Ultimately, Feng Che established contact with A-Liang, the lead survey captain anchoring the Caitlin Family's expedition.
He stood as a thoroughly battle-hardened man, visibly worn by the elements and looking exceptionally unkempt. At present, he was huddled beside a makeshift campfire along the forest path, feeding damp branches into the flames that continuously vented thin plumes of black smoke into the air.
"Milady. Young Master."
Captain A-Liang offered a deeply respectful nod toward Caitlin and Tianchen.
His uniform was heavily torn and scarred across multiple sectors, providing immediate forensic proof that his unit had sustained severe structural attacks inside this Hisui Secret Relic Zone.
"Captain A-Liang, initialize a technical brief. Delineate the exact intelligence data your scouts have harvested since breaching this perimeter," Caitlin directed coolly, her tone lazy yet focused.
"According to my real-time diagnostic sweeps, this geographic expanse operates explicitly as a direct remnant sheared from the ancient Hisui region."
"My teams have unearthed immense forests packed with ancient Apricorn trees."
"That data verifies the primitive capturing methodologies deployed by primeval human lineages to bind Pokémon."
"Furthermore, deep within the inner echelons of this pocket dimension, my tracking sensors isolated the structural ruins of a primeval sanctuary."
"At present, my working hypothesis suggests this entire sector was spliced out from an entirely alternative Pokémon world," Captain A-Liang reported, his expression dropping into a grave, serious register.
"Behold—these are the high-resolution exposures I captured mapping the sanctuary ruins and its surrounding architectural assets. Audit the geometry yourself; it tracks as an absolute, one-to-one structural match against the modern Spear Pillar shrines anchoring the Sinnoh continent."
Captain A-Liang telekinetically broadcasted a fleet of digital images from his communication hub.
Feng Che siphoned the data, reviewing the files alongside the siblings. The architectural glyphs and layout matrices were indeed perfectly identical.
"However, relying solely on shared architectural templates is fundamentally insufficient to forensically prove the hypothesis that this pocket dimension was birthed from an alternative universe," Tianchen countered warily, his analytical blocks checking the data.
"What if my databases flag that my own eyes logged the vital signs of a pitch-black Palkia roaming those ruins?!"
"Granted, my tracking arrays failed to cleanly verify its exact taxonomy, because its morphological geometry diverged completely from any standard Palkia registered within League mainframes."
"Its skeletal line mirrored a colossal centaur, moving across four heavy limbs. It anchors its presence directly within the central sanctuary, and the exact millisecond its sensors logged my tracking signature, it launched a hyper-aggressive, high-lethal offensive press."
"My vessel was on the absolute threshold of terminal shutdown; it is a minor miracle I cleared the sector alive." Captain A-Liang's features twisted into a grim mask, his neural pathways clearly replaying the horrific engagement.
"We shall leave that specific anomaly for a secondary, more exhaustive audit," Caitlin smooth-talked, fluidly bypassing the terrifying topic.
Yet, A-Liang's description instantly jump-started a hidden file within Feng Che's memory logs—specifically, the Shadow Dialga his shadow empire had previously subdued and captured.
That Dialga similarly wreathed itself in a pitch-black, malicious aura. Could it and this centaur-like Palkia have siphoned their corrupted data lines from the exact same dying parallel world?
Because their native universe had collapsed into complete entropy, Dialga's timeline had been violently shattered, forcing its system to enter a catatonic, pitch-black state of absolute temporal stasis.
"This space houses an immense density of ancient Hisuian variants; the baseline administrative value of this Secret Relic Zone is monumentally immense."
"Our primary macro-strategy requires us to isolate the exact technical mechanism needed to permanently anchor and govern this pocket dimension." Caitlin's interest metrics were completely saturated by the potential returns of the zone.
"To secure administrative control, our vanguard must aggressively press toward the primary sanctuary. My scouting loops isolated a specialized Psychic Ruin nexus embedded directly beneath the temple floor," A-Liang noted pre-emptively.
"A full-scale ancient ruin nested directly inside a premium Secret Relic Zone? An exceptionally rare spatial convergence anomaly," Feng Che interjected, his brilliant eyes flashing with an unfathomable, star-like depth.
"However, if our vessels desire to cross the primary threshold barrier of the inner ruins, our forces are hard-coded to harvest seven structural keys."
"My tracking sweeps confirmed that the territories governed by the regional apex alphas house independent shrines."
"My calculus indicates these seven keys are securely locked inside those shrines."
Captain A-Liang tapped his device, telekinetically projecting a massive, three-dimensional holographic map detailing the absolute geographic parameters of the Secret Relic Zone before Feng Che's unit.
"Sifted through the cumulative data blocks compiled by my scouts..."
"This pocket dimension commands a remarkably flawless, self-sustaining ecosystem, dynamically mapping independent mountain ridges, river basins, sub-zero arctic peaks, and dense woodland sectors."
"My telemetry suggests that each distinct environment is securely anchored by a localized Apex Alpha Lord. The baseline combat parameters of these alphas hover somewhere between the Master and Champion ranks."
"Yet, continuously supercharged by the unique environmental laws of the Secret Relic Zone, their actual combat efficiency scales to a terrifying tier."
"My strategy dictates dividing our vanguard forces across separate vectors to harvest the keys concurrently." Captain A-Liang pointed toward separate blinking coordinate nodes across the map.
"My data verified that a primary shrine sits dead-center within the territory governed by the Ursaluna pack. The master alpha leading that line commands verified Champion-tier metrics."
"This vector explicitly requires the absolute military caliber of Champion Feng Che to forcefully override the Ursaluna line."
"However, your main roster must maintain extreme tactical discipline. The bear pack commands exceptional brawling metrics, and my scanners flagged multiple secondary alphas within that sector whose parameters similarly clear the Champion threshold."
"A secondary, critical law I must emphasize to this unit: restrict your personal psychic energy output to an absolute minimum while operating across this zone."
"For reasons our mainframes have failed to parse, the native species nesting here are hyper-sensitive to telekinetic radiation."
"The exact millisecond your capacitors leak a psychic frequency, the localized wild populations will trigger an unyielding, full-field tracking loop to hunt your vessel to extinction." Captain A-Liang gestured toward the deep lacerations marring his own uniform.
"Let us map out the deployments: my vessel, alongside Tianchen and Captain A-Liang, will chart a flight path to harvest the key nestled within the Hisuian Braviary shrine."
"Feng Che, your line will independently advance into the Ursaluna basin to claim the secondary key."
"We shall operate across two independent prongs." Caitlin knew the absolute, god-tier caliber Feng Che commanded, harboring total faith in his execution loops.
"One final environmental variable: this Secret Relic Zone randomly prints highly unstable spatial rifts across empty space."
"These localized black holes seamlessly interface with alternative exit nodes inside the dimension."
"Should your vanguard find its lines completely overextended by an unmanageable wild swarm, prioritize locating one of these rifts. Plunging through the threshold provides a highly efficient emergency escape vector to break their tracking loops," Captain A-Liang added, finalizing his advice.
"Feng Che, my house places its absolute trust in your hands. Let us maximize our key collection efficiency, before executing a final, unified convergence right beneath the master sanctuary." Tianchen requested seriously.
"Understood."
Feng Che had long resolved to decouple his movements from the group; operating alongside outside proxies consistently placed a tedious constraint on his internal optimization loops.
Meanwhile, back within the central administrative citadel of the Unova League...
Feng Che's psychic double was moving its digits at a manic cadence, rapidly logging data to systematically clear the mountain of executive paperwork.
Right at that critical millisecond, his primary communication device violently buzzed.
The encrypted signature flashing across the mainframe identified the caller as Giovanni.
The psychic clone seamlessly routed the line, picking up the terminal.
"Boss," Feng Che spoke, his tone projecting an unvarnished, deep professional respect.
"Haha! I trust my transmission has not triggered an uncalculated disruption across your active processing cycles?" Giovanni's deep, resonant laughter boomed across the link.
"My office extends its absolute congratulations on your official ascension as the Champion sovereign of the Unova region. This definitive victory locks down a monumental, critical matrix block for our Team Rocket's global macro-strategy to systematically unify the world."
Even with his vast underworld forecasting models, Giovanni had truly never calculated that the weak, fragile recruit who had initially cleared the Viridian Gym induction loops would smoothly infiltrate the global League to claim a regional throne this rapidly.
"The execution was made entirely possible by the premium resources and long-term cultivation funneled down from your office, Boss. On a secondary note—my department resolves to launch an aggressive, full-scale tactical strike to liquidate Team Plasma across the upcoming phase," Feng Che trialed, carefully testing Giovanni's baseline variables.
The exact millisecond the statement cleared the line, Giovanni's complexion wreathed in a severe, grave shadow.
"Negative. Now that your human shell has successfully secured the public throne as Champion, my mainframes will explicitly deploy alternative, separate proxies to interface with Team Plasma."
"Your line must ensure its operations maintain an absolute, unbreachable wall of secrecy. Under no circumstances can the International High Command harvest a single thread of telemetry indicating your hand has unified a regional continent under a single shadow banner," Giovanni warned with cutting authority.
"Boss... what precise macro-variable drives this severe restriction? Just what system-level function dictates the terrifying existence of the International High Command?" Feng Che asked, his tone rich with controlled frustration.
Giovanni heavily massaged his temples, balancing the data inside his mind for several tense moments before his eyes locked onto the screen, his tone dropping into a low, absolute register.
"Since your caliber has successfully locked down a regional crown, your clearance metrics have officially cleared the threshold to digest the true, raw reality governing this world."
"However, hear this law clearly, Feng Che: the exact millisecond my voice transfers this data into your mind, you are hard-coded to bury it within the absolute depths of your subconscious. Not a single drop of this telemetry is ever permitted to leak past your lips." Giovanni commanded with immense, chilling gravity.