Elf: Re-employment of retired champion of Padiya

Chapter 726 True Bird Matrix
Although there are more and more variables as we go on, the best option now is to take advantage of the snowstorm to intercept these Pokémon hunters, which will minimize the risk.

However, Luo Mu chose to remain still and follow for the time being.

Besides needing to find a suitable time to strike, he also wanted to see if he could take advantage of the opportunity to wipe out the group of Pokémon hunters who were helping him.

They are either accomplices or the employers who placed orders with these people.

Buying and selling are equally criminal offenses; both types of buyers and sellers should be arrested.

Making a move here first might be a mistake; it would definitely alert the enemy on the other side.

If the situation cannot be brought under control instantly, it means there is a risk of information leaks.

The wind and snow provided excellent camouflage; aside from being quite cold, it was enough for the Röntgen cats to follow behind them unnoticed.

Luo Mu did not release the burning insects to hold in his arms for warmth.

Most Pokémon hunters are equipped with thermal imagers or detectors.

If it gets discovered because the local temperature is too abnormal and noticeable, then it would be a loss.

Although, according to the principle of thermal imaging, any object carrying heat would be very noticeable in such an icy and snowy environment.
But clearly, these Pokémon hunters had no idea that someone had silently followed them, so they didn't even think about checking behind them with their detection devices.

This also meant that Luo Mu, who was following at a moderate distance, was never noticed by them.

In this way, the entire convoy traveled for nearly half a day.

Luo Mu has also endured so much wind and snow.

To be honest, this feeling was really torturous, since he was actually outside in the cold wind, unlike the shelter of the car interior.

Now, the snowstorm shows no signs of stopping; in fact, it's getting even worse.

If it continues to grow larger, we will have to find cover.

During the tracking, Luo Mu had already contacted him using the communicator he had obtained from Mr. Trump, and was sending his location to him every now and then.

Otherwise, after he successfully subdues these Pokémon hunters, does he have to lead the convoy back to the main peak of Frostbite Mountain all by himself?

Stop joking, bro.

We always need some people to clean up the mess.

Trump had already replied to him, and Miss Officer Jenny, along with him and his colleagues, had already set off to follow.

Because of the blizzard, they couldn't travel by helicopter and had to choose to travel by car as well.

It seems that because they were unfamiliar with the mountain roads, they would occasionally encounter some minor problems.

If it weren't for a few experienced forest rangers, they probably would have fled long ago, and wouldn't have even gotten halfway there.

This also made Luo Mu discover a detail he hadn't noticed before.

Judging from the fact that this group of Pokémon hunters moved steadily through the blizzard without any hesitation.

They either scouted this route beforehand, or they actually smuggled themselves into the Padiya region from here.

But regardless of the reason, there must be someone waiting for them at their destination.

What Luo Mu needs to do is also very simple.

Suppress these guys, then hand them over to Officer Jenny and Mr. Tran, who will arrive later to clean up the mess, and then rescue the messenger bird's people.

"We're almost at our destination. Contact that woman and prepare for the handover."

Hearing the reminder from the henchman responsible for pinpointing the location over the earpiece, the bald boss gave instructions to the henchman driving beside him.

"Yes!"

The underling, who had been intently focused on the road ahead, shuddered. He loosened his grip on the steering wheel with his right hand, and while still keeping his eyes on the road, he skillfully activated the vehicle's communication equipment and sent a message to a secret channel.

Soon, the communication was connected, and a cold female voice rang out: "Speak."

Having been the boss for so long, Baldy naturally doesn't like anyone giving him attitude.

But there was nothing he could do; the opponent was backed by the Rockets, so he couldn't be tough at all.

He could only say in a slightly ingratiating tone, "Ms. Masatori, the convoy will be arriving at the agreed meeting point soon."

"Oh?" The woman's voice on the other end of the phone rose slightly. "So, what about the task? Was it completed?"

"Also, don't call me Miss, call me Master True Bird!"

"It's done, it's done, Master Makoto."

Even though the other end couldn't see, the bald leader still managed a smile and rubbed his hands together.

"There were a total of 116 messenger birds. We wiped out the entire colony in one fell swoop."

"good."

The bird gave a lukewarm compliment, then continued in its businesslike, cold tone:

"We'll drop you off at the same spot. The airship will be waiting for you there. I'll personally inspect the goods then, so don't try any unnecessary tricks."

"Yes Yes."

The bald leader responded humbly, but after the call was disconnected, his expression changed drastically. His face turned as black as the bottom of a pot, and he opened the car window and spat out, only to have his face covered in the blizzard that rushed in.

"Pfft."

He heard his younger brother's suppressed laughter, and his expression turned even uglier.

He glared fiercely at his underling and roared, "What's so interesting about that!"

Why did he act so subserviently, letting that girl with glasses step on his head and poop on him?
We still have to support such a large team!

Still laughing? What the hell are you laughing at!

If this guy hadn't been so familiar with the roads and had such good driving skills, I would have grabbed him and thrown him out long ago.

He was fuming and about to explode in anger inside the car.

Outside the vehicle, a messenger bird, taking advantage of the blizzard, quietly flew away from the convoy.

When it flew back to Luo Mu's side, the first thing it did was to complain bitterly.

"Deli! Deli! Deli li—"

Pointing to its mane, which it was so proud of, resembling eyebrows or antlers, the messenger bird felt extremely aggrieved.

It's not clean anymore!
In order to install a bugging device, its mane was even spat on!
"It's alright, it's alright. Let's wipe it off first, and when we get back, we'll have Poliwag King give you a bath with its Bubble Beam. If you're really worried, we'll have Tapu Fini and Almost Doll give you a spa treatment."

"They came back clean."

Luo Mu tried to calm the messenger bird down, but he was more concerned about the messages transmitted back from the bugging device the bird had installed in the lead car.

"A real bird. A real bird?"

Luo Mu murmured the somewhat familiar name, but couldn't quite place it.

However, one other thing can indeed be concluded.

These Pokémon hunters came to Mt. Frosty to capture the Delibirds.

Furthermore, those who trade with them have prepared spaceships that will take their caravans and leave the Parthian region unnoticed.

The employer and the Pokémon hunter are both here; we can catch them all at once.

However, since airships exist, we must pay close attention to those technological weapons.

We also can't let the airship take off smoothly, otherwise it will be difficult to intercept.

After all, the deeper they went, into the mountains that were completely out of step with civilization.

Apart from the communicator given to him by the ranger, which only allows for targeted communication, Luo Mu has temporarily lost all means of contacting the outside world.

Otherwise, he could easily contact the farm, and with Dragonite's current flying speed, he could arrive in time to replicate the destruction of Hunter J's spaceship without any problem.

"Well, the current situation isn't entirely unmanageable."

Luo Mu squinted. Although he was still in the midst of a blizzard, he could strangely smell a fishy odor.

This also means that we are not far from the sea. And at the end of this route, there are cliffs overlooking the sea.

The jet-black airship deactivated its optical cloaking and landed smoothly on the ground.

The rear hatch opened.

A woman with short purple hair, black round-framed glasses perched on her delicate nose, dressed in a secretary-like office lady outfit and long boots, stepped down first.

Behind her, a group of people dressed in identical black uniforms with red "R" symbols embroidered on their chests filed out.

Judging from their serious expressions and demeanor, you could tell that this group of people weren't just low-level thugs who had only struggled their way up from the bottom.

"True Bird Matrix"

This is the name of the elite Rocket Team unit that belongs only to the Rocket Team leader.

The baby-faced woman with the mushroom haircut at the head of the unit is the leader of this group—Makoto.

"Lord Makoto, the area has been thoroughly searched; there are no ambushes!"

"Our people have already taken control of the surrounding area. If those Pokémon hunters have any disloyal intentions, we can guarantee to suppress them directly!"

"It is a square-faced, burly man named Getz, whose right eye is covered by a black eyepatch," he reported loudly.

"good."

Masahiro nodded indifferently, facing the wind and snow, his gaze fixed on the distance through his glasses.

Amidst the wind and snow, rows of lights appeared and disappeared.

"They're coming, get ready to receive them!"

With a wave of his hand, Zhenniao shouted in a powerful voice.

"Yes!"

A unified response rang out, and the members of the True Bird Matrix either gripped their Team Rocket-style Poké Balls tightly or picked up their weapons, their expressions turning serious.

But then, an unexpected event occurred.

A clear, ethereal murmur suddenly echoed through the howling wind and snow. In an instant, the headlights of the convoy, which was already close at hand in Shin-tori's vision, began to flash wildly.

That wasn't because he was excitedly switching the car lights on and off because the mission was about to end.

Rather, it was because the vehicles in the convoy were unable to move, so they frantically tried to start the engines and get them going to break free, resulting in a situation where they accidentally activated the wrong controls in their panic.

"what's the situation!?"

True Bird's face immediately darkened, and he scolded the person beside him.

Goetz's expression remained unchanged as he pulled out a portable telescope specially made by Team Rocket scientists, capable of clearly seeing distant scenery even in snowy and sandy conditions, and set it up in front of his eyes.

"It's ice! All the tires of those Pokémon hunter teams are frozen solid!"

"As a result, their vehicle stalled unexpectedly and they are currently trying to restart it in the extreme cold of the blizzard."

Goz reported meticulously.

"Tsk——"

The bird lowered its eyes, its brain working rapidly.

Are these guys up to no good?

No, although she warned them, given their cowardice and the intense searches conducted by Pokémon investigators in the Kanto region, they, who were barely able to afford food, wouldn't pull such a stunt.

In that case, there is only one answer.

"A bunch of idiots!"

"I didn't even realize someone was secretly following me!"

After quickly guessing the answer, Shin-Nori pondered for a moment and then had Götz summon three Shin-Nori Matrix members on guard.

As Sakaki's "first secretary," Makoto's decisiveness and execution are terrifying.

She immediately instructed the three, "We shouldn't have just left these idiots, but these messenger birds are related to the Rockets' future development plan."

"You three, go and take care of the guys, or whatever, who attacked those idiots' convoy!"

"Make sure we receive this batch of 'clean' messenger birds!"

"Yes, Master Makoto!"

The three people who were summoned straightened their backs and saluted, then ran into the wind and snow.

In Masahiro's opinion, the three of them were more than enough to deal with the petty thief who was following them.

Her unit, "True Bird Matrix," is the most elite unit in Team Rocket, second only to the trusted confidants cultivated by the various executives.

Furthermore, in Makoto's own mind, as Sakaki's personal secretary, she was not much inferior to those executives.

The members of "True Bird Matrix" are elite members selected through multiple rounds of screening, each with extraordinary abilities.

Those who followed were mostly forest rangers or police officers from the Padiya region.

Having three official members of the "True Bird Matrix" to handle things is enough.

at the same time.

Just as the three Team Rocket members of the "True Bird Matrix" were heading to the location where the convoy had "broken down".

Luo Mu had already taken advantage of the chaos to quietly sneak into the convoy.

The ice that froze the tires was naturally his doing.

Even now, because it is some distance from the main peak of Frostmoor Mountain and closer to the sea, the intensity of the blizzard has weakened.

However, this does not change the fact that the current environment is the most suitable environment for the Nine-Tails.

The "snowfall" characteristic makes Nine-Tails very close to the blizzards brought by nature.

They even used the power of the blizzard to instantly and precisely freeze all the tires of the convoy of five vehicles.

Incidentally, it also caused their already overloaded engines to shut down due to the low temperature.

This was Luo Mu's first step in stopping the convoy.

In his assessment, if the convoy on this side were to meet up with the people waiting on the other side, it would become much more difficult for him to capture them all at once.

Since the employers have personally come to receive the "goods," it means they are very likely unwilling to give up these messenger birds.

They wouldn't turn away without hesitation after seeing the convoy being attacked.

There's a higher chance they'll send people to help these Pokémon hunters deal with themselves.

This was exactly what Luo Mu wanted.

He was worried about how to get rid of everyone in a short time.

Sending them one by one like this, allowing him to defeat them one by one, suits his purposes perfectly.

"Someone's coming, just let me know!"

After shouting it in my mind, I didn't wait for the system's arrogant response.

Luo Mu directly asked his disciple Xiong, who was diligently gathering his qi, "Are you ready?"

"Yeah!"

The apprentice, focused intently, had piercing eyes and clenched fists.

"very good."

Luo Mu's lips curled up as his gaze fell on the door of the multi-terrain off-road vehicle at the end of the convoy.

"Then, let's use 'Rock Smash' on the car door!"

(End of this chapter)