Chapter 298: Bad News
But before Xiu could be too happy about Professor Oak's imminent return, another email caught his attention.
Looking at the timestamp, Director Bao Ba had sent it to him at around eight o'clock this morning. Xiu had a bad feeling, but he clicked it anyway.
The entire message consisted of only a few terse sentences, but they sent a chill down Xiu's spine.
Celadon City was breached. The western district has been destroyed. Countless people were killed and injured.
"How is this possible! This is impossible…" Xiu whispered to himself, his mind reeling.
He had clearly warned them. He had specifically told Director Bao Ba that Celadon City was a very likely target for Team Rocket.
No matter how incompetent the Celadon City authorities were, they wouldn't have ended up like this if they had heeded his warning!
"F*ck!" His brain was already under extreme stress from the problems of the previous day, and now this devastating news struck.
For a moment, violent emotions began to surge from the bottom of his heart, threatening to overwhelm his rational mind, giving Xiu a splitting headache.
Even he couldn't help but clutch his head and let out a strangled howl, muttering strange, furious words under his breath. "Waste! All of you are useless waste!"
Just at that moment, a burst of hurried footsteps was heard from outside the living room.
Xiu, still in his agitated state, reacted immediately. But it was too late to close the email; he could only instinctively slam the power button on the computer.
The screen went black instantly as Daisy rushed in from outside. "What's wrong? What happened?" she asked, concerned.
Daisy rushed in only to see Xiu slumped in the chair, a slightly strange, contorted expression on his face.
"It's… okay," Xiu managed, having calmed down a little, though his face was still pale. He looked up at the ceiling with a dejected, almost hollow look.
This scene made Daisy feel a little overwhelmed, unsure how to react or what to say.
Later, Xiu was eating his meal, wolfing it down in big gulps, as if he had completely forgotten everything around him.
Daisy sat there blankly, not saying a word, just looking at him with worried eyes.
Because he was still dizzy and his vision was occasionally blurry, Xiu didn't dare to drive his motorcycle.
He could only wander along the street, making his way slowly towards the botanical garden on foot.
Most of the people he passed along the way avoided him, their eyes skittering away.
His bad reputation had probably spread throughout the refugee community in town— but Xiu didn't care at all.
He wasn't a child who craved recognition or approval from others, so their attitudes had no effect on him.
The mountain road leading up to the botanical garden, which was usually an easy climb for him, now felt increasingly difficult.
After just a few steps, his brain could acutely feel the impact of his heart beating, the pulse transmitted insistently to his head through his blood vessels— but his steps remained firm, and he walked up, step by determined step.
As soon as Xiu approached the villa, he heard the sound of talking and laughing from within. He felt a little curious for a moment.
When not discussing anything about biology and botany, Rinko was actually a bit naïve and socially awkward. He wondered what they were talking about so happily.
Xiu didn't rush in to disturb them. Instead, he went to where Rinko's Fearow and his Noctowl were resting, checked the Fearow's previously injured wing to ensure there was no problem, and then took out a bag of Pokémon food, pouring some out for them.
"Thank you for your hard work," he murmured to the Pokémon. After finishing this, Xiu knocked on the door of the villa.
"Xiu! You're here." Rinko was very happy to see Xiu when she opened the door. But she soon noticed that Xiu's face looked a little ugly, pale and drawn. She couldn't help but ask, "Are you okay?"
"It's okay. I just didn't sleep well last night," Xiu said casually and walked in. The Chen family – Chen, Mei, and their daughter Sol – were sitting in the living room. It seemed that they were getting along well with Rinko.
Xiu chatted with them for a while. Everything else seemed fine, but he didn't know why Sol kept looking at him with an odd, searching gaze.
"You guys continue chatting. I'll go upstairs for a while," Xiu said to Rinko, then made his way to the study.
After turning on the computer, Xiu couldn't wait to log into his secure account and look through the official incident files regarding Celadon City.
The destruction of the western district of Celadon City had indeed become a tragic reality. Fortunately, the disaster-stricken area had eventually been brought under control due to the intervention of Officer Jennys, which was a small blessing in this catastrophe.
However, this incident had still caused heavy casualties. The number of ordinary civilian casualties had not yet been fully counted, but initial estimates were definitely in the thousands. It could be said that Celadon City had suffered a devastating blow.
The more Xiu looked at the reports, the angrier he got. What the hell were those people in the Celadon City Government doing? How could they let this happen?
Xiu forced himself to calm down a little and then tried to contact Director Bao Ba.
He wanted to know what exactly had transpired in Celadon City for it to end up like this.
Although Bao Ba was online, he didn't reply for a long time. Xiu was not in a hurry and just sat there, lost in thought, replaying the grim possibilities.
He didn't know how long it was before the notification sound of an incoming call brought Xiu back to the present, followed by Bao Ba's voice.
"Good fellow! I just finished reporting to the higher-ups and was about to contact you."
"Director!" Xiu sat up straight and asked quickly, "What happened in Celadon City? I clearly warned you all. Why did this disaster still occur?"
"Oh… I knew you would ask this," Bao Ba sighed, his voice sounding somewhat helpless and weary.
Xiu did not press further, instead remaining quiet, waiting for the explanation. Bao Ba paused for a few seconds before speaking. "This disaster started when countless Zubat suddenly appeared all over the city, seemingly without warning, attacking civilians.
When the defensive personnel who were originally stationed outside the city to defend against the anticipated beast tide rushed back to clean up the Zubat swarms, the actual beast tide rushed out of the forest.
Under the attack from both inside and outside, the Celadon City Government… simply chose to abandon the West District, effectively using it as a sacrifice to consolidate their forces elsewhere."
He paused, then continued, his voice heavy. "It started around 11 p.m. last night and didn't fully subside until around 7 a.m. this morning."
After hearing this, Xiu could only close his eyes and take a deep, shaky breath. Team Rocket… actually succeeded despite everything I've done.
It was already an established, horrific reality, and Xiu had nothing more to say about their strategic failures. He could only try to calm his own roiling anger and start thinking about the next step.
There was silence between the two for a moment, and after a moment, Bao Ba continued. "Because of your information and the Stun Stem you arranged, I took a team of people into Viridian Forest to deploy it.
After we dealt with several large groups of agitated Pokémon found in the forest, we withdrew and were taking a temporary rest and resupply stop in Celadon City.
Everyone was waiting for news of victory from other fronts, spirits were high, people were most relaxed… and then the disaster broke out without any warning.
Although we rushed to the West District as soon as possible, our supply of Stun Stem powder had been mostly used up in Viridian.
Even I had no way to deal with such a large number of rampaging Pokémon without it…"
"We all understand this, Director," Xiu interjected, his voice even. "You and your teams have done your best to quell the beast tide in Viridian Forest. That was crucial.
Being able to keep most of Celadon City intact in the face of Team Rocket's coordinated attack… that was the best result that could be hoped for under the circumstances."
Xiu listened to Bao Ba's self-recriminating narration and could tell from his words that he felt quite guilty. It was obvious that Bao Ba was not as optimistic or resigned as he tried to sound.
"This matter is not that simple," Bao Ba continued, his voice grim. "After all, we had dealt with most of the beast tide in Viridian Forest.
After further investigation, we found that the beast tide that actually attacked Celadon City was composed of three smaller, separate groups.
They evaded our earlier sweeps in a very strange, almost unnatural way and somehow jumped directly to the edge of the city. The combined number of these three herds was only in the tens of thousands.
That level of impact, by itself, should have been something the existing defenses of Celadon City could withstand." He took another breath.
"As for the Zubat swarms that broke out all over the city… Xiu, you should be aware, while there are many of these little Pokémon, they are individually small and have a limited, singular means of attack.
They look scary, and can cause panic, but ordinary people, as long as they close their doors and windows and stay at home, will basically not have any big problems.
But when we rushed over from the east of the city, those Celadon officials had already withdrawn their main forces from the West District.
They effectively released the herd into that part of the city, while their main forces turned to deal with those Zubat swarms that posed a comparatively minor physical threat."
Bao Ba's voice was laced with frustration.
"In the entire West District, there were only a few of us – my men, some Officer Jenny units, a handful of Nurse Joys, and some independent trainers – who were left fighting against the main herd.
At night, and with the complex terrain of an urban environment, we spent half the night chasing down and neutralizing the infected Pokémon in the West District before we finally dealt with them."