Chapter 61: The Ultimate Patchwork Monstrosity

As the noon hour passed, Heath was practically ready to close up shop. After all, the ingredients he had purchased today for making braised chicken with yellow sauce were almost sold out. Heath figured it was time to restock, and he could take the opportunity to buy some crabs so that Farfetch'd could try making crab roe soup dumplings. If Farfetch'd did a good job, Heath planned to have it exclusively make soup dumplings by his side from then on.

After all, Heath felt that the variety of his breakfast items was still a bit too limited. Although the jianbing guozi was already starting to show its prowess, relying on it alone would make earning a substantial profit quite difficult, so expanding into other products was the right thing to do.

"Charmander, come help me pack up the tables and chairs," Heath called out. Charmander emerged from the room, looking as though it had just finished exercising, drenched in sweat. Even so, it was thrilled to be able to help Heath.

Taking Charmander out of the food truck, Heath began tidying up the tables and chairs. They were all foldable and lightweight, so even Charmander could easily pack them away.

"Awoo?" Charmander looked curiously toward the outside of the food truck, catching Heath's attention. Following Charmander's gaze, Heath saw that it was directed at a storm drain. However, there was nothing inside the drain, which inexplicably reminded Heath of the horror movie IT he had watched in the past.

Yet, in this world, clowns were strictly comedic performers, and that classic horror movie archetype had yet to emerge. Heath felt that its absence was probably for the best.

After all, childhood traumas of that sort were better avoided. Moreover, this world had things far more terrifying: Ghost-type Pokémon. Certain species of Ghost-types were quintessential illusion masters, exceptionally skilled at crafting realistic environments to trap and terrify innocent passersby in order to harvest their fear.

"What is it, Charmander?" Heath asked curiously, wondering what had gotten into the little Pokémon.

"Awoo~" Charmander let out a cry and then shook its head. Heath couldn't understand what it meant, so he decided he would have Zorua ask it for him once they got back inside.

Upon returning to the food truck, Heath finally learned from Zorua what Charmander had been trying to convey.

"You're saying you just saw a pair of eyes inside the storm drain?" Heath stared blankly at Charmander. Had he not known Charmander's personality, he would have thought Charmander and Zorua were teaming up to prank him, as such antics sounded much more like something Zorua would pull.

Charmander nodded with absolute conviction. Heath rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought. What exactly lived in the sewers of a city? Heath honestly had no idea. Even in Viridian City, sewers were places people generally avoided and despised.

Sewers in the Pokémon world differed somewhat from those in his past life. In this world, the sewers genuinely featured specialized utility tunnels designed to make it convenient for workers to maintain specific equipment, such as water pipes, electrical wiring, or internet cables, which were sometimes routed alongside the sewer layout.

The sewers in this world were not merely a single standalone pipe; though differences existed. Only sewers carrying specialized utility lines featured this layout, while drainage pipes elsewhere consisted of single conduits so narrow that an ordinary adult couldn't squeeze inside, let alone a child—not that the average person would ever feel inclined to crawl through a sewer anyway.

The stench of a sewer was no joke; it was intensely pungent, compounded by grime accumulated over the years. Aside from people with severe germ phobias, ordinary people would find it utterly unbearable to go down there.

Yet, to Heath's knowledge, certain special Pokémon did inhabit the sewers of the Pokémon world. Among them, Grimer and Koffing were counted as the most common residents. However, the Pokémon League typically organized regular cleanup operations for Grimer only once a month, whereas Koffing was kept under strict surveillance.

A Koffing's unique abilities posed a massive hazard within a confined sewer environment. Legend had it that early on, the League paid little attention to these sewer-dwelling Pokémon until a certain dark organization wreaked havoc one day by detonating a Koffing in the sewers. The resulting biogas explosion completely leveled an entire street in that city and required massive reconstruction of the pipeline network.

Consequently, sewer security was elevated to a matter of official schedule, and Pokémon like Koffing, which occasionally sneaked inside, became primary targets of strict regulation.

Heath figured that whatever Charmander had seen was most likely just a Grimer, so he didn't dwell on it. After comforting Charmander, Heath started up the food truck and drove toward the vegetable market. He planned to buy a few crabs—not too many, though whether crabs with rich roe were available during this season remained a question.

As for the leftover crab meat and other parts, Heath had already figured out how to process them. It seemed Zorua and the others were in for a treat today; seafood like crab tasted quite wonderful.

However, as he drove along, Heath found his way blocked ahead. It wasn't due to a traffic jam; rather, the road ahead was surrounded by a massive crowd of people. Heath felt a twinge of helplessness. It seemed he had stumbled upon some merchant promotional event.

"Heath? What brings you here?" Officer Junko Mirror asked in surprise, recognizing Heath's food truck at a glance.

"Eh? Mirror Sister? Why are you here too?" Heath was slightly bewildered. What kind of merchant event could possibly attract Officer Junko Mirror to maintain order?

"I'm here to keep the peace. Today is the street-filming day for *The New Crobat Man*. Didn't you know?" Officer Junko Mirror asked, looking at Heath in confusion. Heath froze. What on earth was *The New Crobat Man*?

Heath knew what a Crobat was—the evolved form of Golbat, a Pokémon with quite respectable battle strength. But appending "Man" to the end of Crobat left Heath completely baffled.

It wasn't until Heath searched the internet that he lowered his phone with a deeply peculiar expression. He genuinely hadn't expected it to be this kind of absurdity.

Crobat Man—Heath felt that calling him Batman would probably be much more fitting. The story centered around a fictional guardian of Pokémon City named Al.

Up to that point, it still sounded somewhat normal, following the exact same premise as Batman, except that this Crobat Man wore a Crobat mask, sported a flashy purple combat suit, and strictly adhered to a no-kill code. However, it wasn't until Heath read the character's childhood backstory that he discovered this Crobat Man was actually an alien, sent to this world from a distant planet, who grew stronger by soaking up sunlight.

Furthermore, he had somehow acquired superhuman speed during a massive explosion.