Remote Login?

Remote Login?

The warm breeze stirred the dark velvet clouds, while fine rain drifted softly down from the eaves.

Small puddles had formed in the narrow alley, reflecting the gray-white night sky.

A cloud of rising steam drifted from a small window with a sizzling sound, adding a hint of life and warmth to the chilly night.

Jing He lived in an old apartment building not far from the school, only a little over ten minutes away on foot.

After returning home and taking a short rest, he made himself a simple but fairly tasty dinner.

The slightly worn sofa was soft and clean, more than enough for someone to lazily sink into.

Wrapped in a blanket, he pulled over his old secondhand laptop and began browsing the web.

Although Jing He was a veteran Pokémon enthusiast and knew Pokémon inside and out, he knew very little about the Pokémon World itself.

For instance, the modern Poké Ball had been invented in 1925 of the League Calendar by Professor Nishino Mori of Celadon University.

A thousand years ago, a massive meteorite had struck the Hoenn Region, eventually forming present-day Sootopolis City. That had also been the first time humans in the Hoenn Region had seen the legendary Super Ancient Legendary Pokémon, Rayquaza! Moving closer to the present...

A few years ago, New Mauville Holdings went bankrupt after the New Mauville Project was terminated, and Sea Mauville was shut down as a result. At the same time, Wattson, the head of the New Mauville Project, stepped down from his position as one of the Elite Four and became the Gym Leader of Mauville City.

"New Mauville Holdings? I remember Dr. Solanus's father, Solanas Raizo, seemed to have been part of that company too, right?"

Besides that, he also learned quite a bit about the League's current policies for Trainers.

For example, how to become a registered League Trainer, what benefits one could receive, and what responsibilities one needed to bear.

Afterward, he looked into the benefits of being a researcher, as well as the treatment afforded to researchers and even professors with independent research institutes.

In summary...

The benefits for ordinary researchers were similar to those for ordinary Trainers, but researchers with independent institutes and professors were far beyond what typical Trainers could compare to.

"It really is a little cold today."

Halfway through browsing, Jing He began to feel that the day was unusually cold.

He burrowed deeper into the blanket.

At the same time, a wave of drowsiness suddenly swept over him.

After letting out a long yawn, he set the laptop on the nearby table and fell asleep without even making it back to bed.

Once he fell asleep, the atmosphere in the room abruptly turned strange.

The ceiling light flickered on and off with a buzzing sound. Though there was no wind, the curtains by the window and the greenery in the potted plant began to sway.

Bang! The light suddenly went out.

All movement seemed to return to silence.

"Koujie..."

Then an abrupt voice echoed through the small room, sounding distant and ethereal.

Immediately after...

Countless black threads gathered from every direction, eventually converging into a black sphere that looked like both gas and mist.

It had a pair of bulging white eyes, most of each eye filled with white, as well as a wide, grinning mouth with two sharp fangs clearly visible. A faintly sweet fragrance accompanied it.

Staring sinisterly at the sleeping Jing He on the sofa, it let out a strange laugh.

If Jing He had been awake, he would definitely have recognized this strange creature as a Ghost-type Pokémon—Gastly!

Buzz—

A red glow appeared in Gastly's eyes. A peculiar energy suddenly surged from its body and spread toward the sleeping Jing He.

Jing He, whose sleeping face had been peaceful, slowly furrowed his brows.

"This is... a dream?"

For some reason, Jing He's intuition told him this was a dream.

The dim, oppressive sky, the dark clouds seemingly only a few meters above his head, the dilapidated low houses that clearly did not belong to this era, the overgrown weeds and haphazard piles of stones everywhere.

Yet what made Jing He's scalp tingle the most was the endless plain before those houses, covered with earthen mounds half a person's height.

Graves.

Jing He finally understood what it meant for "burial grounds to scatter like stars and tombs and mausoleums to stretch like endless mountain ranges."

Woooo—

Suddenly.

A low, lingering sound drifted through the air from an unknown distance, accompanied by a chilling gust of cold wind.

He could not help shivering.

It was his first time having a dream that felt so real.

Pfft!

Suddenly!

A mound not far in front of Jing He burst open, and a pallid hand shot out from within.

Then...

As if that sound had triggered some sort of mechanism, mound after mound began to loosen. Hands, wooden branches, and even heads broke through the earth one after another.

They were all Ghost-type Pokémon! Duskull, Banette, Cofagrigus, Haunter, Sableye... Combined with the surroundings and atmosphere, the scene would have been enough to scare anyone senseless.

"Koujie—"

In the corner, behind a bare dead tree, Gastly watched Jing He stand there motionless with a blank expression and laughed smugly.

This little trick of its had scared Solanus so badly that he had not dared sleep for days.

Jing He had fallen asleep without Gastly using any skills, moves, or even energy, and that had piqued its intense interest.

Gastly stuck out its long tongue, coated in scarlet slime, and licked its lips. It smacked its mouth twice in anticipation.

This person's dreams—and the fear within them—should taste quite good, right? Yet the next moment, Gastly froze.

Because it discovered that although Jing He still wore a blank expression, the fear in his eyes had lasted only briefly before being replaced by contemplation.

"So many Ghost-type Pokémon."

Honestly...

Jing He had indeed been startled at first.

The Ghost-type Pokémon he saw in games often included some that looked rather decent, even cute. But encountering them in person was an entirely different matter.

The bone-deep chill that seemed to rush straight at him made every hair on his body stand on end.

But after the initial panic, he quickly calmed down.

On one hand, he could sense that this was a dream.

Since it was a dream, what was there to fear?

On the other hand, after seeing so many Ghost-type Pokémon, a thought had instinctively surfaced in his mind.

"...Why isn't there a Giratina?"

Giratina?

"Koujie?"

Gastly heard Jing He's mutter and stared blankly.

Its head shook furiously like a rattle drum.

An illusion. Yes, it had to be an illusion.

Gastly decided that those Ghost-type Pokémon simply did not look vicious or terrifying enough.

"Koujie."

Looks like it had to take action itself.

It licked its lips, took a deep breath, and its body visibly began to swell.

Meanwhile, Jing He looked at those "terrifying" Ghost-type Pokémon and lightly rubbed his chin.

"Is this really a dream? It feels so real..."

Everything before him, even the sensations coming through his five senses—smell, touch, and hearing—felt so real.

"Since it's a dream, then... let's test it."

Jing He began to recall something in his mind.

At the same time...

Within the dim, heavy black clouds, a silhouette slowly took shape.

It was enormous, dragon-like in appearance, grayish white all over. A golden half-ring extended from its back around its neck. It had two large ghostly wings, red claw-like structures at their tips, and six thick legs ending in claws...

"Koujie!"

Brimming with confidence, Gastly floated toward Jing He while swinging its long tongue and releasing a low growl.

But...

The moment it reached Jing He, it abruptly looked up.

The next second...

Its expression froze.

"K-Koujie... jie..."

"Gastly?" Jing He finally noticed Gastly's presence. Following its gaze, he looked up.

There, an enormous creature stood proudly amid the clouds.

"Giratina?"

Jing He paused.

He really could create it?

So it really was a dream.

Roooar—!!

A long roar swept down like a hurricane.

The Ghost-type Pokémon around them dispersed like bubbles in the wind. Even the enormous Gastly rapidly shrank beneath that roar, as though the black gas around its body had been blown away.

KOUJIE!!

Gastly jolted violently.

Crack—

Suddenly.

A massive crack appeared in the scene before Jing He, as if a mirror had fractured.

Then the crack spread like a spiderweb.

Until it shattered completely.

In a distant world.

A huge dragon-like Pokémon that had been intently lying against a pane of glass, secretly peeking at something, suddenly raised its head.

"Roar?"

It blinked its fierce crimson eyes, looking puzzled.

Remote login?

It closed its eyes and carefully sensed for a while. Finding that it seemed to have been an illusion, it shook its head.

Then it returned to peeking through the glass—cough, monitoring.

"Mmh..."

On the sofa.

The sleeping Jing He slowly woke up. Rubbing his temples, he felt a little groggy.

As his vision gradually cleared...

He discovered Gastly floating not far away, its expression blank and its eyes filled with terror.

"Gastly?"

Perhaps because it heard his voice, Gastly gradually came back to its senses as well.

Human and Ghost stared at each other from less than a meter apart.

A few seconds later...

KOUJIE!!!

Gastly shrieked like a cat with its fur standing on end.

Its body rapidly retreated, as though Jing He were the terrifying ghost instead.