Pokémon: Who told him to come out of Pallet Town!

Chapter 696 The Down-and-Out Wang Luo

Don't faint, this is a crucial moment.

Just as Xia was frantically checking on Emrito's condition and trying to help it forget its pain by hitting its brain.

A weak, hoarse voice, yet with a hint of familiarity, came from behind a huge, charred rock at the edge of the mountain: "Cough cough...you—ah!"

Almost the instant the head appeared, Natsume changed direction with the brick in his hand and smashed it on the man's head.

Zhu Lan, who was standing nearby, suddenly turned her head and looked warily toward the source of the sound.

A figure, clutching a head that was gushing blood, staggered out from behind the rocks.

The man's clothes were tattered and stained with ashes and dried blood. His hair was disheveled, and his face was covered in abrasions. He looked extremely disheveled and wretched.

However, what made Zhu Lan's pupils shrink the most was this person's face and features, especially those sharp, melancholic eyes that were extremely similar to her own.

It bears a striking resemblance, about seven or eight points, to the portrait of her ancestor Wang Luo that has been passed down in her family!

"Wang...Wang Luo, you're really still alive?!"

Zhu Lan gasped in surprise, instinctively taking a half-step back and adopting a defensive posture.

Natsume's eyes sharpened instantly, and his telekinetic powers quietly coalesced.

This guy, who should have been lying in his grave for thousands of years, is actually alive and here.

Wang Luo seemed to have suffered a serious injury. He leaned against the rock, panting for a few moments before he could barely stand up straight.

His eyes were filled with exhaustion, humiliation, and a bottomless resentment.

He looked at Natsume and Takeran, and his gaze was particularly complex and unreadable when it swept over Takeran.

"Yes...it's me." Wang Luo's voice was bitter.

"I never imagined that we would meet again under such circumstances... in such a state."

He took a deep breath, seemingly trying to maintain some dignity, but his physical weakness and mental blow made him appear even more dejected.

"To make a long story short," Wang Luo said, pointing to the huge pit, his tone filled with barely suppressed anger and a hint of barely perceptible fear.

"It's Akari! That damned bastard who stole all my achievements! He somehow managed to cut down the World Tree!"

"The World Tree is the foundation connecting Giratina to the Inverted World. With the tree destroyed, Giratina's spiritual entity is forever trapped deep within its own spiritual realm, losing its connection to the Inverted World!"

"Without Giratina's ties, the boundaries between the rules of the two worlds have begun to blur and collapse, and merging... is now inevitable!"

Natsume listened quietly, his face expressionless, but his mind was racing.

He didn't believe a single word Wang Luo said.

"Why don't you chop off that finger with the ring before you say all this to me?"

Natsume pointed to Wangluo's right hand.

There he was wearing a uniquely shaped ring inlaid with a rainbow-colored R emblem—the mark of a high-ranking officer in Team Rainbow Rocket.

A member of Team Rainbow Rocket comes to accuse another collaborator of being the culprit behind the global crisis.

This act is so clumsy.

When Natsume pointed out the existence of the ring, Wang Luo's expression instantly became extremely complicated.

He didn't immediately refute or deny it, but subconsciously stroked the rainbow R ring with his other hand, a hint of undisguised desire flashing in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a deeper fear and humiliation.

Natsume keenly noticed this detail, which deepened his suspicions.

This Wang Luo was far inferior in temperament to the Rainbow Rocket Team's core members who he remembered as having a powerful aura and looking down on everyone. He lacked a kind of inner confidence and arrogance.

"snort,"

Wang Luo seemed to forcefully suppress her emotions, staring intently at Natsume, her tone conveying an attempt to create equality while unable to conceal her urgency.

"You don't need to lie to me. My ring can sense that you also carry the aura of a high-ranking officer from our organization. You're a colleague too, right?"

"What?!"

Upon hearing this, Takeran turned her head sharply to look at Natsume, her face filled with shock and disbelief.

Is Natsume a member of Team Rainbow Rocket?

This was even harder for her to accept than Wang Luo being alive and present here.

Natsume himself was slightly taken aback, and then his face showed an extremely strange expression, as if he had heard some absurd joke.

He looked at Wang Luo, neither admitting nor denying, but instead asked, "Oh? How can you prove it? Empty words are not enough."

Wang Luo seemed to have been prepared. He pointed at Natsume and said with certainty, "Although the aura is very faint, concealed by some kind of power, there's no mistake! That ring... is on you!"

Natsume blinked, his strange expression deepening.

After thinking for a moment, he actually took out a ring from his system space.

The ring has an antique design and is made of neither gold nor jade. Instead of a rainbow R symbol, the ring face features an abstract and peculiar symbol representing the legends of the Hoenn region.

"You mean this?"

Natsume waved the ring in front of Nozomi's eyes.

"Just a souvenir from the Hoenn region, bought while traveling."

Upon seeing the ring, Wang Luo's eyes suddenly lit up, as if he had grasped a lifeline. He relaxed considerably, even managing a somewhat stiff and awkward "friendly" smile: "Yes! That's it! Although the style is different, the unique aura within those rings is the same! So... you were the 'middleman' too!"

His tone instantly became warmer, as if he had found his people, and he began to speak in a deliberately imitative but awkward "casual colleague" tone.

But Natsume's sense of unease grew stronger.

There may be cooperation among the senior officers of the Rainbow Rockets, but they would never communicate in such a humble and obsequious tone.

Moreover, the other party seemed completely unaware that Natsume was Team Rainbow Rocket's number one most wanted criminal?

This information is ridiculously outdated!

Could it be that this guy has been isolated in the reverse world for thousands of years, and even basic information has not been updated?

Suppressing his doubts, Natsume decided to try and extract information from the other person: "So? What did you mean when you said 'same as me'?"

Wang Luo seemed to have finally found someone to confide in, and she opened up all at once, her tone filled with resentment and bitterness that had been building up for a thousand years: "Just like me, caught in the middle between Team Rainbow Rocket and the reserve members they've set their sights on!"

Natsume: "???"

What is this guy saying?