Early morning.
Baimu woke up to the urgent ringing.
He pushed away the three large heads pressing on his upper body and reached out to the bedside table, "Huh?"
How did this guy end up on the bedside table?
Looking speechlessly at the Galarian Corsola in his hand, he tossed it to the side of the pillow, and reached out again, successfully grabbing the continuously vibrating phone.
The caller ID was a familiar jumble of characters.
"Good morning, Doctor."
Baimu got out of bed, and the Pokémon around him slowly woke up with his movement. The Mawile on the sofa wasn't fully awake and turned over to sleep again.
Dr. Akihabara: 『...Did you encounter the Zeroth Machine again?』
"Don't worry, it's just its data substitute. But it told me a lot of things, and I want to confirm their authenticity with you."
Baimu sought the other party's opinion.
Dr. Akihabara hesitated for a moment, then agreed.
Thus.
A conversation to verify whether the exchange with the Zeroth Machine last night was sincere began.
The first question.
Seeing being splashed with coffee as an attack and attempting to imprison the Zeroth Machine.
Dr. Akihabara's tone was especially intense after hearing this.
『Out of context! First of all, it was a cup of scalding hot coffee! Secondly, it attacked suddenly in a fit of anger after an argument with me; splashing coffee was just the beginning, it later tried to manipulate the documents on the table to attack me! And I didn't intend to imprison it, just planned to let it cool down inside a Pokeball!』
Baimu: "..."
What was he listening to? A plot summary of a family drama?
A rebellious child and a stubborn old father?
The second question.
The purpose of No.1 Machine expanding Porygon's influence.
Dr. Akihabara retorted: 『Regardless of being achievable or not, Baimu, do you think this idea or goal is wrong?』
"Hmm..."
『I heard that in the Alola Region, someone developed the Rotom Illustrated Guide, and in the Padia Region, someone is developing the Rotom phone! Things like Rotom fridge, Rotom fan, and Rotom washing machine have long been common. At this rate, everyone will have a Rotom in the future, since Rotom can do it, why can't Porygon!』
In fact, just as Dr. Akihabara said, even in animations, the penetration rate of Rotom phones is incredibly high.
"..."
Baimu whispered: "Sorry Doctor, I asked a stupid question."
It clearly wants to become a smartphone!
『It's not your fault, Baimu, sometimes I also doubt whether I can achieve it. Every time I go on a show and encounter challenges, so seeing so many people talking about Porygon recently, I'm really gratified. No.1 Machine also feels very happy, it always hopes that itself, and its partners are loved by people.』
When Dr. Akihabara said this.
He couldn't help but glance at the Pokeball where Steelix was.
Is it wrong to want to be popular?
It seems, it is not.
The third, and the last question.
The Zeroth Machine's space dream and the seemingly irreconcilable differences between the two.
Since it wants to explore outer space so much, why hold on to it?
Why not be generous?
Baimu had been with Dr. Akihabara for so long, he hadn't found him to be such a domineering, stubborn person who would never go back on his word, instead feeling the latter had a bit of a comedic attribute.
After a brief pause.
Dr. Akihabara spoke:
『...Baimu, you need to understand that space travel consumes countless resources. Although Porygon Z has some capacity to survive in outer space, going up, and navigating, can't be achieved by just talking about it. Even in Kanto, some consortiums couldn't necessarily bear the resource consumption.』
"You mean..."
『Previously, getting money and resources through data networks was easier than you think. I didn't dare to tell you the truth then, worrying that you might report to Officer Jenny on impulse. Even if she released me without charge, who knows how long it would take...』
Dr. Akihabara sighed.
Damn it!
A naughty kid stealing money!
Baimu's vision darkened, "How much did it steal?"
『As far as I know, over 2.5 billion. It kept saying this was illicit money, I can't verify the truth of its words, and besides, even if it were true, it shouldn't have the right to allocate this money, my biggest hope is to catch it and then let that money go where it belongs.』
Dr. Akihabara's voice was full of fatigue.
If it weren't for the whimsical Zeroth Machine, he should be cheerfully welcoming the online traffic belonging to Porygon now.
However, due to the actions of this creative yet reckless entity, Dr. Akihabara had no choice but to clean up after it.
Out of a sense of responsibility, the doctor, capable of completely ignoring the Zeroth Machine, chose to enter the Data Space to track its traces.
As long as no one catches the Zeroth Machine, it couldn't possibly come back to him.
Dr. Akihabara: 『When I first discovered the Zeroth Machine doing this, I lost my cool and had a big argument with it, the Zeroth Machine also directly sabotaged the laboratory and escaped. Thinking back, it might have been prepared to leave long ago? After all, our goals were entirely different.』
"Then about the suspicious patch issue you mentioned to me at that time..."
『I wasn't lying about this, the patch developed by the Zeroth Machine does have problems. In my research, I found a lot of unnecessary content inside, and using it indiscriminately could lead to new Porygon Z being injected with a predetermined personality, becoming the Zeroth Machine's 'companion' in a sense.』
Brainwashing?
Baimu knew that the Porygon and Porygon II around Dr. Akihabara were basically blank slates, not much influenced by external information, similar to the initial Porygon being naive and sweet.