Did the villainous professor survive today?

"The door has disappeared?"

Krenk's pupils dilated slightly.

"When did this happen?"

The thick wooden door that was originally ten meters high and five meters wide when everyone entered has been replaced by a series of airtight bricks.

Hearing Kroenke's words, Olivia turned around as well, and said with slight surprise:

"Really? The gate has disappeared?"

"Yes, it has indeed disappeared."

The wind sprite Griffin arrived at the original gate, stretched out its claws, and knocked on the brick wall.

A dull thud came from the other side of the brick wall. Griffin listened to the sound and explained.

"It's solid; you probably can't open it by brute force."

It then looked at Krenk.

"What's the situation with that little girl you mentioned earlier?"

"A little girl, about half her height, with white hair and red eyes, dressed in Gothic clothing, the clothes being a dark, blood-red color."

Krenk described the other person's appearance in detail, pointing to the spot where the person had disappeared.

"She was standing right here, looking at me without saying a word. Then Olivia called my name, and in the time it took me to turn around, she was gone."

"Invisibility?"

"Not really."

Kroenke pointed to his eyes.

"I activated my spiritual vision, but I didn't see any fluctuations of magic."

He paused for a few seconds, then added, "It's like he vanished into thin air..."

Did they vanish into thin air?

The wind sprite Griffin frowned deeply, realizing that the situation was quite serious.

"There's a ghost!"

The cowardly Ice Serpent huddled in the corner, its face contorted in a mournful expression.

"Alright, alright, Little Blue, don't cry. Trust Professor Krenk's wisdom."

Olivia calmed the Ice Serpent's emotions.

"..."

The stone man stood still, without uttering a sound.

"I looked around, there are no Pokémon around, and apart from the seemingly endless staircase, there's nothing else of interest," the Magma Dragon Lizard reported as it climbed back up the spiral staircase.

"Let's just go back... Hmm? Where's the door?"

Clearly, upon noticing the door disappear, it reacted just like Krenk, pausing for a moment.

"The gate has disappeared."

Kroenke's words were concise and to the point.

"Did you see a little girl with white hair on your way back?"

"No, was it that guy's doing?" Sparks flew from the Demon Flame Dragon Lizard's nostrils as it slammed its fist into the ground, creating a small dent.

"If I find this girl, I'll teach her a lesson!"

"I don't know. She only appeared for a few seconds and then disappeared, and I was the only one who saw her."

Kroenke couldn't be sure if what he was seeing was a hallucination; he tried to figure out the situation.

"Didn't you see the top of the lighthouse when you were climbing up?"

"No, there's no end in sight, that's why I came back."

"Okay, I understand."

Kroenke said.

Okay, that's good now.

As he expected, he had encountered what was known as "the production team's malice".

It's a prank where they put challenging dungeons or portals in the early game map and randomly teleport players to later maps.

Krenk brushed his hair aside and exhaled.

He had considered that this trait of being prone to misfortune might cause some trouble, but he had underestimated it.

"What are your thoughts on this situation?"

Kroenke looked at Olivia.

Olivia looked at her external brains.

The other elves shook their heads, indicating they had never seen such a scene before.

"...Okay, everyone, please move down."

Kroenke came to the edge of the platform and looked up and down at the entire lighthouse.

Whether looking up or down, there is no end in sight, as if you are inside the intestines of a giant beast.

But since the Demon Flame Dragon Lizard's previous explorations upwards yielded nothing, perhaps the solution lies below the lighthouse.

The situation is unclear, so it's best not to split up.

Everyone followed the spiral staircase together, heading towards the bottom of the lighthouse.

The volatile Demon Flame Dragon Lizard was the fastest runner, almost two stories above the others.

After walking for about thirty minutes, everyone arrived at a spacious platform.

"We're back."

Krenk pointed to a dent in the platform, the shape of which was exactly the same as the dent that the Demon Flame Dragon Lizard had smashed earlier.

"A Möbius strip?"

Krenk rubbed his chin.

"What is this? Is it edible?"

Olivia had never heard of this term.

"A product of a cycle." Krenk gave Olivia and the other elves a general explanation of how the Möbius strip works.

"We won't be trapped here to die, will we?" said the pessimistic Ice Serpent.

"..."

The stone man remained silent as always.

"Professor Krenk, perhaps the little girl you saw is the key to breaking the deadlock." As the only normal Pokémon in the team, Griffin analyzed seriously.

"Let's go around again and check the situation."

Kroenke said.

Although a loop has occurred, it is still too early to define it now.

"Want to walk another lap?"

The Demon Flame Dragon Lizard was somewhat irritable.

"Can't we just smash down this wall and break through?"

"It's more likely we'll be exhausted by the endless walls," Kroenke said. "We've entered a realm where brute force is unlikely to break through."

"So annoying!"

The Demon Flame Dragon Lizard hissed, spewing flames from its nostrils again. It took a few steps and sped up the stairs.

Krenk and the others followed behind him down the spiral staircase.

Soon, everyone returned to their original spot.

"Tch! They're back again!"

The Demon Flame Dragon Lizard, which had arrived at the platform long ago, stood up, crossed its arms, and said angrily.

"So, it really is a cycle?"

Kroenke stood at the edge of the platform, continuing to observe the entire structure of the staircase.

Overall, there's nothing particularly special about its location.

So, to break this deadlock, do we still need to find that little girl?

But where could she be?

I didn't encounter her at all along the way...

Kroenke was lost in deep thought.

"I see."

A strange voice suddenly came from behind him, pulling Krenk back from his deep thoughts.

Krenk turned around and noticed that it was the stone man who had been silent until now who was speaking.

"So you can talk."

"I don't like to talk when I'm thinking," the stone man explained.

"The first loop took 29 minutes and 53 seconds, and the second loop took 24 minutes and 44 seconds. Logically speaking, even if there is an error, the time difference between the two loops should not be this much."

"In these two loops, only one variable appeared..." Krenk quickly followed the other's train of thought, saying,

"Some hot-tempered guy."

Then, Krenk and the Stone Man both looked at the Demon Flame Dragon Lizard.

"Hey, why are you looking at me like that?" The Demon Flame Dragon Lizard asked, confused.

Due to the other party's irritable nature, it went downstairs much faster in the second cycle.

However, the speed at which others went downstairs did not change much.

"In other words, the length of this cycle is not fixed. Rather than a Möbius strip, it's more like a finite set of building blocks stitched together one by one. To maintain the cycle, you have to rob Peter to pay Paul," Krenk concluded.

"The faster you go downstairs, the shorter the cycle time."

He nodded, rubbing his chin. "From this, we can infer that if people go downstairs fast enough, this cycle could potentially break down."

"That's right."

The stone man walked up to Krenk, gave him a thumbs-up,

"You are very smart."

"This praise sounds a bit odd," Krenk thought to himself.

Krenk seemed to remember something, pointing to the endless stairwell:

"Oh, right, just throw something down there, nothing magical."

The stone man nodded, took a pebble from his person, and threw it downstairs.

The pebble fell, making a sharp whistling sound in the air. Soon, the pebble's shadow and sound disappeared without a trace as it moved away from the crowd.

Five minutes later, Kroenke nodded:

"The fact that the stone didn't return means that only something with magic can break the cycle; things without magic will disappear within the cycle."

"That's what I think too," the stone man echoed.

"Then, the next step is to verify whether this conclusion holds true."

While Krenk was speaking, the stone man grabbed the platform railing right in front of him, flipped over, and jumped straight off.

Whoosh!

As the stone golem's figure grew smaller and smaller, Krenk turned back to look at Olivia, pointing to the spot where the stone golem had just jumped off the building:

"He just jumped in there, all fresh and clean?"

"Yes, he jumped down right there, all fresh and clean."

Olivia gave her approval.

"Isn't this a bit too much of a drive..." Krenk muttered to himself.

"Isn't he afraid of jumping off...?"

Kroenke was halfway through his sentence when he heard the sound of wind crashing down overhead.

The next second, the platform he was on began to shake violently, followed by a strong feeling of weightlessness.