Who needs a girlfriend when you have Pokémon?

"Are you okay?"

Lo Wei held Lillie in his arms. The latter was still a little dazed, and after realizing the situation, she was also a little embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, I was too nervous just now. Um... I'm fine now..."

"Okay, that's good~"

As soon as Rowe let go, he put Lillie down, and then...

"...Um, Masked Cat, I'm fine now too."

Although Loewy said that, the big cat showed no intention of letting go; on the contrary, it seemed to be taking the opportunity to hug him even tighter...

"……Hello!"

Although he found it both funny and frustrating, Luo Wei thought about it and gave up arguing. This series of unexpected events had caused a bit of chaos, and he needed to process the situation first.

At that very moment, a golden-red flame melted the rock wall amidst the rubble. Aysa, carrying Dr. Solans on her shoulder, successfully escaped with the lava snail and reunited with Rowe's group.

Looking at Aysa, who was clearly only a young girl, yet was able to lift Dr. Solans, a middle-aged man of standard build, with one hand, Luo Wei couldn't help but feel a deep respect for her.

Girl, you're a real hero!

"Alright, we should be safe here for now..."

Aysa put Dr. Solans down, and at the same time, she looked at Rowe, sighed, and scratched her hair helplessly.

"Um, that was a bit chaotic earlier, sorry. Let me reintroduce myself now. My name is Aysa, the current Gym Leader of LavaCity. Nice to meet you..."

"Um, my name is Luo Wei. I was assigned to help Daigo, but I'm sorry, I wasn't much of a help in the end..."

Rowe sounded apologetic, but Aysa quickly shook her head, "No, no, no, that's not true. If it weren't for Rowe, the meteorite would have been taken by Team Ocean long ago..."

Although that's what they say, in the end the meteorite wasn't taken by Team Ocean, but by Team Lava. It seems that there wasn't much difference in the outcome, at least from the perspective of the League.

"I didn't expect even the hidden Meteor Dwellers to appear, and why would the Meteor Dwellers assist the Team Aqua? What's going on here..."

Over there, Dr. Solans was muttering to himself, clearly still reeling from the shock of what had just happened.

"Well, there's no other way. Let's go to the Pokémon Center to rest for a bit, and then we can discuss what to do next."

Chapter 143 Even Capitalists Wept

Back at the Pokémon Center, the first thing Rowe did was take a quick shower, finally feeling refreshed and energized.

When he returned to the room, he saw Aysha seemingly communicating with someone. She clasped her hands together above her head, bowed deeply at a ninety-degree angle, and her tone was full of self-reproach...

"...I'm sorry, I didn't protect the meteorite properly, and this happened."

"No, you can't be entirely blamed for this..."

Daigo's voice came from the other end of the communication. Luo Wei composed himself and gently knocked twice on the door.

"Luo Wei?"

This room is a rest room specially prepared for Aysha. Its size and facilities are much better than those of a standard room. Of course, this is also a standard benefit. The number of badges obtained serves as the corresponding identity verification. After obtaining the registration status of an elite trainer, one can receive many additional benefits.

As a Gym Leader, Aysa naturally enjoys more benefits, including the ability to possess Ultra Balls, which can only be used by Gym Leaders and have a higher catch rate than Red and White Balls and Great Balls. These are the Poké Balls with the highest catch rate, excluding Master Balls and a bunch of special Tree Balls used in special cases.

There are many other additional benefits, such as the rest areas specially prepared by the Pokémon Center, which have complete facilities and a good environment.

Of course, these benefits are not free. Becoming a Pokémon Trainer means taking on a certain responsibility of helping the League maintain order. As for Gym Leaders and Elite Four, they are specifically responsible for most of the security work within their respective jurisdictions.

Although in many places such a setting would inevitably breed a group of parasites who occupy positions without doing any work and are paid without contributing, this is the Pokémon world. Basically, every extra benefit that the League spends on these elite trainers and gym leaders is rewarded with equal or even greater labor.

That dojo owner was truly exceptionally dedicated and hardworking in his daily work; even the capitalist would be moved to tears...

Therefore, ordinary trainers would never feel any resentment about being treated differently. They are capable of doing this job, so they should naturally enjoy better benefits.

So, when she failed to complete the task entrusted to her by the Alliance, Aysa was filled with remorse. The room should have been quite soundproof, but Rowe could faintly hear her apologetic voice through the door...

After Luo Wei entered the room, Daigo on the other end of the communication channel immediately greeted him, and Luo Wei also responded apologetically.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't much help this time either..."

“No…” Daigo replied calmly, “…Love was someone we invited to help, so you have no obligation to take responsibility for this. Besides, it was a misjudgment on our part. If we had known it would turn out like this, we should have moved the meteorite to a different location for protection in the first place.”

In this situation, considering the raw power, the League has assigned Gym Leader Asa and Rowe, whose strength is comparable to that of a Gym Leader. This is equivalent to assigning two Gym Leaders at once, which shows considerable attention to the matter.

Under normal circumstances, you might not encounter such a situation twice a year, which is already considered a major annual event.

Looking at the opposing team's lineup, there was the leader and two executives of Team Aqua, the leader and executives of Team Magma, and a mysterious person of unknown identity carrying a strange Pokémon with the attribute "Null".

While our team is indeed relatively weaker if the opposing team teams up, the problem is that they are not allies themselves.

Team Magma and Team Ocean are bound to clash. The mysterious figure appears to be a third-party force. In reality, our strength is no weaker than either of the opposing teams.

Anyway, if a battle really breaks out, and we coordinate well, protecting the meteorite shouldn't be a problem for our side.

The problem was that the location was poorly chosen; the battlefield was a large cave, a place that severely restricted movement, making it impossible to fight freely and effectively.

Even worse, the final gas explosion could threaten everyone, ultimately because the cavern is a confined space.

If this were a wide, open plain, any gas explosion would be blown away by a gust of wind.

This raises another question: given the harsh environment, why not move the meteorite to a safer place for protection?

This involves three issues. First, as mentioned before, this meteorite itself has special significance. It has been buried in Meteor Falls for thousands of years, and moving it to a different location would really require taking into account many factors.

The second problem is that there isn't enough time either. We just found out that the Ocean Team was planning to take the meteorite, and they've already started their operation.

The third and most crucial issue is that the complex terrain inside the large cave system should have provided some protection against meteorites being hidden there.

Who knew that there was a descendant of the Meteor Clan on the other side who knew the internal structure of Meteor Falls perfectly, so much so that this natural maze did not stop him at all.

"Wait a minute..." Lowe immediately thought of a question, "Team Ocean could be said to have had help, which is why they were able to find the meteorite so quickly, but what about Team Lava?"

Lowe himself crossed from the waterfall side, which has fewer forks in the road. Gardevoir's psychic detection was also helpful, and it was precisely because Aysa and Team Aqua were fighting that Gardevoir was able to find a target so quickly.

Under normal circumstances, even if Rowe takes the route around the back of the falls, it would still take him some time to find it.

It seems the lava team didn't come from behind the falls, but rather from another direction. How did they find their way through this maze-like cavern?

Was it good luck? Or did they have someone to guide them?

"I don't know for now, but the Lava Team arrived the latest, so they probably really did rely on telekinesis to find their way here. Didn't they also bring two Dream Eaters with them?"

"Hmm, that's possible. So the problem lies with the descendants of the Meteor Dwellers and that mysterious person. The Pokémon that mysterious person carried can't be scanned into the Pokédex..."

Indeed, no one at the scene recognized the Pokémon the other person was carrying; it was definitely a mysterious Pokémon that had never been recorded in any previous records.

Speaking of this, it naturally brings to mind those things that have been causing quite a stir lately...

"...So, Rowe suspects that the Pokémon that mysterious person was carrying...is an Ultra Beast?"

Chapter 144 Artificial Pokémon

"Lowe suspects that Pokémon is an Ultra Beast?"

"No, it shouldn't be... After all, it didn't appear with that kind of aura, and there's no record of Ultra Beasts being captured so far, right?"

Indeed, while there may be exceptions, at least for now, Attribute: Void is not an Ultra Beast.

However, it cannot be said that it has nothing to do with Ultra Beasts, because in a sense, the Type: Empty is a man-made Pokémon specifically created to deal with Ultra Beasts.

"I don't think that strange Pokémon is an Ultra Beast; it's more like a man-made Pokémon!"

"?!"

Upon hearing this, Aysa and Steven were immediately moved, for no other reason than that "artificial Pokémon" were an absolute taboo in this world.

Just like androids... technically, it's already possible to break through, but because androids involve too many ethical issues, this technology is mostly sealed off, including things like human modification. In any worldview that is still within the normal range of values, this is an absolute taboo.

Needless to say, the Pokémon universe is also considered to be tainted by both humans and Pokémon. The most famous example of artificial Pokémon to date is Team Rocket's masterpiece...

...The protagonist of "Mewtwo Strikes Back," a classic in Pokémon history and the highest-grossing Pokémon movie in the series...the incredibly popular Pokémon "Mewtwo"...is an artificial Pokémon.

This work also explores many profound and serious topics that are relevant to the worldview of TV animation, including the power and awakening of artificial life.

In short, Team Rocket's notoriety is partly due to their experiments on modifying Pokémon, which are considered inhumane acts.

Artificial Pokémon are an absolutely taboo topic, so much so that even Steven, the champion, and Aysa, the gym leader, remained silent for a moment.

"This is not a conclusion that can be drawn lightly. If this really is a man-made Pokémon, then the nature of the matter is completely different!"

"Yes, but given the current situation... I think there's a very high chance that the Pokémon is a man-made one!"

To be fair, Luo Wei was well aware of the implications and stakes involved, so under normal circumstances, he wouldn't dare to draw such a conclusion so easily.

But since Luo Wei had read the script and knew the attribute setting of "empty", he dared to clearly state that he knew the other party must be a man-made Pokémon.

This silenced Daigo...

"...Aside from Team Rocket, are there any other organizations with the technological capability to create artificial Pokémon?"

Indeed, aside from ethical issues, the bigger problem with artificial Pokémon is the technology. So far, there are probably only two organizations that can be confirmed to possess such outrageous technology.

One is Team Rocket, who created the artificial Pokémon Mewtwo by studying the genes of "Mew". As a result, the Cinnabar Island Research Laboratory, where Mewtwo was born, was completely destroyed. The project leader, Blaine, is still atoning for his actions.

The other organization is the League, of course... the League only confirms that it has such technical capabilities, but it has never actually created artificial Pokémon.

As a manifestation of technological prowess, it is the "fossil resurrection technology"... capable of extracting DNA from fossils and cultivating it into a healthy adult. With such technology, it would certainly not be difficult to create artificial Pokémon.

However, this cutting-edge technology is firmly controlled by the alliance and is currently only used in scientific research fields such as fossil resurrection.

In addition, it seems that there was an ancient kingdom in the super-ancient era that created artificial Pokémon, but those were not biological Pokémon, but rather Pokémon similar to "Machine Golem".

The types of Pokémon are very broad. Pokémon like Magneton are basically completely unrelated to "flesh and blood".

In short, excluding ambiguous forms like mechanical puppets, the one with the attribute "empty" is undoubtedly a creature. So, what other organization has such technological capabilities?

Actually, the answer is already obvious...

"...Ether Foundation"

Daigo couldn't help but sigh, and the logic was even very complete. Wasn't Lillie the one who decided to escape from the Aether Foundation because she discovered that her mother seemed to be using Pokémon to make live specimens?

The Aether Foundation already has extensive technical research in fields such as biotechnology and medicine. Using Pokémon to create live specimens seems to be preliminary research for the creation of artificial Pokémon.