"So, this ceremony also marks the weakest point of the spatial energy surrounding this special stone? The Alliance will send people in immediately after this event concludes?" Aoki asked.
"That's right. According to the plan, that's exactly how it should be. And given the current situation, you're definitely on the list for the Hoenn region," Lance nodded and said.
Upon hearing this, Aoki finally understood why Silver initially said he was ordered to stop him from attending the ceremony—he didn't want him to enter that strange space, which might offer a chance for rapid advancement.
"Why do I feel like this mysterious continent is very similar to a certain legend?" Aoki muttered to himself.
"What?" Lance didn't hear Aoki clearly.
"Nothing. I wanted to ask why our President didn't tell me about this when he sent me here." Aoki was a bit confused by this.
Given Adams's position, he must have known about this matter very clearly, yet he didn't tell him directly. Instead, he let Aoki find out the relevant information from Lance.
Lance didn't seem particularly surprised by this. "Perhaps he didn't want to tell you in advance, wanting to give you a surprise, or perhaps it's due to the Alliance's confidentiality agreement. Until the time is right, no one can disclose this matter to others. After all, even if it's once every five years, quite a few people know this secret.
So, before entering, everyone is required to sign a confidentiality agreement."
"Then is it okay for you to tell me directly like this?" Aoki asked.
Upon hearing this, Lance shrugged. "I haven't been in yet, so I haven't signed a confidentiality agreement. The President told us about this when assigning our tasks to ensure the mission proceeded smoothly. Elite Four Agatha and Elite Four Bruno have both been inside, and I and Elite Four Lorelei are definitely eligible for a spot, so knowing about it is fine.
Anyway, you're definitely eligible for a spot too. You'll absolutely be going in, so telling you in advance doesn't matter."
Although it sounded a bit far-fetched, Aoki thought this might be the only explanation.
However, since the Divine Cult chose to send people to stop him at this time, it indicates they also know about this matter. And the Divine Cult choosing to emerge during this period is very likely for this place.
The Divine Cult has been around for so long, and even the few grunts that have appeared possess strong psychic abilities. So, as their leaders, there must be even more powerful psychic users among them. Perhaps there are even powerful individuals who are very sensitive to spatial abilities and can pinpoint the location of that stone during this time.
The place that the Alliance considers a goldmine must also have, to a certain extent, guessed what the Divine Cult intends to do.
It's best to find out any moles or bribed individuals the Divine Cult has planted before entering. As long as there are no inside informants, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack for the Divine Cult to find this place.
In that case, Adams's secrecy this time can be understood to a certain extent.
After a brief chat, Aoki and Lance continued walking into the Alliance building. After all, Lance, as one of the hosts, was very busy.
Aoki, who had found a room to rest, sat on the sofa and fell into deep thought again.
"So that's where it is!" Aoki's eyes suddenly lit up, revealing a look of realization.
More than a year ago, because he had to participate in the Sinnoh League, he traveled to the Sinnoh region. With Cynthia's help, Aoki learned about the secret guarded by Cynthia's family, the legend of the Gods of Time and Space, Dialga and Palkia.
Legend has it that these two legendary Pokémon were born in an unknown space far from the Pokémon world, along with Giratina, the Renegade Pokémon. These three Pokémon slumbered in egg form and were eventually awakened by Arceus, the Alpha Pokémon, because Arceus wanted to use Dialga and Palkia's powers of time and space to perfect the Pokémon world.
However, Dialga and Palkia were naturally at odds, their energies clashing. To merge their energies, Arceus commanded them to jointly create a mysterious continent floating in space, whose location has never been discovered by anyone until now.
But now it seems that this mysterious continent, which combines powerful spatial and temporal forces, was not undiscovered. Rather, it has already been discovered, but people just don't know that this is the legendary continent, or perhaps only a small number of people who know about the Sinnoh legends are aware.
Then, this place, which appears to be the size of a stone but is actually a continent, and where the flow of time is five times faster than that of the Pokémon world, can now be explained.
With Dialga and Palkia's abilities, they are capable of such a feat, as they have represented time and space since the moment of their birth.
"It seems this special place is really worth a visit. Not to mention the significant improvement five months can bring, just considering this continent, how many rare treasures grow there—that's a fortune almost astronomical." The light in Aoki's eyes grew more and more pronounced.
Its time of birth is impossible to ascertain; it can be said to be longer than the existence of humans. Due to the special environment, there aren't many external creatures entering, and with a five-fold time flow, how many years old would the materials growing there be?
In the Pokémon world, some older and more precious materials are simply sky-high in price. How much would there be on that continent?
A poor person could go in, pick a few things, and become a millionaire, right?
However, conversely, since the materials can have a longer lifespan, the Pokémon living there will definitely possess stronger abilities.
After all, their living environment, apart from natural predators, would not suffer much interference or impact.
This is simply a place even more primitive and dangerous than the interior of Mt. Silver.
The danger of the surrounding environment means that people could die at any moment. In fact, to some extent, after entering, wild Pokémon may not necessarily be the most dangerous or terrifying existence. People with malicious intentions inside might be the most terrifying, as no rules would constrain their behavior.
Facts prove this is very possible, as a portion of those who enter each time do not return. The current overall survival rate is seventy percent.
High rewards mean high danger, so some more conservative regions do not send their most excellent individuals. Instead, they send a group of relatively weaker individuals to try their luck. The loss wouldn't be too painful, and if they survive and gain benefits, they might truly rise meteorically.
Many people would still be willing to gamble, after all, some people, if they only develop steadily, will absolutely never catch up to geniuses.