Chapter Ninety: The Mystical Claw Machine

He led Zoroark, Farfetch’d, and Charmander to the side of the pool. Zoroark looked around in bafflement; there were no machines, no equipment, not even the shadow of an employee. She was deeply suspicious of why Heath would call this a claw machine.

Heath took out ten game tokens and held them in his hand. Then he picked up a fishing rod from nearby and gave it a shake. The water’s surface rippled, and at last an Octillery surfaced from below, staring at Heath with those dead fish eyes.

“Let’s play the claw machine once,” Heath said, handing the tokens to Octillery. Octillery casually pocketed them, moving with remarkable speed.

“How does this even work?” Zoroark asked, bewildered, looking at the Octillery in front of her. She did not understand why Heath had brought the Octillery out in the first place, and there was no claw for a machine here either.

Her confusion was all cleared up the moment Heath handed her the fishing rod.

“The way this claw machine works is simple: you control the Octillery to grab those balls in the water. Inside the balls are vouchers with the prize names written on them.” Seeing the blank look on Zoroark’s face, Heath explained with a smile. Farfetch’d became interested at once, staring curiously at the Octillery. How exactly was it supposed to grab things?

Before Zoroark could say anything, Octillery suddenly fired a Water Gun straight at itself. Then, using the recoil, it launched into the air, its tentacles waving continuously like the claw of a machine.

“Quick! Use the fishing rod to swing Octillery toward the place you want to grab!” Heath shouted urgently. Instinctively, Zoroark’s paw trembled, and the Octillery tied to the fishing line swayed, then dropped from the air. Several tentacles wrapped around a plastic ball below.

“Does that count as a success?” Zoroark said excitedly.

“I have no idea,” Heath replied with a shake of his head.

Zoroark grew even more confused. Hadn’t Octillery already caught the plastic ball? Why was he saying he didn’t know?

But then she saw Octillery dragging that plastic ball toward her. Zoroark watched in excitement as it came closer and closer, so close now that she could almost reach out and touch it. Yet Octillery gave it the most perfunctory little shove, pushed the plastic ball back, and then swam up in front of Zoroark.

“?”

Zoroark stared blankly at Octillery. Where was her ball? That big ball just a moment ago—how had it vanished in the blink of an eye?

“I told you already, this is a mystical claw machine. If you catch it, you win—but whether you can catch it depends on Octillery’s mood,” Heath said with a laugh, watching the dazed Zoroark. Too young, still too young.

“You! You’re shameless!” Zoroark cried, so angry she sprang up from the edge of the pool. Heath immediately sensed trouble and reached out to pull her back, but before he could touch her, a stream of ink sprayed across Zoroark’s face.

In an instant, Zoroark changed from her previous bright appearance into something blackened and absurd, like a soot-stained worm, rather comical to behold. The fishing rod she had been biting also slipped from her mouth and fell.

Watching the Octillery sink back down, Heath took out a tissue and wiped Zoroark’s body clean, then looked at Charmander and Farfetch’d with a raised brow. Both of them immediately shook their heads. They absolutely did not want to play.

Looking at the puffed-up, furious Zoroark, Heath scratched his head, then shook the fishing rod again. Octillery emerged once more, staring at him with those dead fish eyes.

“Octillery, this is for you. Could you trouble yourself to fish back up the plastic ball from just now?” Heath took sixty game tokens from his pocket and handed them over. Octillery nodded at once, pocketed the tokens, and then pointed at the sign beside them.

Heath then took out ten more tokens. After Octillery accepted them, it happily handed the fishing rod back to Heath, then shot skyward with a Water Gun. Heath had no intention of moving at all; he simply watched Octillery.

And Octillery did not disappoint. It landed right on the plastic ball from before, then used Wrap to bind it and drag it back, cheerfully handing it to Heath.

Even Zoroark had stopped wiping her face. She stared in astonishment as Octillery happily dove back down, and her anger nearly burst through the heavens.

“Sixty tokens guarantees you’ll get something up, though what it is, nobody can say. Have a look,” Heath said with a grin. That Octillery was a true old gambler.

Every month, the money Octillery earned here was taken straight to the slot machines. And that still was not enough; it also took money from customers. For sixty tokens, it would guarantee one catch. It was the very model of a money-hungry beast.

Heath felt that if Octillery had lived in his previous life, it would have had plenty to chat about with some forum veteran who had already been banned. Maybe one day he would even see Octillery posting about how it had given up and gone full drift.

With clenched teeth, Zoroark opened the plastic ball. A slip of paper fell out. She picked it up, glanced at it, and then threw it to the ground in indignation.

Heath picked it up curiously and took a look, then could not help laughing. Zoroark had drawn a bottle of ink. Looking at the ink stains still not fully cleaned from her body, Heath felt that Zoroark truly had the worst luck of the day.

Seeing how miserable she was, Heath scratched his head again and shook the fishing rod once more. Octillery emerged yet again.

“Want to beat it up? One hundred tokens is enough,” Heath asked the angry Zoroark. Octillery’s eyes lit up at once, while Zoroark looked even more bewildered. There was even such a service?

Watching Zoroark’s dazed expression, Heath felt even more pleased. The first time he had seen Octillery, he had worn exactly the same face. Perhaps this fellow knew its own behavior was deeply annoying, because it even offered a way to vent frustration: for just one hundred League coins, you could beat Octillery up once, and it guaranteed it would not fight back.

Afterward, Octillery would quietly use Rest to recover its stamina. It was truly one of the strangest sights in Evergreen City’s arcade.

“No, I want to play something else,” Zoroark said, shaking her head. Then, still huffy, she leaped into Heath’s arms.

Heath went on wandering through the arcade with Zoroark, Farfetch’d, and Charmander. Soon Farfetch’d found a game much like Fruit Ninja and played it with great delight, while Charmander tried a boxing game. Unfortunately, it was too short to reach, so Heath fetched a chair for it.

As for Zoroark, she seemed to especially enjoy rhythm games. She was over there tapping away with gleeful enthusiasm. Heath stretched lazily. Once in a while, this kind of fun was not bad at all.