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Chapter 72: The Library and the Key!
🕑 Added 2025-08-19 17:40:38 +0000 UTCIn the violent shaking, Cynthia's character seemed to take quite a while to struggle to maintain her balance.
Meanwhile, Rotom floating in the air was shaken all over the place, directly crashing head-first into a nearby wall and sliding down along it with a swoosh.
At this moment, the trembling had stopped, and this abnormality didn't seem like it would continue, but in front of the screen, Cynthia still frowned slightly and pressed her voice interaction key to ask Rotom:
[What just happened?]
[That guy must be angry again, roto... so scary, waaaah.]
Rotom frantically circled around Cynthia several times, fearfully hiding behind her shoulder.
Cynthia looked at Rotom's behavior and sighed softly. It was hard to imagine this was the same guy who had just hidden in the television to scare her with horrifying images - how could it be so timid?
But right now, this Rotom was her only source of information.
She could only gently comfort it:
[It's okay, I'm here. Can you tell me what happened? And... who exactly is this guy you keep mentioning?]
Hearing such comfort, Rotom's emotions finally calmed down a bit. It carefully peeked out from behind her shoulder and pointed in a certain direction with its lightning-bolt-like "hand," beginning to tell the story bit by bit:
"Long ago, many people lived in this building, but ever since that guy came, everyone got scared and ran away, roto."
"That guy seems to possess some kind of terrifying, horrible energy. Anyone who gets close to him falls into endless nightmares, and the unlucky ones never wake up again... roto..."
"And that guy seems unable to control this power himself, roto. He often makes strange noises like what just happened..."
"Waaaah, living with this guy every day is really scary. If I didn't know what the outside world was like, I would have escaped from here long ago, roto!!"
"Boss, please take me away from here!"
Listening to Rotom's words, Cynthia fell into deep thought.
So according to Rotom's account, there was a Pokémon in this massive mansion that could plunge other living beings into nightmares?
What kind of Pokémon could have such incredible power?
Could it be a Hypno? Or maybe a Mismagius?
Undoubtedly, quite a few Pokémon had abilities connected to nightmares in some way or another.
But to be able to affect all the humans in the entire mansion on such a large scale, forcing these people to relocate, this Pokémon's power was probably extremely strong - it should be an incredibly high-level existence!
In any case, here's the thing - she was just in a game. Even if all her Pokémon lost their ability to battle, she'd just be sent back to the Pokémon Center and lose some money.
Given that, when encountering certain situations, she could boldly choose to take risks and explore.
With this thought, Cynthia immediately made her decision and pressed Rotom for more information.
"This guy you mentioned... where is he?"
[Boss, he's on the third floor, roto. The entire third floor of the mansion is his territory.]
[Wait, boss, you're not planning to go find him, are you?]
Rotom's eyes became stretched into long lines, clearly quite startled.
Cynthia nodded.
"I want to go check out the situation. If you're scared, just stay in this room."
Upon hearing this, Rotom immediately darted back behind the television, poking out just a small head that trembled with fear.
[Okay, boss. Oh, I have to warn you... that guy's area is shrouded in some kind of strange fog. If you go, you must be careful of that mist.]
[Just touching a little bit will plunge you into endless nightmares, roto!]
[I'll wait for your safe return, roto!]
After Rotom finished speaking, its entire body hid inside the television.
Seeing Rotom's reaction, the live stream viewers were amused.
[How is this guy so timid? Even a Wimpod has more courage than it does.]
[It's just an abandoned building. What powerful Pokémon could be inside? Probably just some Ghost-type or something.]
[Cynthia, hurry up and show us what's on the third floor! I'm really curious what kind of Pokémon could make those rich folks abandon such a luxurious mansion.]
...
Cynthia glanced at these comments and nodded slightly. Actually, she was also very curious about what was on the third floor.
So she immediately controlled her character and, following Rotom's directions, quickly found the stairs leading to the third floor.
Moments later, when she successfully reached the mansion's third floor, her expression immediately changed slightly.
Unlike the structure of the first two floors, upon reaching the third floor, what immediately came into view was a long corridor lined with picture frames.
And just as Rotom had said, for some reason, faint black mist began appearing in the air!
Cynthia maintained high vigilance and began controlling her character to walk forward.
She quickly discovered that the frames on both sides of this corridor seemed to all be portraits of people, but their faces were uniformly shrouded and covered by black mist, making their features indiscernible.
Not only that, but every step she took forward in the third floor's corridor, the surrounding mist grew thicker.
When she reached the end of this corridor, a large door appeared before her, and by this point, the black mist had become so dense it nearly obscured her vision.
Just as she was about to control her character to take another step forward and enter that door, her character was directly repelled, and a line of text suddenly appeared before her eyes.
[This place is shrouded in strange energy!]
[Perhaps... you need the protection of something beautiful to continue forward!]
Looking at the prompt that appeared, Cynthia was immediately stumped. It seemed like this place, just like others, required meeting some special condition before she could enter and see the Pokémon hidden inside.
More importantly and crucially, when she stood at the end of this corridor, that strange premonition appeared again in the depths of her heart.
This meant that the Pokémon deep in the corridor was probably not just some ordinary powerful Ghost-type existence.
And very likely... just like before, it was a legendary Pokémon!
With this thought, Cynthia silently noted the location of this corridor and controlled her character to prepare to quickly leave this area. But just then, a blank picture frame nearby suddenly fell down, and with it came a glass bottle that rolled onto the ground.
She instinctively controlled her character to go forward and pick up the bottle. Inside the glass bottle seemed to be a deep black key that emanated a faint glow.
A line of text suddenly popped up before her eyes.
[Special Item: Griseous Orb]
[Description: Contains a terrifying aura and sense of oppression... specific effects unknown. Perhaps it will produce strange reactions when approaching the location of that space?]
Cynthia was certain this key probably had no connection to the black mist.
Because the mist around her gave her a feeling of terror, foreboding, and unease.
But the luster on this key seemed to have only one quality... an incomparable sense of majesty.
As if... this was a key belonging to some kind of ruler!
So this thing... what exactly was it meant to unlock?
This question still had no answer, so Cynthia could only carefully store this item away.
She returned to the mansion's second floor.
The moment she saw Rotom again, it flew directly out from behind the television and threw itself into her arms.
[Boss, you're back, roto! I thought I'd never see you again, roto... waaaah.]
Cynthia: ...
[Boss, how did it go? Did you discover anything, roto?]
After Rotom circled around Cynthia once more and confirmed she was completely unharmed, it asked again.
Cynthia roughly told Rotom about her discoveries.
After hearing this, the latter nodded, seeming very agreeable.
[That's right, such a terrifying place is better left alone, roto...]
[But about that key you mentioned... I think I know something about it, roto!]
Upon hearing this, Cynthia's eyes immediately lit up.
This Rotom... could actually provide more useful information?
But then Cynthia thought about it - this Rotom had been in the mansion for such a long time, so having some knowledge about the mansion's situation should be perfectly normal.
Sure enough, just as Cynthia had expected, Rotom continued speaking.
"I think I've seen this key in the hands of one of this house's former owners. At the time, along with this key, there seemed to be a map that was delivered..."
"That guy seemed to really value this key, roto. He even hired several powerful trainers to escort it..."
"But where that key went after that... I don't really know. I didn't expect you could find it again - boss is amazing, roto."
"As for that map, I do know where it is... it should still be there now... roto... but I suggest boss shouldn't go looking for it..."
Hearing this, Cynthia immediately pressed:
"Why not?"
At this moment, Rotom's expression suddenly became somewhat complicated.
It extended its lightning-bolt-like "hand" and pointed upward.
"Because... boss..."
"That map... seems to be in the library on the third floor, roto."
"Which is where that terrifying guy... always stays!"
