Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 468 The Moment of Awakening

Chapter 470 The Moment of Awakening

People often forget the moment they fall into a dream.

In this realm devoid of anchors to reality, perception becomes ambiguous, yet occasionally, inexplicably, it suddenly surpasses the intensity of the waking state. You can smell non-existent flowers, taste illusory sweetness, and feel weightless drifting in your dreams, while simultaneously accepting all the distortions and paradoxes within them. The concept of time silently crumbles here—sometimes a mere ten minutes' nap is enough to accommodate a dream with an extremely broad scope. As if solely for the sake of this illusion's existence, dreams gently dissolve the self-reflexivity of logic, and all unconventional settings find a natural justification within the dream world. Sometimes even memories and emotions succumb to the dream's arrangement, and intense emotions can even penetrate the dream, continuously permeating the consciousness upon waking.

From this perspective, the essential difference between nightmares and pleasant dreams may not entirely depend on the bizarreness of the dream content, but rather on whether it ultimately disturbs or soothes the fundamental state of the mind. The core characteristic of nightmares is a strong and persistent experience of negative emotions—fear, anxiety, and helplessness permeate the entire dream, often continuing to disturb consciousness even after waking, preventing the mind from returning to peace. Conversely, pleasant dreams are characterized by their positive emotional tone—such as joy, satisfaction, and a sense of security. Even with equally absurd plots, the mind remains at peace, leaving behind an inner sense of harmony and stability upon waking.

At this moment, the three Unification Kings who have solved all the mysteries, and the host Wanlong who has successfully completed the mystery script, are undoubtedly waking up from a beautiful dream.

When Gadriya opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Hugo, who had already organized the documents in his hands. He was urging the sleeping Agent Luna to wake up.

The screen in front of them, used to display the host, had fallen to the side at some point. Wanlong, like her, was rubbing her sleepy eyes, while Lianwu and Yueju looked around as if facing a formidable enemy—the ice in the latter's glass had not yet completely melted.

The Psychic King immediately sensed something was amiss and glanced at the clock hanging behind the café counter; it was just past midnight. Less than half an hour had passed since Hugo appeared at the café entrance.

"Huh? Is the board game over?"

Still dazed, Luna propped herself up and patted her cheeks, trying to wake herself up.

"I remember King Linguine found a clue about the king's murder at the end, but I can't recall the specific details at all—did I fall asleep halfway through and miss the ending?"

"Miss Luna, haven't you been flying around the capital all this time? How could you not know the outcome of the king's murder case?"

Seeing the bewildered look on the intelligence agent's face, Yueju couldn't help but feel annoyed, but her accusing gaze was fixed on the novelist who had just poked his head out from behind the bar.

"Narrative tricks are also part of the gaming experience."

Wanlong shrank back, intimidated by the gambler's fierce gaze, and instinctively protested, "No one says that players making cameo appearances in the story have to play normal humans, right? Besides, I've already given plenty of hints in the script. Luna always repeats other people's lines. I even changed the pronouns I used when describing Luna, just in case the written version of the script revealed the secret because of the difference between 'it' and 'she.' Isn't that obvious enough?"

"We haven't even read the written version!" This time, even the King of Fighters couldn't hold back anymore.

"Repeating someone else's lines?" Luna tilted her head in confusion. "What does that mean?"

"Hmm? Didn't Wanlong tell you about the settings beforehand?"

Seeing Luna's confused expression, Lian Wu forcibly ignored the fact that she "repeated other people's lines like a noisy bird," and instead rubbed his chin, vaguely sensing a certain sense of disharmony.

The novelist continued to defend himself over there—

"Besides, I didn't expect you guys to push this part of the plot so far. Logically speaking, this trick should have been exposed by the players around the middle of the story due to the unnatural behavior of the NPCs, which would have served as the final piece of the puzzle to complete the reasoning. But who knew you guys would skip that line and directly find the real king's head using [Find Lost Items]? Originally, according to my design, this part of the plot would have taken several weeks to complete."

"The plot is moving so fast, it can't just be because of skipping clues—to put it bluntly, what exactly happened in that coffee shop just now?"

Blueberry raised her glass, looked at the remaining ice, swirled it around, and downed the slightly bland drink in one gulp.

"No matter what, we are the kings of the alliance. With the United States Alliance besieged on all sides, even if we are so bored that we start trying out that board game designed by Wanlong, we shouldn't be so engrossed in the game."

That's certainly true; it's quite unusual.

This was even more unusual, as everyone had just woken up from their sleep!

"It's there!"

Suddenly, Cattleya stood up and pointed sharply into the air in front of her, as if she had locked onto something.

The next moment, immense superpowers surged forth along with the Psychic King's flowing blond hair.

The ripples spread like waves throughout the room, and at the center of the vortex, a slender, light blue body was forced to appear, revealing a crescent-shaped yellow ornament on its head. Behind it, crescent-shaped pink wings swayed gently in the void.

"It's you!"

Cattleya's pupils suddenly contracted, and her voice sounded as if she were facing a formidable enemy.

Cresselia is a Psychic-type Pokémon, revered as the God of Dreams in the Sinnoh region.

Not long ago, Sinnoh Champion Cynthia found a Crescent Wing belonging to this Pokémon deep in the mansion of Eternal Forest; and even more recently, Cattleya was cornered in her own mansion in Ripple Town by Team Plasma King N, who was commanding this Pokémon!

Judging from the frequency characteristics of the superpower fluctuations, the Cresselia in front of me is even the same Pokémon!

"Where is that N? Were you the one who caused all this?"

The superpowered king stared intently at the unexpected guest, and the superpowers that had been lurking in the coffee shop not only did not lessen, but became even more severe.

"Wasn't N just on the cylindrical bridge east of Snowdrop City? Even if he could 'teleport,' he wouldn't have had time to get to Suicune City in the south of Unova right after fighting Team Aqua, would he?"

Just as the grinder was about to take flight again, the detective's calm voice came from behind the superhuman.

"The dream we just experienced was indeed related to this Pokémon," the Champion said casually. "It seems that when the Goddess of Dreams visited, she sensed that although the Elite Four were playing games, their minds were constantly tense and unable to relax, so she kindly used the move 'Secret Protection'."

As for why Cresselia used the "Mystic Guard" move, which can prevent abnormal status effects, but caused everyone to fall into the dream of the board game, since no one asked, there is no need to explain it here.

Hugo gave Cattleya a meaningful look—

"The reason it chose to conceal itself and not appear directly in front of us seems to be because of you, Cattleya. It seems that our last encounter left both of us—somewhat lingering fear. Cresselia doesn't actually want to clash with us."

The Elite Four member, unusually, threw a tantrum, snorting, "If it weren't for this Pokémon, I would have won the battle back then."

"Even though there's the influence of someone who can hear a Pokémon's thoughts, when this Pokémon with psychic powers chooses to side with N, you've already essentially lost."

Hugo's gaze swept past Cresselia and across the various Heavenly Kings before him.

"Speaking of which, since N challenged Cattleya before, it seems the other Heavenly Kings have already accepted challenges, right?"

The atmosphere fell silent in an instant.

Only Luna, who had just regained consciousness, and Cresselia, who was floating in the air inside the room, tilted their heads together, seemingly unaware of what was happening.

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