Chapter 172 Miss Ma Li wants to reflect...

"Expedition Team~Expedition Team~" Yurika strode forward humming an unknown tune, while Mali silently followed her, observing the Pokémon in the research institute.

After all, most of the Pokémon in the laboratory are used to assist Pokémon research, so they are not specially trained for combat. Only a few are stored here by other trainers, but they are all in good condition and look very healthy.

.

"Mali Mali, are you also good friends with Xiaozhi?" Youlijia asked while humming.

"No, not even friends." Ma Li replied calmly.

"What about Serena?" Yurika asked curiously.

"..."

"Not a friend either?" Youlijia looked back at Ma Li in surprise.

"We are acquaintances." Ma Li replied calmly, and then added: "But we need to analyze what can be considered friends first..."

"Yurika is not good at this kind of analysis, so I should let my brother do it..." Before Ma Li finished speaking, Yurika nodded her head in distress, "But my brother can only study robots..."

Mary didn't reply.

After a while, Youlijia asked again, "Hey? Malima Li, do you have any friends?"

"..." Ma Li sighed softly. She didn't like to talk too much, but as a child under ten years old, Yulijia didn't care too much, so she replied: "There is one.

"

"Who is it? Is it the lovely Yurika?" Yurika's eyes lit up, and she immediately grinned and asked happily.

"...Xu Qiansu." Ma Li seemed to not want to admit it, but she still pursed her lips for a while and whispered.

"Ah? Perverted big brother?" Yurika nodded her chin and tilted her little head.

"Although he is always shameless, sweet-talking and narcissistic, he has never given in on some principled issues, so for the time being... he is not a pervert?" Ma Li raised her eyebrows slightly,

Xu Qiansu retorted.

"Why use interrogative sentences? Aren't you friends? And Yulijia feels that Ma Li has such a strong opinion of him..." Yulijia opened her eyes wide, with confusion on her face.

"Although we have big opinions, we are still friends." Ma Li replied calmly.

"This sentence is so handsome~" Yulijia's eyes shone and she said, "Malimali, can Yulijia be your friend?"

Ma Li sighed again, then nodded slightly and rubbed her eyebrows. She was not good at dealing with an overly energetic type like Youlijia.

"Hehehe, Yulijia is also Mali's friend. Even if Yulijia has many shortcomings, Mali will treat Yulijia as a friend~ Even if Mari has many opinions about Yulijia, Mali will treat Yulijia as her friend.

Good friends~"

Yurika grinned, walked briskly, shook the wooden stick in her hand, and hummed an unknown ditty, "Even if there are many shortcomings, they are still friends~ This is what friends are~ Just like Yurika and Dongdong Mouse, they are just like each other.

Like Yurika and Xiaoruan~"

The laboratory occupies a large area, and there is a dense forest to the north for flying, insect, and other Pokémon to live in.

The two women walked briskly and arrived inside the forest in just a moment.

"Guaguapao frog~ Guaguapao frog~ Where is it~" Yurika waved her wooden stick and shouted loudly.

Apparently the croaking frog usually exercises in this forest.

Ma Li took a few glances at the slightly silent environment around her, frowned slightly, and subconsciously reached into her bag to hold the Poké Ball, but then she remembered that she had already let Morubek and the others play.

But inside the institute... what could happen?

After Yurika finished speaking, within a moment, there was a sudden soft sound of something passing by quickly.

Ma Li subconsciously grabbed Yulijia's wrist, looking a little wary.

Yurika tilted her head slightly, looked up at Ma Li in confusion, and said, "Yurika always comes to the institute to play. The children here are very gentle. Ma Li doesn't have to be like this..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard the harsh sound of water flowing through the air.

Ma Li heard the sound and went to see a ball of highly compressed water suddenly shooting towards the two of them from the direction of a tree crown.

Waves of water!

Ma Lidai raised her eyebrows slightly, but she was already prepared. She grabbed Yulijia and took a few steps back.

Before she met Xu Qiansu, she had been traveling alone for half a year. No matter what, she would never let go of her most basic vigilance.

boom!

The wave of water suddenly hit the ground just a few steps away from Ma Li. In an instant, the land disintegrated, gravel flew, water splashed, and a water-stained pothole appeared on the spot.

Mali took a look at the pothole and judged from the size that the strength of this Pokémon was just okay.

"Eh...Eh? Gua, quaa, bubble frog?" Youlijia was obviously frightened by this abnormality, and her lips turned a little white.

Ma Li put Yulijia down and turned her head to look, only to see a panting croaking frog standing on a branch, its eyes filled with ferocious pain, and its whole body flashed with a blue-white halo from time to time.

"Is this...evolution?" Ma Li murmured to herself.

"Evolution? The croaking frog is going to evolve!? But why does it want to hurt us!?" Yulijia broke away from Mali's hand, took a few steps forward, opened her hands, stood in front of Mali, and stood with an angry look.

A croaking frog on a tree trunk, "Quaking frog!"

However, the croaking frog jumped up and stood behind Yulijia. However, he did not even look at Yulijia. Instead, he stared straight at Ma Li with his turbid eyes, showing no sign of huge hostility.

Pour out in disguise.

Ma Li Meifeng frowned slightly, and she understood the reason in a flash of thought... This croaking frog was on the edge of evolution, but for some reason it was unwilling to evolve, and used all its energy to suppress it, resulting in confusion... And then

That's why there is such great hostility... is it to protect Yurika?

Its previous attack was aimed at Ma Li.

With its current state of mind, it couldn't tell whether Mali was hostile to Yulijia...it was just the instinctive warning of being a creature that made it make such a choice.

In other words, the croaking frog at this moment is like a lioness protecting her cubs, attacking all creatures that come close to Yurika.

But why does it suppress evolutionary instincts?

Regardless of the reason, it seems that Yurika is indeed very popular with Pokémon...

Her mind was spinning, but Ma Li did not relax at all, staring closely at the croaking frog.

Mali's physical fitness cannot be said to be very good. She is just barely better than the average person because she travels frequently... There is no way she can be a one-hit enemy of Pokémon.

At this moment, facing the confused croaking frog, if you are not careful...even if you can't die, you will inevitably be seriously injured.

And if he just ran away like this... with Mali's physical fitness, how could he possibly outrun the croaking frog?

Morubek, Pickpocket Cat, and Ibrahimovic are not around... I can only save myself.

She glanced around a few times, then slowly stretched out her hand towards the wooden stick Yurika threw on the ground.

The moment Ma Li held the wooden stick in her white and tender hands, the croaking frog suddenly opened her hands, and a light like a long knife appeared on her hands, and a deep chill spread over them.

Iai kills!

"No!" Youlijia's childish face turned pale, and she quickly threw herself at Guaguapao Frog, but was pushed by Guaguapao Frog and fell to the ground.

But it also delayed Guagua Paopao Frog for a short while. Ma Li's eyesight as a trainer allowed her to judge the speed, strength and even the attack direction of Guagua Paopao Frog's Iai Slash in an instant.

Ma Li suddenly leaned down, and the next second the Iai Slash passed through her hair.

Ma Li's pretty face remained unchanged without any hesitation. She turned around slightly and reached forward with the wooden stick in her hand, poking straight into the soft belly of the croaking frog.

"Pfft!" The stinging pain made the Crooked Frog wake up a little, and with this sliver of consciousness, it canceled the Iai Slash. However, this pain also aroused its ferocity as a Pokémon, and its mind was confused again.

It was seen that it was in mid-air, its hands were raised, and countless water lights emerged from it, just to give Ma Li a wave of water at almost zero distance.

Ma Li did not hesitate to poke the wooden stick into the unformed water wave. The wooden stick was immediately smashed into pieces, but there was a loud "bang" sound and countless water splashes exploded.

Ma Li hurriedly raised her forearm to block her body, but was still shaken by the impact and took a few steps back, hitting a tree behind her.

"Cough cough cough——" Ma Li coughed a few times in pain, her hands hurting from the aftermath of the water fluctuations.

But she doesn't feel well, and Guagua Pao Frog naturally doesn't feel well either.

But it was a Pokémon after all. After taking a breath, it looked at Mari again.

"Quagua Bubble Frog!!!" Yulijia got up from the ground, her childish face filled with guilt and anger. She didn't care about her own safety at all. She hugged the Guagua Bubble Frog with both arms and dragged it tightly.

The blue-white halo of light kept dancing on the croaking frog's body, but it still stared directly at Ma Li.

This time it didn't regain its consciousness at all.

Ma Li held her hand that was shaking slightly due to the force of the shock, and also stared at the croaking frog closely.

Just because she was in the research institute, she let down her guard and didn't have a Pokémon with her... but that was her problem.

...She will never make this kind of mistake again.

But the top priority is not introspection, but self-rescue.

She looked around the forest with the corner of her eye, but saw no trace of other Pokémon...

Ma Li pursed her soft lips... she could only... find a way to contact Xu Qiansu.

But if she makes even the slightest move at this moment, the croaking frog will definitely attack without hesitation.
To be continued...