Chapter 394: Roots Fossilized

Porygon landed.

"Pory~"

"What kind of Pokémon is that?"

Just like everyone seeing it for the first time, Iris voiced the question.

Baimu opened his mouth slightly, then thought better of it and laughed: "It's called Porygon. It used to be called 3D Dragon too. It's a special virtual Pokémon created by Professor Akihabara of Kanto."

Because the vocabulary had been forcibly translated from Chinese into the Pokémon world's language and pieced together, it sounded a little strange to Iris.

But it wasn't a big problem.

"Dragon? Is it a Dragon-type Pokémon?"

"It can be."

"Ah!

The dragon-obsessed girl flung herself onto Porygon, exclaiming delightedly: "Dragon-type kids really come in all shapes! But it's still cute! Like building blocks!"

"Pory!?"

Porygon glanced at Iris vigorously rubbing its head, then turned a helpless look toward its Trainer.

What's going on?

And what's a 3D Dragon? When did I ever have that name?

Something's not right here!

"Haha…"

Baimu was thoroughly amused, but once the joke was over he carefully explained Porygon's situation before Iris completely got the wrong idea, which left her staring at him in utter speechlessness.

"Childish!"

"Ahem, ahem. Back to the matter at hand."

He coughed twice and said solemnly: "Since we've basically figured out the pattern, there's no need for us to go head-to-head with those Pokémon statues. First, use Porygon's Teleport to take our luggage away. Then we drop down through the trapdoor back to the first floor, and finally run out through the door the sandstorm opens. Simple, right?"

"Ohhh!"

Iris nodded rapidly along with the two Pokémon in understanding.

For various reasons, Porygon's Teleport couldn't cross too great a distance in one go, nor could it cover distances it couldn't see, otherwise Baimu and Iris could have simply waited for it at the exit.

But even without that option, the plan itself was child's play.

The question was whether some annoying变故 would crop up in the middle, and whether they could carry it out smoothly…

Baimu studied Iris and Axew carefully; the latter two looked blank, question marks seemingly floating above their heads.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

He decided to add a few more safeguards. "Get ready."

"We still need to prepare?"

"Of course. Route map, phone signal, the timing of opening the door—everything that can be prepared in advance needs to be done beforehand so we don't slip up during the actual operation."

The string of terms made Iris dizzy.

Although she wasn't as hotheaded as Ash, she rarely made such meticulous plans in normal times, generally just setting a goal and charging straight in.

For example, after seeing Rayquaza she wanted to chase after it, so she came to the Hoenn region.

Wanting to become stronger, she challenged powerful Dragon Tamers and Trainers everywhere.

So this was her first time experiencing an action planned from start to finish—

It didn't feel bad?

Just too much trouble. If she had to do it herself, she definitely wouldn't.

Meanwhile.

Baimu wrote out the detailed plan in his sketchbook.

What had been arranged with Steelix earlier was a phone call as a reminder. To make sure it could open the door in time, he planned to make the call while Porygon was carrying out its action.

That way, after they dropped all the way down to the first floor and circled around to the front of the door, the timing should be just right.

"That's the route. Understand?"

Baimu sketched out the route map in his sketchbook and said to Iris.

The latter lowered her head to scan the sketchbook and nodded seriously. "Understood!"

"…You really understand it upside down? And you only glanced once—you were staring at Porygon the whole time just now."

"I-I'm not stupid! One look is enough! I have a great sense of direction!"

"Then why did you walk in the opposite direction outside earlier?"

"Just a tiny slip-up! Why do you keep harping on one thing—how childish is that? And you're supposed to be a grown-up, my lord!"

"Fine, I'll admit I was wrong."

He didn't keep arguing with a twelve-year-old brat and said: "Let's run through it once. It'll be safer that way and avoid mistakes."

Iris accepted with a huff.

Jeez, why was he acting on the assumption that she'd definitely get lost?

Although… she really had forgotten the route by now, but that was only because they'd been arguing—she'd already memorized it!

The two returned to the stairwell on the fourth floor and immediately began the rehearsal.

And then.

And then Iris ran straight toward the wrong path in plain sight, nearly triggering a Pokémon statue. Fortunately Axew reacted quickly enough, noticed Baimu standing still in place, and pulled her back in time.

"Ah!"

Iris, whose feet had left the ground from the momentum and who had fallen on her backside, whipped her head around and immediately found Baimu looking down at her with a gaze of lofty disdain.

"Another thirty centimeters and you would have triggered the mechanism. Congratulations."

The latter gave a light round of applause.

"... Wuu wuu wuu."

Alice said dejectedly, "Sorry~"

All Baimu, seeing this, didn't press the matter further. "Since you don't know the route, just stick close to me. Don't run off on your own."

She nodded rapidly.

——

Operation begins.

All Baimu stood at the stairwell with his phone switched to the call screen, waiting alongside Alice and Axew.

Porygon stared at the luggage before it, glanced at the surroundings, and finally looked up at the trainer. Their eyes met.

"Begin!"

At his command, his finger pressed the call button.

Beep!

Porygon lowered its body to grip the luggage in its mouth, and its block-like body suddenly shuddered—vanishing on the spot and instantly reappearing beside Alice.

The latter swiftly took the luggage. The fourth floor's ground began to tremble, and from every wall, ancient Armor Fossil and Cradily stone statues poured out, reaching dozens in an instant!

But by then, All Baimu and Alice had already turned and bolted, running toward the predetermined drop trap.

"Conversion!"

He called out, and Porygon instantly transformed into a hammer and flew over, smashing the already crack-riddled floor with a Peng—allowing the two to jump down safely.

A mere four or five meters in height was really nothing to people of the Pokémon world.

They repeated the process on the second floor.

In less than two short minutes, the two had already arrived before the "great door."

The door had not yet opened, but they could faintly hear the raging sandstorm outside—no longer the eerie silence from before.

"Phew~ they seem to still be on the fourth floor."

Alice exhaled and stared up at the ceiling.

When planning, the impact hadn't felt so obvious, but actually carrying it out had been a shock to her spirit.

If she had come back alone to retrieve the luggage, she'd probably still be getting chased by the numerous Pokémon stone statues right now, only making it to the bottom with some luck.

Yet now, not only had they put distance between themselves and the Pokémon statues, they were also about to leave.

For Alice, who was always on the run, this was utterly incredible.

Amazing!

Her eyes as she looked at All Baimu were full of admiration.

And if the latter knew what she was thinking right now, he'd probably just wonder how many unreliable people she'd encountered for her to find such a cautious little plan impressive.

"The door's open!"

All Baimu called out, snapping Alice back to attention.

They saw the once-solid earthen wall suddenly crumble into sand, transforming into a doorway that radiated a dazzling white light.

The great door had opened.

The Pokémon stone statues... nowhere to be seen.

The two took one last look at this miraculous Mirage Tower and stepped outside.

The white light before them flickered, and yellow sand filled their vision everywhere. On a slightly distant ridge stood the sandstorm-generating Steelix. Spotting its trainer emerge, it immediately stopped rotating its horizontal steel bones and wriggled its way over.

Alice happily waved at it. "Big—"

Suddenly.

Her keenly perceptive sixth sense made her instinctively turn her head, and she saw the enormous Mirage Tower collapsing and shattering from above, with sand and gravel crashing down like a wall.

Boom!

"Danger!"

She, whose body always moved faster than her thoughts, broke into a run—even reaching out to grab All Baimu's hand—but needless to say, at the speed of her legs, she basically couldn't dodge it.

"Hold on! Agility! Gyro Ball!"

A sharp cry rang out. She only felt her arm suddenly yanked onto something smooth, then her body was abruptly pulled away by a tremendous force. A streak of silver light flashed before her eyes, and another terrifying boom sounded by her ear.

Crash!

Alice looked up and saw the gigantic Steelix spinning its horizontal steel bones to smash apart the rubble crashing down toward them. Looking down, she realized her hand had somehow grabbed onto Porygon's tail.

And All Baimu had one hand gripping Porygon's foot, the other gripping Axew's dart-like fang.

The next moment.

They had successfully reached the area outside the Mirage Tower's collapse. Porygon drifted to a sudden stop on the Gao Po with a sharp tail-swing, allowing the two humans and one Pokémon it was pulling to land safely.

Thick dust shot straight up into the sky, but a silver giant shadow could be seen moving within it.

Both All Baimu and Alice let out sighs of relief at having survived.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks!"

The two checked on each other's condition—things like whether they were injured.

The Mirage Tower's collapse had been too sudden. Honestly, All Baimu had originally thought that once the fossils left, it would vanish again like in the game—he hadn't expected it to just collapse outright.

Fortunately, Steelix and Porygon were there.

"Your driving skills are getting better, huh?"

He patted the sand off his hands and praised Porygon.

"Pari~"

Porygon happily swung its legs, never expecting that the 【High Speed】 it had painstakingly mastered through bicycle training could actually be used to rescue its Trainer — simply wonderful.

The colossal Steelix flew out from the dust cloud, seemingly unharmed as well.

A short while later.

The dust settled.

The two stared at the Mirage Tower, now reduced entirely to a pile of yellow sand, feeling some strange, indescribable emotion welling up inside — after all, they had been adventuring inside it not long ago.

"Ah! Fossils!"

All Baimu suddenly remembered the reason they had gone through so much trouble to retrieve their luggage. She opened her backpack and took out the two fossils inside. "As promised, I'll give you one! You pick!"

Baimu turned his head to look and found that, just like in the game, they were indeed the Claw Fossil and the Root Fossil.

Well preserved, the main bodies of the fossils showed no damage either.

He pulled out his phone and asked, "Would you mind if I asked a professional?"

"A professional?"

"Yeah, I plan to give it away as a gift."

Baimu nodded, and after receiving Elise's agreement, he took photos of the two fossils and sent them to Liza, who was far away in Lavaridge Town.

Without a doubt, he intended to give the fossil as a gift to Champion Dawu.

After all, he had long received considerable care from this person, yet beyond letting him study the Wishing Star, he had been unable to give any substantial return.

It really wouldn't do.

As the saying goes, courtesy demands reciprocity. Even if he had no special designs on Champion Dawu, sending the other party something he liked during festivals helped maintain and improve the relationship.

Cater to his tastes, after all.

As for keeping it for himself… honestly, rather than reviving a fossil Pokémon and training it from scratch, he'd rather use the Pokémon leads he had accumulated sooner.

That was his fated Pokémon.

His phone buzzed — it was Liza's reply.

Liza: …Don't tell me you discovered these fossils.

Baimu: To be precise, someone else discovered them, but let me pick one freely. Which one do you think suits Champion Dawu better? I want to give it to him as a gift.

Liza: Ah—Arceus above! How on earth can someone like you have such explosively good luck?! It's been how many days? Two weeks? Or just one? How many good things have you run into?!

This researcher Young Lady seemed to have gone mad from being "flexed on" by him, and began spamming the bleeding-knife emoji.

Exactly like a pay-to-win mobile gamer who had drained their savings without a single pull, only to suddenly receive a seal message saying "Newbie here, I pulled this in a single, is it any good?"

Baimu: Ahem, Miss Liza?

Liza: Don't call me Miss Liza! I don't deserve it! I don't deserve to have your LINE contact, I'm deleting it right now…

Baimu: No no no no… next time I run into a good stone, I'll give it to you, alright?

This person had helped him appraise things for free for so long, and always replied within a minute — sending a small gift was only right.

Liza: Really?

Baimu: Absolutely.

Liza: Fine then… no wait! You brat, you're showing off again, aren't you?! What do you mean "next time I run into one"! Do you think good stones are pebbles you pick up by the roadside?!

Baimu: I really didn't mean it that way. Let's get down to business — which one is in better condition?

Liza: …The Root Fossil, the one on the left. Complete structure, perfect condition, and the shape is excellent too. If a knowledgeable fossil collector saw this, they might offer tens of millions. Once hatched, it'll be a Lileep — a Pokémon Champion Dawu really likes.

Baimu: Got it, thanks. Next time there'll definitely be a generous reward.

Liza: If the "generous reward" is flexing stones at me, I'll knife you. Dead serious.

Scary, scary.

He put away his phone, and when he looked up, he found Elise interacting with Porygon and Steelix.

Even though she now knew Porygon wasn't a Dragon-type Pokémon, the latter didn't look down on it for that — instead, as Porygon displayed its power, she grew even more curious.

"I'll take this one."

Baimu picked up the Root Fossil from the ground and waved it.

"Okay~"

Without a word, Elise picked up the other fossil and stuffed it into her bag.

It was already getting late.

The two had been at it inside the Mirage Tower for nearly two hours. If they didn't hurry, they would inevitably have to bed down in the desert, which was absolutely not part of Baimu's plan.

"I'm planning to head to the Pokémon Center to the south. What about you? Where are you headed next?"

He asked.

Elise looked left and right, then gave an embarrassed, sheepish laugh. "I'm planning to go to Meteor Falls… honestly, I got lost here chasing a Flygon, I have no idea which way to go at all."

"Having a phone and still not knowing which way to go…"

Baimu was utterly speechless at this one's terrible sense of direction. "Then let's go to the Pokémon Center first and stay the night. We can talk about anything else tomorrow."

"Mm-hm!"

Elise nodded rapidly.