Under the influence of the larger environment.
Baimu had no choice but to close his restaurant, dedicating a small part of his energy to rebuilding Magnetic Barium Street.
Fortunately, he no longer needed to attend literacy classes. Except for some rarely used obscure words, he had already acquired a basic understanding of the common language of the Pokémon World.
In fact.
If Cheng Hong and Otsuka could manage the place, he, as a leader, didn't really need to spend half an hour or an hour there each day.
But despite the fact that the two were growing faster than the people around them, compared to him, they were still too slow. They hadn't yet gained the strength to convince those former Evil Dog Team members to submit wholeheartedly.
Of course, they could choose to complain.
But with only a few complaints, it was acceptable; any more, and it would cause people around them to look down on them—Cheng Hong and Otsuka naturally did not want this, so they've been working desperately hard recently.
On the other hand.
Baimu personally went to Magnetic Barium Street with the intention of cleansing the atmosphere there.
On the first day of Magnetic Barium Street's reconstruction, he discovered that some former Evil Dog Team members were forcing civilians to build houses for him and his family first, and then to build a series of entertainment venues.
Only once these were finished could they go back to work on their own homes.
When the people saw this situation, they undeniably chose to silently endure it, just as they had in the past.
Upon learning this, Baimu immediately strung up the leaders or those who made the suggestions on the flagpole to be exposed to the sun, while the remaining helpers and even their families were to first help build homes for the civilians.
Only when all the civilians' homes were built would they then construct their own.
To prevent anyone from rescuing those hung on the flagpole, Baimu specially arranged for Quicksand Team Members to guard them, as they needed people to watch over it in the first place.
After a series of harsh measures that could be described as tyrannical, the Evil Dog Team Members began asking the older team members about this boss's preferences to avoid crossing his lines.
Being considerate of the lower-class civilians seemed utterly incomprehensible to them; was there a need to care about a bunch of expendable materials?
Yet, the boss above liked doing this, so even if they had to pretend, they had to put on a front to avoid being the next person strung up on the flagpole.
By leveraging this display of power.
Baimu successfully gained a comparatively peaceful jurisdiction.
But soon, another headache-inducing issue arose—resources needed for rebuilding.
Even though the Quicksand Team had made a lot of money off the corpses of the Evil Dog Team, the funds it was willing to put towards repairing the three streets for the Lu Qi Team was very limited.
Without money, there are no basic infrastructures; without basic infrastructures, the civilians of the three streets would have a hard time living normally.
Asking Baimu to shell out money was even more impossible. He understood that throwing in his own small savings would make little impact. He wasn't nearly that generous—
Moreover, the majority of the bonuses from this operation had already been turned into pensions by him, given to those outer members of Cyan Iridium Street who were seriously injured during the operation.
These people had hardly received any bonuses, and the Quicksand Team had provided even less in relocation funds, so if Baimu ignored them, living would be very difficult for them next.
The remaining bonus was to cover the food costs, massage expenses, etc., for the Aggrons.
He could eat poorly himself, but he couldn't allow the Aggrons' treatment to worsen.
Thus, he could only frequently visit the Quicksand Team's headquarters building, asking the finance department for money.
This was undoubtedly difficult to achieve; Baimu wasn't the only one reaching out to the finance department. Recently, even just the pensions had given the administrative staff quite a headache.
In the end, the upper echelons of the Quicksand Team suddenly realized that with this invasion of the Lu Qi Team, they were actually losing money.
Yes.
Excluding the portions they took, the earnings were insufficient to cover the losses.
What was to be done?
When the entire Quicksand Team began worrying about money and dared not think about who those people with greasy mouths were, an event occurred that even Baimu hadn't anticipated.
——
If one were to describe what happened that day in a single phrase.
Baimu would call it a "Pokémon version of the Hongmen Banquet."
The specific background was that the defecting Jiama Team led a group of confidants to host a celebratory banquet with the three highest executives of the Quicksand Team and their boss, who was far away in Silicon City.
He didn't feel like dealing with such scenes and found it disgusting, so he didn't go.
As a result, he missed a grand spectacle.
Jiama was ambushed and killed on the spot by the behind-the-back betrayal of his returned confidant, and his remaining henchmen also perished under that madman's hands.
Shortly after the Evil Dog Team was carved up like a pig's head, they killed the defectors after using them.
What a shocking maneuver.
Even though the Quicksand Team later released specific video footage of the banquet, which did show Jiama's confidant attacking Jiama with a knife, whether the other factions in Pyrite Town believed it or not was another matter.
In any case.
After Jiama's death, the Quicksand Team had to "tearfully" take over his territory, and they gave Jiama's son a leadership position, allowing him to manage the portions of the street that belonged to his father.
Jiama's son happily accepted.
By devouring two-thirds of the Evil Dog Team's power, the Quicksand Team's financial data finally started looking better, and due to the former Evil Dog Team members joining and the return of some healed wounded members, its power expanded rapidly.
Kojelo, who originally wanted to take advantage of the Quicksand Team's injuries for some benefits, was scared back into hiding in his own territory, afraid to come out after this operation.
But obviously, his previous decision to defect to avoid a Quicksand Team invasion brought in another wolf.
Just a few days after Jiama's death, there was shocking news from Kojelo's side that he had suffered a sudden heart attack and couldn't be saved. Naturally, his territory was taken over by the faction he had previously drawn in.
Thus.
From the time the Evil Dog Team boss was arrested by international police to the successive deaths of the three highest executives, the second-rate power that once stood on equal footing with the Quicksand Team completely collapsed and vanished from history.
Would the Quicksand Team see this as a shared fate?
Baimu thought probably not, because the entire upper echelon was basically caught in a frenzy of making money, although nothing much changed for the lower ranks.
One must say.
Even though Cang Zhilang liked to play mind games, he was quite considerate to Baimu, even letting him go to Jiama's territory to recruit new underlings, to capture those more clever individuals.
And this time, Flop gave him guidance, instructing him to specifically receive the members of the Rescue Organization hidden within the Evil Dog Team—
To be honest.
Before Baimu met those people in person, he couldn't have imagined he would encounter someone he knew.
"Huo Wu?"
He looked at the dark-skinned and frail woman in utter surprise; at the charity event, this woman riding an Arcanine had helped him significantly.
Huo Wu was also very surprised to see Baimu, even disbelieving.
"You, you're one too?"
"I am too."
Baimu smiled and nodded, thinking the other had hidden well. Now, thinking back, the Arcanine sent by her to snatch away the bare Quicksand Team Member must have been to save him.
People from the Rescue Organization generally possessed a kindness absent in the average Pyrite Town person.
Luckily, he didn't push too hard at the time.
Baimu thought, completely oblivious to how complex Huo Wu's expression might be. Of course, even if he saw it, he wouldn't care; he was more concerned about whether they could collaborate well.
Collaborate on what?
Of course, on seeking development.
Under the great tree of the Quicksand Team, they were lacking in numbers and had no choice but to treat women as men and men as beasts of burden.