sonovelo Chapter 363 Solution Chapter - Secret Base on Lava
Chapter 363 Solution Chapter - Secret Base on Lava
Chapter 365 Resolution - The Secret Base on the Lava
What is the largest living organism that has ever existed on Earth?
Many people will immediately think of those amazing behemoths, with Wailord, the water-type Pokémon known for its enormous size, being the most typical example.
Thanks to the buoyancy of seawater, these filter-feeding organisms do not need to limit their body size to support their own weight, unlike terrestrial organisms.
Given enough time, they can easily grow to over thirty meters tall, resembling skyscrapers lying in the sea.
Of course, when discussing size, it's inevitable to talk about the legendary creatures that roamed the mythical era—how tall were the giants who dragged the tectonic plates? How much did the behemoths that created the earth weigh? And the bodies of the ocean avatars that could carve open the seas in ancient times were probably no smaller than the whale king mentioned above.
However, even these gods who govern the laws of nature do not seem to regard expanding their own size as the ultimate pursuit in their long lifespan.
Sometimes, it is the simpler creatures that are able to create miracles of life without anyone noticing.
For example, plants—
In the White Forest of the Unova region, there stands a tree that is said to be the largest in the world.
Its trunk is over ten meters in diameter, and its height is equivalent to more than ten Wailords stacked together. If you add the volume of its branches, leaves, and roots, even those giant legendary Pokémon, amplified several times by the Dynamax energy of the Galar region, can only droop their heads in embarrassment when they stand under the shade of this towering tree.
But these are still far from the limits of life.
Just as Snorlax, no matter how big, can never surpass Wailord in the sea, the ocean, which covers 70% of the Earth's surface, also provides its inhabitants with the opportunity to surpass land-based creatures—
In terms of sheer size, a giant tree might not be able to compare to a delicate seaweed.
On the edge of the Alora Sea, there lies a seemingly ordinary seagrass field lying quietly in the warm waters, which has long been regarded by the locals as a common underwater landscape.
However, when the Ethereum Foundation's research team went deep into these waters for a routine survey, they unexpectedly discovered a biological miracle—this vast seagrass field was actually a single organism.
Each seaweed plant carries the exact same genetic sequence and is interconnected through a vast and continuous network of rhizomes, together forming this enormous living organism.
This creature's size is unbelievably exaggerated—it stretches for 180 kilometers, enough to span multiple cities.
The coverage area reached two hundred square kilometers.
Even more astonishing is that this creature is still expanding slowly and steadily, extending outward at a rate of about one centimeter per year.
According to the Ether Foundation's calculations, this seaweed has existed for five or even six thousand years, witnessing countless centuries of change. This seems to be the ultimate that life can achieve. However, some people are still not satisfied with this. They turn their attention to life forms that are smaller and more fundamental than plants—such as fungi.
"What exactly is that island platform that's the same color as a red and white Poké Ball? There's never been a map showing an island like that!"
The owner of the Wind and Dew Pavilion gripped the control stick tightly, staring dumbfounded at the enormous circular outline that was gradually enlarging ahead of the channel.
"Based on our current flight altitude, its area is probably even larger than Fuyuki City," she muttered to herself, watching the Poké Ball symbol become clearer as they approached.
"That's Team Lava's secret base, and the source of this series of poisonings."
Detective Hugo's voice came from behind the pilot.
"This island was used as a deep-sea base by the Lava Team, so it needed to transport large amounts of supplies frequently. Since that organization hated the ocean and lacked sufficient maritime transport capabilities, it is highly likely that an airport capable of accommodating large aircraft was built on that base."
"You want me to land right there?" The Fukiyori City Gym Leader's hand trembled slightly, but thankfully it didn't affect the flight. "That's Team Magma's base! How could they possibly allow a strange plane to land there?"
"Don't worry, there will be people on the island to meet us. We'll circle above the clouds and wait for their signal before landing," Hugo calmly replied. "Even if we encounter enemy attacks during the process, our plane has enough firepower to ensure a safe landing."
"That's true, but what kind of signal will the person receiving the backup send?"
The female pilot felt a little relieved. As she pulled up the side stick and approached the island, skimming close to the clouds, she asked in confusion.
"You'll find out then." The detective gripped the cockpit armrest, bracing himself against the sudden acceleration, and replied casually, "Let's plan our landing direction first."
As the plane drew closer, the Poké Ball-like island became increasingly clear. It wasn't a simple circular plane, but rather a hemisphere rising above the sea.
As Hugo said, this place is a fully equipped sea base—factories, dormitories, and research facilities are all available, and Team Magma's volcano-like M logo can be seen everywhere. And indeed, below the white part of the Poké Ball, there is an airport large enough to accommodate aircraft take-off and landing.
Just then, the heart-shaped bat, which was acting as radar in the passenger seat, suddenly widened its eyes, and its heart-shaped nose began to twitch uneasily.
"What's wrong? Have we been discovered?" King Pachira, sitting opposite Hugo, asked with a furrowed brow and a look of alarm.
"No," Miss Wind Dew replied, her back to the passengers as she checked the instrument panel. "The Heart Bat said it seems to have seen something incredible."
"Poor thing," the Elite Four member sighed. "Its ultrasonic waves probably detected the underwater part of that giant Poké Ball."
"Hugo, what exactly is that?"
Champion Carlos, standing beside the detective, looked grave, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon through the mist-shrouded porthole. "A man-made island of this scale could never have been built silently in the middle of the ocean. What role did Team Lava and Akromama play in this?"
"It all started last year when Team Aqua's manipulation of Hoenn TV was exposed - however, the collaboration between Akromama and Team Magma goes back even further."
Hugo gazed at the Lava Team's base, faintly visible below the clouds, and slowly spoke while awaiting a signal from his contact.
"Team Plasma once engaged in smuggling transactions with Archie, who was posing as the director of Hoenn TV. Since they can cooperate with Team Aqua, they will naturally try to contact another major organization in the Hoenn region to see if they can gain more benefits from it."
"You mean Team Lava?" King Pachira's gaze was as sharp as a hawk's, his question hitting the nail on the head.
The detective nodded. "Unlike Team Aqua, Team Magma lacks the capability and channels for transoceanic transport, making it impossible for them to do the same thing. Therefore, Team Plasma adopted a different approach to cooperation—sending scholars for technical exchanges. Akroma, currently unconscious at the Unova League headquarters, is one of the scholars assigned to liaise with Team Magma. The reason he was able to gain Ghetsis's favor and trust in such a short time..."
It was precisely because of his irreplaceable talent and knowledge demonstrated in this collaboration that…
What technologies can be exchanged between the Lava Team and the Plasma Team?
Champion Karune frowned slightly, her tone tinged with doubt. "Even disregarding Team Plasma, Team Magma, as an extremist organization based in Hoenn, has always operated with a xenophobic and closed-off style. How could they possibly tolerate Ghetsis and Acromantium interfering in their research?"
"Akroma, that madman, gave Team Lava an irresistible fantasy."
Hugo shook his head, his expression grave.
"Everyone here should know what Team Magma is desperately pursuing in the Hoenn region, right?"
"Of course I know," Lanting said with a hint of disdain. "They're expanding the land area and increasing the territory for human activity. If any human or Pokémon stands in their way, they'll destroy them without hesitation."
"So, Akromar has given Team Lava a plan to expand human territory?"
A thoughtful glint flashed in the news anchor's eyes.
"That's pretty much it," Hugo nodded.
"The Earth's surface area is limited. To expand the land, we must compete with the unfathomable ocean. If we want to create habitable space on the ocean, we either need to spend a long time and huge sums of money to reclaim land, or we can only build floating islands that cannot last—neither of these methods can meet the Lava Team's ideal need to expand the land area."
"So you can imagine the sheer elation the leader of that extremist group must have felt when Akromar, dressed in his iconic white lab coat, swaggered up to the Lava Team leader and declared he possessed a solution to all problems..."
The detective's voice was deep and captivating, as if it could draw everyone into a world full of sin and conspiracy.
"The scholar showed the Lava Team a grand plan that would allow the land to conquer the sea—a crazy idea that could overturn nature."
"What exactly is that plan?"
Karuni pressed on directly, her expression more serious than ever before.
Hugo did not answer immediately, but slowly raised his hand and pointed out the airplane window—
"To create the largest creature ever to ever exist."
Amidst the clouds and mist, the giant "Poké Ball" appeared and disappeared intermittently.
"Its body will be so enormous that even standing in the deep sea, it can break through the surface and be exposed to the sunlight, becoming a huge island that humans can live on. This plan not only satisfies Team Magma's ambition to expand the land, but also coincides with Akromama's research project to challenge the limits of Pokémon potential. Faced with such an ultimate goal, even the most closed-off and xenophobic extremist organization cannot refuse the cooperation bait thrown out by Team Plasma—and this is exactly what happened six years ago."
"So, that—that Poké Ball—"
The news anchor looked out the window following the detective's finger, and her usually eloquent speech suddenly seemed somewhat speechless.
"It's a Shroomish," the detective sighed and explained. "That huge Poké Ball is its cap, and the part below the surface is its white stem."
"This Agaric's mental structure was completely different from its kind from birth. According to Dr. Zhenyan, a dream expert, each hyphae in its body seems to have an independent consciousness, which makes it appear dull and taciturn to others. Six years ago, influenced by a school speech on the Pokémon liberation movement, it was released by its former owner in a forest next to Route 16, and was later found by the Pokémon Containment Center established by Team Plasma. There, this Agaric met Acromima."
"Is the owner of that 'Oops' mushroom the Miss Mia you met on the beach in Flying Cloud City? How is she now?"
"Karuni asked with concern."
"She's currently at the Dream Research Institute in Flying Cloud City, accompanied by Dr. Zhenyan and her sister Truffle," Hugo replied. "With the help of the doctor's dream research, she has, to some extent, resolved the misunderstanding between her and Aya Mushroom from back then. However, I haven't told her about Aya Mushroom's current situation yet."
"Wait! Hold on, that's not the point!"
Fire Queen Pachira excitedly shouted at Hugo; if it weren't for the seatbelt, she would have pounced on the detective opposite her.
"Wow, the original size of the Agaric was only about the size of a palm, right? Even if it evolved into the Exposed Agaric, its height couldn't possibly exceed one meter. How could it have been modified to be this huge?"
"I don't know the specific principles, after all, I didn't participate in that insane experiment. However, in my opinion, Akromama may have altered the genetic structure of Agaric through gene induction, making it more adaptable to the marine environment on the one hand, and making its growth pattern closer to those non-Pokémon giant fungi on the other hand," Hugo explained calmly, arms crossed.
"A giant fungus that isn't a Pokémon?"
Pachira stared at the detective through her orange-red sunglasses, her eyes full of confusion.
"This is a little-known fact—in existing records, the largest creature on land is not any Pokémon, nor those giant ancient trees, but a huge fungal community discovered near the Snowflake Wetlands in the northwestern Unova region. In that fungal community, which covers nearly ten square kilometers, every mushroom has the exact same genes, which means that they all belong to the same single individual."
The detective held up one finger and continued.
"Of course, that fungal community didn't grow into mushrooms as huge as the ones we see now. Instead, it spread underground through a dense root system, forming a vast network of hyphae. These hyphae interconnected and, after thousands of years of growth, eventually covered the underground space of the entire forest. If all the fungi were excavated, the total weight would exceed 3.4 tons. And Akroma clearly used this case as an important reference for modifying the Ayya mushroom."
Pachira looked shocked again, while the Dark-type Elite Four member sneered, "Now you know what a huge mistake it was to describe that guy as a 'somewhat famous scholar.'"
"Besides the growth potential of the fungus itself, I think that Ayam's strange split personality is also an important reason why Akromar chose it for modification," Hugo continued.
"Imagine if there were millions of hyphae inside a Breloom, each with its own independent consciousness. If Akromage simply removed the growth restrictions on these consciousnesses, allowing each hyphae and each spore to grow rapidly like a normal Breloom, wouldn't this Pokémon's size expand a million times in a short period of time?"
"This is insane," Champion Karuni said, shaking her head.
"Yes," Hugo sighed as well.
"In short, whether Acroma expanded its larval size by introducing the Max Energy of the Galar region, by suppressing Pokémon evolution, or by introducing fragments of Giant Seaweed into its genes—after six years of modification, that originally palm-sized Agaric transformed into the city-sized island before us in just one-thousandth the time it took for a Giant Mushroom. It was at this time that Team Magma learned of Team Aqua's latest movements."
"What does this have to do with Team Aqua?" Lantachibana asked.
"Team Aqua and Team Magma have always been sworn enemies in the Hoenn region. In their eyes, if one side achieves something and the other side fails to suppress it, it means that their respective sea and land philosophies have been distinguished as superior," Hugo explained, spreading his hands.
"Therefore, when Archie's identity as the Hoenn TV station manager was revealed last year, the first reaction of Team Magma members and executives wasn't 'Great, our competitor has been weakened,' but rather 'Why does our competitor have such a perfect sanctuary as a TV station, while we don't,' and they were indignant about it."
"So, Team Magma also wants to create their own 'Hoenn TV Station'?" Pachira followed the detective's train of thought this time. Hugo nodded: "Coincidentally, at this time, the Awful that Akroma modified had grown to its current enormous size. And the growth area that Team Magma chose for Awful was located in an empty area far from the flight path, which was the perfect choice to establish a base—so, they began the construction plan for their secret base."
"?" Champion Karune suddenly thought of the current situation in the Hoenn region. "So, what about the trouble Team Aqua and Team Magma caused in Hoenn a while ago?"
"That's right. Team Aqua's sabotage is mostly for taking advantage of the chaos, while Team Magma's attacks on factories and facilities are to steal important equipment and technology to build their secret base."
The detective snapped his fingers—"After all, the ocean, though vast, is a wasteland of freshwater. Without a self-sufficient production system, no matter how large the Lava Team's artificial land expands, it cannot truly become a domain for human survival."
"So what's our next move?" The Dark-type Elite Four member's sharp eyes turned to Hugo. "Defeat all the Team Magma on the island and then put this Agaric back into its Poké Ball?"
"The Poké Ball large enough to hold this Agaric Pokémon probably hasn't been manufactured by humans yet." Hugo shrugged. "I need to conduct an on-site investigation and review the research records left by Team Magma and Acromura before making a decision on how to handle it. Don't forget our ultimate goal for this trip."
"The ultimate goal, you mean that serial poisoning case?" Blueberry looked puzzled. "Haven't those two cases been completely solved yet?"
"Yes, we must find out whether the toxin that killed those two poison experts came from this giant Awfula. Is the fungal virus that Selvik is guarding against the spores of Awfula? If so, will it continue to harm the nearby seas and life around the world? In any case, don't forget Awfula's original attributes—Grass and Poison type."
As Hugo was speaking, a loud bang suddenly came from below the clouds.
Immediately afterwards, a dazzling seven-colored light flashed on the red part of the cap of the Ayya mushroom.
"Let's go! Our chance to land has come!" The detective immediately turned around and shouted to Feng Lu in the cockpit.
As the wind and dew pressed down on the side pole, a light, crisp sound, accompanied by a sudden feeling of weightlessness, reached the passengers' ears.
Alright, everything's ready!