Chapter 101: The Setup Begins—Time to Reap the Rewards!

Morning dawned, ushering in a brand-new day. Dragonite and the little fairy milk perched atop its head stirred awake, half-closing their eyes as they sniffed the enticing aroma drifting toward Zhu Suihan.

One rested its head on the white-furred monkey’s shoulder, while the other stumbled clumsily before flopping down on top of its head.

Awakened by the fragrance, the two little ones were ready to snatch a few more winks.

“I think you two might be somewhat mistaken about my appetite.”

“Milu!”

“Come on, boss lady, it’s time to freshen up!”

“Ugh!”

“Let’s go!”

Arriving at the bathroom, the little fairy milk deftly turned on the tap, assisting Dragonite in activating the showerhead. The two began their morning wash with quiet murmurs.

“Not bad. At least your reflexes are top-notch now.”

When your teammate rushes headlong toward Gate A, you instinctively clutch a flashbang in your hand, ready to send them off.

Whether that flashbang is meant to light up the teammate’s corpse or actually help them escape—that’s another story.

Zhu Suihan smiled and placed a golden scallion and egg pancake on a plate, switching off the nearby juicer filled with crushed tree fruits and creamy milk.

The aroma grew richer, and with a soft chime from the incense burner, fresh energy cubes were ready.

“Milu~, Milu~,” the little fairy milk submerged its entire body into the cup, choosing to attack in its slime form, swiftly draining the whole glass of fruit juice milk and requesting a refill from its trainer.

“Wuwu.”

Dragonite devoured the scallion egg pancake in two bites, then narrowed its eyes, preparing to hunt by casting a predatory gaze toward Zhu Suihan’s breakfast plate.

“More in the pan, don’t just stare at mine,” Zhu Suihan said, reaching for the extra-large skillet and gently shaking out the remaining half onto Dragonite’s plate, letting the foodie dragon continue its feast.

The little fairy milk fashioned a butter knife from cream and tried to cut the egg pancake into smaller pieces.

“If you want to do that, you’d better increase the hardness a bit.”

Zhu Suihan sliced the pancake into small pieces and showed off the fork in hand.

“But you know, your method reminds me of a manga I really like.”

“The characters in it draw strength from appetite, and the protagonist condenses this power into the shapes of knives and forks to attack.”

“If you plan to keep using cream projectiles, besides working on speed and weight, you might want to experiment with changing their form.”

The little fairy milk skewered a piece of pancake with its creamy fork: “Milu?”

If I become a Frost Fairy someday and learn more powerful spells like Magical Radiance, will all these techniques I’m grasping now become useless?

“Not a chance.”

Zhu Suihan took a sip of milk. “Take impact, for example; no one but Du knows our impact attack is actually a ranged strike.”

“When you master Magical Radiance later, who says you can’t use it as a close-combat move?”

“Our development approach is simple and straightforward: all cream is part of your body and can serve as a medium to execute moves.”

Zhu Suihan explained, “Skills like Magical Radiance’s Absorbing Kiss—if you shape a stick in your hand and hit the opponent hard with it, isn’t that the same?”

Dragonite blinked.

“Uh?”

“Skills can be used like that?”

“Exactly. Magical Radiance is basically a damaging flashbang.”

“If I bash you with a stick until you see stars, isn’t that just another form of radiance? Absorbing Kiss follows similar logic, just like I told you in Hinoki Town about the variations in moves.”

Whether it’s the super-fast Water Pulse or the high-pressure Hydro Cannon, the underlying idea is the same.

Zhu Suihan bumped fists with the little fairy milk.

“Developing this way is challenging, but I believe you can do it. You’re my little fairy milk, a one-of-a-kind existence in this world.”

The little fairy milk gulped down a piece of egg pancake and mumbled indistinctly in reply.

“Milu!”

“The path of the great emperor will surely master the celestial arts and sweep away all enemies!”

The warm breakfast ended, and the family arrived promptly at the auditorium, taking their assigned seats.

Of course, the white-furred monkey couldn’t help but scan the surroundings, searching for any opportunity to stir up trouble.

The meeting was mostly a bunch of formalities, setting the tone for the upcoming riot control drill as a “cops and robbers” scenario, much like what had been discussed the previous night.

But it made sense—whether Junsha or Joey, if trouble arose, they would be on the front lines guiding citizens, not hiding in the back.

The riot drill was essentially cops catching thieves, an exercise in assisting town security to eliminate threats before they could grow.

The courses were even simpler, all common classes shared by the two academies, designed not to waste students’ time.

As a lone, ultra-competitive soul, the monkey managed to avoid drawing any attention and smoothly completed all observation requirements.

When the evening exchange event began, Zhu Suihan, holding a book, spotted the guide from last night, nodded, and motioned for them to lead the way.

The guide looked a bit puzzled, thinking Zhu Suihan might be overly cautious.

“All right, everyone, it’s time to collect your equipment and supplies.”

Teacher Junsha stood at the front of the line. “This is our academy’s armory used during practical courses. Feel free to pick whatever you like. After you finish, we’ll consider the Pokémon.”

Zhu Suihan went straight for the explosives, grabbing four sets of coach’s grenades and stuffing them into the backpack, drawing a marked label of a dangerous individual from Teacher Junsha.

“Explosives, EMP electromagnetic interference, huh.”

Zhu Suihan looked at Junsha. “Teacher, may I ask if there's an EMP bomb with power stronger than the current electromagnetic interference devices?”

“Don’t go thinking about blowing everything up; there’s nothing like that.”

Junsha sighed. “Providing you with electromagnetic interference devices is already pushing the limit. If we gave you anything bigger, we wouldn’t be able to control the effects.”

“Oh, I see.”

Besides explosives, Zhu Suihan also chose a drilling device, mainly for precision; otherwise, he could just do it by hand.

“Explosives, drilling equipment... oh right, almost forgot the most important thing.”

A Pokémon version of sleeping spray, made from the secretions of Slugma and other sleepy Pokémon, purified into a spray so potent even Ash couldn’t resist it.

Zhu Suihan glanced at the ingredient list, regretting there was no version from the Tree-Koala; otherwise, the effect would be even better.

Poisoning a fresh rookie might not work, but sleep, an instinct hard to resist, was a different matter.

Though he didn’t understand why Junsha’s academy had such a thing, that didn’t stop the white-furred monkey from hoarding several bottles until the teacher reminded him to stop.

“Now that everyone has picked their supplies, you can choose your temporary partner.”

Junsha took stock of all the collected items. Except for Zhu Suihan, she roughly knew everyone else’s typical choices but wisely kept silent.

When it was Zhu Suihan’s turn, the white-furred monkey paused, then typed the name of the desired partner on the computer, sending the request to the backend.

“3D Dragon, Gengar.”

3D Dragon was the former name for Porygon, resembling a blocky duck in appearance.

Gengar needed no introduction. Zhu Suihan could only say that Kiku’s Gengar’s tongue was impressively elastic and felt fantastic.

Ten minutes later, staff brought over two Poké Balls for Zhu Suihan.

“There’s a special training ground here. Don’t worry, no one will notice your partners are missing—we have plenty of experience handling this.”

At a single-person training arena, Zhu Suihan tossed the two Poké Balls into the air. The Poké Balls bounced back from the momentum of the Pokémon’s appearance, and Zhu Suihan caught them, clipping the balls to his waist.

“Gengar?”

“Porygon?”

The purple chubby fellow and the 3D dragon exchanged a glance, then looked toward Zhu Suihan with an expression that said, “Ah, I see.”

“Greetings, this is a gift for you both.”

With energy cubes lighting the way, the two happily began interacting with Zhu Suihan, assuring him of their absolute obedience.

No doubt, Pokémon from Junsha Academy were thorough in executing orders.

“Good. Then we start the operation tonight.”

Gengar tilted his head in surprise.

Could it be that this time he found a human with the same schedule?

“Porygon,” the 3D Dragon was unimpressed. As a technological Pokémon, normal Pokémon sleep patterns didn’t apply.

“Gengar, use your Ghost-type skill ‘Shadow Veil’—wrap me up as well. You can handle that, right?”

“Gengar!”

The little purple fellow thumped his chest, sticking out his oversized tongue rhythmically.

Who are you looking down on?

Today, the boss must be taken care of properly!

Under the cover of night, Zhu Suihan, with four Poké Balls hanging at his waist, led Gengar to a carefully chosen vantage point.

“Gengar?”

Gengar scratched the back of his head, somewhat puzzled by the white-haired one’s intentions.

If trouble was the goal from the start, the odds of failure seemed uncomfortably high.

Anyone who would ask him to use shadows for stealth must at least understand the basics, right?

“Of course not. It’s just that what I need to do requires some time.”

“And there’s one more protocol: Gengar, no matter what happens, stabilize the energy field. Understood?”

“Gengar?”

Pressure, activate!

An invisible wave swept outward as Zhu Suihan maintained the stance, continuing his task.

Perhaps the school knew of Zhu Suihan and Gengar’s movements, but what would happen next remained a mystery.

Not to mention Dragonite lurking on the outskirts, the sheer pressure alone kept the Pokémon equipped with surveillance devices at bay.

Digging into the soil, Zhu Suihan exposed the irrigation pipe beneath, pressed the drilling device against it, and pressed the button. Gengar raised his small hands, using Ghost-type energy to muffle the noise.

The drilling succeeded. Zhu Suihan pulled out the incense burner and poured out several gray pellets.

“Little fairy milk, wrap these with cream pellets.”

“Milu.”

The little fairy milk formed cream pellets, wrapping each gray pellet to the required hardness and stuffing them into the drilled hole.

(End of chapter)