Metagross Woke Up, So Close the Door First

What did it feel like to be stared at by a pair of red eyes?

Xia Che knew now.

It was like four rulers were measuring him from head to toe, trying to calculate even how long he planned to sleep tonight.

"Good evening." He greeted it first.

The large silver-gray creature did not respond.

It hovered in the middle of the hall, its four metal arms slowly unfolding. With a low grinding sound, the golden cross-shaped pattern on its front was fully revealed.

Rotom abruptly flew back to Xia Che's side.

"Scan complete. Metagross. A Steel- and Psychic-type Pokémon. Its four brains can calculate simultaneously, and its thinking speed far exceeds ordinary computing devices, Rotom."

Xia Che looked at it. "So why did you call it a shelf just now?"

"This unit only said the shelf had no heartbeat."

"You only figured that out after flying around it once."

One bar on Rotom's screen went dark. "The lighting here is too poor."

Metagross's right front arm dipped slightly.

Click.

The floor beneath Xia Che's feet let out a faint sound.

Then Zorua's four legs buckled, and the little fox flopped flat onto the ground. Indeedee swayed as well, catching herself against the wall just in time to avoid dropping to her knees.

Xia Che's outer robe seemed to be tugged by an invisible hand, its hem pressed tightly against the floor.

"The gravity level is rising!" Rotom flapped its electric wings with difficulty. "Two times, three times, still increasing, Rotom!"

"Turn it off."

"Control terminal not found!"

"I was talking to it."

Metagross's two eyes turned toward him at once, and the gravity rose another notch.

Xia Che stood where he was without even tilting his shoulders.

Zorua lifted its head from the floor. Seeing this, the tip of its tail immediately lit with a faint glow. Another Xia Che appeared in the hall and walked toward Metagross from the opposite side.

The fake walked steadily, and even the hem of its robe swayed gently with the airflow.

Metagross only glanced at it.

The next moment, the ground beside the real Xia Che suddenly sank, leaving a shallow ring-shaped dent in the metal floor. The illusion on the other side remained completely unharmed. After taking two more steps, it scattered into black light on its own.

Zorua rested its chin on the floor again, pretending nothing had happened.

"It can calculate even that?" Xia Che asked.

"The illusion has no weight, and it does not create real changes in the airflow." Rotom said, "Metagross's four brains have cross-checked it seventeen times already."

"How do you know it was seventeen times?"

"The lights on the wall flashed seventeen times."

Xia Che looked up.

Around the edge of the circular hall, a ring of silvery-white patterns was lighting up one after another. Each time a segment lit up, the red glow in Metagross's eyes deepened. When the last silver line reached the hatch, the exit behind them slammed shut.

Zorua finally stopped pretending, all four paws clawing at the floor at once.

A sheet of pale red light descended above the hatch, sweeping over them one by one.

A white ring lit beneath Indeedee's feet and scanned her apron, gloves, and cleaning cloth. It soon turned green.

Rotom floated through without issue as well.

When it was Zorua's turn, the red light on the floor flashed three times in rapid succession. A small screen on the wall first displayed Xia Che's silhouette, then pulled a little black fox from within the shadow, and finally stamped two large words over the fox's head.

Unauthorized Entry.

Zorua slowly buried its head between its front paws.

"It has to record that too?" Xia Che asked.

Rotom answered with complete impartiality. "If this unit were guarding the door, it would record it too, Rotom."

Black light flickered around Zorua's body, and it simply transformed into an Indeedee. It copied the real Indeedee beside it and stood upright, even matching the angle of her ears perfectly. It even folded both hands before itself.

The red light swept over it again.

A hat shaped like Indeedee appeared atop the black fox's head on the screen.

Unauthorized Entry, Plus Disguise.

The fake Indeedee lowered its head and turned back into a little fox.

Xia Che held back a laugh. "Take the stairs yourself next time."

Zorua gave a dejected cry.

"Dee..."

Indeedee bent down and gathered it into her arms. She raised one hand, and a pale purple psychic barrier spread close to the ground, taking away most of the pressure on Zorua and Rotom.

Xia Che asked inwardly, "This is the defense layer you mentioned?"

[Underground Partner: Metagross.]

[It has yet to acknowledge the shopkeeper.]

"So it locked the shopkeeper inside?"

The system fell silent.

After a moment of silence, Xia Che said, "Very reasonable. Don't arrange things like this next time."

Rotom had already flown a lap around the walls. It slipped into a control screen that could still be activated, and the display quickly filled with tiny silver-gray text.

"Found it. The underground level was buried along with the shop when it landed. It has remained in its lowest sleep state for five years. Today, the anchor completed its first calibration, the energy supply resumed, and Metagross woke up as well."

The control screen flipped to another page, revealing a record so long it seemed endless.

There had been no visitors, nor had there been any battles.

Over more than eighteen hundred days and nights, Metagross had done only one thing: inspect the anchor every two hours. Whenever the power supply was at its weakest, it would descend to the ground and use its magnetism to keep the underground level running. Once its energy recovered even slightly, it would hover again.

At the end of the record, every inspection result contained only two words.

Stable.

"It was always awake?" Zorua's situation made Xia Che change his wording. "Or awake occasionally?"

"It spent most of its time in deep rest. Each inspection only lasted a few breaths." Rotom said, "There was nothing here to talk to, and it never left the hall."

Indeedee looked toward Metagross, her expression softening slightly.

Metagross still watched them coldly, its four arms pressed against the ground without shifting an inch. But when Xia Che looked at that towering silhouette again, he finally understood why it had closed the door the moment it woke up.

It had guarded this place for five years.

Now, four strangers had suddenly intruded, and one of them had even been hiding in a shadow. If Pancham had been guarding the front door, the red rope would probably have gone up long ago.

"Does it know me?"

"The database contains the shopkeeper's authorization, but no record of your aura."

"Sounds like it still doesn't know me."

"To be precise, it knows there is a shopkeeper, but it has never seen the real person."

Even Xia Che felt the system had handled things rather carelessly this time.

Indeedee looked at Metagross, then pointed at Xia Che. She tried sending it a greeting through psychic power, but the instant it touched that heavy force, it was pushed back unchanged.

"Dee?"

She sent another greeting.

This time, Metagross even closed one eye.

Indeedee turned to Xia Che, and for the first time, obvious distress appeared in her expression. She could care for an Eevee that refused to eat, and she could restrain an injured Pancham that still wanted to train, but this new companion had four heads being stubborn together. The workload had clearly exceeded anything before.

"It wants to know whether you are capable of taking over its duties." Rotom poked its head out from behind the control screen. "It also wants to know whether it should listen to you in the future, Rotom."

Xia Che was not angry. The system could hand him a shop, but it could not make living companions nod in agreement for him.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" he asked inwardly.

[Notification would not change the outcome.]

"At least I could have eaten a proper meal first."

[The shopkeeper has already eaten dinner.]

Xia Che remembered the half piece of bread he had casually bitten into that evening and decided he would teach the system what dinner actually meant once he got out.

Indeedee could not hear their conversation, but she saw his subtle expression. She took a small berry biscuit from her apron pocket and offered it through the barrier.

The gravity was too strong. The instant the biscuit left her hand, it dropped straight down and smacked against the floor.

Everyone lowered their heads together.

Zorua reached out with a paw. The moment its claws touched the edge, the biscuit shattered into four pieces.

Xia Che looked at Metagross. "Does wasting food lower my impression score?"

The red glow in Metagross's eyes paused for an instant.

Rotom immediately said, "It calculated one less time just now."

"Looks like it does."

Indeedee put the remaining biscuits away.

That little interruption did not ease the tension in the hall. The exit remained sealed, and the anchor was still firmly blocked by Metagross behind it.

"How long does it plan to keep the door closed?"

Rotom glanced at the wall. "Until tomorrow night at the latest, Rotom."

Zorua's ears drooped.

Xia Che looked up at Metagross too.

"Someone is delivering wooden cabinets tomorrow morning."

Rotom poked half its face out of the control screen. "And training mats and your soft pillow."

"So we can't stay."

Xia Che took a step forward.

Metagross's left front arm rose with it. A deep hum filled the air, and the gravity that had only just stabilized began rising once more.

Indeedee immediately reached out to stop him.

"You protect them," Xia Che said. "I'll go finish the inspection."

"Dee."

"Don't worry. I won't dismantle it."

Metagross's eyes flickered.

Rotom whispered, "It seems to have heard that, Rotom."

"Good if it did."

Xia Che crossed the barrier Indeedee had raised and walked alone into the center of the hall.

When his first step landed, the metal floor beside his feet sank.

When his second step landed, every silver line on the walls turned red at once.

As he prepared to take a third step, Metagross suddenly turned around. Where it had been blocking the view all along stood a black cylinder running from the floor to the dome. A faint blue light pulsed within its core like breathing.

That was the Shop Anchor.

Metagross planted all four metal arms against the ground at once.

The entire hall suddenly shook.

The floor beneath Xia Che's feet began to collapse.