Julian's TikTok account had over a billion followers, so the moment he posted a new video, countless people who followed him immediately saw it.
And just like that, the video went viral.
More accurately, it wasn't the video itself that blew up, but the kid in it who became famous, and honestly, the whole thing was absolutely hilarious.
> "Oh my god, why had I never thought of throwing away my homework before?"
> "Champion Walker, you're way too evil for waiting until the last day to return it to him."
> "Teacher: Where's your homework? Me: I lost it. Teacher: Mm. Lost it all the way in Gallia, huh?"
> "I don't know what you'll are laughing at. The kid's only in second grade and already traveling abroad, while I'm in my twenties and haven't even left my city."
> "'One night, one pen, one miracle'—that's literally my child right now."
> "Waiting for the follow-up."
> "Waiting for the follow-up +1."
In less than an hour, the matter became a trending topic across the entire internet. Countless people were eagerly waiting for what would happen next, all flooding the comment section asking Julian to post an update when the time came.
Meanwhile, Julian had already left Gallia and returned home to Lake City.
With Deoxys around, traveling anywhere in the world just required a single thought.
Now all he had to do was find the owner of the homework.
After all, this Side Mission absolutely had to be completed.
Coincidentally, the school written on the homework was Lake First Elementary School, which made finding the child much easier.
Just one phone call later, Julian obtained the little boy's exact address.
However, he didn't deliver the homework immediately. After all, he had already promised he would return it on the last day.
Just imagining the utter despair and helplessness that would appear on that kid's face when receiving the homework at the very last moment made Julian burst out laughing again.
"Kehehehe."
Gengar: "Is he imitating me?"
"Slow?"
Slowking: "So the important thing that you had to do at noon for which you missed lunch, was fly abroad to eat snails?"
The villainous laughter instantly stopped, like a duck whose neck had suddenly been grabbed.
Seeing Slowpoke suddenly appear right in front of him with a rather unpleasant expression, Julian immediately broke into a cold sweat.
He had been careless. Why had he uploaded that video?
"Dee?"
Love: "Were the snails good?"
Just as Julian desperately started using his brain to come up with an excuse, Love also arrived.
Thud!
Julian dropped straight to the ground, "I was wrong, the snails weren't even that good."
Forget it—no point trying to come up with excuses anymore.
At times like this, the smartest choice was simply to obediently admit fault.
Julian had no idea how Slowking and Love found out so quickly. Although both of them had phones, they rarely scrolled through TikTok.
Which meant someone had informed them.
Julian instantly thought of those two little troublemakers—Celebi and Jirachi.
He glanced toward the sofa, and sure enough, there they were, looking thoroughly entertained and absolutely delighted by the scene unfolding before them.
Celebi: 'Serves you right for going abroad to eat without bringing me.'
Jirachi: 'I wanted to try snails too.'
Case closed.
These two were definitely the informants.
No interrogation needed—just from exchanging looks with them, Julian already knew exactly who had betrayed him.
"Slow~"
Slowking: "Next time you want to eat snails, just say so. I'll think of a way to get the ingredients."
Seeing Julian admit his mistake so honestly, Slowking decided to let him off.
Besides, snails really were difficult to find in Lake City, so even if they wanted to buy some, they couldn't necessarily get them immediately. So it made sense that he'd gone out to eat them.
"Dee?"
Love: "Is that stuff really that good?"
Julian nodded. "The taste is actually pretty nice, but if you two made them, I'm sure they'd be even better."
"Dee~"
Love nodded in satisfaction.
Then the two housekeepers left together, discussing whether they should find a stable ingredient supplier capable of providing all kinds of ingredients.
The market they frequently visited already had a wide variety of stuff, but mostly common local ingredients. Things like snails—which the city's people rarely ate—were naturally unavailable here.
The moment the two left, Julian instantly leapt up from the floor and grabbed the escaping Celebi in one move.
Celebi hadn't even had time to explain before Julian's palm landed directly onto its butt.
"Julian, you're so smart! You figured out it was Celebi who snitched!"
Jirachi, instead of fleeing, stood right in front of Julian with a somewhat flattering expression.
Jirachi: 'If I say it like this, Julian should believe me, right?'
"Julian, Jirachi was the one who saw the video first. It told me, and then I told Slowking. As for how Love found out, you should ask Jirachi."
Unfortunately for Jirachi, while it had no problem selling out its best buddy, its buddy Celebi also had no problem selling it out either.
Brotherhood? That concept simply didn't exist between the two of them.
Naturally, Jirachi was also pinned down onto the sofa by Julian and had its butt smacked several times.
"Serves you right for eating all by yourself and not taking us!"
After getting punished, Celebi sat angrily on the sofa while Jirachi nodded in complete agreement.
The snails had to be delicious. Otherwise, Julian wouldn't have eaten so many.
Julian also knew he was somewhat in the wrong, but at a moment like this, he absolutely could not admit it.
"I didn't just go there to eat snails. I also had other secret business."
"What secret business?" Celebi asked, looking thoroughly unconvinced.
Julian: "Since it's a secret, of course I can't tell you."
Looking at the two little ones' unconvinced expressions, Julian also realized his excuse was pretty lame.
Looks like he could only use his ultimate move now.
He pulled out two hundred bucks and placed it in front of them.
"Take the money and get lost."
"Alright!"
"I'm gone!"
Watching the two little ones happily scurry off, although their reaction was exactly what Julian had expected, he somehow felt like he had just been played by them.
Because in his opinion, given the severity of his "eating alone" offense, two hundred bucks shouldn't have been nearly enough.
He'd imagined it would take at least six hundred before they finally calmed down.
Had they turned over a new leaf?
No, something was definitely up—something he didn't know about.
A thought suddenly struck Julian, and he immediately opened the fridge, only to find that the limited-edition Magearna-themed cola he'd managed to snag a while back was gone.
No need to guess—the two little thieves had obviously drunk it.
"You little bastards, you'd better not come home, or I'll spank your butts to pieces!"
Julian roared toward the door. He hadn't even been willing to drink it himself, and they'd gone and finished it off, not even leaving him a single sip.
Damnit, this was absolutely outrageous.
That Magearna-edition cola was one of the rare items he'd actually gotten through his luck, and he'd been saving it for a special day to enjoy.
No wonder two hundred bucks had settled things so easily—they'd had guilty consciences all along.
If he'd known beforehand, he could have turned the tables completely, and they'd have ended up owing him a few hundred instead.
Just thinking about this, Julian regretted not paying more attention to the two little ones' expressions earlier.
Now that he thought back, something did seem off.
When they'd been angry, their expressions had been tinged with a hint of timidity, as if they lacked confidence.
And even under those circumstances, they still had the nerve to extort money out of him. Truly, their courage was commendable.
*****
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