"Pika!"
Ray Chu suddenly cried out, signaling Gengar to protect Dapple and Lala. Then he leapt away from the group, his body radiating light as brilliant as the sun. The radiance instantly swept away the surrounding darkness.
[EXTREME SPEED]
[SUNLIGHT YELLOW OVERDRIVE]
"ATATATATATATATATA!!"
In that instant, Ray Chu turned into a super-powered pile driver. His two stubby fists flew at incredible speed, filling the air with blows as he plunged into the mass of ghosts like a tiger among sheep. Every punch carried the energy of the sun, blasting one ghost after another apart in midair.
[KILLED GHOST LICKITUNG.]
[GAINED A LARGE AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE.]
[LEVEL +1.]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 32.]
[KILLED GHOST SLOWBRO.]
[GAINED A LARGE AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE.]
[LEVEL +1.]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 33.]
[KILLED GHOST MAROWAK.]
[GAINED A LARGE AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE.]
[LEVEL +1.]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 34.]
...
How long had it been since he'd experienced the exhilarating rush of leveling up this quickly? Not since his level had passed ten.
And he felt no guilt whatsoever.
Once these Pokémon became ghosts, they turned into an entirely different form of life, completely unrelated to what they had been while alive.
The fact that they attacked passersby also showed that, after undergoing this transformation, these Pokémon had become thoroughly "evil." So Ray Chu had no qualms whatsoever about "harvesting" them.
They might still retain some of the instincts they had possessed in life, but Ray Chu was simply far too powerful when he went all out. With Extreme Speed, he moved like lightning, while his Hamon-infused fists were a perfect counter to the ghosts. He tore through them like dry grass, and not one could withstand even a single exchange.
BOOM!
The last attacking ghost Snorlax exploded into a cloud of dispersing black mist.
Ray Chu basked in the sensation of leveling up. In that brief span of time, he had shot all the way to level 45, and he could clearly feel that his strength had risen noticeably.
Sure enough, taking was a lot faster than building things up the hard way.
No wonder villains were always stronger than the heroes. As the saying went, getting redeemed nerfed you by thirty percent, while going dark made you ten times stronger. That was simply how things worked.
Still, as a Pikachu with principles, Ray Chu would never kill to increase his strength, nor would he ever stoop that low.
That was part of having some pride in his own strength.
Ray Chu even had a vague feeling that, with nothing more than a Thunder Stone, he could evolve into Raichu at any time.
In fact, he might not even need an evolution item.
With his powerful control over his own body, he could faintly sense an invisible lock somewhere within himself. And he had the distinct feeling that he could open that "lock" whenever he wanted.
Ray Chu had a theory.
Perhaps the secret of Pokémon evolution lay within it...
Even though he could evolve at any time, Ray Chu had little desire to do so.
After all, if he really evolved into Raichu, it wouldn't match the title of the book anymore. Then the readers would start complaining about things like, "The title tricked me into reading this," "He even turns human," and "I'm dropping this..."
Of course, Pikagod had already set the precedent.
The facts proved that an unevolved Pikachu had far more possibilities than Raichu.
After all, strength was temporary.
Cuteness was forever.
After Ray Chu's furious barrage, the ghost Pokémon on the field had been completely swept away. Whether there were none left or the survivors had simply hidden themselves, he couldn't say.
Those that had attacked him and been destroyed had brought it on themselves. But if any ghosts had remained kindhearted even after death, Ray Chu had no intention of digging out every last one.
After all, he wasn't truly some great villain.
Ray Chu beckoned to Gengar, which was trembling a short distance away.
Gengar visibly hesitated. But when it remembered the light Ray Chu had just emitted—something that felt like the radiance of a natural predator—it obediently shuffled over, dragging its feet.
"Pika, pika!"
Ray Chu pointed into the depths of the shadows and gave Gengar a series of instructions.
This time, Gengar was noticeably more obedient. It went ahead to scout the area, then soon returned to report that it had seen a human farther inside.
A human?
Ray Chu hadn't expected anyone to still be here.
After a moment's thought, he released Ditto and had it transform into his human form. Ray Chu himself then sprang onto Ditto's shoulder in a few quick hops.
"Pika!"
At Ray Chu's command, Ditto walked into the darkness.
Before long, they spotted the silhouette of a boy wandering through the gloom ahead.
"Ahem! Who are you? Don't you know it's dangerous here?"
Ray Chu vibrated the air in front of him, making it sound as though the Ditto beneath him was speaking.
Unfortunately, the boy gave no response.
Then the mist behind him abruptly parted, and a shadow lunged at Ray Chu.
The figure moved with astonishing speed. The scythe-like blades on both its arms tore through the air with a piercing shriek—
CLANG!
They struck a transparent wall glowing with white light. The tremendous recoil sent the attacker springing backward.
[LIGHT SCREEN]
In that instant, Ray Chu had put up a Light Screen and blocked the attack.
The Pokémon that had attacked him was unmistakably a green Scyther.
"Hmm... those eyes?"
Ray Chu had already recognized the boy as someone he had met once before. If he remembered correctly, his name was Gary Oak, and he came from the same town as Ash.
But the boy was clearly being controlled. That explained the unprovoked attack.
And Gary was still alive, so Ray Chu naturally couldn't just cut him down on the spot.
After thinking for a moment, Ray Chu leapt from Ditto's shoulder and landed in front of Gary.
No command was needed.
The wings on Scyther's back spread wide, and it charged toward Ray Chu at astonishing speed, its wings slicing toward the Pikachu opposite it like the sharpest of blades.
"It's gotten a lot stronger!"
Ray Chu sprang into the air as electricity rapidly gathered around the electric sacs on both cheeks.
"But it's still not enough. Snap out of it!"
The next instant, a tremendous bolt of lightning crashed down from above.
It engulfed not only Scyther, but Gary behind it as well. The powerful current blasted both of them backward.
The Scyther had been raised quite well, but without its Trainer's commands and relying entirely on instinct to attack, how could it possibly be a match for Ray Chu as he was now?
For a rookie Trainer from Pallet Town, Gary was remarkably tough.
Ray Chu wasn't worried about accidentally shocking the kid to death.
Sure enough, Gary had merely been knocked unconscious for the time being.
"Gengar!"
Ray Chu called out.
A shadow swept past from behind him.
An instant later, a piercing laugh rang out from a nearby corner. Two shadows, one pursuing the other, rapidly disappeared into the darkness.
"So it really is a Ghost-type Pokémon. I wonder what species it is..."
The owner of that laugh was probably the culprit behind everything happening here. It seemed capable of controlling certain ghosts as well as humans.
Ghost-type Pokémon were extremely rare in the Kanto region, and the one just now clearly did not belong to Gengar's evolutionary line.
It also seemed to possess Fire-type traits at the same time.
Still, judging from his estimate of Gengar's current strength, Ray Chu wasn't worried about it losing to the other Pokémon.
The reason Ray Chu himself had remained behind was that his senses could still detect another trace of malice lingering nearby.
---
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