The three main districts on the surface have basically been resolved.
And the collapsed Underground City, under the overnight rush of the Quicksand Team, has successfully cleared the periphery, rescuing heaps of Quicksand Team Members.
Liu Ge and others were among them.
Upon seeing daylight again.
Their dusty and ragged selves turned back to look at the devastated districts and then at the Underground City buried under countless rubble and sand, showing no joy of having achieved their goal, only deep powerlessness.
Liu Ge's originally vibrant burgundy hair had also become dull and lifeless.
The necessity of using strategies stemmed from a lack of strength.
Since they chose strategy, they must accept unexpected things beyond their control; the world doesn't revolve around anyone, at least not around them.
"It really is a mutual destruction..."
Baimu stood by, learning from Liu Ge and the others about what happened after entering the Underground City.
Under the overwhelming approach of the united Quicksand Team army, the cadres and members of the Luo Qi Team were no match for the Quicksand Team, unable even to stalemate the situation, retreating repeatedly within hours and abandoning one area after another.
Until they shrank back to one small final area.
The Quicksand Team immediately chose to persuade Luo Qi to surrender to avoid further unnecessary force, but who would have thought that Luo Qi would disregard his subordinates' wishes and chose to go down together, detonating the Electrode bombs pre-buried at every support point in the Underground City.
After that, the entire Underground City began to collapse, and the Quicksand Team army was trapped underground, unable to exit immediately, so they had no choice but to find ways to preserve themselves on the spot, further impacting the surface and exacerbating the man-made disaster.
This was entirely beyond Liu Ge's expectations.
He originally intended to take advantage of the highest three cadres staying in their lair to provoke the relationships among the three groups present and make them fight underground ahead of time.
Then lure the Kojelo Group into invading the Crystal Team's district to make the scene even more chaotic.
Who would have thought Luo Qi would be so fierce in temperament.
In Liu Ge and the others' eyes, they won from the outcome of this operation—the three major groups of the Quicksand Team suffered heavy losses, and having just swallowed such a large chunk, they were in danger of bursting.
But they also lost—not comprehensively analyzing Luo Qi's personality and failing to understand all his movements, allowing this man-made disaster to occur.
Liu Ge understands that such mistakes can't appear again.
And at this point.
The operation of the Quicksand Team to seize the Luo Qi Team's territory concluded here.
But the situation in Pyrite Town did not become more apparent because of this.
It even became more chaotic.
The Quicksand Team deliberately downplayed casualties during the action, trumpeting their gains, making the other forces in Pyrite Town aware of how rich others' territories were.
As a result.
A few more forces in Pyrite Town declared war on others, pulling Pyrite Town into the quagmire of chaos completely.
——
On the other hand.
Due to the unsuitable condition of the Underground City for public disclosure and Baimu's outstanding performance during the surface combat, his fame got further promoted.
Shanren told him that this was both a good and a bad thing.
The good thing is, in the future, when they truly begin implementing the big plan, Baimu's fame will make many aspects smoother for them.
The bad thing is, in the current chaotic environment of Pyrite Town, being too conspicuous easily attracts madmen.
"As Liu Ge's plan unfolds, the coming days will be very tough, you must find ways to improve your strength quickly, maybe Liu Ge and I will have to rely on you in the future."
Shanren said earnestly.
Baimu, hearing this, just felt the other party was exaggerating.
To rely on him would take a long time after all, but given Pyrite Town's situation, any growth he can muster should be grabbed.
Since disorder started in Pyrite Town, there were signs of many Neutral Dungeon shops closing, fearing some organization might exploit the situation for a big haul.
The Underground City, to some extent, represents the "abnormal" prosperity of Pyrite Town; their closure is telling of how difficult it is to survive in Pyrite Town.
Two days hadn't passed since the operation ended.
The Underground City of the Luo Qi Team was yet to be cleared, but the Quicksand Team had already begun dividing the Luo Qi Team's legacy internally, from personnel and territories to minerals, and so on.
Baimu, as the "hero" of this operation, also had a share.
But unexpectedly, he was assigned the very district he initially suppressed. To give a whole district to a subordinate seems incredible to outsiders.
This also meant being officially appointed by higher-ups as a cadre of the Sand Group, enjoying the power as a cadre.
But to be honest.
Baimu was not really interested in that district, firstly, because the three major districts of Luo Qi Team had already become ruins, and what could be plundered had already been plundered once. Secondly, taking over that district meant a substantial part of his team would have to be selected from the original Evil Dog Team Members.
Thus making it easier for him to manage the new territory.
Cang Zhilang also told him as much.
Due to the losses sustained by the Quicksand Team in the Underground City, they must quickly replenish a large amount of new blood, and the original members of the Evil Dog Team are a ready force that can be used right away.
They are much better than those newly elevated to official members who are just starting to interact with Pokémon from the peripheral members.
However.
Baimu harbors nothing but blatant disdain for the members of the Evil Dog Team, despising these scumbags from a moral standpoint; taking in the previously agreed few more honest ones was already the limit.
To place nearly half of the Evil Dog Team Members into his team... is really hard to accept.
But Baimu understands that these people must be recruited.
Just as Liu Ge had told him.
"You must understand, with so many villains in Pyrite Town, you can't kill them all, even if you intend to settle their sins, it will take a long while before that happens. In the meantime, rather than let them be, if you can reform their thinking, make them realize their past mistakes, it will be beneficial for our upcoming actions."
Quite realistically, the good older brother says, given the countless wrongdoers in Pyrite Town, even sweeping away the clouds, there's no way to handle these people just by killing them.
Thus.
On his first day as a cadre, with Cang Zhilang's approval, Baimu, through simple assessments, promoted a number of peripheral members from Cyan Iridium Street and, with Flop's hints, absorbed many members of the Rescue Organization.
Just like the one Baimu initially knew.
On another front, Baimu arrived at Magnetic Barium Street, which was being rebuilt at a very slow pace, and accepted a large number of original Evil Dog Team Members.
He busied himself for nearly two days, successfully recruiting over five hundred people into his team.
And he had only two squad leaders—
Otsuka and Cheng Hong.
The former's strength is about at the squad leader level, even the weakest squad leader is still a squad leader. The latter falls quite short, but at this point, there is no alternative but to drive ducks onto the shelves.
To Baimu's delight, the undercover members from the Rescue Organization have good quality and soon had the new Pokémon tamed.
Sadly, their meritorious achievements weren't enough to rashly promote them as it might not let them convince others.
And Baimu had to consider the emotions of the group who had been with him from the start; they were in fact quite reliable, doing whatever they were asked to do.
It's just that being illiterate led to their lack of knowledge in various areas, thus their improvements in many parts were quite slow.