Chapter 391

Xiao Zhi and his group have a trouble-prone nature.

Something or other always happens wherever they go.

Although Baimu has recently been trending in this direction, he still falls far short of Xiao Zhi's group.

Even though Iris has already left the team, her buffs seem to have yet to fade, causing her to lose her Pokémon due to failing to avoid a sandstorm and then becoming trapped inside the Phantom Tower.

Strangely enough.

She can still maintain contact with the outside world!

"The Lava Team's infrastructure is terrifying!" Baimu muttered under his breath.

According to what he knew, most of the signal base stations in Hoenn were installed by the Lava Team; to prevent them from being chewed up or ruined by wild Pokémon, they were forced to disguise themselves as all sorts of bizarre shapes.

On the other end of the phone, Iris said: "Before I find the exit, could you please look after Pachirisu for me? I beg you!"

"No, I'll still try to come find you."

Baimu glanced at the location displayed by the Polywhirl on his phone—it did not overlap with the area previously ravaged by the sandstorm.

As long as there's a signal, you can locate it.

Even if Iris is currently inside some other dimension, the connection point between that dimension and reality must be exactly where the location points.

"First, find the exit—I might find the entrance from outside."

He said this.

Upon hearing this, Iris didn't ask further and agreed immediately; however, just before hanging up, a deep, muffled roar came from her end, followed by a high-pitched roar.

Are there wild Pokémon inside the Phantom Tower in the anime setting?

Baimu grew increasingly interested.

If someone else were trapped inside, he might truly hesitate to get involved—but Iris is destined to become the Unova Champion; unless his interference alters her future, she'll likely be perfectly safe.

Besides, he has the Lucky Scale!

He might not believe in anything else, but he firmly believed in the Lucky Scale's effect.

Provided he doesn't encounter another sandstorm—Pachirisu and Iris had been separated for some time, and after the sandstorm subsided, another one might come again.

"Let's get moving."

He reminded Pachirisu, who lay on a soft cushion stroking its round belly, thanked the Happiny watching over it, and retracted it into its Poké Ball.

"Aimoh!"

Pachirisu, as usual, wanted to return to its Poké Ball to slack off after eating—but after waiting a long time with no response, it realized its Poké Ball was still beside its trainer, and looked at Baimu with pitiful, pleading eyes.

"I know you can't walk."

He picked it up and placed it in a shady spot outside, then silently began packing up the tent.

Bastiodon, lounging comfortably in the shade, turned its head toward Pachirisu, which sat beside it in a row—said nothing, yet still caused the latter to sweat nervously down its head, clearly terrified by Bastiodon's massive size and fearsome appearance.

But soon Pachirisu realized Bastiodon wasn't as volatile as the fat one it knew—its appearance was fierce, yet it was calm and steady, never even roaring.

Emboldened, it tried to inch closer—

No reaction.

A little closer—

Still no reaction.

Pachirisu gathered courage and climbed onto Bastiodon's body—but as soon as it got a little way up, it caught sight of a pair of pale blue eyes staring back; instantly, it averted its gaze, feeling guilty.

To its delight, even at this point, Bastiodon still made no move to attack or scare it; fully reassured, Pachirisu climbed onto Bastiodon's shoulder.

That's right.

That's exactly why it went through all this trouble!

Even slacking off requires a good spot.

"Aimoh!" Pachirisu lay down contentedly on its side—Bastiodon's broad shoulder allowed it to assume all sorts of poses.

When Baimu finished packing the tent and turned his head, the first thing he saw was this thing sound asleep.

"Eats and sleeps… this guy probably has a lot in common with Solrock."

He exchanged a glance with Bastiodon; both thought of the lazybones in their team—this guy was even worse.

But Pachirisu probably wouldn't sleep for long.

Because—

"Aimoh? Aimoh!"

Feeling its butt nearly cooked, Pachirisu leapt up suddenly—the sun had caused Bastiodon's body surface temperature to rise sharply; its fleshy body couldn't possibly match steel-and-bone.

"Hahaha."

Baimu laughed as he picked it up and tucked it into his UV-protective cloak, "Stay put inside."

"Aimoh…"

Pachirisu was annoyed by its awkward posture, but under the circumstances, it had no choice.

Not long after.

Following the Polywhirl's location, Baimu stopped atop Gao Po, gazing down at the endless, empty expanse of yellow sand ahead—the Phantom Tower lived up to its name, showing absolutely no sign of appearing.

What were the conditions for the Phantom Tower to appear in the game?

It seemed there were no conditions—in Emerald, it appeared automatically upon entering the desert and vanished automatically upon leaving; once you reached the top and took the fossil, it disappeared completely.

In the anime, the Phantom Tower never appeared at all.

Could it only appear during a sandstorm? If so, that would be simple enough.

Baimu walked slowly toward the location, but halted just before reaching it, raised his hand, and flicked it—Bastiodon understood at once and slammed its claw into the sand.

Boom!

With a series of rumbling crashes, a line of glowing blue Shi Zhu rose from the ground, stretching forward to the exact location of the signal—and then exploded violently.

Unfortunately, there was still no anomaly around.

Bonsly sprayed fire again toward that direction, confirmed everything was still fine, then allowed Baimu to proceed forward.

He called Alice, the call connected but went unanswered, and he heard no ringtone from anywhere around.

"I guess I'll have to try a sandstorm."

Baimu hung up the phone, stepped back, and summoned a Steelix from Huang Tie Town to till the soil; since Bonsly couldn't use Sandstorm, he had to trouble it to make the trip.

"Roar~"

Without a word, Steelix got to work—its horizontal steel bones spun wildly like blades in a mixer, and the gravel across the ground surged upward as if guided by some unseen force, instantly transforming into a sky-obscuring sandstorm that engulfed the entire surrounding space.

Pachirisu, hiding beneath the cloak, peeked out cautiously; seeing the sandstorm, it immediately pulled back and clutched the fabric tightly.

Meanwhile, Baimu put on his goggles and fixed his gaze on the direction indicated by his phone's GPS.

Suddenly—

Light and shadow twisted and warped.

Before them stood a towering, earth-colored stone tower, its colossal form rising impossibly high, appearing both majestic and terrifying within the sandstorm, radiating an aura of mystery and antiquity.

Especially when the sandstorm stirred up howling winds, a chilling scream seemed to echo from within.

Hm?

Had the scream become clearer?

Baimu froze for a moment, then saw a dark shadow shoot out from the entrance of the Phantom Tower at incredible speed.

As it drew nearer, he realized it was a black-haired girl, her body trembling like a flag lifted off the ground, dragging a blue object rising abruptly from the earth; the blue object surged forward at high speed, causing the girl to be lifted into the air by the gale.

The scream came from that girl.

At the same time, they were charging straight toward this direction.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

"Make them stop."

Baimu stepped back; Steelix and Bonsly exchanged glances to decide who would act.

Steelix halted its spinning steel bones, then suddenly whipped its tail like a whip—*boom*—it plunged into the sand, forming a wall of bronze and iron that blocked their path.

*Crash! *

A sharp, resonant boom.

A small Pokémon, resembling both a shark and a dinosaur, crawled out from underground, dazed and staggering in place; the black-haired girl tumbled to the ground, covered in dust, and wiped sand from her face with her hands.

"Pfft! I told you not to run so fast!"

Alice stood up, scolding Shelgon while bowing her head to apologize to Baimu, "Sorry, sorry!"

Pachirisu, hearing her voice beneath the cloak, excitedly crawled out and lunged toward her.

Unfortunately, its wings still couldn't open; it flapped forward less than a meter before tumbling down—luckily, Baimu reached out and caught it, gently passing it along.

"Aimo!"

Pachirisu, back beside its trainer, was wildly excited.

"Ah! Pachirisu!"

Alice hugged it tightly, "I was so worried! Where on earth did you go?"

"Aimo~"

Pachirisu rubbed its face against the trainer's, unusually affectionate—even more so than in the anime, perhaps because it had finally reunited with its trainer.

After a long moment of mutual comfort, Alice looked up and saw Baimu, Bonsly, and the colossal Steelix not far away.

"Amazing! I've never seen a Steelix this big before!"

She gazed upward in awe, then added, "Sorry, thank you for taking care of Pachirisu for so long—it's been a bother to you."

"No trouble at all."

He gave a slight nod, but his gaze lingered on the Phantom Tower behind her, now vanishing as the sandstorm subsided. "What did you encounter inside?"

"Inside there?"

Alice turned and saw the Phantom Tower had completely disappeared; she suddenly shrieked, "Ah! My luggage is still inside! My lunch—and the food for Shelgon and the others!"

"You can just summon it back with another sandstorm later—this tower only appears during sandstorms," Baimu explained.

Alice suddenly understood. "No wonder I couldn't find the entrance before—then it suddenly appeared just now!"

"Yes. So, what did the inside of the Phantom Tower look like? And what did you encounter?" he asked again.

Grr—

Alice's stomach answered first.

The two exchanged glances; the future Champion of Unova's face flushed visibly red, and she turned away with an embarrassed grin.

It seemed that despite being heavily influenced by Ash, Alice still wasn't as shameless as he was.

"... If you don't mind, let's eat together. We can talk while we eat."

Baimu sighed.

Alice wanted to refuse—she wasn't the type to trust people easily—but then she remembered Pachirisu had been cared for by him, and that he had come to rescue her; she chuckled sheepishly, "Thank you—I'll gladly accept with gratitude."

—

On the shaded side of a massive dune.

Baimu generously shared his food, while Alice and her Pokémon devoured it ravenously.

As expected, the Pidove that had once hidden in Alice's hair had evolved into Axew, and in the future, it would become her Champion-tier Pokémon, Haxorus.

In addition, there was the most temperamental Dragonite ever, the stubborn Drilbur—no, Excadrill—that refused to speak to Alice for dozens of episodes, and Shelgon, captured in Nacrene City.

No wonder it chased after Sandile—it's only five Pokémon!

"Aren't your Pokémon eating?"

Alice's voice cut off his thoughts.

"I've already eaten, after all it's already one in the afternoon."

Baimu replied, "You still haven't told me what you actually ran into inside the Phantom Tower."

"What I ran into…"

At this, Alice's expression turned a bit strange. "If I said stone monsters carved into Pokémon shapes, would you believe me?"

"If you're serious, I'll believe it."

He nodded blandly.

The anime world is special precisely because it has so many extraordinary things — for instance, a black dumbbell that can transform into a giant Gengar, a bell that can transform into a giant Jigglypuff, a stone Poké Ball that can capture a giant Hypno, and even evil souls capable of body-snatching others, and so on.

The many prosperous ancient civilizations created by the writers also caused the anime world to be overrun with all manner of demons.

Alice was a little surprised by Baimu's response, but she went on, "Inside the tower there are four floors in total, and every floor has a lot of traps — step on one and either you fall down or Pokémon stone statues appear and attack. Once those statues are destroyed they regenerate, it's really annoying."

"Self-regenerating Pokémon stone statues…"

He thought to himself that the Phantom Tower, a special location in the game purely meant to give people fossils, seemed to have become some kind of special relic of an ancient civilization in the anime as well.

"But I found two well-preserved fossils on the very top floor! I put them in my bag! If I can get the bag out later, I'll give you one!"

Alice said so.

"There's no need for that…"

"Yes there is! You saved me and Emolga! It's only right!" Alice was quite decisive on this point, and then asked, "Speaking of which, how did you know my phone number?"

"I learned about your situation through Emolga's description of you, then had Takeshi tell me."

Baimu had no intention of hiding anything, he just omitted the steps in between, letting the other party's imagination fill in the gaps so the logic held together.

Alice, meanwhile, was quite surprised to hear that name. "Takeshi-nii…"

During her childhood she would generally run off into the forest to play with wild Pokémon, rarely interacting with other people in Long Zhi Xiang; her only friend was Ayumi, who was the same age.

As for Takeshi, he was an older boy of the same clan who had once looked after her, though they weren't particularly close either.

"I didn't expect you to know Takeshi-nii. Oh right, I never asked your name!" Alice belatedly remembered this important matter.

"I'm Baimu."

Baimu said calmly. People in Long Zhi Xiang shouldn't be unfamiliar with this name — Takeshi had surely announced it loudly and proudly.

But Alice might not know.

Sure enough.

"Baimu-san! Thank you so much for your hospitality!" Alice's face showed no other expression, only deep gratitude.

"Just call me Baimu."

"Okay!" Alice nodded, then abruptly changed the subject. "Forgive me for asking, but do you raise Dragon-type Pokémon?"