Pokémon: Join Team Rocket at the Beginning

Yang Ming frowned. "Can you please go through the main entrance? You always teleport in, making me think another enemy is here."

"You're talking as if you'd welcome me if I walked through the main entrance," Cattleya rolled her eyes. "I was using my psychic powers from next door and noticed your mood swings were significant. Is something wrong?"

"Take a look at this," Yang Ming handed her an A4 sheet of paper filled with text. "How many types of slate are described here?"

"Eighteen?" Cattleya said without hesitation. "What's wrong with you? You actually asked such a strange question."

"Eighteen kinds?!" Yang Ming's face turned extremely gloomy. "Count carefully again, how many kinds of stone slabs are there?"

Cattleya was stunned by his unusual reaction. She couldn't understand why Yang Ming cared so much about the number of slates. However, out of trust in Yang Ming, she decided to count them again according to his instructions.

"These slates correspond to different attributes based on their colors. They are: Fire, Grass, Electricity, Water, Steel, Darkness, Ghost, Psychic, Bug, Rock, Ground, Flying, Dragon, Fairy, Fighting, Poison, and Ice. There are eighteen attributes in total," Cattleya read as she counted. "So that's eighteen, right?"

Yang Ming's expression became increasingly ugly. He tried to remain calm and spoke in an extremely dry voice.

"Didn't you notice that these attributes add up to a total of , and the stone tablets corresponding to ordinary attributes are not among them?"

"Huh?" Cattleya shook her head blankly. "What are you talking about? The number of slates recorded on this piece of paper is correct. It is indeed eighteen."

"Impossible! You must be mistaken!" Yang Ming suddenly became excited, grabbed Cattleya's shoulders with both hands, and roared loudly, "There are a total of eighteen kinds of stone tablets in Arceus, and there are only seventeen kinds of stone tablets here. Don't you understand?"

"You, cough, cough, calm down..." Cattleya was a little breathless after being shaken by Yang Ming. She had never seen Yang Ming lose his mind like this before. "Let me go first, cough cough..."

"Listen carefully! There are only seventeen types of stone slabs here!" Yang Ming shouted loudly, his voice becoming sharp with excitement. "The last type of stone slab is called the Clearance Slab, and it possesses—"

However, before he could finish, a huge stinging sensation spread throughout Yang Ming's body. Yang Ming felt as if all the bones in his body were crushed by a hundred-ton truck, his brain was turned into a paste by countless needles, and breathing became very difficult. He seemed to be dragged into an unfathomable abyss.

The second before Yang Ming lost consciousness, he saw a sea of ​​blood in front of his eyes.

It was unknown how long it took before Yang Ming woke up from his coma. His whole body ached and he couldn't move even a finger. His brain also felt throbbing pains. If it weren't for the hard pillow, he probably wouldn't have woken up.

"You really scared me to death just now..." Cattleya sobbed softly, "I thought you wouldn't wake up..."

"Oh," Yang Ming replied, "By the way, do you remember what strange things I said before I fainted?"

"Strange words?" Cattleya lowered her head in thought. "...Oh, right, you did seem like you wanted to say something when you grabbed me just now."

"What did I say?!" Yang Ming struggled to get up.

"Don't get excited," Cattleya quickly held him down. "I just remember you opening your mouth wide, as if you wanted to tell me something important, but no sound came out, so I didn't hear anything in the end. I'm sorry to disappoint you."

"Is that so..." Yang Ming collapsed like an empty sack, losing all his energy.

"I'm sorry, Cattleya. I was too excited before. Did I hurt you?"

"No, how could that be?" Cattleya smiled and shook her head. If it were any other time, she would probably have been bickering with Yang Ming. But for some reason, Yang Ming tonight gave her a very abnormal feeling, as if he had suffered some kind of blow.

"By the way, do you know the cockroaches in the box?" Yang Ming stared at the ceiling, his voice as cold as if it came from the underworld.

"Cockroaches in the box? What are those?" Cattleya shook her head blankly.

"If we compare the entire world, or even the universe, to a giant cardboard box, then outside the box exists a creator with immense magical powers who created the world inside the box and constantly monitors everything inside."

"And we are the cockroaches living in the cardboard box." There seemed to be a mouthful of bitter water in Yang Ming's throat, making every word he said bitter.

"In this cardboard world, our vision, hearing, touch, and thinking are all influenced by the Creator. If He ever wanted to erase the formula 1+1=2, we would automatically assume that 1+1=3."

"This world is everything to us, but to it it is just a plaything. Our lives and destinies are just things it can manipulate and change at will. I'm afraid the reason it keeps observing this world is just for fun."

Cattleya nodded in confusion. Although she still didn't quite understand what Yang Ming wanted to say, she already knew what was wrong with him.

"You mean there's something wrong with Arceus's slate, but for some reason, all of our cognition has been affected by some higher-dimensional being, making us completely unaware of the problem."

"And as the person who discovered this problem, you were punished by that higher-dimensional being, which is why you are now like this, correct?"

"The boy is teachable." Yang Ming smiled.

"Tell me, what exactly is that so-called 'high-dimensional existence'? Dialga? Palkia? Or some other powerful being?" Cattleya asked hurriedly.

"Neither. To be precise, in the eyes of that higher-dimensional being, those legendary Pokémon are no different from us. They are just little ants created and raised by it." Yang Ming sighed softly.

"If our world is like a novel, that higher-dimensional being is the unsuccessful author who created it. Although he can only squat in a rented room, coding on a broken computer and a broken phone, and can only eat instant noodles every day, to us 'fictional characters', he is the supreme god who holds the power of life and death over us."

"Even those legendary Pokémon are the same. Have you ever seen a god in a novel rebel against the author?"