Pokémon Detective Case Files.

In addition to Pokémon moves, countless high-explosive items were also thrown down, along with a large number of poisonous powder packets containing "poison powder," "sleep powder," and "paralysis powder," totaling about half a ton. The latter turned into a colorful dust storm that obscured visibility in the blast wave, rolling down towards the intruders.

However, this attack did not slow down the opponent's offensive.

In the shadow of the inverted pyramid, Lianwu's veteran builders swung heavy concrete pillars into a gray-white whirlwind. The howling Fighting-type energy not only easily shattered the falling solid obstacles but also directly swirled the pervasive poisonous fog upwards—if it weren't for Zero's pre-planned strategy in the monitoring room, forcing all members to wear filter masks, this counterattack would have been enough to collapse their own defenses. Meanwhile, the other Pokémon of this Fighting-type master formed mobile barriers with their resilient bodies, actively resisting the attack and deflecting and dispersing all incoming energy blasts and flying blades.

Wanlong's Chandelure unleashed a crimson crown of flames behind the team, unleashing a devastating barrage of firepower against Team Plasma. The intense heat of the flames dispersed the enemies blocking the four-person team's path, ensuring their advance was clear. Her other Pokémon created a maze of illusions around them, causing flying units attempting to flank them to repeatedly miss their targets and become embroiled in chaotic attacks.

Bisharp is the sharpest blade in this dagger. Under the "Mystic Protection" released by Cattleya's Mystic Eclipse, its "Unyielding" ability transforms into an inexhaustible barrage of strikes. Each "Dark Strike" sweeps across the crowd like a death knell, precisely severing Team Plasma's command nodes. Other Dark-type Pokémon also lurk amidst the noise and shadows created by their allies, each appearance accompanied by the substantial loss of a key member of the enemy team.

And it was Cattleya who united all of this into an invincible force.

She and her psychic-type Pokémon hardly engaged in direct combat, focusing all their attention on maintaining the intricate and complex combat system—continuously reinforcing the transparent psychic staircase beneath their feet, instantly creating barriers to intercept every stray attack, precisely healing their companions with "Healing Wave," and quietly neutralizing the power of each enemy's concentrated barrage with "Light Wall."

This complex skill of simultaneously maintaining multiple telekinetic manipulations and precisely controlling the overall situation would have been an unimaginable burden for her a few years ago, before she became a Uranus King. But now, Cattleya has accomplished it. She is now the irreplaceable heart of this mobile fortress, steadily and efficiently supporting the operation of the entire tactical system with her seemingly inexhaustible superpowers.

As the commander, no one could see better than Jero that such efficient division of labor and cooperation could not possibly be a tactic that the four people had casually come up with on the spot.

The precise radius of the superpower's effect, down to the stride, the detour routes to avoid being targeted by crossfire, the intervals between each skill release and the decay curve of the energy ripples, even the distance maintained by each team member—too close and they would interfere with each other's performance, too far and the defense would be disrupted. All these issues required a brilliant mind to carefully measure, calculate, and deduce before the battle.

At this moment, that brilliant mind was about to achieve the effect he desired—the assault team composed of four Heavenly Kings had already approached the white outer wall in the middle of the castle, and began to search for the enemy's command center from the center of the building, which obviously conformed to the algorithmic aesthetics of "binary search from the middle".

In the surveillance footage, Lianwu's veteran construction worker had already tucked the concrete pillar under his armpit, and began to gather his strength. The immense fighting energy gathered at his fist, turning into a vortex of white light—that was the "True Qi Fist" powerful enough to pierce through the city wall.

"Then, as you wish."

Seeing this, the "city defense master" was not surprised but delighted, and a childlike smile appeared on his face as he found his favorite toy.

Outside the castle, the old craftsman's massive fist, wielding the force of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, slammed into the outer wall.

However, a strange delay occurred the instant the fist made contact with the wall. The expected brickwork shattering did not happen immediately; instead, there was a dull, sticky sound, like a fist sinking into clay. A faint blue light seeped from the cracks in the bricks, spreading along the wall like veins. The old craftsman was astonished to find he couldn't pull his arm back—the glowing bricks were solidifying, enveloping his fist like cooled asphalt.

Only then did the accumulated fighting energy finally erupt belatedly behind the wall, causing the entire wall to shatter. Although the clay-like bricks and stones scattered in all directions, they did not fall. Instead, they floated in the air, surrounded by a strange blue light.

"Oh no, retreat now!"

The first to react was Yueju, who was traveling with the Commander of the Slash. She grabbed Wanlong's scarf and tried to pull her companion toward Gadria—only superhumans could instantly construct a spatial escape route.

But it was too late.

The floating bricks, drawn by the eerie blue light, had woven themselves into a vast net, completely enveloping the four of them.

This is clearly some kind of passively triggered spatial displacement device, with an effect similar to the Pokémon move "Touch Terrain"!

The next second, blue light engulfed the field of vision like a tsunami. And when the blinding light disappeared, only the psychic king, who could subconsciously use his superpowers to resist spatial teleportation, remained on the void steps formed by psychic power.

The other three Unova Heavenly Kings—Lianwu, Yueju, and Wanlong—have vanished without a trace, like pencil marks erased by an eraser.

Gadria hung blankly in the sky, before her countless Team Plasma members raising their weapons atop the inverted pyramid structure, and the sharp edge of their Pokémon poised to unleash their attacks.

And... the non-main Pokémon left behind on the front lines by those three teammates! They weren't teleported away with them!

No matter how powerful a psychic is without the protection of their fortress, they can no longer maintain their previous invincibility, just like a Pokémon that has suddenly lost its trainer—or like an Elite Four trainer who has suddenly lost more than half of the Pokémon in their possession.

Inside the control room, Jero put down his empty cocoa cup, the ceramic and metal tabletop gently tapping together with a crisp sound.

The game has entered the middle stage.

Chapter 462 Outsiders in the City

To be honest, being an engineer isn't a profession that excels at combat.

However, whether it's paving roads and building bridges or constructing buildings, every parameter that engineers specify is closely related to human life.

Pressure, stress, torque, coefficient of friction... Jero spent his life studying various heavy objects in motion and at rest. When he was an architect, his task was to ensure that those heavy objects did not loosen as much as possible so as not to collapse and crush flesh and bones; while when he was a "city defense engineer", his responsibility was exactly the opposite.

"Speaking of which, why is Jero's nickname 'City Defense Master'?"

Having just temporarily cleared out the enemies in the corridor with Raikou's "Electromagnetic Cannon" attack, Lila, panting as she ran and hid in the fire duct, asked the handsome detective beside her.

Along the way, the two had been on the verge of danger multiple times because of Zero's traps—rotating corridors, monster cages full of hostile Pokémon, laser nets that were impossible to defend against, floor traps that suddenly emptied out of the ground, rooms that could crush a person into a pancake in seconds... If it weren't for the fact that the handsome guy was more familiar with the methods of "City Defender" Zero, and the existence of Raikou, a powerful legendary Pokémon, they would probably have been crushed to pieces by the endless traps and the overwhelming number of Pokémon acting as guards.

"Aside from this Team Plasma castle that just appeared, he shouldn't have any experience building castles before, right? He's just an architect with some reputation in the industry. Why would the criminals of the Unova give Zero such a title? It's not like he appointed it himself within Team Plasma, is it?"

"The files related to the 'City Defense Master' have not yet been declassified by the Sinnoh League, so it's normal that you don't know about them, Miss Lila."

With the help of Espeon's "Flash" move, the handsome guy drew a new route on the simple map in his notebook before looking up and answering—

"To put it simply, Gerald was a college classmate of Akagi, the leader of Team Galactic. During Team Galactic's active period, he used the alias 'City Defense Master' to provide structural modification plans for at least seven key facilities of the organization. The sliding floor of the Galactic Warehouse, the hidden mezzanine of the Pathé Building, and the spatial trick of the Curtain Department Store that swapped an entire floor into the Galactic Building across the street... all came from his hand."

He raised his hand, signaling the wicked frog to spray "venomous shock" onto the wall of the passage behind it. The hissing sound of acid corroding metal was particularly clear in the enclosed space—a clumsy way to prevent getting lost when the space was reconstructed.

"As for the relationship between this 'City Defense Master' and Team Plasma, it wasn't until two years ago, after the Seven Sages of Team Plasma officially came to the forefront, that the Sinnoh League thoroughly investigated it. Some analysts in the department believe that during the period when he was infiltrating Team Plasma, he was still widely active in the underworld of Unova as a 'City Defense Master'."

"So you're very familiar with his tactics."

"I wouldn't say I'm familiar with them." The Interpol agent from Sinnoh cautiously shook his head. "I just react to the few trap patterns I've seen before, and throw some things in advance to test the waters around corners and in passageways."

“But it’s already very effective.” Lila examined the scorch marks on Raigong’s front paws where the laser had grazed them, and applied an immediately effective medicine to her partner. “Without your probing, we wouldn’t have even made it through that first rotating corridor.”

“I think if I hadn’t been holding you back, you and Lei Gong would have been able to rush into the core area without any worries.”

“No.” The expedition captain immediately shook his head, his expression serious. “Although I don’t understand Jero as well as you do, I’ve realized that speed alone won’t get you to the end of this castle. Drawing a map step by step, like in a game, is the right way to conquer this maze.”

"But we don't have that much time to spare."

The handsome man shook his head instead—

"This castle is the lair that Geralt and Team Plasma have been operating for many years. The fact that they went to such great lengths to seal off the underground entrance suggests that its true danger is far greater than what we are seeing now."

He pointed to the corridor in front of him: "So far, all we've encountered are automatically triggered traps in the castle. And the Pokémon chasing us, though numerous, are just optical illusions concentrated in the narrow passages. No Team Plasma members have come forward to command them—which means that the 'City Defenders' and Team Plasma still don't see our infiltration as a threat that must be dealt with immediately."

"Is it because Hugo and the Four Heavenly Kings are keeping things in check outside?" Lila said matter-of-factly. "Gero's attention is diverted by the battle outside the city, so naturally he can't keep an eye on what's happening here."

"But where are the other members of Team Plasma?" The handsome man frowned. "There are Team Plasma soldiers patrolling even outside the sewers. Why haven't we seen a single person after exploring the central area of ​​the castle for so long?"

"What do you mean?" Lila looked around at the seemingly endless, silent castle corridors and finally understood the source of the inexplicable sense of crisis in her subordinate's heart.

The handsome man sighed: "If we compare the Plasma Cluster Castle to a city, then the place we are in now might not be inside the city behind the walls."

Lila raised an eyebrow: "Neither inside nor outside the city, could we be somewhere between the bricks of the city wall?"

"To be precise, it's closer to the 'barbican' in ancient city defense systems." The handsome man paused, gesturing with his hands. "It typically consists of two layers of walls, inner and outer. Once the enemy breaches the first wall and enters the barbican, the defenders can seal the breach again and encircle and annihilate the separated enemy forces from both sides. But the problem now is—"

The handsome detective, known for his "whistling," gave a wry smile and whistled at an inopportune moment. The abrupt note bounced and drifted away in the corridor without eliciting any response.

"The castle's barbican is closed, yet no one has come to kill us." Lila, who already understood the handsome man's meaning, added the second half of the sentence.

“That’s probably because we weren’t the intended target of this fortified city at all,” the handsome man said. “We just accidentally climbed into the gaps in the trap, while the hunters’ attention was entirely on another real beast.”

Before the words were finished, the low rumble of gears meshing came again from behind the wall in the distance.

The two were tired of hearing similar sounds in the castle, but this time was different—as the sound came, Espeon's neck hairs stood on end, Raikou's throat rolled out a warning rumble of thunder, and Croagunk didn't say a word, directly using "Brick Break" to embed its arm into the wall.

However, the expected dramatic spin did not occur.

But between the bricks in the wall, countless blue lights flickered faintly.

Chapter 463 A Mountain Collapses Before Us

"Ooh—"

A short scream shattered the silence inside the castle.

After the blue light receded from the retina like a receding tide, a humanoid object wearing glasses and a purple dress appeared in mid-air three meters in front of the two people.

The other person exclaimed in surprise, clearly unprepared for their situation.

Fortunately, during her fall, a Chandelure appeared almost simultaneously below her and caught her with its crown made of spiritual flames—the flames hissed slightly when they touched the fabric, but did not ignite, clearly showing a deep bond with the trainer.

"King Wanlong?"

Lila and the handsome man could obviously tell who the person in front of them was, and they quickly stepped forward to help him up.

Wanlong used the support to steady himself and adjusted his slipped glasses.

After a brief moment of confusion, his gaze behind the glasses quickly cleared, sweeping over the two people in front of him—they were dressed in dark civilian clothes that allowed for easy movement, without any organizational insignia, but their capable demeanor and wary posture were enough to identify them.

"Captain Lila... and the handsome agent from Sinnoh?" Her voice still carried a hint of dizziness from the spatial displacement, but she already recognized the faces of the two people in front of her. "What are you doing here? And where is this?"

"We entered through the original underground sewers of the League headquarters about an hour ago and were transferred here by the building reconstruction mechanism. We're trying to locate the castle's core control room," the handsome man said. "But along the way, we've encountered nothing but pre-set mechanical traps and uncontrolled swarms of Pokémon. We haven't seen any Team Plasma members directly intervene. We suspect—"

He was about to share his conjecture about the "barbican" theory when he was interrupted by the Heavenly King in front of him.

"I see, that explains it—this area itself is a giant trigger mechanism, isn't it?"

Wanlong raised her hand to interrupt the Interpol report, as if she had already sorted out her thoughts, and said quickly—

“The castle manipulator’s target is us, the king-level combatants. So, he plans to wait until we are all converted into the wall traps before activating some kind of ‘one-time clear’ mechanism—like a climax reversal that has been built up over a long period in a novel. As for you…” She looked at the two of them, “you are variables outside the manipulator’s plan, so only the minimum automatic defense program was triggered.”

"As expected of the United Heavenly King, your arrival also means that our real challenge is about to begin."

Lila nodded, quickly synchronizing the information she had gathered along the way with the Heavenly King—

"The enemy Pokémon we're currently encountering are mainly Gear and Squirtle groups, but the real challenge lies in the constantly shifting terrain and various traps. This handsome detective has already drawn up part of the map and made physical markings..."

“But its reliability is limited.” The handsome man opened his notebook and showed the map inside.

“They’re already quite reliable.” Wanlong took the notebook and flipped through it. “Compared to Yueju and the others, I’m already very lucky to have met you guys so quickly.”

"Speaking of which, how are the other three Heavenly Kings doing?"

While Wanlong was signaling the Crystal Lamp Spirit to use "ghost fire" to replicate the map outline in the air, the handsome man pressed for details about the battle outside.

"Lian Wu and Yueju were probably moved by the wall trap like me, their locations are unknown. Gadria was most likely left outside."

Wanlong quickly pulled out her communicator and operated it; the screen indeed showed that the signal was completely blocked. She shrugged and put the device away.

"But there's no need to worry about Gadria—if a superpowered person wants to retreat alone, they can do so at any time."

"So, Your Majesty, will you be joining us from now on?" Lila asked.

“Of course.” Wanlong replied without hesitation, “Separation does not mean a change in our objective. Our core mission remains to raid the central command, paralyze the command structure, and restore control of headquarters. As long as our direction is aligned, we will eventually reunite.”

"Let me pour some cold water on this," the handsome man interjected, his expression grave. "My rascal frog has been listening to the underground vibrations—the sound of walls moving in all directions has never stopped. If I were Zero, I would never allow the three of you Elite Three to meet so easily in the labyrinth. He is dynamically adjusting the labyrinth's structure to ensure that you remain isolated from each other at all times."

"You mean, this entire area is a constantly changing living cage?" Wanlong frowned.

“I’m afraid so,” Lila added. “We’ve tested the castle walls—part of the exterior is made of ordinary building materials, but the interior is inlaid with some kind of high-density alloy, which we couldn’t penetrate even with all our Pokémon and every possible method. Trying to break through the walls by brute force won’t work.”

During the conversation, another batch of gears and tiny fish emerged from the vents and wall gaps.

But this time the clearing was exceptionally swift—there was no need to even dodge; the attacking enemies were successfully repelled solely by Raikou's "electric discharge" and the Crystal Chandelier Spirit's "flame jet."

"Where did these Pokémon come from? Are they wild Pokémon?" Wanlong asked, looking at the retreating remnants of the army.

“The little fish and the eel entered through the vents, while the gears came from the mechanical interlayer exposed after the wall rotated.” The handsome man gestured for the shrew to leave a new corrosion mark in the corner of the wall, and replied, “I tested it with a spare Poké Ball, and they have all been marked with a master mark in the Poké Ball registration system.”

“Interesting…” Wanlong rested her chin on her hand. “Have you ever tried marking the Pokémon that you’ve defeated, and then, when they come in large numbers again, calculating the proportion of marked Pokémon in the group to estimate the total number of Pokémon?”

"Mark-and-recapture method?"

Lila became interested—

“Great idea! That’s an angle we hadn’t considered. Defeated Pokémon do crawl back into their original tunnels to hide. We’ve been trying to beat them until they’re too weak to fight anymore. When the next wave of Pokémon comes, we can try to leave them with more stamina and see how many of them make up the percentage after they return.”

“Yes, it’s a breakthrough point in our investigation.” The handsome man nodded. “This way, we can also estimate the total energy base supporting the operation of this castle and see just how big a conspiracy Jero is hiding.”

However, the three people's good wishes could not be fulfilled.

Because at the next corner of the intersection, what appeared before them was a four-legged Pokémon with huge horns on its head.

At the end of the passage, the four-legged Pokémon stood like a sculpture.

The monotonous stripes of light shone on its brown and gray body, stretching its massive shadow to appear exceptionally imposing and sinister.

"Tetrakion... I've seen this Pokémon in the Pokédex."

Seeing that the elf that appeared in the distance did not immediately launch an attack, Lila cautiously commanded Raikou to keep their distance.

Judging from how the Pokémon kept adjusting its orientation as Raikou moved, it seemed that the Pokémon did not intend to let the three of them pass through the corridor.

"Isn't Terrakion supposed to be the Pokémon representing justice and virtue in the Unova region? How come it's hanging out with Team Plasma?" Interpol frowned.

“No… something seems off.” Wanlong narrowed his eyes, his glasses reflecting a cold light. “A metallic body, and those horns that glow orange… hiss, I feel like I’ve seen this image somewhere before.”

“All the other grunts have disappeared.” The handsome guy and the rascal frog were now in battle stance. “It seems that this one is the real 'city defense master' sent to 'entertain' us.”

Upon closer inspection, the torso of the opposing elf is not flesh and blood, but rather has a smooth, streamlined texture. Thick iron blocks are stacked on top of each other, forming cold, hard armor seams similar to rock fractures.

Most striking are the two giant, forward-curving horns on its head—they can't even be called horns, but rather two axe-like blades joined together, their edges flowing with a lava-like orange-red aura, pulsating with light and shadow as it crouches low, causing subtle distortions in the surrounding air.

The elf stood silently, its four legs firmly planted on the ground, as if it had always been part of this steel castle, just peeled off and formed from the walls.

"Ah! I remember now, it's Iron Rock!"