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

Li Jian didn't even understand why he had done it.

In that split second, his mind had gone completely blank.

When he regained awareness, he had already subconsciously overridden his dying will to forcibly command his out-of-control Contract Beast—and placed himself between the children and death.

But the beast had already gone berserk. His final act of defiance was only enough to delay the S-Class Death Beast's attack for a breath of time.

The claw still fell.

It pierced through his body, hanging him like a skewer on its tip.

"So… this is what death feels like?"

Li Jian coughed up blood in great gulps. Death energy poured out of him uncontrollably.

The toxic aura that had clouded his judgment and hijacked his behavior was now draining away.

His eyes, once clouded with madness, became momentarily clear—then rapidly blurred again.

His body had been completely run through. And while Contract Masters were tougher than average people, this kind of injury was simply too much.

His consciousness faded.

In that moment of drifting clarity, he saw a vision—his childhood self, sitting in a classroom, clenching his fists as the teacher spoke of heroes among humanity's Awakened.

A boy who once swore he'd fight for mankind's future...

Was that really me...?

How wonderful that dream was...

"…I'm… sorry…"

With a final whisper, Li Jian's last spark of light flickered out.

Perhaps… that apology was meant for his younger self.

Li Jian died—ironically, beneath the claw of the S-Class Death Beast he had brought.

With his death, the final binding chain holding back the monster snapped.

The invisible membrane that had suppressed its outburst—its rage, its howls—shattered.

"ROOOOOOOAAARRR!!"

A furious roar erupted, shaking the entire city of Haicheng.

A tide of death energy surged skyward, blanketing the Pokémon Center and the surrounding blocks in a wave of suffocating darkness.

Meanwhile, inside Haicheng First High School.

Principal Lu Liangpeng was hard at work at his desk.

Don't think only the City Lord's office was busy—schools like this were just as overburdened.

At this moment, he was reviewing lesson plans on energy cube applications submitted by the faculty.

Snap!

His pen cracked in half under the pressure of his grip.

At the same time, the Mr. Mime at his side looked up abruptly, its gaze turning toward the Pokémon Center.

"Death Beasts?!!"

Principal Lü's face turned pale with disbelief.

He grabbed the staff beside him and levitated into the air, soaring toward the Pokémon Center without hesitation.

The aura he sensed—it was overwhelming.

It wasn't just one S-Class Death Beast.

There were multiple.

Behind him, Mr. Mime spun its legs like a windmill, doing its best to keep up despite its lack of speed. Its face contorted in disgust at the repulsive energy ahead.

Elsewhere in Haicheng, patrol units stationed throughout the city also heard the bestial roars.

Their ranks weren't high enough to tell what class of Death Beast had cried out, but instinct told them this wasn't a normal threat.

"This… how could Death Beasts appear inside the city?!"

"Wait!"

One patrolling officer suddenly slapped his forehead, his face going ashen.

Gritting his teeth, he nearly spat fire from his eyes.

"Li Jian, that bastard! I knew something was wrong when he entered the city earlier!"

"That piece of sh*t!"

He was none other than the gatekeeper who had clashed with Li Jian earlier that day.

But regret came too late.

All patrol officers and soldiers remaining in the city mobilized.

Though most were outside the walls, the quiet streets soon filled with units racing toward the disaster site.

But a distant fire can't quench nearby flames.

Even if Principal Lu and the city guards could contain the S-Class Death Beasts in time, it would come at an immense cost.

And no matter how fast Lu Liangpeng was, he couldn't move faster than the Death Beasts could kill.

Without Li Jian's last thread of restraint, the S-Class Death Beasts' feral bloodlust now felt almost tangible.

And at that very moment, Zhou Xiaofei was still frantically trying to awaken the dying Magikarp.

Shielding him was none other than the powerless Liu Qiaoqiao.

"I-I'm not afraid of you monsters!" she shouted.

"I'll protect Brother Xiaofei!"

Her small arms trembled as she stood in front of him again, forming a barrier with her tiny frame.

Tears streamed down her face, betraying her bravado.

She was terrified—utterly terrified.

But even a scoundrel like Li Jian had shielded them in the end.

Was she… worse than him?

If her father knew she'd abandoned a friend to save herself, wouldn't he be disappointed?

No!

Stubborn Liu Qiaoqiao refused to abandon Brother Xiaofei.

She'd rather die.

To the Death Beasts, human emotion was meaningless.

They didn't care why Li Jian had protected the children.

Just as they didn't care why this little girl was now standing in the way.

Human courage—so noble to us—was a joke to them.

With amusement gleaming in its eyes, the giant wolf-like Death Beast—humiliated moments ago—raised its claw again.

This time, it would utterly crush the two small figures.

And then…

Destroy the city.

Magikarp's heartbeat grew weaker and weaker.

Taking a hit from an S-Class Death Beast… wasn't something you just shrugged off.

Especially not for a Magikarp—a creature known across the world as the weakest, forever at the bottom of the food chain.

Weakness was its defining trait.

Its Pokédex entry might as well have said "Not worth training."

The fact that it wasn't already dead… was a miracle born from sheer stubbornness.

Zhou Xiaofei's sobbing filtered into its ears.

The red-scaled Magikarp wanted to leap up and splash him in the face with Elemental Water—the way it used to during training.

Then its trainer would laugh and say—

"Don't be naughty, Magikarp!"

And even as he scolded it, he always smiled.

A tear fell onto Magikarp's body.

Scalding.

It struggled to open its bloodshot eyes.

So human tears… are hotter than Elemental Water...

Zhou Xiaofei suddenly coughed violently, crimson blooming across his white uniform marked "Pokémon Center."

He hacked up a mouthful of blood—hot, thick—and it splattered across Magikarp's body.

So human blood… is hot too?

Through its blurred vision, Magikarp saw Liu Qiaoqiao.

It saw the foul stench of the Death Beasts.

It saw the descending claw—

The very same one that had hurt its trainer.

The one that was about to kill its trainer.

Magikarp's chest, barely rising before, suddenly expanded in a violent convulsion.

No.

That was the only thought in its simple mind.

Zhou Xiaofei's smile, Zhou Xiaofei feeding it Pokéblocks, Zhou Xiaofei training with it.

And that one sentence he once heard—

"If I never buy it, does that mean it'll stay trapped in the Pokédex forever?"

"Magikarp is already weak. If it's stuck in a book forever, isn't that just cruel?"

Absolutely not.

That fury—foreign and primal—surged within Magikarp.

This creature dared to harm its kind, gentle trainer?

UNFORGIVABLE.

"RRRRAAAOOOOOOHHH!!!!"

Magikarp, known for its silence, was never one to roar.

But now—

For the first time since leaving the Pokédex—

Magikarp roared.

And it was not the cry of a fish…

It was a dragon's roar.