dmims Chapter 362: The Solution - The Servik Poisoning Incident
Chapter 362: The Solution - The Servik Poisoning Incident
Chapter 364 Resolution - The Servik Poisoning Incident
The plane weaved through the clouds, the roar of its engines blocked by the thick cloud cover, making the interior exceptionally quiet.
Feng Lu sat in the cockpit, intently controlling the speed-specialized jet aircraft, occasionally glancing at the data on the instrument panel.
A heart-shaped bat stood in her co-pilot's seat. This creature, which always liked to sleep with its eyes closed during the day, would act as the aircraft's radar in an emergency.
Inside the cabin, four passengers of distinguished backgrounds sat in two rows facing each other, each squeezed tightly into their small seats.
Beyond the window, the waves of the Hoenn Sea appear and disappear between the gaps in the clouds, like the ripples created when Kyogre's dorsal fin cuts through the water, or the cloud trails left by Rayquaza as it soars through the sky.
"How much do you know about Akromma?"
Seeing that the plane had stopped the turbulence during its climb, Hugo felt it would be better to share some intelligence before starting the operation, so he took the initiative to speak, breaking the silence in the cabin with a question.
Pachira sat opposite him, looking up from her phone screen which was in flight mode. She adjusted her glasses and asked with a hint of professional curiosity, "You mean the victim of that poisoning incident? I've heard of him. He's supposedly a traveling Pokémon scholar, quite famous in his field. When I was in the Kalos region, I heard he was involved in research on Mega Evolution."
Her voice echoed in the cramped cabin, carrying the distinct tone of a news anchor.
"Is his reputation outside of Unova really like this?"
Upon hearing this, Cinnamon, sitting next to the Fire-type Elite Four member, sneered and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"That guy is more than just famous. Long before Akromar left university, he was already the kind of mad scientist you'd find in fantasy novels. Twenty years ago, he tried to implant chips in Pokémon's brainstem, for which he was warned and protested by the Science Ethics Committee. After being ostracized from the Unova scientific community, he secretly accepted funding from Team Plasma and continues to conduct taboo research that runs counter to humanity."
Detective Hugo nodded: "I had a brief video call with Akromma a while ago, and he told me in person about the research he's currently working on."
"Oh?" Pachira put down her phone, leaned forward slightly, and approached the detective opposite her. "What's the topic?"
Hugo's tone was somewhat solemn: "How to maximize the hidden power and talent of Pokémon—this has been the research direction of Acromoma all along. Whether it is the legend of Sinnoh and Johto, the Mega Evolution of the Kalos region, or the dominant aura of the Alola region, he has visited various places, consulted various ancient and modern documents, and conducted countless studies, all for this ultimate goal."
Champion Karuni sat next to Hugo, listening silently, when she suddenly spoke—
"Do you think his research is related to the poisoning incident we are investigating? Could the poison that killed Voodoo and Servilik actually be a new weapon developed by Akromma?"
"In a sense, this might be considered the truth of the matter."
Hugo gently shook his head.
"But the whole story has to be told from the beginning—I initially linked Akromma to the two poisoning incidents not because of his near-poisoned state, but because of his initiative to come to the Alliance headquarters to meet with me."
"To be honest, it does feel a little unnatural." Sitting opposite Karuni, Akagi nodded.
Champion Carlos frowned, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest of his chair, as if pondering, "Could it be that he realized the danger of his poison-making and thus contacted the United States to try and make amends for his mistake? Like those mad scientists in science fiction who discover they've committed an irreparable error?"
"Given Akromar's ethical standards, I doubt he entered that building with any regret in mind. The CCTV footage from in front of the Alliance headquarters also shows him filling out forms without any sign of tension."
The detective shrugged, his tone tinged with helplessness. "But one thing is certain: the reason he came to the league alone was because he wanted me, the champion, to know some information."
The evidence was the draft paper he left behind.
The Evil King raised his long, narrow eyebrows: "It seems you've already deciphered the contents of that piece of paper?"
"In fact, it wasn't some kind of cipher or code that needed to be cracked."
Hugo explained, "The reason it's hard to understand is simply because of that scholar's peculiar habit of not labeling units of measurement. Perhaps it was for secrecy, or perhaps it was to express his disdain for the predecessors who named units of measurement—in any case, once you figure out what he was trying to calculate, the purpose of those formulas becomes clear."
Listening to Hugo's evasive explanation, the Fire Elite Four member, who also served as a news anchor, seized the opportunity to ask questions, urging the detective to explain the whole story as soon as possible: "In that case, how did you figure out Acromoma's calculation purpose? And what was Mr. Acromoma showing you, the Unova Champion, when he brought his calculation results into the League Building?"
"Information doesn't appear out of thin air. As mentioned earlier, I had just been in contact with Akromma not long ago, and at that time, he had absolutely no intention of sharing any intelligence he knew with me—undoubtedly, some subsequent events occurred."
It changed his mindset.
Hugo turned his gaze to the drifting clouds outside the porthole. "Akroma is a meticulous scholar. Although he dislikes trouble and trivial matters, he lives a life completely devoid of procrastination. Therefore, that incident is unlikely to have happened in the past. It is most likely that it occurred within a few days before Akroma entered the Alliance headquarters."
"Wasn't Akromma's coma before she was poisoned the same day Servić was murdered in Flying Cloud City?"
The Gambler King narrowed his eyes, keenly noticing the temporal overlap between the two incidents. "Could it be that he was the one who told Akromma about the poison? But that can't be right. According to the Feiyun City Police Department's report, the poisoner should have started poisoning the area around Feiyun City three days before that, right?"
"Don't forget, this is the age of radio. With a mobile phone, two people who are thousands of miles apart can contact each other instantly." The detective shook his head.
"And there is indeed an intersection between Acromata and Selvik—in the Pokémon Daewoo that Acromata carries."
They were carrying salt sand with the same composition as that found in the seams of Servilik's suitcase. This indicates that both Akromma and Servilik visited the same place before returning to the Unova region.
"They may have worked together on a research project that was most likely related to the poison that caused the deaths of Servik and Vudu."
Pachira deduced first.
"That's a valid guess, but the reasoning still needs to be corroborated step by step."
Hugo lowered his hands, signaling to calm down.
"At least for now, it's not surprising that a doctor specializing in toxicology and a mad scientist pursuing the limits of Pokémon would exchange phone numbers. And we now have more direct evidence."
A hint of surprise flashed in the Fire-type Elite Four member's eyes: "Is this new evidence?"
"Yes. Just this morning, the Feiyun City police arrested Segawa, the thief who had tampered with the scene of Selvik's death, and found electronic devices used by the 'Plague Scholar' at his hideout—including his cell phone, of course."
The detective in the white coat cited the information he had received from Officer Jenny before takeoff: "That cell phone was clearly purchased illegally by the victim after arriving in Unova, so there aren't many call records on it. Also, Acrom's communication devices have been modified by Team Plasma, making it impossible for us to confirm whether any of the calls Selvik made were directed to the scholar—but fortunately, the addresses of those calls weren't hidden. We saw that one call was made to a location near the Unova League Pokémon Center."
Pachira carefully chose her words, her tone tinged with doubt: "So, the poisoner who was poisoned in Flying Cloud City really did make a phone call with Akromma?"
"Yes." Hugo nodded, his grey eyes as deep as a mist. "And, just as he was about to be poisoned to death."
"But what's the point of that?"
The Fire-type Elite Four member of the Kalos region frowned again—
"Was he close to Akromma? Did he want to say his last words to his old friend before he died? Also, I've been wanting to ask this ever since I saw the news: why did Servić inject so much poison into discarded medical supplies before he died? This behavior is completely irrational and without any motivation."
"If Akromar hadn't been killed, this problem could have been easily and simply resolved. Unfortunately, he was caught up in the internal conflict of the Plasma Group and hasn't woken up yet."
The detective shrugged.
"For various reasons, I went through a long and winding road on this issue, and the death of another poison expert further complicated the whole affair. However, Vodka's death reminded me and made me re-examine the scale of these poisonings. Finally, inspired by another strange event, I came up with a theory that could help clarify Servić's motivations."
"I won't ask any more questions about those strange, unexpected events, or the source of your information about the other poisoning case."
Yueju looked the new Unova champion up and down, as if to check if he had done his job properly, and then asked, "The problem now is, why did that poisoner leave a suicide note for Akromar? His act of poisoning and killing Akromar and Akromar's attempt to report it to the league are clearly contradictory."
"So," Hugo said calmly, "the only explanation I can think of is that Servić never intended to poison anyone."
"what?"
Lingju, Pachira, and Karuni exchanged glances, none of them understanding the detective's meaning.
"This is actually not hard to understand. Just think about the poisoning methods of that 'plague scholar' Servilik."
Hugo's gaze swept over the crowd. "Within three days of arriving in Unova, Selvik captured a large number of wild centipedes to use as manpower. He added a small amount of insect repellent spray extract to every discarded medicine bottle around Castelia City. Because of the presence of Pokémon energy inhibitors in the extract, when the extract content in the medicine reaches a certain level, the medicine will cause infection when it comes into direct contact with a Pokémon's wound. But in other words, if the concentration is not up to standard, or if the medicine is not applied directly to the Pokémon's wound, those Pokémon that come into contact with the extract will almost certainly be fine."
Upon hearing the detective's analysis, a look of surprise flashed across Pachira's eyes.
"So you think the purpose of that poisoner—no, that Servilik—in adding strange drugs to discarded medical supplies everywhere?"
Was it not for sadism or murder, but for some other purpose? And those incidents of Pokémon being seriously injured by medicine were merely accidents during that person's actions?
"Yes, for people who are not trainers, they may not know that there are people who collect discarded medicines in the wild and mix them together for their own Pokémon. In this way, the reasoning process is a bit disjointed, but from this reversed perspective, everything that was unusual before becomes much more reasonable."
Hugo nodded again. "Why did that person conduct such a large-scale 'poisoning' operation around Flying Cloud City? Why was the toxicity in every vial of medicine set so mildly? Why did he insist on coming to Flying Cloud City in the Unova region to carry out his operation despite being poisoned by an unknown toxin? Why did Akromar, who received his last phone call, go to Unova headquarters to inform the Champion? All of this now has a seemingly reasonable explanation."
"It sounds like," Champion Karuni's voice held a hint of realization, "it's almost like—some kind of medical procedure."
"Poison" and "medicine" are both antonyms and sometimes synonyms.
The detective in the white coat raised his hands, as if he held poison and antidote in each.
"The most typical example is the vaccine used to combat a large-scale epidemic. If what Selvilik released into Flying Cloud City was not poison for a trainer's Pokémon, but a large-scale vaccine to combat a disease, then everything makes sense."
"Now that you mention it—"
Connecting the information she had gathered through her connections in the press, Pakira felt her beliefs were beginning to waver.
"Although Servić has committed heinous crimes, he was, after all, a doctor in the past. And his nickname in the underworld was 'Plague Scholar,' so dealing with epidemics was within his area of expertise."
"Even so, there are still some aspects that are difficult to explain, aren't there?"
However, the detective's explanation, which reversed everything, did not convince everyone. The Dark-type Elite Four member, Blueberry, remained calm and questioned, "If that extract is indeed some kind of vaccine, how does it work? There are many trainers in Unova, but only a minority of them collect discarded medicine to heal Pokémon, right? If we rely on herd immunity formed by these people to resist a virus, it probably won't be very effective."
"No, what Servilik made is not the kind of virus vaccine that needs to be injected into the body to become effective in the usual sense."
It is, rather, a type of environmentally targeted fungal vaccine.
Hugo looked out the window again, as if searching for something on the azure sea. "In fact, the spread of this vaccine doesn't require the participation of trainers who collect medicine or Pokémon that use it. He simply treats each discarded medicine as a petri dish, using the nutrients within to cultivate fungi that can spread from the bottle opening to the outside world on their own. Basically, as long as those discarded medicines are left unattended, the flowing air and wild Pokémon running around will naturally become a better medium than traveling trainers."
"Champion Hugo." The news anchor's voice held a rare hint of tension, given the gravity of the situation. "If what you've said is true, is the Unova region currently exposed to the danger of some unknown disease?"
"If there were really danger, I wouldn't be leading you away from Unova at this time." The detective in the white coat remained calm.
"In fact, according to the intelligence I obtained from other incidents, the kind of germ that Selvik was trying to prevent has actually spread in Unova City. And so far, apart from Selvik himself and another Hoenn trainer who came to Unova from elsewhere, there haven't been any cases of people getting sick or dying. This suggests two possibilities: either Selvik himself has some kind of misunderstanding about the germ, and perhaps that thing doesn't cause people to get sick at all; or the defense system he built in three days has successfully taken effect. Which one do you prefer to believe?"
Paqira was speechless for a moment, her fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest of the seat, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes.
At that moment, Champion Carlos suddenly realized something, his voice trembling with tension: "Speaking of which, Flying Cloud City is located at the southernmost tip of the Unova region, on the coast. Could it be that the germs that Selvik is trying to combat might have spread from the sea?"
"Yes, the formula draft that Akromar left at the Alliance headquarters was precisely for calculating the flow of those poisons. The reason our plane has a clear destination is also thanks to this."
Hugo sighed and said, "At the League headquarters, when Blacklink first saw that draft, he mistakenly thought that Acromima was calculating the power of a Pokémon's specific move—his guess was actually very close to the answer. However, he misunderstood the scale of that 'move.'"
"Hugo," the woman who hadn't spoken for a long time, suddenly spoke up, her voice cold, "that Acromantha's lifelong research goal seems to be to unleash the hidden limits of Pokémon, right?"
The detective nodded silently.
As time flows by, and the world expands, where exactly does the limit of life lie?
The cabin fell into a deep, still silence, as if in the ocean, with only the roar of the engines echoing in our ears.
A terrifying thought simultaneously surfaced in the minds of these champions.
Just then, the plane broke through a layer of dark clouds, and the boundless sea reflected golden sunlight into the sky. Through the porthole, they saw... "Ah, what's going on here?"
Pilot Feng Lu exclaimed in surprise in the cockpit, while the Heart Bat beside her tilted its head, looking at the scene before it with confusion.
round.
From 10,000 meters above the ground, they saw a circle in the ocean.
Even separated by a vast distance that would make a city a miniature, that perfect circle remains crystal clear, unmoved on the turbulent sea, like a street artist's graffiti on a wall, or a colossal totem used by an ancient civilization to worship the heavens.
But it could never be the product of some unknown civilization. The reason is obvious: the circular shape that appeared on the sea surface, red on top and white on the bottom, with a hollow circle in the middle that had a white background and black patterns, was clearly the symbol of a Poké Ball.
The striking design is so eye-catching that any flaw in it will attract special attention.
For example, the small black dot inside the white part of the Poké Ball.