Chapter 243: Chapter 242 Rose's Invitation
"What was that just now?" Nessa's uncle looked at Bai Feng in confusion and asked.
Because Porygon was not yet widespread, let alone its evolved form Porygon2, neither Nessa nor her uncle had seen the Pokémon that just drilled into the computer.
"That's the Virtual Pokémon Porygon2. It can enter the internet in data form and travel freely, perhaps finding the reason why the news disappeared," Bai Feng explained.
"Virtual Pokémon Porygon2... there's such a Pokémon? How amazing, I've never heard of it," the uncle exclaimed in wonder.
"Lysandre Labs recently launched a new computer that comes with Porygon, the initial form of Porygon2. Perhaps it won't be long before they announce Porygon's evolution method. If you're interested, Uncle, you could buy a computer from Lysandre Labs and try it out," Bai Feng took the opportunity to put in a good advertisement for his friend's company's product.
Hearing Bai Feng's words, the uncle's eyes lit up. "I'll go buy one later."
"Let's investigate the reason for the news disappearing first!" Bai Feng suggested.
"Right, right!" the uncle quickly agreed, and then began posting the news article he had written online.
As expected, just like the rumors said, as soon as the news appeared online, it was immediately deleted completely, leaving no trace.
Bai Feng looked at the computer and asked, "Venus, did you find anything?"
At this moment, a line of text appeared on the computer: Please try again.
Bai Feng then looked at his uncle and said, "Uncle, could you please post it again?"
The uncle nodded and said, "Okay!" Saying this, he posted the article again.
The article had just been posted when it instantly disappeared again.
Venus typed another line of text on the computer: Please try again.
So the uncle followed Venus's instructions and posted it again. After repeating this more than ten times, a strange Pokémon suddenly flashed across the screen, then quickly disappeared.
That Pokémon looked very similar to Porygon, both having red and blue bodies, but its body lines were more fluid, and its head and body were in a separated state.
"Porygon-Z!"
Seeing this Pokémon, Bai Feng suddenly understood. He wondered why the news would disappear without reason; it turned out Porygon-Z was behind it.
But Bai Feng quickly fell into confusion. Porygon was not yet widespread, Porygon2 was even rarer, and their final evolved form, Porygon-Z, hadn't even been developed by Professor Akihabara.
So where did this Porygon-Z come from?
"Porygon-Z?"
Hearing Bai Feng's exclamation, Nessa and her uncle looked at Bai Feng in confusion at the same time.
Bai Feng explained, "Porygon-Z is the evolved form of Porygon2. It possesses even more powerful network traversing ability than Porygon2. No wonder it can delete news about sewage discharge online at any time. I suspect the entire internet of Hulbury has been controlled by it."
Because Porygon-Z had not yet been developed, there were currently no network safety firewalls related to it. It could naturally travel unimpeded through all networks without being discovered by others.
Hearing Bai Feng's explanation, Nessa and her uncle suddenly understood.
"So that's it!"
"What should we do now?" Nessa asked.
"Of course, we have to catch Porygon-Z!" Bai Feng said. "As long as we catch Porygon-Z, all problems will be solved."
Bai Feng and the others couldn't enter the virtual world, so the task of catching Porygon-Z could only be entrusted to Porygon2.
After discussing with Venus just now, Bai Feng already knew that although that Porygon-Z was superior to Porygon2 in performance, Bai Feng's Porygon2's strength was actually stronger than that Porygon-Z, so catching it wasn't impossible, it just required a little method.
Bai Feng and Venus discussed for a while, then he looked at Nessa and asked, "Nessa, how many of the young people in today's parade do you know?"
Nessa replied, "I know basically all of them."
"That's great!" Bai Feng said happily. "Go find them all, I want to ask them for a favor."
Although Nessa didn't understand what Bai Feng was going to do, she nodded and agreed.
After Nessa left, Bai Feng told his uncle his thought, and then the two of them rented out an internet cafe. When Nessa brought the young people, Bai Feng and his uncle took them all to the internet cafe.
The young people heard that Bai Feng was helping them solve the sewage discharge problem, and they were all eager to help, waiting for Bai Feng's instructions.
Bai Feng had his uncle copy the news article he had prepared for every young person present, and then had them continuously post the article online simultaneously.
Because too many articles appeared online at the same time, and they kept reappearing after being deleted, Porygon-Z finally became a bit overwhelmed and quickly showed a weakness. By noon, Porygon2 caught its tail.
As long as Porygon2 discovered clues and movement patterns related to Porygon-Z, it would not be so easy for Porygon-Z to shake off Porygon2.
So the two Virtual Pokémon began chasing each other in the network world.
That Porygon-Z was quite responsible. Even while being chased by Porygon2, it didn't forget its mission and occasionally looked for opportunities to delete the news, which gave Porygon2 another chance.
After some time, a young person, while posting a news article, suddenly saw a Pokémon pop out of the screen in front of him, which gave him a big scare.
The Pokémon that popped out was precisely Porygon-Z.
Porygon-Z appeared, and Porygon2 followed closely behind, popping out of the computer. Bai Feng was also ready and waiting. He saw purple radiance flashing in his eyes, and the Porygon-Z that had just been driven out by Porygon2 was instantly caught by Psychic.
Bai Ye also made its move at this time. A not-so-intense beam shot out from its body, hitting Porygon-Z. Porygon-Z immediately fell to the ground and fainted.
Bai Feng took out a Poké Ball and threw it, but it was quickly bounced back by the red light flashing on Porygon-Z's body.
A knowledgeable young person shouted, "It's already been caught!"
"It must be the power plant's Pokémon!"
"Was it this that stopped the news about sewage discharge from appearing online? How amazing!"
"I've never seen this kind of Pokémon, what is it?"
...
The young people discussed animatedly.
At this moment, Nessa and her uncle walked over and asked Bai Feng, "Porygon-Z has been caught, what should we do next?"
Bai Feng smiled and said, "Of course, we'll let everyone know about the news of the sewage discharge!" After saying that, he looked at the Porygon-Z lying on the ground.
Not long after, the Porygon-Z that had been knocked out by Bai Ye woke up. But as soon as it opened its eyes, it met a pair of eyes flashing with purple radiance, and its mind was instantly captivated.
Under Bai Feng's Hypnosis, Porygon-Z was completely obedient to Bai Feng's commands. So, under Bai Feng's instructions, it re-entered the network, copied the uncle's news article in large quantities, and posted it on various online platforms.
Almost immediately, the news about Hulbury's sewage discharge was noticed by people throughout the Galar Region. For a time, public opinion fermented online, and the mayor and the power plant boss were subjected to severe criticism.
The young people in the town were also very clever. After discovering that the public was starting to pay widespread attention to the matter in Hulbury, they began filming videos everywhere, showing the changes in Hulbury after the power plant discharged sewage through videos, and posting them all online.
Without Porygon-Z's obstruction, coupled with the widespread public attention on the matter, the videos filmed by the young people began to spread rapidly online.
Of course, Porygon-Z's pushing and promoting also played a part in this.
As soon as this matter fermented online, the mayor and the power plant boss couldn't sit still. They tried every method to block the message, but at this point, how could the message still be blocked? The incident only intensified.
So the mayor began frantically calling for Porygon-Z, but Porygon-Z had long been controlled by Bai Feng and would not respond to his calls.
It turned out that Porygon-Z did not belong to the power plant, but was the mayor's Pokémon.
Porygon-Z was a Pokémon the mayor obtained from a friend. It was one of the original twenty Porygon that Professor Akihabara had initially developed.
Because it was a first-generation product, Porygon's information processing capability was not strong, so the mayor had never paid much attention to it.
But there are exceptions to everything.
One time, the mayor accidentally received a USB drive containing a large amount of computer viruses. The mayor didn't know this, so he plugged the USB drive into the computer.
The moment the USB drive was plugged into the computer, the computer began to malfunction, but then Porygon appeared, and the computer viruses also latched onto Porygon.
Unexpectedly, after being infected with computer viruses, Porygon not only didn't malfunction but became smarter. So the mayor ordered Porygon to devour all the computer viruses.
Porygon obeyed the mayor's command and, after dealing with all the viruses, something magical happened. Porygon underwent continuous evolution, first evolving into Porygon2, and then immediately evolving into Porygon-Z.
Porygon-Z, having evolved to its final form, possessed extremely powerful information processing capability and could even traverse the network without any reservations.
After discovering this ability of Porygon-Z, the mayor began to have crooked thoughts. He ordered Porygon-Z to steal large amounts of information from others, looking for leverage on others. Through this method, he almost controlled the entire Hulbury's Pokémon League officials and some high-ranking Pokémon League members.
It was precisely because of this that the matter in Hulbury could never be exposed. This was not only because the mayor blocked the message, but also because there were high-ranking Pokémon League members secretly providing cover.
Now that public opinion had fermented to this extent, the matter could no longer be concealed no matter what.
Soon, the Galar Region Pokémon League sent people to investigate this matter. Rather than saying they came to investigate, it was more accurate to say they came to deal with it directly, because the entire incident was already very clear and the evidence was sufficient.
With the help of Porygon-Z, Bai Feng found evidence of the Hulbury mayor and the power plant colluding, manipulating officials, accepting bribes, bribing superiors, and other multiple crimes, and secretly handed all of it over to the Pokémon League investigators who came to investigate.
Not long after, the mayor, a group of high-ranking power plant members, and some officials in the town were all arrested. On the day these people were arrested, the town was like a festival. The residents cheered and went to watch the scene of the mayor and the group being escorted into the police car.
Five days had passed since Bai Feng arrived in Hulbury.
On this day, Bai Feng also went with everyone to watch the scene of the mayor's arrest. After the mayor was taken away, Bai Feng was about to leave with Nessa when someone suddenly called out to him. He followed the sound and saw a tall, long-haired woman looking at him not far away.
Oleana? Why would she be here?
Bai Feng said to Nessa, "You go ahead, I'll be right back."
Nessa nodded and didn't ask any further questions.
Bai Feng walked up to Oleana and asked, "Excuse me, is there something you need?"
Oleana gave a self-introduction, "I am Oleana, Chairman Rose's secretary..."
Before she could finish speaking, Bai Feng interrupted, "I know, we've met."
Oleana didn't mind Bai Feng's lack of politeness. She smiled slightly and said, "I thought you had forgotten. Chairman Rose wants to see you."
Bai Feng looked surprised. "Chairman Rose is in Hulbury?" At the same time, he thought about the reason for Rose being here. It couldn't be because of the news, could it? Although the news matter was big, it wasn't to the point where the League Chairman would personally show up.
"The Chairman happened to be passing by here and, after learning that you were also here, wanted to say hello. He greatly appreciates you," Oleana explained.
"Appreciates me? Chairman Rose and I have only met once," Bai Feng looked confused.
"You were very active in Motostoke," Oleana smiled.
Upon hearing this, Bai Feng's internal alarm bells rang loudly. Could it be that Rose found out about the Eternatus remains falling into my hands?
However, he didn't seem to need to be too wary of Rose. Even if Rose knew the Eternatus remains were in his hands, it didn't matter.
Firstly, Rose himself didn't want to expose the secret of Eternatus being in his hands. Secondly, Bai Feng wasn't a member of the Galar Region Pokémon League, so Rose couldn't do anything to him. Even if he resorted to force, with Mewtwo present, he wasn't afraid.
"So that's it, the Chairman knows I went to Motostoke!" Bai Feng pretended to suddenly understand.
Oleana: "Of course, your heroic appearance was filmed by others and posted online. Chairman Rose and I both saw it. Truly a young hero! That's why Chairman Rose has always wanted to meet you."
Bai Feng looked surprised; he hadn't known about this matter.
"You flatter me," Bai Feng said, pretending to be embarrassed. "Where is Chairman Rose? Please take me to see him quickly, I shouldn't keep him waiting."
Oleana smiled and said, "Please follow me."
Led by Oleana, Bai Feng arrived at a cafe. The cafe was deserted at this time, with only Rose sitting by the window.
Seeing Bai Feng enter, Chairman Rose smiled and waved to him.
"Chairman Rose." Bai Feng walked up to Rose and greeted him.
"Quick, sit down, sit down!" Rose's attitude towards Bai Feng was very enthusiastic.
Bai Feng took a seat opposite Rose, and heard Rose say with a smile, "You were very active in the Hulbury matter this time too. On behalf of the Galar Region Pokémon League, I express my gratitude to you. If it weren't for you, this matter wouldn't have been resolved so quickly."
'The message is really well-informed,' Bai Feng thought to himself. "I don't dare take credit. Although I am not from the Galar Region, the Pokémon League is one big family. When I encounter evil, how can I just sit by and do nothing!"
"Well said!" Chairman Rose looked at Bai Feng with full appreciation, then asked, "I wonder if you have any intention of developing in the Galar Region? I have high hopes for you. As long as you are willing to come to Galar, I can provide you with all conveniences."
Bai Feng first showed surprise, then said with difficulty, "This... I'm afraid I can't. Although the conditions Chairman Rose offers are very tempting, my relatives and friends are all in the Kalos Region. Compared to excellent development conditions, I would rather stay by the side of my relatives and friends."
Rose looked regretful. "Please consider it carefully. I am sincerely inviting you. As long as you are willing to come over, anything is negotiable."
Bai Feng still politely refused. Seeing this, Rose no longer insisted, only saying, "As long as you change your mind, you can come find me anytime. Galar's door is always open to you!"
(End of Chapter)