s speed and the tracker’s 50-kilometer dete ra should have been a straightforward task, but nothing.

  Everything that could g has gone wrong all at once.

  "It wasn’t me who broke it."

  Dalton muttered under his breath, but when he saw Julian gring at him with a dark expression, he quickly shut up.

  "Do you remember where you entered the Gengar?" Julian asked.

  The only way to locate the missing team now was to track down the Gengar and Hauhat had separated them.

  Dalton nodded quickly.

  Julian pulled out a map: "Where?"

  Dalton looked at it for a moment and poio a specific area. "Right here. But Boss Walker, if we head there now, they might’ve already moved on."

  Many Ghost-type Pokémon were wanderers, rarely staying in one spot for long.

  The Gengar and Hauhey entered were no exception. Ghost Pokémon often roamed in search of humans to prank.

  Ign the relut gazes of the Heracross, Julian mounted Dragoh Dalton ahe area.

  As they soared through the sky, Dalton remarked, "Boss Walker, I feel like Dragonite looks different now, almost like it’s—"

  "Dragonite is Elite-level now," Julian said matter-of-factly. "And stop grabbing my waist."

  Dalton had been about to say Dragonite looked a bit fatter, but the bombshell Julian dropped made him fet all about it. In his excitement, Dalton unsciously tightened his grip on Julian.

  "MF***er! Let go of my waist!"

  Julian snapped. He reached back, grabbed Dalton by the colr, and threw him off Dragonite.

  "Ahhh!!!"

  Dalton screamed as he experiehe terror of freefall before scrambling batonite’s back, pale and trembling. He didn’t dare grab Julian again and instead braced himself by pg his hands firmly onite’s back.

  Because Dalton had joihe ride, the flight seat couldn’t be installed, leaving him to bance precariously.

  After flying for over half an hour, they reached the area where they had entered the Gengar and Haunter.

  Julian recalled Dragoo its Poké Ball. Although Dragonite had suppressed its aura, Ghost Pokémon were highly sensitive. If Gengar and Haunter were still nearby, they wouldn’t approach as long as Dragonite was around.

  "That’s Shen’s bag over there."

  Dalton said, pointing to a pile of leaves where a bck backpack artially visible.

  Julian walked over and pulled the backpack from the pile. It was indeed Shen’s—Julian had seen her carrying it before.

  "Shen is even unluckier tha least I still have my bag."

  Dalton couldn’t help but gloat a little. While he had only lost his clothes to the mischievous Gengar and Haunter—leaving him shivering in the cold—Shen had lost her entire bag.

  And that bag tained essential survival gear.

  Suddenly, Dalton’s expression turned a bit odd. "Boss Walker, I lost my Shirt, Shen lost her bag… What if Luis got his pants stolen?"

  The image that fshed in his mind was a bit too much to bear.

  Julian froze for a moment, realizing that sario wasirely impossible.

  Now, he found himself uedly eager to see what state Luis would be ihey found him.

  'Guess I really am a terrible person'

  "Haunter"

  Julian said, tossing out a Poké Ball.

  From the ball emerged a white Haunter, its ghostly fleaming faintly in the light.

  After leaving the Dragon's Den, Julian had takeime to evolve his Gastly.

  "What the—? A white Haunter?"

  Dalton excimed. It was the first time he had ever seen a white Haunter.

  "Search the area, look for any traces of Gengar or Haunter."

  Haunter let out a mischievous cackle before vanishing into the shadows.

  "Boss Walker, where did you get a white Haunter? It looks so amazing!"

  "Picked it up from the road."

  Julian replied nontly.

  "Really?"

  "As if," Julian deadpanned.

  "I knew you were joking. But actually, my Machamp really 'was' found on the road."

  "Really?"

  "As if"

  "Smack!"

  Julian nded a solid sp on the back of Dalton’s head, sending him face-first into the dirt.

  'Damn it! how did I get pyed by someone like him?!'

  *****

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