And so, the shopkeeper had begun spreading the news in the middle of that very night.
First, a customer who came in late to buy something noticed the old man staring at a photograph. Naturally curious, the customer asked what he was looking at.
The shopkeeper pretended to let it slip carelessly: "This guy's got a Silver Feather on him."
Then he immediately acted like he'd said something he shouldn't have, and urgently begged the customer not to tell anyone.
But that's the thing about people — the more you tell them not to do something, the more they want to do it.
Sure enough, the customer went back and told his companions.
And as he was telling them, his alarmed reaction drew the attention of others nearby.
Thus it spread — ten told a hundred, a hundred told a thousand. By morning, everyone at the lakeside knew.
The only ones still in the dark were the deep sleepers and anyone who had no friends to tell them.
Those remaining souls would have to be handled personally by the old man.
When the shopkeeper stepped out of his tent that morning and saw how half the camp had emptied out, he was absolutely delighted. *Pile up all these abandoned tents, resell them later — that's profit too!*
"The Silver Feather? You mean the kind Pokémon drop?"
After the shopkeeper left, Lu Ze thought it over.
Finally, he decided to wake everyone up and get their opinions before making any decisions.
A short while later, the large tent was filled with bleary-eyed faces sitting in a circle.
Sui Yan squinted, fighting to keep his eyes open. "What's up? Are we already getting ready to move?"
Lu Ze shook his head. "The Silver Feather is in the Black Mystery Zone."
"The Silver Feather?"
Everyone paused. The what now?
"THE Silver Feather!"
It was Fugui who finally snapped out of it first. His loud shout pulled the last traces of sleep from everyone else's eyes.
"The Silver Feather?!"
With their drowsiness gone, the others quickly caught on, eyes going wide as they stared at Lu Ze.
"The Silver Feather is in the Black Mystery Zone?"
Lu Ze nodded. "Yeah. Soren Li has it."
Sui Yan's mind went blank. "No… no way."
"Way."
Lu Ze nodded again, then produced the photograph he'd bought from the shopkeeper.
"The old man at the shop says Soren Li's the one with the Silver Feather in that box. How credible do you think that is?"
Su Tingxi's brow furrowed. That box looked oddly familiar.
"How many people know about this?"
Sui Yan had calmed down by now, turning to Lu Ze.
"Basically everyone. There's no one left at the lakeside except the few of us."
"Muddying the waters to catch fish!"
Everyone turned to look at You You Liu.
"What do you mean?"
The sudden attention made You You Liu instinctively shrink back. But he gathered his courage and pressed on.
"Too many people know. Which means whoever spread this information has a goal — otherwise, why would they make such a huge commotion?"
You You Liu took a breath and continued. "Option one: they can't handle Soren Li alone, so they need to draw everyone in and use the chaos to find him."
"Option two: they can't locate Soren Li at all. So they're using everyone's hands to search. If that's the case, it means they're plenty strong — strong enough to dominate most of the competition."
"Option three: Soren Li doesn't actually have the Silver Feather. Or maybe he's not even in the Black Mystery Zone anymore. While everyone's busy hunting Soren Li, whoever's behind this quietly collects the Silver Feather for themselves."
You You Liu finished laying out the three possibilities, then quietly shrunk back into the group.
Lu Ze exchanged a glance with Sui Yan and the others. They all nodded.
That settled it — whoever spread this news, their objective was clear. Whatever the reason, the first step was always to muddy the waters.
"So… are we going to check it out?"
Lu Ze's question landed in dead silence.
Should they go?
If they didn't go, they'd always regret it.
If they did go, who knew what might happen?
"Let's go."
"Hm?"
The silence was broken by Tang Yunqin. Everyone turned to look at her.
Tang Yunqin's eyes sparkled with excitement. "It's the Silver Feather! Real or not, how could we not go see it?"
Lu Ze laughed ruefully. "It's not that simple. If it really is the Silver Feather, the danger is going to be considerable."
"Actually… it might not be a bad idea…"
The one to speak up this time was Fugui.
"The Black Mystery Zone has strength restrictions. Super strong Pokémon can't get in."
Su Tingxi frowned, abandoning his contemplation of that box, and turned to argue with Fugui. "But even with strength restrictions, they didn't restrict *numbers*."
Fugui shot back: "So? We're weak?"
"Not particularly."
Su Tingxi said flatly.
It was true. Among everyone's Pokémon, the first tier consisted of only Crobat, Snorlax, two Charizard, Arcanine, Milotic, and Gengar.
Golem was borderline first tier in Sandstorm weather.
And even those first-tier Pokémon were only at the Senior Trainer level.
But were there going to be fewer Senior-level Pokémon in the Black Mystery Zone?
And if You You Liu's second scenario was right — if whoever was behind this was strong enough to dominate most of the competition — then a handful of Senior-level Pokémon wouldn't even register. They'd be nothing but an appetizer.
As for Deoxys…
"Wait — if the Black Mystery Zone has strength restrictions, how did Deoxys get in?"
Lu Ze had been thinking, and Deoxys suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Looking at Deoxys, sitting cross-legged on Snorlax's belly, and Mini curled up on Deoxys's lap with absolutely terrible sleeping posture, Lu Ze felt a vague suspicion forming.
"Can Legendary Pokémon even enter the Black Mystery Zone?"
Abruptly, Lu Ze voiced the question.
Sui Yan and the others all turned to look at him. Sui Yan laughed mockingly. "What, you think you can summon a Legendary? Forget it — even if you used the Silver Feather here, Lugia wouldn't be able to sense it."
Lu Ze shot Sui Yan a flat look. "I'm asking if Legendaries can enter the Black Mystery Zone. Not whether you can summon them in there."
"...I think they can, maybe?"
Fugui spoke hesitantly. "I remember my brother telling me — our Dragon Kingdom's guardian, Rayquaza, got restless one time and just barreled straight into a Black Mystery Zone in India. Nearly crashed the whole thing shut for a while."
Lu Ze's eyes lit up. "So does that mean Legendaries can enter without the strength restriction?"
Fugui shook his head. "No idea. I don't know whether that Black Mystery Zone Rayquaza entered even had a level cap to begin with."
———
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