Chapter 950: Breaking the Curse

Hoenn.

The Devon Corporation headquarters in Rustboro City.

The main conference hall.

All Baimu and the Aether Foundation family were invited here to attend the Porygon Phone launch event.

Although Dr. Akihabara had woken up in a startle from his sickbed several times, hoping to host the launch as he always did,

under the persistent persuasion of all parties,

he gradually gave up.

"Isn't it just that he's younger and more handsome than me? Even the Prototype told me not to appear; a bunch of heartless wretches..."

Dr. Akihabara bit his handkerchief, tears of frustration welling in the corners of his eyes.

Having passed forty, he was a middle-aged man through and through; it was only thanks to his youthful face that he didn't look so aged.

Compared to Steven, he naturally fell far short.

All Baimu felt ashamed for him.

"Doctor, rather than worrying about who hosts the launch, I think it's more necessary for you to update the phone's system."

The Porygon Phone's system was jointly developed by Dr. Akihabara and the Devon Corporation.

With less than half a year of development time, there were still many minor bugs.

The reason All Baimu had been able to use it until now was that Porygon2 had been silently writing various patches itself, and the sample unit had enough functions installed.

Ordinary Porygons neither had the permission to modify the system nor were they as formidable as it was.

Dr. Akihabara nodded absentmindedly.

Whether the Porygon race could rise depended on today.

"All Baimu!"

A familiar voice called out.

All Baimu turned his head to see Wallace and Lisia, that uncle-niece pair, both dressed to the nines, attracting countless gazes as they walked.

He smiled and stepped forward to greet them.

"Long time no see!"

"Haha! I didn't expect that in just a year, you'd have accomplished such a feat!"

Wallace enthusiastically draped an arm over his shoulder, looking every bit the proud friend.

Hearing this, All Baimu waved his hands hurriedly. "I only provided the creative ideas; this can't be considered my business!"

Although, he did get a share of the profits.

"Creativity is the most important thing! As a top Coordinator, how could you forget the importance of creativity?"

Lisia feigned a challenge, then giggled and shook her slender, jade-like arms. "Yoo-hoo~ Long time no see~!"

She silently mouthed the title of "beloved disciple."

All Baimu pretended not to see it.

The two were busy with their own affairs on a daily basis, but they chatted often on PokéLine, so their relationship hadn't grown distant.

After catching up for a while,

the launch event was ready for entry.

He had just wanted to ask where Wallace and Lisia were sitting, but the two had already vanished.

"Hm?"

"Hurry in, hurry in!"

Before he could ask anyone else, Dr. Akihabara pulled him inside.

They sat in the designated front-row seats.

All Baimu saw the Lillie family nearby; they had gone to catch up with acquaintances just a moment ago.

In the half-year since Mohn's return, he had been busy with the handover of work and hadn't had a proper gathering with old friends and family.

At this moment,

Lillie's face was flushed, her excitement tinged with a hint of anticipation.

Ever since she developed her Pokémon phobia, Lusamine had rarely brought her to such occasions.

Thus, she felt quite curious.

On the other side, Gladion's expression was as usual; he and Ash were the same kind of battle-obsessed fools, perhaps even more extreme.

He had no interest in anything other than battling.

Ash at least would shout, "Science is amazing!"

Come to think of it, if not for the fact that the Pokémon School had extracurricular activities today, the rest of the Alola protagonist group likely would have come to show their support.

A short while later,

the stage lights came on, and the Porygon Phone's promotional video appeared on the giant screen.

Steven appeared in a standard, professional manner.

But as soon as he appeared, he drew numerous cheers.

After all, no one was more worshipped than a Champion, let alone the Champion of the local region!

"Everyone! Welcome to the Porygon Phone launch event!"

Steven spoke confidently and calmly, even using a virtual projection to perform a small magic trick, conjuring a real Porygon Phone.

This made Dr. Akihabara bite his handkerchief again.

"My speech draft was changed too, wuwuwu—"

"Doctor, don't be like this..."

All Baimu comforted him helplessly while observing the expressions of everyone around him.

All this time,

no matter how much effort Dr. Akihabara put in, Porygon could never be promoted.

Even though he had let Porygon2 show off its might at the Ever Grande Conference, there were still fewer than a hundred Porygon Trainers today.

It was as if an invisible force was limiting the development of Porygon.

Was it really the influence of "reality" on the Pokémon world?

Was it really impossible to change fate, no matter what?

Today,

was the decisive moment for the Porygon Phone to break the curse.

The Aether Foundation, Devon Corporation, Team Aqua, Team Magma, and a series of other organizations all offered their support for the Porygon Phone!

Their opponent was never the Rotom Phone!

It was this damned fate!

Let Porygon shine in glory!

"... Let's take a look at the pricing of the Porygon Phone!" Steven stepped aside.

On the gorgeous screen, three prices popped up.

The whole venue erupted!

Just like the explosive price of the Xiaomi phone back in the day, the price of the Porygon Phone was equally shocking.

One had to know that the price of a Rotom Phone was twice that of an ordinary smartphone.

Yet the Porygon Phone was priced only a few thousand higher than an ordinary smartphone!

In this world where currency purchasing power was equivalent to the Japanese Yen, a few thousand was equivalent to a few hundred in his previous life!

Why could it be made so cheap?

Because Devon Corporation started out making products for Pokémon Trainers, such as multi-function navigators, diving equipment, and numerous types of Poké Balls.

For example, Luxury Balls, Net Balls, Repeat Balls, Timer Balls, etc., were all products developed by Devon Corporation.

They knew best that most Pokémon Trainers didn't have much money in their pockets and generally had to spend it on their Pokémon, so they had quite a bit of experience in compressing production costs.

With costs compressed, the pricing naturally could come down as well.

In terms of product competitiveness, few companies could reach Devon's level; even Silph Co. in Kanto couldn't.

The price announcement segment wasn't over yet.

A mist of water permeated the stage.

Following that,

amidst the screams of many, Wallace and Lisia both appeared.

Beside them were the proud Milotic and the lively, cute Altaria.

On the background screen, the two were shown holding different Porygon Phones, like a gorgeous magazine cover promotional photo.

Steven said, "We have specially invited the Pokémon Contest Master, Mr. Wallace, and the Pokémon Contest Idol, Lisia, to serve as spokespersons for the Porygon Phone!"

Spokespersons?

How come I didn't know?

All Baimu turned his head in surprise to look at Dr. Akihabara, who was equally bewildered.

He took out his phone to check his blog.

Sure enough, it had exploded.

In his previous life, Lisia would have been a top-tier idol, and Wallace was a legendary-level idol; the traffic the two brought with them was terrifying to the extreme.

Looking at the Porygon Phone's official website, the 50,000 units released had already sold out!

Half an hour after the start!

It was a success!

All Baimu hurriedly shared this joy with Dr. Akihabara, who burst into tears on the spot, no longer caring about who the host or spokespersons were.

"Finally, finally succeeded! All Baimu!"

He gave him a tearful bear hug and wailed, "The luckiest thing in my life was meeting you!"

Without All Baimu,

he felt that he would never have thought of making a phone in his life, nor would it have been possible to retrieve the runaway Unit Zero.

He reckoned he would still be cleaning up its messes right now.

Lillie stared blankly at the two, then quickly had her attention drawn by Lisia, who had begun her performance.

After the Pokémon Contest reform,

Lisia found a brand-new direction for her performances—Trainer singing and dancing combined with gorgeous Pokémon performances.

This also made her title of "Gorgeous Idol" increasingly well-deserved.

After the dance,

the launch event concluded smoothly.

All Baimu stood up to applaud, and those around him were moved to stand up and applaud and cheer as well.

Everyone present knew.

The Porygon Phone was a success!

From then on, the world would have two Pokémon smartphones competing against each other!

——

Unit Zero was both happy and disappointed.

Happy because it was one step closer to its goal of heading to an alien planet to pioneer a new home.

Disappointed because a cyber war was impossible to stage.

The Porygons were all looking forward to heading to the side of the shoppers as soon as possible; no one would respond to its call.

The Porygon Phone was too successful.

It even caused the sales of the Rotom Phone to start sliding.

However, this might be a good thing for the competitor.

It was rumored that the other side's orders had already extended to a year later, meaning that if you bought a phone today, you wouldn't get it until a year later.

The shortage of Rotom greatly reduced their production capacity.

At the same time, the Pokémon black market flourished because of this, and the price of the Rotom Phone there had increased tenfold.

Many Pokémon Hunters were running around in the wild or in abandoned houses between cities, looking for wild Rotom.

The Porygon Phone alleviated this heat.

More importantly, while the anime world didn't have phone faith, it had brand faith.

Devon Corporation's many high-quality and inexpensive products had gained it quite a few die-hard fans.

They were all willing to pay for the Porygon Phone.

The 50,000 units released the next day were likely gone just like that.

Dr. Akihabara went back to working overtime to produce Porygons; he was happy and joyful now, and people said he even laughed out loud in his dreams.

It made many assistants' hair stand on end.

At the same time,

PokéSound had become a little popular.

It added 100,000 users in the short term, and with the crazy sales of the Porygon Phone, it was estimated that it would continue to grow.

A version compatible with the Rotom Phone was being urgently produced.

For Porygon, Rotom was a "competitor," and for PokéSound, Rotom was a partner.

At a time when similar products were starting to appear online, the number of users represented everything.

"I will do my best!"

Lillie witnessed the rise of the Porygon Phone.

It stimulated the business acumen she inherited from Lusamine; it wasn't clear what Lillie's goal was in the original anime.

This one clearly wanted to become a business queen.

All Baimu gave her a thumbs up.

——

Orre.

Mt. Battle.

The time spent away this time was relatively short.

Overall, it was less than half a month, and there was basically no change on the mountain—

If you only looked at the environment.

Alolan Meowth, just as All Baimu had imagined, was having the time of its life on Mt. Battle, fully unleashing its evil nature.

It integrated all the Pokémon on the mountain that possessed cat elements and went up against the Lycanroc clan, the former leaders of the wild Pokémon.

It successfully caused a ripple in everyone's peaceful life.

There was nothing wrong with this.

Wild Pokémon were ultimately unable to stay idle.

Pokémon like the Galarian Corsola that loved to eat and sleep were actually in the minority.

No matter how much Pokémon yearned for peace, they would occasionally have the thought of having a fight.

Alolan Meowth seemed to have divided the Pokémon on the mountain, causing everyone to form an opposing stance, but it also brought new rules.

For example, one-on-one arena battles, group-on-group brawls, etc.

Smart as it was, it never went into battle itself, boasting of being a strategist to the outside world, and often invited the respected King Calyrex to be the referee.

It would also go to please Spectrier at night.

Mainly because Spectrier didn't pay much attention to Calyrex, making it necessary for it to have one more object to please.

It didn't need to worry about Glastrier.

Of course,

besides playing around, Alolan Meowth often called some Pokémon good at cleaning to clean the villa together.

This resulted in everything looking brand new when All Baimu returned home.

It made Blissey very disappointed.

Deep cleaning was one of its few pleasures.

Regarding this point, All Baimu naturally praised Alolan Meowth properly.

And then told it not to do it.

"Doing housework is Blissey's hobby, do you understand?" All Baimu scratched Meowth's chin.

Meowth purred while responding softly.

It liked it here very much.

The food was plentiful and the environment was pleasant.

All the wild Pokémon on the mountain were willing to play with it, allowing it to integrate other wild Pokémon in a very short time.

All Baimu and Calyrex's reputation was also one of the most important reasons.

As long as it said it was sent specifically by All Baimu, even the fiercest Pokémon had to give it face.

Where would it have such an opportunity in Alola?

Having been driven away by its Meowth mother after reaching adulthood, it had to use its intelligence to survive in the mountains and forests.

Meowth would never forget the scene where it once accidentally trespassed into the territory of a Passimian clan and was sent scurrying by various flying stones.

Perhaps it was that time.

That made it determined to have a life better than any other cat.

Now, it had finally gotten its wish.

"Meow~"

"Stop meowing, I'll take you to the beauty salon in two days to properly fix your fur."

All Baimu placed it on the sofa and answered the phone that was ringing incessantly.

The countdown to the opening ceremony of the Orre Conference had officially begun.

The number of people challenging the Four Trials began to increase, many of whom were people who had gone out traveling.

According to Eagun, the number of people who had passed the Four Trials was already over three hundred.

The number of people who signed up was over five thousand!

It greatly exceeded his expectations.

How to reasonably eliminate these contestants became something he had to consider next.

All Baimu: "Hello?"

"Boss! We're back!"

The person speaking was Dazuka, who shouted extremely excitedly: "You don't know, we ran around the world with old man Drake, our strength—"

"Come over and say these things to my face! Didn't Cheng-hong notify you to come over for dinner tonight?"

All Baimu interrupted Dazuka's endless desire to share.

Dazuka said embarrassedly: "He did, hehehe, I just couldn't help it..."

"Hanging up."

"Don't! There's something urgent!"

He hurriedly shouted to stop, calling out: "You don't know, we brought someone back on the way just now! It's someone you know!"

"……Who?"

"Wally, do you remember Wally? The boy who is a head shorter than me and has green hair!"

"Where is he—forget it, bring him back with you in a while!"

All Baimu said and hung up the phone.

Wally, Wally had actually come to Orre to participate in the conference!

Since they last parted, the two hadn't been in contact, mainly because Wally never replied to messages.

It looked like he had gone to find a place for special training.

There were more and more acquaintances.

All Baimu recalled face after face, and finally smiled.

"Hope you have a good time!" ===== CHAPTER 951 =====