Silence.
Absolute, suffocating silence.
Like a heavy shroud, it tightly enveloped the long-abandoned ‘Value Supermarket’.
Chen Kai gripped the powerful flashlight in his hand, its beam like a trembling dagger, struggling to tear a hole in the thick, almost palpable darkness.
The air was filled with a nauseating mix of smells: heavy dust, damp and moldy cardboard, the sour stench of rotting food, and a deeper, indescribable scent of old decay, as if time itself had festered here.
Where the flashlight beam swept, a scene of doomsday appeared.
Shelves, like the ribs of a giant wantonly ravaged, were twisted and collapsed, pressing against each other.
Broken glass bottles and deformed cans were scattered everywhere, and congealed dark stains outlined eerie, grotesque patterns on the floor and walls.
Tattered plastic strips and exposed wires hung from the ceiling, resembling the decaying internal organs of a colossal monster, casting flickering, menacing shadows under the beam.
With each step, the rubble or rotten wooden planks he crushed underfoot emitted grating ‘creaks’ and ‘cracks’.
In this eerily empty silence, these sounds were infinitely amplified, heavily pounding on Chen Kai’s taut nerves.
“Swablu? Are you in there? Don’t be scared, it’s me!” Chen Kai called out in a low voice, a subtle tremor in his tone.
The sound evoked a faint echo in the vast space, but was instantly swallowed by the boundless darkness.
Beyond the reach of the beam was bottomless inkiness, as if countless eyes were hidden within, watching. A chill spread up his spine, making his scalp tingle.
Although he knew that Ghost-type Pokemon existed in the Pokémon world, being in such an environment still gave him a headache: This accursed place! How could Swablu run here?!
He forcefully suppressed the irritation in his heart and the increasingly intense unease, carefully navigating around a pile of metal wreckage that used to be a freezer.
The flashlight beam cautiously scanned every corner where the tiny white figure might be hidden: the bottom of shelves, the gaps in collapsed counters, mountains of broken cardboard boxes…
Just then, the corner of his eye suddenly caught a half-human-tall cardboard box, thickly covered in dust, in the left corner, which seemed to shake ever so slightly.
This was definitely not caused by wind! There was no airflow here; the shaking felt as if something inside was gently bumping against the inner wall of the box.
Chen Kai’s heart instantly leaped to his throat, his blood seemingly congealed.
He abruptly focused the flashlight beam squarely on the shaking cardboard box.
Under the strong light, the dust on the surface of the box seemed to float and rise uneasily.
“Swablu? Is that you?!” He held his breath, his voice taut like a drawn bowstring, his body instinctively leaning slightly forward, one hand already subtly reaching for the Poké Ball at his waist, ready to respond to unknown danger at any moment.
Miraidon had led him all the way, tracking Swablu’s energy fluctuations, to this abandoned, ghost-like wasteland.
Swablu possessed Normal and Flying types and was very common. Fortunately, it still carried a faint Dragon-type aura, and it hadn’t left long ago, so Miraidon could still sense some of it.
Relying on this feeling, Miraidon led Chen Kai through the long-forgotten Kapu Village and to this ‘Value Supermarket’, which resembled a giant tomb.
Miraidon said somewhat strangely, “Strange, Swablu’s aura has disappeared in here!”
As he spoke, he concentrated, trying to sense the energy fluctuations inside, but after a short while, he gagged, “Ugh—!”
“What’s wrong? Miraidon, are you okay?” Chen Kai was startled; Miraidon actually gagged!
He tried patting Miraidon’s back, unsure if it would help.
Miraidon took a good while to recover before slowly saying to Chen Kai, “The energy in there is too chaotic, it’s making me dizzy, so I can’t sense Swablu.”
With that, Miraidon, who usually disliked being in his Poké Ball, voluntarily returned to it.
Chen Kai looked at the supermarket before him, its entrance askew, its sign rusted and peeling, with only a few blurry letters remaining, resembling menacing teeth in the night. He had no choice.
He knew this was the site of the ‘Value Supermarket’, filled with Ghost-type Pokemon, but Swablu had run inside, so he could only steel himself and step into this ruin permeated with an ominous aura.
“…”
“Hoo…”
An extremely faint sound, like a sigh, came from an unknown dark corner of the supermarket, yet it also seemed to whisper directly into his ear, interrupting Chen Kai’s recollection of the pursuit and clutching tightly at his heart.
That was definitely not Swablu’s voice!
Immediately after, not far behind him, a row of rusted metal hooks hanging on the wall clinked against each other without warning.
“Ding-a-ling—!”
The crisp yet eerie sound of metal clashing exploded like a thunderclap in the dead silence.
Chen Kai spun around abruptly, his flashlight beam frantically sweeping towards the source of the sound.
The beam shook violently, illuminating an empty, stained wall and several motionless, rusted hooks. Other than that, there was nothing.
It was as if the sound was merely the darkness mocking him.
Cold sweat instantly drenched his back and dripped down his temples.
“Creak, creak!”
Then, the heavy, metal-framed cash register behind him made a sound, as if someone had suddenly activated and opened the cash drawer.
“Who?!” Chen Kai’s scalp tingled, and almost instinctively, he spun around again, his flashlight beam piercing like a sword towards the cash register behind him.
Under the strong light, the half-human-tall metal cash register, covered in scratches and stains, stood silently, unmoving, as if the momentary slide and friction sound just now was merely a hallucination caused by his extreme tension.
“Hehehe…”
A sound, like wind whistling through a window or a woman’s mocking laughter, came from somewhere, making Chen Kai’s breathing grow more rapid.
His heart pounded wildly in his chest, almost breaking his ribs. But when he tried to search around, the sound vanished again, as if it had never appeared.
But he knew, this was definitely not an illusion!
The clinking of the hooks, the sigh, and the sliding of the counter… Once might be a coincidence, twice perhaps an accident, three times… Then it could only be some entity deliberately doing it!
Although he wasn't afraid of Ghost-type Pokemon, and even quite liked them, this environment truly made him shiver.
And he wasn't sure if this was just a Ghost-type Pokemon playing a prank on him, or if there was something truly unsettling here.
Thinking of this, his palm, gripping the Poké Ball, was covered in cold sweat.
“No… I can’t be so passive…” Chen Kai took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the panic that was almost bursting out of him.
“Xiao Mei! I’m counting on you! Come out and light up this place with your light!” Chen Kai shouted, throwing the Poké Ball with force.
A soft white light flashed: “Ampharos—!”
Xiao Mei appeared before Chen Kai, hands raised high, full of momentum.
But his eyes scanned the surroundings, and a clear unease flickered within them.
Xiao Mei usually watched a lot of TV and was fearless, except for horror movies, which he greatly feared, yet Boltund always dragged him to watch them.
The thick, chilling aura and extremely uncomfortable atmosphere pervading this abandoned supermarket were exactly like a scene from a horror movie.
This made the bright light bulb at the end of Xiao Mei’s tail flicker slightly, appearing somewhat hesitant.
“Don’t panic, Xiao Mei,” Chen Kai tried to comfort him, though his own voice was also a bit strained, “Use your light to illuminate the surroundings as much as possible! We need to find Swablu, and also see… what exactly is causing trouble here!”
Feeling Chen Kai’s encouragement, or rather, realizing that Chen Kai needed his Helping Hand, Xiao Mei gathered his courage and nodded vigorously:
“Ampharos—!” (Leave it to me!)
He concentrated, and the electric orb light bulb at the end of his tail suddenly burst forth with a powerful light, like a small sun.
Buzz—!
A brilliant, warm, and vibrant yellow glow instantly surged out from Ampharos as its center, spreading like a tide in all directions. The darkness retreated rapidly as if encountering a natural enemy.
Collapsed shelves, scattered garbage, stained walls, tattered cloth strips hanging from the ceiling… The entire interior of the supermarket, in a matter of seconds, transformed from a terrifying, pitch-black hell into a clearly illuminated scene of dust and ruins, bathed in strong light.
Although still dilapidated, at least it was no longer suffocating darkness.
Chen Kai’s heart eased slightly; the clarity of vision greatly relieved the suffocating feeling of being oppressed by the unknown darkness.
He was about to thank Xiao Mei, but his gaze was firmly drawn to the scene revealed after the strong light dispelled the darkness, and his pupils instantly constricted.
In the higher ceiling areas and the shadowy corners formed by collapsed shelves in the deeper parts of the supermarket, beyond the reach of Ampharos Xiao Mei’s powerful light, dozens of translucent, twisted gray ghostly figures were floating.
They gathered and dispersed like smoke, their forms indistinct, only barely showing outlines resembling heads and claws.
These ghostly figures floated silently, as if they were inherently one with the darkness.
When Xiao Mei’s powerful light, full of life energy, pierced through the darkness like a sword, instantly illuminating most of the supermarket, these previously tranquil, floating gray ghostly figures seemed to be scorched by a hot iron, or like malevolent spirits whose territory had been invaded, instantly becoming agitated.
Their twisted forms violently rolled and stretched, emitting silent screams that directly impacted the soul.
The originally vague gray instantly took on an angry deep purple and a resentful inky black.
Dozens of hollow, burning “eyes,” formed from pure malice, all simultaneously Locked-On to the source of the dazzling light below—Xiao Mei.
Without warning, these dozens of terrifying ghostly figures, enraged by the strong light, like a school of piranhas smelling blood, carried an icy, bone-chilling Cold Wind and emitted a grating ‘hissing’ sound, as if space itself was being torn, as they frantically dove down from all directions and various tricky angles towards Xiao Mei, who stood in the center like a lighthouse. Their posture suggested they intended to completely engulf and tear him, along with his light, to shreds.
“Ampharos—!!!” (Ghosts!!!)
Xiao Mei had only seen such terrifying and malicious sights on TV.
He used to be scared out of his wits watching TV, but now facing this scene for real, the instinct for survival and the desire to protect his Trainer instantly overwhelmed everything else.
His tail, with its black ring-shaped stripes, suddenly shot up high. The electric orb light bulb at the end of his tail was no longer a source of illumination, but instantly transformed into a furious core of lightning.
“Ampharos—woo—!!!” (Get lost, you hear me!!!)
Xiao Mei let out a tearful yet resolute roar.
A blinding, massive golden current, like countless raging lightning snakes condensed together, burst forth from him, forming a destructive spherical Thunderstorm that instantly expanded.
Rumble—!!!
Deafening thunder exploded within the enclosed supermarket space.
The violent golden electric light instantly devoured all the ghostly figures that had swooped down.
The resentful deep purple and inky black melted away like ice and snow before the ultimate positive and strong lightning.
“Screech—!!!”
Incomparably sharp, agonizing wails, as if from the depths of hell, rose and fell.
No longer silent screams affecting the mind, but real, painful, twisted cries after being struck by lightning.
The rampage of strong light and lightning lasted only a brief moment.
When the golden lightning dissipated, the light from the bulb on Xiao Mei’s tail also dimmed considerably due to excessive energy consumption, but it still shone stubbornly, dispelling the re-gathering darkness.
Chen Kai and Xiao Mei nervously looked at the mid-air and surroundings.
The dozens of terrifying ghostly figures that had fiercely attacked earlier now fell from mid-air with crackling sounds and wisps of smoke, like charred moths, landing on the dust and debris-covered floor.
Their twisted, smoky bodies had become much more solid, and their color had faded from the resentful deep purple and inky black, turning into a deeper purple, closer to their original form, with scorched marks.
And when they were forcibly reverted to their true forms by Thunderbolt, their real appearance, previously shrouded in smoke, was completely exposed under Ampharos’s lingering light.
They were floating, purple gas spheres of varying sizes, with a grotesque or grinning ghost face in the center—Gastly.
And some larger ones, with a pair of floating claws, also composed of purple gas, and with even more eerie smiles on their faces—Haunter.
They lurked in this abandoned supermarket, using the environment to create a terrifying atmosphere, scaring creatures that wandered in, and taking pleasure in it.
Upon seeing the true faces of his opponents, the immense fear of unknown spirits in Chen Kai’s heart instantly dissipated by more than half, and he breathed a sigh of relief: “If it’s a Pokemon problem, it’s not a big deal.”
And Xiao Mei also visibly relaxed. Although he was still a bit wobbly, at least he knew what his opponents were. They weren’t some ethereal, terrifying entities, so he was no longer afraid.
“So it was you guys causing trouble!” Chen Kai walked over and asked a Gastly, which was hiding a bit further back and thus less injured, “Where’s Swablu?”
This Gastly wobbled and floated back up, but looked bewildered and indicated he hadn’t seen any Swablu.