Akira bent down and pulled a fragment from the crack he had smashed into the ground. Akemi Aki leaned over curiously and asked, “What is that? Some kind of partner item for Little Sha?”

  “No, but it is not much worse than that.”

  The item interface in front of Akira clearly read, Z Crystal Fragment (Fire). It was not a match for Gardevoir’s Psychic or Fairy types, but the existence of Z Crystals meant Z Moves existed as well. Once he mastered Z Moves, Gardevoir’s combat power could rise another level.

  From there, his thoughts expanded further. If Z Moves existed, did Mega Evolution and Dynamax exist as well? In games they belonged to different regions and generations, but this was reality, so if they could stack, how strong would Gardevoir become?

  The more he thought about it, the more impatient Akira felt. He made a decision to clear out all of Tokyo. Filled with a motivation he had never felt before, he took the hand of Gardevoir, who was just as eager, and started the walk home.

  Akemi Aki put away the curtain used to block civilians and followed behind them. Her son and daughter were so strong that it hurt her pride a little as a mother, but the feeling that outweighed it was pride. With children like this, what more could she ask for?

  The group from Ake Clan did not know that just five minutes after they left, another team arrived at Yoshiwara Shrine. Their composition was similar, one man, one woman, and one non human. The woman was younger, and the non human looked even less human, a panda.

  As soon as they stepped into the shrine, the panda sniffed the air and said, “Something feels off. The curse smell is very light, more like residue, and there is also the scent of a curtain.”

  “You mean our prey was taken?” The girl with a long weapon on her shoulder and a single ponytail raised an eyebrow.

  “Tuna tuna.” The shortest boy pointed toward a nearby embankment in Japan, where an unnatural crack split the surface.

  The girl flipped over lightly and landed by the crack. She touched it, tested a few movements, and grinned. “That’s it. A human did this. A blunt weapon or fists. A real expert.”

  The panda spoke again, “Confirmed. There are no Cursed Spirit left. Someone exorcised everything before we arrived. What should we do?”

  “Do we even need to ask? Of course we call that idiot teacher and complain.” The girl’s smile turned sharp.

  After the boy said, “Salmon,” the girl took out her phone, dialed a number, and turned on speaker. The next second, a frivolous voice came through.

  “Hi hi. This is the spicy teacher everyone loves, Gojo. Let me guess, my cute students ran into trouble. Did the Cursed Spirit at Yoshiwara Shrine mutate and you cannot handle it? No worries, just call out with love and Gojo Ultraman will arrive at once.”

  “No.” The girl held the phone as far away as she could, her face full of disgust.

  “So you knew the mission had issues, Gojo.” The panda mocked.

  “No, I was just guessing, based on the wooden heads of certain higher ups.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The girl snorted, a cold light flashing in her eyes, but her tone stayed calm. “Sorry, you guessed wrong. We do not know if the Cursed Spirit mutated, because before we arrived, someone already swept the place clean.”

  “Someone came before you? That should not be possible. The higher ups clearly assigned this area to me.” There was a hint of confusion in the teacher’s voice.

  “You jerk, you dumped your own mission on us.” The girl looked murderous.

  The boy added, “Bonito flakes.”

  “It was originally requested for you. This is loving guidance from your teacher, no need to thank me.” The teacher said it shamelessly.

  “Go die.” The girl cursed.

  “Ah, I died. Ah, I am alive again.” The teacher sounded carefree. “Since the mission is gone, come back first. I will investigate who took the target…”

  “I refuse.” The girl cut him off. “The prey was stolen from us, so naturally we will investigate. This is our first independent mission.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Salmon.”

  The panda and the boy both nodded.

  “Hey, what about my opinion?” the teacher protested.

  “We do not listen to your opinion.” The girl laughed.

  “I knew you would say that.” The teacher sounded unsurprised. “Fine, just be careful. There are no signs of high level Cursed Spirit nearby, but curses are unpredictable. Contact me if anything happens.”

  “Got it, you are so noisy.” The girl hung up and looked in the direction Akira had left. “Just who are you, exactly?”

  “This System has to be copied from some trash mobile game…”

  Akira rolled another Z Pure Crystal Shard between his fingers, his expression hard to describe, wanting to throw it away but unable to let go. For things like this, there were usually only two words to describe them. Barely useful.

  “Sha, sha.” Seeing her master in a bad mood, Gardevoir also became unhappy.

  Akira hurried to comfort her. “It’s not Little Sha’s fault. It’s the System that’s the problem.”

  Today was the tenth day of Akira’s monster grinding trip around Tokyo, clearing about one area per day, and the results were mixed. It was not that there were no gains. The drop rate was low, with one Z Pure Crystal Shard appearing only every two or three areas.

  On top of that, none of the fragments were duplicates. What annoyed him most was that none of the fragments he had found so far could be used by Gardevoir. Adding to that the complete lack of any way to obtain a second Pokémon, Akira could only think of scammy mobile games when he looked at this kind of System.

  He suddenly felt nostalgic for FGO and GBF. One was relaxed and friendly to casual play, while the other was generous with rewards and benefits that made people jealous. Compared to those, this felt especially shameless.

  “Sha.” A fourth brand new sound, meaning next.

  Akira understood Gardevoir perfectly. “We’ll keep clearing areas. Even if we don’t get a Z Pure Crystal you can use, leveling up is still worth it.”

  After ten days, Gardevoir’s level had risen rapidly, already breaking past level 35. She had mastered new skills, and both her offense and defense had improved further. If they went back to Yoshiwara Shrine now, there would be no accidents at all.

  It was not just an increase in combat power, but also better understanding and control in battle. After all, her earlier levels came from fighting the same low level enemies for eight years, leaving her severely lacking in real experience. No matter how much Akira taught her, theory alone could not replace practice.

  The old Gardevoir was more like a sheltered young lady hidden away from the world. The current her had truly stepped into real combat. Hearing Akira say this, Gardevoir tugged at his clothes with one hand and pointed forward with the other.

  “You mean there are Cursed Spirit over there we can farm?”

  “Sha, sha.” She nodded, then shook her head.

  Akira felt a bit puzzled. “Not just Cursed Spirit, there’s something else too?”

  “Sha.” She nodded again.

  “Good or bad?”

  Gardevoir pointed at the red decoration on her chest, said to be the manifestation of her heart.

  “That’s good news, haha.”

  Akira smiled. Even though Gardevoir had not yet learned her final skill, Future Sight, she was already showing signs of that potential. It made him very glad about his luck on the first pull, enough that even a long stretch of bad luck afterward would still feel acceptable.

  After all, there were only so many kinds of Z Pure Crystal. If they kept grinding, they would eventually get the right one.

  “Then let’s go take a look. Oh right, I should call Mom first and tell her I’ll be back late today.”

  On the seventh day after moving into the new house, Akemi Aki gave up on going out with her son. The main reason was that it was too discouraging. She was the oldest, yet the weakest.