Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a medicine for regret in this world.
After helping Mickey capture his Pokémon, the three of them prepared to leave the small lake.
There were indeed a lot of wild Pokémon around the lake, but for Nathan, none of them were the kind he was interested in.
That evening, Nathan and Lily continued to explore the mystic realm with Mickey. Since they had free time and the place wasn't particularly dangerous, they figured they might as well make the most of it.
After walking for nearly an hour, Lily suddenly felt something moving inside her pocket.
She reached in and pulled out a Poké Ball that she always carried — the one containing the Flabébé Egg.
After taking it out, she could clearly feel a faint vibration coming from the ball.
"Nathan, this...?"
Lily was quite surprised. It was the first time she had seen the Flabébé Egg respond like this.
Could it be… that the Flabébé Egg was about to hatch?
But she hadn't even found the flower necessary to hatch it yet!
"There's probably a special flower nearby that can trigger the Flabébé Egg to hatch. Let's look for it quickly!"
Nathan beamed with excitement as he looked at the egg in Lily's hands. After all this time, there was finally a reaction!
He hadn't expected to find the flower capable of hatching Flabébé's egg inside this mystic realm. It was pure luck they had brought Lily along this time. If not, who knows how long it would've taken to find the right flower?
The three of them spent over half an hour searching the area, but still couldn't locate the flower.
However, Lily noticed a curious pattern: whenever they walked south, the Flabébé Egg's vibrations grew stronger.
That could only mean the flower was somewhere to the south.
However, after a full day of traveling, they were utterly exhausted. They decided to rest and continue the search in the morning.
At dawn the next day, the group set off again, heading south.
After walking for a little over an hour, they came upon a small hill. It wasn't very tall — probably around a thousand meters in elevation.
The terrain on the hill was gentle and grassy, filled with flowers like the rest of the mystic realm. There weren't any trees in sight.
They quickly climbed to the top of the hill, and once there, Lily was stunned.
Because on the other side of the hill — was a cliff.
"Nathan, what should we do now?" she asked nervously.
Staring down at the cliffside, it wasn't the highest she had ever seen, but it was still nearly a kilometer deep. While there were many flowers around, they had already seen these types multiple times during their journey. Clearly, none of them were the flower they needed.
It was obvious that the flower required to hatch the Flabébé Egg was down the cliff — or even growing somewhere on the sheer rock face.
If they had been outside the mystic realm, Nathan would have simply released a flying Pokémon to scout the area.
But in this mystic realm, the rules were different: Pokémon could not be released.
Which meant, they would have to descend on their own.
"You guys wait up here. I'll go down and take a look."
After thinking it over, Nathan gritted his teeth and made the decision.
They had come this far — how could he give up now?
"This cliff is pretty steep… maybe we should circle around and try to find another way down?" Lily suggested, concerned for his safety.
She really wanted the egg to hatch too, but nothing was more important than Nathan's safety.
If something were to happen to him for the sake of hatching this egg, she would never forgive herself.
"There's no time. Today is already the third day. We need to get back before the exit to the mystic realm closes."
Nathan shook his head.
The entrance to this mystic realm only remained open for three days. They didn't have the luxury of time. If they missed the window to exit, they'd be stuck inside the realm for an entire year.
"How about we just give up? We can come back next year when the realm opens again…" Lily suggested, starting to lose heart.
But Nathan was determined.
He immediately began to act, purchasing some gear from the system's shop — a piton for anchoring the rope and a safety rope itself.
After securing everything and tying the rope to himself, he made his way to the edge of the cliff.
Seeing him like this, Lily knew there was no way to talk him out of it.
Nathan was reasonable most of the time, but when he had made up his mind about something, no one could change it.
Using the safety rope, he began to rappel down the cliff.
Before long, Nathan spotted a unique flower — unlike any other he had seen.
This one was multicolored, with seven distinct shades, forming a radiant "Seven-Colored Flower."
The flower emitted a faint glow — it clearly wasn't an ordinary bloom.
Climbing with both hands and feet, Nathan quickly made his way toward it.
But just as he was about to grab it — something unexpected happened.
A mysterious Pokémon, wrapped entirely in a blue light, appeared out of nowhere and snatched the flower right before his eyes!
"Damn it!"
He was this close to getting the flower, and at the last second — a wild Pokémon swooped in and took it.
Nathan was furious. He wanted nothing more than to punch something. After all that hard work, only to get intercepted at the final moment?
Twisting his body with difficulty, he looked at the culprit.
The Pokémon wrapped in blue light fluttered around playfully, not seeming to have any intention of fleeing. In its hands — was the Seven-Colored Flower that Nathan had been after.
"If you give me the flower, I'll give you something delicious~"
Though Nathan was fuming, he still tried to speak in a gentle tone.
Now that the flower was in the Pokémon's hands, the only thing he could do was use some Pokéblocks to tempt it.
The glowing Pokémon stared at the Pokéblock in Nathan's hand and seemed tempted. It could sense that the item in the human's hand was something very tasty.
But then it looked down at the flower in its hand and hesitated. After thinking for a moment, it didn't move closer to Nathan.
"If you give me that flower, I'll give you two Pokéblocks."
Nathan pulled out another one and sweetened the deal.
Truthfully, he had half a mind to jump up and grab the thing right then and there.
He had risked his neck to descend the cliff, and this wild Pokémon had just stolen his prize? Who wouldn't be angry?
Finally, the Pokémon gave in to temptation.
It floated over to Nathan slowly and cautiously extended a hand to take the Pokéblocks.
Once it had them, it wasted no time in stuffing them into its mouth.
However, the flower remained firmly in its grasp.
"Come on, give it to me!" Nathan gestured to the Seven-Colored Flower still in the Pokémon's hand.
The Pokémon hesitated for a second, then reluctantly handed it over.
With the flower finally in hand, Nathan quickly began to climb back up. Hanging from a rope on the side of a cliff was not exactly a comfortable experience.
Lily, who had been watching anxiously from above, rushed over and helped pull him up.
As soon as Nathan returned to the top, Lily couldn't wait to place the flower against the Flabébé Egg.
The moment the flower touched the egg, the egg's vibrations intensified.
Lily watched it with excitement and anticipation. She really wanted to know what kind of Flabébé would hatch.
After all, Flabébé were known to change color based on the flowers they connected with.
Normally, Flabébé would hatch and then find their favorite flower.
But this one refused to hatch until it had a very specific flower.
The egg continued to shake for a few more moments — then suddenly went still again.
At that moment, the mysterious Pokémon that had intercepted Nathan earlier flew over again.
Mickey, upon seeing the glowing Pokémon, let out a surprised gasp.
Hearing the gasp, Nathan and Lily turned around and noticed the Pokémon approaching.
But it was still shrouded in blue light, making it impossible to see what it actually looked like.
Nathan activated the system's scan function to identify the species.
But something strange happened — the system failed.
It couldn't recognize this Pokémon at all.
"What's going on, system? Are you malfunctioning?" Nathan asked in confusion.
He had used this system for a long time, and this had never happened before.
[The system is functioning normally. This Pokémon is simply... unique.]
The system's response echoed in his mind.
Unique? So unique that not even this system — basically a cheat code — could identify it?
What kind of Pokémon was this?
Lily was equally curious and asked, "Nathan, what kind of Pokémon is that?"
"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head.
His answer stunned Lily. She had never seen a situation where Nathan didn't recognize a Pokémon. Not since they were kids.
And yet today, they had run into one.
Nathan casually tossed a few more Pokéblocks toward the mysterious Pokémon.
It showed no hesitation at all and gobbled them up immediately.
After eating them, it seemed even more eager — fluttering around Nathan as if it were begging for more.
(End of Chapter)