Pokémon: Starting with a Pokémon Ranch.

Chapter 178 Zaobo Research Institute, Squirtle: Assassin-Style Infiltration

After Dongdong Mouse and others visited the convenience store, Messenger Bird also came to the ranch.

Su Yu also gave the messenger bird some tokens, allowing it to pick out some of its favorite items at the convenience store.

"Oh right, I haven't given the tokens to the Three Bees and the Walking Grass yet."

Su Yu almost forgot about these "excellent employees" on the ranch. He quickly went to the hive and told the three bees about the convenience store.

"Uh... since you can't get the tokens, I'll write down the number of tokens you have at the convenience store counter. You can just go there when the time comes."

"Remember to come! The convenience store will be restocking with lots of new and great items later."

"Honey~!"

Upon hearing this, the three bees nodded to Su Yu.

Afterwards, Su Yu went to the orchard and told the Walking Grasses about it.

Upon hearing this, the members of the Walking Grass, still half-asleep, also came to the convenience store and picked out what they wanted from the shelves.

Before long, the Walking Grass members, each with a bag of snacks in their mouths, sat together at the entrance of the convenience store, chatting with each other.

This harmonious scene prompted Su Yu to nod in approval.

That's exactly what I wanted to see when I opened a ranch!

……

Because she had other things to do, Su Yu later handed over the management of the convenience store to Dongdong Mouse and the Moving Craftsman.

Because they were among the more relaxed Pokémon on the ranch, and were happy to serve as shop assistants, Su Yu assigned the work to them.

Therefore, Dongdong Mouse specially bought an apron from the convenience store and tied it on, making him look quite presentable.

And that evening...

After handing the Poké Balls of Squirtle and Caterpie to Gladion, the young master of the Aether looked very serious.

Ke Rui, standing to the side, said worriedly:

"Should I come with you? This is too dangerous; it's probably not safe for you to go alone."

Upon hearing this, Gladio shook his head:

"No, with your two Pokémon with us, the danger of this mission has already been minimized. Bringing you along would only add to the trouble."

"So, I'll just go by myself."

Ke Rui: ...That hurts, bro.

After leaving into the night, Gladion released his Zubat, grabbed its leg, and flew towards the town.

Before long, they arrived at the Zaobo Research Institute.

Even at night, there are still a large number of guards patrolling here, which shows how cautious Zaobo is.

Seeing this, Gladion also released Caterpie and said:

"Senior, could you help me find the Pokémon I encountered before?"

"Its forelegs are like bird claws, its body is like that of an animal, and its tail is like that of a fish."

Gladion described the characteristics of Silvally. Caterpie nodded and then slipped away to the research lab to look for it.

And after the caterpillar left...

Squirtle offered the ball, glancing at the research base not far away—a place it had been before.

At that time, it was there to conduct fire safety inspections. Therefore, it was quite familiar with the internal structure of the research institute.

"Jenny, Jenny~?"

Therefore, Squirtle looked at Gladion and asked to act alone.

"Senior, are you... planning to infiltrate by yourself?" Gladio asked upon seeing this.

Squirtle nodded; it was thinking of splitting up into two groups. That might be more efficient.

With Caterpie around, Squirtle wasn't worried about Gladion's safety at all. After all, Caterpie was even stronger than Squirtle. In the ranch, Caterpie's fighting power was second only to the sheep that roamed the Three-in-One Grassland.

Upon hearing this, Gladio pondered for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright, senior, please be careful."

"Jenny, Jenny~" Don't worry.

Squirtle waved and then disappeared into the darkness.

Not long after it left, the caterpillar flew back.

Upon returning, it called out to Gladio:

"Hiss~!" Found it, follow me!

Upon hearing this, Gladion showed a delighted expression and quickly told Zubat to follow.

……

The place where Sildenafil was imprisoned was located at the deepest part of the research institute.

Here, generally only Zaobo's own ID card and the ID cards of Lusamine and her son are allowed to enter. In addition, there are rings of patrolling guards surrounding the area; with such tight security, it is indeed very difficult for outsiders to get in.

However, the problem is that Gladio is the young master here.

Swipe your ID card on the access control screen, and the door opens with a "beep".

Upon noticing the door open, the Attribute Void, which had been imprisoned for several days, rushed out. It brandished its claws, ready to tear apart the human at the door, but stopped abruptly upon realizing it was Gladion.

Gladion looked at the Pokémon in front of him with a puzzled expression. It seemed to be different from the one he had seen before.

The lower body is roughly the same, but how come the upper body has become so much uglier?

"It seems... like I was being masked?"

Glagio guessed.

And that was indeed the case. After realizing that Silvally intended to escape, Zaobo immediately created a mask that could suppress Silvally's power and seal it away.

The current Silvally is a Pokémon known as the "Null" type, and its power has been greatly weakened by the mask.

But now is not the time to speculate. Looking back outside, Gladion turned towards the Attribute: Void Path.

"Don't be nervous, we're here to rescue you, you unknown Pokémon."

"Do you remember me? I'm the human you met when you asked for help that day. I'm clearly not with Zaobo."

"roar……"

Upon hearing this, Attribute Void carefully examined Gladion and nodded.

—I recognized him a long time ago.

Seeing this, Gladio breathed a sigh of relief and asked:

"Can you fly? We infiltrated from the air, so we need to escape from the air as well."

"roar--!"

Type Null nodded again. It was a Pokémon created by fusing Pokémon, including Flying-type Pokémon. Although its technology was not as advanced as Team Rocket's, it was much weaker than Mewtwo, which was also a man-made Pokémon.

But at least... it's a Pokémon known as "Little Arceus," and flying is its most basic ability.

"That's good... Let's slip away before Zaobo finds us!" Gladio said in a low voice after glancing around.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side...

Because his authority was even lower than that of the Lusamine family, Zaobo had long anticipated this situation.

Therefore, he had tampered with various access control systems early on. Although he couldn't restrict the other party's access, he could immediately know whenever someone from the Rosamune family swiped their research institute card.

So when he learned that the door to the Void of Imprisonment had been opened, Zaobo immediately prepared to call the guards to block Gladion's door.

However, just as Zaobo got up, a Squirtle appeared in his room without him noticing.

The Squirtle was tapping and looking around, seemingly very curious. Seeing this, Zaobo shouted in a sharp voice:

"Stop, you idiot! That equipment is expensive, how can you just bang on it like that?"

"And who allowed you to come in?"

"Jeni Jeni?" You mean me?

Squirtle pointed to himself and asked in confusion.

Zaobo nodded, but Squirtle ignored him again and continued banging on the computer in the room. He even started fiddling with the computer.

"Ugh... Damn it!"

Seeing that Squirtle completely ignored him, Zaobo yelled in frustration. He pressed an alarm in the room, which connected directly to his men, allowing him to quickly summon backup.

Soon, several professional trainers responsible for guarding the research institute arrived.

"That's the Pokémon! Grab it now, I'm going to throw it in the incinerator and burn it!"

Zaobo shouted, "I've already used too many Pokémon's lives for experiments to create a fusion Pokémon with the type 'Nu', so killing one more won't bother me at all."

Upon hearing this, the professional trainers were unsurprised. They immediately threw out their Poké Balls and released their respective Pokémon.

Squirtle, meanwhile, was fiddling with the computer while curiously watching the Pokémon. Since acquiring the Slow Start ability... it hadn't yet had a chance to actually battle.

This time, a few Pokémon that are fairly strong have come. I just don't know how many punches they can withstand.

(End of this chapter)