Pokemon: I refuse to be a supporting character!

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School.

It was more or less the scene Li Xiang had expected.

Almost everyone was talking about the events in the Archipelago Region. However, given the distance, it felt too abstract to them, and most lacked empathy.

Even those who showed some sympathy only mentioned it briefly before moving on.

The focus of the discussions remained on the Pokémon attacking the cities. After all, such enormous Pokémon were rare, especially since they were entirely new species never seen before.

What Trainer wouldn't be interested in Pokémon like that?

"Did you check the forums last night?"

As soon as Li Xiang sat down, Song Jie's voice reached his ears.

Turning his head, he saw the white-haired boy with bright, excited eyes, as if suppressing some strong emotion.

"I did. Stayed up way too late because of it," Li Xiang yawned, clearly sleep-deprived. "What's up?"

Song Jie was a kid who loved to show off, but he didn't like being overly flashy. Around friends, however, he could be incredibly enthusiastic.

"Then you probably missed the latest news—a colorful, unidentified rift has appeared in Furnace City!"

His expression was as fervent as that of an aspiring astronaut.

A colorful rift… That must be an Ultra Wormhole. Someone had spotted it and even posted it online?

How unusual.

Normally, Ultra Wormholes were hidden, and few Pokémon possessed the power to open one.

Yet, occasionally, an Ultra Wormhole would inexplicably appear, allowing Ultra Beasts to traverse Ultra Space and wreak havoc in one world after another.

This phenomenon was one of Game Freak's many unresolved mysteries.

"They're saying those unidentified Pokémon emerged from the rift. Do you think it connects to another world?"

Song Jie began imagining the scenery inside the rift.

Li Xiang twitched the corner of his mouth.

Please, no.

According to the original lore, Ultra Wormholes led to various Ultra Spaces, each brimming with immense energy.

If a human entered, there was a chance they'd lose their memory.

Memory loss would be the least of their worries, though. The real issue was that anyone entering would be bathed in and eroded by this energy, turning into a "Fall" and becoming prey to Ultra Beasts.

In the games, the International Police used this as a trap, luring Ultra Beasts into the open and capturing them.

But Li Xiang had no intention of tempting fate.

His Litten had been training so hard and only recently reached level nine. It was a far cry from taking on an Ultra Beast.

If he ever saw an Ultra Wormhole, he'd run as far away as possible.

After all, self-awareness is a virtue.

Still, another world…

A thought occurred to Li Xiang.

The resources of any planet are finite. When those resources start running out, people either plunder others' resources or develop new ones.

Given the current state of the world, the former was strictly forbidden. Anyone attempting such actions would instantly become a target of universal condemnation, no matter their organization or allegiance.

Developing new energy sources, on the other hand, came at an exorbitant cost, enough to make anyone hesitate.

Even so, many were working on it, hoping to secure the first ticket to a new world.

But what if a new world suddenly appeared?

No one would turn down additional resources. Faced with a potentially resource-rich world, no region would willingly give it up.

The worlds connected by Ultra Wormholes were many.

In the games alone, there were countless Ultra Spaces:

Reverse worlds that mirrored reality, and environments like deep seas, power plants, skyscrapers, jungles, forests, canyons, deserts, and the Ultra Space Zero Zone.

There was even the Ultra Megalopolis.

In the anime -

The concept of parallel worlds was made explicit. The world Ash visited, which had been destroyed by Guzzlord, was a parallel version of the Alola Region.

That world even had a shiny Tapu Koko that could communicate with the Tapu Koko from Ash's world to send him to the other dimension.

There, Ash even managed to deal with the indestructible Guzzlord.

Wait.

What if the people of the Archipelago Region already had knowledge of Ultra Space and Ultra Wormholes?

What if they feared outsiders tracing Z-Moves back to their source and discovering Ultra Space?

This might explain why they kept Z-Crystals and Z-Rings hidden, concealing the existence of Radiant Necrozma, Totem Pokémon, and the Tapu Guardians.

After all, the origin of Z-Moves could be traced to Ultra Necrozma, also known as the Radiant One.

In the anime's lore, it was said that Necrozma brought light to the Alola Region shrouded in darkness, and its light energy crystallized into Z-Crystals.

The Totem Pokémon were likely born for this reason.

Li Xiang believed that the chances of the Archipelago Region already knowing about the existence of Ultra Space were quite high.

Otherwise, why would they hide Z-Moves?

Song Jie, seated across from him, was going on and on about something, but Li Xiang couldn't process a word.

His mind was completely occupied with thoughts about Ultra Beasts, occasionally giving perfunctory responses to seem engaged.

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Noon.

Li Xiang had lunch with Lin Feng and endured yet another wave of verbal bombardment.

It was only then that he remembered—this kid in front of him seemed to be the protagonist-type character in this world.

For such an important event as the arrival of Ultra Beasts to occur before Lin Feng had grown enough…

Could it be that this world had a second protagonist?

—Xia Chunyu?

Impossible.

Xia Chunyu had already reached the Champion level, with only the World Champion title remaining. The Ultra Beasts' arrival was too late to play a role in his growth.

Unless he managed to capture a legendary Pokémon during this event, these Ultra Beasts—whose unique aura-boosting abilities vanished once captured—wouldn't be much help to him.

Never mind.

Speculating further wouldn't change anything.

After a quick trip to the bathroom and a splash of cold water to his face, Li Xiang managed to calm down.

If the sky were to fall, taller people would hold it up. For now, his only task was to keep moving forward. Besides, with his current strength, there was no point in even thinking about resistance.

An eleven-year-old body. A first-stage Pokémon. How would he even fight an Ultra Beast?

Headbutt them?

In short:

His current priority was to steadily strengthen himself and his Litten, step by step, while expanding his team. No need to rush.

At the same time, he had to keep a close eye on the developments in the Archipelago Region.

Even if he could only gather fragments of information from forums, it was still better than being caught completely off guard.

The invasion of Ultra Beasts was definitely not as simple as it seemed.

The question of why those illogical Guzzlord were targeting their world deserved careful consideration.

According to the lore, Guzzlord should appear in heavily polluted areas, but as far as Li Xiang knew, the Archipelago Region had excellent environmental measures, arguably even better than those of the Zhu Xia Region.

So, was Guzzlord's arrival a coincidence, or was it lured here by someone's recklessness?

That was the question.

Furthermore, the reason for the Archipelago Region's previous lockdown—

What could have warranted sealing off an entire region, prohibiting entry and exit?

Other Ultra Beasts? The Tapu Guardians?

Lunala? Solgaleo?

Or perhaps… Necrozma?

Li Xiang felt any of these possibilities could be true.