-131- An Allusion (Please Subscribe!)

Tong Si shuddered violently as though he had been struck by lightning.

His pupils widened, and he instinctively swung a fist backward.

He knew perfectly well that this hand did not belong to the Elekid.

“Shh…”

The man caught Tong Si’s punch and gestured for him to keep quiet.

“It’s… you!” Tong Si whispered.

“Shh…”

The man gestured for silence again.

The Elekid nearby had been ready to attack, but when it realized that Tong Si and the man seemed to know each other, it withdrew the electric energy it had gathered.

Tong Si glanced toward the upper floors. There was nothing unusual.

“How did you end up here?” Tong Si asked, puzzled, as he looked at the man before him.

The man wearing the brown hat.

“I was about to ask you the same thing. What brings you here, boy who likes admiring the view?”

The brown-hatted man wore a somewhat stern expression.

“That’s none of your business, but you certainly scared me just now,” Tong Si muttered.

“Sorry. It all happened so suddenly. I was afraid you would rush upstairs, so I had no choice but to stop you.”

“What do you mean?”

Tong Si was baffled. What was upstairs that had made the man so cautious?

“Come with me. This isn’t the place to talk.”

With that, the brown-hatted man walked straight toward the candle on the left.

Tong Si hesitated for a moment before deciding to follow him.

There was still no movement above them, but the sound of birdsong seemed to be growing louder and louder.

When they reached the candle on the left, the brown-hatted man shifted it slightly. The wall suddenly began to rotate.

And despite the fact that such a massive section of wall was turning, it made not a sound.

A hidden door!

Tong Si’s pupils contracted as he suddenly realized that things were far more complicated than he had thought.

“Get in!”

The brown-hatted man tugged Tong Si inside, as though afraid someone might see them.

Once inside the secret chamber, Tong Si discovered that there were only two candles.

Apart from those, there was nothing at all.

“There’s actually a secret room here? How did you know about it?” Tong Si asked curiously.

“Huff… Let me introduce myself first, boy who likes admiring the view. My name is Bai Chen. I’m a two-star professional trainer affiliated with the Linhu City Pokémon Association.”

As he spoke, Bai Chen took out his identification card.

It clearly stated that he was a professional trainer. Above those words were two stars, signifying his two-star rank.

“What?”

Tong Si took an astonished step backward.

He had never imagined that this brown-hatted man was actually a two-star professional trainer.

When they had met in the café, Tong Si had merely thought that he seemed unusual. He had not expected him to be so formidable.

When Tong Si looked at Bai Chen again, his gaze had subtly changed.

“And you? Boy who likes admiring the view, why have you come here?”

Seeing Tong Si’s shocked expression, Bai Chen could not help smiling.

“My name is Tong Si, and I’m from Jiahua City. I originally came to Linhu City as a tourist, but then I encountered a huge flock of Murkrow and decided to investigate.”

Tong Si spoke softly.

He did not conceal anything from Bai Chen. Since the man had openly revealed his identity and shown such sincerity, hiding things in return would have seemed rather dishonorable.

“Oh? A rookie trainer?” Bai Chen asked.

Tong Si nodded.

“Then you really are bold. The Seven Crow Tower is hardly a place that a rookie trainer like you should be breaking into.”

Bai Chen frowned. He did not rebuke Tong Si; he simply felt that Tong Si should not have come here.

“This Seven Crow Tower… It’s dangerous and mysterious, isn’t it?”

Tong Si cast Bai Chen a sidelong glance, trying to draw out more information.

Bai Chen said nothing. After pondering for a moment, he slowly replied, “Yes. The Seven Crow Tower is far from ordinary. There seems to be an extremely powerful Ghost-type Pokémon living inside.”

“A Ghost-type Pokémon?”

This time, it was Tong Si’s turn to be confused. He had assumed that the Seven Crow Tower was merely the nesting ground of the flock of Murkrow disturbing the city’s residents. But after hearing Bai Chen’s words, he knitted his brows.

“You should probably go back the way you came. The Seven Crow Tower isn’t a place for a rookie trainer. It’s dangerous.”

Bai Chen tried to dissuade him.

Tong Si hesitated. Only after hearing Bai Chen say this did he realize that the Seven Crow Tower seemed rather different from what he had imagined.

Yet if he retreated now, he could not help feeling unwilling.

He had already climbed all the way to the sixth floor.

Above lay the seventh floor—or perhaps even an eighth.

The sound of a wooden fish, the voice of an old man, and the cries of birds…

Curiosity had killed many a cat, and Tong Si did not want to leave just like this.

“I want to keep going upward.”

His tone was firm.

“Well, aren’t you fearless?” Bai Chen said with a calm smile.

The moment Bai Chen had first seen Tong Si in the café, he had realized that Tong Si was no ordinary rookie trainer.

Otherwise, why would he have sat in a café and stared at the Seven Crow Tower for an entire afternoon?

Would an ordinary person really be that bored?

Unless he desperately wanted to enter the Seven Crow Tower.

“You’ll never gain the tiger’s cub without entering the tiger’s lair. Bai Chen… or should I call you Uncle Bai?”

At the word “uncle,” an anger mark characteristic of Primeape appeared on Bai Chen’s forehead.

“I’m only twenty-six, and you’re calling me uncle? Call me Brother Chen!”

Bai Chen seemed to care a great deal about how people addressed him.

Tong Si scrutinized Bai Chen once more. He did indeed look quite young, but he had never expected him to be only twenty-six.

A twenty-six-year-old two-star professional trainer.

That was enough to show that Bai Chen had been a prodigy even in his youth…

Well, he was still quite young now.

He must have been a genius trainer back then, too, right?

“Brother Chen, can you tell me about the history of the Seven Crow Tower? Including this secret chamber. Since you were able to find your way inside, you must know the tower extremely well.”

Tong Si spoke with utmost seriousness.

Seeing that Tong Si had no intention of leaving and instead wanted to continue upward, Bai Chen could only sigh.

“The Seven Crow Tower… was actually built to suppress a demon.”

“A demon?”

Tong Si frowned, wondering how even Bai Chen could believe in demons.

Come on, it was the twenty-first century already. Who still believed in demons?

It was nothing more than a Ghost-type Pokémon. He should stop believing rumors and spreading them around.

“A demon. Or, more precisely, an undead spirit.”

Bai Chen changed his wording.

Tong Si remained perplexed. How could an undead spirit have anything to do with a demon?

“Three hundred years ago, a gigantic Pokémon appeared in Linhu City. It had a violent temperament and wrought widespread destruction throughout the city. Every high-level trainer present in Linhu City at the time joined forces to confront it, but they were all defeated by that enormous Pokémon. The people of that era called it the Demon.”

“When everyone in Linhu City believed they had reached the end of the road and that their homes were doomed to destruction, the Old Man of the Black Crow appeared. Bringing his Honchkrow with him, he engaged the Demon in a fierce battle.”

At this point, Bai Chen closed his eyes.

“Honchkrow?”

Tong Si suddenly thought of the Pokémon depicted in the murals outside.

…To be continued.