But Dr. Jacq's words put Luo Mu at ease.
Since plans related to the Great Crater of Paldea were still in the restart phase, that meant the time machine hadn't been built by the couple yet. In other words, perhaps everything could still be changed.
The plot of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was, for the most part, free of deep-seated grudges. It was filled with a sense of an "ideal world."
The only real regrets were Dr. Jacq and Dr. Futaba, who would pass away in the future, and Senpai Pepper, who would lose both his parents.
Maybe he could change some things in the future.
Whenever Dr. Jacq brought up Area Zero, she displayed a talent for talking that matched Pepper's—or even surpassed it by a whole level.
Perhaps she also wanted to pique Luo Mu's interest in Area Zero.
Dr. Jacq's words came pouring out in an unbroken stream, one technical term after another, like beads strung seamlessly together.
By the time Luo Mu's head was spinning, he had understood just one thing.
Pepper had probably inherited his tendency to ramble from his mother.
What stopped Dr. Jacq from going on and on wasn't a natural disaster or a man-made calamity. It was the shrill alarm that suddenly rang out among the high-tech research equipment behind her.
"Looks like it failed again." Dr. Jacq sighed and stopped talking. With practiced ease, she put on her gloves and went over to the equipment. She picked up an obviously ruined special core with a pair of tweezers, looking thoroughly troubled.
The experiment to test its tolerance for spatial teleportation had failed again.
The Wild Pokémon in the Great Crater of Paldea were incredibly powerful. To build stable research stations and observation posts deep inside and travel between them freely, they needed to use Poké Ball teleportation technology as a foundation and develop a way to teleport between observation posts.
With such a teleportation device, they wouldn't have to traverse the Great Crater of Paldea's complicated terrain every time they transported supplies.
The technical calculations were already complete. The only problem was that experiments with the core kept failing, and they couldn't figure out why.
If things continued like this, they would have no choice but to postpone their plan to restart the research on Terastalization. That was something Dr. Jacq and Dr. Futaba, who longed to see Pokémon from the past and future, didn't want.
Looking at the core in Dr. Jacq's tweezers, Luo Mu suddenly felt curious to test the Hint System's functions. He asked in his mind, "System, can you give me a hint about this?"
[The blue solution in the second bottle to the doctor's left can be mixed with the pink solution in the fourth bottle]
Luo Mu looked where the system indicated. The two bottles were indeed there. He suddenly asked, "Dr. Jacq, could you tell me what those two bottles of solution to your left are?"
"Of course." Though puzzled, Dr. Jacq picked up the two bottles Luo Mu had mentioned. Gently shaking them, she explained, "They're a space solidifier and an extract of the psychic energy contained in Abra saliva."
"Space solidifier?"
"To put it simply, it shrinks and solidifies the range of space."
Luo Mu didn't understand much of the advanced research knowledge Dr. Jacq was discussing. But as she spoke, she seemed to get an idea, called out to Luo Mu, and buried herself in her research.
Perhaps because she'd already failed so many times, Dr. Jacq's movements were very practiced. She took out a few cores that were clearly just empty shells and began testing the sudden inspiration she'd had.
There was no need to dwell on the number of failures. Luo Mu waited another hour and a half. After several more failed attempts, Dr. Jacq, who had been muttering formulas the whole time, finally made two cores that glowed with a soft green light.
She installed them in the device on the floor. As the rings of light on the device lit up, her expression instantly grew excited.
"It's working!"
Luo Mu, who had come from the modern world, had never tried to understand any of the Pokémon world's high-tech inventions. After all, it would only waste his brain cells.
But the moment Dr. Jacq activated the device, he recognized what it was.
"Whoa..."
Wasn't this the sci-fi tech from the game that let you teleport back and forth between observation posts?
Dr. Jacq tentatively placed an empty beaker on the teleportation device. Her right hand trembled slightly as she pressed the old-fashioned red button, which looked like it could launch a nuclear missile.
After a faint hum, a bright green light flashed and faded. The beaker had appeared on another teleportation device four or five meters away.
Luo Mu was stunned. Was inventing things really this easy?
It was ridiculous—both the seemingly prescient Hint System and Dr. Jacq, who had inexplicably had a sudden revelation.
Luo Mu felt as if his intelligence had been completely crushed.
Stunned, Luo Mu asked in his mind, "You're this amazing?"
[Heh heh!]
Even though it was only two short words, the way they bobbed up and down told Luo Mu just how proud the system was.
Fine, let it be proud. This unbelievable yet controllable hint function would surely help the farm grow in the future.
At least Luo Mu had the foresight to see that much.
After entrusting the raw ore of the Tera Orb to Dr. Jacq, she seemed to believe that she had managed to create the teleportation device thanks to Luo Mu's suggestion.
As well as thanking him, Dr. Jacq warmly invited him to switch careers and become a researcher. She could offer better terms than Naranja Academy. The only requirement was that he might occasionally have to work overtime.
The "might" and "occasionally" were very telling. Luo Mu vaguely remembered that once the couple threw themselves into researching Area Zero, Pepper had truly become a latchkey kid in the literal sense.
He'd only seen his parents a handful of times over the course of several years.
If that was what things were like for the employer, how busy must the people working under her be?
No, thanks!
Dr. Jacq saw Luo Mu inexplicably turn her down with such a resolute expression. Regretfully, she let it go and took a few suspicious-looking, unlabeled bags of seeds from a nearby refrigerator, then handed them to Luo Mu.
"These are a few bags of seeds I happened upon while researching the history of the past," Dr. Jacq said. "I don't know what species they are, but there's a lot of energy inside them. They shouldn't be ordinary plants."
Luo Mu picked up one of the bags and examined it closely for a while. Even with his meager knowledge, he couldn't tell what kind of seeds they were.
Once his farm was built, he'd need to grow crops to make money. These seeds were of unknown origin, and he didn't even know what they were. There was no guarantee he'd be able to sell whatever grew from them.
Luo Mu might not have been very smart, but he had decent people skills.
Even if he was puzzled about what he could do with the seeds, they were a kind gesture from Dr. Jacq. He could accept them, stash them away for now, and plant them somewhere out of the way once the farm was up and running.
After all, someone had once said that you should make as many friends as possible.
Just before Luo Mu left with the seeds, Dr. Jacq seemed to remember something. She called after him, "Professor Luo, please look after Pepper at Naranja Academy!"
Luo Mu stopped in his tracks, his expression instantly turning strange. For some reason, he felt his stomach starting to hurt.
Since Pepper was going to be his student...
Wouldn't that mean all the other members of the main cast and all the problem children would end up in his class too!?
Ugh. He didn't want that!
He hadn't even started work yet, and Luo Mu already wanted to quit.
Before you continue