Chapter 682: The Spirit World Reappears

Baimu dragged the three-headed dragon, which had bitten his sleeve, around everywhere.

The appliances inside the house had mostly been replaced, but the furniture arrangement remained unchanged from before.

The backyard had expanded significantly.

Clearly, Dashan had anticipated that Baimu's team of Pokémon would keep growing, and arranged this space deliberately to give them room to move.

And the greatest surprise was a medium-sized artificial lake beyond the backyard fence.

Though it was public land, seeing Lady Ayana's Water-type Pokémon dwelling here was enough to solve the urgent problem of the Shiny Milotic having nowhere suitable to live except bathtubs and small ponds, until the mountain's natural environment was fully transformed.

"Mii~"

The Shiny Milotic swam happily through the lake.

Though the climate inside Huang Tie Town was scorching hot, and the brilliant sun made the lake water steaming, it was still far more comfortable than the dry air.

Pokémon could be both sensitive and dull about their living environment—they could firmly reject places that made them physically uncomfortable, yet remain unaware of the subtle, gradual changes imposed upon them by their surroundings.

Perhaps after hundreds or even thousands of years, the Ore region would develop Pokémon with regional forms similar to those of Alola, Galar, or Paldea.

"There's more to do than just planting trees…"

Baimu looked up at the sky.

Though the environmental structure of the Pokémon world differed greatly from his previous life, the fact that continental climates were influenced by monsoons, ocean currents, and other factors remained unchanged.

A single rainfall from the Latios and Latias pair alone was insufficient to make all life in the Ore region flourish like spring.

But with those two, plus the future restoration of Dark Latios, all three working together to subtly alter the ocean currents could likely improve the Ore region's climate within safe limits.

Many things are interconnected—this was the harm caused by the imbalance in the movie "The Birth of Latios."

This world was like a system program.

Internally, it very likely contained a mountain of "code," and even a small change might cause a previously functioning program to malfunction.

Baimu absolutely did not wish for a world-ending catastrophe to occur because of his and Dashan's wishes…

Why did he suddenly feel that the villain of the next movie would be him and Dashan?

He tugged at his lips, greeted the swimming Shiny Milotic, then dragged the three-headed dragon back into the lush backyard.

"Grrr!"

Bonsly immediately rushed over, pointed at the tree with its thick canopy, and offered a goofy, shy, ugly grin.

Baimu patted its forehead. "Don't worry—I'll definitely find someone to move it there once the renovation's done!"

Bonsly had deep affection for the plants and trees it had painstakingly nurtured, and hoped to transplant them someday onto that big mountain.

Naturally, this request could not be refused—so long as it was willing to dig up roots to the third layer of soil, it was a trivial matter.

Bonsly happily went off to water the flowers and trees.

Inside the house.

Most of the Pokémon were gathered here.

Among them, Happiny wore an apron and headscarf, holding a cloth and broom, looking around bewilderedly—she had enthusiastically planned a grand cleaning, only to discover Dashan had already hired someone to clean everything.

Not a speck of dust remained on the floors or tables; even the drains were spotless.

Feeling useless, Happiny was deeply dejected, her little face scrunched up.

"Sort through the contents in Haunter's belly—unless something unexpected happens, we'll be staying in Ore for several months."

Baimu couldn't bear to watch anymore, and assigned this naturally hardworking egg a task.

"Happy~"

Happiny's eyes sparkled, and she cheerfully set to work.

By the floor-to-ceiling window.

Gulpin sat in its most familiar spot, elegantly waiting for its trainer or Happiny to bring it dessert and black tea; opposite it sat its doll.

Seeing its trainer appear, it picked up the silver hammer on the table and tapped the call bell.

"Kee-doh~"

"..."

Baimu immediately smiled. "Alright, Young Lady, wait a moment—the items are coming right away."

During the past nearly half-month at sea, Gulpin had surprisingly become diligent—even more so than when balancing battles and Super Contests.

Baimu was overjoyed.

What he most hoped to see was Pokémon taking initiative on their own—rewards gained willingly in this world far surpassed those obtained reluctantly.

This was also why the Galarian Solrock, who joined the team early, ranked third-worst in strength.

Besides, Gulpin had recently watched TV dramas to the point of obsession—every morning upon waking, its first action was to pick up its phone, and it even ate breakfast while watching.

This gave Baimu a full understanding of the complex emotions parents in his previous life felt watching their children glued to their phones.

The key was, he himself didn't play much—he had, in theory, set a good example.

He could only attribute it to Gulpin's longing for unknown information and mental pleasure; he wanted to urge moderation, but didn't know how to bring it up.

Yes, he wanted Pokémon to have their own hobbies.

But some hobbies, once taken too far, became unpleasant.

Unexpectedly, without any subtle hints from him, Gulpin began reducing its phone and drama time, channeling more energy into training.

According to Gulpin itself, it was striving to land one punch that would knock out Bonsly.

Bonsly gave a goofy smile, pretending not to care, but secretly doubled its own efforts.

Seeing even the most capricious Young Lady redoubling her efforts, how could the other Pokémon, who weren't even among the top three, afford to lag behind?

Gulpin's awakening clearly affected the entire team.

Even the Galarian Solrock began extra training, astonishing the other Pokémon—

'That—That Solrock, who sleeps longer than Snorlax, is training harder now!'

Although everyone could see it was just trying not to be excluded from the team, driven by herd mentality, Baimu was still very happy.

Let the resentful Sun Coral, forced to work overtime, stage its "murder" attempt by covering his face at midnight.

The change in Big Mouth and its impact on the team also made Baimu increasingly obedient to it.

"Sshhh!"

The Three-Headed Dragon was seething with jealousy.

Unfortunately, it couldn't learn 【Envy Flame】; otherwise, given its temper, mastering this skill would take seconds, and perfecting it to an artful level would be effortless.

Yet jealousy aside.

The Three-Headed Dragon still dared not provoke Big Mouth—partly due to type disadvantage, partly because when it was young, it sneaked onto Big Mouth's bed and got kicked clean across the room.

It had psychological trauma.

It was precisely during this time living here that Big Mouth refused to let it on the bed; that rebellious little thing spent every day getting beaten by Big Mouth in training, then sneaked onto the bed when Big Mouth was away to frolic.

It got caught red-handed.

Crucially, the trainer didn't side with it back then—he scolded it.

Since then, the Three-Headed Dragon never dared entertain thoughts of provoking or retaliating against this Young Lady; thank goodness Bonsly was the ace—if Big Mouth were the ace, it wouldn't dare challenge her.

Baimu bustled around the semi-open kitchen with the Three-Headed Dragon, bringing Big Mouth a pot of black tea and a few small cookies.

"Kee-doh?"

Big Mouth stared at the snack plate, then looked at the trainer in disbelief.

Don't even Electrike and Moomoo eat more than this?

Baimu explained: "There's a welcome banquet tonight—you'll have plenty of your favorite food. If you eat too much now and can't eat later, don't blame me."

Welcome banquet!

Big Mouth remembered the banquet from the Champion League half a month ago and couldn't help but look forward to it.

In the bedroom.

Dragonite siblings tumbled and played on the bed; having grown tired of their hammock, they deeply missed this soft, springy memory foam mattress.

Sun Coral, having precisely located the head of the bed and preparing to sleep, glared furiously at them, its crimson eyes seeming to bleed.

Strange, eerie black mist swirled around it.

"Can't you sleep somewhere else!" Baimu laughed in exasperation, picking it up and carrying it to the sofa outside, "You can sleep just as well there! You're not picky about beds!"

Sun Coral stared silently at him.

Seeing this, Baimu took off his coat and laid it beneath it, "Better now?"

Perhaps because it had slept beside him for so long, Sun Coral needed his scent to fall asleep peacefully… this creature was only truly clingy in this one way.

Haunter was helping Happiny sort through the things inside its belly; since acquiring a more convenient mobile storage space, Baimu had stopped being frugal with purchases.

"Gnng!"

It waved its chubby paw at Baimu and the Three-Headed Dragon.

Baimu wanted to help Happiny, but it firmly refused—Happiny never backed down when handling tasks for its trainer.

He could only say to Haunter: "There's a game console and computer in the study—those are way more fun than handhelds. Let's play online tonight!"

"Hehehehe—" Haunter nodded eagerly, grinning warmly.

In the study.

The computer was unexpectedly on.

Baimu glanced at the constantly refreshing Pokémon Blog page, then at the Polywhirl II icon in the lower-right corner, and sighed, "Leave them alone—fighting with Aromatisse in the mud is pointless."

【No way!】

Polywhirl II refused decisively—it vowed to retaliate against every person online who mocked Baimu.

Of course, it wouldn't commit illegal acts; it merely equally mocked those who immediately went silent after their videos went viral, or those who stubbornly denied the truth.

What?

Is mocking illegal?

Human law does prohibit humans from provoking others without cause, but there is no explicit statute against Pokémon provoking humans.

Laws concerning Pokémon only cover specific public order and criminal offenses.

If someone ever sues Polywhirl II in court, the most likely outcome would be for Baimu, as the trainer, to be ordered to discipline it strictly.

——【Trainer Tolerating Pokémon Provoking Others】

Polywhirl II had investigated and found no such law—after all, Pokémon who use the internet are already rare, and those who mock online are rarer still.

Pokémon with such high intelligence have no interest in such things.

Had Polywhirl II not been truly furious, it wouldn't have bothered with those online people at all.

"... Alright."

Seeing how excited it was, Baimu suspected this might be Polywhirl II's way of venting emotions.

As an artificially created Pokémon with high intelligence, its emotional storms were no less intense than other Pokémon's—perhaps even more so.

It thought more every day, thinking by day and thinking by night.

Just like the two generations of Mewtwo in the anime, both pondering the meaning of their own existence.

Polywhirl II too wondered what its purpose in life was; it once believed it was created solely to help Baimu reach the pinnacle of training.

But when Baimu asked it what else it wanted to do besides battling, Polywhirl II felt utterly lost.

The differing ideals and goals of Unit Zero and Unit One left it confused about its own identity.

Fortunately, it had always held firm to its core goal of helping Baimu, so for now it merely accumulated unrelieved pressure.

And the internet became its outlet for releasing that pressure.

It recalled how Polywhirl II once admired Happiny's docile demeanor; comparing that to this internet-surfing prodigy now, Baimu suspected the internet's information had subtly reshaped Polywhirl II's personality.

Just like the No. 1 Unit influenced by Team Rocket's trio.

"Take a break?"

Baimu looked at the Hydreigon holding his sleeve with its left head, saw it nod and sit down on the sofa in the living room, then beckoned at the empty air.

No response.

He turned his head to glance at the empty air beside him, then frowned and looked toward the bathroom, striding in and saying to the bathtub: "Shall I pour water for you?"

Still no response.

Baimu went to turn on the faucet.

A claw weakly rested on the back of his hand, and the Dragapult in the bathtub revealed itself.

There was a time when this was a powerful Dragon-type Pokémon that dared to direct intense hostility at him and attack at the slightest disagreement, but now…

He looked at the cowering Dragapult in confusion. "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me with that expression? Is the air too dry and you're not used to it?"

"Lusuo."

Dragapult shook its head. It carefully looked around, then gestured with its two claws.

Baimu couldn't understand, but the Hydreigon beside him wore a very shocked expression, its three heads looking all around, even using its tail to shield him behind it.

A guard posture!?

Enemies?

Baimu turned pale with fright. Just as he was about to warn the Pokémon outside, Dragapult wrapped its semi-transparent tail around his mouth and made a shushing gesture.

It looked around, mimed shuttling back and forth, pointed at the bathroom door, then made one or two threatening expressions.

The content was too complicated; still couldn't understand.

But Baimu had a vague idea. He pulled the tail off his mouth and said to Hydreigon: "Go call Porygon-II!"

"Sha-sao…"

"Go!"

Hydreigon flew off quickly to the study and brought Porygon-II.

With the little translator in place, the situation became clear.

It turned out Dragapult wanted to say that deep beneath their feet there was an entrance to the spirit realm, that entrance was blocked, and many souls that should have entered were stuck outside, now wandering everywhere.

An entrance to the spirit realm!

Baimu stared at Dragapult in shock, then felt a creeping horror—the wrongfully dead souls of Iron Town could number in the thousands; surely they wouldn't turn into vengeful ghosts and come after humans?

He hurriedly contacted Furong, but got no reply—she must be resting.

Dragapult promptly explained that the accumulated souls had no ability to actively harm people, only that lingering outside for a long time had a certain impact on the living environment.

The reason it was so cowering was mainly that the things those souls were saying with their mouths made it "afraid."

"How do you know so much? Exactly how old are you?"

Baimu began to doubt Dragapult's age—this fellow had previously claimed to be about ten years old.

But it could use the spirit realm to shuttle between two regions, knew how to find the spirit realm entrance in Glass City to escape, and now had discovered the accumulated souls in Iron Town.

The moment Dragapult heard this, it immediately averted its gaze.

Ding-dong!

"Roar!"

The doorbell and a giant Steelix's roar sounded together.

Baimu heard it and walked outward. Halfway there he turned and said: "I'll explain the Iron Town matter to you later. Don't be afraid—this isn't hell anymore."