Pokémon: Starting as a Farmer Instead of a Trainer

Chapter 155 The Strange Tree Who Cried from Being Scared by the Haunted House

zizi——

I don't know if it was a special effect that Qishu did for the live stream, or if the signal was simply not very good.

Since entering the haunted house, the live stream has been experiencing occasional screen glitches, and people in the chat have been complaining about it, but she doesn't seem to have noticed it.

Qi Shu slowly closed the door. It's a good habit to remember to close the door behind you when you're in a haunted house to prevent any weird things from running out.

She then used the light from her Rotom phone to look around, observing the spotless hallway, and muttered to herself, "It doesn't look very big from the outside, but it feels quite spacious inside..."

She also discovered that the haunted house was very clean, and even the furniture was arranged normally, so there weren't many places to hide.

It felt just like being back home, so normal, even... strangely normal.

"Why does this feel so familiar..."

Qi Shu looked around, as if some childhood memory had been touched. After a while, she remembered that she was still live streaming, so she looked down at the screen in front of her chest and greeted everyone.

"Hehe~ We're already inside, and we didn't bring a single Pokémon. The boss said it would be really scary and told me to be prepared, but it seems like it's not so bad so far."

"The challenge rule is to escape. As long as you find the exit and leave the haunted house, you've succeeded in the challenge, and there's a prize too. I heard it's a fruit and vegetable gift pack... the one with the popular 'learning fruit' trick."

While interacting with viewers in the live stream, she began exploring the house...

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, viewers watching her live stream encountered the same thing. For example, at Blueberry Academy, students eating lunch in the cafeteria and watching the live stream all began to wonder.

"How strange, why is the screen constantly flickering and the picture quality turning into 360P after entering the haunted house?"

"Me too..."

"It's probably a problem with the strange tree, right? Maybe it was set up to create a haunted house atmosphere."

"Maybe... But is this really a haunted house? It feels strangely familiar, a mix of warmth and unfamiliarity..."

"Pikachu..."

The number of bullet comments has decreased, but the popularity of the live stream is soaring. In less than ten minutes, it has reached the thirtieth place on the current popularity list.

Seeing her popularity soar, Qi Shu was overjoyed. It had been a month, and she had finally made it back into the top 30. However, she also started to get anxious. She hadn't encountered anything yet and was worried that people would just be interested in something new and then leave.

"Where's the ghost...? Come out now!"

Qi Shu called out in his heart and walked into the living room. The tables and chairs were neatly arranged. Perhaps because of the power outage, there was a small candle on the table for lighting. The flame flickered gently, indicating that there was a breeze blowing in.

Next to the candle was a cup of steaming tea, which must have just been brewed. The chair had been pulled out from under the table, probably because someone had just wanted to sit down and have some tea when they had to leave in a hurry.

"It's finally here!"

Qi Shu was not alarmed by this unusual scene at all; on the contrary, he became even more excited, finally able to create some entertainment value.

But as she approached and looked at the cracks in the teacup, her expression became slightly dazed, and childhood memories were stirred up again.

When she was little, Niangguang City was still developing and not as vibrant as it is today. Her father worked at a power plant.

Life was tough back then. Every day when her father came home, he would habitually drink a cup of tea to relieve his fatigue. She would come home early from school and wait with her mother for her father to come home from get off work. Every day, she would make him a cup of tea and put it on the table.

Just like now...

"I miss it so much... I remember one time when Dad had just come home but the power went out. I'm afraid of the dark... so Mom lit a few candles and put them in the house, and then Dad rushed back to the power plant..."

Qishu muttered to herself that this was also why she liked Electric-type Pokémon. Then she reached out to pick up the teacup, because she felt that this teacup was very similar to the one she had at home when she was a child.

The crack appeared when she accidentally knocked over a teacup and burned her hand. Her mother rushed her to the hospital.

But at that moment, just as her fingers touched the teacup, it shattered instantly, splashing tea onto her hand, which startled her so much that she immediately screamed.

"what!"

She took two steps back and leaned against the wall. Fortunately, the tea was warm, not scalding.

"You scared me... What is this? It's such a heartwarming scene..."

Qi Shu complained, but a strange unease crept into his heart. He then prepared to go elsewhere.

But as she watched the live stream chat, she noticed many people constantly reminding her that something seemed to be moving on the stairs in the living room.

"Um?!"

She quickly looked at the stairs with some miscellaneous items and shoes, a familiar scene, but she couldn't see anything moving.

"Where is it?! It's not here at all!"

The comments on the screen increased her anxiety, but for the sake of the show, she mustered her courage, walked towards the stairs, cautiously looked up, and went up.

Upstairs was just as quiet as downstairs, with candlelight flickering gently. The doors to the rooms along the corridor were ajar, leaving a crack. Qi Shu walked along the corridor, and at the far end, there was another tightly closed door.

It was still a very ordinary structure, but she was inexplicably afraid to go closer, because it looked so much like the second floor of her childhood home, and the room at the end was her room back then.

"How did they manage to do that...?"

At that moment, she finally understood why she had felt a strange sense of familiarity ever since entering the haunted house—it was simply her childhood home.

Although she was incredibly confused, she didn't forget that this was a live broadcast, so she walked forward, but one step, two steps... the distance to the room didn't get any closer, just like her lost childhood.

But finally, she reached the door and pushed it open with all her might. She took a step, but then lost her footing and plummeted downwards. The intense sensation of falling made her scream again.

When she came to her senses, she was still in the living room. Just as she was wondering what had happened, she saw that the teacup and candle on the table had disappeared, but a yellow tadpole was wagging its tail and floating in mid-air using the electricity stored in its body.

"Lightpole boy?!"

Looking at his starter Pokémon, Qishu was slightly taken aback. A smile involuntarily appeared on his face, and he was about to hug it when he noticed that the eerie smile on the black face of the spurt and its yellow eyes staring at him were so unfamiliar.

The light sling slowly approached the strange tree, but the familiar light sling in her eyes gradually blurred and finally turned into a black shadow!

She couldn't care less about the live stream now; the fear on her face completely betrayed her feelings, and she ran towards the haunted house's entrance without hesitation.

"I want to go home! I want to go home!"

"Isn't this your home? Stay here forever, stay in your childhood memories..."

"!!!"

Hearing his own voice coming from nowhere, Kiju's hair stood on end, and tears streamed uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes as he stared at the gate not far ahead... If only he could get there! If only he could get there!

Finally... just as Kiki burst into tears and pushed open the door of the haunted house, the excitement and joy on his face were frozen in time.

Behind the door was not the outside world, but a room she knew all too well—her childhood bedroom. There was a figure sleeping on the bed, and two figures taking care of her beside her… It should have been so familiar, but now only shadows remained.

thump—

I'm completely trapped here, with no way to escape...

Only when she heard a sound did Qi Shu slowly wake up from her sleep. Ignoring who was calling her, she grabbed the person tightly and shouted, "Help me out of here!!!"

"I'm going to die..."

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Qi Shu realized that he had his arms tightly around Ming You's neck, almost suffocating her, and he quickly and awkwardly let go.

She looked at her assistant beside her, as well as the onlookers and Pokémon, her expression still somewhat dazed: "I'm finally out?"

"You were only in there for twenty minutes and you fainted from fright. My staff had to drag you out. I told you not to attempt the nighttime difficulty level, or to bring a Pikachu in..."

Mingyou stood up somewhat helplessly. Although he was hugged by his idol, he felt no joy at all, but rather a headache.

But upon hearing this, Kiki was somewhat bewildered: "How is that possible? I've clearly been there for at least an hour..."

"You're not having nightmares, are you?"

"what?"

Looking around at everyone, Qishu realized that what they were saying might be the truth, but clearly...

So she recounted her ordeal, which only confused Mingyou more. She looked at the Night Demon not far away and asked, "You did this?"

"Hehehe..."

The Night Demon shook its head. Qi Shu went upstairs and opened the bedroom door, only to be terrified and faint. They hadn't expected this human to have such a weak mental fortitude.

"Huh? Could it be that some kind of filth has been attracted here by the haunted house?"

"!!!"

Hearing Mingyou's mutterings, Qishu was so frightened that he immediately bristled. Other people's haunted houses are all staged, but you haunted houses are all real, right? You're hiring real ghosts as employees!

"This was an accident... We will provide compensation for emotional distress!"

Mingyou quickly apologized to the other party. Who would have thought that such a thing would happen? If Qishu had really been frightened, he wouldn't have been able to afford to compensate him even if he sold himself.

"Mmm..."

Seeing this, Simocha panicked a little.

Actually, it added something to the tea. Because Mingyou wouldn't let it use matcha powder, it used the juice of white fox tomatoes instead. So what Qishu saw later was most likely a hallucination caused by it, but it dared not say that, as the prank had gone too far...

Just as Naruyu was apologizing to Kiju, no one present, not even the Pokémon, noticed that a small purple bowl-shaped hairpin had broken off in the wind from Kiju's wrist where the tea had splashed on it.

At the same time, Ponpo, who was worried about Mingyou, seemed to sense something and subconsciously looked towards the direction of Emerald Town in the east.

"Hmm?"

……

(End of this chapter)