Everyone Else Awakened, But I Just Opened a Pokémon Pet Shop

"You brat!"

Dragging his injured body forward, Zhu Jianyuan greeted Su Bai with a solid punch to the chest—one straight from the heart.

Su Bai's entrance, like a divine weapon descending from the heavens, hadn't just stunned the ordinary guards…

Even Zhu Jianyuan, an experienced S-class powerhouse who had seen countless life-or-death battles, was completely blown away!

He was so excited, he'd even forgotten to deactivate his berserk state.

If Su Bai didn't have the enhanced durability of a Major Physical Boost, he might've gotten injured not by an S-class death beast—but by Zhu Jianyuan's overenthusiastic greeting…

Li Zhi also approached, eyes filled with admiration, scanning the young man who had single-handedly decided the outcome of the battle.

"As expected of a Hidden Class Pokémon Tamer… You're incredible, truly admirable—"

But before he could finish, he noticed something off.

Su Bai wasn't showing any emotion that matched someone who had just eliminated three S-class deathbeasts. Instead, his gaze lingered—on Li Zhi's severed arm… and the fallen guards being carried off by their comrades.

Zhu Jianyuan's hand slowly dropped, sensing it too.

He looked around at the still-ongoing skirmishes between guards and scattered deathbeasts and said quietly, "I know what you're thinking. But you don't need to blame yourself."

Su Bai shook his head slightly. "Honestly… this didn't need to happen so soon."

He wasn't wrong. The system task had no time limit. If the guards had more time to train their Pokémon—one month, two months, even a year or two—the situation might have played out very differently.

Zhu Jianyuan looked like he wanted to say something, but Li Zhi—his left arm now just a ragged stump—smiled instead.

"Wait? Boss Su, you still don't understand what your actions mean for humanity, do you?"

He pointed toward the Pokémon still fighting valiantly on the battlefield.

"Look at those people. Do you see even a trace of regret or hesitation on their faces?"

"Yes, we might've done better if we had more time. But I guarantee—ask any one of them—and none would've chosen to wait any longer."

"Humanity has waited long enough. So long… that we've forgotten what the air beyond the city even smells like."

Li Zhi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, drawing in the scent of air still tinged with the stench of death—but relishing it nonetheless.

He then pointed at his shoulder stump, scarred with teeth marks, and laughed openly.

"This is why I didn't hesitate when Old Zhu invited me."

"Whether we admit it or not, we humans… have lived like pampered pets, penned up inside cities, raised by death beasts."

Su Bai was silent. The middle-aged man before him, despite losing an arm, looked no older than his student Wang Tao—full of life, full of purpose.

"When Zhu invited me, my first thought was: Are you crazy?"

Li Zhi sighed.

"Look at me. Even an S-class like me considered the wilderness a forbidden zone. Imagine what the average person thinks."

"On the surface, it looked like humanity was holding its ground. But in reality, we were just… cornered insects."

"Now that hope has appeared, and you want us to wait? Wait for what, exactly?"

He burst into loud laughter.

"You have no idea how shocked I was the first time I saw the Rift Valley! The first time I witnessed a Pokémon Corps in action!"

"This arm? It's my medal of honor! In the first full-scale human counterattack against the death beasts, I killed an S-class!"

"This is something that belongs in history books!"

He slung an arm around Zhu Jianyuan's shoulders and smirked.

"So, Old Zhu, in future history records, you—City Lord Zhu—will always be a step below me! A man who traded an arm for an S-class death beast's head… surely earns more pages than you!"

Zhu Jianyuan laughed and pushed him away. Then, turning to the pensive Su Bai, he exhaled deeply.

"Old Li exaggerates, but he's telling the truth."

"Waiting… we can't afford that anymore. Not us. Not them."

"The guards, your Trainer students, everyone in Haicheng… they've all been waiting too long."

"Right now, the citizens of Haicheng are eagerly awaiting your order to go outside the walls—to plant Berries."

Then Zhu looked at the corpses of fallen warriors, now laid out in neat rows, and his voice steadied.

"War means sacrifice. From the moment they left the safety of Haicheng, every one of them was ready to die in battle."

"We won. That's the best answer we could give them."

He paused, then said in a low voice:

"Do you know what humanity's average casualty rate is during a deathbeast siege?"

"When death beasts attack, survival is rare. Casualties often reach 80%."

"But this battle—this scale—was no smaller than a siege. And our casualty rate? Less than 10%."

"Su Bai, this was a victory—a glorious one! The greatest win humanity has had since the death beasts began oppressing us."

As if to answer him, the final remaining A-rank death beast was felled—its skull pierced by the beak of a Corvisquire.

At that very moment, the entire battlefield erupted in a thunderous cheer.

Warriors who had been fighting grimly just moments ago now beamed with joy, shouting toward Haicheng with voices full of pride:

"We did it!"

"We won—we really won!"

"Mom, Dad—did you see that?! We won! Humanity is taking back its world!"

"We didn't let Haicheng down!"

"We've reclaimed this entire region!"

Some guards even wept in relief and joy.

This victory was far more than just a defensive success. It wasn't just another death beast siege repelled.

It was the moment humanity finally took its first step forward.

"See? That's our answer."

Zhu Jianyuan gently patted Su Bai's shoulder and reassured him:

"There's no such thing as a war without death… But to die with purpose—that's what they wanted."

"And we… we've taken humanity's first firm step. That means more than anything else."

Su Bai looked around at the cheering soldiers, nodding slowly.

He understood now.

They really couldn't wait any longer.

When hope had been absent, it was easy to endure.

But once hope appeared, the urge to act became like a raging fire—impossible to suppress.

"Phew… alright then."

Su Bai exhaled deeply and turned toward a spot he had been keeping in the corner of his eye.

There, a huge Corviknight stood beside a fallen guard.

Its beak gently nudged the body again and again.

Despite its fearsome, evolved appearance, its posture was filled with sorrow—its beak let out soft, heart-wrenching whimpers.

Even Meloetta, always bright and composed, was on the verge of tears.

She buried her head into Su Bai's chest, trembling.

"…That's Little Liu," Zhu Jianyuan murmured after a long pause, finally naming the fallen.