"What the... Then how are we supposed to fight it?" Fumitaka was incredulous.
Yuna drew a sharp breath and said, "It seems we must complete the mission before it discovers our presence."
Caleb grunted in agreement and said: <..Leave the matter of Kyogre to me. The rest is up to you..>
Yuna nodded, "Understood."
Fumitaka, however, was full of shock and confusion, "H-he... how did he do it?"
A player ranked over 29 000th on the leaderboard single-handedly dealt with the Sea god Kyogre. If this were posted on the Infinite World player forum, everyone would probably say it was boasting...
"He might have the Blue Orb that controls Kyogre," Kamala guessed.
Yuna glanced at the two and said, "We should set off."
Only then did Fumitaka react. He quickly jumped into the driver's seat, restarted the boat, and set sail into the endless sea...
....
After cutting off the telepathic link, Caleb turned his gaze back to the Kyogre before him...
"Do you also dislike humans?" He asked.
Kyogre's deep and muffled voice echoed: >..Humans, dislike..<
As Lord of the Sea, it usually dwells in unfathomable underwater caverns and rarely encounters humans.
Originally, kyogre felt indifferent towards humans as a species. But in recent years, with the continuous development of human technology and the ever-expanding scale of cities, they have been dumping marine waste into the sea, disrupting the ocean's ecological balance.
Therefore, Kyogre began to develop a dislike for this species.
Since Kyogre did not deliberately hide its thoughts, Caleb easily perceived this content. And for a moment, he was at a loss for words.
He was just an outsider, an alien in this world. Moreover, he hadn't participated in anything that happened here. People cannot be generalized, and Caleb didn't understand the situation of the humans in this world.
Without knowing what they had actually done, he didn't want to speak up for them.
"Alright." Caleb took out the Galarian version Rotom Bike he had obtained from the Transformation and Substitution Instance. Stepping onto it, he asked, "You sensed it, right?"
Kyogre looked at Caleb with its brilliant golden eyes.
As the Lord of the Sea, it could clearly perceive the direction of ocean currents and events happening anywhere on the sea's surface.
For example, right now, it sensed a human-made iron boat speeding across the sea, crossing the boundary line, and rushing towards the opposite shore.
Caleb met Kyogre's gaze and said with a serious expression, "They just want to go to the other shore to retrieve a companion who got lost there. They absolutely mean no harm."
"Wuu!" Dragonite also chimed in.
Kyogre remained silent, glanced at Dragonite, then turned its attention back to Caleb.
Caleb was taken aback for a moment and said, "Me? I'm also in this world to find a friend. Have you seen Mewtwo? It's a Psychic-type, pink humanoid Pokémon."
Kyogre shook its head.
"Alright." He nodded. It seemed he couldn't get any information from Kyogre.
He sighed inwardly, then slowly asked, "Next, I will release my control over you, but you must not attack me like you did just now. Is that okay?"
Kyogre stared into Caleb's eyes, then slowly nodded. It ultimately chose to trust the human before it.
Seeing this, Caleb promptly released the control of the Blue Orb.
Regaining its freedom of movement, Kyogre turned around and soon disappeared beneath the water's surface without leaving a single ripple.
The sky remained clear and blue, the sea surface like a mirror, occasionally rippling with shallow waves, as if nothing had just happened.
"Let's go too," Caleb said to Dragonite.
"Wuu!"
...
Three hours later, on the beach at the edge of Sootopolis City...
While putting the Rotom Bike back into his inventory, Caleb observed the specific situation of this city.
Modern skyscrapers, various large shopping malls lining the streets, taxis constantly shuttling back and forth on the roads.
The pedestrians on the road had no Pokémon by their side. The city also lacked the iconic Pokémon Center buildings of the Pokémon world.
If it weren't for the cartoon Pikachu images emblazoned on the street billboards, Caleb would have thought he had traveled back to his original world where Pokémon were only fictional.
Before coming here, he had taken some universal League currency from Yuna for this Instance. He hailed a taxi on the roadside, waved his hand grandly, and directly tossed the driver two 200-bill notes.
Looking out the window, he said, "Take me around this city."
The driver glanced back, silently took a cigarette from his pack, and tossed it over.
Caleb: "?"
The driver then tossed over a lighter and asked, "Bad breakup?"
Caleb: "..."
"No, I'm just here for sightseeing," Caleb said, placing the cigarette and lighter aside.
"Haha!" The driver laughed upon hearing this.
Starting the car, he said, "Seeing your expression when you got in, I thought you'd had a bad breakup! The other day, I picked up a girl who'd just gone through one. She also tossed me a hundred bucks as soon as she got in, saying to drop her off at the Golden Gate Bridge! I figured she was most likely going to jump. After dropping her off, I deliberately didn't leave. Sure enough, that girl climbed over the railing and tried to jump into the river. If I hadn't reacted quickly, she might have really jumped."
Caleb offered a symbolic awkward laugh. Watching the Genesect perched on a traffic light outside the window, he casually asked, "You have Genesect here too?"
The driver took a look and said, puzzled, "You don't have them where you're from?"
Caleb replied without changing his expression, "No, I'm from a small village, so..."
"Oh! I see!" the driver exclaimed with nostalgia, "Times have changed."
Caleb said nothing... He just silently watched the skyscrapers outside the window rapidly recede in the rearview mirror.
This world was quite different from what he had imagined.
"Stop at that internet café entrance over there." Caleb said.
The driver pulled over to the curb while pulling out some change from his wallet to give him. Along with the change was a business card.
"Contact me if you need anything again." He said after Caleb noticed the business card.
"Okay." Caleb took it, tucked the card into his pocket, entered the internet café, and paid eight bucks to rent a computer.
He turned on the computer, opened this world's search webpage, and typed in: {..Ash Ketchum..}
The internet speed of this computer was very fast. Almost the second Caleb clicked search, a line of information popped up on the webpage:
{..Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the Anime series, 'Pokémon', a fictional character. He was born in Pallet Town, Kanto region and was vibrant, passionate, and strong-willed..}
"Fictional character? He doesn't exist?"
Caleb frowned, then typed in Professor Oak in the search bar again.
{..Professor Oak, a fictional character in the Anime series, 'Pokémon'.
Full name: Samuel Oak.
Samuel Oak is a well-known figure and also the earliest appearing Pokémon Professor in the series from the Kanto region.
In the first and second generation games, he guides the player at the beginning. He established a research institute in Pallet Town and studies Pokémon day and night..}