novel bin Chapter 9: Holy crap, a flashy one!
Chapter 9: Holy crap, a flashy one!
Luo Yan and Iris spent the entire morning battling wild Pokémon.
With the help of the Star Compass, Luo Yan also noticed Iris's current attribute panel.
【Iris (Little Unicorn): Light type, Leader】
[Level: lv.9]
These wild Pokémon weren't very high level; it was already quite good that they had reached level 9 after so many battles. Luo Yan wasn't in a hurry to achieve anything.
One must eat one bite at a time; being down-to-earth is the only true principle.
After the final battle, Luo Yan turned around and found Hou Hao, who was preparing lunch.
Hou Hao had several lunch boxes, some bread and ham, and a self-heating hot pot in his bag. This was his food for two days, enough for two people.
Luo Yan also took some, which together was enough to stay outside for three or four days.
After lunch, the two rested for a while and then started walking upstream along the riverbank. The current was quite rapid here, making it unsuitable for casting.
However, after this morning, Hou Hao didn't mention catching a starter Pokémon again.
He clearly noticed that the Pokémon here had only average potential. They might be fine as pets, but as the successor to a gym leader, they weren't a good choice.
The two chatted and laughed along the way, encountering some Pokémon along the way, but this did not stop them from continuing their journey.
They say that looking at a mountain makes a horse run itself to death, and walking along a river is about the same.
They walked until evening before finally reaching the upstream area.
Judging from the flat lawns and signs of human activity around it, this should be the campsite that most people would choose.
After having dinner and resting for a while, it was already getting dark. At this time, Hou Hao excitedly took out his fishing rod.
"What are you doing?" Luo Yan tilted her head when she saw Hou Hao's actions.
"Let's go night fishing."
Hou Hao took out the items one by one, wearing a hat with a flashlight on his head, illuminating the surroundings brightly.
"Hey buddy, let's not wander around at night, what if we run into the dark..." Luo Yan swallowed the rest of his sentence halfway through.
"What's black?" Hou Hao asked curiously.
"It's nothing, you can go if you want, I'm not sleepy anyway." Luo Yan shook her head.
This isn't the Kingdom of Locke, so where would a dark wizard come from? Besides, there's no danger here, and with Iris around, Luo Yan didn't refuse.
The two arrived at the riverbank one after the other, quickly baited their hooks, and began casting their lines.
The moon is high in the sky, and it's quite bright tonight.
The two people can clearly see the position of the float, so they don't need to rely on feel to judge whether they have caught a fish.
However, whether it was bad luck or something else, there was no response after waiting for quite a while.
After a while, Luo Yan couldn't help but speak up. "Hey, did you bring the right bait?"
"No, my dad made it, it's a special bait."
"Then why aren't you catching any fish?"
"I wonder if you fed them too much this morning?"
"Nonsense, I was downstream this morning, and I didn't battle any Water-type Pokémon, so who was I supposed to feed?"
"...Why is that?"
"You're asking me?"
Hou Hao scratched his head, frowned, looked around, and then clapped his hands in sudden realization.
"I see."
"It must be because too many people come here to fish, so wild Pokémon don't come here anymore."
"Are you sure?" Luo Yan asked, her face full of doubt.
"It must be like this!" Hou Hao stood up. "Let's go, let's go somewhere else."
"Where should we go?"
"Just follow me."
Luo Yan silently reeled in his fishing rod, packed up his things, and then followed Hou Hao away.
Led by Hou Hao, the two wandered around, eventually disappearing from the grass into the nearby woods.
"Dude, do we really have to go into the woods tonight?"
"There aren't any Ghost-type Pokémon here, what are you afraid of?" Hou Hao said, patting his hat. "These lights are so big, nothing will happen. Just come with me."
"Hmph... Alright, I'd like to see where you're leading me." Luo Yan's interest was piqued, and she followed Hou Hao, head down, into the distance.
After walking for quite a while, the two stopped on a muddy patch of land.
In front of me was a small pool of water, its depth unknown. From the sound of flowing water, I could tell that this pool was connected to a green tributary.
Hou Hao found his way here by following the stream.
"Come on, come on, raise the pole!"
Once he found a spot, Hou Hao excitedly began casting his line.
"It's a wonder you found this place." Luo Yan's lips curled up, and he swung the rod as well.
"Just kidding, my title of 'Fishing Prince' is well-deserved."
Hou Hao is the kind of person who gets out of breath just from talking about gaining weight.
But it must be said that things did change after moving to a different location.
Soon, both of them made some gains.
However, most of them are king koi and goldfish, and they are relatively small in size.
The two weren't discouraged, since they weren't expecting anything anyway, just having fun and chatting about what would happen after graduation.
"My dad wants me to follow in my sister's footsteps, get into a good university, become familiar with professors, and if I can publish some papers to get the title of researcher, that would be even better."
Hou Hao reattached the bait to the hook and cast it out.
"Don't I know what kind of person I am? I'd rather be a trainer and inherit the title of gym leader than study and research. Anyway, my sister's ambitions don't lie in that."
"But guess what my dad said? He said it's not too late to get a title and then inherit the business. Anyway, he can keep it for a long time. I'm really helpless."
Luo Yan thought for a moment and then said, "Uncle wants you to go further. Being a gym leader isn't easy these days. You have to study and take exams all the time, and I heard there will be rankings in the future."
"I know, but so what? If I really win a championship in the domestic league, even if I fail my exams, the league can't just kick my dojo out of the league, can it?"
"That's spirited, but a championship isn't something you just talk about." Luo Yan smiled. "There are so many people in the country, do you think you can just win like that?"
"The top 16 is fine too..." Hou Hao said, but his voice trailed off.
He paused, then added, "To put it bluntly, I just want more freedom, to travel around the country, to battle and laugh with my Pokémon, even if I lose."
"but..."
"...But you have to give me a chance to hit a wall."
Looking at Hou Hao's melancholy face, Luo Yan didn't know how to comfort him for a moment.
Although he had spent three years in the Kingdom of Locke and his personality had matured considerably, he still couldn't say anything in the face of this situation.
So he could only raise his hand and pat Hou Hao on the shoulder, and the two of them sighed.
"Why...."
Whoosh!
Just then, the sound of water broke the silence.
Luo Yan realized that the rod in her hand was not responding, so she looked at Hou Hao.
Hou Hao also raised his head. "It's not my pole."
The two exchanged a glance, then simultaneously looked in the direction of the sound of water.
The next moment, a mosquito coil tadpole came into view.
"They're mosquito coil tadpoles."
"I thought they'd caught a fish."
"Hey, a monkey."
"Um?"
"Look at that mosquito coil tadpole."
"What's wrong?"
"Is it a problem with your lighting, or is the color naturally light blue?"
"Hmm?" Hou Hao blinked and stared intently at the mosquito coil tadpole not far away.
The mosquito coil tadpole curiously pouted and looked at the two people on the shore.
Three gazes collided in mid-air.
After a few seconds of silence, Hou Hao's previously dead fish eyes gradually widened.
Immediately afterwards—
"Holy crap! It flashed!!"
"Hey, what are you doing?"
thump!
"Why did you jump down? Are you planning to fight it hand-to-hand?!"
...