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

Su Bai had completely exhausted every ounce of strength.

By the time Zhu Jianyuan and the others arrived with Wang Tao in tow, he was still lying flat on the ground, unwilling to move.

Diancie and Meloetta sat on either side of him. In Meloetta's hand, she gently fanned him with a broad leaf—one that had drifted down from the forest Su Bai had forcibly grown just moments ago.

The entire battlefield was in ruins.

The forest Su Bai had summoned around Marlene's explosion had been nearly obliterated. But the shattered stumps and wreckage were proof enough of the terrifying power he'd unleashed in that instant.

Zhu Jianyuan stepped onto a broken trunk, staring in stunned silence.

"This… what on earth happened here?!"

"That Sub-beast—uh, that thing—where is it?!"

He didn't bother asking whether Su Bai was okay. As an S-Class Berserker, he could tell at a glance that Su Bai's entire musculature was in a state of severe collapse.

Coupled with the leveled forest, it was obvious the young man had just done something utterly absurd again.

By this point, Zhu Jianyuan—City Lord of Haicheng City—was almost numb to being shocked.

He summoned Groudon, for crying out loud.

What's a forest or two compared to that?

So long as their "ancestral deity" Su Bai was still breathing, all else was fine.

As for the slip-up just now—he'd almost said "Sib-beast" out loud. Not a good idea, especially with the city lord Dong Feng and his secretaries standing nearby.

"Ah... you're all here," Su Bai mumbled lazily.

With Meloetta's help, he barely lifted his head.

Honestly, he couldn't remember the last time his whole body felt this sore.

Every tiny movement sent a fresh wave of agony crashing through him.

Even worse than that time in his past life when someone tricked him into running a 10k.

The next morning, he couldn't even crawl out of bed.

Waving half-heartedly, Su Bai promptly collapsed back down.

God, it hurts so damn bad...

Looking up at the sky—now clearer and bluer than before, with the death energy fully dispersed—Su Bai let out a breath of relief.

"Looks like you guys took care of the rest of the death beasts... I knew you'd be fine."

He never doubted that Zhu Jianyuan and the other Trainers would hold the city.

After all, this wasn't some full-scale siege by evolved death beasts.

If they couldn't even handle this, then all their prior combat training and experience would've been meaningless.

As for Zhu Jianyuan's earlier question…

"Oh, that thing?" Su Bai shrugged, wincing.

"Long story short... she exploded. Literally. Boom. Gone."

"Exploded?!"

Everyone looked at each other in disbelief.

Inside the hospital of Boulder City.

Su Bai gulped down a fruit juice that Meloetta had specially blended using tree berries.

Given his current condition, he'd been temporarily admitted for care.

Come to think of it… this was the first time since arriving in this world that he'd ever ended up in a hospital himself.

"And that's the gist of it."

Wiping his mouth, Su Bai glanced around at the solemn faces of Zhu Jianyuan and Dong Feng, as well as the stunned expressions on the young Trainers gathered nearby.

"That woman—Marlene—called herself a member of the Sacred Race.

The same Sub-beast you told me about last time, City Lord Zhu."

"I knew Sub-beast were powerful… but not this powerful."

He didn't say that to brag about defeating her.

Because the truth was—Marlene was terrifyingly powerful.

Sure, Su Bai had managed to suppress her completely.

But that was only because he had two fully-trained mythical Pokémon by his side!

Her abilities—resurrecting death beasts into death energy, using it to accelerate and enhance others, rapidly regenerating her body—were a whole tier above even S-Class beasts.

Not to mention her absurd physical strength and speed.

Truth be told, if any one of these people here had faced Marlene alone—

They wouldn't have had a single chance.

Marlene had the power to destroy an entire city by herself.

"Sub... Sub-beast...?"

Wang Tao stared, jaw agape.

Every word that came out of Su Bai's mouth shook him to his core.

"So humanity has enemies this strong...?"

"That's insane..."

Cold sweat dripped down the sides of Wang Tao's face.

It was the first time he truly understood the weight of what they were facing.

A few of the girls among the Trainers instinctively huddled together.

If they were being honest, after successfully conquering S-Class death beasts, they'd started to believe that humanity had already begun reclaiming the world.

All they needed was more time.

They thought one by one, the zones held by those creatures would fall.

And they would be at the center of that reclamation effort.

But now… now that the curtain had been pulled back...

Nobody could keep pretending it would be that simple.

"Are humans... really this weak?"

Pei Jingguo lowered his eyes, face shadowed.

Technically speaking, these weren't things the young Trainers were supposed to know yet.

But Su Bai had decided otherwise.

Because in his eyes—these Trainers would soon be the backbone in the coming war.

"I always thought those who embraced death energy became part of the death beasts...

I never imagined someone would find a third path within it..."

"But... if Sub-beast are this strong, why haven't they wiped humanity out yet?"

"Let's be honest—there were years and years before Pokémon appeared.

They definitely had time, and they definitely had the strength."

Murong Nan, unusually composed, voiced the sharpest question in the room.

Immediately, the other Trainers—and Su Bai himself—perked up.

Everyone turned to the two City Lords.

Zhu Jianyuan and Dong Feng exchanged glances but remained silent, troubled expressions on their faces.

Su Bai sighed and shook his head.

"That's exactly what I don't understand."

"But based on everything that happened today, we can confirm a few things."

One: High-level Sub-beast can disguise themselves and infiltrate human society with ease.

Two: They can manipulate death energy, accelerate the growth of death beasts, and even initiate organized assaults. Their strength far exceeds that of S-Class enemies.

Three: And most chillingly—these 'high-level' individuals… might not even be that rare.

"Marlene kept repeating certain terms," Su Bai said thoughtfully.

"'Ascension.' 'Apostle.' 'Grand Pontiff.'"

"From that alone, we can tell—Marlene wasn't even at the top of their hierarchy."

"In fact, she might have been nothing more than a disposable pawn.

Someone who couldn't even control her own life or death."

His mind flashed back to Marlene's final moments—her desperate screams, her uncomprehending fear.

Her life had been ended not by choice, but by decree—

From someone she called the Grand Pontiff.

And then… there was that horrifying moment before she exploded.

That feeling—like being licked by the cold, slimy tongue of some inhuman predator.

Even now, just thinking about it made Su Bai's skin crawl.

"So... with all that power, why haven't the Sub-beast wiped us out?"

"It doesn't make sense!"

He shook his head to dispel the unsettling thoughts.

"City Lords—please. Tell us what you know."