Chapter 94: Poor Reta
Reta won the deathmatch, but Zuo Hang wasn’t happy.
In this world, coming back to fight deathmatches seemed to be just for some poor kids, and the strength of an Elite Four was only just getting started.
Zuo Hang was very curious about how this world was destroyed.
Since it was also a world where Pokémon existed, could there be a creation Alpaca? Or other legendary Pokémon that Zuo Hang hadn’t seen?
Thinking this in his heart, he walked out of the Deathmatch Arena to take a look, but the scene in his eyes began to change rapidly.
The memories of the original owner of the body finally began to emerge.
—Reta.
A wild street fighter living in the slums.
Zuo Hang only felt his vision spinning, and when he came back to his senses again, he seemed to be lying on a pile of waste newspapers.
In front of him was a river.
Above his head was a bridge.
The newspapers under him had reports of spatial tremors appearing in multiple regions.
“Pika?” A familiar voice came from behind.
Zuo Hang turned around and saw Pikachu—covered in dirt, with some undried water stains, its fur grayish-yellow and somewhat stiff, probably because it hadn’t bathed in a long time.
This wasn’t Zuo Hang’s Pikachu, but Reta’s—Pikachu in the true sense belonging to Reta.
Although they looked the same, a trainer would never mistake their own Pokémon. Even if Zuo Hang’s Pikachu was placed among a group of Pikachu that looked exactly the same, he could recognize his own at a glance.
Without any verbal communication, Zuo Hang could already confirm that the one standing in front of him was a completely unfamiliar Pikachu.
Besides that, behind Reta Zuo Hang was a Perrserker floating, its blue ghostly eyes steady and calm, with something like a story hidden deep in the pupils, remarkably similar to the Perrserker Zuo Hang had just caught.
This was Reta before participating in the junior deathmatch battles; the Perrserker hadn’t evolved yet.
Pikachu jumped onto Zuo Hang’s shoulder. Although it was dirty, Zuo Hang didn’t mind.
This body and this Pikachu had a very deep bond.
Pikachu was a stinky rat living under the bridge, while Reta was an orphan without parents, living in various bridge hollows.
One human and one Pokémon. A perfect match.
Zuo Hang stood up and walked to the riverbank. The not-so-clear lake water reflected his current appearance.
His cheeks were dark and somewhat cracked, with messy black short hair, a not particularly strong body, underdeveloped height, brown pupils reflected in the river water. Zuo Hang lowered his head, his nose tip almost touching the river water. He carefully looked at the unfamiliar face on the river surface; this pair of brown eyes matching his own seemed to hide a touch of deep red blood color.
Reta looked strikingly similar to Zuo Hang.
This might not be a coincidence.
His other teammates turned into various Pokémon after stepping into the secret realm, but only he remained human.
Those Pokémon were like identities forcibly assigned to them by this dead world, but Reta matched Zuo Hang in many ways.
Xingye and Lin Ping and the others probably felt similar to how Zuo Hang did when entering the previous maze, observing events around them from an observer’s perspective, unable to intervene much themselves, but Zuo Hang could.
He not only intervened, but seemed to have changed the outcome.
In that original deathmatch, Zuo Hang had a premonition that Reta probably wasn’t the victor.
“Gurgle~ Gugu~~” While Zuo Hang was thinking about the various details in the maze, Pikachu’s stomach suddenly growled.
This human and Pokémon hadn’t had meat for a long time.
Zuo Hang patted Pikachu on his shoulder and chuckled, “Let’s go, find some food!”
At the same time, White Dragon Secret Realm.
“Great fight, Hangzi Ge!” Xingye suddenly sat up from the stream and said to Zuo Hang.
“Hangzi Ge? Hangzi.”
Everyone slowly sat up from the stream, but only Zuo Hang was still quietly lying in the stream water, showing no sign of waking up.
“Everyone’s back, right.” Lin Ping stood up first and asked.
“Hangzi Ge doesn’t seem to be back,” Xingye said.
“Zuo Hang, Zuo Hang??” Zuo Rou shook Zuo Hang lying in the stream but couldn’t wake him.
“Pika!!” Pikachu tensed its little waist and also woke up from the stream.
“Zuo Hang?? Zuo Hang?!! Stinky little brother!!” Zuo Rou shook him a few more times, but Zuo Hang still lay motionless in the water.
“Don’t worry, Sister Rou. He might just still be in the maze. With Hangzi Ge’s strength, there won’t be any problems,” Xingye said quickly upon seeing Zuo Rou’s worried gaze.
“—Whoosh~” A red light suddenly flashed from Zuo Hang’s belt.
Gardevoir jumped out of the Poké Ball on her own.
“Sha la~” Gardevoir asked Pikachu.
“Pika, Pika Pikachu~~ Pika~~” Pikachu briefly summarized its experiences with Zuo Hang.
Upon hearing this, Gardevoir immediately frowned tightly.
Everyone turned into Pokémon, but only Zuo Hang kept his human body, and that person’s appearance was very similar to Zuo Hang.
Everyone returned after the deathmatch ended, but Zuo Hang was still stuck in that past world.
Something must have changed in between, causing Zuo Hang to remain in that dead world, and the reason for the delay was likely related to him becoming that boy.
Gardevoir’s IQ was as high as 16, 6 points higher than an average human. Sometimes she overthought things, often battling wits with the air, but considering more was always better.
Thinking of this, Gardevoir said a few words to Pikachu.
Lin Ping nodded to Gardevoir, signaling her to go ahead without worry. “Pika~~” Pikachu also patted its chest in guarantee: Zuo Hang’s safety was in their hands, and no one else would approach here before he woke up.
With guarantees from Lin Ping and Pikachu, Gardevoir felt much more relieved. She glanced at the Mega Evolution Stone on the ring, a strange emotion flashing in her eyes.
She released the psychic levitation, her feet touching the ground. Gardevoir stood in the stream’s flowing water, hands clasped over her stomach, then lay flat beside Zuo Hang, closed her eyes, and her consciousness flowed along the stream into the dead world.
At this time, the afterimage of the dead world.
Zuo Hang and the yellowish-gray Pikachu stood in front of a vending machine.
He hadn’t expected this world to also have Moo Moo Milk, and moreover, Moo Moo Milk was placed in the second to last spot in the vending machine, looking like a pretty low-end beverage.
At the top of the vending machine was a row of deep purple fruit drinks, with labels below in this world’s script. Zuo Hang had fused Reta’s memories, so he could see and understand them.
This beverage was called “Purple Qing Qing,” certified by this world’s Pokémon Breeder Association as an advanced fruit drink. Not only did it restore stamina and relieve fatigue, but it could also perform marrow cleansing and bone transformation, changing a Pokémon’s constitution.
It sounded a bit fantastical.
Zuo Hang had never heard of Pokémon needing “marrow cleansing and bone transformation.”
For a simple example—if you gave Grimer a marrow cleansing, what could it possibly wash out? A puddle of mutated mud. After washing, could it really turn shiny?
He believed that humanoid Pokémon like Lucario and Blaziken could undergo marrow cleansing and bone transformation, but there were plenty of non-humanoid Pokémon in the Pokédex too, like Lampent, Gastly, Grimer—Pokémon without bones. How could you make them do marrow cleansing?
The more Zuo Hang thought, the less reliable it seemed.
This world seemed to revere martial power a lot, probably with many Fighting-type Pokémon. The Iron Arm Strongman he faced before was a trainer with six all-Fighting-type Pokémon. Perhaps besides Fighting-types, other Pokémon in this world were all second-rate existences, so the marrow cleansing and bone transformation effect of this “Purple Qing Qing” beverage probably hadn’t considered anything outside Fighting-types.
ps: Headache today, was gonna slack off, but still wrote it out. Brothers, toss some tickets~
