Why is my Pokémon girl a bit strange?

Iron Maiden tapped Qiao Ran's head with a shovel, her words seeming to carry a hidden meaning.

However, listening to her, Qiao Ran actually felt a slight sense of relief. This girl... she doesn't seem to have discovered my true intentions, and instead misunderstood something?

Thank goodness... thank goodness...

Qiao Ran relaxed.

At night, Qiao Ran, back at the Jinling Gym, began his usual evening run, but today he headed in a different direction.

—He arrived at a park with few people but was very quiet. The park was built around a lake, and the environment was exceptionally serene and beautiful.

Qiao Ran walked straight towards one direction. By the side of the small lake, the girl he was looking for had already arrived at the destination according to the instructions on the note, even arriving early.

"You're finally here!"

As usual, she was wearing tight black pantyhose, and her hair was styled in a bun. However, her face was filled with anxiety. It seemed she had a lot she wanted to say to Qiao Ran, but... she didn't know where to start.

"You... are you from this world? Or, like me..."

Mei desperately tried to organize her words. Although her speech was quite jumbled, Qiao Ran still understood what she was trying to convey.

"No, I am from this world."

"..." Mei froze in place.

"However, I have been to the Pokémon world when I was a child."

Qiao Ran slowly revealed his fabricated story, which was the best explanation he had come up with during this time.

"You've been to... our world? Why?" Mei blinked her big eyes, her expression full of confusion.

"Because I am a Chosen Child. Arceus selects a child every once in a while to go to the Pokémon world and solve its problems."

Mei's mouth fell open: "..."

Is... is this true??

Seeing that she didn't quite believe him, Qiao Ran shook his head and revealed his trump card.

"Look, this is my partner. Once you see her, you should understand why I would say such a thing."

As Qiao Ran moved, the pink diamond Pokémon appeared on the ground. The moonlight shone on its brilliant diamond surface, reflecting a beautiful and dazzling radiance.

"Dia... Dian... Diancie!"

Unlike the natives of this world, the discerning Mei immediately called out Diancie's name. Not only that, but upon seeing Diancie, she even had a stronger reaction than Qiao Ran had imagined.

"It's a Legendary Pokémon... a living Legendary Pokémon! Living... we haven't... we haven't been abandoned..."

She suddenly knelt down, tightly embracing the diamond princess before her, tears welling up in her eyes.

After a moment, she looked up—her tear-filled eyes met Qiao Ran's. Her bright little face was filled with pleading.

"Please... please save the Pokémon world... Since you are a child chosen by Arceus, you must have a way... right?"

At this moment, Qiao Ran looked at the girl kneeling on the ground, embracing Diancie in the moonlight, and felt a sense of shock.

Not only did she believe Qiao Ran's fabricated story, but she had also placed her faith in him.

What... what had she gone through?

The dark night soon passed, and the dawn of the next day gradually brightened with the crowing of roosters.

Qiao Ran packed his belongings early in the morning, using "going out for training" as an excuse, he planned to leave Jinling for a while.

Eve had asked to go with him several times, but Qiao Ran had refused.

This time, he had more important things to do.

After packing his bags, Qiao Ran went to the deserted wilderness. On a grassy clearing, he took out his Rotom Phone.

"Master, are you really ready? If you confirm it, and you don't complete the objective, you won't be able to come back."

"Yes, I'm ready."

Qiao Ran nodded resolutely and inserted the golden shining key in his hand into the Rotom's body.

"Ah..."

Upon contact with the key, Rotom let out a strange cry, and then a shimmering door opened before Qiao Ran. However, unlike the door's appearance, Qiao Ran sensed a very ominous aura from the other side of the door.

"Activation confirmed! Key confirmed!"

"ID: Anomaly 037!"

"Danger Level: Class 3!"

"Region: Alola!"

"Anomaly Name: Ultimate Deep Sea Demon Realm - Aether Foundation!!"

Section 68: Shelf Announcement (Important!)

Pokémon, I guess it's the game I've played for the longest time. From the third grade of elementary school until now, I've been a player and fan of this game. Except for the older versions, I've played all of them and beaten them. I've also been following the anime all along.

Not only that, but I still remember how I ran all over the newspaper stands near my school just to buy magazines about Pocket Monsters when I was a child.

Besides these, I also bought magazines like Pocket Monsters Fan and the Pokémon Adventures manga. The world-building in Pokémon is truly amazing. By the way, I'm eagerly waiting for an anime adaptation of Pokémon Adventures; if it happens, I'll immediately add ten more updates!

Back then, Pokémon games were getting better with each generation. Besides the main series, there were excellent titles like Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. I still can't forget the shock of opening Pokémon Black and White for the first time, crossing the bridge, and arriving in the big city.

Even though Game Freak has become lazy now—the latest game, Sword and Shield, looks like a muscular guy with a full upper body and extremely atrophied lower body. If I had to describe it, it's a half-finished product with severe signs of rushed development. The plot is nonsensical, like a train going nowhere, and the towns are shrunk into straight lines, all just shells… It's even more of a half-finished product than Alola, which felt like it had 400m of Lillie injected into it. At least Alola's story had some human touch. In Galar, you just feel like a tool for progressing the story.

But no matter what, I want Pokémon to get better. I hope Game Freak keeps up the good work and reaches new heights. Gigantamax my head grass (an old fan sighs).

Getting back to this book, when I started writing it, I wondered whether to write about an adventure in the original Pokémon world or create my own world.

In the end, I decided to create my own world. I'm tired of adventures in the original world and don't want to read about them anymore. Everyone is adventuring in Kanto, and the number of Kanto natives who have time-traveled there is almost half the population of Kanto (laughs).

Okay, to be honest, I've read a lot of Pokémon fanfiction, but there are very few that are set in the original world that I can stick with. And 99% of them, I abandon after the Kanto adventure ends. Conversely, I can stick with those that create their own world until the later stages, or even the ending.

Why? Is the story boring? Perhaps not. Perhaps it's just because I know Kanto best, and there's a filter. Once you leave Kanto, that empathy generated by "familiarity" completely disappears.

So, I finally decided to create my own world. Although it might be more effort to write the early parts compared to the original world, this kind of story has infinite extensibility, and I will do my best to build up this world.

The next chapter will likely be released tomorrow… evening. With a life of coding from 10 AM to 6 PM, it's really hard to update early, but as long as I can keep writing this book, I won't drop it. Pokémon is truly amazing.

The author, who works from 10 AM to 6 PM, can't guarantee frequent big updates, but I hope everyone will give me more support so this book can continue. Even if you plan to read it later, please give me your first subscription, or turn on auto-subscribe, so I have a clearer idea and more motivation to write.

Reader Group: (

) (It's time to harvest everyone's image galleries! The verification is the first five characters of the book title. As for whether to write anything extra... we'll see 0v0)

Message Board: You can leave suggestions here for the Pokémon Anomalies, or gender-bent Pokémon, or characters you'd like to see next. I will take them into consideration.

Next Episode Preview: Anomaly 037: Ultimate Deep Sea Demon Realm - Aether Foundation

Characters Appearing:

Section 69 067 [Alola: Aether Foundation]

The Pokémon world—it's a place completely different from the real world.

It's full of joy, full of sunshine, full of warmth, and all the beauty in this world.

At least, for a very, very long time, Qiao Ran believed so.

However, after he passed through that golden gate and arrived on the other side, he saw a scene completely different from what he had imagined.

"It's so cold..."

Feeling the temperature around him, Qiao Ran, who was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt, involuntarily curled up. It wasn't just the physical cold; even his heart felt a chill.

Qiao Ran surveyed his surroundings. It looked like a dark cave, with not much light. Darkness and cold were the main themes here.

—However, the pure white, grid-divided cave "walls" were filled with traces of artificial construction. But in contrast to the artificial traces, the white walls were covered with crystals of various colors and coral-shaped rocks, as if nature's craftsmanship was exposed. Not only that, but the air was also rippling like water waves.

Qiao Ran narrowed his eyes. Rather than a cave, he actually felt it was more like—the deep sea.

That's right—a deep sea where air served as water and glowing crystals as reefs.

"Master, we've arrived at our destination, but this place seems... strange, Rotom..."

Rotom floated in the air, also showing an uneasy expression.

"Beep beep... Cannot connect to the network, Rotom. Signal search... no signal..."

This was the first time Rotom had lost its connection to the network. In Qiao Ran's original world, even in the most remote mountain forests, there was a weak signal.

"I'll let them out too."

Qiao Ran frowned and looked around. Everything here felt strange. To prevent any potential accidents, Qiao Ran released all his Pokémon at once.

—Vulpix, Dianxi, Suicune, Altaria. Qiao Ran released them all.

Upon emerging from their Poké Balls, they looked at the strange surroundings and also showed expressions of surprise and bewilderment.

"Master... where is this...?" Dianxi approached Qiao Ran and asked cautiously.

"This is said to be the Pokémon world... but how can a place like this be the Pokémon world..."

Qiao Ran shook his head helplessly. Although he was still reluctant to believe it, considering what Mei had told him last night, he had to choose to believe it.

—This is a part of the Pokémon world, and an extremely special part at that.

It is precisely because of this specialty that it has become a so-called anomaly.

"Rotom, what is our mission here?"

"Beep, mission updated..."

Hearing Qiao Ran's question, Rotom quickly searched. Although she couldn't connect to this world's network, as the system's carrier, she could still activate her existing functions.

"Objective issued: Clear or contain the source of the anomaly."

"Source of the anomaly?"

Another term he didn't understand. Qiao Ran had no choice but to shrug and say to his Pokémon.

"Anyway, let's explore this place first. Maybe we can find something."

Cautiously advancing along the visible path, Qiao Ran didn't find any living creatures or Pokémon along the way. Instead, he found some things worth noting.

"Aether Foundation... Just as I thought, this really is that Aether Foundation."

Looking at the somewhat aged, golden (harmonious harmonious harmonious) icon resembling a scale on the white wall, Qiao Ran felt a surge of emotion.

Through his continuous exploration, Qiao Ran's memories of the game were gradually being reawakened.

The Aether Foundation—it was a powerful organization built in the center of the Alola region, using an artificial island as its base, possessing considerable financial and technological strength. Not only did it conduct Pokémon protection and containment work, but it also secretly experimented with "fusion creatures" and "new types of Poké Balls."

The fusion creature they developed was "Type: Null," nicknamed "little Arceus" after its evolution; and the "Beast Ball" was the most magnificent Poké Ball in the Pokémon world, a specialized Poké Ball used to capture creatures from other dimensions.

As the most powerful organization in the Alola region of the Pokémon world, and a powerful technological organization capable of developing "Beast Balls" and "Type: Null," how could the Aether Foundation have fallen to this state?

—The white base, originally full of a sense of technology, was now completely deserted, and the walls were covered with strange growths. If it weren't for the inexplicable beauty of these glowing crystals and rocks, Qiao Ran would have almost thought he had traveled to R'lyeh, a seafood market from Cthulhu's myths.

"Master... this place is so strange... my body feels so cold..."

Vulpix was fearfully huddling closer to Qiao Ran. It wasn't that she was timid, but the aura here made her feel oppressed.

—Dianxi and Suicune felt the same way, but as Legendary Pokémon, they had some resistance to this kind of aura. Vulpix and Altaria were different; just staying in this place seemed to drain their strength—something was slowly siphoning their energy away.

"I'll hold you, Vulpix."

Qiao Ran crouched down and picked Vulpix up into his arms. He couldn't hold Altaria, but he could hold Vulpix.

"Mhm..."

Vulpix nestled comfortably in Qiao Ran's arms, curling up. Qiao Ran could feel that she seemed much more at ease. After all, she was still just a child.

Dianxi, standing nearby, watched their interaction without a word, her expressionless face the only representation of her current feelings.