Chapter 329

"Then... what should we do?!"

"This..."

The two exchanged glances for a while, but the situation was awkward and unsettling. However, they couldn't just pretend to be dead and refuse to open the door. After all, they were semi-public figures now, and if someone happened to pass by the Inn in the middle of the night and saw Lillie, or if she was caught by Mei on the spot, they would be in big trouble.

Qiao Ran, in desperation, got up and opened the door, facing everything head-on. Mei just stared at him blankly, her mind a complete mess.

Wait... what's Lillie doing here now? Could it be that she's thinking the same thing?

Qiao Ran opened the door and brought Lillie in, but when he turned around, he found that Mei, who had been lying on the bed, was nowhere to be seen. Through Telepathy, he roughly knew where Mei was—wait, why are you hiding in the closet?!

Qiao Ran's lips twitched. How could things be getting worse like this?

"Um... I didn't disturb your rest, did I?"

Sitting on the bed, Lillie nervously stroked her hair, a shy smile on her face.

She only managed to sneak out after Mei Rest. Mei had gone out for training for a while tonight, so she went to Rest after washing up in her room. Lillie guessed that Mei on the other side was probably in a similar situation; how could anyone possibly climb a mountain and fight Ultra Beast during the day?

They go out to train at night; do they even have the energy to be out and about in the middle of the night?

Upon entering Qiao Ran's room, Mei was indeed nowhere to be seen.

Lillie breathed a sigh of relief.

Isn't this a good thing?

"Rest? Oh... no, I didn't mean to disturb you."

Qiao Ran froze. Just as the two were talking, Lillie leaned in.

No... no, no, no, something's not right.

I seem a little too proactive today.

Qiao Ran said she really couldn't take it anymore, and on the other hand, Mei was hiding in the closet!

Meanwhile, Mei, on the other side, didn't understand why she did such a thing either. She just saw Qiao Ran suddenly get up to open the door, and her heart skipped a beat. She then had a sudden inspiration and saw a place where she could hide. Based on her many years of experience Trainer, she felt that her size was more than enough to fit inside.

Impulsive actions always lead to regret, just like Mei right now. She's caught between going out and staying in, completely frozen in the closet. The worst part is that she can still see Qiao Ran and Lillie's situation, both of whom are her closest friends.

Wait... what are you guys doing?!

Qiao Ran's lips curled into a bitter smile. In the river of fate, he had no room to resist and could only drift along with them. But... judging from the current situation, he probably wouldn't be able to get a good rest tonight.

Becoming a Pokémon Trainer is really difficult.

Qiao Ran couldn't quite remember the details of yesterday.

"I feel a little dizzy."

He could vaguely recall that after Lillie left, Mei fell out of the closet in a daze, clearly having suffered a huge shock, both mentally and physically.

"..."

Although we don't know exactly what she saw, judging from her expression, she must have been deeply shocked. Most importantly—after what happened, she was even less able to come out of the closet!

So she could only stay inside and watch silently, only able to come out after Lillie had left satisfied, but her mind and body were subjected to immense shock.

The psychological trauma stemmed from the long, despairing video she saw in the closet, while the physical trauma came from the cramped space inside. Although she managed to squeeze in, she had clearly underestimated her size, and the Pressure made it difficult for her to breathe.

To heal Mei's wounds, Qiao Ran had no choice but to push his body to its limits once again. No one knew how much he had silently sacrificed for the team. In the end, he still had physical strength to spare, but his mind was on the verge of collapse.

After all, the continuous battles over this period had already taken a toll on him, and on top of that, both of them were holding back their anger. In order not to harm them, Qiao Ran also had to maintain some output of the Tokiwa Power, to the point that Qiao Ran could no longer recall the details afterward.

"Well, at least everything turned out alright in the end."

To be honest, if Lillie and Mei were to actually bump into each other in such a situation, even Qiao Ran himself probably couldn't predict what would happen. Although given their personalities, it's unlikely they would actually start fighting, it's quite possible they would end up in a stalemate.

Even if nothing happens to them and they each go home, their relationship eventually develops a rift...

"No, I have to think of something."

Qiao Ran recalled what happened last night. The key point was that Mei hid in the closet all night and kept watching. There's bound to be some problem with her impression of Lillie, right?

"Why."

Before Mei's situation was even resolved, Mei's side encountered another unexpected problem, not to mention the increasingly complex situation in the Wild Area.

The only good thing is that they reached the top of the mountain, obtained genuine information, and Qiao Ran also completed the task that had been stuck on, allowing him to start drawing the next Pokémon.

At the same time, the system's mission was also updated. This time, the number of enemies remained the same at 100, but the species was even rarer than the previous Fairy type —dragons.

Upon seeing this word, Qiao Ran's heart skipped a beat. Catching 100 Dragon-type Pokémon? When was he going to finish? Fairy Type Pokémon to live in groups, but Dragon-type Pokémon are usually found only one or two at a time.

"No, maybe some weaker Dragon-type are easier to catch, and there are more of them, like the Garchomp..."

Before number 151, Dragon-type Pokémon only had one family, Dragonite. However, as time went on, the number of Dragon-type Pokémon increased, and various disgraceful creatures of the Dragon type emerged one after another. Perhaps, he would have to rely on these Pokémon to complete this mission.

A disgrace to the Dragon Clan?

No, it should be the Light of the Dragon Clan!

After washing up in his room, Qiao Ran went straight to Lillie's room, where everyone usually gathered in the morning before going out for breakfast.

As for food, although the Inn does offer breakfast, the taste doesn't seem to be very good.

"Uh... Hello everyone."

Qiao Ran tried his best to act as if he were no different from yesterday, and so did Mei, who had arrived before him.

She had tried her best to pretend she knew nothing, but after returning to her room and lying in bed, those images seemed to keep replaying in her mind.

I never expected that such a gentle and strong young lady would have this side to her.

Also, why did I hide back then?

If I make a mistake, please let the Pokémon League Punishment me, instead of leaving me hiding in the closet, unable to go out or in.

Mei was trying her best to act normal, but Qiao Ran, who had been watching her, still noticed some clues.

In short, judging from Mei's appearance, she probably hasn't been resting at all. Qiao Ran is even a little worried that if he doesn't handle her emotional issues well today, it might affect the battle later.

Qiao Ran covered her head.

Why are they all such troublesome people?

Fortunately, Lillie and Mei's actions did not seem to attract the attention of the other two girls. Qiao Ran was not very clear about Mei's situation, but judging from Acerola's cheerful appearance, she was definitely the most reassuring person among them.

After everyone gathered together, went out for dinner, and returned, Qiao Ran called Cynthia and Sabrina. Unlike before when they contacted each other one by one, this time the information they obtained was far too important, so Qiao Ran hoped to discuss it with them.

"Is it very important? Okay, I'll ask for leave first."

After seeing Qiao Ran's serious expression and hearing his brief description, Sabrina immediately chose to take leave and slack off, finding an empty meeting room to sit in.

To some extent, Gym Leader have a fairly high degree of freedom, although there are still things that need to be dealt with later.

Cynthia's situation was much easier; she was already at Phoebe's villa, so she could video chat anytime she wanted. Usually, when Qiao Ran called her, she answered almost immediately.

"Let me send you the data first. This is all data we obtained from the Alola Observatory; we've captured images of almost everything except the Unova Region."

While transmitting data over the internet carries the risk of interception, this doesn't mean Qiao Ran and his group should completely abandon communication methods and revert to a primitive state. They are already very careful about maintaining secrecy, and the Pokémon League has no need to monitor them now. Moreover, even if the Pokémon League could make a fuss about it, Phoebe, as a high-ranking member, would certainly react.

Most importantly, Qiao Ran wanted them to see these things and also wanted to hear their opinions.

The data was transmitted and they were left to read it bit by bit, which took some time. While they were still processing the information, Qiao Ran browsed the internet for a while and checked the number of followers on their account.

"It's already 500,000!"

Unbeknownst to them, the account's follower count had already surpassed 500,000. However, the website's 100,000 follower award medal had yet to arrive. According to the Video-Sharing Website's usual practice, video bloggers would receive medals when their follower count reached 100,000 and 1 million. This was both an encouragement and an honor. In the past, Qiao Ran could only watch others hold and play with these medals, but now that he had the opportunity to obtain one, he was quite interested.

However, even though they've had over 100,000 followers for quite some time now, they still haven't received the Present from the website. Maybe the website just hasn't realized what's going on yet.

Moreover, given their constant travels, they might not be able to stay in one place and wait for their packages indefinitely.

"If it really gets sent back, let Sabrina receive it on your behalf."

Qiao Ran immediately thought of a very convenient Gym Leader. Now that people from the Pokémon World can send things to her, the same logic applies to express delivery.

"But... that's already 500,000."

Qiao Ran didn't know exactly what this number represented, but he could sense that it was an astonishing figure, and many of these fans had only recently come to follow them. At that time, they were challenging the Rongcheng Gym, so they released a lot of battle videos. Coupled with the broadcast of the Battle Train program and the debut of the Altaria MV, this series of actions directly put them in the spotlight, and their number of followers began to soar rapidly.

Qiao Ran casually scrolled through the comments below. Besides the usual people praising the video and learning from it, there were even rumors about his romantic relationships with several other girls, and different factions had emerged. Qiao Ran was quite surprised after reading them.

However, this also served as a reminder to him that in order to prevent these rumors from escalating, they would probably have to be more careful when going out in the future.

In this respect, Sabrina is far more professional than them—in her skills at concealing her identity and avoiding fans.

However, even the seasoned and composed Sabrina and Cynthia became increasingly agitated after watching the videos Qiao Ran sent them, even to the point of losing control.

I asked it.

"This... this is actually the situation in the Pokémon World?"

"Have similar incidents occurred in so many regions?"

Before, they might have had a tiny bit of luck. Even though Qiao Ran had seen Alola, all sorts of things, and Galar, there was no way to prove that a similar situation had occurred in their Kanto and Sinnoh Region.

Such wishful thinking is understandable, but the moment one actually sees these videos, even that tiny bit of luck is completely shattered, leaving no room for any illusions.

In the Kanto Region, many areas have been shrouded in surging, dark purple matter, while in the Sinnoh Region, the phenomenon seems to be even more severe, covering an area several times larger than the largest parts of other regions.

"Cynthia, can you recognize where these places are? If you can't identify them, I can just..."

Qiao Ran kindly reminded him that the situation in the Sinnoh Region was far from optimistic. It would be almost impossible to determine the location in the video with the naked eye. He only learned the names of these places thanks to Molayne's explanation. Compared to using the naked eye, satellite technology was obviously more reliable.

No... I recognize him.

"This is Mt. Coronet, and these are Lake Acuity, Lake Verity, and Lake Valor..."

Cynthia pointed out each place name in the video, and incredibly, she didn't make a single mistake. No matter how much was obscured, her judgment remained flawless.

Just how much does she know about Sinnoh?

"And here's the last place... Sendoff Spring."

"... Why is the Haze here almost as thick as that of Mt. Coronet...?"

In the video, Mt. Coronet was clearly the hardest hit area this time. The once towering mountain range was mostly hidden. However, in terms of the density of the poison, Sendoff Spring was no less affected than Mt. Coronet. Cynthia's eyes flickered, and she was obviously thinking about something.

What are your thoughts?

Sabrina looked at several locations in Kanto, such as Seafoam Islands and Abandoned Power Plant. She had no idea what these places were. Even as a Kanto, she had hardly ever heard of these place names.

"I think... it might be related to certain myths and legends."

Cynthia frowned. Sinnoh is a region full of myths and legends, and most of its landmarks are more or less related to some Legendary Pokémon. But this time, the connection is even more obvious.

"Mt. Coronet is the origin of the Creation Myth, the Three Lakes are the origin of the Three Forces of Emotion, and other regions are more or less the birthplace of some kind of legend... and this Sendoff Spring..."

"This refers to Giratina, the master of the Distortion World, or rather, the Distortion World."

Qiao Ran joined the conversation, and Cynthia, who had been deep in thought, suddenly looked up at Qiao Ran's location.

"Yes! It's Giratina. This place has a deep connection with Giratina... This is one of the papers I'm currently researching and preparing to publish..."

"Wait, how did you know?"

Cynthia suddenly realized something was wrong. She didn't seem to have mentioned these things to Qiao Ran before, did she? And at most, she had only told Caitlin about these studies.

Cynthia has always been very cautious about the Third Deity Beyond Time and Space, and much of the information about Sendoff Spring is just speculation. But Qiao Ran's ability to say it so directly is clearly beyond her expectations.

"Uh, I was just guessing."

Qiao Ran immediately changed the subject, throwing the question back at the spot.

"Look how dark the screen is, there must be something scary in there, right? Just a guess, it's Giratina."

"This..."

Cynthia froze for a few seconds again, while Sabrina silently looked away.

Although she didn't understand mythology or anything like that, she knew from Qiao Ran's words that he was just pretending to be stupid.

This kind of thing can only fool little girls.

Sabrina absolutely refused to believe Qiao Ran's explanation; this guy never had any good intentions when he pretended to be stupid. However, to her surprise, Cynthia on the other side actually nodded.

"Is that so? So it was just a guess... In that case, there's nothing we can do."