"Whoosh—"
The Screen flickered again, and the white light of time reversing lit up the internet café lobby.
This was Gu Yuena's thirty-seventh reload.
Snow Empress and Ice Empress, seated behind her, had gone completely numb by now.
The two rulers of the Far North watched as Gu Yuena, like an emotionless machine, repeated that despair-inducing sequence:
Flareon chipped away at it—switch to Jolteon to inflict paralysis—throw an Ultra Ball—it burst open—reload.
"Silver Dragon King... how about we forget it?"
Ice Empress looked at Gu Yuena, her voice carrying a trace of exhaustion. "This damned bird is a bottomless pit. It simply doesn't want to submit! Why should your exalted self stubbornly wrestle with a piece of fake data?"
"Not so."
Gu Yuena did not turn around. Her amethyst-like eyes remained fixed on the Screen, without the slightest impatience. Instead, they gleamed with a curiosity known as "the thirst for knowledge."
"Lu said that in this world, aside from that Master Ball, nothing is absolute! Although the capture rate of an Ultra Ball is extremely low, as long as it isn't zero, it means there is a possibility of overcoming it."
Gu Yuena clicked lightly and threw another Ultra Ball. "This is not merely catching a Pokémon. I am gambling against this world's laws of probability."
"Beep..."
The Poké Ball landed on the ground and began its thirty-eighth cycle of shaking.
This time, the shaking seemed slower than ever before.
"Beep..."
The second shake.
Ice Empress held her breath, while Snow Empress's cool eyes widened slightly despite herself.
"Beep..."
The third shake.
Thunk!
With a crisp yet somewhat muffled notification sound, the red-and-yellow Ultra Ball finally stopped moving, its colors instantly dimming.
[Articuno was caught!]
"Phew..."
Seeing this, Snow Empress unexpectedly let out a long breath, as though