Chapter 2: The Difficulty
All the items on his person were gone, his surroundings were completely unfamiliar, and his companions of many years, his Pokémon, were nowhere to be found.
This sudden shock was rather overwhelming, so much so that Arthur's mind was temporarily blank.
It wasn't until the girl in front of him called out to him several times that his thoughts returned.
"Kid? Kid? Are you alright? Do you want me to find you some clothes?"
Arthur stared blankly at the girl, who looked to be in her early twenties.
"What did you just call me?"
"Uh?" The girl also looked a bit stunned. "I called you... kid, because I don't know your name."
"I—"
Arthur had just started to speak when he suddenly stopped.
Because he realized something was very wrong.
His voice—why did it seem to have changed?
This caused him to suddenly have a shocking guess.
He quickly raised his head and asked the kind girl in front of him, "Um, can I have a mirror?"
"Oh, sure." The girl obediently found a compact mirror from her purse and handed it to him.
Seeing his own face in the mirror, Arthur was stunned.
It was a feeling of absurd disbelief, yet also not entirely unexpected...
The handsome, delicate face in the mirror, untouched by time, was one he hadn't seen in many years.
It was his appearance from around fifteen or sixteen years old.
He touched his face in a daze.
In the mirror, the young man had rosy lips and white teeth, with delicate features, and a touch of gentle scholarly air when he pursed his lips.
He remembered that many people used to tease him, saying he looked like a young study companion raised in an ancient wealthy household, and the kind that would easily tempt a lonely mistress to do wicked things...
Of course, as his strength as a trainer grew rapidly and he made a name for himself on various battlefields, few dared to tease him like that to his face.
Later, he followed the army, fighting in all directions, rising to become a Heavenly King. Over the past decade, he had experienced countless battles, large and small, and his once tender and handsome face had been worn into that of a weathered middle-aged man.
He just never expected that today, he would return to his former delicate and handsome youth.
"Could all this... be related to time?"
As a Heavenly King, Arthur's knowledge was vast, and before he borrowed the mirror, he had already vaguely guessed the truth.
There were indeed Pokémon among the mythical beasts with abilities related to time, such as Dialga, the Temporal Pokémon.
He then looked up and asked the girl in front of him, "May I ask what the date is today?"
"Date? September 13th."
"And the year?"
"Huh?"
The girl was stunned for a moment, but seeing Arthur's serious expression, she replied, "Alliance Calendar Year 252."
As he thought!
At that moment, a wave of long-lasting emotions swept through Arthur's heart.
His guess was confirmed.
In his memory, yesterday was clearly Alliance Calendar Year 52.
If he hadn't come to another world, then there was only one truth—he had experienced time travel and jumped two hundred years into the future.
In the blink of an eye, the world had changed beyond recognition.
There were still too many unanswered questions in his mind, but Arthur quickly realized that this was not a good time to think.
"Um... could you please find me some clothes? And please, don't worry, I'm not a pervert, really."
He said sincerely, his big, watery eyes full of innocence.
The girl nodded earnestly, indicating her complete trust.
Then, she led Arthur to the nearby police station...
After being taken into a small room in the police station and seated at a small square table, seeing the two uniformed police officers smiling kindly at him, Arthur could only silently mutter to himself—
"Damn..."
"Little friend, what difficulties are you facing? Are you lost, or separated from your family? It's alright, tell us, we'll help you."
They spoke very kindly, their tone gentle.
Thanks to his current handsome, adorable appearance, neither the kind passerby nor the police really thought of him as a pervert. They just assumed he was in trouble and needed help.
But what Arthur needed now was not this kind of kindness; he wanted to find a library or a newsstand as soon as possible.
He needed to understand what had happened in the two hundred years he had missed and what the current era was like.
In his time, the internet didn't exist yet, or he would have asked directly for a computer with internet access.
As for concern, he didn't need it.
In fact, it was a headache.
Because he had only just arrived in this era and knew nothing about it, he didn't even know how to make up an excuse.
Seeing that he didn't speak for a long time, the two police officers seemed to be getting a little anxious.
Because the woman who brought Arthur mentioned that he was naked when she found him and seemed disoriented.
They were worried that this might involve human trafficking or similar incidents, so they were particularly concerned about Arthur's situation.
"Little friend, do you remember where you live? What are your family members' names? Do you remember their contact information? Don't be afraid, you're safe here, it's okay to tell us."
But they didn't know that the more concerned they were, the more of a headache Arthur had.
His family's contact information? He did remember their communication address, but if he contacted them, it would be a horror story, wouldn't it?
"Um, I'm actually an orphan, my parents are gone."
He tried to make up a lie.
The two police officers exchanged a glance—
Neither of them believed him.
"It's alright, little friend, you're safe here, you don't need to be afraid, you know? It's okay to tell us."
"..."
Arthur felt increasingly helpless.
Just then, another officer walked in, looking a little unusual.
He quickly went to one of the officers in the room and whispered, "Captain, something's not right. We just did facial recognition on this kid, and there are no matching results in the database. His fingerprints don't match either; we can't find his identity."
Perhaps it was because his senses were enhanced after regaining his youth, but Arthur heard every word clearly.
Although he didn't understand the technical terms like facial recognition and fingerprint matching, he understood the conclusion—
They were verifying his identity and couldn't find any results.
This made his headache even worse.
He didn't expect that two hundred years later, identity verification would be so widespread.
In his era, identity verification was rarely encountered in daily life, except when entering or leaving certain alliance secret areas.
Frankly, in those days, an illegal immigrant could live on the coast for a lifetime without being discovered.
His knowledge of the current era was too limited—he didn't know if this situation was common, if this kind of verification was normal, or what the consequences would be if he couldn't clarify his identity.
Less than an hour after time traveling, a Heavenly King who had never been surrounded by mythical beasts or engaged in fierce battles was stumped by such a simple real-world problem...