Wanderer of the Pokémon World

Chapter 302: Professor Oak Returns

Xiu didn't know how he had fallen asleep, or even how he had gotten back to the warehouse from the living room sofa.

Regardless, when he finally woke up, all the lingering discomforts in his body had been significantly relieved. At least the throbbing headache was gone.

"Hu…" Xiu exhaled slowly, sat up, and walked outside his makeshift room.

When he passed by the area Xiaochun used as her sleeping quarters within the warehouse, he quietly went in to take a look.

The weather was hot right now, and Xiaochun's metabolism, due to her unique physical condition, was higher than that of ordinary people.

Consequently, her resistance to this kind of temperature was naturally lower.

In addition, the warehouse, due to its structural problems and poor ventilation, became very hot and stuffy.

So, even though Xiaochun was only wearing a set of thin gauze pajamas, her body was still soaked with sweat.

Xiu stood beside her simple cot and looked at her. Her skin was sticky, her hair was matted to her forehead and neck, and tiny beads of sweat glistened on her brow.

She looked very uncomfortable, but she hadn't said anything to him. I was negligent, Xiu thought with a pang of self-reproach.

It seemed that now that things were almost settled here, he had to find a way to seriously study Xiaochun's condition and try to get some medication to treat her.

Even if he couldn't find a complete cure for the poison's aftereffects, it would at least alleviate her symptoms and improve her quality of life.

Xiaochun's past experiences had made her very sensitive to her surroundings. Xiu standing there for just a short while had already awakened her.

But she didn't react with alarm, just turned her head to look at Xiu, her eyes calm.

"You're awake."

Xiu smiled and leaned over to gently help her sit up. He squatted at the head of her cot, took out a pack of tissues, and began to carefully wipe the sweat from her face and neck.

He straightened her sticky hair, pushing it aside, while muttering something softly under his breath.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were uncomfortable living here?"

He sighed. "I don't currently have the ability to give you a better living environment, but you must tell me if there is anything wrong, if you need anything. Understand?"

Xiaochun didn't react further verbally. She just sat there quietly and watched Xiu wipe the sweat from her face.

After a while, the two of them tidied themselves up and walked out of the warehouse into the early morning light.

When Xiu released Abra and Scizor for their morning routines, Xiaochun also threw out her Poké Balls, releasing her Pidgey and Ditto.

After this period of consistent care and adjustment, Xiaochun and Pigdey's tacit understanding had improved considerably. At least Pigdey was now more willing to get close to Xiaochun than it was to Xiu.

"Come on, let's get some exercise in," Xiu said, beginning to warm up.

He was preparing for his morning exercises, but someone from the research institute came over, interrupting his plans.

"Professor!" Xiu subconsciously stood up straight and walked towards Professor Oak, asking, "When did you get back?"

"I came back late last night," Professor Oak said with a hearty laugh. "But I didn't call you because you were sleeping so soundly, and you looked like you needed it. You did a good job, Xiu. You've worked hard these past few days."

Listening to Professor Oak's praise, Xiu didn't particularly care for the platitudes. He said seriously, "Professor, please tell me what happened over there, in Viridian and Celadon."

Logically, Xiu should have first reported to Professor Oak about what had transpired in Pallet Town – after all, several people had died, and a resident of Pallet Town had been involved as a traitor.

However, Xiu decided to first understand the situation on the broader front line. He also had his own ideas and concerns to address.

"Come with me," Professor Oak said, looking at the surrounding Pokémon and Xiaochun. He then walked towards the backyard of the institute with Xiu.

Professor Oak slowly began to speak only after they were some distance away from the main building, and he briefly described the situation in Viridian City and its surrounding areas.

They had communicated via email before, but this time Professor Oak was more detailed and also mentioned some things that were not suitable to be discussed over unsecured computer lines.

The rampaging Pokémon in the Viridian Forest, thankfully, did not end up attacking Viridian City itself.

However, the surrounding smaller towns had suffered serious attacks, and all kinds of strange and disturbing news continued to be reported from those areas.

Most people in those outlying towns didn't own cars like the refugees who had fled to Pallet Town, so they couldn't easily run away.

Moreover, Viridian City had issued a ban on exiting the city at the height of the crisis, so a lot of trouble and panic had occurred at that time as people felt trapped.

In the end, Professor Oak himself had to step in publicly to calm the populace of Viridian City. It could be said that although Viridian City was not breached like Celadon City, there were still turbulent undercurrents beneath the apparently calm surface.

Fortunately, the swift actions carried out by Xiu in securing the Stun Stem and alerting Director Bao Ba had indirectly boosted the reputation of both Professor Oak and Nurse Joy among the people, as they were seen to be effectively managing the crisis.

If Professor Oak hadn't been present in Viridian with his considerable influence, it wouldn't have been so easy to calm the situation.

In this incident, both Professor Oak and the Joys had successfully stabilized their base of operations and public trust. It could be expected that this time, the Kanto League would definitely promote Professor Oak's image further.

Now, Professor Oak's reputation had probably reached an extremely terrifying level of public adoration and respect. Everyone in Viridian City, from the common citizen to officials, had to give him face.

Regardless of this political gain, the actual losses in terms of resources and manpower in the Viridian City sector this time were even greater than during the previous, smaller beast tide.

The personnel and materials mobilized were simply not on the same level.

Fortunately, Team Rocket had overplayed their hand by looting the League's Pokémon breeding houses inside the Viridian Forest.

This directly affected the League's core interests and resources, forcing those factions within the League who were originally arguing or politically maneuvering to unite and face the external threat.

Otherwise, it would have been difficult for the Joys alone, despite their resources, to resolve the current widespread crisis.

"Alas," Professor Oak said, his voice heavy, "Viridian City was saved, but many surrounding towns were breached because of this incident, with heavy casualties…"

Speaking of this, Professor Oak couldn't help but close his eyes and sigh deeply.

Xiu was also familiar with some of Team Rocket's brutal strategies, so he naturally understood these tragic outcomes.

He then began to talk about what had happened in Pallet Town during the past few days.

Xiu talked about the "little mouse" – the local traitor – and how he had dealt with the "big rats" – the elite Team Rocket agents.

He slightly fudged the details of the final confrontation with the elite female agent.

"At that time," Xiu explained, "Abra had used its psychic powers too frequently throughout the day, and it had exceeded its safety threshold. Furthermore, the two elite agents were quite strong.

Scizor could only stop one, and the other one, the woman, managed to escape despite being injured."

"You don't need to blame yourself for that," Professor Oak said reassuringly. "Team Rocket's people are everywhere, just like Rattata.

Most of them are not individually important. It's enough that you protected Pallet Town and its occupants."

"What about that townsman, the traitor?" Xiu asked.

"I'll take care of this matter. Don't you worry about it," Professor Oak replied.

"No, actually, I plan to take over his house," Xiu said casually.

Professor Oak was a little unresponsive to these words for a moment, blinking. Good grief! he thought. It's not enough that you killed him, now you want to take away his house too? What exactly are you planning…

Professor Oak, after a moment of stunned silence, looked at Xiu and asked back, "What do you want that house for?"

"It's not convenient for me to have no proper place to stay here," Xiu explained. "You know my situation. And Xiaochun can't stay in the warehouse with me indefinitely.

Besides, she also needs a real home, a proper room, instead of living in a storage facility."

When Professor Oak heard this, he nodded silently, understanding Xiu's reasoning.

He then said something casually that surprised Xiu. "This is easy enough. Look around Pallet Town, see if there's any unoccupied plot of land you like. I'll give you a piece of land, and you can build whatever kind of house you want on it."

"Huh!" This time it was Xiu's turn to be shocked.

Good man! Xiu thought. Rich people are really like this, aren't they? They just give away land like it's nothing.

As if sensing Xiu's thoughts, Professor Oak took the initiative to explain, "The land in these small towns isn't actually very valuable, Xiu.

Everyone wants to flock to the big cities like Viridian, Saffron, or Celadon. This has led to the decline of many smaller towns. Some outlying places even have very few people left, with plenty of abandoned property."

"That's right…" Xiu acknowledged. He also knew that this was a general trend.

Social development inevitably promoted urbanization, which then led to the loss of the young and middle-aged population in smaller towns and rural areas, depressing local property values.