Beedrill’s current strength should be enough to sweep through the median strip. Thinking of this, Lu Li recalled the Caterpie and Oddish living there.
The caretaker book had mentioned that appropriate amounts of battle were beneficial to a Pokémon’s physical and mental health, and even more beneficial to its growth.
In the Pokémon world, battling was also one way to become stronger.
At the mention of battling, Lu Li thought of the Scyther and the others on the seventh floor.
However, he still did not know how strong those Pokémon on the seventh floor were. If they were only below Ordinary level, then he would definitely consider having a friendly battle with them.
But unlike the Pokémon world, in this world, the loser really could lose everything—for example, by being eaten by the victor.
Lu Li decided to leave the Pokémon on the seventh floor alone for now. The most important thing at the moment was to let Beedrill familiarize itself with its current condition.
“Little Yellow, let’s first get used to your body after evolution, as well as the new moves you learned,” Lu Li said.
Beedrill nodded.
Lu Li first tested Beedrill’s attack power. Without using any moves, Beedrill’s poison stingers could directly pierce through a solid concrete wall.
In the end, Lu Li still did not dare test the more powerful moves inside the mall, such as Assurance.
It was not until lunchtime that Lu Li had Beedrill stop training.
After bringing Beedrill back home, Lu Li prepared some nutrient solution for it.
Little Yellow had evolved into Beedrill, and its appetite had evolved along with it. Its current food intake was almost twice that of Feebas.
After preparing the nutrient solution, Lu Li went alone to the high-end cafeteria.
There were not many people in the high-end cafeteria, and Jun Shutong happened to be there today as well.
Lu Li carried his tray over and sat directly beside Jun Shutong.
No one was sitting beside Jun Shutong. In fact, no one was even willing to sit at the same table as her.
Seeing this, Lu Li started to wonder whether Jun Shutong was being ostracized by the members of the Scavenging Team.
Lu Li teased, “Are you sure you aren’t being ostracized?”
Jun Shutong, who was eating, rolled her eyes at Lu Li. She also knew that her previous insistence had offended quite a few of the young and able-bodied people, but the vast majority of them still did not have much of a problem with her.
Jun Shutong complained speechlessly, “Can’t you think something nice about me for once?”
“I heard all these people have found girlfriends, and some of them have even found several,” Lu Li probed without changing his expression.
“What? You want one too?” There was a faint trace of jealousy in Jun Shutong’s tone.
Lu Li felt that he might have fallen into one of the three great illusions in life—she likes me—because he actually detected a hint of jealousy in Jun Shutong’s voice.
Lu Li neither wanted to come straight out and say it nor play games with her, so he said directly, “Not really. I’m not in the mood for romance right now.”
After hearing this, Jun Shutong unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, though even she herself did not notice this inexplicable sense of relief.
Jun Shutong immediately switched into work mode and asked, “So how is your plan coming along?”
Lu Li said confidently, “Tomorrow, bring some people with me to Demon Camp. It’s time to unify all the camps in the surrounding area.”
Seeing how confident Lu Li was, Jun Shutong instead became somewhat worried.
“Are you sure? Even if you’ve tamed a demon beast, they still have the advantage in numbers,” Jun Shutong reminded him.
Lu Li said with absolute confidence, “Don’t worry. Numbers are completely meaningless in front of me.”
This was no longer ordinary overconfidence. Jun Shutong knew she had to remind Lu Li of the fear of being dominated by the truth.
“What if they have guns?” Jun Shutong asked in return.
Lu Li fell silent upon hearing that.
With Beedrill’s strength, it could definitely block bullets. It could also take the enemy down before they fired, and even shield him from bullets after they fired.
But the problem was that there was only one Beedrill. What if those people ignored all sense of fairness and simply took a shot at him from the shadows?
Thinking of this, Lu Li increasingly felt that Protect was a great move.
Lu Li could not help asking, “They don’t really have guns, do they?”
Jun Shutong explained with some uncertainty, “Before the demon beasts descended, two of my colleagues were also carrying out a mission in this area. They had guns with them. I’m not sure whether they’re still alive, and I’m even less sure whether their guns were taken by someone else.”
“Pistols?” Lu Li asked again.
Jun Shutong nodded.
In the end, Lu Li decided to play it safe. After all, he was practically about to take off now. It would be pretty embarrassing if he ended up getting killed by a sneak shot.
“Judging by the time, if everything went smoothly on Aunt Zhao’s end, she should have already finished making the bulletproof vests for us,” Lu Li said leisurely.
Seeing that Lu Li had even taken this into consideration, Jun Shutong decisively gave in and went along with him. “If that’s the case, then my worries really were unnecessary.”
“Then tomorrow we’ll first make a trip to Aunt Zhao’s place. If she succeeded, that would naturally be best. Even if she failed, we’ll just be more careful when the time comes.” Lu Li had decided to wipe out the Demon Camp as soon as possible.
Lu Li’s current thinking was actually the same as that of Demon Camp’s leader. That group of people consumed too much food. In the early stages of the apocalypse, many times, if you ate one extra bite, the people around you had one less bite to eat.
He also wanted to take the opportunity to eliminate some competitors.
Jun Shutong immediately cooperated. “Then tomorrow morning, we’ll gather two Scavenging Teams and move out together.”
“Mm. That Ghost demon beast should also get some extra food. Conditions were limited before, so we could only send two people over every day. Now that we have enough manpower, we can consider sending four people over each day.” Lu Li had not forgotten to repay Mimikyu for the gift it had given him.
After returning home back then, he had handed Beedrill’s Mega Stone over to Little Yellow. Lu Li was now even beginning to suspect that Little Yellow’s current evolved state might have something to do with the Mega Stone it was carrying.
But the problem was that the Mega Stone was still on Little Yellow’s body and had not changed in the slightest. That was also why he had not suspected the Mega Stone at first.
Because if a Mega Stone could produce this kind of effect, then the Key Stone would be meaningless.
The two of them discussed tomorrow’s operation for a while longer. Just as Lu Li was nearly finished eating, Jun Shutong suddenly changed the subject and deliberately probed, “By the way, if you want to find a girlfriend, my assistant would actually suit you quite well.”
Lu Li looked at Jun Shutong in slight surprise.
Fatty Lei had previously said that Jun Shutong’s assistant suited him very well, and now Jun Shutong was saying the same thing. Could that woman be even prettier than Jun Shutong?
His curiosity successfully piqued, Lu Li decisively said, “Bring her over tomorrow so I can meet her.”
It was not that he had truly developed romantic interest. He was simply curious.
As the saying went, he already looked down on “lowly humans.” He, Lu Li, was now a noble “Half-Pokémon” human. After all, the first lesson after making it ashore was to forget where you came from.
Of course, that was a joke.
In truth, he was worried that the difference in their physique might be too great and things would turn into a crime of passion, which would be awkward.
After finishing dinner, Lu Li did not return directly to the dormitory. Instead, he found Fatty Lei and asked him for a copy of the observation records.
Because the camp was relatively close to Xinghai Residential Complex, there had always been people observing the situation around the median strip and Xinghai Residential Complex.
It had been almost a month since the Pokémon descended, and Lu Li was quite curious about what the situation over there was like now.
After returning home, Lu Li turned on a small solar-powered desk lamp and began flipping through the log under its light.
First was the previous major fire, which had burned down three buildings.
At present, the three buildings in Xinghai Residential Complex closest to the road were all charred black, but the people who had actually been attacked and eaten by Houndour were only those who had run out of the first building.
The other survivors fled into rooms inside the residential complex to take shelter. Perhaps they felt that buildings closer to the road were more dangerous, so that group never came over to the mall.
Next were the Oddish.
The Oddish had already migrated, and they were moving farther and farther away.
They never stayed on the same patch of land for long. Usually, they would remain in one place for only a day or two before leaving.
Seeing this, Lu Li roughly formed a guess.
Pokémon like Oddish probably cared quite a lot about the condition of the soil, and they would not squeeze every last bit of value out of the land.
As a Grass-type Pokémon that relied on the soil to survive, Oddish naturally understood the importance of caring for the land and leaving something behind.
On this point, Lu Li felt he had to strongly criticize certain Bug-type Pokémon.
The Caterpie in the median strip would not leisurely move on to the next tree until they had stripped the current one bare. Basically, any tree with Caterpie on it would not survive longer than a week.
According to the observation log alone, quite a few large trees had already withered and died.
Of course, the most noteworthy point was something else.
After so many days, no one had actually observed a Caterpie evolving.
Seeing this, Lu Li could not help frowning again.
Was the survival environment in the wild really this harsh now? Were there not even enough resources to support Caterpie’s evolution?
Thinking of this, Lu Li glanced again at Little Yellow, who was chatting with Little Beauty.
In a way, Little Yellow was actually quite lucky. If it had not encountered a human like him who understood Pokémon, its entire life might have lasted only a short dozen or so days, and throughout that brief life, it would have constantly suffered from cold and hunger.
Finally, Lu Li found another useful piece of information.
[After a demon beast dies, its corpse remains for only one day. After one day, the demon beast turns into points of light that merge into the earth or disappear into the air.]
[Observers have currently witnessed the deaths of multiple demon beasts. Most insect demon beasts fall from trees to the ground after death. If no other Pokémon comes to eat them, then these Pokémon turn into some unknown points of light or energy and disappear.]
The people responsible for observation were mostly elderly professors, or rather, educated people of the older generation. Their observation records generally did not use exaggerated descriptions.
After all, as researchers of the older generation, they understood the importance of accurate data.
“Does this count as a different kind of giving back to nature?” Lu Li thought pensively.
Pokémon corpses should have very high nutritional value. Lu Li decided that after dealing with the Demon Camp matter tomorrow, he would take Beedrill with him to collect Pokémon corpses and bring them back for composting.
That sapling had been growing rather slowly lately, and Lu Li was also worried that it might wither from lack of nutrients.
Lu Li also saw quite a few hypotheses in the observation log, such as some people already beginning to suspect that Grass-type Pokémon could use Synthesis.
After closing the observation log, Lu Li let out a heavy breath.
Bug-type Pokémon had relatively short lifespans. After arriving in this world, they would rapidly age and die because they could not evolve, and those Bug-type Pokémon that died of old age would then turn into energy and merge into the world itself.
Perhaps this was also one of the ways Pokémon ecology was changing the ecology of this world. This might be a good thing for Lu Li, but it was not necessarily good for humanity.
After all, the people of this world were not Pokémon-human, and it was extremely difficult for them to earn the goodwill of Pokémon. If Pokémon became more and more adapted to this world’s environment in the future, then their strength would continue to rise.
As one side grew stronger while the other weakened, humanity’s advantage seemed to be shrinking without limit.
“Forget it. No point giving myself a headache over this right now. Life will find its own way. And if things really go wrong, don’t they still have me as a backup?” After comforting himself, Lu Li pulled the covers over his head and fell asleep.
As the saying went, when the cart reaches the mountain, there will always be a road ahead. Right now, even taking care of Dawn Camp was already somewhat difficult for him.
Early the next morning,
Lu Li recalled Little Beauty into its Poké Ball, then left the room with Beedrill.
At this moment, Jun Shutong was already outside waiting for him with members of the Scavenging Team.
When the sound of the lock clicking open rang out, everyone held their breath and stared at the glass door covered in black tape.
Lu Li opened the door and stepped out first, with Beedrill following closely behind.
“Hiss—”
The moment they saw Beedrill, nearly everyone sucked in a cold breath.
Some of the more timid ones even quietly backed away several steps, placing their companions in front of themselves as shields.
Even Jun Shutong stared at Beedrill in disbelief.
“Wasn’t it supposed to be a fish demon beast? How did it turn into a hornet demon beast?” Jun Shutong thought in stunned amazement.
Huang Jiafei said to Old Xu beside him in a trembling voice, “Old Xu, pinch me. Am I still dreaming right now?”
But Old Xu beside him was in even worse shape.
Old Xu’s legs were trembling slightly and his face was deathly pale. He swallowed with difficulty and said blankly, “Jiafei, your Uncle Xu’s legs are a little numb right now. How about you hit me instead? I’m starting to think I’m dreaming too.”
Some people were shocked, some were afraid, but most of them found it hard to believe.
Only a small number of people were excited.
“My God! Did Brother Lu tame a demon beast?”
“A demon beast that looks like a hornet, and it can even fly. You can tell at a glance that it’s really strong.”
“I heard hornets are venomous. It can fly, it’s poisonous, and it’s pretty big too. It’s basically invincible!”
“With this hornet demon beast, what can those surrounding camps possibly use to compete with our Dawn Camp?”
The discussion in the crowd grew louder and louder. Lu Li remained calm, openly accepting all the different looks being directed at him.
The moment he decided to reveal Beedrill, Lu Li had already prepared himself to face all kinds of stares and doubts.
In the apocalypse, Lu Li had never expected humans and Pokémon to coexist harmoniously. What he could do was guide humans to accept and make good use of Pokémon’s power.
“Everyone, this is my partner, Beedrill. From now on, it’ll be one of the main pillars of the camp,” Lu Li said as he pointed at Beedrill.
Beedrill was right beside him. Since he was introducing Beedrill to everyone, there was no way he could use the word “tame.”
After all, a bond had now formed between both sides. Little Yellow and Little Beauty could already understand the meaning of the word “tame,” so Lu Li would try to avoid using it from now on.
Naturally, no one dared to object.
Although they felt both fear and resistance toward Pokémon, what was even stronger was the fear etched deep into their bones.
Besides, everyone present was an adult. None of them was going to stake their life on stubbornly asserting their will.
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