"Thank you for your purchase!"
Lu Ye took the shopping bag from Green—and his shoulder instantly dipped from the weight.
"Is it heavy?" Green blinked. "Weird... it's just normal weight."
'Yeah, I think I finally understand the physical gap between us...' Lu Ye coughed and called out to Gengar, stuffing the bag into its belly.
The shadows shifted, and the shopping bag slowly vanished from view.
"Gengarr!" Gengar proudly patted its round stomach.
"By the way," Lu Ye said offhandedly, "Green, you'll be at the party tomorrow too, right?"
"You're supposed to call me Sister Green!" Green put one hand on her hip, then smiled, "Probably celebrating with my family."
"Of course." Lu Ye nodded, a bit wistful.
After all, she had only recently reunited with her parents after being separated for years.
To her, time with family was especially precious.
"But I'll definitely drop by to see everyone too," Green said with a wink. "I even prepared Christmas presents for the group!"
'If Green was coming, then Silver would surely show up too… Lu Ye thought for a moment and nodded with satisfaction, 'Perfect. He could snap a few pictures and send them to Boss Giovanni to collect his salary.'
"Oh—and also, prepare one of those Destiny Knot yarn balls for me."
"What do you need that for?" Green tilted her head. "Breeding?"
Lu Ye didn't reply.
He simply glanced over at Team Rocket's stall in the distance, 'Come to think of it… I should prepare a few gifts for them too.'
"You… prepared this for us?" James pointed to himself, utterly incredulous.
"Well, you are my employees," Lu Ye smiled, "Of course I'm giving you guys holiday benefits."
Meowth huffed, 'All I need is cash. Don't need any—'
Suddenly, Meowth yelped and dove at the shadow Lu Ye tossed toward them.
Jessie and James both blinked. Once they saw what it was, their expressions grew complicated.
"Meowww~"
Meowth rolled on the ground, hugging a bright red ball of yarn, giggling with joy.
A drop of sweat slid down the two humans' foreheads.
"Never seen Meowth act like that…"
"Well… he is a cat, after all…"
Lu Ye pulled several neatly wrapped gifts from the shopping bag, "This perfume is for Jessie—it's from Celadon Gym. Uh… Number Five, Gloom Essence. And James, this UR card from the PTCG set is for you."
Jessie and James stood frozen as if struck by lightning.
Then tears streamed down their faces.
"Th-thank you, Mentor!! ﾍ(;´Д｀ﾍ)"
"No big deal." Lu Ye grinned. "Take a break for the next few days. Resume missions after New Year."
"Yes, sir!"
Watching their Mentor's retreating figure, the trio's minds were filled with one collective thought:
We need to work even harder to earn more funding!
If they could capture Pikachu and hand it to the Mentor... Surely such a cute Pikachu would make him proud!
"Such a good feeling~"
---
Back at the hotel, Lu Ye unpacked the Max Potions from the bag one by one.
"Squirtlee!"
Squirtle took a Max Potion.
First, it sprayed a bit on Gengar.
After confirming there were no side effects, it nodded in satisfaction.
It was a mist-type spray—cool and a bit ticklish.
"Gengarr~ (*≧▽≦)" Gengar grinned, doing air flips in delight.
Lu Ye's lips twitched.
Even if it were poisoned… Gengar wouldn't show it!
"Squirtlee! (ﾉﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉ"
Seeing Squirtle cheerfully spraying medicine, Lu Ye sighed, 'I'm starting to suspect… you weren't even hurt at all!'
"This Top 8 prize money… doesn't even cover the expenses." Lu Ye dug deeper into the bag and pulled out a Mystic Water, 'I'll drop this into Squirtle's tank when we get back. And this one—wait, what's this?!'
He suddenly froze, staring at the small disc in his hand.
On the back of the disc was a small sticky note with a chibi-style doodle of a girl holding up a heart. The drawing had an uncanny resemblance to Green.
Above the character's head were little speech bubbles that read, "Thank you for your support, Teacher Lu~ Here's a tiny gift for you, mwah~♡"
Lu Ye: ???, 'What the hell is this "mwah" nonsense?! Is this how you newbies say thank you these days?!'
The front of the disc read Focus Energy, a move that boosts crit rate.
Now even Squirtle could go full crit mode, and if Sirfetch'd got this too, combined with its Scope Lens…
Every slash a crit—dreams come true.
'But wasn't Duck supposed to be a slacker? Is it really okay to give it tools for mass destruction?!', Lu Ye suddenly felt a wave of shared pain—for slacker Pokémon everywhere.
He set the disc aside and rubbed his face, 'This grudge book is getting too full. I can't keep holding onto all these grudges...'
"Gengarr!"
Gengar looked at the disc. A lightbulb practically lit above its head.
It floated over, grabbed the disc, and—like a pro—slipped it into the laptop.
Lu Ye stared in silence.
"Gengarr! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧" Gengar gave a proud thumbs-up with a big grin. (Something this simple doesn't need the master's command. Leave it to me—I'll make sure the whole team gets solid training!)
Lu Ye walked out of his room and stared silently at the ceiling.
Brock happened to return from the viewing area and noticed him said, "Teacher Lu, it's cold outside. Why are you standing here in the hallway?"
"There's no room for two slackers in one room," Lu Ye said.
Brock scratched his head, confused.
"What slacker?"
"I'm the slacker," Lu Ye clutched his chest with mock sorrow.
But very quickly, he straightened up again, 'It's fine. I've been "easy mode" since the beginning. A Trainer just needs to show up when it matters most!'
"I was checking the live match schedule," Brock said, "Next round—you're up against Bea."
"Is that so?" Lu Ye blinked, then gave a small nod.
Perfect. He'd been planning to leave anyway—might as well use this as an excuse.
If Bea won the championship belt, it would fulfill the dream of that young Fighting-type girl.
Besides… Lu Ye's expression shifted, 'If I send out Squirtle again, won't that just make things worse?!'
At the organizing committee office, Lu Ye submitted his withdrawal form.
"Done with training already?" Lorelei said knowingly.
After nuking the entire bracket… it was time to cool off. If he even nuked his own disciple, now that would be way too much.
Bruno nodded slightly, arms crossed.
"If the P1 Fighting Tournament no longer excites you… Come visit the Champion's Road. I'll be waiting anytime."
Lu Ye blinked, 'Champion's Road? Dude, I've only been a Trainer for seven months!'
"Definitely! I'll totally visit!"
---
When Bea found out Lu Ye had withdrawn, her eyes flickered, 'So Teacher Lu stepped back… Was it to give her a chance at the championship? This was his trust—his way of supporting her.'
Bea lowered her head, wiped her eyes with her arm, and whispered, "I won't let you down!"
News of Lu Ye's withdrawal sparked heated discussion on the forums.
But once they learned he would've been facing his own student in the next round, People started to understand.
"Teacher Lu still has a conscience!"
"If he beat his own student and took the belt… now that would be cold-blooded!"
"...Tagging this thread. Be right back to slice you later!"
---
Meanwhile, Lu Ye opened up his system rewards.
[Ding! Mission Complete!]
[Objective: Reach Top 8 in any division of the P1 Tournament]
[Rewards: Weakness Policy ×1, Close Combat Lv3, MooMoo Calcium ×1]
Lu Ye skimmed the list and then stopped,'Wait a second. Is there something weird in here?'
[Close Combat Lv3: Master-level hand-to-hand combat skills. Black Belt, Rank Three. (Fighting Strength, Rank Thre—wait, wrong script, sorry.)]
Lu Ye's expression turned complex, 'If I keep leveling this up… will I be able to bare-handedly beat an Arbok like Jessie does?!'
Still, in the dangerous world of Pokémon…
You might never use it, but you'd better know it.
Plus… his chat group was full of street-fighting maniacs. If he didn't learn a few self-defense tricks, he might actually get ambushed by Gold one day.
Lu Ye figured, Guys like Bruno or Marshal probably had Lv5 by now— they'd already gone past human.
Ash might not even know martial arts, but with that body, what's the difference?
Having a Black Belt Rank 3 was enough to survive a street brawl.
Without psychic powers or Ice Puppet-type gimmicks, going fist-to-fist with Pokémon was still a stretch.
One step at a time.
Lu Ye swung his arms around a bit.
Gotta start adapting.
The other two rewards were Weakness Policy and MooMoo Calcium.
[MooMoo Calcium: A calcium chew made from fresh MooMoo Milk. Human-safe. A favorite snack in the Orange Islands' Nurse Joy community.]
Lu Ye blinked.
Why does this calcium feel so sketchy?
"Hmm… smells pretty good, actually," He looked at the milky-white chew, thought for a moment, and broke it in half.
He handed one piece to Gengar.
"Gengarr?" Gengar tilted its head. (Why is it always me you ask to test stuff?)
"Statistically, it should be safe."
Lu Ye double-checked the shop—yup, this item could be exchanged regularly.
Feeling reassured, he popped the other half into his mouth.
Tasted just like those childhood milk candies.
Could actually be a decent snack…
"You're not a fruit stall," Lu Ye chewed and mumbled, "You're a mini-mart!"
[??]
---
As for Weakness Policy, it looked like a little sticker that you could slap onto a Pokémon.
[Weakness Policy: When hit by a move that targets its type weakness, sharply boosts Attack and Special Attack. (There's an opening!)]
It was a one-time item, but could have big impact in battle.
If he gave it to Squirtle… it could be his ace-in-the-hole.
After all—When it came to Squirtle… Its whole body is one giant weakness!
After sorting through the system rewards, Lu Ye opened his phone's notepad and flipped through his "grudge list."
Gurkinn had gifted him Dragon Pulse.
Green gave him Focus Energy.
He'd only been out for a week—And the grudge count keeps climbing.
"Oh well, Time to be thankful." Lu Ye sighed, 'I'll just cook more spicy food for the party and call it even!'