'Gladion?'
Hearing that name, Axel looked completely confused.
'How could it be Gladion?'
'As Lillie's older brother, Gladion could not wait to smash Aether Paradise apart. How could he possibly help hide anything?'
More importantly, Gladion himself had an extremely good relationship with the Sun and Moon Research Lab.
His main Pokémon, Silvally, came from the Sun and Moon Research Lab, and later on he even protected the lab. There was absolutely no way he would come to attack it.
Axel knew that the trail ended here.
"Axel, there's no way Gladion did this," Eva raised her pretty face and looked straight into Axel's eyes as she explained, afraid that he might head down the wrong path.
"I just saw Gladion yesterday. He had only just learned about the disappearance of Aether Paradise too."
"He said he was going to take Lillie away to do something that could save Alola."
"No matter how you look at it, he couldn't possibly be standing on Aether Paradise's side."
"Then let's talk about it later," Axel also knew it couldn't have been Gladion, so he decided to temporarily give up on this lead and stay at the research lab for a few days.
While keeping Eva company, he could also see whether the lab had any other way to find a passage to an Ultra Wormhole.
Anyway, with his Lucky One trait, there was no need to exhaust himself like the protagonist of some deduction novel.
"What do you want to eat tonight?", Axel turned sideways and looked at Eva.
"Huh?", Eva froze for a moment before realizing that Axel was planning to stay. She immediately hugged his arm tightly.
"The usual. You make hot pot, and Gardevoir and I will go buy fried skewers."
———
The sea breeze of Alola was still warm. Axel and Eva sat outside the Sun and Moon Research Lab, setting up several tables.
Beside them, Axel's and Eva's Pokémon were also happily slurping hot pot, and Boss Sai had even specially made a golden microphone for the Pokémon to sing.
"Axel, you came at just the right time. These past few days I finally figured out how to do quick activation for Z-Moves."
After just a few bites, Eva could not wait to tell Axel about her research results, hoping to help him as much as possible.
"The essence of Z-Moves is actually using special poses to draw in the energy between heaven and earth."
"As long as you modify the Z-Crystal a bit, you can speed up the process of drawing in energy and let the energy flow rapidly."
"Huh?", Hearing Eva's theory, Axel thought for a moment and could not help but feel surprised.
Compared to other extraordinary worlds, the rules of the Pokémon world had long been defined by Arceus, so everyone usually just followed those rules and slowly grew stronger within what those rules allowed.
But what Eva had just said clearly meant that she was already one full version ahead of everyone else.
It was like playing the same game. Others thought about increasing combat power by spending money or exploring the open world.
But she was different. She went straight for the underlying code.
"So impressive," Axel pulled Eva onto his lap and gave her cheeks a good squeeze.
Eva struggled free from Axel's clutches, lifting her chin proudly, "Of course! Everyone's calling me a genius researcher now, you know."
"But you, when did you start doing research together with Professor Rowan and Professor Kukui?"
Axel briefly talked about what happened at Professor Rowan's lab and his conversation with Professor Kukui. Eva suddenly let out an "aow" and bit down on Axel's arm.
"You pervert! Being this strong is already bad enough, and you actually have real research results too!", As a top-tier academic prodigy, Eva knew very well that once Axel's academic research was published, the entire Pokémon world would be shaken.
By then, aside from the small number of Pokémon already at the very peak, all other Pokémon would gain a brand new evolutionary path. Life level.
"I'll let you use all these results in the future," Axel smiled as he patted Eva's head, tossing the task of continuing the research to her.
It would be a shame to abandon these results halfway, but continuing to research them himself would be a waste of time. He might as well let Eva take over.
Cough! Cough! It was for Eva's own good, absolutely not because he was lazy.
Sure enough, after hearing Axel's words, Eva was instantly moved.
"These results alone are enough to let you achieve fame and success for a lifetime. If you give them to me, what will you do?"
Axel replied righteously, "Obviously, you'll support me."
"Hehehe~ then you'd better perform well," Eva traced circles on Axel's chest with her finger, letting out a mischievous laugh.
Axel glanced at the small pendant hanging from his neck and patted his chest hard.
As a proper grown man, what kind of performance couldn't he deliver?
At worst, he just would not awaken Xerneas.
While Axel and Eva were catching up, the repair work on the research lab next door was finally completed.
The workers carried out the final inspection. After the entire lab was powered up, the large screen at the entrance immediately lit up.
[This is Alola TV. Today, reporters have discovered a species migrating on Akala Island. Please be careful to avoid this group of jellyfish and prevent loss of life and property.]
Seeing that the big screen was working, the worker straightforwardly shut off the power, not paying any attention to the news just shown.
In the Alola region, species migration happened almost every day. It was an extremely common occurrence.
Axel, however, lightly glanced over when he heard the word "jellyfish," because he remembered that one of today's intel items involved catching jellyfish.
But after just one look, Axel was left speechless.
The migrating jellyfish species on the screen was Toedscool, a pure Ground and Grass type Pokémon, completely unrelated to normal jellyfish.
Aether Foundation hid the island underwater. They would have to be out of their minds to go looking for Toedscool.
———
Early the next morning, Axel was woken up by Professor Burnet, because a prototype spatial rift had also appeared on Akala Island.
Although it had not opened yet, Professor Burnet was certain that Ultra Beasts would emerge from it.
Because Professor Kukui had also sent Selene, Axel did not go personally this time. He only had two Nihilego and a Buzzwole follow Selene for the trip.
After obtaining the Lucky One trait, Axel felt more and more that he needed to embrace laziness.
Opportunities might come knocking while he slept, and he could also grind out a few more traits in the dream world.
Who said sleeping was not a kind of effort?
It was just a somewhat niche effort, and a rather comfortable one.
Axel slept peacefully, murmuring, "Hahaha, I've captured Koraidon!"
"What kind of Pokémon is Koraidon?", Eva appeared in the room at some point and plopped herself down on Axel's chest. Her slender legs, framed by white stockings, looked as if they were glowing.
"Your butt itching again, huh?", Axel was just about to teach Eva a lesson and help her relearn how scary he could be.
Suddenly, a phone screen was shoved right into Axel's face.
"Bad guy, Sister Selene said she found something new. She couldn't get through to your phone, so Professor Burnet had her call me!"
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