Pokémon: Who told him to come out of Pallet Town!

Chapter 685 Binhai City Landfill

"He's incredibly skilled with his hands!" Grandma Xiaotian said, getting more and more excited, her eyes lighting up.

"Later, he got tired of being scolded by his parents for tinkering at home, so he built himself a small cubicle in my junkyard using scrap wood and sheet metal he found!"

"It was like... a little doghouse, but filled with all his tools and 'treasures'!"

"Every night, when it's quiet, he sneaks over and stays inside until the middle of the night! I even cover for him and never tell his parents!"

Grandma Xiaotian acted as if she had a "discerning eye and a keen eye for talent," as if Akari's success today was entirely due to her allowing him to collect garbage and providing him with a "secret base" back then.

As Natsume listened to this almost absurd "rags-to-riches" story, he internally scoffed.

But his keen intuition led him to discover a crucial piece of information: in the junkyard, there was a "secret base" that Chi Ri had built himself during his childhood!

A withdrawn child, obsessed with mechanics, builds his own little world in a junkyard, far removed from his parents' constraints...

Even though the Red Sun has grown up, could some of its original dreams, or... something more important, still be hidden there?

Grandma Oda, who manages the landfill, is now being treated kindly by Akatsuki, and Natsume thinks this is very likely.

Natsume remained calm and continued to probe, "So Mr. Akari has such a past experience."

"That junkyard...is it still there?"

"Yes, it's still here! Although it's been expanded, the old location is still there!"

Grandma Xiaotian pointed in the direction west of Binhai City.

"That largest integrated processing plant in the western suburbs is now under my son's management! Chi Ri is sentimental; after he became successful, he bought that land, saying he wanted to preserve something as a memento. He even put me in charge of this new plant, saying it's easy and pays well!"

Natsume suddenly understood; he had been looking for a newly built, high-tech base.

But they overlooked the most primal place, the one most likely to bear the weight of the burning passion and the origin of secrets—that childhood junkyard.

He immediately gave the "Coastal Clean Energy Innovation R&D Center" the highest praise, offered a few perfunctory compliments on Grandma Xiaotian's effective management, and then quickly turned and left.

"snort!"

Grandma Oda felt she deserved most of the credit after reading Natsume's evaluation, and in a great mood, she hummed a song as she walked toward the front desk.

Leaving the glamorous but fruitless energy research and development center, Natsume didn't linger and headed straight for the western outskirts of Binhai City.

According to Grandma Oda's description, that place used to be the largest waste recycling station in Binhai City, and is now a comprehensive processing plant that was acquired and transformed by Akahi.

The closer you get to the western suburbs, the more complex the smells in the air become.

It's no longer the smell of clean energy and industrial agents found in the city center, but a unique odor mixed with the smell of rusted metal, aging plastic, and fermenting organic matter.

But it wasn't pungent, which shows that the environmental protection measures here are quite effective.

In the distance, a vast area enclosed by a high wall came into view.

The wall is a simple gray color, covered with pollution-resistant vines.

The huge metal gate was wide open, and fully enclosed garbage trucks were constantly coming and going, making the place seem unusually busy.

The sign above the entrance reads "Binhai City Resource Recycling Comprehensive Processing Center," and it certainly looks like a formal, modern municipal facility.

Natsume once again brandished his "all-purpose" prosecutor's badge and easily entered the factory area.

He was received by a man who claimed to be the person in charge of the factory area.

Upon entering the processing area, Natsume's gaze was immediately drawn to the scene before him.

Unlike the traditional landfill he had imagined, which was filled with sewage and swarms of flies, this place was more like a highly automated, futuristic mechanical factory.

The huge factory has a spacious interior, with conveyor belts crisscrossing like long steel dragons, transporting various types of waste to different processing areas.

What's most astonishing is that the "workers" busily working beside the conveyor belts, on the sorting tables, and even among the mountains of garbage are not human, but industrial robots with simple designs and precise movements. These robots are all the same model, with streamlined metal shells and flexible mechanical arms, and they are tirelessly performing tasks such as sorting, compressing, and preliminary crushing.

Their sensors flashed a regular red light, efficient and silent; apart from the hum of the machines, almost no human voices could be heard in the entire workshop.

"These are the latest industrial sorting robots from Universe Intelligence,"

Seeing Natsume stop to observe, the person in charge took the initiative to introduce the product, his tone tinged with pride: "It is dozens of times more efficient than manual labor, and it can adapt to all kinds of complex environments."

"It's the latest product from a company under Chairman Chiri, and they prioritized equipping our factory with it."

Natsume had a sudden thought and quickly searched for "Akahi Intelligence" on his phone.

Sure enough, the largest shareholder and actual controller of this company that has risen to prominence in the robotics field is Chi Ri.

He deployed high-tech robots to the dirtiest and most arduous waste disposal industry, and the return on investment... seems rather intriguing.

Is it nostalgia? Or is there another motive?

Natsume remained outwardly calm, praising the high degree of automation.

Secretly, he released his telekinetic power like an invisible spider web, meticulously scanning every corner of the factory area, especially places with abnormal energy fluctuations or hidden spaces.

His telekinesis was like the most sophisticated detector, sweeping over roaring machines, piles of waste, and even deep underground... most areas showed normal operation.

However, when his senses swept over an extremely remote corner of the factory, near the base of the wall, he suddenly paused.

There, behind several idle old compressors and a pile of discarded building materials awaiting disposal, a faint but distinct energy barrier fluctuation could be heard.

Even more strangely, he "saw" several sorting robots carrying nearby garbage, but they all intentionally or unintentionally avoided that corner, as if there was an invisible boundary there.

It was a small, cubicle-like space.

"What's piled up in that corner over there? I see the robots avoid that area."

Natsume casually pointed in that direction and asked the person in charge.

The person in charge glanced in the direction Natsume pointed, a look of realization crossing his face. He then smiled and said, "Oh, you mean that small cubicle? That's not where materials are stored. That's a landmark left by Granny Oda when she was in charge of the old landfill."

"It's said that Chairman Chiri played in there when he was a child, so it has some sentimental value. That's why it's been preserved and the robots haven't been allowed to touch it."

"Landmark?" Natsume raised an eyebrow, showing appropriate curiosity.

"Yes," the person in charge explained naturally.

"Don't be fooled by how neatly the factory area is planned now. The old landfill wasn't this organized at all. It was a large area, and there wasn't a clear division between east, west, south, and north."

"Grandma Xiaotian used that small cubicle as a coordinate."

"The garbage transported eastward from the cubicles is relatively clean and has high recyclability. It will eventually be sent to the energy research and development center you just visited for further processing and resource utilization."

"Those transported to the west are low-value items that need to be incinerated for power generation or landfilled. This practice continued even after the factory was renovated; it's an old tradition."

The old tradition of valuing the east and discarding the west.

Natsume paused, then frowned slightly.

This explanation seems reasonable enough; it doesn't reveal anything.

His gaze eventually settled on that small cubicle.

It seems we still need to go there and take a look?