Chapter 1 What's Going On??

This was the question from Sunset Melting Gold, and also the question from Aya Shameimaru in the sky and all the spectators watching the race.

The system prompt for completing the mission rang in his ears.

Inside the Leviathan chariot, Li Ang's voice also came.

"This is an agreement I have with Xiaozhi."

The Leviathan's distorted appearance slowly receded,

Plant vines withered into ash,

Revealing Li Ang standing at the rear of the vehicle—beneath his feet was a rectangular object wrapped in plants, shaped like a coffin, with an unknown object inside.

Hundreds upon thousands of worms fell onto the deformed metal frame of the vehicle, beginning to devour each other.

Smaller ones were eaten by larger ones, and larger ones were eaten by even larger ones.

Finally, only one bloated, tank-sized, grayish-white worm remained, still clinging to the vehicle's frame.

Li Ang jumped down from the vehicle's frame,

And gently patted the giant worm's forehead (through the grayish-white gel, the pink brain worm beneath could be seen).

The worm's outer skin immediately opened countless holes, like a water-filled balloon punctured by needles, spewing out tissue fluid and blood.

In a matter of seconds, it dehydrated and shrank to the size of a carriage, looking like a shriveled piece of skin,

Which Li Ang easily stored in his inventory.

Seeing his companions' surprised and uncertain gazes, Li Ang smiled and casually explained, "Before, in the maintenance area, Xiaozhi and I had a chat.

His team only had Xiaogang—he couldn't find anyone to join him in the race, and he didn't trust outsiders, so he simply had his Pokémon act as the remaining two members of the team.

Xiaozhi and Xiaogang are quite strong individually, but their vehicles and driving skills aren't that great.

They have more than enough offense but lack defense.

Faced with the all-around attacks of other racers, they probably wouldn't be able to make it to the finish line."

"So, I formed an alliance with him."

Xiaozhi expressionlessly recalled his Pokémon with Poké Balls, leaving only Pikachu, who hopped back onto his shoulder.

"After the race started, I feigned an attack on Ezio Auditore, but he repeatedly dodged it using Ubisoft's game bug teleportation technique.

Then, the mutated chariot began to erupt spores, creating a quarantine zone.

Instead of waiting outside the spores, and cooperating with Gordon Freeman and the others,

I acted like some other teams, pretending to be reckless and foolish, trying to cross the spore domain by relying on Shaymin's (a grass-type Pokémon that looks like a white hedgehog with grass growing on its back, capable of decomposing toxins in the atmosphere and turning wastelands into flower fields) abilities."

Li Ang picked up the thread, explaining with a smile, "In the eyes of other racers, Xiaozhi's vehicle was quickly submerged in the endless ocean of spores, overgrown with mushrooms.

There wasn't even a chance to retrieve it for rescue.

In reality, I had already made arrangements in advance. The spores that received the command only eroded the outer shell of Xiaozhi's vehicle, without harming him or his Pokémon.

Instead, through the vines hidden beneath the road,

And with the cover of the spore mist, his vehicle was towed behind the Leviathan chariot.

Along with other vehicles destroyed by the spores, it was provided for the Leviathan to eat."

Sunset Melting Gold suddenly realized, "No wonder, in the spore space, there was half a minute where the vehicle was constantly decelerating.

I thought it was because the spore mist was too thick and I couldn't see the road."

Li Ang nodded, "The other scrapped vehicles naturally became the Leviathan's food, while Xiaozhi and his chariot were hidden beneath the Leviathan chariot—his vehicle still maintained its tires and engine structure.

Theoretically, it could still travel slowly at a speed of a few centimeters per second.

Therefore, it didn't count as a vehicle wreck and defeat, so he wouldn't lose his qualification to participate.

When the finish line was near, and all the racers were exhausted, Xiaozhi, who had been conserving his strength, could reap the fruits of victory.

And incidentally, help us get second place."

While Li Ang was speaking, Aya Shameimaru in the sky had also landed.

Xiaozhi glanced indifferently at this reporter and referee, turned to look at Li Ang, "I didn't expect you would really keep your promise and let me win the championship.

You should know that in this race, the winner takes all, and the second place gets nothing."

"Hehe, just consider it a loyal Pokémon fan fulfilling his own regret.

My youth is finally over."

Li Ang spread his hands, smiling indifferently. The natives of the isolated sandbox regarded winning the death chariot race as the ultimate goal, while the players only needed to get into the top three to clear the level.

With different goals, they naturally couldn't understand each other.

"Wait,"

Sunset Melting Gold frowned, thought for a moment, looked at Li Ang, and hesitated.

This plan was indeed effective,

But in his mind, this Li Risheng didn't seem like the kind of person who would place all his hopes on someone else's contractual spirit.

Those who abide by the spirit of contract are good people,

Those who believe that others will abide by the spirit of contract for no reason are fools.

"Only when both parties have the power to demand the benefits they deserve from the contract can there be true fairness."

Li Ang smiled slightly and took out a snail similar to the Leviathan's brain worm from his pocket.

The snail also carried a healthy, vibrant brain on its back.

Seeing this snail, Xiaozhi's breathing suddenly quickened for a moment, and he pursed his lips tightly.

The three players immediately realized that the brain on this snail's back could be—

"That's right, it's what you think it is."

Li Ang held the snail in one hand and snapped his fingers with the other.

The plant coffin on the car instantly disintegrated, revealing a dark-skinned, squinting teenager wearing a brown jacket, gray jeans, and blue shoes.

Gym Leader of Pewter City in the Kanto region, Pokémon Balloon Race Champion, Squinty Eyes, future Pokémon doctor, Xiaozhi's close friend and original traveling companion,

Xiaogang.

This teenager was lying flat in the plant coffin, eyes closed, expression calm, with an arrow sticking out of the right side of his head—the short arrow that the assassin master Ezio Auditore had missed, also the murder weapon that took the life of this Pokémon trainer.

"Eh???"

Aya Shameimaru, riding a floating motorcycle, landed and ran over with a surprised expression, carrying a camera, circling Xiaogang's body for half a lap, and suddenly looked up at Li Ang,

"What's going on? I remember that on the previous track, the medical team had already declared him officially dead, and there was no way to save him, right?"

"Yeah."

Li Ang nodded, calmly said: "In the conventional sense, brain death does indeed symbolize the end of human life.

However, at that time, Xiaogang's brain activity had only just disappeared. For me, there was still a chance to save him.

I used the brain worm as an example, persuaded Xiaozhi, got Xiaogang's brain, and preserved it with gel.

Either way, he was going to die,

Since the medical team in the central city had no other options, it would be better to place hope on the various other methods in the central city's data.

As a result, both sides used Xiaogang's life and death as tokens,

Xiaozhi provided us with combat support at the end of the track,

And I provide him with a living Xiaogang, and the first place in the Death Race."

"Okay, stop talking so much nonsense."

Xiaozhi frowned, urging impatiently, "Our contract is not yet complete."

"Young people are always so impatient."

Li Ang shook his head noncommittally, strode to Xiaogang's body,

Pulled out the arrow from the temple area,

Reached out and pressed the squinting teenager's head,

With a "pop", he opened the skull that had been cut long ago.

"Lift up your skull~"

Li Ang hummed an unknown horror ballad, and casually stuffed the entire snail into Xiaogang's empty braincase,

Then covered the skull and activated the biomorph.

The onlookers only saw colorful transparent liquids constantly flowing out of Xiaogang's nostrils,

Then suddenly his whole body trembled, and his hands and feet danced inexplicably.

Li Ang pressed down on Xiaogang's face with one hand, and leisurely patted Xiaogang's flailing hands and feet with the other, like playing whack-a-mole.

"Don't move, if you don't lie down properly, I'll give you a free set of hands, feet, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears."

Seemingly hearing Li Ang's threat, Xiaogang really stopped moving randomly.

After a moment, in Xiaozhi's anxious gaze, he slowly opened his eyes.

"What... what happened to me..."

Xiaogang's voice was hoarse and rough, sounding like he had just been fished out of the desert—he had lost a lot of body fluids during the operation, and Li Ang wouldn't be so kind as to prepare mineral water for him.

"Xiaogang!"

Xiaozhi, with an excited face, rushed over to hug him, but after seeing his companion's weak appearance, he gave up the plan, stood in place and breathed a sigh of relief,

The joyful expression on his face was hard to suppress—even the joy of winning the race could not compare with his companion's resurrection.

"Wait,"

Xiaozhi seemed to notice something, pointing at the dark arrow hole in the upper right corner of Xiaogang's forehead, where the brain could be vaguely seen, and asked, "This injury..."

"Oh, this."

Li Ang said calmly, "Isn't this Xiaogang's fatal wound?

As the saying goes, scars are a man's badge of honor.

I've already healed Xiaogang's brain for him, so let him keep the hole in his forehead. He can brag to others when he goes to the bar to drink in the future, which is great.

When he has nothing to do, he can also use a mirror to take a look and carefully observe his own brain's hippocampal sulcus.

Listen to the sound of the wind blowing through his skull."

"???"

The surrounding crowd, including Xiaozhi, were dumbfounded. What was so good about having a hole in your head?

Not to mention the aesthetic issue,

What if dust or hair falls into the hole in the skull?

Xiaozhi opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but couldn't say it.

His contract with Li Ang had been completed. The other party had indeed saved Xiaogang and restored the latter's sanity.

Subsequent cosmetic surgery didn't seem to be within the scope of the contract.

Considering that he was about to leave the isolated sandbox as the champion, it seemed that there was no time to take Xiaogang to fill the hole.

Xiaozhi took a deep breath and put on a kind smile, "Mr. Li Risheng, thank you very much for your help. It was a pleasure working with you. I just don't know what price I need to pay to ask you to fill Xiaogang's forehead hole?"

Yo, I didn't expect Xiaozhi, this reckless teenager, to start learning how to flatter and compromise. It seems that the central city has indeed changed him a lot.

Li Ang did like the literary work Pokémon, but business is business,

He looked Xiaozhi up and down. He couldn't take anything away from this script world. He couldn't just take a photo with Xiaozhi as a souvenir, right?

The style of the real-world Xiaozhi is not quite the same as in the animated works.

"Why don't you give me a Pokémon?"

Li Ang said half-jokingly, and after seeing Xiaozhi's livid expression, he changed his words, "Those are your partners who fought together, you can't give them away, right?"

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading!

Tsk, it's clear that the Pokémon on Xiaozhi's side can't even eat at the table. On the other hand, Team Rocket next door eats, lives, and shares a salary with Meowth, sharing life and death, the difference is obvious.

Just kidding.

"Pokémon are my most important partners, and I can't give them away. But I can give you an empty Poké Ball."

Xiaozhi took a deep breath, took out a purple and white ball with two round red areas on top and a capital "M" from his pocket, and threw it to Li Ang.

[Name: Sub-Master Ball]

[Type: Item]

[Quality: Perfect]

[Can it be brought out of the script: Yes]

[Effect: Perfect capture. Throw it at a weak creature with a level lower than the user to capture it 100% and make it loyal]

[Consumption: None]

[Cooldown Time: 144 hours]

[Usage Conditions: None]

[Note: The Master Ball is the most precious and best-performing Poké Ball, capable of capturing any Pokémon 100%. This Master Ball, gifted by Dr. Red Bean Cedar of Karakusa Town, is an experimental product during the Master Ball's development process and must be used when the creature is weak]

[Note: The inside of the Sub-Master Ball is a spherical space with a diameter of thirty meters, with a fully equipped mansion, bathroom, living room, dining room, bedroom, study, game room, piano room, and kitchen. Outside the mansion, there is also a courtyard with lawns, swimming pools, and landscape trees. The top dome is artificial sunlight, which can change day and night according to the external time flow]

[Note: The time flow in the Sub-Master Ball is the same as the outside world. The user needs to charge it frequently to power the mansion in the space and provide materials for the mansion]

[Note: The Sub-Master Ball can only store one creature at a time. After releasing it, it takes 144 hours to capture it again. Each capture will reset the internal environment]

[Note: The Sub-Master Ball will cause the first creature captured to have loyal feelings towards the user. These feelings are not constant and will change with the relationship between the captured creature and the user of the Sub-Master Ball. The captured creature can refuse to enter the Master Ball at any time. The captured creature cannot be captured again when it becomes hostile]

[Note: The user can release the creature in the Sub-Master Ball. After the release, the loyal feelings generated by the Sub-Master Ball will gradually decrease until normal]

[Note: 700! A 700-square-meter super-large mansion!!! Facing south, with a swimming pool and a courtyard! Connected to electricity, internet, and logistics! What are you waiting for? Move in quickly!!]

[Note: This Sub-Master Ball seems to be a little different. Can it be brought out of the data world? Maybe you can ask someone about the truth behind this...]