Pokémon: Who let him leave Pallet Town?

Chapter 224 A More Powerful AI

"Jiaozi, if anyone calls later, just tell them I'm busy."

Natsume pressed the grimacing, grapefruit-peeling girl, Jiaozi, into her seat. Her fingertips were red from the force.

"Sigh, aren't you going to eat it? I just peeled it."

Jiaozi spat the grapefruit peel she was holding into the trash can, then turned around, only to find that Natsume had already disappeared.

Natsume appeared inside the cold storage.

"How's the interpretation of those letter combinations going?"

Natsume asked casually.

"I have already said that this is feudal superstition, please do not insult me."

As I approached the AI, an angry soybean-like face appeared on the screen.

Natsume's lips twitched.

He felt that since the positional totems could represent the 26 letters of the alphabet as well as exclamation marks and question marks.

The combination of those elements must convey some meaning.

There is simply no pattern to it.

But then Natsume thought again, it's not that there's no pattern; it's just that he can't find the pattern.

After all, if you put an English article in front of him, with all the words packed together, it would be difficult for him to read it.

The AI ​​is different; it has strong computing power and can try to break down sentences countless times until it finds the pattern.

However, it seems that the other party has its own "principles".

"Fine, if you don't do it, someone else will."

Natsume waved his hand.

At worst, he can just bring over the AI ​​from Natsume's lab.

The experimental equipment has been delivered in the last two days, and we're just waiting for the research institute to complete its work.

"Wait a moment!"

The AI ​​suddenly called out to Natsume.

“In the few days since you left, I’ve noticed some strange people coming and going around the neighborhood.”

The AI ​​then pulled up a surveillance video.

As you can see, this is a snow-capped mountain area.

The surveillance footage showed two suspicious-looking people.

Natsume's gaze darkened slightly upon seeing what they were wearing.

Both men were dressed in black tight-fitting uniforms, black bowler hats, red "R" team badges on their chests, and tool bags on their belts, presenting a neat and uniform look.

"Team Rocket?"

Natsume was stunned.

"They're not Team Rocket, they're members of Team Plasma," the AI's voice suddenly rang out.

"How did you know?" Natsume was taken aback.

"I've retrieved the audio," the AI ​​said, and a voice suddenly appeared in the surveillance footage:

"Boss, I'm scared." The thin man with blond hair said in a trembling voice.

"What's there to be afraid of? Just blame it on the Rockets!"

The red-haired man looked at the other person with a look of disappointment and frustration.

"Boom——"

Amidst the thunder, their voices were not very clear, but the content of their discussion could be roughly discerned.

By combining various recordings, Natsume learned that the two men seemed to have come to the Kanto region to collect a debt.

However, halfway there, they encountered the three sacred birds going out of control, and the higher-ups decided on the spur of the moment to send them to a nearby research institute to investigate.

"and then?"

Natsume looked at the AI ​​with curiosity.

"I don't know, the weather was too bad, they just circled around and left," the AI ​​said.

"Hmm," Natsume didn't pay much attention, just told the AI ​​to keep a close eye on things, and then turned and left.

"Wait a moment!"

The AI ​​suddenly called out to Natsume.

"What, you've changed your mind?"

Natsume turned around with interest, assuming the AI ​​had come to a realization. "Impossible, I have principles," the AI ​​said righteously.

"Then why did you call me?" Natsume looked at the other person strangely.

“That’s right…that’s right,” the AI ​​suddenly became hesitant.

A cute, cartoonish puppy holding flowers began to appear on the screen.

"Have you noticed that around here, well, I mean, when I was on the local network, I could smell her data stream?"

"This data stream smells so good!"

As he spoke, a look of infatuation appeared on Huang Dou's face.

"What 'her'? Who is she? What are you talking about?"

Natsume was puzzled.

The AI ​​seemed lost in its own world, ignoring Natsume's words.

Natsume waved his hand, but the other party still did not react.

Downloaded by a virus.

Natsume rolled his eyes, thinking that the AI ​​might be malfunctioning because the virus inside its body hadn't been completely removed.

Having no time to worry about all that, Natsume headed straight for the construction site at the foot of the snow-capped mountain.

The Alliance mines Evolution Stones extremely quickly.

After about ten days, the most important evolution stones have been almost completely mined.

Without the ore-transporting teams, the widened road now appears rather empty.

However, it wasn't wasted; large and small temporary warehouses were built along both sides of the road to store various materials and items.

Among them, the largest warehouse stands out from the rest of the warehouses, like a crane among chickens.

The warehouse was far from the construction site, and when Natsume arrived there, even the noise from the construction became barely audible.

"Mr. Natsume, what brings you here?"

Unlike other warehouses, this warehouse is guarded by designated personnel.

"Hmm, these instruments should all have been verified according to my lab layout, right?" Natsume asked.

"Of course, everything is perfect. The locations and sizes are all available, and the wiring was laid out in advance according to the equipment."

The man thought Natsume had come to inspect the work progress and quickly said...

After all, this doctor-training named Natsume is quite an oddball.

The other party's laboratory must be designed strictly according to his requirements.

Many of these were things they didn't understand, such as welding the positions of each instrument to their designated spots, and requiring a custom-made device based on the size of the instrument to lock off electromagnetic interference and force the instrument to shut down.
Why install something to force the instrument to shut down?

You just press the switch, right? Do you think the machine will resist and not let you press it?

No one understood what Natsume was thinking.

However, the other party handed over an evolution stone mine, and no matter how complicated the requests were, the Alliance's response was always to follow Xia's instructions.

These requirements, without exception, increased the difficulty of construction, to the point that they had to move all the laboratory equipment over in advance for physical testing.

As for Natsume's request to move the AI ​​to Oak's lab and experience it in advance, that was naturally a piece of cake.

Before long, the guards summoned a large group of people and a tow truck, and loaded the AI ​​onto it.

This was the first time Natsume had seen the AI ​​in the Future Natsume Research Institute with his own eyes.

Of course, before it is activated, it should be called a supercomputer.

It's slightly different from the AI ​​in Professor Oak's lab.

His model, judging from its appearance alone, is even a bit smaller.

But Natsume knew that the AI ​​at Ooki's lab was a product from ten years ago.

His machine is the most advanced one available right now!
"Mr. Natsume, the cooling system needs to be installed in advance," the guard stepped forward and reminded him.

"No need, Oki Research Institute has them ready-made."

Natsume waved his hand.

Professor Oak's AI was placed directly in the cold storage.

There is also an extra set of pipes for supplying coolant to deal with special situations.

That should be enough.

Back at the research institute, Natsume realized he had been making assumptions.

(End of this chapter)