There seems to be something wrong with these Pokémon

In the gloomy and dim tower, the seventh floor, which should have been dead and lifeless, was now burning with many flames.

The specks of light were extremely fragile. The shadows on the wall elongated by the firelight had pointed ears, huge bodies, and several sharp canine teeth that were showing their power.

"Ibrahimovic, are you lazy again?"

Eevee, who was changing various postures in front of the candle, suddenly felt weightless, and the whole Pokémon fell into an embrace filled with the aroma of caramel.

"Ghost-type Pokémon live here, so there must be a lot of life smell left here." Xiaoye held Eevee's front paws and waist with one hand and ran his other hand along its fur. "So I need you, Nidorina, and Ditto to use your sense of smell to find the place with the strongest smell. This way, maybe we can find a door to the world of ghost-type Pokémon."

Nidona straightened up and raised her nose, carefully identifying the hint of food smell mixed in with the rich aroma.

Soon, it closed its eyes, grasped the faint breath, and walked forward step by step.

Walking, walking...

Turn left, go straight, turn left...

That’s it!

Nidorina's eyes lit up, and just as she was about to call out a few times to signal the trainer to come over to verify her discovery, she noticed that Ditto, holding the Pokémon food, was hiding in the corner of the flowerpot sluggishly, with helplessness in his eyes.

Ditto: No way, buddy, I’m hiding so secretly, how can you still find me?

The corners of Nidona's mouth twitched, and she held back a mouthful of blood that was about to be vomited out under Ditto's innocent and harmless gaze, turned around and continued to sniff in another place.

Why does it feel like there was a task assigned to three Pokémon, but in the end it was the only Pokémon doing its job conscientiously? Where are the other two? !

Ditto: I'm a little hungry, I'll come after I finish eating!

Ibrahimovic: No way. If I get covered in dust or something, I won’t be able to cuddle and hug the trainer. I might as well take advantage of this opportunity to monopolize the trainer!

With its head resting on the trainer's collarbone, Eevee rubbed its furry ears against the trainer's jaw, its intention to act coquettishly was very obvious.

Xiao Ye, who had no resistance to this move, could only carry such a sweet burden tirelessly, tapping gently on the wall to hear the echoes and judge the secret space hidden under their noses.

Hard work pays off.

Soon, Nidorina stopped in front of a wooden sculpture again and sniffed.

Just in case, it opened its eyes and walked around the wooden sculpture several times to make sure that the glutton had not left any food scraps here. Then it ran to grab the trainer's trouser leg and told him its discovery.

Seeing that Nidona had gained something, Xiaoye immediately gathered the rest of the people, and they squatted down together to stare at the inconspicuous little wooden sculpture.

"How do we get in?" Sakura spread her fingers to measure the length. The wooden sculpture, which only reached the second knuckle, made her embarrassed. "Ghost-type Pokémon can pass through walls or change their shapes freely, but we can't do that."

"Do you want to twist it?"

Shen Qiliang, who often read horror novels, naturally remembered the image of this kind of switch designed to look like other objects, so he reached out and tried it.

"No, it seems to be fixed to the ground and can't be twisted at all."

It didn't take long for Shen Qiliang to be defeated. He rubbed his red thumb and retreated helplessly.

After saying that, Xiao Ye also stretched out his hand, imitating Shen Qiliang's action just now.

"It's useless. I've been doing manual labor since I was a child, so I'm very strong." Shen Qiliang thought Xiaoye was questioning his own strength when he saw Xiaoye's actions. His usual attentive tone was filled with some suspicion and anger as he said, "This is definitely not a mechanism. Maybe..."

Before Shen Qiliang finished his words, a pair of slender white fingers reached up to the base of the wooden sculpture and gently pulled it upwards. As some dust was raised, a crisp "click" sound was heard from somewhere.

Shen Qiliang, who felt an inexplicable pain on his face, slowly closed his wide-open mouth and touched the tip of his nose.

I was slapped in the face before I could even finish my words. Who can stand this?

Ancestors! Why are the mechanisms you made so strange? Whose mechanisms are pulled out instead of twisted?

Fortunately, the few people who had made a new discovery had no time to care about the man who was so embarrassed that he wanted to find a hole to crawl into, and they all gathered around the wood sculpture to discuss it.

"This wood sculpture seems to look a bit like Gastly?"

"There are some differences, but they are basically the same." Sakura took out the Pokémon encyclopedia and compared them carefully, confirming Xiaoye's statement, "The basic morphological characteristics match."

"It is normal for ancient Pokémon to be slightly different from modern ones. Even modern people are different from ancient people in terms of facial features and body shape. This is the result of biological adaptation to the environment."

Izumi Yu, the boy who called himself the coordinator, quickly took his camera from Ooguyan and handed a set of pictures to the girl. "These are the pictures I took at a museum in the Hoenn region. They used computer modeling technology to fill in the skeletons of ancient Pokémon fossils they found, and finally restored the faces of Pokémon from that era."

As he said this, he took out a Pokémon illustrated book that was obviously different from the ones Xiaoye and the others had, found a modern photo of the same Pokémon and said, "Some errors are acceptable. If this wood carving looks familiar to you, it must be the Pokémon named Gastly."

"Let's temporarily identify this wooden sculpture as Gastly." Xiaoye straightened up and looked around, his eyebrows raised unconsciously, "Let's make a bold guess. The 'click' sound just now proves that we have triggered the mechanism, but the door to the ghost Pokémon territory has not yet opened to us. This proves that although we are missing something, the general direction is correct."

Xiao Ye glanced at the two people of similar age with serious expressions and continued.

"Is there a possibility that there are wooden carvings of Haunter and Gengar hidden on this floor or on other floors?"

Sakura's eyes suddenly lit up, and she exclaimed, "Yes, it would be very strange if Gastly appeared without Haunter, Gengar, and the others. After all, ghost-type Pokémon have the habit of living in groups, and it's rare to see them separated."

"You can be even bolder." Izumi Yuu looked over with his pale eyes and added, "Maybe there are ghost-type Pokémon from other regions."

"Yeah, that's possible." Xiao Ye agreed. "After all, there are only three ghost-type Pokémon in the Kanto region: Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar. If there are only these three Pokémon living in this ghost-type Pokémon home, it would be too shabby. There's a high chance that there are unfamiliar Pokémon."

"Actually..." Shen Qiliang was embarrassed for a while, but when he saw that no one cared, he gradually relaxed and took the initiative to join the conversation.

"My grandfather told me that his generation saw many ghost-type Pokémon coming to town to steal things. Indeed, they often encountered some strange-looking Pokémon that they didn't recognize."

The statement of Shen Qiliang, a local, further confirmed Xiaoye's guess. He nodded slightly, and after a moment, he showed a relaxed smile.

The candle in the girl's hand suddenly flickered, and the light moved slightly towards the boy.

This made the boy's smile appear even brighter in the dim tower, almost like the morning sun, carrying infinite hope.

"Our task from now on is very simple."

Xiao Ye paused, and Izumi Yu immediately added to his words, "Explore the entire Pokémon Tower and find all the wooden carvings hidden in the tower."

"It may not be a wood carving, maybe it's something else." Sakura recalled the porcelain that she had seen out of the corner of her eye when she and Xiaoye were looking at the murals on the third floor, and added, "I remember there was a porcelain vase that looked similar to Haunter on the fourth floor. Maybe we can pick it up and dig it out."

The three of them looked at each other, with an unspoken understanding in their eyes.

It’s strange to say, but this was the first time that Izumi Yu, Xiaoye Xiaoying and the others met, except for the one-sided meeting in Jinhuang City.

But there is a tacit understanding between the three of them that is difficult for ordinary people to match. They can understand each other's thoughts with just a glance.

“和泉负责7、6层，小樱5、4层，我3、2、1层”小叶一锤定音，为这个临时搭建起来为了探寻宝可梦塔秘密的小队下达了命令。

Although everyone in this team participated for different reasons, they all had a common goal.

Izumi You is looking for the history of Shion Town, hoping to personally experience and find some of the remaining traditional customs and culture, and use this to gain inspiration for a wonderful performance.

Sakura, out of sympathy for the ghost-type Pokémon whose homes are about to be demolished, wants to convince the mayor to give up demolishing the Pokémon Tower by discovering some unknown value of the Pokémon Tower.

As a trainer, Xiaoye is full of enthusiasm for adventure and anticipation for the unknown.

He had told Xiao Mao a long time ago that he wanted to walk all over Kanto on his own feet to complete his training journey.

This journey will naturally include understanding the local customs and cultures of various places, growing while resolving different conflicts, and exploring some forgotten history.

Of course, Xiaoye, who occasionally fell into confusion, also asked Kona about his opinions on the two current mainstream trainer training models.

One is the practice school, which focuses on self-cultivation. They receive the initial Pokémon from the Pokémon professor and embark on a journey to challenge gyms in various places and participate in the Quartz Conference.

The other is the academic school, which uses professional teachers and textbooks to help students master various types of knowledge and pass exams to qualify for the Quartz Conference.

In fact, he had heard Professor Oak complain about the contradiction between the two when he was in Professor Oak's laboratory, because there were few novice trainers visiting for a month.

But what made him realize the seriousness of the conflict even more deeply was the teachers at the Pokémon Professional Research School's disgust with the training faction, and the Clearsob Academy's disdain for gym trainers.

This did bring some shock to Xiaoye's heart, so one night he found Kona and asked him about his doubts.

How did Master Kona respond at that time?

"No choice is ever perfect, Sakutani-san." Kona took a sip of the mellow coffee, and the hot steam whitened her glasses for a moment. "Where there is loss, there is gain. This is the law of nature."

"But...I still don't understand something."

"For example, let's take the academic school." Kona put the coffee cup on the plate, making a crisp sound. "What you see is the excellent teaching resources of the academic school, rich Pokémon and a strong learning atmosphere. Students trained in a scientific and systematic education must have a knowledge reserve that is difficult for ordinary people to surpass."

"So the academic school is better than the cultivation school?" Xiao Ye's eyes lost focus for a moment, and he couldn't help but have some doubts about the next path.

After all, even Mr. Champion is a thorough academic. Does this indirectly prove that having an excellent teacher to assist you is definitely better than exploring things in the dark on your own?

"But as a price, they lost something that you practitioners could easily obtain." Kona looked up along the moonlight, and the sky was full of stars twinkling. "They lost the experience of traveling in person, lost the shortcut to accumulating bonds with Pokémon, and lost the right to meet all kinds of people on the journey and communicate and grow with them."

"Sakutani-san, take a good look back at your journey of just a few months, savor these fragments of memory in your dreams, and then ask yourself a few questions."

"Do you regret meeting people who have helped you or you have helped?"

"Do you regret meeting or capturing the Pokémon you met during your journey, and the joy of traveling together?"

"Do you regret witnessing every city or town you passed through, Pokémon or human, and the emotional stories behind them?"

Kona stood up leisurely and walked past the stunned boy.

"Everything you see, hear, and feel during your travels plays a vital role in shaping the abilities of you and your Pokémon."

"When you have truly made up your mind, please remember the feeling at this moment, and compare it with the feeling when you got the Pokémon and embarked on the journey. After engraving them in your bones, continue to witness, participate, and grow."

Kona's words were not profound, but rather very simple.

In fact, of course there are many people in society who are not practitioners and often joke around after dinner.

These traveling young men and women are very similar to the heroes in the stories who saw injustice and came to the rescue.

Whenever any trivial matter happens under their noses, they will get involved as if they have nothing to do.

Xiaoye, who used to be somewhat curious about the attitude of these trainers who were always looking for trouble in Pallet Town, now felt that perhaps Kona's answer was the best answer to this question.

Witnessing, participating, and growing happen through repeated experiences of these trivial things that may seem trivial to outsiders.