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Li Xiang relayed Zhong Hai's concerns to Mewtwo.
[Bounty? How much money?] Mewtwo was taken aback for a moment, then asked seriously and earnestly.
"Ten thousand dollars for a lead, fifty thousand for information, fifty million for taking it out, and one hundred million for capturing it."
Li Xiang recalled the details.
Crack!
The armrest of the wooden throne was suddenly crushed by Mewtwo.
A storm surged around it. Li Xiang also felt indignant and echoed with outrage, "Right! It's excessive, isn't it! The way they do this—"
[Too little!]
Mewtwo said, seething with anger.
Li Xiang: "?"
Had this guy been reading a manga called One Piece, thinking that a higher bounty meant greater strength?
[With such a paltry sum of money, it's not even worth the value of me pretending to surrender.]
Mewtwo sighed. [What good is one hundred million? Give it to you, would it be enough for you?]
Probably about right. Without Incineroar and the others, one hundred million dollars would be enough for Li Xiang to live a life of luxury cars and beautiful women forever...
Even with Incineroar and the others being major spenders, the higher their level rose, the more money they required. With Li Xiang needing to buy or rent all sorts of services and equipment, that sum could still last twenty or thirty years.
However, these weren't the main points.
—Mewtwo was actually considering feigning surrender!
Li Xiang was astonished. "What are you thinking? Feign surrender? Isn't that way too arrogant? Aren't you afraid they have ways to deal with you?"
Underestimating humanity's dark technology would lead to serious trouble.
Giratina, Raikou, Lugia, Celebi, Rayquaza, and the old version of Mewtwo from Clear Cliff had all learned this lesson the hard way.
Without exception, every single one of those Pokémon was more impressive than the last, yet they still fell to humanity's dark technology in the movies and special episodes.
[When I pretend to surrender, I will only do so when I am completely certain. How could I be so foolish as to attack without understanding the enemy's methods?]
Mewtwo retorted, making Li Xiang feel a bit awkward.
As Mewtwo said, humans were clever, but it wasn't stupid either. It knew perfectly well how to use reconnaissance methods.
Even if, in the worst-case scenario, it couldn't defeat the dark technology, couldn't it just find an opportunity to go after the humans instead?
If I can't bully the dark technology, can't I bully you?
"So how much money do you want... Actually, why do you need so much money anyway? To build a base?"
Li Xiang was curious. If Mewtwo thought one hundred million wasn't enough, where could all that money possibly be spent?
Unexpectedly, his casual remark made Mewtwo raise an eyebrow.
[Not bad. Hit the nail on the head on the first try. I am indeed planning to build a base as a resting place after my global travels. As for the money, around one billion should be about right.]
A resting place... built for one billion dollars?
Whoa, nothing's even set in stone yet and you're already boasting? Where are you planning to build a palace?
[In short, this is a good opportunity. I don't have a penny to my name, and you're not exactly wealthy either. I have to take advantage of this chance.]
Mewtwo said seriously. [Of course, I know that the most important thing right now is to gain recognition and get off Mist Island.]
——[And you're not exactly wealthy either.]
This sentence was like a sharp sword stabbing into Li Xiang's body, almost making him spit out blood.
He could only comfort himself by saying that he wouldn't argue with a creature that had no concept of money and spoke in terms of billions.
"As long as you haven't let it go to your head," Li Xiang responded.
But Mewtwo enthusiastically began devising a strategy to feign surrender. How to pretend, who would collect the money, and so on.
Its muttering was so intense that Li Xiang couldn't help but move a little further away.
However, after thinking about it more carefully, he noticed that Mewtwo's tone when talking about spending one billion dollars to build a base was very light and casual.
As if it were simply stating a fact.
He couldn't help but think that if given the opportunity, Mewtwo's "dream" might actually come true. But one billion was still too...
Who could afford to raise a Pokémon like that?
Li Xiang shook his head helplessly and stopped paying attention to Mewtwo, who had fallen into an excited state.
Back to the main topic.
Mewtwo worked hard to earn the trust of the Pokémon on Mist Island. Li Xiang also trained Incineroar and the others, pushing them to grow quickly.
Time passed like a fleeting horse.
It flew by rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, over six months had passed, and the deadline was just a little ways off.
In that time, Incineroar and the others' strength had grown tremendously, the results so gratifying they spoke for themselves.
Li Xiang recorded some of it in his phone's memo app, organizing it into a list for his own constant observation.
Regarding Incineroar:
From gender and type to level and ability, only some rarely used moves were recorded in a separate notebook, as it wasn't worth the effort of typing them out. What Li Xiang recorded on his phone were mostly the moves that Incineroar frequently used and loved.
....
Pokémon: Incineroar
Gender: Male
Level: 56
Ability: Intimidate
Type: Fire/Dark
Height: 209cm
Moves: Nasty Plot, Darkest Lariat, Fake Out, Fire Fang, Fire Punch, Fire Kick, Dark Pulse, Bulk Up, Protect, Snarl, Burning Jealousy, Overheat, Outrage, U-turn, Bulldoze, Throat Chop, Parting Shot, Taunt, Flare Blitz, Sleep Talk, Thunder Punch, Close Combat, Drain Punch, Knock Off…
Among these were utility moves, offensive moves, coverage moves, and moves for his special stance.
Moves like Fire Fang, Fire Punch, and Fire Kick—which would be considered useless in the games after learning Flare Blitz—were unexpectedly effective in his Magma Form.
Unlike Flare Blitz, which tended to cause him to suddenly drop dead halfway through charging.
As for his level at fifty-six, he hadn't yet broken through to the big sixty mark.
But in Li Xiang's opinion, he had grown quite fast already. It was common knowledge that leveling speed drops significantly after level fifty.
Incineroar had enrolled in school around the end of February. At that time, he was level forty-nine. When they arrived here, the outside world had just entered early May.
That meant only two months had passed in between.
During those two months, Incineroar had only increased by one level. The remaining six levels were all gained after arriving at Mist Island.
Now, the outside world was already early June.
And inside Mirage Island, another six months had passed.
That meant after reaching level fifty, Incineroar had achieved the remarkable feat of gaining one level per month, utilizing the super-diminished version of Rare Candies and the special environment of Mist Island.
If word of this got out, who knows how many students would be green with envy.
Understanding this concept well, Li Xiang began to eagerly anticipate how long it would take Incineroar to reach level sixty if they continued to stay.
According to Xu Dongran, level sixty was the threshold for entering the Sky Pillar, and the stronger one was, the better.
Incineroar's current strength definitely surpassed what Li Xiang had originally imagined for level sixty, thanks to the candies. But if it could be a bit higher, that certainly wouldn't be a mistake.
Besides, the Sky Pillar only opened once every three years, so that time had not yet arrived.
Speaking of the new type of candy… The total number of soft candies was less than ten thousand. Fire-type candies numbered around eight or nine hundred, a relatively high proportion.
Just like the hard candies, they were incredibly effective at first, but their effect diminished over time.
In fact, Incineroar's jaw had even gotten sore from chewing them, yet his strength hadn't increased by much.
Compared to the hard candies, there was actually a certain gap in effectiveness because, overall, Li Xiang found the enhancements to be rather evenly distributed, without any particular area standing out.
The same was true for the other Pokémon.
This kind of candy seemed to be a sort of "moderate" candy, adding a little bit of everything.
But it still helped Li Xiang's Pokémon increase their staying power on the battlefield.
Fragile ones became tougher, and tough ones became even tougher. For opposing Pokémon, this must have been a nightmare.
Of course, these were just numbers on paper for Incineroar. How truly durable he was would only be known after a real fight.
Physique, willpower, and recovery were all indispensable, not something that could be deduced just by looking at defensive stats.
He could grit his teeth and endure two Close Combats from a Lucario with no problem.
From that, one could see just how bulky he was.
Besides raising his level, improving his individual capabilities through eating candies and specialized training, Incineroar also put a lot of effort into his temperature control abilities.
Previously, Incineroar's temperature control limit in his normal state was around three thousand degrees. His Sage Mode reached fifty-five hundred degrees.
Now, his normal limit had increased to thirty-six hundred degrees, a substantial enhancement in strength.
The temperature in Sage Mode, however, remained unchanged.
Fifty-five hundred degrees was already the absolute limit for mortal flesh. Raising the temperature further would no longer be a simple matter of just falling into a weakened state after use.
But Sage Mode hadn't made no progress at all. Its duration had been successfully extended to five minutes.
He could transform into a crimson, tiger-shaped jade statue for a short period, and even his usual moves were altered in his hands.
[Fire Punch] would instantly swell several times larger. When he raised his fist, molten lava-like luster would flow across it, resembling the arm of a giant.
Of course, this had no connection whatsoever to the mud-like Magu Magu no Mi of Akainu.
The same was true for [Fire Fang].
After flying out from Incineroar's mouth, the shaping flame would rapidly expand, causing the sharp upper jaw to connect with both arms, and the lower jaw to connect with his body, before fiercely snapping shut.
The resulting burst of flame was far more beautiful than any fireworks.
And then there was [Fire Kick].
Unlike the previous two moves, which either grew massive or left the body for shaping, Fire Kick instead condensed hard on the sole of his foot. The moment he kicked the opponent in the chest, a lava eruption would burst forth!
With a "boom," like a flashbang, it possessed immense penetrating power. Incineroar had even used it to kick through two large stones bigger than his own upper body.
Using [Burning Jealousy] was like a peerless lotus flower formed from molten lava blooming, scorching all opponents with jealous flames.
[Overheat] erupted from his belt buckle. When using this move, it was like raining down molten lava, dazzling and brilliant.
Most crucially, [Flare Blitz], a move that hurt the enemy a thousand while costing the user three hundred, transformed Incineroar into a dark blue fireball. The intense heat could even cause crystalline particles to form on the ground.
Its power was unsurpassed. And using it was a true cost of his own life force.
His Magma Form alone was already life-draining enough; adding a Flare Blitz on top doubled that cost.
If he landed a hit on an opponent, then it would be a race to see who fell first.
There was even a chance both would fall if Incineroar couldn't turn off his Magma Form in time and his last bit of stamina ran out.
Therefore, this move was absolutely forbidden while in Magma Form, the hidden ace among aces.
The above pertained to Incineroar's growth in Fire-type abilities.
Now, moving on to the Dark type, which Li Xiang had neglected for a long time.
Incineroar's growth potential in Fire-type abilities was simply too strong, so much so that he had almost forgotten this type also had its own power and depth worth exploring.
Through the inspiration and help provided by Mewtwo, many of Incineroar's commonly used Dark-type moves had been greatly improved.
For example, [Darkest Lariat], a move Li Xiang jokingly called "Tornado Destroys the Parking Lot."
Through "teaching by example," Mewtwo had explained to Incineroar the importance of spin speed and area of effect.
Now, when he used it, it was genuinely hard to tell whether this was a single-target or area-of-effect move.
There was also [Outrage], a move that becomes more powerful the higher the user's stat boosts are. In the games, it was calculated based on stat stages; here, it was calculated based on fixed values.
It was usually used by lashing out with punches, kicks, or slaps. Under Mewtwo's "guidance," it had turned into a technique for pounding people into the ground, one punch after another.
[Knock Off], generally used to knock away items that opponents might be holding, was now directly used to interrupt an opponent's move.
Punch-type moves could hit arms, spray-type moves could hit mouths, full-body coverage wards could hit heads, the goal being to simply daze the opponent.