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Fortunately, Mason's luck was not bad.
After walking along the lakeshore for just over ten minutes, he found what looked to him like an excellent fishing spot.
It was not exactly deep water, but it could not be called shallow either.
More importantly, the water was thick with lush aquatic plants. A place like this would definitely attract plenty of Water-type Pokémon to settle and feed.
From the tiny white bubbles that occasionally rose to the surface alone, Mason could tell there had to be some kind of Pokémon hiding beneath the water.
As long as he cast his line, he would be able to reel something in right away.
He set the small folding stool he had brought with him on the damp mud near the lake, then pulled all kinds of tools from the huge backpack on his back and began preparing with practiced ease.
There was not much time left before the tournament officially began. He had to hurry.
Compared with real-world fishing gear, the fishing equipment in the Pokémon world was not all that different. In fact, it was even a little simpler.
Although this was called a fishing tournament, the actual role of the fishing rod and bait was only to lure Pokémon up from the hard-to-reach depths to the surface.
Whether those Water-type Pokémon could truly be "caught" depended on the Trainer's own strength.
Only by completely defeating and subduing the Pokémon drawn to the surface could a contestant be considered to have made a catch, allowing it to count toward their tournament score.
Beep!
A sharp, clear whistle sounded from the distance, echoing through the cool air around the lake.
The tournament had begun.
Without the slightest hesitation, Mason gripped his fishing rod and cast hard toward the area thick with aquatic vegetation.
Plop!
With the faint sound of the hook entering the water, his Bibarel Cup Fishing Tournament officially began.
Mason held the rod tightly in both hands and sat quietly on his small stool, his eyes fixed on the red float bobbing up and down with the current, waiting for his prey to bite.
As an experienced fishing enthusiast, he naturally had plenty of patience.
Do not rush.
Keep your heart calm.
As long as he waited patiently for just a little.
Splash!
A violent burst of water erupted from the surface not far to his side.
"That fast?"
Surprise flashed through Mason's eyes as he turned to look.
There, one of the NPC contestants had already made a catch.
Looking back at the float in front of him, which still had not moved even slightly, Mason could not stop a faint trace of anxiety from rising in his heart.
An ominous feeling surfaced from deep within him.
"Don't tell me the champion this time is going to."
He shook his head hard.
Mason dismissed the chaotic thoughts in his mind, calmed himself, and continued waiting with patience.
What he did not know was that far ahead of him, beneath the shimmering surface of the lake, a pair of eyes was quietly watching him through the cover of the shifting water.
...
Kael stared at the Trainers sitting along the shore on their little stools, fishing hats on their heads, and felt utterly speechless.
"Why does a profit-driven marine park suddenly have this many anglers?"
He was deeply confused.
Based on the experience from his life as a human, even in a large, fully equipped place like Azure Crystal Marine Park, there might occasionally be a few people sneaking in to fish, but there was no way the numbers would be as huge as what he was seeing now.
Besides, when he had only attacked a sightseeing vehicle earlier, a fully armed security team had arrived to rescue it within half an hour.
That alone proved the staff at this marine park worked with impressive efficiency.
Unless this had official permission, there was absolutely no way so many anglers could appear here at the same time.
"Sigh."
Kael let out a silent sigh.
At the moment, he was feeling rather gloomy.
The appearance of these fishing Trainers had seriously disrupted his plans.
With these Trainers around, Kael could no longer fight and train against Basculin as recklessly as he had before.
Even if they fought at the bottom of the lake near its center, the huge disturbances created by their battle would still very likely draw human attention.
For Kael, who currently wanted to avoid human entanglement as much as possible, that was unacceptable.
As for his plan to cross the lake and head into another territory, that had now been completely ruined as well.
For now, Kael could only lie quietly in the deep-water area and behave like an honest, harmless little fish.
He was just about to turn around and lead Basculin back toward the dim, shadowy depths behind him when, suddenly, an extremely strange scent drifted past his nose, mixed into the flowing water.
It was like the faint, delicate fragrance clinging to a beautiful young woman.
It was like the soft, intoxicating whisper of temptation.
It was like a starving wanderer suddenly finding a feast laid out before him.
It was like a thirsty traveler lost in the desert stumbling upon a green oasis.
A powerful desire rising from his body's instincts surged violently into Kael's mind.
Almost unconsciously, his huge, broad tail swung behind him, and he was about to rush toward the shore.
Then, all at once, a cool stream of energy flowed out from the Water Stone wrapped in his tail, allowing Kael to regain a single instant of clarity amid the haze of desire.
And that single instant was enough for him to fully come to his senses.
The resilient soul he had tempered through his journey across time revealed itself in that moment. His rock-solid will instantly shattered every trace of desire in his mind.
His consciousness cleared once more, and control of his body returned.
Kael froze stiffly in the water, a trace of fear showing in his clear blue eyes.
"What is that?"
As though guided by some faint instinct, Kael looked in the direction from which the strange scent had drifted.
His exceptional vision, far beyond that of an ordinary Pokémon, allowed him to clearly see the source of the bizarre scent.
Bait.
It was the bait those Trainers had placed on their hooks.
From the outside, the bait looked like nothing more than ordinary orange-yellow fish food.
But once it entered the water, the special substance inside it, manufactured by a human technology company to attract Water-type Pokémon, rapidly spread with the current.
It would draw Pokémon from across the entire body of water toward the bait, making it easier for Trainers to fish them up and subdue them.
Kael had only been lucky.
The instant he had been drawn in by that strange scent, the Water Stone in his curled tail had happened to release a surge of Water-type energy into his body, granting him one brief moment of clarity.
Otherwise, with even the slightest lapse, he might truly have fallen for the scheme of those cunning humans.
Kael felt a deep sense of relief in his heart.
But what he did not notice was that, although he had broken free of the strange scent's control with the help of the Water Stone, the other Pokémon living in this stretch of water were not nearly as lucky.
Whoosh.
The water was suddenly torn open.
A deep-green figure shot past Kael and raced straight toward the bait.
"Basculin!"
"Oh no!"
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
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