The lively chirping of Pokémon outside seemed to draw the attention of whoever was inside the building.
Before long, the door slowly opened.
An elderly man stepped out—his hair completely white, dressed in a spotless white lab coat. His back was slightly hunched, but his eyes were sharp and full of spirit.
Oliver recognized him instantly.
Not just familiar—
the entire world knew this man.
Lu Xinghe.
The greatest Pokémon researcher of the last fifty years.
At just thirty-three, he had already been certified as a Pokémon Professor by the Pokémon League. He had personally led and participated in countless groundbreaking studies that shook the world and pushed human Pokémon research forward by enormous leaps.
He never married.
He had no children.
He devoted his entire life to Pokémon research.
What made him even more remarkable was the breadth of his work. Unlike researchers who spent their whole lives buried in a single niche, Lu Xinghe explored multiple fields simultaneously—
a major reason why Xia Country remained the world's most advanced nation in Pokémon research for over a decade.
Oliver had studied Pokémon research since childhood. This old man was practically a living legend to him.
Yet ten years ago, Lu Xinghe had suddenly vanished from the public eye.
No more papers.
No more appearances.
No news at all.
Oliver had never imagined he would meet him here, in such a remote place.
"Are you… Professor Lu?" Oliver asked respectfully.
Lu Xinghe smiled warmly.
"You must be Oliver. You really made me wait quite a while."
Oliver smiled awkwardly.
"If I'd known it was you who wanted to see me, I would've rushed here without stopping."
"Come inside," Lu Xinghe said. "It's not proper to keep a guest standing outside."
Oliver followed him into the oddly shaped building.
What surprised him was that, although the structure didn't look large from the outside, the interior extended deep underground. Most of the experimental equipment and research facilities were hidden below the surface.
It was practically a small private research institute.
Many of the instruments were so advanced that even Oliver—who had seen plenty—didn't recognize them.
He suddenly understood something.
People had speculated that Lu Xinghe stopped researching because of failing health.
But now that Oliver saw him in person, that explanation felt wrong.
The old man wasn't frail at all.
He wasn't vigorous like a youth—but he was sharp, energetic, and fully lucid.
It felt far more like a deliberate withdrawal—
abandoning the spotlight to continue his work in complete secrecy.
The underground lab was cluttered with equipment, data sheets, and tools. Eventually, they entered the only room that looked reasonably neat.
Lu Xinghe motioned for Oliver to sit and went to fetch water.
Oliver immediately stood up and took the kettle himself, pouring water for both of them.
This was Lu Xinghe—one of the very few people in the world who could casually change the course of Pokémon research. Oliver didn't dare let him serve tea personally.
Lu Xinghe watched this and nodded slightly, clearly pleased.
"I don't like beating around the bush," he said calmly.
"I asked the League to arrange this meeting for two reasons."
"First," he continued, smiling,
"I wanted to see you for myself. I wanted to know what kind of person could discover the eighteenth Pokémon type."
Oliver replied, "Now that you've seen me… what do you think?"
Lu Xinghe answered seriously,
"Nothing special. If I had to say something—maybe you're a little handsome. Though still not quite as handsome as I was back then."
Oliver had seen photos of Lu Xinghe in his youth.
Handsome? Sure.
More handsome than him? That was… debatable.
"I'm really just an ordinary person," Oliver said honestly.
Lu Xinghe chuckled and shot back,
"And this is your first time seeing me in person too, right? Then tell me—what do you think of me?"
Oliver replied with the same serious tone,
"Nothing special. Just an ordinary old man from Xia Country."
Lu Xinghe burst into laughter.
"Exactly! I'm just an ordinary old man. And you're just an ordinary young man."
He spread his hands.
"And yet, there are 1.4 billion ordinary people like us in Xia Country!"
The two laughed for quite a while, until even breathing became difficult.
Lu Xinghe took a sip of water.
"You're a good kid. I like you."
There wasn't the slightest hint of arrogance in him—no airs of being the world's top researcher.
If anything, he felt almost childlike.
"Now for my second reason," Lu Xinghe said, his tone turning serious.
"I want to see how far your research ability really goes."
"You probably noticed that I'm still conducting research here. To be honest, I've been working on this project for ten years."
"Progress has been slow. Recently, I've even hit a bottleneck."
He looked directly at Oliver.
"Based only on what you can observe here—can you guess what I'm researching?"
"You don't need details. Just the general direction."
Perhaps feeling the question was too difficult, Lu Xinghe added that last sentence.
Oliver slowly scanned the lab.
At first glance, it was chaotic.
But on closer inspection, many Pokémon-related tools were grouped together. Blueprints were scattered across tables—drawings of Pokémon that resembled known species, yet were clearly different.
Then Oliver recalled the Pokémon he had seen outside earlier.
Individually, they seemed unrelated.
But together…
They shared a subtle commonality.
All the clues snapped together in his mind.
A shocking thought surfaced—
one that made Oliver genuinely stunned for the first time.
Has human research already reached this stage…?
Oliver turned to Lu Xinghe, astonishment filling his eyes.
Lu Xinghe noticed immediately and leaned forward.
"Oh? You've figured it out already? Then say it—what field is it?"
Oliver opened his mouth and calmly spoke three words.
"Mega Evolution."
Lu Xinghe froze.
"Y–You… you… how did you guess that?!"
For the first time, the legendary researcher was completely at a loss for words.
The concept of Mega Evolution didn't even exist in the minds of most researchers—
yet Oliver had identified his decade-long project with just three words.
That was impossible.
Unless Oliver already knew about it…
Or—
A far more terrifying possibility crossed Lu Xinghe's mind.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/SwipeSage