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The man named Homura was clearly someone of high status among this group. Although he told everyone to move on first, who would actually dare to leave? The moment he took a step, the others hurried to follow.
While Homura was excitedly hunting for Seviper, Zangoose—panicking in its flight—followed the firelight and rushed straight into the cave where Sato was resting.
However, before it could get within two meters of Sato, the Pikachu that had been jolted awake—and was in a very bad mood—immediately "rewarded" it with a faint black bolt of electricity. Accompanied by a brief scream, the Zangoose that had rashly barged into the cave collapsed on the ground, its body charred black.
At the same time, Seviper quickly tracked Zangoose's scent to the cave entrance. But when it saw the sudden burst of blinding lightning and heard the scream from within, it abruptly stopped, pacing hesitantly at the mouth of the cave.
In the end, hatred for its natural enemy overcame its unease. After hesitating briefly, Seviper resolutely slithered into the cave.
"Hiss—"
Seviper cautiously dragged its body forward. Not long after entering, it spotted the figure of its sworn enemy—but when it saw Zangoose's miserable condition, its cold, merciless snake pupils instantly shrank to pinpoints.
In the next second, without bothering to investigate who had struck first and stolen its prey, it immediately turned to leave.
"Since you're already here, don't rush to go. You're the real culprit who disturbed our sleep. You can leave after taking a beating."
Just as Seviper was about to turn around, a cold voice echoed directly inside its mind. Its sense of danger skyrocketed in an instant.
Immediately after, a Pikachu wreathed in crackling lightning—its expression clearly irritated—descended from above like a miniature Thunder God, hovering in midair in front of Seviper.
This wild Seviper was level 43. In the surrounding wild Pokémon habitats, it was considered a local tyrant and had long since experienced countless life-and-death battles.
Although it instinctively sensed that the Pikachu before it was extremely powerful and not to be trifled with, it hadn't completely lost the courage to fight. Seeing that the enemy had no intention of letting it go, Seviper instantly revealed its ferocity and prepared to counterattack.
The moment Pikachu appeared, Seviper coiled its body tightly. A blood-red gleam flared in its eyes as it unleashed Glare at Pikachu.
In games, Glare causes paralysis—and Electric-type Pokémon are immune to paralysis, making the move useless against Pikachu.
But in reality, Glare is fundamentally a psychic-type intimidation move. Its purpose is to shock the opponent mentally, forcing them into a stunned state.
This move is a powerful tool in group battles for snake Pokémon like Arbok, Seviper, and Serperior. As long as the opponent harbors even a hint of fear, it almost never fails.
For a moment, Pikachu felt as if the enemy before it had suddenly grown dozens of times larger—a ferocious monster trying to devour it in one bite.
If Pikachu hadn't experienced battles against god-tier beings, it might truly have fallen for Seviper's Glare. But this was a Pokémon that had dared to directly attack the legendary Kyogre. Compared to the pressure of a true Legendary, Seviper's mental intimidation was child's play.
"Pika—chu!"
Facing the massive snake head lunging toward it, Pikachu showed no fear at all. It fired off a Thunderbolt empowered by Charge without hesitation.
In an instant, the enormous snake head illusion vanished completely, leaving only a small Seviper mid-pounce—now completely engulfed in lightning and screaming like a pig being slaughtered.
The cave was once again flooded with blinding electric light, which quickly faded away—along with the screams.
Seviper's race has high offensive stats but weak defenses. Combined with its level and typing disadvantage against Pikachu, it met the same fate as Zangoose before it—instantly knocked out by a single Thunderbolt.
"A level 43 Seviper, total IVs 162—not bad. Heh, it even knows Taunt, a rare move it can't learn just by leveling up. Very nice. This one should fetch a good price."
After Pikachu single-handedly defeated the intruder that had disturbed their sleep, Sato slowly emerged from the shadows. As usual, he scanned Seviper with the system and spoke with mild surprise.
Aside from Taunt, this Seviper had also naturally learned Flamethrower, Protect, Sludge Bomb, Aqua Tail, and Iron Tail—all highly practical moves. Its level-up move list even included Swords Dance.
In other words, once tamed, this Pokémon would immediately be a solid, battle-ready asset.
Pokémon that naturally mastered rare moves were highly sought after on the market. Sato estimated that selling it to a Pokémon dealer would easily net eight to nine million PokeDollars—a tidy profit.
Without hesitation, Sato took out an empty PokeBall from his spatial backpack and effortlessly captured Seviper.
As for Zangoose, Sato had already checked it. With only blue-grade IV ratings, he had no interest in capturing it for resale. Pokémon dealers had extremely sharp eyes, and trying to fool them was next to impossible—it wouldn't fetch much anyway.
Unfortunately, before Sato could clean up the battlefield and return to rest, another group of uninvited guests entered his temporary shelter. Among them, the leading burly man—accompanied by a Torkoal—exerted considerable pressure.
Although Homura had seen the blinding lightning and heard the screams from within the cave, he entered without hesitation. Just as he stepped inside, he happened to see Sato picking up the PokeBall containing Seviper.
Seeing this, Homura immediately understood that the prey he had been chasing was already taken. His expression darkened.
However, despite having the numerical advantage, he didn't rashly demand anything. Instead, he carefully sized up Sato.
Though Sato looked very young, Homura felt no trace of contempt toward him.
Setting aside the Pikachu wreathed in terrifying lightning and capable of flight, just the Kadabra standing beside Sato was enough to make Homura abandon any thoughts of underestimation.
These days, Trainers who possessed rare Psychic-type Pokémon like Kadabra—especially ones that knew Teleport—were rarely ordinary people. For all he knew, the young man before him might be a deeply hidden Psychic.
It was a golden rule in the Pokémon world:
Better to offend an Elite Four tier Trainer than to offend a Psychic.
After all, offending an Elite might still leave you a chance to escape. But offending a Psychic? That was truly calling heaven with no answer and earth with no response—escape would be impossible. You might not even get the luxury of dying; becoming a vegetable in minutes wasn't out of the question.
Thinking of this, the usually domineering Homura forced a smile onto his face and spoke in a much gentler tone:
"Young man, it seems you got to the prey I had my eye on first. Would you mind letting me take a look at it? If possible, I'm willing to buy it from you."