With their cooperation agreed upon, Blaine moved with astonishing efficiency.
Without the slightest delay, he led Ye Li and a five-man elite squad under Apollo to an unremarkable alloy wall deep inside the research institute.
He pressed his fingertip into a concealed recess in the wall.
Rumble-
The wall slowly slid apart, revealing a deep passage leading downward.
A terrifying wave of heat, laced with the smells of sulfur and coke, rushed out of the passage, making everyone feel as though they had been thrown into a blast furnace.
"Stay close to me, and don't touch anything."
Blaine's expression grew utterly serious as he entered the passage first.
Inside the passage, an entirely different scene awaited them.
This was no longer a high-tech research institute, but a true inferno.
Uneven volcanic rock lay beneath their feet, and crimson magma occasionally flowed slowly down the surrounding rock walls like blood.
Scalding steam and poisonous volcanic gases filled the air. Every breath felt like swallowing red-hot knives.
For both the squad members and their Pokémon, this was an unprecedented, grueling ordeal.
The squad members released their Pokémon, partners such as Golem and Charizard that could adapt to high temperatures, to withstand the surrounding heat.
"The underground lava layer in that area ahead is extremely unstable. One wrong step, and you'll fall into a magma pool with no hope of survival."
Blaine pointed at an ordinary-looking stretch of open ground ahead and warned them gravely.
"We have to follow the strongest rock layers along the edge of the wall. The path there is extremely narrow."
Just as everyone prepared to inch carefully along the wall, Ye Li suddenly spoke.
"Wait."
He walked to the front of the group, looked at the open ground, then checked the perfectly clear game map in his mind.