Who needs a girlfriend when you have Pokémon?

After all, they are professional electricians, so they have some experience in dealing with such situations.

Of course, to fully recover, I'll need to go to the Pokémon Center for a check-up, but that's a story for another time.

As the unconscious workers woke up one by one, things became easier with more manpower. Together, they carried out the other more seriously unconscious workers. Magneton, who had also been knocked unconscious, also recovered and came to help.

As for the Voltorb, the situation is more troublesome. Although it seems to have recovered, it used a big explosion and blew itself up. Fortunately, Rowe still has a few healing sprays, which should be enough for the time being.

The group hurriedly tidied themselves up, while Luo Wei, Tie Xuan, and Lillie headed towards the door that had been forcibly broken open.

Where does this place lead?

Upon entering, one discovers a path that leads downwards, seemingly a passageway to the underground. But why would such a passageway exist within the power plant of Violet City?

"This place was originally part of the Violet City development plan, but it has been abandoned for more than ten years now..."

Grandpa Tie Xuan responded calmly, while Luo Wei sighed inwardly, "As expected."

Lillie, standing to the side, looked quite puzzled. "Was there a reason for the abandoned development plan?"

Grandpa Tie Xuan remained calm and composed, smiling as he replied, "I've already mentioned it before, haven't I? There have been rumors circulating that we're exploiting Pokémon to work at the power plant. As we've said, that's purely a fabrication now, but it's not entirely untrue. Our development project did indeed have a less-than-honorable history..."

And all of this is part of that disgraceful experience...

Reaching the end of the tunnel, a dark vertical shaft led down into the underground. Next to it was an elevator that seemed to have been unused for a long time. After checking the elevator's condition, Grandpa Tiexuan called his Magneton to fly over.

"The elevator is broken, let's take the Magneto down first..."

"Um……"

Rowe reached out and took Lillie's hand. The latter didn't react much and let Rowe lead her to the back of Magneto.

As for the Pokémon, they were all temporarily stored in their Poké Balls to minimize the load... After all, Magneton isn't a professional riding Pokémon...

Once the three were settled, the exploding Magneton continued its descent...

"...The original development plan for Mauville City was to build two parts: the city area above ground and the factory area underground, using Electric-type Pokémon and geothermal energy to continuously generate energy. However, this plan was later halted."

"...Wouldn't doing this cause considerable damage to the local ecosystem?"

Lillie blurted it out instinctively, and Tie Xuan glanced at her, unable to help but exclaim, "That's right, you actually hit the nail on the head right away, that's amazing!"

"Haha, what a coincidence, isn't it..."

Lillie quickly turned her head away. She was able to guess right away because she was the little princess of the Ether Foundation. She had received all kinds of environmental education since she was a child, so she was naturally very sensitive to this.

Therefore, when Tie Xuan mentioned it briefly, she immediately realized the problem.

"The development of the underground area completely disregarded the local ecological environment. Just as this young lady said, the development plan was very radical, drawing on geothermal energy and combining it with the power of Electric-type Pokémon to build a huge generator that could provide a considerable amount of energy at once, but all of this was based on human perspectives..."

However, such large-scale alteration of the underground structure on a city-wide scale would cause enormous damage to the surrounding environment. Tie Xuan was originally the head of the planning department of the Da Zijin Energy Development Group, and he was in charge of the development of the entire Zijin City. He initially supported the plan.

"Looking back now, I was such a terrible jerk back then..." The old man showed no mercy, launching into a scathing critique. "All I could think about was making a big splash to prove myself, creating a big event to boast about my achievements. Ha, thankfully, I was eventually brought back to my senses by being scolded..."

After realizing the error of his ways, Tie Xuan terminated the development plan for the underground section, but this caused huge losses to the group.

After all, such a large development project cannot start just like that. By the time construction officially begins, most of the supporting resources will have already been allocated.

Now that the framework is all set up and all the resources are in place, you're just going to quit like that?

Who will be responsible for the resources and money spent on all this labor?

"Adults should, of course, be responsible for their own actions!"

At this moment, the old man's smile faded, and as he spoke, he exuded an undeniable aura of authority.

Lillie was taken aback by this display of courage and couldn't help but nod, while the old man immediately put on a smiling face.

"So, we've been trying to make up for it. Fortunately, over the past ten years or so, Zijing City has developed quite well, and the resources that were wasted have been used as much as possible for urban development. The revenue generated by the power plant has also almost made up for the losses..."

With that, the matter is considered closed. After all, the Da Zijin Energy Development Group is backed by an alliance, and the alliance recognizes the importance of environmental protection as determined by Tie Xuan.

Only a utopian setting like the Pokémon world could make Tie Xuan take responsibility for dealing with losses of this magnitude and give him a chance to make amends.

If you had come from a slightly more unscrupulous corporation and caused such huge losses, you wouldn't have been used as a scapegoat and attacked along with others; this matter wouldn't be over yet...

In short, this is the dark history of Violet City...

...The former site of the "Great Corydalis" energy zone!

Chapter 101 Fully Automated, Foolproof Operation~

The dark history of Zijing City, which can also be considered the dark history of Old Master Tiexuan, was thus revealed to everyone.

The Corydalis Development Project, underground energy zone...

After Mr. Tie Xuan frankly revealed his dark past, he gave his final concluding remarks...

Adults must be responsible for their own actions.

This statement seemed to resonate with Lillie. Adulthood means that you no longer have the right to act arbitrarily or willfully; that is, you are a "person with full civil capacity," and you have the necessity to take responsibility for your every action.

This should be taken for granted, but unfortunately, many people seem to never understand this in their entire lives; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many so-called "giant babies."

To put it nicely, these people will never grow up; to put it bluntly... they're a group of mentally disabled people whose brains are completely underdeveloped and whose cerebellums are incompletely developed.

Therefore, Tie Xuan knew he might have to bear a huge debt, but he still honestly took on this heavy responsibility and gradually abandoned the original plan, transforming it into the present-day Zijing City.

"...So, this place has just been abandoned?"

Luo Wei glanced over... because there was no lighting underground, it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything clearly. However, just as this thought popped into his head, he suddenly saw all the lights on over there turn on.

The underground area, which seemed to have been dormant for decades, suddenly came "alive" again. No, this area itself was abandoned before it was fully developed. In other words, in reality, it was never used from the very beginning.

In other words, this is probably the first time the entire region has been truly activated.

"?"

The once pitch-black underground space was instantly brightly lit. After all, underground operations require essential lighting, so when the entire underground energy zone was built, the lighting system was the first thing to be completed.

With the help of the lighting system, Luo Wei was able to see the complex of buildings in front of him clearly...

In terms of its framework, its scale is almost identical to that of Violet City on the ground, because it was originally designed with a scale that corresponds to the top and bottom. However, since the framework was designed but then abandoned, it is actually just an empty shell.

But within this empty shell, one thing stands out strikingly...

...Located in the center of this underground area is a strange structure whose lower part appears to be a huge drilling well, while the upper part resembles a power generation tower.

"...Uh, just to be safe, can I ask you what that thing is?"

Luo Wei gestured to the most conspicuous building, while Tie Xuan spread his hands in a somewhat helpless manner, "...Geothermal generator."

"...This looks a little different from the geothermal generators I know?"

"Because this structure is formed by drilling directly through the Earth's crust to extract energy from beneath it..."

"You guys can actually build something like this? Drilling through the earth's crust is just too ridiculous!"

As it turns out, this design is indeed incredibly absurd. If you were on a different set, you'd most likely just be seen as crazy.

But don't forget, this is the Pokémon set! Not to mention Team Rocket's incredible technology—the ability to restore fossils is practically a resurrection technique—and all sorts of amazing feats like flying and burrowing through the air... The incredible feats of single-person atmospheric breakthroughs...

...Luo Wei felt that if it was a black technology organization belonging to the alliance, they might actually be able to make a big splash for him.

Of course, in the end this thing was abandoned. If it was something that had been abandoned for decades, why not just dismantle it?

"...There is indeed a corresponding plan, but the construction plan comes first. There are a bunch of development plans on the agenda in Zijing City, so we can only keep pushing the priority of this one back. Actually, we already had a corresponding renovation plan here."

"Renovation plan?"

Luo Wei raised an eyebrow and asked, while Tie Xuan nodded decisively, "Yes, the renovation plan. It would be a pity to just abandon such a large framework, so we planned to carry out a second renovation here. Unfortunately, we encountered this problem as soon as the renovation plan was put into the proposal."

As they were talking, Kirlia and Meowth struck a battle-ready pose on either side, while Eevee jumped onto Loewe's head and patted his forehead, seemingly a little nervous.

"..."

Luo Wei had initially wanted to ask what was going on, but soon he realized there was no need to.

With a heavy thud, the so-called "geothermal generator," which had been built decades ago but had never been started, suddenly began to operate. That thud was the sound of the huge drilling well below starting to move.

"Oh shit!"

Upon seeing this, Luo Wei immediately understood. It was clear that someone wanted to try to start the geothermal generator. Regardless of the reason, if this thing were to be started now, the consequences would be quite serious...

After all, it was just a product of an aggressive plan, and it probably didn't even undergo proper testing.

Naturally, necessary factory tests were still conducted. However, Tie Xuan wanted to see tangible results quickly, so he took it upon himself to arrange the product without having much actual test data.

"We need to stop this!"

"Can I just break it?"

Luo Wei immediately proposed the simplest and most direct solution, which stunned Tie Xuan for a moment, and then he shook his head with a wry smile.

"Personally, I appreciate your proposal, Rowe, but we can't. The device is already activated. Destroying it now will cause the affected area to expand further..."

"Okay, so that means we need to locate the control device and then stop it?"

"Correct!"

Once he knew what to do, Luo Wei didn't hesitate. Since the device was started normally, he simply needed to go to the control room and stop it.

Tie Xuan naturally knew the specific operational procedures; according to him…

"...Just pull the switch, this thing is fully automatic, it's foolproof."

"Does that mean starting it up only requires pulling a switch?"

"Ahem..." Tie Xuan, caught off guard, coughed awkwardly before explaining, "There was supposed to be a security lock, but since this thing wasn't even finished being designed, the security lock and access lock haven't been added yet..."

So, given the current situation, it really is as simple as pulling a switch to start it up.

However, since the only road to this place is at the Zijing City Power Plant, which usually has the highest level of security in the entire Zijing City, the insurance is actually not down there, but up there.