Author's Note: Going on Sale (Important!) / Alola: The Aether Foundation

Iron Maiden tapped Qiao Ran on the head with an iron shovel, seeming to imply something with her words.

However, hearing her words, Qiao Ran quietly breathed a sigh of relief. This girl... seemed not to have discovered his true purpose, but had misunderstood something instead?

Good... good...

Qiao Ran finally relaxed.

That night, after returning to Jinling Gym, Qiao Ran began his daily night run. However, he headed in a different direction today.

—He arrived at a quiet park with few people. The park had been built around a lake, and its surroundings were serene and beautiful.

Qiao Ran walked straight in one direction. By the small lake, the girl he had been looking for had already arrived at the destination according to the note's instructions. She had even arrived early.

"You're finally here!"

As usual, she wore those tight black leggings.

Her hair was tied up in a bun-like style. However, her face was full of anxiety. She seemed to have a great many things she wanted to say to Qiao Ran, but... she did not know where to begin.

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

Mei desperately tried to organize her words. Though her speech was a mess, Qiao Ran still understood what she was trying to say.

"No, I'm from this world."

"..."

Mei froze in place.

"However, I've been to the Pokémon world before, when I was still a child."

Qiao Ran slowly gave his explanation. This was also the best explanation he had come up with during this period.

"You've been to... our world? Why?" Mei blinked her large eyes, her expression filled with confusion.

"Because I'm a chosen child. Every so often, Arceus chooses a child to go to the Pokémon world and solve the world's problems."

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

Th-This is real??

Qiao Ran could tell that she did not quite believe him, so he shook his head and brought out his trump card.

"Look, this is my partner. Once you see her, you'll understand why I said those things."

With Qiao Ran's movement, the pink Diamond Pokémon appeared on the ground. Moonlight spilled over her dazzling diamond surface, reflecting beautiful, radiant colors.

"Di... Di... Dianxi!"

Unlike the natives of this world, Mei, who recognized her, called out Dianxi's name immediately. Moreover, upon seeing Dianxi, she had an even stronger reaction than Qiao Ran had imagined.

"A Legendary Pokémon... a living Legendary Pokémon! Alive... We haven't... we haven't been abandoned..."

She suddenly fell to her knees and tightly hugged the Diamond Princess before her, tears as large as beans welling up in her eyes.

After a while, she raised her head and looked at Qiao Ran with tear-filled eyes. Her bright little face was full of pleading.

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

At that moment, Qiao Ran looked at the girl kneeling on the ground, hugging Dianxi beneath the moonlight, and felt a trace of shock in his heart.

Not only had she believed Qiao Ran's nonsense, she had even placed her own faith in him.

What... had she gone through?

The night quickly passed, and dawn gradually brightened amid the crows of roosters the next day.

Early in the morning, Qiao Ran packed his belongings. Using "going out to train" as an excuse, he prepared to leave Jinling for a while.

Eve had suggested several times that she wanted to go with him, but Qiao Ran refused her every time.

This time, he had something even more important to do.

After packing his luggage, Qiao Ran arrived in an uninhabited wilderness. On a grassy clearing, he took out his Rotom Phone.

"Master, are you really ready? If you confirm, you won't be able to return unless you complete the objective."

"Yes, I'm ready."

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

"Ah..."

Upon touching the key, Rotom let out an inexplicable cry. Then, a glittering door unfolded before Qiao Ran. Yet unlike the door's appearance, Qiao Ran sensed an extremely ominous aura from the other side.

Activation confirmed! Key confirmed!

Designation: Anomaly 037!

Danger Level: Class Three!

Region: Alola!

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

Pokémon was probably the game I had played for the longest time. From third grade in elementary school until now, I had always been a player and fan of this game. Aside from the older generations, I had played all the others through to completion, and I had always kept up with the anime as well.

Not only that, I still remembered running all over the newsstands near my school as a child just to buy Pokémon Magazine.

Besides that, I also bought magazines like Poké Fan, bought the Special manga, and thought the Pokémon worldbuilding was absolutely incredible. By the way, I'm waiting for a Special anime adaptation with my bowl in hand. If it gets animated, I'll add ten updates on the spot!

Back then, Pokémon games also got better with every generation. Besides the main series, there were excellent works such as Ranger and Mystery Dungeon. Even now, I cannot forget the shock of opening Black and White for the first time, crossing the big bridge, and arriving in the metropolis.

Although GF has become lazy now—Sword and Shield looked like a muscular man with a fairly well-built upper body but severely atrophied legs. If I had to evaluate it, it was a half-finished product with obvious signs of being rushed near the end. The plot barreled ahead without rhyme or reason, and the towns had shrunk into straight lines full of empty shells...

It was even more half-finished than Alola, stuffed with 400 MB of Lillie content.

At least Alola's story still had some human warmth. In Galar, you just felt like a plot-running tool.

But no matter what, I still hoped Pokémon would get better. I hoped GF would keep working hard and climb ever higher. Grass-type Gigantamax, I guess—an old fan sighed.

Back to this book: when I started writing it, I wondered whether I should write an adventure set in the original Pokémon world or create an alternate world myself.

In the end, I decided on an alternate setting. I had grown tired of adventures in the original world and did not want to read them anymore. Everyone was adventuring in Kanto; Kanto transmigrators were already close to making up half of Kanto's population. Haha.

All right, to be honest, I've read a lot of Pokémon fanfiction, but there were very few stories about adventures in the original world that I could stick with. In fact, I dropped 99% of them after the Kanto arc ended. On the other hand, I could keep reading those that created alternate worlds all the way to the later parts, even to the ending.

Why? Was the story boring? Maybe not. Maybe it was simply because I knew Kanto best and had a filter for it. Once the story left Kanto, the empathy born from that sense of familiarity vanished completely.

So, in the end, I still decided on an alternate setting. Although it might be harder to write in the early stages than the original world, this kind of story had limitless room to expand, and I would do my best to build this world piece by piece.

The next chapter will probably be released tomorrow... night. A life of coding from ten in the morning to six at night really makes it hard to update early. Still, as long as I can keep writing this book, I won't disappear. Pokémon is just too wonderful.

An author who works from ten to six can't guarantee frequent mass updates either, but I hope everyone can give me more support and let this book continue.

Even if you plan to stockpile for a while, please give me a first subscription or turn on auto-subscribe, so the author can feel secure and write with enthusiasm.

Reader group: (

(It's time to harvest everyone's reaction images! 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 the Pokémon Anomalies, genderbent Pokémon, or characters you want to see next here. I'll take them into consideration.

Next episode preview: Anomaly 037: Ultimate Deep Sea Demon Realm - █ther █oundation

Characters appearing:

Alola 067: Aether Foundation

The Pokémon world—that was a place completely different from the real world.

It was filled with happiness, sunshine, warmth, and all the beautiful things in the world.

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

However, after passing through that golden door and arriving on the other side, he saw a scene completely different from what he had imagined.

"So cold..."

Feeling the temperature around him, Qiao Ran's body, clad only in short sleeves, involuntarily curled up. This was not merely physical coldness; even in his heart, he felt a trace of chill.

Qiao Ran surveyed his surroundings. This place looked like a gloomy cave with little light. Darkness and coldness were its entire dominant tone.

—However, the pure white cave "walls," divided into grids, were filled with traces unique to artificial construction.

Yet in stark contrast to those artificial traces, crystals of all different colors and coral reef-shaped stones clung to the white walls, exposed like nature's miraculous handiwork.

Moreover, even the air rippled with waves like water.

Qiao Ran narrowed his eyes. Rather than a cave, he felt that this place resembled—

The deep sea.

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

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

Rotom floated in the air, her expression similarly filled with unease.

"Beep beep... Unable to connect to the network, Rotom. Searching for signal... No signal..."

This was the first time Rotom had lost her connection to the network. In Qiao Ran's original world, even in the deepest mountains and forests, there would still be a faint signal.

"I should let them out too."

Qiao Ran frowned as he looked around. Everything here was steeped in an eerie feeling. To guard against any possible accidents, he released all of his Pokémon at once.

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

After emerging from their balls, they too showed shocked and bewildered expressions as they looked at the abnormal scenery around them.

"Master... where is this...?" Dianxi moved closer to Qiao Ran and asked cautiously.

"This is supposedly the Pokémon world... but how could a place like this be the Pokémon world..."

Qiao Ran helplessly shook his head. Although he still did not quite want to believe it, when he thought of some of the things Mei had told him last night, he had no choice but to believe.

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

It was precisely because of this special nature that it had become a so-called anomaly.

"Rotom, what is our mission here?"

"Beep. Mission updated..."

Upon hearing Qiao Ran's question, Rotom quickly searched through her data. Although she could not connect to this world's network, as the system's carrier, she could still activate the functions she already possessed.

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

"The source of the anomaly?"

Another term he did not understand. Qiao Ran had no choice but to shrug and speak to his Pokémon.

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

Carefully following the visible path, Qiao Ran did not discover any living creatures or Pokémon along the way. Instead, he found something worth noting.

"Aether Foundation... Sure enough, this really is the Aether Foundation."

Looking at the somewhat aged golden icon on the white wall, shaped like a balance, Qiao Ran felt rather emotional.

As he continued exploring, Qiao Ran's memories of the game gradually resurfaced.

The Aether Foundation—it was a powerful organization built in the center of the Alola region. Using an artificial island as its base, the organization possessed considerable financial resources and technological strength.

It not only carried out Pokémon protection and containment work, but also secretly conducted experiments involving "fusion organisms" and "new types of Poké Balls."

The fusion organism they developed was Type: Null, nicknamed Little Arceus after evolving.

Meanwhile, the Beast Ball was the most ornate type of ball in the Pokémon world, as well as a special Poké Ball designed to capture creatures from other worlds.

As the strongest organization in the Alola region of the Pokémon world, and a powerful technological organization capable of developing Beast Balls and Type: Null, how had the Aether Foundation fallen into such a state?

—The white base, once filled with a sense of technology, was now completely deserted. Strange growths covered the walls as well. If not for the inexplicable beauty of these glowing crystals and rocks, Qiao Ran would have thought he had transmigrated into R'lyeh, the seafood market from Cthulhu Mythos.

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

Vulpix kept fearfully edging closer to Qiao Ran. It was not because she was timid, but because the atmosphere here made her feel oppressed.

—Dianxi and Suicune felt the same way. However, as Legendary Pokémon, they had some resistance to this aura.

Vulpix and Altaria were different. Simply staying in this place seemed to drain their strength—something was slowly siphoning away their energy.

"I'll hold you for now, Vulpix."

Qiao Ran crouched down and picked Vulpix up in his arms. He could not carry Altaria, but he could carry Vulpix.

"Mhm..."

Vulpix comfortably lay in Qiao Ran's arms and curled up. Qiao Ran could feel that she seemed much more at ease. No matter what, she was still only a child.

Dianxi watched their actions silently from the side. Only her expressionless face could represent how she felt right now.