Chapter 170

Chapter 170: Chapter 170

"Mike, are you serious?"

The moment Mike joined the video call, Professor Oak’s excited voice came blasting through the speaker.

Mike reflexively moved the phone farther from his ear, looked at everyone gathered on screen, and slowly nodded.

"All right. I was originally planning to wait until the Academic Summit was closer before heading over, but there’s no point anymore. I’ll fly out tomorrow."

Professor Oak was already preparing to book a ticket when Mike hurriedly stopped him.

"Wait, Professor Oak!"

Oak looked at him in confusion.

Mike coughed twice.

"Even if you come now, there isn’t much we can do. Ursaring can’t evolve yet."

"Why not?" Professor Rowan asked.

"Because as far as I know, Ursaring needs to use a Peat Block under a full moon to evolve into Ursaluna. The name fits pretty well when you think about it."

"A full moon?"

Professor Rowan stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"If I remember correctly, wasn’t yesterday the full moon?"

"Exactly. Since we missed it, we’ll have to wait until the middle of next month before we can try evolving Ursaring."

Professor Oak settled down slightly.

"So that’s the situation."

"That’s the method I arrived at from the information I have," Mike added carefully. "There could be other evolutionary routes, so I don’t want to claim this is the only one. If Professor Rowan happens to have an Ursaring available, I can ask Manryo to send the Peat Block directly to the laboratory."

"An Ursaring? I don’t think I currently have—"

"I do."

Professor Kukui cut in before Rowan could finish.

"I’ll send one over to Professor Rowan. Then he’ll have one."

Professor Rowan paused, then nodded.

"That works. Thank you."

"Then I’ll ask Manryo to ship the Peat Block straight to Professor Rowan’s lab."

"Good."

Lucian raised an eyebrow.

"Manryo?"

Mike grinned.

"He’s Gholdengo."

Understanding immediately appeared in Lucian’s eyes.

Professor Rowan continued, "Once the Peat Block arrives, I’ll start a video call in the group. Anyone who has time can join the research remotely. Before the actual evolution, I’ll probably run some preliminary tests and prepare safeguards so we can minimize the possibility of something going wrong."

"In that case, I’ll hold off on traveling over for now," Professor Oak agreed.

"I’ll definitely make time," Professor Kukui said with a hearty laugh.

This was far too good an opportunity to strengthen his research record to miss.

Even if he couldn’t contribute much personally, participation in the project would almost certainly earn him a place among the authors once the eventual paper was published.

Plenty of other researchers would have killed for the chance and couldn’t get it even if they tried.

Professor Rowan turned toward Lucian.

"Lucian, I’ll have to trouble you to keep an eye on the Oreburgh Tunnel investigation. I’ll probably be putting most of my attention into the Ursaring project for a while."

"Of course, Professor. I’ll handle it."

Lucian adjusted his glasses.

Then his expression became slightly more serious.

"There’s one other thing. Cynthia, it looks like Pokémon Hunters have been spotted around Mount Coronet again. From the reports, Pokémon Hunter J may still be active after escaping last time."

Cynthia’s face remained calm.

She nodded once.

"I’ll go personally. For the time being, I’ll have Flint and Aaron return to handle League work with you."

Cynthia and Lucian looked at one another.

For a brief moment, both seemed equally satisfied with the arrangement.

Lucian was delighted that he finally had a legitimate excuse to escape part of the office workload on League funding, while Cynthia had found an equally legitimate reason to leave the office instead of remaining buried beneath administrative work.

The silent understanding between Champion and Elite Four member had never been stronger!

"Since everything’s settled, I’m going to keep traveling."

Mike stood from the rock he had been sitting on.

"Go ahead."

Mike ended the call and immediately messaged Manryo.

A reply came back almost at once.

[Gholdengo Is Number One: Send it to Professor Rowan? Got it. I’ll have someone deliver it directly to his laboratory.]

Satisfied, Mike put his phone away.

Now everyone had something to do, which meant the Professors could finally stop constantly tagging him in the group chat.

Wonderful.

Gengar had been standing waist-deep in the stream while Mike was on the call.

Once he saw that the conversation was over, he straightened and floated over with a large fish wriggling in his arms.

"Gar?"

[All done?]

Mike nodded and looked at the fish.

"You caught that?"

"Gar—"

[I got bored while you were talking, so I tried catching fish and somehow I actually got one. Too bad we just ate lunch.]

"What’s the problem with that? We’re looking for Nidoking and the others, remember? We can give it to them as a gift."

Mike held out his hands.

"Bring it over. I’ll tie it up for you."

Gengar floated to his side and handed over the heavy fish.

Mike threaded a piece of cord through its mouth and out through the gills, tied a simple knot, then secured it to Gengar’s bamboo staff.

"There. Perfect."

Gengar grinned and rested the staff across his shoulder, making him look remarkably like a fisherman returning from the coast.

Mike studied him.

"Actually, you’re almost there. Where’s your straw hat? Put that on too, and stick a piece of grass in your mouth."

Gengar obediently followed the instructions.

Mike became increasingly satisfied.

"Wait. The backpack ruins the whole look. Take it off and let me carry it."

He reached for the straps, but Gengar moved away.

"Gar—"

[You don’t need to carry it. It’s heavy. I’ll do it.]

Mike paused.

Then he reached over and tugged Gengar’s cheeks.

"You little idiot. Fine. Tell me when you get tired and I’ll take it."

He smiled.

"Come on, Fisherman Gengar. Let’s bring our gift and find Nidoking."

"Gar—"

Gengar floated along above the stream, following the water upstream.

...

Unfortunately, by the time darkness fell, they still hadn’t found any sign of Nidoking.

As for the fish Gengar had caught, he had no choice but to eat it himself through tears of regret, accompanied by three full bowls of rice.

"You were so reluctant to eat it at first, and now you’ve eaten more than anyone else."

Mike rolled his eyes at Gengar, who sat in a chair rubbing his swollen belly and burping contentedly.

"Gar—"

[We can’t waste food. Grandma said wasting food is shameful!]

Gengar patted his stomach.

He was genuinely stuffed.

"Do you think they might have left the forest?"

Mike propped his elbow on the table and rested his cheek against his palm.

Gengar shook his head.

He had no idea either.

"Forget it. We’ll keep looking tomorrow."

After spending the entire day searching without results, Mike decided there was no point making Nidoking their only objective.

"Tomorrow we’ll focus mainly on filming Pokémon again."

"Gar—"

"And remember to clean up the dishes!"

Gengar waved his hand to show he had heard.

Mike stood and returned to the tent Gengar had set up.

Camping inside Eterna Forest was much safer than simply sleeping outside.

Beedrill concealed himself nearby while keeping watch over the surroundings.

Once Gengar finished cleaning and packing away the dishes, he returned to a tree and closed his eyes in a light doze, while Snivy stayed inside the tent with Mike.

Mike yawned and soon fell asleep.

Once Glameow confirmed that he was properly asleep, she put away her ball of red string, quietly approached, and crawled into his arms until she found a comfortable position.

By now, Glameow no longer resisted sleeping against Mike at all.

She had realized that she tended to crawl into his arms sometime during the night anyway, so there was little point pretending otherwise when getting comfortable before falling asleep felt much better.

While Professor Rowan and the others continued discussing Ursaluna late into the night, Mike was already sleeping soundly.