Chapter 465: Dark Sea God

Not good!

I'm going to be crushed by the water pressure!

The instant he was carried into the ring by Lugia, Baimu panicked and hurriedly reached for his phone—

Why reach for the phone? Because once inside that ring, only Porygon2's Teleport could save his life—hopefully he could escape before his head was crushed.

That Munchlax too!

It had rushed over in a hurry!

He didn't even have time to work up any resentment toward Lugia before the world before his eyes changed utterly, the bright park becoming a pitch-black seabed where he couldn't see his own hand, and he felt that tremendous pressure.

However.

Before Porygon2 could appear, and before Hu Pa on the other side could make any move, a blue-green sheen lit up across Lugia's body and rapidly spread outward, forming a water membrane like a giant bubble.

Air from god-knows-where rushed into Baimu's water-choked nose, making him cough uncontrollably.

The water pressure was gone!

His body, no longer feeling that dull, aching heaviness, told him Lugia had used some method to protect him and Pokémon like Munchlax.

Looks like this fellow had no intention of killing him.

"Get up here!"

He lowered his head and called out to Munchlax, who was tugging at his trouser leg; the latter, with the two Dreepy pulling at the tufts of fur on its brow, managed to cling to his chest.

"Chiyu~" Munchlax showed a relieved expression.

In his panic, he'd even forgotten that it could use Electromagnetism to float.

And after the Dreepy siblings let go of Munchlax, they collapsed onto his head in a dizzy, exhausted heap, one on top of the other.

That's way too heavy!

You have to remember Munchlax only weighs fifteen kilograms!

Baimu suddenly felt it was necessary to make these two fellows, who only knew how to eat, drink, and play, train properly—raising them like missiles wasn't going to work forever; there would come a time when he needed them to pull their weight.

At last he had some breathing room left to think calmly. He first let out a breath of relief, then strained to turn his head to look at Lugia, who was gripping his clothes in its beak, unable to figure out what this fellow actually meant.

Curiosity?

Possible—after all, Lugia had had its eye on him for a while before.

"Why are you grabbing me?"

He asked directly.

Unfortunately, the latter gave no response, merely silently shifting its gaze over to glance at him—maybe it just wasn't convenient to answer.

Baimu, who'd been given the cold shoulder, felt helpless.

He couldn't understand what words couldn't have been said back there on dry land, that it had to drag him down into the deep sea to say them—this method was a bit too overbearing.

If he hadn't trusted that Hu Pa in Desert City would definitely come rescue him, he had no idea how frustrated he would have felt.

Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.

A golden ring shimmering with light suddenly appeared not far away; big Hu Pa poked its head out from inside, and just as it was about to speak, seawater poured into its mouth. A flood of bubbles surged from the corners of its lips, and every sound turned into the noise of swallowing water.

"Gulp gulp gulp—"

Even Baimu, for all his sorry state, couldn't help laughing at the sight.

"Hahaha."

What he didn't expect was that after he laughed, the Lugia above seemed to laugh too. Its pristine white beak parted slightly, causing the clothes it was holding to slip loose, and Baimu, caught off guard, dropped straight down!

"Holy crap!"

Feeling himself in free fall, Baimu turned pale with fright. Facing downward, worried about the water membrane below, he kept praying the thing wouldn't shatter when he hit it.

But before he could touch the water membrane, the phone in his palm suddenly blazed with light.

In an instant.

The scene before his eyes changed once more; his backside jolted and he was already on Lugia's back. A clear yellow light flowed around Munchlax—it had unconsciously used Electromagnetism to float.

Too bad it still wasn't as fast as Porygon2's Teleport.

"Good thing I still have you…"

Baimu managed a smile at the Porygon2 in his phone, and for the moment didn't bother puzzling over why the latter could use moves from inside the phone.

On the other side.

"Huh?"

Lugia, who'd lowered its head and didn't see Baimu, was startled. Hearing the sound, it hurriedly turned its head and only then spotted his figure, its eyes widening in surprise—clearly it hadn't expected him to have such a trick.

After all, even for a legendary Pokémon, something like a phone was probably mostly beyond its understanding.

The golden ring opened again.

This time it appeared beside Baimu. Big Hu Pa poked its head out as usual and rumbled in a muffled voice: "Little White, you okay?"

"I'm fine—and call me Baimu."

He pressed down on the huge head big Hu Pa leaned over. Even without its "skyward braids," this fellow's Unbound form was six or seven meters tall; its thick magenta fur formed a bushy beard, and its teeth were long and sharp like rows of steel nails—quite terrifying.

Unfortunately, for all its fierce appearance, this Pokémon spoke with the logic of a ten-year-old child; its voice was a deep man's, but it sounded dopey and silly—it was just weird.

"Oh."

Big Hu Pa nodded, then pulled its head back in and said: "You'd better come back quick—Balza and Mei Mei Yali are worried sick."

Seeing this, Baimu instinctively prepared to step through with Munchlax.

Suddenly.

A whale's cry sounded by his ear.

"Wooo~~"

【Wait!】

In a daze, the whale's cry turned into a hoarse hiss.

He stopped his steps abruptly, his expression shifting rapidly before he said, "Could you give me half an hour? Come back and pick me up in half an hour."

"Half an hour? What are you doing, Xiao-Bai?" Hu Pa asked, puzzled.

All Baimu pointed his head in this direction, silently staring at the Lugia behind his back, and replied, "It seems this one here has something it wants from me, though I don't know why."

"…Oh."

Hu Pa obediently nodded, without a single word of objection.

Such a compliant attitude inevitably stirred All Baimu's curiosity, so he asked, "Hu Pa, why are you always willing to agree to my various requests? Have you never thought of refusing? It's clearly such a bother for you."

That question sounds downright ungrateful—when someone's putting their heart and soul into helping you, you still ask them why.

But he really was curious.

Clearly a Pokémon known for being restless, mischievous, and rowdy, yet now it does whatever it's told, as if it were his Pokémon; and by the same token, Balza and Mei Mei Yali had never said a single "no" either.

"Huh?"

Hu Pa was clearly stunned by the question, then said in surprise, "Because Hu Pa already said it would help Xiao-Bai and the Oh-Ren people, right? Things that can be done with the rings are nothing to Hu Pa!"

It suddenly lowered its voice. "Xiao-Bai, you know what? There are things the rings can't do either. For example, becoming a Pokémon Master—the rings can't make that happen for Xiao-Zhi! So anything the rings can do isn't a big deal!"

That really is… a simple and plain reason.

All Baimu suddenly realized that when Hu Pa had been shouting at the Pokémon Center about wanting to help the Oh-Ren people, it absolutely wasn't just lip service or a passing fancy.

It genuinely intended to help the Oh-Ren region, and right now it was actively doing everything within its power.

To be honest, he felt a little embarrassed.

Especially since earlier he had been thinking about how the punished Hu Pa was still so cheeky, when in fact the creature plainly possessed a rare, pure heart—calling it made of gold wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Its whole heart was filled with the purest of intentions.

Shameful, truly shameful.

But this "Pokémon Master" thing…

All Baimu laughed despite himself; in the countless anime over there in Neon, the protagonists always especially love loudly declaring their dreams to others.

Like Luffy, and also like the anime's absolute protagonist, Ash.

That one is always shouting—"My dream is to become a Pokémon Master"—just like chanting some great magic skill, and Hu Pa was no exception, having heard that line.

He hoped that one day he'd get the chance to hear Ash say it in person.

Thinking this, All Baimu pulled a Pokéblock from his pocket. "Thanks, here's a little snack for you as a reward."

"A little snack?"

Hu Pa instinctively opened its mouth, then said, "Is it a donut? Hu Pa loves donuts the most… mmm mmm mmm… this one looks pretty good too."

It chewed on the Pokéblock, which could barely fill a gap between its teeth, yet ate it with incredible sweetness.

After all, the quality spoke for itself; although Hu Pa certainly loved donuts, it wasn't as if it couldn't eat anything that wasn't a donut.

"When we get back, I'll make donuts by hand to thank you," All Baimu said. Seeing its eyes light up slightly, he reached out and patted its head. "Right now the important thing comes first—please come pick me up in half an hour, or I'll use my phone to contact Mei Mei Yali and the others."

"Oh~ Hu Pa will be looking forward to the donuts~"

Hu Pa retracted its head, and the golden rings vanished along with it.

After the light faded.

All that remained around him was the light from the water membrane Lugia had spread open. Seeing that All Baimu hadn't left, it seemed to heave a sigh of relief and continued gliding forward an unknown number of meters.

All Baimu had the mind to ask where it was headed, but a remark from Porygon2 made him abandon the thought.

'Lugia is very tense right now. My scan results tell me that all of its stats are in an abnormal state.'

"Stats? Scanning? Since when do you have these abilities?"

'Of course I developed them myself.'

Facing his trainer's question, Porygon2 answered very honestly: 'A few days ago, based on the leftover files in my own database, I barely managed to connect to the Porygon2 shared network.'

"The shared network!?"

All Baimu was slightly stunned, then immediately frowned deeply. "Why didn't you tell me? When we can't confirm whether Unit Zero's claim is correct, what you did is very dangerous, you know."

'Fortune favors the bold… alright, fine, I know I messed up, and I know you definitely wouldn't have agreed to me being reckless, but with a gateway like that right in front of me, how could I not explore it…'

Porygon2 seemed to have endless reasons, leaving him both angry and helpless.

Once Pokémon become extremely intelligent, the first change is "acting on their own initiative"—as independent individuals, they aren't puppets; they have their own thoughts and their own plans.

Even Ash's Pikachu has acted on its own behind the scenes, let alone Porygon2.

All Baimu could understand, but the hurt was unavoidable.

Back when it was still a Porygon, it would tell him whenever it encountered anything strange, ask for his thoughts, and seek his help—but now…

On the screen.

Porygon2 suddenly closed its mouth. Seeing the look of disappointment on its trainer's face, it was a little panicked. It had prepared a thousand reasons for itself, had planned to show off its results, and had even steeled itself for a scolding.

But the moment it saw its trainer's expression, it forgot every single reason. Even though all kinds of responses were recorded in its database, at this moment it was as if they had been wiped clean, leaving it unable to pick any response at all.

'I-I… I won't do it again, please don't be mad. Mawile, say something for me…'

The completely at-a-loss Porygon2 flew straight out of the phone and called for help from the Mawile beside it.

The latter simply turned away and ignored it.

Don't just toss the trouble you've caused onto someone else, okay!

The Dreepy siblings exchanged a glance, decided this wasn't the moment for them to speak, and unanimously shut their mouths, shrinking back timidly.

"Pli…"

The flustered Porygon2 carefully looked at All Baimu. At this point it truly didn't know what to do. The latter, for his part, wore a sighing expression, said nothing, and simply reached out to pat its head.

There was nothing to agonize over.

It was perfectly normal for Porygon2 to have its own ideas. Way back at the beginning, Professor Akihabara had warned him that Porygon2 was a very intelligent Pokémon—if the trust level wasn't high enough, it would easily look down on him and then "abandon" him.

Looking at it this way, Porygon2 was just doing what it wanted with its own little plan, and not only did it come out unscathed, it even produced results — so what's there to scold?

He really should trust his own Pokémon more!

Just like he trusted Hu Pa.

"Don't panic, I'm not angry. I just feel that times have changed. That Porygon of back then has really grown up!" All Baimu said, quite gratified.

"Pry…"

Porygon2 once again lost its words.

Before they could continue their conversation.

Lugia began to rise, charging straight toward the sea surface at a terrifyingly extreme speed.

Baimu instinctively grabbed the plumes on its back to keep himself from sliding off, and his upward gaze passed through the membrane of water, suddenly revealing the blue-white glowing sea surface at the very top.

The next instant.

Boom!

He only felt a muffled boom in his ears.

Lugia's massive body carried him and his group of Pokémon away from the seabed and up above the surface of the sea!

Baimu opened his eyes wide. The membrane of water surrounding him had vanished at some unknown point, revealing above a boundless azure sky, and below a vast ocean and a verdant island ringed by sea on all sides.

This place… could it be Lugia's secluded island?

While he was lost in thought, the latter had already flown toward the island, its deep-blue dorsal fin swaying in the wind, silver light glittering atop its plumes.

Its enormous figure swept over the sea surface, startling several Wingull and Pelipper resting on the water into flight, sending white feathers fluttering across the sky.

The dazzling scene left Baimu breathless.

A short while later.

Lugia flew into the island, nimbly weaving through the dense forest and only brushing aside a few branches, before landing beside a mountain stream covered in scattered rocks.

"Wooo~"

Baimu obediently climbed down exactly as it instructed.

This island was extraordinarily beautiful. Even with just a fleeting glimpse, he still felt that the place was a picture of mountains and clear waters, like a paradise beyond this world — far better than the Water Curtain Cave where Lugia and its young had previously stayed.

But the question was, what matter did the Lugia living here need his help with?

He turned around, only to find the silver-white great bird lying prone by the water's edge, its whole body twitching weakly, wisps and threads of black Qi seeping out from it, as if about to leave deep imprints.

Suddenly.

"Wooo—!

"

Lugia raised its head and let out an incomparably agonized cry that echoed through the entire forest.

This is—!

Is it about to turn into a Dark Lugia?

Baimu's face was full of astonishment.