Chapter 414: Evolutionary Technology

Compared to before.

Porygon2's body had actually shrunk by two sizes, looking considerably more refined.

But more important than appearance was what lay within — after evolving, it was equipped with far more Wan Shan artificial intelligence.

Simply put, in three aspects—

Learning, emotion, and thought.

It was clearly a major step toward becoming a complete lifeform.

See? Even its eyes had become much sharper, the expressions it showed were extremely human-like, no longer looking like some half-wit the way it used to.

Far better than a certain Husdragon that gets dumber the more it evolves.

"Ohhh! Virtual Pokémon Porygon2! Congratulations, congratulations!"

Wattson and Walter applauded together.

The former rubbed the stubble on his chin, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "Hahaha! That really takes me back! I remember when I was discussing Porygon with Professor Akihabara, he showed me Porygon2 as the evolved form. Even then I thought this fellow was an exceptionally fine Pokémon."

"Hm?"

"Pli?"

At those words, All Baimu and the freshly evolved Porygon2 both turned to look at him.

"Hahaha!"

Wattson seemed to know exactly what they were thinking, and said with a laugh: "In my view Porygon2 is indeed a Pokémon that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Rotom, but as an Electric-type Gym Leader I personally prefer Electric-type Pokémon.

"And since at the time there happened to be plenty of wild Rotom causing trouble in people's appliances all over town, I thought rather than chase them off, I might catch them and have them serve the citizens of New Zi Jin, to make up for the damage they caused when they were misbehaving."

Personal preference plus… coincidence, huh.

Your Rotom didn't come to cause trouble early, didn't come late, but showed up right when Professor Akihabara and Wattson were about to begin their collaboration — it's hard to believe that wasn't deliberate.

But the world just happens to contain coincidences this theatrical.

There's really nothing to be done about it.

All Baimu turned to look at Porygon2 and found that it, just like him, wore an expression of sudden enlightenment, as though a long-puzzling mystery had been solved — but that was all.

Not the slightest trace of complicated emotion at the whims of fate could be seen on its face; it gave off a very much-not-my-problem air.

And yet before evolving it had cared so much…

Once the IQ goes up, do the pursuits change too?

At this point Wattson beside him spoke up: "Now that Porygon2 has evolved, you should hurry off to the Pokémon Center for treatment! I still have other challengers with appointments to greet! See ya!"

The old man bustled off, and his aide Walter gave a slight nod before hurrying after him.

Just like a cutscene had ended.

All Baimu and Porygon2 watched him leave, then suddenly let out a grunt.

"Mm!"

"Pli?"

Porygon2 looked up at him with concern.

"I'm fine, a big monster just reverted."

He rubbed his temple, pulled his phone from his pocket, and pressed stop on the timer.

From the start of Mega Evolution to its automatic end inside the Poké Ball, the current limit was — 34 minutes 42 seconds.

Two weeks ago it couldn't last even a minute, and now, counting the time spent inside the Poké Ball, it can tough it out for over half an hour — Aggron's growth was plain to see.

And in fact, All Baimu's and its understanding and use of Mega Evolution was still quite shallow; there was plenty more power still to be unearthed.

Extending Mega Evolution time was merely the first step.

"Pli!"

Porygon2's cry abruptly pulled him from his thoughts; he saw its head dip into his pocket, and in the next instant it dissolved into a stream of data and vanished.

"Hm?"

All Baimu reached into his pocket and found the Evolution Stone already gone, while the Pokédex on his phone had opened on its own, turning to the Pokémon status page.

As a piece of cutting-edge tech developed in the anime by numerous researchers including Professor Nishinomori, the Pokédex could not only look up a Pokémon's level and moves, but also roughly estimate each of its stats, displaying them as arrow trends on a six-dimensional radar chart.

All in all, Porygon2's stats had undoubtedly improved enormously. All Baimu recalled that Porygon's base stats didn't even reach four hundred, whereas Porygon2's base stats clearly exceeded five hundred.

One had to remember that base stats were themselves a product of reverse-engineering from in-battle stats; this gap of over a hundred, if allocated well, was enough to take a Pokémon from ignored to popular.

And in the moves-learned column, 【Magic Coat】 and 【Hidden Power】 had suddenly appeared.

The former had the effect of reflecting back at the opponent any status moves that targeted the user — for instance, if the opponent used Will-O-Wisp on Porygon2, Porygon2 wouldn't fall into a burn, but would instead inflict the burn on the opponent. That sort of thing.

The latter needed no further explanation — it adjusted its type based on the Pokémon's own state—

A window popped up, a reminder from Porygon2.

"Ground-type Hidden Power…"

All Baimu smiled.

This fellow, seeing him keep thinking about Aggron's affairs, had "forcefully" redirected his attention and was showing off how powerful it had become after evolving.

Looks like that honest, good-natured, never-competing "wallflower" Porygon of old was never coming back… this feeling of a child at home entering adolescence was long overdue.

But this was also proof of a heart growing in sync.

Gaining power without gaining brains was never a good thing.

No wonder Professor Akihabara's assistant kept reminding him to raise the trust level a bit more before evolving — the change was just too obvious.

Speaking of which, the Porygon2 Professor Akihabara had previously sent out to capture the Zero Unit — they were all six hearts?

Of course.

All Baimu wasn't stingy with his praise either; he said quietly:

"Looking at it this way, you might just be the one with the best overall bulk on the team."

"Pory!"

The phone immediately transmitted Porygon2's delighted voice.

That statement really wasn't a joke.

Aggron, Steelix, and Blissey all belonged to the type with extreme durability—either extreme physical endurance or extreme special endurance.

Corsola had outstanding dual defenses but was weighed down by its own stamina, and Ghost-type Pokémon generally had lower stamina.

Milotic was comprehensively no worse than Porygon2, but unfortunately because it was a fully evolved form, it couldn't have its dual defenses boosted by the Eviolite, making it slightly inferior.

The same applied to the quasi-legendary Hydreigon.

Mawile… this one was the only member of the team that couldn't really take hits, but that wasn't a big problem—its job was to focus on dealing damage.

He believed that as long as Porygon2's level caught up, factoring in the sustainability of Recover, this one would surely become the Pokémon that stayed on the field the longest.

It looked as weak as a toy, yet no matter how you hit it, you just couldn't take it down—

The opponent's expression at that time was sure to be wonderful.

"Let's go, to the Pokémon Center." All Baimu said to Porygon2 on his phone.

"Pory!"

Evolution wouldn't heal all the accumulated injuries a Pokémon had—this point was no different between the anime and the game, including the fact that type energy wouldn't instantly refill either.

He quickly arrived at the Pokémon Center.

He handed Aggron and Pory*** to Young Lady Qiao Yin, found a spot, and fell into thought.

From this Gym battle, it wasn't hard to see that so far his team relied heavily on Porygon setting up Trick Room to seize the initiative—if there was no Trick Room, it would be like Mega Aggron fighting Manectric.

Even though he had the opponent pinned down the whole match, it was hard to finish them off in one decisive blow.

The reason was undoubtedly that Mega Aggron's speed wasn't enough—if Stomping Tantrum could have been launched before Manectric used Protect, it definitely would have finished it off smoothly.

Of course, if the damage output was high enough, it could also produce a one-blow decisive effect—this point was beyond doubt.

What All Baimu was thinking about was his team's shortcomings. Currently his team still maintained an overall medium-to-low speed trend; if he remembered correctly, there wasn't a single Pokémon with a base Speed over 100.

Setting up Trick Room was one solution.

But setting up Trick Room required opportunities, and in practice, the chances to set it up in one-on-one singles weren't as plentiful as in doubles.

If possible, should he catch a fast Pokémon next?

All Baimu's gaze fell on the simulator's reward clues. He hadn't used this thing in a long time—on one hand, the other members of his team hadn't grown up yet, and on the other hand, he was worried about its uncertain results.

Everyone had personal preferences.

What if he ran into a Pokémon he didn't like—would he have to force himself to train it?

But now that Porygon2 had already evolved, once everything in New Zi Jin City was resolved, he'd go back to the Dragon's Nest and activate it. It was also a good chance to go back and train 【Dragon's Heart】 a bit.

A strong vision of loving all Dragon-type Pokémon and wanting to understand them…

"Happy~"

Blissey called out as it brought back his Pokémon.

"Thank you."

All Baimu recalled Aggron and sent out Porygon2. He needed to make a trip to Professor Nasu's laboratory to confirm Unit Zero's objective and whether it had been captured.

He'd also show Professor Akihabara the evolved Porygon2 along the way—this great inventor might have some special gift to offer.

——

"Professor Akihabara left?"

All Baimu stared blankly at his assistant Inamura.

Inamura nodded. "Yeah, he said Unit Zero had run along the cyberspace to the neighboring Cianwood City, and he had to chase after it quickly."

"This…"

He exchanged a glance with Porygon2, momentarily speechless.

Honestly, he had already prepared himself for Professor Akihabara fighting a protracted battle, or even for Unit-1 and that whole group of Porygon2 being turned against them.

Porygon2 had just evolved, and they'd just won against the New Zi Jin Gym Leader—then they'd directly gather a large group of Rotom and the Porygon2 that Unit Zero had turned, fight them all, and ultimately succeed in turning the tide and capturing Unit Zero—

The script was all written! Unit Zero, where are you!

You weren't even in New Zi Jin's cyberspace!

All Baimu thought that if he were Ash, he might really have triggered this plotline, but unfortunately he wasn't…

All thunder and no rain, this one.

Thinking about it this way, last night Unit Zero must have just been searching for some target and happened to run into Porygon. Thinking it was Professor Akihabara coming after it, it sent out an illusion to test it.

After discovering it had run off, it assumed Porygon was gathering allies, so it hacked the surveillance cameras all the way to New Zi Jin, only to find that what Porygon was looking for wasn't Professor Akihabara but an unfamiliar Trainer.

And then it just slipped away?

All Baimu came up with one possibility in ten seconds; as for whether it was correct, no one could say for sure—he'd have to ask Unit Zero.

"Sorry for the trouble…"

He nodded to Inamura, preparing to leave with a slightly disappointed Porygon2.

The latter hadn't imagined that kind of overpowered protagonist plot that All Baimu had, but it did have the idea of receiving praise from its creator, Professor Akihabara.

After all, after working so hard and successfully evolving, it was at least a case of "returning home in glory."

"Ah! Wait! I almost forgot! Sorry about that!" Inamura suddenly called out to the two of them, turned and ran to another room to fetch a square hard drive. "Professor Akihabara said if you came by, to give you this."

"Did the Professor tell you what's inside?"

All Baimu took the square hard drive and asked softly, looking at its silver-gray exterior.

Inamura shook her head. "I'm not too sure about that… He didn't tell me either, just told me to give it to you."

"Alright."

He gave a slight nod of thanks, and together with Porygon2 turned and left the laboratory.

He stepped out the front door.

All Baimu spoke up: "Do you think this might be the 'suspicious patch' that lets you evolve into Porygon-Z? I remember Professor Akihabara said he'd made secondary modifications to the patch, right? This time he even brought out the Unit-01 to use…"

The Porygon2 beside him shook its head firmly. "Pory!"

"Eh? Why?"

'Because knowing the Professor's personality, he'd never just casually hand over something this important and dangerous — he'd definitely deliver it to you personally and tell you all the key points.'

Porygon2 burrowed into the phone and spoke these words through the speaker — back when it was still a Porygon, it normally communicated with All Baimu through text.

Actually, this method wasn't difficult, just rather complicated and troublesome.

After evolving, Porygon2 gained far greater computing power. In its own words, it was equivalent to a massive upgrade of a computer's graphics card, CPU, and other components — things that used to be troublesome could now be handled with ease.

Reading the hard drive's contents became even simpler — it didn't even need a computer.

Porygon2 poked its head out of the phone, and a long, slot-shaped groove appeared on its chest, just the right size to fit a hard drive. "Pory!"

"Oh! You've got a port like that too?"

All Baimu was astonished, and then Porygon2 reshaped its body surface to produce USB ports, DisplayPorts, an optical drive, and a number of slots he couldn't even recognize.

Porygon2 could even transform its tail into various plugs, used for connecting to machines and the like.

Of course, for a creature that could digitize itself and hack into computers or other special devices, plugs and the like would only be used in situations where it wasn't allowed to burrow inside, or in extreme circumstances.

But it was still enough to be startling — where in the game did these strange yet seemingly super-useful functions come from?

"Pory!"

Porygon2 puffed out its chest and called out proudly.

The new functions brought by evolution weren't limited to just those — it was still researching them on its own.

After the hard drive was installed, Porygon2 once again transformed into a three-in-one fragment of data-form sound waves, radio waves, and light waves, and flew into the phone.

"Even the hard drive turned into an intangible data stream…"

All Baimu couldn't make heads or tails of this principle of solid becoming void.

Inside the phone.

A pop-up window appeared.

"A Porygon special edition of the Pokémon move 【Substitute】 — 【Split Body】? It lets the substitute share the same consciousness as the main body, use moves, and achieve a true splitting into two… Hiss! What a beast!"

He stared at the text in the pop-up window and drew in a sharp breath.