"Hello there, man. I hear you loud and clear," Miles said, getting straight to the point. His tone carried a hint of teasing.
"So, what's going on? Did you reel in some incredibly rare deep-sea monster and want me to appraise it?"
"Let me state for the record: this is a comprehensive Pokémon appraisal stream, not a fishing channel for your daily catch."
"Of course! I know the rules!"
The fisherman swallowed hard, his face looking somewhat pale in the camera's feed.
He glanced around the gloomy reed marshes, as if terrified something might jump out from the shadows, and lowered his voice.
"Streamer, I actually watch your broadcasts all the time. I was there for the whole thing when you appraised that... that 'Mickey Mouse' thing covered in a rag being held by that beautiful woman. That was absolutely amazing!"
"Mickey Mouse?"
Miles paused, genuinely taken aback for a couple of seconds.
It was only after seeing the chat feed frantically reminding him that he realized the man was talking about the highly insecure Mimikyu from a previous stream.
He let out a breathless laugh. "Oh, you mean Mimikyu? That's quite the memory you've got there."
"Yes, yes, exactly! That creepy, ghost-like thing!"
The fisherman nodded frantically. A profound look of fear and unease bled into his eyes.
"Streamer, today... today at this wild lake, I think I encountered some sort of incredibly evil thing that absolutely shouldn't exist!"
"I need you to use your talent to tell me if the reflection I just saw in the water is some unknown wild Pokémon, or... or some kind of vengeful water ghost looking for a victim!"
As soon as those words left his mouth, the temperature in the livestream chat seemed to plummet.
[Viewer "Late Night No Hair Loss": Holy crap!!! Evil thing?! Bro, don't scare me! I live alone and I'm hiding under my covers watching this! A creepy lake and a water ghost story? I'm definitely having nightmares tonight!]
[Viewer "Just Want to Play With Squirtle": This is bad, this is bad! Is this a supernatural curse brought on by Mimikyu?! Will everyone who watched that stream encounter Ghost-type Pokémon in real life now?! ]
[Viewer "Wild Pokémon Breeder Apprentice": Wild water bodies are indeed frequent haunts for Ghost and Water-type Pokémon. Frillish and Jellicent, for example, love dragging people into deep water! What exactly did you see, man? Point the camera at it!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Water monkeys! It's definitely a water monkey! These wild, sunless pits are the perfect breeding ground for the resentment of the drowned! You've got a tough life, man. Why are you starting a video call instead of running away?!]
[Viewer "Frontline Melon Eater": Exciting! This is way too thrilling! I thought today was just going to end quietly with that big-eater Poochyena, but right before the stream ends, we get a supernatural horror case! Master Miles, hurry up and make him switch the camera to the water!]
Despite the wailing and howling in the chat feed, Miles felt a surge of energy.
As a professional appraiser, bizarre and suspenseful events like this only fueled his desire to explore—and they were absolute gold for stream viewership.
"Interesting," Miles said, sitting up straight and narrowing his eyes.
"First of all, man, don't scare yourself. Are you absolutely sure your current location is safe? If you're in danger, saving your own life comes first."
"Don't worry, Streamer. I might be a novice, but I know the rules of the wild. It's remote out here, but forest rangers do pass by occasionally."
The fisherman took a deep breath and slowly panned the camera back.
"Plus, I have my Pokémon keeping watch for me. Its highly vigilant. At the slightest rustle of grass or gust of wind, it can warn me and protect me."
As the camera turned, a Pokémon appeared on the screen, standing atop a towering dirt mound behind the fisherman.
It was a small creature that looked like a cross between a squirrel and a raccoon—a Sentret.
Its body was a warm, deep brown, with a striking white ring pattern on its belly.
What was most peculiar was its stance.
Rather than resting on its short forelimbs, it used its incredibly thick, brown-striped tail like a sturdy tripod, supporting its round body to stand firmly at the highest point of the mound.
Its pink, pointed ears were perked high, acting like highly sensitive antennas capturing the faintest fluctuations in the air.
Those bright, obsidian eyes intently scanned the surrounding reeds and lake surface with professional dedication.
The moment Miles saw the Sentret, the familiar faint blue light swirled in the depths of his eyes.
The [Eye of Pokémon Insight] activated silently.
Hum—
A detailed data panel immediately unfolded across his retinas:
[Target: Sentret (Sentry Pokémon)]
[Level: Lv. 9 (Peak state with excellent early development)]
[Type: Normal]
[Gender: Female]
[Base Stats: Rank D (215. Though the base is low, she possesses a unique talent in reconnaissance.)]
[IVs: Rank A (168. An outstanding specimen, one in a hundred!)]
[Ability: Keen Eye (Extremely developed visual nerves, able to ignore any environmental interference that lowers accuracy. Nothing can hide from her sight!)]
[Nature: Careful (Special Defense ↑, Special Attack ↓. Naturally sensitive and suspicious, the perfect nature for a sentry.)]
[Moves: Scratch, Defense Curl, Quick Attack]
[Current Status: Fully concentrated on guard / Highly alert to the unknown waters.]
When Miles's gaze swept over the brilliantly flashing blue text at the very bottom, a flash of genuine amazement and admiration crossed his eyes.
[Fate Entry: Alert Sentry (Blue) - Innately possesses a sixth sense and abnormal neural reflexes far exceeding her peers. She has an absolute, acute perception toward malice, killing intent, hidden gazes, and the slightest changes in air currents. In the perilous wild, she acts as a high-powered organic life-detection radar, perfectly helping her master avoid hidden fatal dangers!]
"Man, this Sentret of yours is the real deal!" Miles slapped the table in praise, his tone filled with professional approval.
"I dare say, even in the official jungle ranger squads, it would be hard to find a sentry Pokémon with such outstanding perception!"
"Just looking at her, not only are her IVs incredibly well-developed, but those eyes are practically glowing with sharp awareness. She is an absolute top-tier scout for wilderness survival."
"With her guarding your back from the high ground, it's no wonder you dared to casually fish in this gloomy wild lake all by yourself."
Hearing such high praise from the internet's recognized appraisal master brought a sliver of color back to the fisherman's pale face.
He cracked a proud smile. "Heh, you know it! I might always strike out when it comes to fishing, but my eye for Pokémon is top-notch. With my little Sentret here, I definitely feel a lot more safe."
"But Master Miles, speaking of striking out..."
The fisherman's tone suddenly shifted. He pointed the camera down at an oversized woven creel by his feet, his voice growing incredibly strange and bewildered.
"I just got into fishing recently. Whenever I went to those pay-to-fish reservoirs, I'd blank every single time. I couldn't even catch a minnow."
"My friends all joked that I was the 'Reservoir Charity Feeder.' So, I sneaked out to this wild pit today, a place nobody usually dares to visit, just to practice my feel for the rod. But then... bizarre stuff started happening."
The fisherman flipped open the lid of the creel.
In front of the camera was an absolutely shocking sight: a massive basket packed to the brim with thrashing, live fish!
Wild carp and grass carp of various sizes were frantically tumbling over one another.
But the most eye-catching thing was resting right at the top of the pile.
It was a massive Pokémon with bright red scales and huge yellow whiskers—a Magikarp.
It lay there awkwardly, its blank mouth gaping as it flopped and violently slapped against the other fish, completely unwilling to accept its capture.
"I normally can't catch a single thing, but today in this dead water, the fish were biting like crazy!" the man exclaimed.
"In just a few short hours, I pulled up a whole basket full! I even managed to drag up this massive wild Magikarp by sheer force!"
[Viewer "Canyon's Top Troll": Holy crap! A Magikarp?! This guy actually fished up a Magikarp with a regular rod?! Sure, they're weak, but they're still Pokémon. They pull way harder than normal fish!]
[Viewer "Late Night No Hair Loss": This is way too weird! As the saying goes, beginner's luck is strong, but an abnormal harvest like this makes it seem like something underwater was deliberately driving the fish onto your hook!]
[Viewer "Senior Pokémon Breeding Expert": A Magikarp? These things are notoriously useless in the wild. Aside from scales as hard as iron, they're just full of annoying bones. You can't eat them, and nobody wants to raise them. You wasted your energy pulling that up.]
[Viewer "Wage Slave Who Can't Afford Tea Eggs": The expert upstairs doesn't know anything! A wild Magikarp raised in extremely pure lake water, handled by a top-tier sushi chef, yields sashimi that is incredibly fresh and springy! Getting past the bones is a nightmare, though.]
[Viewer "Elden Ring Gold Medal Lecturer": When things are this abnormal, there must be a monster at play! A massive school of fish biting like crazy in the wild usually means there's a terrifying predator deep down driving them into a frenzy. These little fish were just biting at anything in a panic to escape! Bro, the situation under the water is definitely not simple!]
[Viewer "Just Want to Be a Quiet Rich Woman": Forget about whether the Magikarp is edible or not! Bro, where is that human-faced water ghost you were talking about?! Stop showing off your catch, my heart is in my throat here!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Get to the point! This spooky atmosphere combined with this freakishly good catch... I'm sensing a high-energy jump scare coming up! Everyone, get your protective chat spam ready!]
"Man, the 'evil thing' you mentioned... you don't mean this Magikarp flopping on the chopping block, do you?" Miles asked half-jokingly, eyeing the dopey-looking fish in the basket.
"Master! I know what a Magikarp looks like, even if it looks a bit strange!"
The fisherman slammed the creel shut.
He took a massive breath of the damp, cold air, his face turning grim as a deep, lingering terror filled his eyes.
"Master Miles, just half an hour ago, the surface of the water suddenly went dead silent. Like a mirror," he began, his voice trembling under the weight of his fear.
"Right less than two meters from the shore, a massive black shadow suddenly floated up from beneath the surface!"
"It was not a normal fish!"
"It didn't swim. It just hung there in the deep water, bizarrely... silently. Completely motionless!"
"It was almost as if it was intentionally tempting me, trying to get me to strip off my clothes and jump in to catch it!"
He shivered. "I felt like I was possessed. Only one thought was in my head: if I could just catch that huge fish, my day would be perfect. I even took off one of my shoes, ready to jump in..."
Hearing this, the viewers felt a collective chill run down their spines.
It was the textbook setup of a water ghost's "guiding fish" trap! Once you went into the water, you'd be dragged into the bottomless pit by the unknown entity, never to surface again.
"And then?!" Miles's gaze sharpened, leaning closer to the screen.
The fisherman rubbed his arms vigorously, trying to smooth the goosebumps raised by his own memory.
"And then! Just as my toe was about to touch the water, little Sentret up on the hill let out an incredibly shrill, piercing warning shriek!"
"That scream hit me like a hammer, instantly smashing the evil thoughts right out of my head!"
He gasped for air. "At the same time, a freezing, wicked wind swept across the lake. The ripples on the water cleared, and I looked down. I finally got a clear look at that monster fish's true face!"
The fisherman's pupils dilated with sheer terror, his voice cracking violently.
"That fish... its body was completely covered in pockmarks, its fins were all tattered and torn, just like a corpse that had been soaking and rotting at the bottom of the lake for days!"
"But the most terrifying part... on its head, it actually had a twisted... rotting dead man's face!!!"
"Those sunken, dark eye sockets were staring right up at me from the bottom of the water, filled with a kind of resentment!!!"
Boom!
A dead man's face! A rotting monster fish! A resentful gaze from the depths!
This combination of horrifying imagery dropped like a bombshell, instantly detonating the chat feed's fear threshold.
At that moment, every viewer felt a chill run down their spine, fingers flying as they spammed the chat in a panicked attempt to ward the ghost.
However, sitting behind his computer screen analyzing the situation, Miles felt his tense nerves suddenly relax.
The moment he heard the specific descriptions—pockmarked, tattered, rotting dead face—a flash of realization danced in his eyes.
The corner of his mouth even curved into an amused, knowing smile.
Case solved!
What vengeful water spirit?
This was that bizarre Pokémon—infamous for its almost comical ugliness—yet hiding the potential for a truly stunning transformation.
In this merged, parallel Pokémon world, humans had coexisted with these miraculous creatures for a long time.
But due to the extreme dangers of the wild and the highly secretive habits of certain rare Pokémon, the general public's knowledge of obscure species was still riddled with massive blind spots.
It was obvious that the fisherman on the screen was a victim of this information gap.
Driven by the inherently spooky atmosphere of the wild lake, he had managed to scare himself half to death, mistaking an incredibly precious Pokémon for a murderous water ghost out of a folktale.
"Whew... Master Miles, you weren't there. You just can't understand that kind of bone-chilling terror!"
The fisherman was still reeling from the panic.
Gulping down nervously, he used exaggerated gestures to continue painting the picture of his horror survival experience to Miles and the chat.
"I swear to you, it was absolutely not a normal fish!"
"A normal fish would see a person on the shore and either swim away in terror or just swim around. But this thing?!"
Upto 20 chapters ahead on patreon :-
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