Chapter 121: Extinction’s Alsteria
Zuo Hang lay on the bed, with an unfamiliar city night view on the left side of his body.
Looking around, this room wasn’t very big, just a bit over ten square meters.
On the side of the bed was a huge glass window cleaned spotlessly, and Zuo Hang could see the night view different from his era just by tilting his head.
His body still couldn’t move; he seemed to need some time to sync with this body.
Pikachu lay on his belly, staring at him with big eyes.
Zuo Hang breathed a sigh of relief.
The color was right; this time he didn’t turn into a gray electric mouse.
This was the world of destruction, Alsteria.
Zuo Hang sorted out the previous information in his mind.
From the start of the disaster to the world’s destruction, this world had gone through more than 2000 hours, nearly a month, ten times longer than the Martial World.
Besides that, this was a world where technology and magic coexisted. There should be no observation records of Legend and Mythical Pokémon in the first 12 exploration records. The line “possible existence detection” in the world introduction caught Zuo Hang’s attention.
The way to detach from the world was suicide, but that researcher named “Xingye Zheng” said that if his real body received stimulation, he could easily detach from the infiltration state. If the outside could clearly observe his current condition, helping Zuo Hang detach should be simple.
Zuo Hang had seen the heart rate bar graph recorded on the screen in the lab; those researchers were probably monitoring his heart rate at all times, but such data probably had little reference value. For a calm person like Zuo Hang, if his existence was discovered, his heart rate might change, but not by much, making it hard for outsiders to notice immediately.
Alsteria’s rating was SSS; in such a world, it wasn’t hard to understand if some big shots or powerful Pokémon detected Zuo Hang’s identity.
Oh, no, he wasn’t called Zuo Hang now; he was Li Dong, an idle young man in society who signed up for the Master Cup about to start in S City.
This was a series of competitions between same-type Pokémon. This year was the 21st edition, with a format of 1v1 and 2v2 trainer-Pokémon collaboration.
The Li Dong family had four children. Li Dong was 16 this year, the youngest of the four, with older sister Li Qiu, older brother Li Chun, and older brother Li Xia above him.
Including the parents, the whole Li Dong family were trainers. The father was the Gym Leader of some small gym, the mother worked in the League internals and never revealed her identity to the family. Among the siblings, the strongest in the world was older brother Li Xia—a genuine Elite trainer with a League rating.
The weakest was younger brother Li Dong, who hadn’t even obtained beginner trainer status, and due to his cowardly personality, he was often bullied at school, so he dropped out and stayed home, barely surviving on the 2000 bucks his mother sent monthly.
A somewhat terrible starting point.
This Li Dong was a complete good-for-nothing, but he wasn’t too bad as a person; he had some ambition, otherwise he wouldn’t have suddenly signed up for the Master Cup.
Zuo Hang’s body awareness had recovered, and Pikachu had regained control of its body.
“Pika!” The electric mouse pointed at the poster above the bed head and called out.
Zuo Hang turned his head; while lying on the bed, he couldn’t see above his head, so naturally he hadn’t noticed the poster at the bed head.
This was a woman in battle, wearing an exaggerated yellow trench coat, with her golden ponytail tied high up, faint electric currents swirling around her body, a katana tucked at her side waist, and a Dragonite standing beside her, glaring forward angrily.
This Dragonite had cloud-like fluffy fur flying at its head and tail, and its white tail had several sparkling red gems. It wasn’t an ordinary Dragonite, but a Mega Dragonite!
Zuo Hang noticed a semi-transparent gem embedded at the end of the woman’s sword hilt, with a leaf-like pattern inside the gem; this was an Evolution Key Stone.
He really wanted to complain why this woman also used a sword. Lately, he’d seen quite a few sword users: Reta used a sword, k295 used a sword, and that guy Xingye seemed to be a sword guy too.
Memories of this woman from Li Dong gradually appeared in Zuo Hang’s mind.
The poster in front of him didn’t show her usual attire, but it was similar. In Alsteria, she was the household-name Electric-type Elite Four member and idol of numerous Electric-type trainers—Lilia Alsteria.
As an Elite Four member, she was also the champion of the 7th, 8th, and 9th Electric-type Master Cups, and a Top Four in the World League S19.
Due to her extremely high looks and her super popular fast-attack combat method, Lilia had unimaginable appeal among teenagers. Numerous mobile games, movies, and major console games paid homage to Lilia’s image, portraying her as a goddess or a female hero saving the world, and other such positive roles.
The poster hanging in Li Dong’s room was Lilia’s appearance in a certain console game.
A line of firefly-like small text appeared in front of Zuo Hang’s eyes, accompanied by the cold female voice of the Aether AI in his mind.
“Lilia Alsteria, the hero who led humanity when the apocalypse came. Her ace Dragonite has SSS+ strength, her late-game main Pokémon team averages SS combat power. She single-handedly crushed Iron Fire Kaguya’s 124 vanguard exploration squads, including one SSS-rated Leader-class Iron Fire Kaguya.”
Why he could hear the Aether AI’s voice was probably related to the thin slice stuck on his temple before entering the world.
“How did she die?” Zuo Hang asked subconsciously.
“22 hours before world extinction, Lilia led a League squad to assault a newly arrived Buzwell. Despite having anti-Charm defenses, they were still Charmed by its special ability, causing the squad members to kill each other.”
The AI responded to Zuo Hang.
“Pika?” The electric mouse looked puzzled at Zuo Hang’s gaze, as if there was something in front of him that it couldn’t see.
“Oh, nothing. It’s Aether’s artificial intelligence.”
At these words, Zuo Hang suddenly remembered that Pikachu had also infiltrated wearing a thin slice.
“Pikachu, try if you can wake up the Aether AI. Ask any question, anything.”
“Pika??”
The electric mouse looked baffled and casually asked something into the void.
“Pikachu~ Pikachu~ Pikachu~~~~~~” said the Aether AI.
“Pika!” Pikachu was stunned, looked at Zuo Hang, and after confirming that only he could see the thing in front of him, he let out a long sigh of relief.
Zuo Hang sensed something was off.
“What did you just ask?”
“Pika.（ Nothing）”
“I think you’re lying to me.”
The electric mouse stepped back, “Pika!（ Really nothing.）(￢_￢)”
Pikachu tried to get away with acting cute, but Zuo Hang clearly wasn’t buying it.
“Tell me! What did you ask?!”
“Pika~~ Chu~~~” The electric mouse spread its hands, indicating it just wouldn’t say! Come and make me if you can!
Zuo Hang chuckled, picked up the electric mouse, and placed his hand on its belly.
“Pi~~~ Ka~~ Pika~~~~ Chu~~！！！！ Chu！！！！！！”
