Chapter 277: Upgrade Data

Looking at it from the perspective of Baimu's influence on later eras and working backward.

As a plasma-type Pokémon, Rotom clearly completely replaced the virtual Pokémon Porygon, not only freely roaming the network world and power lines and fiber-optic cables, but also becoming an epoch-making intelligent voice guide.

Porygon obtained a strange evolution after the fourth generation and then vanished without a trace.

But Rotom has its reasons too—what Attribute is my Electric-type Ghost, what Attribute is your Porygon? Can you burrow into electronics and super-transform your form without needing to charge?

Can't, doesn't have that ability, you see.

"So the Professor has always wanted to create an intelligent machine similar to Rotom Drone?"

Baimu sipped the coffee Aquan had poured him; the taste wasn't bad, though he wasn't sure if it was brewed.

"That's right, he tried to combine the marine ecological protection system with Porygon, but unfortunately progress has never been smooth, especially the part about adding Porygon into the device as its intelligence…"

Aquan shook his head and sighed, then suddenly blurted out: "Not long ago we finally managed to finish building a miniature submarine, and the seabed data collection went very smoothly too, but when we sent people to retrieve it the submarine blew up, and the recovery personnel were inadvertently caught in the blast, causing their clothes to be stolen by those two thieves."

"B-blown up?"

Baimu twitched the corner of his mouth.

Why does this suddenly reek of Clemont? As I recall, the various bizarre machines this great inventor made were also incredibly impressive at first, but once Ash finished chanting the detonation incantation "The power of science is awesome," they'd explode not long after.

"Yes, and I have to thank you—if the positive reputation the Neo Water Fleet had finally accumulated had been ruined by them like that, all our efforts might have been for nothing."

Aquan sighed.

Positive reputation…

Baimu didn't even know how to roast that.

Suddenly.

As if remembering something, he said, "Miss Aquan, you mentioned using a miniature submarine to collect data on the seabed?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Since the miniature submarine blew up, what happened to the Porygon inside? Did it make it back safely with the data?" Baimu blinked curiously.

Seeing this, Aquan assumed he was worried about the Pokémon and said: "Don't worry, it made it back safely. Professor Akihabara's safety measures are very thorough; to avoid putting too much burden on the Porygon, he even set up a separate storage device…

"Unfortunately, the black box storing the data went missing in the explosion. We questioned those two thieves, and they both said they hadn't seen any black box—maybe it was dragged off by some wild Pokémon. But it's just data; we can keep collecting it in the future."

"Ah~ that's a shame too, the first completed data collection has a lot of symbolic meaning, after all…"

Baimu put on a regretful expression without batting an eye.

Good lord! That black box really is the Neo Water Fleet's property!

The question is how it ended up in Dusknoir's hands—that's the curious part, and what kind of twist-filled story it went through in between.

Having confirmed the black box's origin.

He began to hesitate over whether to return it.

In principle, it really should be returned to its rightful owner; holding onto the thing was useless to him, so he might as well return it and earn some goodwill—who knows, there might be opportunities to cooperate with the Neo Water Fleet in the future.

But…

Had the Neo Water Fleet really turned over a new leaf?

Although he had drunk their coffee, toured their research facility, and even had Officer Jenny's endorsement, Team Shadow's three resurrections and the damage they'd inflicted on the Orange region still kept him from jumping to conclusions.

Besides, from the sound of it, the miniature submarine explosion happened not long ago, and not long ago Hirokazu had posted a short video on social media of accidentally spotting Lugia.

Collecting seabed data near Kumquat Town during this timeframe.

It would be impossible for Baimu not to draw a connection.

Of course.

It could also be that he had a persecution complex and was overthinking it, but since there was a possibility, he couldn't just pretend he hadn't seen it.

After much deliberation, Baimu decided to hand the black box over to the International Police and let them investigate what exactly the data inside the black box was.

He himself had no evidence and was only speculating; it really wouldn't be appropriate to casually peek at another organization's intelligence data—misunderstanding them would weigh on his conscience too. Handing it over to the "familiar" International Police was the most appropriate course of action.

Officer Jenny, unaware of the situation, would very likely just return it directly…

Thinking of this, Baimu stood up and took his leave of Aquan. "Thank you very much for your hospitality today. It's getting late, please allow me to take my leave first."

"Mm… it really is quite late already. Let me have someone see you off."

Aquan smiled; this former Neo Water Fleet Operations Division executive showed not a trace of his former edge. "If you ever become interested in the Neo Water Fleet in the future, feel free to contact me anytime. The Neo Water Fleet's doors will always be open to you."

"Thank you."

Baimu smiled back, then immediately added: "Could you take me to meet Professor Akihabara? I still have some questions about Porygon I'd like to ask him—I won't take up too much of his time."

He took out the Poké Ball holding Porygon and shook it.

Given how pleasant the conversation had just been, Aquan couldn't easily refuse at this point. "If he hasn't rested yet… that should be fine."