"What's wrong, Lucario?"
"Luca~"
David's gaze followed Lucario's pointing direction.
Sure enough, he found something sticky on the railway tracks.
"This is..."
David walked over and squatted down, gently touching the spot with his finger, and immediately, a dark red liquid adhering to it stuck to his hand.
Frowning, he brought it closer to his nose and sniffed it—it was indeed a pungent smell of rust.
The railway tracks had been artificially coated with a layer of fresh blood. Connecting this with what Pyroar had just said, David seemed to realize something.
"Could this be... Litleo's blood?"
Since Pyroar said they tracked their child's scent here, combined with the blood in front of them, there could only be one truth.
Someone, or some organization, deliberately wanted to lure the Pyroar here, with the aim of having them attack the train.
"This is troublesome..."
David rubbed his head, feeling annoyed. What was originally a simple matter had now become complicated.
However, what was certain was that the conductor in front of him most likely had nothing to do with this matter.
David had initially thought this was just a simple case of poaching and smuggling wild Pokémon.
He even suspected that the conductor might be using his position to help a poaching group transport smuggled Pokémon via official trains.
But upon discovering the blood on the tracks, this suspicion could be completely dismissed.
Not to mention he himself was on the train—if Pyroar's attack had been a little more violent and directly destroyed the entire train, wouldn't he also suffer?
Do not doubt the destructive power of a Gym-level Pokémon. With Pyroar's strength, if no one stopped it, it wouldn't take much time to destroy a village.
One full-power Hyper Beam would be enough to destroy the entire train.
If Pyroar had been a little more aggressive and hadn't chosen to control its power, there would probably already be casualties on the train.
This was no longer just simple Pokémon smuggling—deliberately luring wild Pokémon to attack an official train, if successful, would cause a large number of casualties. This could completely be considered a terrorist attack.
This didn't seem like something a normal poaching group would do.
Most of the time, people in poaching organizations are simply after money.
David would believe it if you said they fought fiercely over rare Pokémon, or directly harmed people to snatch others' Pokémon. Such possibilities exist.
But to say they would dare to plan a terrorist attack, guiding wild Pokémon to attack an official train—David would absolutely not believe it. One must know that if the former crime is proven, they might only spend a few years in prison.
If it's the latter, even if it's not the death penalty—which is used less frequently in the Pokémon world—they would probably have to spend their entire lives in prison.
This likely involves some genuine terrorist criminal organization.
"Apocalypse Society? Supreme Organization? It can't be the Hunter Guild, can it?"
Although due to Pokémon, the current world's productivity is quite sufficient, so even the living standards of ordinary people are much higher than on Earth in the past.
But no matter the world, there will always be outlaws, and the Pokémon world naturally won't lack people who use Pokémon for crime.
Among them, various poaching organizations have the largest numbers, but the current situation is clearly not something these small-time poaching organizations could pull off.
So, David immediately had a few suspicious targets in mind.
The names David mentioned earlier are the three internationally recognized major criminal organizations.
Among them, the Apocalypse Society and the Supreme Organization are out-and-out terrorists, the type that uses the power of Pokémon to kill, set fires, and commit all sorts of evil.
The Hunter Guild is slightly different—rather than an organization, it's more like a commercial platform that posts tasks through bounties, which are then accepted and completed by registered members.
It seems quite normal on the surface, but this is only the surface. In reality, as long as the reward is generous enough, anyone can post any task on it, even illegal ones.
There's a saying that describes them: "There's no price you can't offer, only tasks they can't complete."
The Hunter Guild has the lowest barrier to entry among the three major criminal organizations. Anyone can join the Hunter Guild unconditionally if they wish.
Therefore, the Hunter Guild is the largest of the three organizations and also the most loosely managed.
Apart from a small number of core direct members, the other registered hunters are merely outsourced personnel. The platform only takes a cut from their earnings, and even if things are exposed and they are caught by the authorities, it doesn't matter to them.
These three organizations are already notorious internationally. Whenever a major crime occurs, it can almost always be attributed to them.
At least nine out of ten cases are definitely attributable to them.
So, when he realized this might be a terrorist attack, they were the first ones David thought of.
"Roar!"
At this moment, the male Pyroar not far away also noticed the blood in David's hand.
The blood had the scent of its child.
In an instant, its emotions, which had just been calmed, immediately became agitated again.
Flames flickered continuously on its red and yellow mane, looking as if it could erupt at any moment.
Clearly, its child's fresh blood had completely stimulated it.
"Dragapult!"
At this moment, everyone present felt their hearts leap to their throats, and the atmosphere became extremely tense.
Seeing this, Dragapult stepped forward, saying nothing, just narrowing its small eyes and glaring fiercely at Pyroar, as a massive amount of Dragon-type energy began to gather on its body.
This time, even with Dragapult's suppression, the male Pyroar did not choose to retreat. Instead, it stared back at Dragapult with its large eyes, which had turned crimson.
Several female Pyroar also stood tightly behind it, looking ready to fight alongside it if a battle were to occur.
There was also some commotion among the surrounding Pokémon, but their strength was still under Dragapult's suppression, so they couldn't cause any real trouble.
The scene was now filled with a tense atmosphere, and a battle could break out at any moment.
However, David broke the deadlock with just one sentence.
"Do you still want to find your child? If so, then be honest with me first."
Upon hearing David's words, the furious Pyroar, suppressing its anger, returned to its previous spot and continued to wait.
There was nothing else it could do—the clues ended here. Now, it could only trust this human.
As long as there was a glimmer of hope to save its child, it didn't want to give up.
"Lucario, Aura Link!"
A pale blue Aura instantly enveloped David's entire body. David's Aura, ever since the day it was activated, had been continuously strengthening every moment.
Even if the subsequent increase in magnitude wasn't as rapid as before, the cumulative effect over time was still quite significant. At this rate, perhaps in the future, a scene of extraordinary power might actually occur.
And at this moment, this immense Aura was fully activated by David.
The strong Aura resonated with Lucario not far away.
"How is it? Can you see any clues?" David asked Lucario, maintaining his Aura.
As long as there is life activity, it will definitely leave its traces.
After linking with David, under Lucario's powerful Aura, all traces of life left by creatures around the bloodstain were revealed to it without omission.
"Luca!"
Lucario took the lead, walking in one direction, with David, Zorua, and Kirlia following.
Upon seeing this, many Pokémon present, led by Pyroar, sent a number of Pokémon to follow them.
There was no other choice—to rescue their children, they could only trust David at this point.
Meanwhile, the train crew members exchanged glances and finally decided to follow along to see what would happen.
If this matter wasn't resolved, it would be difficult to leave today. Since that was the case, they might as well go and see.