Who needs a girlfriend when you have Pokémon?

It was hit by a Z-Move from the outside, and then its own internal energy exploded out of control. As a result, it was attacked from both sides, and a dazzling ball of flame exploded in mid-air.

The coal turtle, engulfed in flames, crashed down from the sky, creating a crater several meters in diameter. Fortunately, it was a fire-type, possessing strong resistance to fire damage, so the internal explosion only took half its life.

Even so, it is clear that they have completely lost their fighting ability.

Seeing that Coal Turtle had completely lost its ability to move, Rowe breathed a long sigh of relief. Fortunately, the tactic of timing it in the last few seconds was successful; otherwise, it would have been troublesome.

"So, are you ready to surrender?"

Luo Wei looked at Huo Yan in front of him, but the latter had her head slightly lowered, making it impossible to see the expression on her face.

"You hate trouble, right? Well then, I'll take your words back. Just admit defeat, and we'll call it a day..."

However, as soon as Luo Wei finished speaking, Huo Yan raised her head again, and Luo Wei was stunned when he saw the expression on her face.

This woman... actually laughed in this situation?

Moreover, the girl who had been aloof and lazy before was now sporting a wildly arrogant smile, a stark contrast to her previous lazy demeanor.

At first, she seemed to be trying to cover her smile with her hands, but when she found that this action was not useful, her light chuckle turned into a wild, unrestrained laugh...

"Haha, I hate trouble because I know I have a terrible personality, you know what I mean? If I get excited, even I don't know how I'll handle it..."

Because she was well aware of her terrible temper and how easily she got carried away, she deliberately controlled her temper and always put on a lazy appearance.

"To reiterate, I'm suddenly very interested in you now~"

She raised her hand and took out a third Poké Ball from her waist. Rowe couldn't help but frown slightly. What was going on? Did she still have a Pokémon that could fight? Was Torkoal not her trump card?

If that's the case, then why weren't they sent out earlier? Or is it...?

"This kid, like me, has a bit of a problem controlling his temper and strength, which is why I don't usually like to send him out on the field, but..."

She stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence, reached out and pressed her right ear, from which came a mechanical voice from a device that looked like an earring.

"The plan has changed. Let's retreat now, Fire Goose..."

"boss?"

Huo Yan, who had been fully ignited by Luo Wei and was ready to unleash her full fighting spirit, couldn't help but sigh upon hearing that voice.

"Yes, I understand~" After saying that, she helplessly spread her hands. "Sigh, I'm actually getting excited. What an unreasonable boss. Oh well, the boss has spoken, right?"

"Want to run?"

"Haha, don't get me wrong~" Fire Goose blew a kiss in Luo Wei's direction, "...I just 'let you off the hook,' I hope you can excite me again next time we meet, then I'll let you experience my 'passion,' you interesting little brother~"

After saying that, she raised her hand and threw out a black sphere the size of a palm. Before Luo Wei could react, the sphere suddenly shattered, and fire and smoke burst out in a dazzling flash.

"Flash bomb?"

Luo Wei was caught off guard by the glare and instinctively turned his head away. When he turned back, the other person had vanished from his sight...

"...They run fast, though."

However, even though that's what they say, if the opponent isn't bluffing and actually has a Pokémon of similar strength to Torkoal, then Lowe might not be able to beat her.

After all, he's already used his Z-Move, and Lowe doesn't have any other trump cards up his sleeve... It's really hard to say what will happen if they actually fight.

So, the enemy withdrew like that, and at least the warehouse was saved, which in a sense was the best possible outcome...

After Huoyan left, the other battlefield quieted down. It seemed that Du Juan's side had also reached a conclusion, and it was estimated that Du Juan had won. In any case, judging from the fact that the other side retreated, she at least did not lose...

Just as Luo Wei was considering how to meet up with Du Juan, he heard an old man's voice...

"...Ahem, is it all over?"

Chapter Fifty-Three: Old Man Hatch

"Ahem, is it all over?"

As the battle came to an end, an old man's voice reached Luo Wei's ears.

"Who?"

The fighting here was so intense that Luo Wei didn't have the energy to pay attention to anything else. Now that the battle was over, he realized that there were other people lurking in the shadows...

Did Huoyan not notice the old man either?

Luo Wei thought for a moment, and then suddenly realized that if it were Huo Yan, she would most likely choose to pretend she didn't see the old man even if she did, as long as the old man didn't show himself.

However, as long as the battle is not over, the situation just now can hardly be considered safe.

From the shadows, the old man appeared. He was a bald old man who looked quite robust, and in his arms he was holding a trembling long-winged gull.

"..."

In that instant, Luo Wei roughly guessed the old man's identity. Sure enough, seeing that the matter was over, the old man immediately showed a calm smile.

"Ahem, the old man's name is Hachi. Thank you for saving me and Little Pi..."

"Uh, actually, if you just stay away, that person probably won't bother you. Hmm, never mind..."

After all, it was indeed Luo Wei who drove away Huoyan, preventing the situation from getting worse. The question is, why did this old man Hachi appear in the warehouse of the mine factory?

Just as he was thinking this, a loud bang was heard, and a figure forcefully dug away the rocks blocking the road behind him. It was Du Juan's giant rock snake.

It seems that after the battle over there ended, Du Juan, who was now free, immediately cleared a path to check the situation here.

"Are you alright, Rowe? Hmm... Is Mr. Hatch here too?"

Du Juan seemed to recognize Old Man Hachi, and Old Man Hachi nodded with a smile, "Yes, I was originally invited by Devon Company to take a look at 'that,' cough cough, but I didn't expect to run into this matter..."

Upon hearing this, Lowe immediately understood. Old man Hatch was an experienced captain. Devon Company and Kusnogi Shipyard had jointly designed a new product. Since it involved a shipyard, it was highly likely that what they were going to build was also related to ships.

Therefore, as the most experienced old captain in the vicinity, Hatch, who had spent his whole life dealing with ships, was naturally invited to serve as a technical advisor.

Today was the day of product delivery, and as the technical consultant, Mr. Hachi naturally had to be present to oversee the product acceptance.

Unexpectedly, they encountered Team Lava's attack right at this point in the world. Of course, this might be because there was a mole here who exposed the clues in advance.

That's not surprising. It's obvious that the other party deliberately chose this time to come, hoping to reap the benefits without lifting a finger.

However, due to some unknown unforeseen event, the other side withdrew halfway through.

"Is something wrong on the other side?"

Luo Wei went to ask Du Juan, who casually tossed out a severed "arm".

"Oh..."

Luo Wei could see clearly that the "arm" was not made of flesh and blood, but was a mechanical arm constructed of metal.

"This is the 'person' on the other side. He's not the real person at all; it's just a cloaked android..."

As for the opponent's true form, it is probably thousands of miles away, remotely commanding Pokémon and Drizzle to fight. However, just when the two sides were fighting to the bitter end, the robot puppet on the other side suddenly lost control.

Without his trainer's guidance, his Pokémon naturally couldn't unleash their full potential, and Dujuan quickly suppressed the battle.

"...That person was indeed very skilled. If it weren't for that, I might not have been able to determine the winner so quickly."

At this point, Du Juan paused, the unspoken thought being that, in fact, if the other side hadn't suddenly lost connection for unknown reasons, Du Juan even doubted that she might not have been able to defeat them.

It's no wonder that the league specifically named her for special attention; her strength is indeed formidable, and even Du Juan, the gym leader, is no match for her.

However, because the other side suddenly lost connection, the Pokémon was instantly suppressed by Dujuan without command. At that time, another executive present, Fire Village, realized that something was wrong. It seemed that he had received a remote order from his boss, so he immediately recalled his Pokémon and chose to run away.

The reason is simple: the boss on the other side has already been defeated, and the remaining Huocun and Huoyan are naturally no match for Dujuan.

Continuing like this would not yield any success, so the only option was to flee before being caught. The plan was doomed to fail, and losing two more cadres would be a bad deal.

After all, judging from the current situation, the only ones capable of fighting in the Lava Team are the leader and two officers; the other underlings are just there to make up the numbers. Losing even one officer would be a huge loss of manpower.

Therefore, seeing that the plan was about to fail, there was no need to fight to the death. The priority was to save manpower, and then think of other ways to remedy the situation.

"These guys have identified their target, so they'll probably take further steps next. Looks like things are about to get busy..."

Du Juan sighed. She wasn't sighing because she was going to be busy, but because she had finally resolved the Rocket Team issue and thought she could have some peace and quiet for a while, but then this evil organization came out to cause trouble again.

The future is truly fraught with uncertainty...

As for Luo Wei, all I can say is, be content. In the Pokémon world, the power level is so high that it could change the celestial map, redraw the timeline, and cause spacetime collapse in a matter of minutes. The fact that it has caused this much chaos is already quite remarkable...

If this were on a different film set, people would probably be running around like madmen by now...

In short, the matter here can be considered to have come to a temporary end. Luo Wei knows what will happen next, but he has more important things to do now.

Congratulations!

Lowe opened his arms and embraced Kirlia and Meowth simultaneously from the left and right. He had originally wanted to celebrate Meowth's evolution, but an unexpected situation interrupted him. Now that Kirlia had also evolved, it was a double celebration.

The evolution of Masked Meow isn't entirely unexpected, since Loew had long known that Masked Meow could evolve, but had simply been suppressing it.

However, Kirlia's evolution was an unexpected surprise, which put Rowe in a great mood.

After a fierce battle, it's time to rest at the Pokémon Center. Rowe also needs to pay the "reward" he owed to Masked Meow.

"Let's go to the Pokémon Center. Um, Ms. Dujuan, if there's anything else afterward..."

Luo Wei took out his Navigator, and Du Juan, seeing this, also readily took out her own Navigator and exchanged numbers with Luo Wei.

Now that the Lava Team has been dealt with, Devon Corporation should come knocking on our door to trigger the next plot development, so Lowe just needs to wait.

With his free time, he didn't linger; he took Kirlia and Meowth straight to the Pokémon Center...

Chapter Fifty-Four: It's all my fault, this damned inner demon!

The matter at hand has finally come to a temporary end. Who knew that what was originally just a challenge to the first gym would lead to a whole host of other challenges, resulting in a series of battles.

At least they won both matches. Even though the outcome of the final battle against Huo Yan is still debatable, at least the villainous lady ran away, so Luo Wei's side can be considered to have won.

After letting out a sigh of relief, Rowe finally had the chance to celebrate his Pokémon's evolution.

First and foremost is Masked Cat. Originally, New Leaf Cat had been following Rowe for six years and had already accumulated enough experience points to evolve. However, Rowe suppressed it all the way, making New Leaf Cat accumulate power like a weight training exercise.

Finally, taking advantage of this opportunity, the evolution was completed smoothly, so it was not unexpected at all.

But Ralts evolving into Kirlia was an unexpected surprise. In short, after arriving at the Pokémon Center, Rowe naturally asked Nurse Joy for help with treatment as soon as possible.