Western Continent.
Cliff Base Two.
A gaunt-faced doctor with curly gray hair and silver-rimmed glasses stared intently at the Pokémon inside the experimental chamber.
“Begin the test,” the curly-haired doctor ordered in a low voice.
At his command, a soldier in combat gear immediately raised his handgun, taking steady aim at the Caterpie restrained in the center of the testing platform.
“Fire,” the doctor ordered.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Seven gunshots rang out in rapid succession.
When the gunsmoke cleared, only a few faint white marks had appeared on Caterpie’s skin.
The curly-haired doctor showed no emotion as he recorded the results of the experiment.
“Small-caliber rounds are incapable of inflicting effective damage on the green caterpillar monster. However, judging by the test subject’s reactions, small-caliber fire can still cause it pain.”
“Switch to a large-caliber handgun,” the doctor ordered.
The soldier set down the Parabellum pistol in his hands and picked up the Magnum revolver beside him.
Bang!
A bullet erupted from the muzzle and struck the Caterpie, which was still struggling and writhing against its restraints.
As soon as the soldier stopped firing, the curly-haired doctor shouted, “Zoom in with the camera! Send me the data!”
The assistant beside him rapidly tapped away at the keyboard.
Within moments, he had compiled the latest experimental data and transmitted it directly to the doctor’s terminal.
“Even a large-caliber handgun can’t inflict effective damage on the test subject,” the curly-haired doctor murmured, his face filled with shock.
“This simply isn’t a carbon-based life-form… It’s a miracle! A miracle of life!”
Trembling with excitement, the doctor urged them on.
“Use a long-range sniper rifle!”
The soldier set down the Magnum and accepted the BMG handed to him by an assistant.
Bang!
The armor-piercing round slammed almost directly into the Caterpie, whose body was less than thirty centimeters long.
Yet strangely enough, all it left behind was another white mark, with the faintest trace of bruising visible beneath it.
“Unbelievable! This caterpillar-type monster is practically an affront to science itself!”
It was a carbon-based life-form, nothing more than an insect, yet it could withstand a direct hit from an armor-piercing round.
“No…”
The curly-haired doctor suddenly let out a strange cry.
His right hand flew across his tablet as though he’d been electrocuted, rapidly flipping through the stored files.
“Before Base Seven was destroyed, they sent us a set of data. The green caterpillar monsters there could be cut open with diamond surgical scalpels. So why can the green caterpillar monsters here shrug off even armor-piercing rounds?”
“Could it be…?”
The doctor’s eyes widened as he stared fixedly at the Caterpie writhing in pain.
“Quick! Try attacking it with extreme cold! I think I’ve figured out the secret behind these monsters!” the doctor urged frantically.
The experiments continued.
Over the period that followed, the captured Caterpie was subjected to almost every form of torment imaginable.
At last, the curly-haired doctor looked at the dead Caterpie and nodded in satisfaction.
“Record this.”
“These monsters are almost completely immune to all modern firearms. No type of bullet tested was capable of inflicting effective damage.”
“Green caterpillar monsters have extremely weak resistance to fire. Make sure to specifically mark their weakness as fire, rather than high temperatures in general.”
“Therefore, I recommend that soldiers deployed outside the base carry flamethrowers or similar weapons whenever possible. Make sure to emphasize that point.”
“Finally, due to the limited number of test subjects, all of the above conclusions may apply only to green caterpillar monsters and cannot be generalized to other monsters.”
After finishing, the curly-haired doctor led the assistant responsible for recording the results over to Caterpie’s corpse.
The charred-black Caterpie lay there silently.
No one in the laboratory considered the sight cruel.
After all, capturing this single Caterpie had cost the base at least four excellent soldiers, and that didn’t even include the casualties caused by other monsters.
“Let’s begin the second set of experiments. If I remember correctly, that’s supposed to be the green caterpillar monster’s second form, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Doctor. The base has named this monster the green pupa monster. It’s the second form of the green caterpillar monster, much like how insects in nature enter a pupal stage.”
“Start directly with the long-range anti-materiel rifle. If our previous data is correct, the Green Pupa-type should also be immune to firearms,” the curly-haired doctor said.
The assistant beside him nodded, and a restrained Metapod was wheeled into the laboratory.
The soldier, already thoroughly familiar with the procedure, began loading the weapon.
As the experiment commenced, the thunderous report of the rifle reverberated throughout the laboratory.
Bang!
The bullet struck Metapod dead-on.
But its shell was so hard—and even possessed a slight degree of elasticity—that the bullet actually ricocheted off.
The deflected bullet tore through the laboratory’s transparent glass and struck one of the researchers who was recording the data.
The curly-haired doctor merely glanced at the critically wounded researcher before coldly ordering, “Take him away. Keep collecting data.”
The Metapod that had been attacked began frantically stacking Harden buffs on itself.
An hour later.
Everyone in the laboratory stared at the now-motionless Metapod, brows tightly furrowed as they sank into prolonged contemplation.
“Record this.”
“Most methods currently known to humanity are incapable of inflicting effective damage on Green Pupa-type monsters. Gunfire, flames, electrical shocks, poison, and other methods have all proven ineffective.”
“Therefore…”
“Finally, based on Dr. Nanbo’s hypothesis, we have reason to suspect that these monsters are higher-dimensional life-forms that current human science is incapable of effectively interpreting.”
“That concludes today’s experiments.”
The curly-haired doctor removed his silver-rimmed glasses, exhaustion written across his face.
“Biology… is dead.”
Leaving behind those despairing words, the doctor walked out of the laboratory without looking back, his retreating figure radiating an indescribable weariness.
Similar experiments were being repeated at nearly every military base across the world.
Global communications had completely collapsed.
Every base had become an isolated island cut off from the rest of the world.
Unable to exchange information, scholars could only grope their way forward independently, each attempting to understand the monsters that had suddenly descended upon their world.
Humanity sought to use its intelligence to reclaim its place at the top of the food chain.
Humanity sought to use science to take back everything it had lost.
Meanwhile, outside Cliff Base Two.
A strange Pokémon resembling a battered cloth doll with a zipper sewn across its mouth stared fixedly at the base before it, its eyes filled with an almost manic greed.
Banette fed on resentment and life energy.
It could clearly sense the enormous amount of resentment and life energy gathered inside.
It was time for another feast.
Banette loved this world.
Although the event that had brought it here was completely unfamiliar to it, resentment could be found everywhere in this world.
Ever since arriving here, its strength had been growing rapidly almost every day.
More importantly, life energy was incredibly easy to obtain in this place.
The life energy of those strange creatures that looked a little like mannequins was ridiculously easy to steal.
All Banette had to do was take one deep, forceful breath, and those mannequins could only surrender their life energy without the slightest ability to resist.
An eerie blue flame slowly gathered in front of Banette’s chest.
Banette pushed the Will-O-Wisp downward, letting it slowly descend.
The instant the Will-O-Wisp touched the ground, it swelled dramatically and began devouring everything around it.
Rock, soil, even metal and glass continuously melted away beneath the burning Will-O-Wisp.
In less than a few minutes, the flames had engulfed the entirety of Cliff Base Two.
Banette floated above the blazing base, wantonly drawing in the life energy and resentment from below.
‘There’s even resentment produced by Pokémon?’
Banette’s eyes suddenly lit up, and it immediately began gulping it down once again.