Chapter 408: The

Porygon was asleep.

It was the main fighter in tomorrow afternoon's battle, so it had to make sure its energy was fully topped up.

Baimu, who had been "educated" by himself after waking in the middle of the night, couldn't sleep, and looking at the trust levels of those five hearts filled him with a bit of worry.

Although it wasn't realistic to expect the apology just now to raise the trust levels, he really had entertained that thought.

The final result was as shown in the picture.

No increase.

Hopefully tomorrow's Gym Challenge could find a breakthrough.

Baimu thought to himself, then rewatched the video Porygon had displayed a few times; watching something like this late at night really gave the feeling of watching a horror movie.

Where on earth did this Phantom Porygon come from?

Of course, he didn't forget to send a copy to Professor Akihabara and his assistant fellow either; the situation with Porygon definitely needed everyone's joint research, and these two might be able to give him a definitive answer.

He had planned to turn off his phone and go to sleep, but the moment he locked the screen, it lit up again — it was Professor Akihabara's reply.

Huh? Isn't this guy terribly busy?

Why is he replying in the middle of the night?

Baimu tapped it open curiously, and immediately saw a string of exclamation marks, from which he managed to pick out a few words, along with an attached image.

Professor Akihabara: Unit Zero! It must be Unit Zero!

The image showed a clump of pixels forming what appeared to be a Porygon-Z.

God knows where the professor had captured that frame; Baimu compared them for the longest time and still couldn't match them up — he could only say, worthy of being the creator of three kinds of Porygon.

Baimu: Unit Zero? That can't be, isn't it missing? How could it appear in New Zi Jin's cyberspace?

Professor Akihabara: I don't know, but my intuition tells me this guy is definitely Unit Zero! You wait, I'm getting on a plane right now, this time I have to catch it! I can't let it wander around out there anymore!

After the problem in Battle Town was resolved, the professor went back to Kanto. Flying from Kanto, it probably wouldn't even take two hours, right?

Of course.

The premise is that there has to be a flight.

There aren't many flights from around the world to Hoenn — after all, with Rayquaza treating the sky as its territory, although this guy doesn't attack planes, it does chase them, and the high-altitude air currents it stirs up affect the aircraft.

It's terrifying.

Baimu thought for a moment, then typed: Didn't it apparently wreck your lab? Have there been any other incidents of it causing trouble since?

Professor Akihabara: I haven't heard of any other incidents of trouble, to be honest I still don't know what it's trying to do, it'd be best if I could have a proper chat with it in person……

According to what the professor himself revealed, Porygon-Z's birth had a factor of Unit Zero's own efforts, which suggested this guy might be after a higher step of "evolution."

Like evolving one more time or something.

Probably impossible, Pokémon can only evolve at most four times, and the fourth evolution is short-duration and can't be sustained……

Wait!

Maybe Unit Zero came to Hoenn to seek a way to Mega Evolve?

Baimu had a bold guess, but whether the Phantom Porygon and the red-and-blue object the professor had captured were actually Porygon-Z was still unconfirmed.

Maybe it's a Ghost Porygon?

Perhaps he could consult with Tyson; as the mechanical engineer who brought in Rotom, he might know something.

But Professor Akihabara seemed dead set on coming to New Zi Jin.

If this guy really is Unit Zero, would the professor's capture operation cause problems with New Zi Jin's network? It was entirely possible the internet would just blow up.

Hmm……

Baimu suddenly thought of a very serious problem.

Unit Zero putting on that strange phantom show in front of Porygon — the possibility of it doing it for no reason just for kicks was low; it was most likely interested in Porygon and had the intention of running off with it.

That won't do!

He watched his phone warily, then suspected whether Porygon had actually managed to shake that guy off — was it possible his phone was already being monitored by Porygon-Z?

Thinking of this, Baimu immediately turned off his phone and cut off all the internet in the room, and while pondering he also remembered Mawile's phone, and hurriedly ran over to turn that one off too.

"Should be fine now, right?"

He lay down on the bed, looked at the unfamiliar ceiling, and gently closed his eyes.

A quiet night passed without incident.

The next day.

Baimu opened his eyes at dawn, and the undisturbed room let him quietly heave a sigh of relief.

He was still rather worried about Unit Zero coming to the door to forcibly take Porygon, so he hadn't slept at all, merely closing his eyes for a short rest.

Fortunately, this body was young and strong, so pulling an all-nighter was nothing to fear.

"Chite!"

The newly awakened Mawile went to fiddle with its phone first thing — it was still in the novelty phase with this thing — only to find that what had worked yesterday wouldn't turn on today.

Broken?

That can't be.

It hadn't done anything either.

Mawile guiltily glanced at the waking Baimu, then ran off to ask Porygon about the phone situation.

The only one at home who understood electronics was this blocky duck; the rest were all fighting idiots, including Chansey, who couldn't figure out this human technology either.

"Chite~"

Mawile, clutching the phone, gently nudged Porygon, who was curled up on the sofa.

"Pa... li..."

Porygon opened its eyes, blank and dazed, taking a good several seconds to come to its senses like a machine booting up, then looked at Mawile holding up the phone, "Pali?"

"Chirido!"

Bibarel glanced toward the bathroom again, quickly asking about Porygon's situation on the phone.

The latter looked down at the phone, and after a few seconds told Bibarel to hold it steady, then pressed its mouth against the side button on the lock screen and held it there for a moment; the screen lit up at once, and it slipped inside.

Seeing the phone wasn't broken, Bibarel let out a long breath. "Chirido~"

Such an expensive thing breaking on its second day in hand — it really couldn't explain itself to the Trainer.

All Baimu finished washing up and came out, just in time to see Bibarel glued to the phone, so he went over to give it a heads-up, and along the way reminded Porygon inside the phone as well.

The two of them couldn't help but look a little dumbfounded.

Zero Unit? Running off with Porygon?

The Bibarel beside them leaned in to listen too, wearing a thoughtful expression, and said that yesterday Porygon had suddenly appeared out of nowhere for no apparent reason.

So that's what had happened.

"In any case, all of you stay alert — especially you, Porygon. If it really is Zero Unit, it probably has designs on you. You absolutely have to resist its temptation! Guard the home network with your life! Don't let the enemy's sugar-coated bullets wear you down!"

He said it with the air of a man lecturing tirelessly.

Bibarel nodded along at his words — it couldn't play on the phone without Porygon; otherwise it wouldn't be able to work the thing.

"Pli~"

Porygon's reply came through the phone's speaker.

The other Pokémon were informed one by one of what had happened. Their comprehension levels differed, so explaining it was a bit of a hassle, but at least every Pokémon had been given a warning.

——

New Zi Jin Food Plaza

Come Come Come Xuan.

All Baimu had come here on purpose for breakfast.

He'd expected to find nostalgic foods like xiaolongbao, soy milk, and youtiao, but the shopkeeper regretfully informed him they only had dumplings — pan-fried ones, to be precise.

Not even plain porridge with pickled vegetables.

"That'll do, I guess."

He nodded helplessly and turned down the owner's suggestion that he order fried rice.

Who eats fried rice first thing in the morning!

Maybe it was just that he hadn't had pan-fried dumplings in ages, but he actually found them pretty tasty — pity the dipping sauce was a bit thin, the vinegar tasted like water, and the chili lacked punch.

Negative review!

The vinegar-pickled wild jellyfish with cucumber was unexpectedly delicious — the translucent thin slices really did have a jellyfish-like texture, crunch-crunch, very chewy and satisfying.

He'd looked up wild jellyfish last night when he got back and discovered that, taxonomically speaking, the thing had been reclassified as a wood-ear Pokémon that walks on its tentacles; when it whipped them around at speed it looked downright cursed.

The designers after Zhu Zi really are twisted geniuses.

Still, as long as it tastes good, that's all that matters.

All Baimu and Porygon ate with great gusto, occasionally picking up a few dumplings and wood-ear pieces and placing them in front of Bibarel across the table. The latter ate while watching cartoons, mouth smeared with oil without a care, utterly absorbed.

He was increasingly convinced he'd bought Bibarel nothing but a video player.

Around ten in the morning.

Professor Akihabara arrived at New Zi Jin Station without incident. All Baimu had gone out of his way to meet him, and found the man hauling a heavy big suitcase, panting like anything.

"What's this?"

He took it from him and was startled by the weight.

"This is the computer I designed specifically for catching Zero Unit!"

Professor Akihabara chuckled, then looked around in confusion. "Where's your car?"

"I'm not even of age — where would I get a car?"

All Baimu shook his head and raised a hand to hail a taxi, only to find Professor Akihabara staring at him in utter shock. "Uh, what?"

"You're a minor?! I always assumed you were an adult!" The latter's voice was full of disbelief.

He gave a noncommittal shrug.

They got in the car.

All Baimu had planned to take Professor Akihabara to inner New Zi Jin — his own place — but the Professor said he had an acquaintance in New Zi Jin City, and besides, domestic power couldn't meet this computer's demands.

That explanation only made him more curious about the big, heavy machine.

In no time the two of them arrived at a research institute on the outskirts of New Zi Jin City.

A young man in a white lab coat was already waiting at the entrance; the moment he spotted them he came right over.

"Professor Akihabara!"

The young man introduced himself: "I'm Professor Nasu's assistant, Inamura. I was specifically assigned to assist you — and this is?"

Without waiting for All Baimu to answer, Professor Akihabara jumped in: "This is my assistant, All Baimu! Enough small talk — take us somewhere properly secure!"

He couldn't wait to catch Zero Unit and bring it back.

Seeing the situation, Inamura dropped the idea of giving them a tour of the institute and led them to a glaringly white research room, where a huge hollow black cube in the center caught All Baimu's eye.

"Oh, oh! This is it! The miniature electromagnetic shielding device!"

Professor Akihabara's eyes lit up; he stepped forward and ran his hand over the hollow cube. "With this, Zero Unit won't be able to escape! Fantastic!"

That thing… why does it look so much like the machine Zossie used to catch Cosmog?

All Baimu glanced at the cube a couple of times — aside from being bigger, there didn't seem to be much difference, assuming his memory wasn't playing tricks.

He opened the luggage.

A desktop tower that looked like a straight-up enlarged PC case came into view.

Under Professor Akihabara's guidance, he hooked the machine up to some computer parts already in the research room and got it running. As the various indicator lights flickered on one after another, a wave of sci-fi atmosphere washed over him.

All Baimu turned his head and saw Dr. Akihabara pulling Poké Balls out nonstop — he'd taken out roughly six of them and was opening each one in turn.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang—

Light flashed in rapid succession.

Five rounded Porygon2 appeared. Compared with the angular, regressed Porygon, Porygon2's defining trait was that every part of its body was made of curves with no edges or corners.

It had gone from one extreme to the other.

But what All Baimu paid more attention to was the very last one — a Porygon-Z whose body was inverted, its head separated from its torso, its yellow eyes looking rather strange.

"This is… Unit-01?"

"That's right!"

Dr. Akihabara nodded with full confidence and said with a smile, "I've modified Unit-01's patch program for the Nth time now, and added a Hunter Program into the bargain!"

"…Hunter Program?"

"It's a program I made specifically to capture Unit-00. Back when Unit-00 was stolen and misused by Team Rocket, I wrote the first version of the Hunter Program and gave it to Unit-01 so it could help a group of kids chase down Unit-00. I'm sure this time will go smoothly too!"

Dr. Akihabara declared with absolute certainty.

But the more he talked like that, the more All Baimu felt something bad was about to happen — because this man always managed to come up with some wildly outlandish ideas.

The device that transmitted humans into cyberspace was also his invention. If he hadn't invented it back then, there wouldn't have been nearly so much trouble — and Unit-00 writing that suspicious patch to complete its final evolution into Porygon-Z had also been carried out with his tacit approval.

In short, this man's nerve was enormous.

All Baimu looked at the Porygon2 lined up in neat formation like an army, undergoing Unit-01 Porygon-Z's inspection, and his heart grew increasingly uncertain.

Soon the operation began.

Dr. Akihabara said he'd already contacted New Zi Jin City's cybersecurity department, and they'd given him permission to act against Unit-00 — which dispelled one of All Baimu's concerns.

The Unit-00 capture army charged into New Zi Jin City's cyberspace.

To ensure Unit-01 wouldn't take the chance to escape, Dr. Akihabara used a computer he'd specially built to leave an identification system inside cyberspace — once Unit-00 passed through any information port, there would be a response.

"This… is this illegal?"

All Baimu listened to Dr. Akihabara's boasting and asked tentatively.

After all, it sounded awfully like leaving a backdoor in someone else's computer.

Dr. Akihabara's torrent of words came to an abrupt halt, but soon resumed, and All Baimu's question was naturally ignored by him.

Holy crap!

This doctor was really asking for a prison sentence!

All Baimu couldn't help glancing at Inamura — if this young man went out and reported it… huh? Why are you wearing such a matter-of-course, admiring expression?

Wow!

These two!

"It's fine — I've already helped Dr. Akihabara obtain authorization from Officer Jenny." A voice suddenly sounded behind him.

All Baimu turned his head and saw the speaker was an old man with a grizzled beard.

"Dr. Nasu!"

Dr. Akihabara's shriek reached his ears, telling him who this person was.

【Nasu Yoshiyuki】, the owner of this research institute — he never appeared in the original anime, but he was a fellow alumnus of Professor Oak's from Rainbow University.

His main research focus was the three super-ancient Pokémon of the Hoenn region—

Online sources say Dr. Nasu has considerable ties to both Team Magma and Team Aqua.