Chapter 168: Lance - There's Such a Good Deal??

Rainbow light connected Steven and Metagross. When the glow faded, Mega Metagross appeared in all its glory! Its form became far more ferocious, its four massive steel claws transforming into giant cantilever arms, like an unfeeling fortress of battle!

Following that, Mega Metagross displayed devastating, unstoppable power.

Its "Bullet Punch" struck like a cannon, its "Earthquake" shaking the entire battlefield. It charged through the arena with an overwhelming presence, practically ending the Double Battle through sheer crushing force!

After the battle ended, Lance stared at the screen, stunned once again.

Another Mega Evolution!

And the aura of pressure and raw power that this Mega Metagross displayed was absolutely comparable to Wallace's Mega Gyarados from before!

This power that transcended ordinary evolution was truly astounding.

He noticed his own desire for this force growing stronger and stronger.

At the same time, with the battle's conclusion, Team Magma executive Maxie threw down some final threats before hastily retreating with his battered remaining forces.

"Handled," Steven recalled Mega Metagross and regained his composed expression. "Thanks to you, Lance. I'm going to check if the rest of the facility is secure." With that, he headed off in another direction.

Lance was about to leave as well when he suddenly noticed the corridor that Gladion had entered earlier.

He guided his character over.

At the end of the corridor was a half-open metal door, and inside appeared to be a secret research lab. He pushed through the door and immediately saw Gladion standing before a massive transparent container, his expression complex as he stared at what was inside.

"You came," the dialogue box appeared, and Gladion didn't turn around, as if he'd known Lance would arrive.

Lance walked closer and peered into the container. Inside, suspended in pale green nutrient fluid, was a Pokémon he'd never seen before.

Its entire body was silver-gray in color. Its head was completely covered by massive silver metallic armor with various tubes connected to it. Its body was skeletal, its limbs bound in chains. It looked both mysterious and somehow familiar to Lance.

"This is..." Lance pressed the interaction button to ask.

"Type: Null," Gladion's voice was somewhat somber. "Or rather, a failure, an incomplete form."

"I originally thought Team Magma attacked this base for this... but it seems they had a different objective. Thank goodness you arrived when you did."

He turned to face Lance's character:

"That Silvally you encountered earlier, the one that can freely change its type, is the completed product of a classified project from the Aether Foundation, codename 'AR-SYNTHESIS.'"

He turned back to look at the Pokémon in the container, his voice wavering slightly:

"This one... is one of the experimental specimens from the same project, codename 'BEASTKILLER.' Compared to the completed product, it underwent experiments under far more extreme conditions, and endured much more suffering and pain. Those people never cared about how their 'experiments' felt."

Gladion paused, looking back at Lance.

"However, I can tell you're different from them. You're strong, and your eyes tell me you genuinely love Pokémon. If it's you... perhaps you could give it a different future."

Red text appeared in the dialogue box below, accompanied by choice prompts!

[Gladion wishes to entrust Type: Null to you. Do you accept?]

[Yes / No]

Lance looked at this prompt and his heart skipped a beat.

He could obtain this Pokémon?!

Although this was a lower form, thinking back to that Silvally he'd encountered, its evolution, Lance gasped at the memory of that terrifying ability to freely switch types during battle to counter opponents.

There was such a good deal?!

He barely hesitated at all, immediately moving his mouse and clicking [Yes].

However, Gladion didn't immediately hand him a Poké Ball.

"Hold on," Gladion's voice became serious. "To earn its recognition, you must first prove to me that you possess both the strength and the resolve to battle alongside it! Come on, show me what you're made of!"

The screen went black instantly, and the battle music became intense!

[Opponent Gladion sent out Silvally LV75!]

That familiar, imposing Silvally appeared across from him, its level an astounding 75, well over a dozen levels higher than Lance's highest level Gyarados!

Lance: "???"

His current team averaged around level 60. Even when they were the same level, he couldn't beat Gladion the first time. How was he supposed to defeat a level 75 Silvally now?

Even without it switching to a resistant type, he couldn't damage it!

The battle was completely one-sided.

Even though Lance sent out his strongest Gyarados, Silvally simply switched its type and launched a first-strike "Thunderbolt," instantly one-shotting his Gyarados.

The screen went black, then lit up again, and the defeat message appeared along with Lance's stunned silence.

Damn, it was a one-on-one battle after all!

In the game, Gladion recalled Silvally and shook his head: "It seems you're not ready to harness its power yet. Come find me again after you've grown stronger."

With that, he ignored Lance and turned back to stare intently at Type: Null in the container.

Lance looked at the screen, honestly a bit speechless.

He thought this was going to be a gift for the player, but it turned out there was a test... and the difficulty was absolutely ridiculous.

To one-on-one defeat a level 75 Silvally was almost impossible to conceive.

It looked like the path to obtaining this powerful Pokémon was going to be a long one.

Today's gaming experience had made Lance suddenly realize something important.

The immediate priority wasn't just raising levels and strengthening his Pokémon team, but finding strategies to handle various situations had become more crucial than ever.

Whether it was for conquering Mossdeep Gym or for eventually passing Gladion's test and obtaining that Type: Null.

He glanced at the silent Type: Null in the container, then thought about that unreachable level 75 and the two powerful gym leaders in the gym, and took a deep breath.

The road ahead was long.

He needed to find a way to continue grinding levels and catch more, stronger Pokémon. His current team wasn't cutting it anymore.

But the problem was, he hadn't really seen many Dragon-type Pokémon along the way.

Would he have to settle again?

The corner of Lance's mouth twitched.

At this rate, he, the supposed Dragon-type Expert, might end up becoming an expert in some other type instead.

While Lance was troubled about his next steps in the game, in the real world, Cynthia was facing her own dilemma.

Her investigation into "New Island" had hit a dead end.

Despite using her connections and resources as Sinnoh Champion and a mythologist, consulting the League's classified files, ancient regional chronicles, and even some inconvenient gray-market channels, the results were either "location unknown" or that "New Island" seemed to have been hidden by Team Rocket, or simply didn't exist.

But given her previous experiences, Cynthia leaned more toward the first possibility.

She sat at her desk, her fingertips unconsciously tapping the surface, her brow furrowed. All conventional methods seemed to have failed.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, she quickly picked up a specially designed, heavily encrypted communication terminal and her fingers flew across it. She didn't make a direct call, but instead sent a connection request encrypted with complex scrambling code.

After waiting about a minute, the terminal screen flickered several times before finally connecting. The image wasn't entirely clear, just a vague lower half of a face hidden in the shadow of a hood, with constantly flowing green data streams in the background.

"Cynthia? What's up?" A young voice came through, tinged with curiosity. "Got new info on that game?"

"No. Emma," Cynthia got straight to the point, her tone serious, "I need you to help me look up a location."

"Oh? A location? Cynthia, you could handle that yourself, right?"

The voice on the other end sounded confused. She understood when Cynthia asked her to investigate the identity of that game's creator before, but for location scouting, with Cynthia's connections and knowledge, it shouldn't be a problem.

"It's an island called New Island, probably in the waters of Kanto, and it's connected to Team Rocket. That's all I know. I need its exact location and all related information, the more detailed the better."

Cynthia's voice continued.

Silence came from the other end for a few seconds, followed by the sound of keyboard clicks. After a while, he spoke again:

"New Island... Let me see. If it's connected to Team Rocket, it makes sense that the League database and geographic archive don't have records, but I just checked and there's no mention of it in the black market information network either. Where did you hear about this place?"

Emma paused, then her tone took on a note of realization.

"...It's from that game again, isn't it?"

Cynthia didn't deny it: "Yes."

"...I knew it." Emma gave a light snort, her voice now carrying more seriousness and a competitive edge.

"Since you asked me last time, I've been busy. I've tried all sorts of methods to break through that game's core database, trying to see what secrets it's hiding."

Her tone became grave: "But I have to admit, I've run into a tough nut this time. That game's encryption technology is stronger than anything I've encountered before. The structure is bizarre, not like anything modern technology should produce. The firewall is absolutely absurd; several times my probes almost got reverse-traced. It's simply... it doesn't seem like technology this world should have."

"So," Emma concluded, her voice filled with excitement, "wait for me, give me some time. I'll definitely find its vulnerabilities. As for this 'New Island' you mentioned, I'll also check the deep web and some more... unusual places. Maybe I'll find something."

"I'm counting on you, Emma. Notify me immediately if you discover anything. This is really important this time."

Cynthia said seriously.

"Got it, wait for my update, Cynthia. Later."

With that, the communication cut off, and the screen went dark.

Cynthia also set down the terminal and let out a soft breath.

She looked out the window. Night was deepening, and whether in the game world or the real world, everything seemed shrouded in mystery.

But she would definitely unveil these mysteries.

As for now...

She thought for a moment, picked up her phone, and entered a series of numbers.

At the same time, Lance's mood had been somewhat gloomy. He was thinking about whether he should head into the wild to grind levels or search for more clues about Mega Evolution when his phone suddenly rang.

The caller ID showed... Cynthia.

Lance was somewhat surprised and answered the call. Cynthia's distinctively recognizable voice came through immediately, carrying her characteristic calm: "Lance, am I interrupting? How far have you progressed in the game? I've run into something odd here and wanted to compare notes with you."

"What a coincidence, I just ran into a bunch of stuff and was getting a headache about it," Lance sighed. He was actually looking for someone to talk to, so he recounted his recent experiences in full detail.

From the unusual phenomena in the Shoal Cave, encountering Tate & Liza, discovering the legendary Pokémon frozen in ice, encountering Regice, to Wallace suddenly appearing, the overwhelming power of Mega Gyarados, and then losing miserably at Mossdeep Gym to double battle coordination and Mega Gardevoir.

Including the subsequent incident at the Space Center, Steven's Mega Metagross, and finally Gladion and that special Pokémon called Type: Null, plus that nearly impossible level 75 test.

He explained everything in detail, and especially when describing Wallace's and Steven's Mega Evolutions, Lance's tone carried notes of surprise and longing.

"...That kind of power is simply beyond imagination. A Pokémon trained to perfection, then undergoing Mega Evolution, can become so strong that it nearly touches the realm of legendary Pokémon," Lance's voice carried wonder. "Now all I can think about is how I can get my Gyarados to also..."

When he mentioned that massive Pokémon frozen in ice in the Shoal Cave, he emphasized it: "...Tate & Liza said it was Regice, the Ice Giant, and it seems to be the same type of legendary Pokémon as that Rock Giant Regirock I encountered in the desert."

On the other end of the phone, Cynthia had been listening quietly until she heard the names "Regice" and "Regirock." She suddenly gasped and interrupted Lance: "Wait! You said Regice? And it's connected to Regirock?"

"Uh, yeah, that's what they said. What's wrong?" Lance was confused.

Cynthia's voice suddenly became urgent, as if she'd had a sudden epiphany: "The desert! That giant palace in the desert! On its highest floor, I saw a strange mechanism with several indented symbols! One of them was clearly shaped like rock, and another... I never figured out what it was, but now that you mention it, it's obviously shaped like ice! So..."

Her speech accelerated, her thoughts crystallizing: "So that mechanism probably corresponds to these legendary giant Pokémon! Regirock, Regice... and probably more! Each time you awaken or encounter one, you activate the corresponding symbol!"

"I've already encountered an Electric-type Giant before and activated the corresponding lightning symbol!"

Lance froze. He hadn't expected his experience to be connected with Cynthia's previous exploration of the desert ruins.

The world-building of this game seemed even more vast and intricately designed than he'd imagined.