Lance: ???

Let's turn back the clock slightly, to five minutes earlier.

At the foot of Mount Coronet's rear mountain, outside the Origin Internet Cafe, Dragonite descended from the sky.

Lance jumped from Dragonite's back and frowned slightly as he looked at the building before him.

He had ridden Dragonite around those coordinates for over ten minutes before finally spotting this building from the air.

Honestly, if it had taken any longer, he might have given up. This place was completely deserted; it didn't look like somewhere people would be at all.

As Lance pondered, Dragonite behind him suddenly shuddered. Something about his condition clearly wasn't right.

His eyes had reddened slightly, and a strange growl came from his throat as he irritably shook his head.

"Roar..."

Lance noticed immediately. He turned and strode over to Dragonite's side, patting his shoulder.

"How are you? Are you okay?"

Dragonite shook his head, but the flickering red light in his eyes and his trembling body proved that he was in a very bad state.

"You've worked hard... Leave it to me."

Lance raised a hand. The Poké Ball turned Dragonite into a streak of red light and drew him inside, yet it continued shaking violently.

His expression was complicated.

This was Dragonite's old problem.

His Dragonite was very special. He possessed an unusual bloodline, which gave him far more astonishing growth and strength than other Dragon-type Pokémon.

Moreover, ever since he had been a Dratini, he had been able to directly use an extremely powerful Dragon-type move.

But accordingly, that power... came with side effects.

Ever since evolving into Dragonite, each time he used that move, his power would lose control like it had just now, sending him into an inexplicable berserk state.

To prevent that from happening, Lance had deliberately kept Dragonite from using the move, even though it was Dragonite's strongest means of attack.

However, during an operation to wipe out Team Rocket three days ago, he had faced one of Team Rocket's high-ranking officers. Left with no other choice, he had Dragonite use that move in battle and had only barely defeated the opponent.

But in exchange, the side effects had returned over the past few days.

And this time, they seemed even more severe than before.

Lance could not help but sigh softly. He had searched for many ways to resolve this problem, but none had yielded much effect.

He had asked several Pokémon professors who specialized in Dragon-type Pokémon. All of them said they had never seen such a strange ability or condition in a Dragonite. This was a problem unique to his Dragonite...

Only one rather experienced old man had mentioned that he had once seen a similar account in an ancient text documenting Dragon-type moves. But so much time had passed that the content following that move seemed to have long been lost, so naturally, the old man could offer no solution.

At that thought, Lance took a deep breath and gripped the Poké Ball tightly.

A golden radiance spread out along his arm and entered the Poké Ball, only fully fading away a moment later.

In just those few seconds, Lance was already drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

As a descendant of Dragon Tamers, this was Lance's special power—Dragon Force.

But because his bloodline was thin, this power seemed incomplete. In only a few seconds, it had nearly drained all of Lance's strength.

Fortunately, as Dragon Force activated, the Poké Ball's shaking gradually stopped as well.

He stood where he was for quite a while before his breathing finally settled.

With that, Dragonite should be fine for the time being.

What mattered more now... was the clue about Team Rocket.

Putting the Poké Ball away inside his clothes, Lance raised his head and looked at the building before him.

It was a rundown little courtyard surrounded by dense shrubs, with an inconspicuous stone house at the far end.

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed abandoned...

On the way here, he had thought that if Cynthia had not told him those things, he would never have believed there could be any Team Rocket clues here.

And now that he stood here and saw the state of this house, Lance even began to wonder whether Team Rocket had impersonated Cynthia's transmission to lure him here and deal with him.

He quietly gripped the Poké Ball in his clothes and walked step by step into the small courtyard.

But the instant Lance pushed open the door, the sight before him made him freeze.

Gentle music drifted through the room. There was a counter beside a massive display screen, warm yellow lighting, clean wooden floors, and rows of floor-to-ceiling windows.

The inside of the house was practically a completely different world from the outside.

His gaze swept across the center of the room, and he found that there really was... a computer sitting on that table.

This really is an internet cafe?

No, what kind of internet cafe only has one computer?

Just as Lance was internally complaining, his entire body suddenly stiffened.

Because he discovered that in front of that computer... sat a Pokémon.

He was entirely white, with a round body. His pair of scarlet eyes stared blankly at the screen, while his two claws held a white can.

Hearing the door open, he turned around, grinned at Lance, and waved a claw.

"Geh-heh!"

Then he turned back around and continued staring blankly at the screen.

Lance:?

Why was there a Gengar sitting here?

And did this even count as browsing the internet? He looked like he was just spacing out.

Also, wasn't Gengar supposed to be purple? Was he a Shiny Pokémon? But Shiny Gengar wasn't white either, was it?

Countless questions flashed through his mind, leaving him momentarily dazed.

At the same time, he instinctively began to sense Gengar's aura.

He could not sense the other party's aura at all. Generally, there were only two possibilities: either he was strong enough to conceal his aura at will, or he was so weak that he had no aura to begin with.

Judging from this guy's appearance, it was most likely the latter...

As Lance considered and made his judgment, a young voice suddenly came from behind the counter.

"Welcome."

He turned his head and saw a young man rising from behind the counter and walking toward him.

Lance immediately made his assessment.

This person looked to be in his early twenties. His bearing was calm, and he did not carry any trainer equipment...

"Are you an employee here?" he asked.

"No, I'm the owner. That one is the employee."

Luo Chen pointed at the Gengar not far away.

Lance looked back at Gengar. He was sitting before the computer and continuing to drink his beverage, occasionally flashing a foolish grin at the screen.

He could not help asking,

"...What is he doing?"

"Streaming."

"...Streaming?"

"That's right. The viewers are watching him drink."

"???"

Lance fell silent for a second.

Cynthia had said there were clues here, and he had indeed believed her.

But everything before him now truly made him begin to doubt...

A white Gengar livestreaming himself drinking, an owner in his twenties... an internet cafe with only one computer.

Could Cynthia really be joking with me??

Just as Lance was beginning to fall apart internally, his gaze swept over the counter by instinct, and his entire body abruptly froze.

A triangular stone sat on the counter, looking completely unremarkable.

Yet the instant he looked at it, a powerful pull came from the stone, making him want to approach it on his own.

What... is that?

Lance instinctively stepped closer.

However, in the next moment, an abrupt change occurred!

A golden radiance suddenly sprang from the stone and shot straight toward his chest!