Chapter 120: The Talking Researcher’s Double Twist
A medium-sized room entirely made of transparent glass, just like the one Zuo Hang saw when he first entered.
There were no children wearing white shirts, only several staff members in Aether gray uniforms, both men and women, with few Asian faces judging from their appearances.
“This is?”
“A room specially configured for Secret Realm infiltration,” Madame Blood Dragon said. “Aether has preserved projections of 65 Dead Worlds, each beyond the already discovered Secret Realms. To be precise, what we preserve cannot be considered Secret Realms; they are merely projections onto this world using secrets as carriers.”
A staff member with a beard suddenly said, “In ordinary Secret Realms, you need to find the world’s projection yourself, but here you don’t. You can even actively choose the world you want to enter.”
With that, the male staff member picked up two black round Thin Slices from the workbench and said, “Put this on your temple. You’ve played fully immersive games, right? It’s just like that.”
Fully immersive games were a new era game that became completely popular in 2024. They had sparked a small-scale craze as early as 2022, but due to a certain shocking 【 unable to log out 】 incident, this technology was forcibly delayed by two years.
Zuo Hang had indeed played fully immersive games, but he didn’t like them much because it was easy to lose track of time in the virtual world.
Zuo Rou had originally loved playing them, but after once missing Aunt Li’s feeding due to infiltrating for too long and going hungry for several days, she lost interest in such games.
Zuo Hang looked at the two Thin Slices in the man’s hand…
Sticking this thing on the temple to enter the world’s projection… it didn’t feel like a very safe method. Fully immersive games at least had a helmet, but this Thin Slice…
The surrounding staff members looked at Zuo Hang with somewhat unusual gazes.
K295, who had been carried in by Infernape, was already able to walk normally. She deftly took the Thin Slice from the bearded man’s hand, stuck it on her temple, and lay down on a small bed in the room that resembled an Experimental Bench.
Infernape repeated K295’s actions, also sticking the Thin Slice on its temple and lying on the Experimental Bench beside K295.
Under Zuo Hang’s shocked gaze, Madame Blood Dragon actually did the same.
The man with the beard said, “You’re the one Madame Blood Dragon brought, right? I saw you at the doorway earlier… Don’t worry, this infiltration device has no danger. Not only Aether, many other organizations use it too.”
With that, the man took out two yellow Thin Slices from the workbench, with a black lightning emblem drawn on them.
“This is the infiltration device dedicated to A023’s Pikachu. That kid is very generous; I took the liberty of borrowing it for you. He probably won’t mind.”
The man with the beard smiled and handed the specially made two Thin Slices to the Pikachu on Zuo Hang’s shoulder. The Electric Mouse poked out its nose to smell it; it indeed had the scent of a companion.
“Pika!” the Electric Mouse said to Zuo Hang.
“You think it’s pretty reliable?”
Pikachu thought it was reliable, but Zuo Hang did not. However, he still took the Thin Slice from the man.
Everything has a first time. He was unwilling to wear it because Aether gave him too cold a feeling—entering another world under the observation of a group of Researchers while leaving his body in reality. No matter how he thought about it, it wasn’t something that could put one at ease.
A male Researcher seemed to see through Zuo Hang’s thoughts. He had no beard on his face, wore glasses, and was an Asian man.
“We’re all just Ordinary People, not Trainers. You have absolutely no need to worry about anything. The infiltration process is like sleeping. If there’s any physical interference from the outside world, you’ll immediately wake up from the infiltration.”
The Asian Researcher pushed up his glasses.
“If you’re not at ease about your body, you can have your Pokémon guard it outside. The standard for a Pokémon Belt is six, one accompanies the Trainer into the Secret Realm, and the others protect your body outside. If you can’t trust us as Researchers, then your companion Pokémon should always be something you can rely on, right?”
“Suspicion is a quality Humanity must possess, but if suspicion reaches a certain extent, that person’s character and daily life must be extremely tragic.”
“Moreover, suspicion should be directed at the right targets. Madame Blood Dragon may not look like a good person and may act somewhat extreme at times, but this guy has always been working hard to maintain human reason.”
“What you see may not be the Truth. Much of the Truth cannot be discerned with just a pair of eyes.”
“I get it, stop talking. I’ll wear it.” Zuo Hang placed the Stealth device on his temple.
This was a double reversal, turning Zuo Hang’s suspicion of Aether into suspicion of himself.
Gardevoir could stay outside. With her watching, Zuo Hang could completely eliminate any worries. Even without this Asian Researcher saying the latter words, Zuo Hang would still enter the Secret Realm, and the outcome wouldn’t change.
He was very familiar with people who liked to lecture like this, because Zuo Hang was such a person too.
Once they started lecturing, they wouldn’t stop. Regardless of whether the reasoning was right or wrong, they had to say whatever came to mind.
When Zuo Hang lay down on the bed, he glanced at the identification hanging on the Asian Researcher’s chest.
“Xingye Zheng. From the Xingye family??”
Before he could read the full name clearly, his consciousness gradually detached from this body.
“Level 5 Core authority, autonomous world selection rights. Aether Foundation temporary Specialist Zuo Hang, please select the world projection you wish to enter.”
“Specialist carrying Pokémon: Pikachu. Combat Ability rating: SS+. Recommended world level: SS.”
A female voice identical to the White House electronic sound awakened Zuo Hang.
In front of his eyes was information on numerous worlds. Zuo Hang scanned it roughly; there was no Martial World, no 2077. It seemed the Secret Realms inside White Dragon were not within Aether’s collection.
Among the 65 Dead Worlds collected by Aether, there were 5 double SS-grade ones, 2 SS+, and one SSS-grade, but no SSS+.
Zuo Hang skipped the earlier grades and looked directly at the last one.
【Dead World number: k-146】
【Name: Alsteria】
【World Strength: SSS】
【Time from Spatial Tremor to world Destruction: 2056 hours 43 minutes 12 seconds】
【World summary: Existence of Pokémon, existence of Magic, extremely high human physique quality. An ordinary adult man’s Strength far exceeds that of the current world, and humans’ physique has extremely high growth potential. Humans cultivated to the extreme can probably reach the evaluation of S+ level Pokémon in this world. Technological level yet to be explored. Spatial defense awareness Pokémon breaking Base Stats limits is relatively simple. Many SSS+ rated Pokémon exist. Legendary Pokémon unknown. Mythical Pokémon unknown.】
【This world has numerous unexplored armed means. Infiltration difficulty extremely high. Please consider carefully, infiltration Specialist.】
【World projection location: Aether Foundation Far North headquarters, Astor Snowfield Core, coordinates 165.1, 15.2】
【World projection entry method: Bury body in snowfield or use Foundation’s infiltration device.】
【World entry/exit record: 12 times. Collected records: 1 time】
【Can World Relics be brought out: Yet to be explored】
【Special note: If your Existence is detected by Pokémon or humans in the world, exit by suicide. When entering worlds level SS and above, Aether cannot protect the Specialist’s safety.】
（ps: After writing two chapters about Zuo Tian, subscriptions dropped sharply. Something’s off, Brothers. Did I mess up the writing? (；′⌒`)）
