[After watching this stream for so long, I still have to say—Feng is insane.]
[No kidding. Dude's got guts.]
[Risking his life for an Egg? Who else would do that?]
[I pissed my pants when he jumped into the avalanche.]
[Feng trusts Combusken and Haunter with his life. That's the only reason we're not watching a tragedy.]
[Was it really worth it, though? Just for an Egg?]
As he descended the chasm's narrow path, Su Feng cradled the rescued Egg like a certain Poké Ball-toting trainer from Johto. To lighten the mood, he pulled out his phone and addressed the chat.
"Worth it? To me, absolutely."
"This Egg is healthy. If it'd been caught in that avalanche, it wouldn't have stood a chance."
The landmark dead tree had snapped like a twig—he'd heard it.
"Letting an unborn life vanish like that? Not my style."
He chuckled, patting the Egg. "As for why… Hell if I know. I just acted."
Haunter and Combusken exchanged exasperated glances. Their trainer was reckless, but that passion was why they followed him.
The descent dragged on. After 30 minutes, the air grew bitingly cold. Su Feng flicked on his headlamp—advertised as "150,000 lumens"—and cranked it to max.
Light exploded through the chasm, revealing the bottom just a few hundred meters below.
"Holy—" Su Feng gaped. "This is 150K lumens? It's like a damn Solar Flare!"
[MY EYES!]
[I BELIEVE IN THE LIGHT, NOW TURN IT OFF!]
[RIP my retinas.]
[Roommate asked if I was watching a flashbang compilation.]
The mood lightened, but the cold deepened. At the chasm's base, debris from the avalanche piled high—including the shattered dead tree. Su Feng's grip on the Egg tightened. No regrets.
Oddly, no Cryogonal were in sight. Yet he'd seen them descend here.
Pressing forward, he squeezed through a narrow passage—and froze.
"A… factory?"
Rust-eaten rail tracks crisscrossed overhead. Massive, ice-encased machinery loomed like skeletal trees. At the center stood a colosseum-like steel structure, its yawning gates exhaling a frigid, ominous breath.
[How's there a factory here?]
[Looks like a mining operation. But who'd build this in the middle of nowhere?]
[Those rails haven't been used in decades.]
Su Feng's instincts prickled. Something was watching him.
"Stay sharp," he whispered to his team.
Inside, the factory's scale dwarfed them. Broken catwalks and gaping floor holes turned navigation into a minefield. As they passed through a derelict doorway, a dozen Cryogonal materialized, swirling above them in a silent, icy dance.
Combusken tensed to attack, but Su Feng held up a hand. "Wait. They're not hostile."
The Cryogonal merely orbited, their frost dusting his shoulders.
Abandoning stealth, Su Feng sprinted toward the central structure's entrance. Whatever secrets this place held, they lay beyond those doors.