Pokemon: Bounty Hunter

Silas chuckled and playfully patted the little Pokémon on the head, but he didn't stop the massage.

Only after about twenty minutes did he finally stop.

"Alright, little one. You've rested enough. Let's move on to the next stage of training."

Torchic reluctantly hopped down from Silas's lap.

After spending twenty days together, it knew exactly when its trainer was joking and when his commands were absolute.

Besides, Torchic enjoyed training and becoming stronger—even though it was tough, there was always a comforting massage and delicious food afterward.

Silas pointed towards the prepared training ground his backyard, now looking rather strange.

The entire area resembled the Wooden Dummy Alley from the Shaolin Monastery legends in Silas's past life—with a few differences.

A large section was covered by a white net, and inside, wooden stakes of varying distances apart were arranged in several rows, creating a maze-like path.

Some wooden stakes would even suddenly pop up in the middle of the paths.

This obstacle course was designed by Silas, following Zero's calculations.

Each wooden stake was placed at a precisely measured distance, carefully calibrated to push Torchic's limits as it advanced.

There were three preset paths, each increasing in difficulty.

Additionally, Silas could manually set specific routes for Torchic to follow, constantly altering the challenge to refine its reflexes.

Then, on both sides of the course, Silas had set up over a dozen small machines—similar to tennis ball launchers.

These devices could fire rubber balls at varying speeds and hardness, interfering with Torchic's movement through the wooden stake maze.

The positioning of these machines was precisely calculated by Zero, ensuring Torchic received the most efficient training possible.

From a top-down view, the entire setup resembled a Bagua Formation—seemingly chaotic, yet artistically structured.

Silas smirked at Torchic.

He had spent a whopping 1.5 million on this setup.

The Devon Corporation employee had been dumbfounded when Silas purchased so many launchers.

Most trainers used only one—having two or three was already extreme.

But Silas? He bought twelve.

And that wasn't all—he paired them with the customized weighted vest.

A normal trainer wouldn't be able to make full use of such equipment.

But Silas had Zero.

With Zero optimizing everything, the effectiveness of the training setup was maximized.

Torchic stared at the strange training field, confused about how to proceed.

Silas led it to the entrance of the wooden stake maze, pointing to the markers on the stakes.

Each stake had colored markings, indicating the training route.

"Your task today is to follow the path marked by the green symbols. See them?"

Torchic nodded in understanding.

"You must sprint at full speed the entire way. Listen carefully to my commands—I'll be instructing you to use Quick Attack and Agility as needed."

Silas smiled mysteriously.

Torchic curiously peeked into the maze, listening to Silas's instructions, but not taking them too seriously.

"Let's try it once. You'll understand after that."

Silas's smile suddenly took on a sinister aura.

Torchic, oblivious to its impending doom, eagerly prepared to start.

Silas had already fine-tuned the launchers and set Zero to act as a timer and data recorder.

Then, he gave the command—

"Go!"

Torchic shot forward like an arrow, effortlessly dodging two wooden stakes blocking the path.

Just as it felt proud of itself, the first sharp turn appeared.

Torchic barely adjusted its body while using Agility to turn when a wooden stake suddenly loomed right in front of its face, growing larger and larger.

"DUANG!"

The tiny body was sent flying backward, bouncing off the stake and landing flat on the ground.

"Get up. Keep running."

Silas's calm voice rang out.

Torchic didn't hesitate—it shook its dizzy little head, got up, and rushed forward again.

The next obstacle was a wooden stake at a tricky angle, but for Torchic, it wasn't too difficult to dodge.

Just as it was about to adjust its path to avoid it, Silas's voice suddenly echoed again.

"Use Quick Attack."

Torchic's little brain immediately realized something "If I use Quick Attack now… I'll crash straight into the stake!"

But the trust and obedience ingrained in its genes along with Silas's strict training over the past twenty days made it instinctively follow the command.

Silas watched as a faint glow appeared on Torchic's body its speed suddenly surged and then it crashed directly into the wooden stake without hesitation.

"BENG~"

This time, Torchic was sent flying even harder, rolling across the ground twice before stopping.

Before Silas could even say anything, Torchic quickly got back up.

Although the impact looked painful, it didn't actually do much damage.

After all, Pokémon weren't ordinary creatures.

Right now, Torchic wasn't injured it was just embarrassed.

It had hoped to make a strong first impression in training But instead, it had failed repeatedly crashing into these wooden stakes over and over.

For the next few minutes, the only sounds in the training ground were:

Silas giving commands.

Torchic slamming into wooden stakes.

By the time Torchic finally completed its first full run, its body was covered in dust and dirt, and eight minutes had passed.

"Tor…"

Torchic walked toward its trainer, looking completely defeated It believed Silas would scold it harshly for such a poor performance.

But instead "Not bad at all." Silas took a towel and gently wiped off the dust from Torchic's body.

"Tor?"

Torchic was stunned, but its body instinctively cooperated with Silas's movements.

"Seriously, you did well. This was your first time, after all."

Silas smiled.

He wasn't just saying this to comfort Torchic According to Zero's analysis, Torchic's estimated first-run time was supposed to be nine minutes.

But thanks to its improved reflexes toward the end, it had shaved off an entire minute.

That was an impressive improvement.

Since Torchic could feel that Silas wasn't lying, its mood instantly flipped It began flapping its tiny wings happily.

"Tor! Tor!"

Silas helplessly watched the little Pokémon acting all goofy again.

"Alright, let's keep training. We've got a long way to go today!"

Torchic let out a motivated cry in response.

It had no idea this was just the beginning.

At first, when following the simplest route with Silas's guidance, Torchic though clumsy could handle it well.

But as it grew more familiar and picked up speed, Silas increased the difficulty Activating the second-level challenge.

Turning on the ball launchers.

And thus, Torchic's nightmare truly began.

Even worse every time it finished a run, the next round started immediately.

Torchic only had one question "Where am I? Is this hell?"