"You think you can disrespect me, Lt. Surge?!" Lt. Surge blew a ring of cigar smoke into Lin Hao's face, making him cough twice.
"Um..." May squeezed between them and pulled the Red ID Book from her pocket. "Gym Leader Lt. Surge, I'm a Special Investigator with the Kanto League."
Lt. Surge glanced down at her ID, his brow furrowing even deeper. "An Investigator?" He scoffed. "A League Investigator is hanging around with some brat who set a ship on fire?"
"Team Rocket was the reason the cargo hold burned," May explained quickly. "They released Hypnosis Gas aboard the ship and stole all the Trainers' Pokémon. He's the one who got every last Pokémon back."
Lt. Surge froze with the cigar between his teeth. "Team Rocket?"
"Yes, an entire squad," May added. "If he hadn't stepped in, hundreds of Trainers aboard that ship would've lost their Pokémon today."
Lt. Surge sized Lin Hao up, then took out his cigar and rolled it in his hand. "Kid, you took down a whole Team Rocket squad by yourself?"
"Pure coincidence." Lin Hao spread his hands. "They grabbed my Pikachu. I just went to get my own pet back."
"Pika." Pikachu was still picking his teeth on his shoulder.
Lt. Surge fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly threw back his head and laughed. "Hahahaha! You've got guts!"
He slapped Lin Hao on the shoulder so hard that Lin Hao's knees buckled and he nearly dropped to the ground. "I'll let the cargo hold slide! But you owe me a Gym battle, kid!"
"Some other day." Lin Hao rubbed his aching shoulder. "I've exhausted myself today."
"Bullshit!" Lt. Surge stuck the cigar back between his teeth. "I'll be waiting at the Vermilion Gym before sunset tomorrow! If you don't show, you're a coward!" With that, he strode away with his Apprentices.
Lin Hao watched him leave and sighed. "One more headache."
May pursed her lips. "You brought it on yourself. Who else can you blame?"
"That food thief." Lin Hao glanced at Pikachu.
"Pika?" Pikachu tilted his head innocently.
That night, in the sixth-floor records room of the League branch building in Vermilion City, a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses sat at a desk with a stack of documents spread before him.
His name was Zhou Yuan, a Level Two Investigator with the League Intelligence Analysis Department. The Communicator on his desk lit up.
"Investigator Zhou, an urgent assignment forwarded from Champion Lance's office," came the secretary's voice.
"What assignment?"
"Investigate a Trainer named Lin Hao. He's currently active in Vermilion City."
Zhou Yuan opened the cover of the urgent file. A red "Top secret" stamp marked it. "How thorough does this need to be?"
"Everything. Birthplace, family background, education, Trainer registration records, Pokémon ownership data, competition history. Don't miss a single thing."
"Understood." Zhou Yuan ended the call, sat down at his computer, and opened the League Trainer Information Database.
He entered: Lin Hao. The search returned just one record. "Registered... three days ago?" Zhou Yuan adjusted his glasses.
He opened the details page:
Trainer ID: KT-20240517-0892, registration location: Pallet Town, sponsor: Professor Oak, number of Pokémon owned: 2 (Pikachu, Charizard), number of badges: 2 (Boulder Badge, Cascade Badge)
Apart from the registration section, everything was blank. "What's going on?" Zhou Yuan stopped what he was doing.
He switched to the Household Registration Database and entered the same name and facial features. Search result: no matching records.
He switched to the Medical Records Archive. Result: no matching records. The Education System Database, too, returned no matching records.
Zhou Yuan's fingers hovered over the keyboard for three seconds. In twelve years of investigative work for the League, he had never encountered anything like this.
A living, breathing person stood in this world, flesh and blood, able to challenge Gyms and win badges. Yet in every official system, he did not exist.
No birth record, no school records, no medical files. He couldn't even find a single ID photo.
The only trace was the Trainer record Professor Oak had registered for him three days ago.
"Did this guy spring out of a crack in a rock?" Zhou Yuan muttered. He picked up his Communicator and dialed an Encrypted Number.
"Hello?" A woman's voice came from the other end.
"Champion Lorelei, this is Zhou Yuan from the Vermilion branch. I have the results of the Lin Hao investigation forwarded by Elite Four Lance."
"Go ahead." Lorelei's voice betrayed no emotion.
"His files are all blank." Zhou Yuan stared at the screen. "There isn't a single trace of this person's existence in any of the League's databases."
There was five seconds of silence on the other end. "Not a single one?"
"Not a single one," Zhou Yuan repeated. "The only record is his Trainer registration from three days ago, sponsored by Professor Oak. In other words, before three days ago, this person didn't exist among the records of Kanto's seventy-six million residents."
"Does he have a criminal record?"
"No. There aren't even any records to begin with." Another stretch of silence followed.
Zhou Yuan added, "Champion, I've checked every channel. Johto, Hoenn, Unova, Kalos-I cross-referenced every region. There isn't anyone in the world with this name and matching features."
"You're saying he appeared out of thin air?" Lorelei's tone shifted slightly.
"From the data's perspective, yes." Zhou Yuan took off his glasses and wiped them. "This man appeared out of thin air three days ago."
A faint creak from a chair came through the phone as Lorelei leaned back. "Zhou Yuan, have you read Elite Four Lance's Investigator report?"
"I have."
"Then you should know that this person with completely blank files brought a starter Pokémon to its final evolution within three days, burned the Pewter Gym's Onix into glass, and boiled the pool at the Cerulean Gym."
Lorelei paused. "And a Mythical mutant Pokémon willingly accepted him as its master."
Zhou Yuan swallowed. "Champion, what do you make of him?"
Lorelei didn't answer directly. After a long silence, she finally spoke, lowering her voice. "Send someone to keep an eye on the Vermilion Gym. He'll be challenging Lt. Surge tomorrow."
"Just watch him? No arrest?"
"Don't alert him," Lorelei said, her tone hardening. "Someone whose identity can't even be traced managed to get Professor Oak to personally vouch for him. That means Professor Oak must know something."
"Then our next step..."
"I'll go to Pallet Town myself."
Zhou Yuan tightened his grip on the Communicator. "You're going to see Professor Oak in person?"
"Yes." An emotion Zhou Yuan had never heard before entered Lorelei's voice, and her fingers tightened slightly around the phone.
"I need to confirm something myself." Lorelei paused for two seconds after speaking. "If even Professor Oak can't explain where this person came from..."
The sound of her rising came through the Communicator. "Then this Lin Hao won't simply be a 'Kanto problem' anymore."
Before you continue