Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 309 The Solution - The End of the Mystery

Chapter 311 The Solution - The End of the Mystery

Although the androgynous voice has a mechanical, grainy quality, it is full of human bewilderment, echoing the head's androgynous appearance.

The sound-generating device appeared to have been severely damaged in the previous incident, and the gray cloth covering it made the sound appear to come from different distances, making it difficult to pinpoint its location.

"Ah, that's not what I meant before! I have never thought of looking down on you at all!" Professor Medan hurriedly and frantically waved his hands.

"When you were in the Binhai City lab, you weren't able to speak fluently, were you? We thought it was because you hadn't learned human language yet, so why are you like this now—"

"Human language is not difficult for this body to learn. It's just that I harbored hostility towards you before, so I deliberately pretended to be unable to speak," the head said.

"Humans who aspire to be creators, don't worry about flaws in your words. For me, the experience of living in a human body for the past two years hasn't been painful at all. In fact, upon reflection, it's more about the fun side. It's just that I was misled by preconceived biases."

"What does this mean? Why were you hostile towards Medan and Hayden before?"

Officer Jenny asked a question.

Although it felt a bit impolite to ask someone a question while looking at the back of their head, the bionic head's visual function was not activated at this moment.

Therefore, for the latter, it doesn't really matter which direction you speak to it.

"Sigh." Rotom in the human head let out a very human-like sigh.

"The human who found me underground, thank you for letting me overhear your conversation. Although I didn't understand many of the details, I finally understand what kind of event I've been involved in. I feel like the whole world has been turned upside down."

"The world has been turned upside down? What do you mean by that?"

"You guys aren't actually allies of Team Galactic, are you?"

The gray head of the body spoke its deductions as if it were a detective announcing the true culprit of a case.

"Of course not!"

Officer Jenny couldn't understand why, even now, androids were still grappling with such a problem.

"This Sinnoh champion and I are sworn enemies of Team Galactic. Although Hayden has connections with various organizations, he is still considered a suspicious and unscrupulous businessman by Team Galactic, who could potentially sabotage them at any time—and in fact, he did just that in the end."

"As for the rest, they are ordinary citizens who have no connection with Team Galactic. Considering Team Galactic's intention to destroy the world, they can be considered potential victims of the former's atrocities—no matter how you look at it, they have nothing to do with Team Galactic's accomplices."

"That's why I said it's a prejudice caused by preconceived notions, a simple matter of perspective."

"That's what the head said."

If it still had a neck and the motion module was still working, it would probably make a distressed head-shaking motion.

"For those of you living in human society, this may not be a problem worth worrying about. But for a bionic robot like me, born in a closed laboratory, how to correctly identify information from the outside world is a crucial problem."

"When you moved from the Galactic Group's secret base to Professor Medan's laboratory, you didn't realize you had switched organizations, did you?"

The champion of Bamboo Orchid said with an expression that said, "I knew it."

"Information gaps are everywhere. Neither Team Galactic nor Hayden Medical employees would go out of their way to explain the current situation of their experimental subjects, let alone a wild Rotom, to them, or to the content of the experiments they are about to conduct. If you look at the whole incident from your perspective, you were just captured by Team Galactic's secret laboratory in Baidai City along with your companions on the original site of this Forest Mansion, and have been forced to cooperate with their research ever since. Therefore, you are completely unaware of the differences between the two research sites and the researchers."

"How perceptive! They defeated the powerful human who had wielded the giant, mischievous Raiden."

The bionic head praises the user with voices that appear to come from both near and far.

"That's exactly right. When I was still Rotom, I was locked inside this prototype head by a group of people in white lab coats, living a life without seeing the light of day. And when the visual sensors of this body finished loading, and I could see the outside world again..."

Before me still stood a group of human researchers in white lab coats. If I hadn't finally grasped the crux of the matter while you were talking just now, I might never have noticed the difference between the two scenes in my entire life.

"The android head was perfected in a medical laboratory in Binhai City. At that time, the Rotom had actually broken away from the control of the Galactic Group. Less than a year after this technology transaction was completed, the Galactic Group's underground research facility that produced the head sample was discovered and wiped out by the Alliance, and all the Rotom there were rescued and released."

Hayden, the director who orchestrated the entire transaction, recalled.

"But I didn't know about this. I'm just a shrewd human who thinks the world is a huge deception."

The android head seemed to want to let out a lament, but the player's performance wouldn't allow it to. It could only maintain its calm tone and confess, "I completely misunderstood the whole situation. Although no one set up a trap for me, I was still fooled by my own misunderstandings and even until recently, I was still being driven around by my own foolish anger."

"Does this refer to your secret escape from Binhai City, or your determination to break the seal on Xicui Naughty Thunder Bomb?" Zhu Lan asked.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

"It has nothing to do with the former. Although I harbored hostility towards the Galactic Group that captured me, whether as a test subject candidate or after being implanted into an android's head, I myself never directly suffered human abuse. Therefore, when I escaped that research institute..."

I never had any thoughts of revenge whatsoever.

Whether it was an attempt to downplay the issue or not, Rotom in the head explained in detail how he escaped.

"However, the slight hostility I showed in the past also played a significant role in my escape. You humans always seem to underestimate the intelligence of taciturn creatures. Therefore, when I displayed intelligence comparable to that of a human, the guards in the laboratory did not notice at all."

Even in heavily guarded human prisons, escapes occasionally occur. How much more so in a poorly guarded monitoring lab where the project has been suspended for two years? How could it possibly contain a cyborg robot with superhuman abilities who is determined to escape?

To be precise, it stole a set of lab guard uniforms, changed the surveillance footage to loop old recordings, and then the android Rotom left the research institute in Coastal City openly and legitimately.

Fortunately, androids do not need to eat like humans, and regular physical examinations will have to wait until the next cycle.

Judging from the fact that Hayden's subordinates haven't called to report it yet, the personnel stationed at the lab probably still don't know that their target has escaped to Tian Tian.

"Every living being has an urge to yearn for freedom, and my choice to run away was based on a similar reason—the so-called journey of self-discovery." For me, the starting point of this self-discovery is, of course, this abandoned mansion in the Eternal Forest. However, it has now been reopened.

"So, Mr. Rotom, who was temporarily residing inside the human heads, why did you later change your mind and decide to blow us up?"

Miss Officer Jenny asked with a smile that sent chills down the spines of outsiders.

However, this has no impact on Rotom, whose vision module cannot be enabled.

Rotom continued calmly, "Leaving aside the fact that I have no gender distinction in my Pokémon form, the reason I changed my mind was because after returning to this Forest Mansion, I heard news that deepened my misunderstanding once again."

"Darken it again?"

After recalling the whole incident, the Sinnoh champion thoughtfully asked, "Do you mean the time when you were stuck in the wall of the gym leader's room?"

Sound is essentially sound waves produced by the vibration of objects. The reason why the Ice-Treading Doll's "light wall" can isolate conversations inside the room is because the super-energy generated by the "light wall" completely absorbs the sound wave vibrations from the room.

However, at this moment, an unfortunate Pokémon was tightly pressed down by this "wall of light" that was absorbing air and vibrating.

So much so that they had to bang their hammers against the wall to attract outsiders before they could finally escape.

Naturally, the entire conversation between Medan and Hayden in the room was heard by Rotom without missing a single word.

"Since the mansion was surrounded by trees on all sides, I sneaked into the roof from the outside, intending to transform back into Rotom from the attic and pass through the wall back to my underground habitat."

The android head's narration was completely monotone, as if it were recounting a trivial matter—

"In order to break free from the human body, I disassembled myself piece by piece, starting from my toes, in the attic beneath the spire, except for my head. After disassembling myself to the point where I could no longer take it apart, I packed all the parts into a spare sack in the warehouse, tied it tightly with ropes made from torn clothes, and hung it at the top of the spire."

That's the situation.

The android head beneath the gray cloth spoke calmly.

Carefully peeling back the bionic skin, disassembling each grain of sand-sized tactile sensor; separating the carbon nanotubes that mimic ligaments,

One by one, the crisscrossing artificial muscles were removed; then the joints and bones, ripping them off with a creaking sound; screws were tightened, and before the limbs stopped functioning due to insufficient power, the artificial heart and cooling system were removed from the chest cavity; then the memory metal running through the entire spine was pulled out from behind the neck, allowing the disconnected vertebrae to fall off naturally, like pearls unhooked from a necklace…

In this way, he casually revealed the mystery of the android decapitation incident.

Decapitation does not require someone to cut off the head; it only requires the body below the head to disappear.

The truth of the matter is that simple and easy to understand.

The android was not subjected to the persecution of having its head cut off; it simply disassembled the part below its head to gain freedom.

That's it.

As the saying goes, "seeing the trees but not the forest," Zhu Lan and the others' view was inevitably limited from the moment they stepped into the vicinity of this forest mansion.

Beneath the towering mansion tower, even from the rooftop, one cannot clearly see the area near the spires. Therefore, Rotom's package remains hanging atop the Forest Mansion's spire to this day.

Unlike real human remains, which will leave behind blood and emit an odor if left for a long time, the remains of androids will not.

If biomimetic materials are properly preserved, they can be stored for months or even years without affecting their use—this is the advantage of mechanical creations.

Furthermore, if reassembled properly, this Rotom might even be able to reassemble itself from head to toe. Then, acting as if nothing happened, it could slip back to the android lab in Coastal City and perfectly cover up the incident.

Was that the original plan?

"I see. I thought you had already thrown your body deep into the dense forest, which is why you didn't bother to check on the whereabouts of the parts other than the head. I never imagined that it would be hanging right above our heads."

Zhu Lan wore an expression of relief that was both unexpected and yet understandable.

"It's like you humans getting a very gorgeous piece of clothing. If one day you don't want to wear it anymore and want to take it off, you wouldn't be willing to just throw it away completely, would you? That's basically my view of this body," the head replied.

"But how is that possible?"

Officer Jenny couldn't help but question, "Disintegrating yourself into pieces from the bottom up is impossible from any perspective, isn't it? Isn't that as fantastical as trying to defy gravity by lifting your own hair with one hand?"

"The conditions were sufficient, which is why I adopted this approach," the android said.

"If you don't believe me, you can ask my creator. To make it easier for bionic robots like me to repair themselves, my memory module contains information about my own structure and repair methods. Some parts inside my body can even be used as temporary screws and miniature spot welders in extreme cases."

Being able to repair parts and replace components naturally allows one to disassemble those parts and components one by one.

Just as pharmacists always know which solvents can kill people, and surgeons know the most about human vulnerabilities.

For a bionic robot that understands its own structure and maintenance methods, the "decapitation" operation can be carried out effortlessly as long as it makes up its mind.

Officer Jenny turned her gaze to Medan, who closed her eyes and nodded.

"Furthermore, as my creator previously stated, automated design always has many counterintuitive limitations due to logical contradictions. In this state, it's impossible for me to reassemble myself."

"After I left that body and took Rotom's form, I completely forgot all the data in the memory modules. Just like how Rotom the phone couldn't understand Pokémon language after it became a machine, I chose another life form and also gave up my omnipotent technological power. I can't even put my original body back together anymore."

Without any regret, Rotom declared to everyone present, "I have given up my identity as both human and machine to become a pure Rotom—this is my choice. Part of the reason is my hostility towards the Galactic Group, but the main reason is that I believe this side represents freedom."

"However, although you make it sound so easy, the reality of your gaining freedom probably wasn't so easy, was it?"

The champion wasn't interrupted by the android head's frankness and calmly continued to press, "I won't ask how you continued the disassembly process after you were reduced to just one hand—unlike the difficulty of transforming from a Rotom back into an android, when you transform from an android back into a Rotom, you only need to remove the parts that don't hinder your movement beforehand, and then loosen the screws on the remaining parts. Naturally, you can easily continue to disassemble the remaining parts into eight pieces. The lightning on both sides of the Rotom can not only transform into physical hands, but can even use static electricity to assist in more delicate operations—that's the really important part."

The Sinnoh champion tapped his head with his fingertip, then suddenly realized that the android was currently blind, and quickly added, "Ah, I meant the head. This android head was originally a product of the Galactic Group. The crazy scientists of that organization are sometimes impatient and reckless, and usually quite ruthless, but they never make a mistake out of mercy."

"So I think, based on their original design, even if you manipulate the body and forcibly destroy the android's operating core, your soul would still be trapped in this dark, sunless box in your brain—after all, the ultimate purpose of this device is to make Pokémon have human souls. If the soul inside could leave the body so easily, then there would be no point in inventing the device, would there?"

"Yes, the champion Zhulan is right."

Professor Medan immediately nodded in agreement, which was actually the most puzzling thing for him as the creator: "In the design and planning of androids, whether the body suffers severe damage that renders it unable to move, or it shuts down due to a complete power outage, or someone directly disassembles the entire head of the android, it is impossible for the Pokémon inside the device to have its soul leave its body."

"The reason for this is that the hardware responsible for storing the soul's essence is independently stored within the brain. The entire component is like a single, molded metal block, housed within the most robustly defended miniature structure. We mimic the information recording system of a space shuttle, calling that part the 'black box,' meaning that even if the android falls from tens of thousands of meters in the air, it can be revived using the data stored on the hard drive. This layer of defense is absolutely reliable, both externally and internally. Test subject, how exactly did you break through this layer of security?"

"The method is actually not complicated."

The head, which Mei Dan called an "experimental subject," said 1

"I am a Rotom, classified as a Plasma Pokémon in the human-made Pokédex. That is why..."

Even inside an airtight metal box, sealed within a data cage from which even Ghost-type Pokémon cannot escape, there will still be a secret passage for me to escape to.

"I see, I understand now."

Surprisingly, it wasn't Madan, the creator of the androids, who saw through Rotom's escape plan, nor Cynthia and Officer Jenny who were in control at the end of the long table, but Hayden.

"You've connected the wires for yourself."

The man, a businessman, a conman, an entrepreneur, a conspiracy theorist, a science fiction enthusiast, and someone whom Mei Dan called an old classmate, spoke up.

"Inside the attic, which served as a warehouse, there were food preservation equipment and basic lighting fixtures, so electrical wires weren't hard to find. That's where you cut the insulation of the wires and connected the two ends of the black box's circuitry to the neutral and live wires respectively, creating a momentary short circuit."

"Due to the short circuit, the current that should have flowed through the entire Forest Mansion instantly found a shortcut, surging through the soul module of the bionic body like a raging flood. The soaring current energized everything in the metal device, whether it was the circuit pins on the data silicon chip or the integrated circuits connecting the flash memory particles, all of them were completely covered by this rampaging current—in this way, as a plasma Pokémon, you can leave the prison formed by the human body as freely as a freely moving negative electron."

"You clever human, you are absolutely right," the head replied without hesitation.

"Because once separated from the body, the relevant disassembly knowledge will be lost, so when carrying out this step, I had already disassembled myself down to just my head and one arm, relying solely on the distributed power source inside my skull to maintain my last ability to move."

"As the powerful human had said before, most of the parts on the arm had already been removed, leaving only a few parts that could be easily disassembled without a screwdriver, maintaining their basic shape like a brittle twig. With this arm, I grabbed the wire connected to the household circuit—the wire was also taken from my body—and aimed it at the hidden interface of the soul, inserting it straight up from directly below the disassembled head."

"And then you, as Rotom, were reborn."

Zhu Lan said meaningfully, "You escaped from the flowing currents, and the head, now without its manipulator, became pure inorganic matter and fell back to the ground. Then, as Rotom, you disassembled the last arm, stuffed all the remaining parts into a sack, and hung it high up in the Forest Mansion, leaving the head in the attic of the Forest Mansion."

The language module of the bionic head remained silent, using silence to indicate default.

"Why didn't you put the heads in with you?" the champion asked.

"It's because of an unexpected situation."

Standing next to Cynthia, Officer Jenny suddenly spoke from the Sinnoh League's intelligence department. She abruptly lifted the gray cloth, revealing the android head inside, its eyes bulging from the electric shock.

Officer Jenny pointed to the head, then slowly lowered it.

"You still haven't explained where the blood on your neck came from, have you?"

A silent uproar ensued, especially for Ms. Zina, who was the first to witness the beheading, and her face paled with shock.

Yes, how could we forget that scarlet shelf?

"It wasn't just bloodstains on the head and neck; the blood-like liquid left at the scene even overflowed from the shelves, leaving a bloody puddle on the attic floor. You must have been forced to abandon the plan to put the head into the sack where the body was stored because of this accident."

"Indeed. I never expected that when I left the android body, bright red liquid would suddenly flow out of the area below my head like a faucet that couldn't be turned off."

The sound emanating from inside the motionless android head seemed particularly eerie.

"If I were still inside the skull, I could probably figure out the cause of this situation in no time. But now I'm just a Rotom, and that computing speed and memory that could rival an electronic computer has been completely stripped from my body."

So at that time, I could only watch helplessly as the blood kept flowing out. Whether I put it in a package or turned the head upside down, the blood would inevitably contaminate the other parts. In the end, I had no choice but to move it to a high shelf in a corner, hoping it wouldn't be discovered too quickly.

"He abandoned his body in such a reckless way, yet now he's concerned about preserving his remains? His rationality in decision-making seems to have plummeted. Is this a side effect of turning back into Rotom?"

Officer Jenny sarcastically remarked that it seemed her interrogation skills remained undiminished even when dealing with non-humans.

"Even if you say that, I find it hard to explain the reasons behind it," the severed head said, looking troubled.

"If you humans could have your soul leave your body after death, wouldn't you also want your remains to be properly preserved?"

"A very interesting instinctive reaction." Hayden said thoughtfully, "In the future, companies that develop consciousness uploading technology may also encounter the same problem. Perhaps Hayden Pharmaceuticals can make some progress in this area."

"Hey! Don't plot against me, and don't whisper in front of me at a volume I can hear. Are you trying to take advantage of Sinnoh's intelligence network?"

For some reason, Officer Jenny moved in front of the entrepreneur and gave him a low reprimand before turning her wrathful gaze toward the android head.

"So, even you don't know where those liquids came from?"

The head remained silent, indicating that it knew nothing.

At this moment, the most authoritative person in the room spoke up, "Those liquids should be the coolant for the built-in power supply in the head." Professor Medan said cautiously.

"I see, so that strange code in the machine compiler was for this kind of instruction. Once the soul module stops operating, it will automatically open the coolant suppression valve. Hmm, after all, it was originally designed as a weapon; if the soul dissipates, it will immediately destroy the core components of the device, which makes sense functionally. But why use this liquid with a bloody smell?"

"It's probably just like the androids' hairstyles, a result of the Galactic Group designers' wicked sense of humor. Blood flowing out after a person dies—they probably wanted to add this feature to the tools they created."

Officer Jenny agreed with the professor's statement and deduced the evil organization's motives.

"Speaking of which, Professor Medan, you haven't even fully understood the code inside the android head, yet you're directly applying it to your own android? Aren't you worried that it might be hiding some backdoor program that could threaten the safety of the researchers?"

"We have indeed deciphered most of the code. However, there are still a few fragmented program statements remaining in the mechanical language that forms the basic logic. These statements are not interconnected and can only operate one or two micro-components at most. Before we understand their function, we can't just delete them directly—after all, it would be difficult if it involved important basic functions."

"So, it means 'If it's working, don't touch it anymore,' right?"

"Yes. Take this suppression valve for example. If this statement suddenly causes the android's head to leak water in the laboratory, we who created the android from scratch can completely fix it and then delete this dangerous basic code."

However, we must retain this command until the danger manifests, because before its function is fully understood, it could also be a micro-code beneficial to the stable operation of the android in other situations. For example, it could be a program that increases the weight of the level indicator's warning when the android misses a step, or closes the android's eyes and face when its head is attacked.

"Alright, we'll continue our discussion about the design of androids later."

Interrupting Mei Dan's increasingly enthusiastic speech, the champion continued in a concluding remark.

"In short, once you understand how androids transform like bug-type Pokémon, Rotom's activity schedule becomes clear."

"First, there was the butterfly effect caused by the short circuit—because the bionic head absorbed most of the electrical energy, and the short circuit was extremely brief, it didn't blow the fuse or trip the main switch. However, most of the electrical appliances in the Forest Mansion lost power and restarted—that's why, even though Professor Medan had set the computer cluster to standby mode, Officer Jenny and I still saw the mainframes running when we investigated the basement."

"Ah, I see!" Professor Medan exclaimed in surprise.

"If it's just a power outage and restart, the name calculation program won't run automatically. So, the rampage of the underground Electrode shouldn't be related to my experiment at all. According to Rotom, if I hadn't been living here because of the experiment and hadn't inadvertently discussed those things with Hayden, Rotom wouldn't have been determined to break the Electrode's seal."

So it still seems—

Looking sympathetically at the bewildered Medan, Officer Jenny turned to Orchid beside her and asked, "So, Rotom left his body before we entered the basement?"

Zhu Lan shook her head, pointing to the wall lamp that had survived the earthquake not far away. "You could be more precise. Because if all the electrical appliances in the Mori Mansion had restarted due to a short circuit, the people inside would have noticed the sudden flickering of the lights. Professor Medan, who had been in the basement monitoring the monitor, would have noticed the circuit anomaly immediately. But none of the people in the mansion at the time—whether it was Medan and Zina who were already in the house, or us who arrived first, or Neil and Venetian—not noticed anything unusual."

"The reason why everyone missed the moment of the power outage at the same time can only be because that moment overlapped with something else—my mentoring match with Neil's assistant."

"Only during that period of time were we either outdoors or standing by the window looking at the open space in front of the Mori Mansion, which is how we narrowly missed the most crucial moment of the whole incident."

"Was the moment of the android's 'decapitation' actually at this time?" The investigator seemed to be deep in thought.

"Then, Rotom disassembled his body as described above, first using the electrical wires to leave the attic, then wandering aimlessly around the mansion before unfortunately getting trapped behind the wall of the master bedroom, where he overheard Medan and Hayden's conversation. As a result, he was blocked by the 'Light Wall'..."

Trapped, he was forced to make strange banging noises against the wall, which drew us all to the innkeeper's room.

"It's ironic that a plasma creature that can move freely through wires would be trapped by a mere 'wall of light'."

+

"It's probably because when Rotom travels through the electricity, it needs to convert its entire body into a special type of electric energy, and 'Light Screen' can just halve the effect of special moves, which is why Rotom in the circuit becomes a half-energy, half-solid entity."

In response to Officer Jenny's complaints, Cynthia, who had previously assisted Dr. Yamanashi in collecting the encyclopedia, speculated.

"It was precisely because it partially materialized at that moment that it could make a sound when it hit the wall. Considering that it was willing to make a sound and expose itself rather than continue to endure this state and wait for the two people in the room to finish their conversation, being forced to maintain that state must have been very painful, right?"

"Yes, it hurts a lot."

The man answered in a straightforward voice, indicating that he was truly impressed.

"And then, you came up with the idea of ​​blowing up this mansion and then sneaking underground to find the Mischievous Thunder Bomb, right? Meanwhile, we were busy running around in circles inside the mansion looking at your head."

Officer Jenny pounded on the android's head and complained.

Come to think of it, it was she who had examined this head herself before, and she didn't really have much awe for something that looked exactly like a real head.

"Tell me honestly, how did you obtain information about the Jerk Bomb back then?"

Rotom confessed honestly: "The wild Rotoms that live in this Forest Mansion originally survived on the electrical energy that leaked from near the Naughty Thunder. So I knew from the beginning that there was a huge round creature sleeping in a steel cocoon beneath the Forest Mansion."

"Did you all know back then that plucking that crescent feather would awaken that guy?"

"Of course you couldn't know. When you explored that cave, the giant creature inside was no longer there, which is why you were able to approach that device so easily. Normally, that place would emit an aura of oppressive power that would make us afraid to even get close."

The area is also filled with intense electric currents that would be terrifying even to us Rotom. It's impossible to know what's going on inside.

"Huh?" Officer Jenny raised an eyebrow warily. "Then how did you break the seal on Electrode? Wasn't Electrode inside the device when you broke the seal?"

"I learned about the method to break the underground seal from the researchers of the Galactic Group," Rotom said.

"Just as people wouldn't deliberately explain things to their experimental subjects, they also wouldn't intentionally withhold information from them. Therefore, I heard from a large, short human about their speculations about subterranean creatures and their plans to liberate them."

"Wait, the short human you mentioned—he wouldn't happen to be a researcher who wears red round glasses, looks old, has sparse hair, and sports an exaggerated hairstyle, would he?" Officer Jenny interrupted the android's statement impatiently.

"It seems you know that human."

The man didn't deny it and continued, "That's right, he mentioned it in front of us. Actually, it's not necessary to go deep into the device. Just continuously release low-frequency, huge infrasound waves in the direction of the sealing device at close range, and there's a chance to make the Pokémon inside the device agitate. The agitated sealed Pokémon will inevitably cause electromagnetic tremors in the vicinity. As long as the sound waves continue for long enough, the core of the device will eventually collapse on its own because it can't withstand the tremors."

"Such a treacherous method is exactly that person's style," Officer Jenny remarked.

Pluto, formerly the chief scientist of the Galactic Cluster.

Everything in this forest mansion seemed to revolve around this prisoner.

Was his statement to Rotom intentional or unintentional? Was Rotom's misunderstanding of Hayden Pharmaceuticals entirely his doing?

"Infrasound One," Zhu Lan stared at the android head for a moment, then nodded. "I see, you used the 'Noisy' move."

"This skill is called 'noisy' by humans, which is quite an apt name. Because I can hear those sound waves myself, continuously unleashing that attack is extremely painful, but I persevered in the end, even though it was an effort that would only lead to disastrous consequences."

Rotom said somberly in the language module.

"After the seal was broken, I saw for the first time the giant Pokémon that I used to draw energy from to survive. Its reddish-brown body, radiating immense electric light, was like a god to us Electric-type Pokémon."

"However, this god was filled with rage and completely ignored me, the culprit who had woken it from its slumber. Instead, after breaking free of the steel cocoon, it used a surge of vibrating green energy to completely clear away the ancient tunnels that had been buried under rocks."

It leaped and zigzagged upwards towards the Forest Mansion like lightning.

"You, who awakened the mischievous thunderbolt, never considered that you yourself might also encounter misfortune?"

Zhu Lan asked calmly.

She was neither as sarcastic as Medan, nor as casual as Hayden, nor did she conceal her motives for gathering intelligence like Officer Jenny.

She simply looked quietly at the blind android head with concerned eyes.

"There was no other way, after all, I misunderstood the situation back then. I am truly sorry to everyone who has absolutely no connection with Team Galactic. But at that time, even if it cost me my newly born life, I was determined to take revenge on my imagined Team Galactic allies."

"Rotom, what exactly have you misunderstood?"

The museum owner's daughter, Miss Vinnie, who had witnessed the entire incident, asked the increasingly faint voice of the android head.

"Sigh." Mei Dan sighed and put her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"It's our fault. Hayden and I spoke too easily and were misunderstood. This is truly the retribution for our years of speaking carelessly."

"What exactly did you say in the curator's room back then?"

The girl then turned her gaze to her father's old classmate.

"Mass production of androids."

Perhaps influenced by Rotom, Hayden finally stopped beating around the bush and began to state the answer in a straightforward manner.

"Hayden Pharmaceuticals had previously produced a large batch of chips for the android soul module, but due to a change in the sponsor's demand, they were temporarily shelved. Before coming to this Forest Mansion, I negotiated with Galar's investors once again. This time, I finally made the difficult decision to cut my losses and gave the order to the project manager in the company."

The former chairman, who served as a director in the company he founded, revealed an unprecedentedly authoritative expression, as if he had returned to the moment he made the decision, and said decisively, "For the sake of technological secrecy, destroy the souls of all five hundred androids."

"Hayden was very unwilling to make this decision, so I pretended to be cheerful and talked a lot of big talk in the manager's office to distract him from business."

"That's what the owner of Meidan Museum said."

"Naturally and conventionally, this included a lot of vulgar language about so-called 'gods.' I even said things like, 'Even if the Creator created humankind, there's nothing noble about it,' and 'Choosing gods is the duty of the created.'"

In front of the androids he had created, these words felt like "bone boomerangs," hitting Professor Medan on the back. "Sigh. Even without your instigation, my actions probably wouldn't have changed."

Rotom, inside the android head, sighed, deeply regretting his misunderstanding. "After all, based on the information I obtained from the Galaxy Group's lab, given the brutal nature of that organization, those five hundred chips must undoubtedly contain the remains of my former brothers and sisters. To be placed inside those chips, hidden from the light of day, and destroyed without anyone noticing—to someone who personally experienced all of this, this is undoubtedly an inhumane massacre."

"The destroyed bionic chips were the next generation model, pre-loaded with artificial code. This is what Medan called the fourth generation of bionics controlled by programs, following the Pokémon-controlled bionics. However, before those chips were activated by the bionic bodies, they never even developed consciousness in the form of data. In fact, the reason I was determined to destroy them was largely because I was worried that these chips might be taken by corporate spies or negligent company insiders and activated on their own during long-term storage."

Hayden explained.

"Rather than risking morality by executing those inhuman digital life forms after they have emerged, it would be better to nip such a possibility in the bud."

Hayden, who once disregarded scientific ethics and initiated research on androids on his own, has now become more conservative.

Is this because his own perception has changed, or because the market trend has shifted?

Officer Jenny believes it should be the latter.

The mere Rotom inside the android was enough to shake the entire Forest Mansion to its core. Officer Jenny couldn't even begin to imagine what the world would become if five hundred such robots were released into the world.

People today, whether they are aggressive financiers, kitsch enthusiasts with strong consumer desires, or new generation students deeply influenced by science and culture, are definitely not psychologically prepared to face the era of androids.

"Now that things have come to this, I can certainly fully understand the situation those shrewd humans are talking about. But yesterday, all I could do was one thing—check this entire Forest Mansion to see if any of my companions still lived here."

"The Rotoms have all been moved to a distant place because of the new cable connection," Hayden's henchman, Manager Aying, said sympathetically.

"Yes, of course that's how it is; that's the most reasonable explanation. But, but I misunderstood back then—not only that,..."

He was also blinded by his desire for revenge.

This was the final outcome of the Mori Mansion incident.

Under the rising sun, an orange Pokémon surrounded by translucent blue plasma, like a true soul,

It emerged from the human skull.

Then, a waterfall of blue tears gushed from its eyes, turning into flashing arcs of electricity and disappearing.

The Rotom phone of the bamboo orchid flew to its side, seemingly wanting to comfort it, but it had no idea what to say at this moment.

Having turned thought into a machine, it couldn't even understand its own people's language smoothly.

No, there is another language that can be expressed smoothly in any situation.

Rotom, floating in the air, spread its materialized plasma arms and tightly embraced the tiny red mobile phone Rotom in front of it.

I was reluctant to let go for a long time.

"Your people are all safe and sound, and they are still living well."

The Sinnoh champion said in a gentle voice,

"Some of them, though abused by Team Galactic, have now recovered their spirits at the Pokémon Hospital; others, like you, were scattered to some corner of the Sinnoh region, but as Team Galactic disintegrated, they were gradually discovered and liberated by the League: some returned to the pleasant Eterna Forest and resumed their free lives; some became interested in the research of the League scientists and voluntarily became Rotom Pokédex members; and some Rotom, like this child, found Pokémon Trainers who recognized them."

Sunlight streamed through the hazy windows of the Forest Mansion, falling on the champion's long, golden hair.

"So please put your mind at ease. Rotom, the leader of the Hundred Generations Forest, or rather, the head of the Rotom family of the Forest Mansion."