Join my p@treon for more chapters
[email protected]/Tempest_29
"Finally, even I can't understand this kid anymore."
At the guest table after the match, Sebastian sighed repeatedly.
At the same time, Sebastian felt genuinely happy. Roy had accomplished something that Sebastian himself had failed to achieve during his student days.
With this thought, Sebastian turned his head to look at Caroline, who was sitting not far away.
Even though her alma mater had been so thoroughly defeated and Roy's behavior seemed unreasonable, this woman showed no emotional fluctuations whatsoever. She remained completely unmoved.
'Could that rumor actually be true?'
There were whispers that because of her overwhelming Psychic abilities, Caroline's brain nerve cell structure differed from ordinary people. She had supposedly lost the emotional capacity that made someone human, leaving her with severely dulled feelings.
Sebastian felt a headache thinking about his old friend Carter.
In truth, the senior officials of China were also deeply troubled by their new Psychic Elite.
An Elite symbolized a country's general, its ultimate protector.
An Elite without emotions meant no sense of belonging and no sense of responsibility. No matter how powerful Caroline might be, she was merely a weapon that couldn't be trusted.
Because nobody knew when she might be bought out.
Throughout Earth's history, there had been instances of Elites and even Champions who defected from their own countries in pursuit of better opportunities.
If Carter hadn't used his prestige and reputation to publicly express his unwavering support for his daughter, Caroline's path to the Elite position would have faced many more obstacles.
Even with his backing, many people remained wary of Caroline.
Sebastian was no exception to this wariness.
"Hmm?"
Sebastian suddenly noticed that Caroline's gaze seemed fixed on a particular spot on the battlefield.
His first thought was that she was watching the Central University team, thinking that perhaps Caroline still retained some trace of humanity after all.
However, when he followed her line of sight, he was genuinely shocked.
Why was she staring so intently at Roy?
The two barely had any contact with each other, did they?
In such circumstances, only someone with romantic delusions would think of a relationship between a man and woman.
Suddenly, Sebastian felt a surge of alarm.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Roy's current significance made him the country's most important future weapon.
From another perspective, if Sebastian were part of an anti-China force, Roy would definitely be among the people he'd most want to eliminate.
Something felt wrong about this situation.
Sebastian decided to test the waters.
His tone remained casual as he spoke, as if making simple conversation: "Elite Caroline, what do you think allows Roy's Lucario, Metagross, and Blastoise to break through their development periods in such a short time? I'm not embarrassed to admit that as an Elite, I have very little understanding of this phenomenon."
Sebastian carefully observed her reaction.
Facing her senior's inquiry, Caroline continued staring at the field without making direct eye contact.
However, she provided an answer without any hesitation.
"Because he is special."
"Uh..." Sebastian was momentarily stunned. "Of course I know he's very special. A Trainer with such outstanding talent appears maybe once in a hundred years."
"I don't mean that kind of 'special'..."
Halfway through her response, Caroline seemed to lose interest in the conversation and fell silent.
After a long pause, she spoke again.
"I'm leaving."
After delivering those words, Caroline's figure vanished directly from her spot.
Meanwhile, Roy declined the 'celebration banquet' invitation from Philip, that overeager fool, and returned to his room.
It was only the group stage, yet they wanted to pop champagne already. How unmotivated could they be?
After inserting his room card and powering up the room, Roy was about to take a hot shower when a figure suddenly materialized in the hallway.
Roy's entire body tensed, and he instinctively gripped his Poké Ball. Mimikyu immediately emerged from the shadows.
Roy didn't relax his guard until he clearly identified the visitor.
"Sister Caroline?"
Caroline was staring at him motionlessly, her eyes showing no fluctuation and containing no emotion whatsoever.
She wore a pure black sleeveless dress today, with subtle pleats that weren't exaggerated, revealing her smooth shoulders, neck, and arms. The outfit would normally require heels to look properly tall, but she somehow managed that impressive feat wearing only flat sandals.
"Is there something you need?"
Roy had already grown accustomed to this eccentric senior and her strange behaviors.
Of course, his patience had limits, and he felt somewhat annoyed at being frightened like this.
Noticing Roy's dissatisfied expression, Caroline reached out and handed him a note:
"Tonight, at four o'clock in the morning, watch this live stream."
"Live stream?"
Roy took the note and saw a YouTube live stream URL. He teased her somewhat vengefully: "Sister, are you trying to give me live streaming rewards?"
"No." Caroline shook her head. "It's something very important. You must watch it."
"I understand."
Seeing her serious demeanor, Roy nodded in agreement.
As the topic concluded, the air fell into silence.
Just as Roy was about to ask her to leave, Caroline suddenly said something completely unexpected.
"Want to see it?"
"Huh?" Roy didn't understand what she meant.
"Fanservice."
Caroline grasped the hem of her skirt with both hands and began lifting it upward. Her dignified and delicate face remained completely serious, her eyes clear and pure without any impurities, as if she were discussing an academic topic.
"..."
Roy's eyes widened, and after burning this scene into his exceptionally strong memory, he immediately pressed down on her hands.
"You don't need to do that."
What kind of inappropriate behavior was this?
"Kyu!" Mimikyu growled menacingly, glaring at the woman with obvious hostility while radiating a terrifying aura of Grudge.
After this bizarre conversation ended, Caroline left, and nothing further happened between them.
From Roy's perspective, Caroline was certainly attractive in both appearance and figure.
He was also a normal adolescent male, so how could he remain unaffected by such provocation?
However, Roy was somewhat of a mental germaphobe. If an unfamiliar woman kissed him, his first reaction would be disgust. Who knew what she might have done with that mouth before?
Therefore, at least until he figured out the source of Caroline's strange 'emotions,' he had no interest in that kind of relationship.
It was three-fifty in the morning.
The scheduled alarm rang, and Roy opened his eyes precisely on time. After washing up, he turned on his computer, used a VPN to access the YouTube live stream address.
This appeared to be a very ordinary outdoor live stream.
The streamer was a food blogger who owned a Snorlax. Every day, he would taste various delicacies alongside his Snorlax. His enthusiastic commentary made the audience's mouths water.
He had millions of followers.
The live stream location was Los Angeles.
It was afternoon in Los Angeles, close to dinnertime. The food blogger had come to a seaside restaurant and ordered a seafood feast.
"It's just a normal live stream..."
Roy felt puzzled, wondering why Caroline had asked him to watch this particular broadcast.
He glanced at the bottom right corner, where the time was about to change from 3:59 to 4:00.
She couldn't be that precise with timing, could she?
The moment he thought this, the screen in the live stream room suddenly changed.
There was a moment of violent shaking that disturbed the camera. The food blogger stood up in horror, thinking an earthquake was coming, and ran outdoors with his camera toward an open area.
The camera captured the bizarre sky at that moment.
A mysterious black cloud had covered all of Los Angeles.
Through the screen, Roy could feel the ominous power contained within it.
Then it happened.
Thud! Thud!
There were sounds of falling, and in the camera's view, all living creatures—including the food blogger himself and his Snorlax—collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness.
The live stream chat filled with question marks.
Had they fainted?
No, that wasn't right.
They had fallen asleep.
"Ahhh!"
The camera caught the food blogger groaning in pain, as if experiencing a terrible nightmare.
Nightmare.
Roy vaguely began to realize what was happening.
In the next moment, the camera seemed to be grabbed by someone and suddenly spun around, capturing a shadow-like black entity.
It billowed like dark smoke, with hair-like appendages covering most of its face, except for one deep blue eye.
That eye stared directly into the camera.
Immediately afterward, the live stream screen went completely black.
The chat exploded with messages saying 'What happened?' and 'What was that Pokémon?'
In front of his computer, Roy slowly spoke the name aloud.
"The Nightmare Pokémon... Darkrai."