At this moment, Kairos's gaze carefully examined the game interface, contemplating the characteristics that Mewtwo was currently displaying.
His actions showed almost no hesitation whatsoever, remarkably efficient, and even when heading to the neighboring house, he took a completely straight line without any meandering detours.
After bidding farewell to the neighbor's house, Mewtwo obtained key information and immediately headed out, walking straight toward Route 101, directly ignoring all NPCs along the way that could potentially trigger interactions. His target focus was terrifyingly clear.
Kairos adjusted his sitting position, knowing that the crucial plot where players choose their starter Pokémon was about to be triggered.
He wondered what kind of starter Pokémon a guy like Mewtwo would choose.
He simultaneously glanced at the system backend and noticed that at some point, a new information area had appeared:
[Detecting an anomalous signal source.]
Kairos was stunned for a moment, then suddenly snapped back to reality.
Oh right, Mewtwo was currently under Team Rocket's control.
His invitation card had interfaced with Mewtwo's consciousness, which might also alert Team Rocket.
From this perspective, the system seemed quite thoughtful. He just hoped Team Rocket would discover it later rather than sooner.
If that situation really occurred, he wondered if the system had any countermeasures.
Meanwhile, in the game, Mewtwo's character walked out of the town, and almost the instant he approached the tall grass, the cutscene was triggered!
"Help! Someone please help me!" Professor Birch's cry for help rang out as he was being cornered by a Poochyena, looking quite disheveled.
Mewtwo's character automatically ran forward a few steps.
"Young man, you need Pokémon to fight Pokémon!" the professor shouted anxiously. "Hey! Come help me! Use the Poké Balls over there!"
In the bag on the ground, three open Poké Balls were displayed.
The battle interface forcibly expanded. Mewtwo paused for an extremely brief moment, seemingly processing information at high speed. Then, without any hesitation, he selected Mudkip's Poké Ball.
[I choose you, Mudkip!]
The game spoke the line for him, and the battle began: "Poochyena Lv.2" VS "Mudkip Lv.5"!
Mewtwo's gaze swept over the commands—there were four in total: [Fight], [Pokémon], [Bag], [Run].
He could naturally understand these words clearly. With almost no decision-making time, he directly made the corresponding choice:
[Fight, Mudkip use Tackle.]
Mudkip's body leaped out, landed a hit, and Poochyena's HP bar dropped by a section. It counterattacked, also dealing minor damage.
Mewtwo's expression showed no fluctuation as he again selected [Tackle].
The second hit connected, and the lower-level Poochyena's HP bar was depleted. Amid cheerful music, the battle ended.
"Kid, you did great!"
Professor Birch breathed a sigh of relief and stepped forward.
However, Mewtwo's controlled character remained in place, not immediately following.
His gaze fell on Mudkip, which had just finished the battle.
On the monitor in front of Kairos, the [Confusion] emotional index suddenly began spiking. Clearly, he had fallen into bewilderment.
Kairos thought about it but actually couldn't analyze why Mewtwo would have such a reaction.
What he didn't know was that just now, Mewtwo had keenly captured the fact that "HP depletion" and "battle" resulted in Pokémon losing battle capability rather than death and destruction.
This created a violent clash with his ingrained perception that "Pokémon are purely battle tools."
If they're tools... why aren't they destroyed when they fail?
And just then, the game's prompt suddenly popped up:
[Ding! Congratulations on your first battle victory! Your [Friendship] with Mudkip has increased.]
This was naturally a prompt that Kairos had specifically added for Mewtwo. Friendship was a crucial element for him to understand the relationship between humans and Pokémon.
Sure enough, he saw Mewtwo's character move slightly at this prompt.
[Friendship?]
Mewtwo's telepathy resonated silently, more like self-reflection, seemingly searching for everything about this concept.
And the system promptly provided an answer.
[Friendship symbolizes the relationship between Pokémon and players. Increased friendship may bring unexpected surprises and even enhance Pokémon's battle capabilities.]
[So, this is a... calculable cooperative efficiency parameter?]
Under this explanation, Mewtwo directly and instinctively transformed emotional connection into a kind of performance indicator.
Only then did he silently follow the professor back to the research lab, accepting Mudkip and the Pokédex.
And Mewtwo seemed to show obvious interest in the Pokédex.
After understanding the Pokédex's function through the professor's description, he first scanned a Slakoth beside Professor Birch.
The Pokédex's mechanical voice followed, beginning its introduction.
"Slakoth, the Slacker Pokémon. It spends most of the day sleeping. Although lazy, it will move its body to eat leaves it likes."
Mewtwo's gaze lingered on words like "sleeping" and "leaves it likes" for a long time without moving away.
Obviously, this completely failed to correspond with the "battle tool" information in his mind.
So he turned around and scanned his own Mudkip.
"Mudkip, the Mud Fish Pokémon. It can sense water currents with its fin to predict opponents' actions. It's very strong and can easily drag rocks ten times heavier than itself."
[Sensing water currents... predicting actions...] he contemplated the information he was seeing.
[These are clearly functional descriptions, so why would non-essential data like preferences exist?]
With this puzzled voice, he put away the Pokédex and, without extra dialogue with NPCs, left the research lab directly, heading toward the "rival's" location as the professor requested.
Meanwhile, Kairos also realized an issue. The Emerald version that Mewtwo was playing was practically a plus version with considerable freedom.
But it was indeed content from the original work he had created.
This was also good, since the more realistic the world, the more it could influence Mewtwo's thinking.
At the same time, after Mewtwo crossed through the tall grass and defeated several wild Pokémon, he entered the small town above Oldale Town.
His actions remained highly efficient, directly entering the Pokémon Center to restore HP and attempting to gather intelligence by talking with several NPCs.
Just as Kairos had noticed, his action choices were always the shortest route, the most necessary options.
Just like... a machine.
On the roadside, he saw a youngster in shorts feeding his Wurmple berries.
Mewtwo's character suddenly stopped and watched carefully for a while.
On Kairos's monitoring panel, the [Curiosity] emotional value showed a small but clear fluctuation.
He seemed to be thinking again.
After a while, Mewtwo stepped onto Route 103, encountering his first trainer challenge.
The opponent was also a youngster in shorts, with a level 2 Wurmple.
This kind of battle naturally posed no difficulty. As Mewtwo selected [Tackle], under level suppression, Mudkip directly won with one hit.
However, after the battle ended, the youngster paid Mewtwo prize money and then gave a thumbs up, exclaiming: "Your Mudkip is really strong! Looks like I need to keep training!"
Mewtwo's character showed no reaction, walking straight past the opponent.
But Kairos noticed that when hearing "really strong," Mewtwo's emotional data again produced subtle fluctuations, with the [Confusion] index rising once more.
He heard Mewtwo's self-talk:
[This is "praise," recognition of "strength"]
[What's the purpose of this verbal feedback?]
Obviously, he was trying to use logic to analyze everything unfamiliar he was seeing.
After a moment, Mewtwo ended his contemplation and continued on his way.
However, just when Kairos thought everything would continue smoothly transitioning, piercing alarms and rumbling sounds suddenly exploded beside his ears, and the entire screen began flashing with dazzling red light!
[Warning: External signal strength detected increasing! Connected unit is undergoing deep neural scanning! Risk level: High!]
Kairos's pupils contracted, immediately realizing this should be Team Rocket detecting anomalies and beginning to check Mewtwo's status.
They absolutely couldn't let them discover Mewtwo's situation!
"System, is there a way?"
If not, he'd have to cut off the game directly.
However, just as his words fell, the system's prompt popped up.
[Command confirmed, invitation card interference program running...]
[Interference successful! External signal has been disguised and shielded, current risk level: Safe.]
Kairos couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, both the invitation card and system were reliable, so there shouldn't be any problems now.
He looked up at the monitoring screen again. Mewtwo seemed completely unaware of what had just happened. He had just defeated another trainer and finally reached the end of this route.
Soon, a trainer standing with his back to him in the middle of the road appeared on screen.
This was obviously the "rival" that Professor Birch had mentioned.
Mewtwo's character moved forward, automatically triggering dialogue.
"Oh? You must be that new trainer Professor Birch mentioned, right?" The rival turned around, wearing a confident smile.
"Let me see what kind of Pokémon the professor gave you! Come on, let's battle!"
Amid stirring music, the battle interface instantly expanded.
[Rival wants to fight!]
[Rival sent out Treecko! Lv. 8]
Mewtwo's gaze swept over the opponent's Pokémon, and information quickly displayed.
Treecko, Grass-type, Lv. 8.
He had almost no pause, just like the previous times facing trainers, directly chose Mudkip and issued the [Tackle] command.
In his logic, previous battles had proven that Mudkip's level and moves were sufficient to handle these opponents.
Efficiency first, so no additional strategy was needed.
Mudkip leaped out, swinging its small fin toward Treecko.
However, the effect seemed insignificant. Treecko's HP bar only decreased by a barely perceptible sliver.
Mewtwo's expressionless face showed its first extremely subtle change, with his brow furrowing almost imperceptibly.
He seemed unable to understand why the same move had such a poor effect on this Pokémon.
Next came the opponent's attack turn.
"Treecko, use Absorb!" The rival's energetic voice rang out.
Treecko nimbly jumped up, its body emanating green energy light, with a beam connecting it to Mudkip.
Mudkip let out a slight cry of pain, its HP bar suddenly dropping by a large segment! And simultaneously, Treecko's tiny lost HP was instantly fully restored!
[???]
Mewtwo's telepathy was filled with pure questioning.
The opponent's damage was abnormally high, and it also recovered HP?
This completely violated the damage calculation formula he had established through previous battles!
His decision-making loop seemed briefly interrupted by this unexpected situation, but his high-speed processing ability immediately restored his actions. He again selected [Tackle].
Mudkip faithfully executed the command, attacking again with minimal effect.
And Treecko's second [Absorb] followed immediately.
The green beam again entwined Mudkip. This time, Mudkip's HP bar plummeted at an alarming rate, instantly hitting rock bottom and disappearing!
Mudkip swayed and collapsed, its eyes becoming spirals.
[Mudkip fainted!]
The cheerful battle music disappeared, replaced by the low, defeated sound effect, and everything before Mewtwo seemed to darken.
[You lost to Rival!]
In the darkness, this line appeared coldly before his eyes.
Finally, since entering the game, Mewtwo was completely stunned for the first time.
His brain, which had always been processing all information at high speed, seemed to fall into brief stagnation due to this previously unprecedented result.
His gaze froze on the word "lost" before him, discovering that somehow, he had returned to the Pokémon Center.
Lost?
This is... losing?
Unlike the failure he understood, which meant destruction, this kind of failure seemed... merely a reset?
He seemed to have been sent back to this facility called the "Pokémon Center." Not only that, his Mudkip had also recovered its status, as if everything could start over.
But that result itself, that concept of "losing," was clearly branded in his perception.
This was an extremely unfamiliar feeling, difficult to parse with his existing logic.
Not anger, not fear, but a strong sense of maladjustment based on "plan error" and "low efficiency."
Why?
Why was Mudkip's attack damage so low? Why was the opponent's attack so powerful and able to restore HP?
He looked up at the sky. A voice, shaped by concentrated psychic energy, rang out, flat and cold:
Explanation required.
Mewtwo's thought was direct. Stripped of tone. Efficient.
Opponent's move: abnormal. My move: ineffective. Cause?
Kairos, who had been watching, froze—then blinked in disbelief.
Mewtwo was asking him?
Then it clicked.
Team Rocket had fed Mewtwo massive amounts of data… but hadn't even taught him the type effectiveness chart?
This prenatal education… was kind of a total failure, wasn't it?