Kairos glanced at the time and figured it was about right, so he pulled his attention away from the system panel and closed the computer screen.
Watching the numbers climb was satisfying, sure, but some things still needed to be confirmed in person. He stood up, straightened his clothes, and headed out of the private room with Gengar and Chandelure in tow.
A few minutes later.
The scene at the Ghost World portal entrance in Saffron City was even more chaotic than a holiday rush.
This place was supposed to be known only to a small number of relevant personnel, usually just a few security staff milling about, with the occasional permitted trainer passing through in a hurry.
Now, it looked like the venue for some massive expo.
A dense crowd had formed a line stretching several hundred meters long, and it was still growing.
Among them were elite trainers in formal League uniforms, civilian trainers dressed in every style imaginable, and quite a few young faces that looked like students.
The air buzzed with restless energy, filled with the sound of overlapping conversations.
"Hey, did you hear? Someone just finished a quest and got a golden item box, apparently with a high-tier TM inside!"
"Really? What move?"
"Shadow Ball, I think. And a special variant, too!"
"No way, that's insane. My friend's been in there half a day and only got two basic TMs. How is the gap that big?"
"Honestly, last time I went in I got surrounded by a bunch of Gengars and barely made it out. Apparently this time there's a guidance system, so that shouldn't happen again."
"Still, the rewards this time around were pretty solid."
Kairos stood at the edge of the crowd, listening to the chatter.
He looked at the line, which showed no sign of ending, and shook his head.
He obviously wasn't going to queue up.
Hands tucked in his pockets, Kairos walked straight toward the side passage, ignoring the long line entirely.
The move immediately drew attention.
"Hey! You there! Where do you think you're going?"
A broad-shouldered man turned around and shouted at him, clearly displeased.
"Can't you see everyone's waiting in line? What kind of manners is that? Trying to cut?"
"Exactly. Young people these days really have no shame."
A few others nearby muttered in agreement, their expressions tinged with contempt.
"Probably some rich kid with connections, coming here to throw his weight around."
"Doesn't he know where this is? This is the Ghost World entrance, not an amusement park. You can't just waltz in whenever you feel like it."
"He must be out of his mind. The League has people stationed here. Without a clearance token, you're not getting through no matter what you say."
Kairos paid none of them any attention and kept walking.
Just as he was approaching the entrance, two guards on duty finally noticed him.
One was a League officer in uniform, the other a Ghost World gatekeeper in a gray robe.
The League officer's brow furrowed, and he stepped forward to block the path, arm raised.
"Stop right there! Show your clearance token, or go to the back of the line!"
His tone was sharp, hand already resting on the Poke Ball at his hip, ready to act at a moment's notice.
These past few days had brought no shortage of people trying to slip through unauthorized. They had to stay on full alert.
Kairos stopped, looked at the hand in front of him, and didn't react much.
He simply reached into his pocket and pulled out the token Wil had given him.
It was a black crystal of antique design, etched with the distinctive markings of the Ghost World lineage, emanating a faint but unmistakable aura of authority.
"Will this do?"
Kairos tossed the token casually to the guard.
The guard caught it on instinct, took one look, and his expression changed instantly.
The shift was startling, as if he'd just seen something incomprehensible. The stern face froze, then gave way to shock and a flash of alarm.
This is the personal guard token of the Ghost World Master himself!
The two guards exchanged glances, and the realization hit them both at once.
This wasn't some queue-jumping rich kid. This was a distinguished guest of the Ghost World Master.
"Quickly! Clear the barrier!"
The League officer reacted fast, put away his Poke Ball, and personally moved the barrier aside. His whole demeanor shifted to one of deep respect, as if receiving some important dignitary.
"Sir, please come through! Please come through! We failed to recognize you. My sincerest apologies!"
The Ghost World gatekeeper bowed repeatedly.
Kairos nodded, took the token back from the guard's hand, and returned it to his pocket.
"Thank you."
He stepped through the portal without another word.
It wasn't until his figure had completely vanished into the light of the portal that the people who had been sneering moments before seemed to snap back to reality, and the whole crowd erupted.
"What?! That was the Ghost World Master's personal token?!"
"Am I seeing things? That kid looked barely out of school, and he had a token of that caliber?"
"Oh no, oh no. Who was it that was trash-talking him just now? You've really stepped in it this time."
"Who on earth is this guy? What kind of person gets that level of access from Ghost World Master Wil himself?"
The speculation rose to a roar, but Kairos was already beyond hearing any of it.
Passing through the shimmering curtain of the portal, that familiar cold, damp air washed over him again.
This time, though, Kairos didn't sense that grave-like silence.
The moment he stepped into the Ghost World, the sight before him caught him off guard.
Last time he'd been here, the surroundings were desolate, barely a soul in sight.
Now, the outer reaches of the Ghost World, once empty and bleak, were packed with people.
Even more densely than the crowd outside.
Trainers and their Pokemon filled every direction, and the dark sky above was lit up in bursts of color from attacks being unleashed everywhere.
"Flamethrower!"
"Thunderbolt!"
"Shadow Ball!"
"Psybeam!"
Move after move rang out in quick succession, lighting up the area from every angle.
Kairos stood on the elevated ground near the entrance and surveyed the scene. Everywhere he looked, figures rushed about, locked in battle after battle.
The trainers were completely focused, eyes fixed on their panels, directing their Pokemon through the ruins in search of marked targets.
None of them looked frightened. Every face was lit with excitement, even fervor.
The look in their eyes was that of hunters sighting prey, or explorers stumbling upon buried treasure.
More than a few, after finishing one quest, leaped up cheering, then immediately charged off toward the next target without a moment's pause.
The efficiency, the motivation, surpassed even the League's most elite special units by a wide margin.
Kairos gave a small nod.
The game was working even better than he'd expected.
With all these players here, those ghost Pokemon corroded by the mist would likely be cleared out at a solid pace.
He found a relatively quiet corner and settled in to wait.
Before long, a subtle ripple in the space beside him appeared.
Marshadow emerged from the void.
It looked the same as ever, though its expression was difficult to read.
It glanced over at the trainers battling furiously in the distance, then turned back and stared at Kairos for a long moment, those eyes full of confusion and disbelief.
"Hey. Can you explain to me what exactly is going on here?"
Marshadow finally broke the silence, its voice carrying a tone of genuine bewilderment.
"Why are all these humans charging in here like they've lost their minds to help us deal with the corrupted ones? Don't they know how dangerous it is?"
It pointed at a trainer in the distance who was chasing a Cursola with a Metagross, looking utterly baffled.
That Cursola's mist corruption level was extremely high, and yet that trainer hadn't even blinked before rushing in.
"This wasn't normal at all."
Marshadow had observed humans carefully before.
The trainers who used to come here would start tensing up the moment they got anywhere near the edge of the core zone, most of them looking for any excuse to turn and bolt.
But this group lit up the moment they spotted a ghost Pokemon, like they'd spotted free money.
And besides, apart from the Ghost World lineage people, hadn't this place always been mostly off-limits?
Where had all these people come from?
Marshadow was genuinely struggling to process it. This completely overturned everything it thought it knew about humans.
Kairos watched Marshadow's increasingly flustered expression, thought for a moment, then answered:
"Because they're getting something out of it."
"Something out of it?"
Marshadow blinked, clearly not expecting that answer.
"What could they possibly be getting? Was there some kind of treasure here? Aside from the mist and a bunch of frenzied ghost Pokemon, what could there possibly be that's worth going this hard for?"
It shook its head, unconvinced.
Kairos didn't bother going into detail about the game.
Explaining to Marshadow what a game was, what virtual quests were, what item rewards meant, would take far too long, and Marshadow might not even grasp the concept.
Well, explaining it wasn't entirely out of the question, but definitely not right now.
"The short version is, there's something here they want. Complete the quest, get a tangible reward."
He kept it simple.
"As for the danger, don't worry. They'll be fine."
Marshadow's frown deepened.
"Rewards?"
It exhaled slowly, its voice taking on a heavier quality.
"I'm still a little worried."
"These humans look capable enough on the surface, but their skill levels are all over the place. Some are genuinely strong, but others are just padding the numbers."
"What if their Pokemon lose a battle and get infected by the mist? Then they're not helping at all; they'd be making things worse, and their souls could get absorbed too!"
Marshadow's concern wasn't without basis.
It was by now understood that the ghost Pokemon corrupted by the mist were under Spiritomb's control, being used to drain the soul energy of other beings.
Taking it a step further: if the defeated Pokemon of these trainers were also assimilated, that would add fuel to the fire.
At that point, forget clearing the mist. The entire Ghost World could fall in an instant.
Kairos heard this out, then gave a slight shrug.
"No need to worry about that. There's absolutely no way that happens."
What was he even talking about? The preparations he'd made — the scanning function for the players, the special matchmaking system, even the battle tutorial feature — all of it had been designed specifically to prevent exactly that scenario.
Unless they went completely off the rails and ignored every in-game prompt, they basically couldn't lose.
Which meant there was no possibility of mist infection either.
And besides, with that many rewards on the line, they had no reason to do something so reckless in the first place.
He'd accounted for all of this during the game's design phase.
This was, in essence, a war even if it was dressed up as a game. That didn't mean he could actually let people get killed.
Some bumps and scrapes were inevitable in combat, but he'd done everything in his power to bring that risk as low as it could go.
Marshadow stared at Kairos's reaction for a long moment.
It didn't know exactly what method he'd used, but if Kairos was this certain, there had to be a reason for it.
"Alright, if you say so..."
Marshadow scratched its head, still not entirely at ease.
"To be honest, these past few days, quite a few of the mist-corrupted Pokemon have been dealt with by these people. Far more than we were clearing on our own."
"But the thing is, there are just so many of them. It never ends. And with the skill gap being what it is, some of these trainers simply can't handle the higher-level ghost Pokemon."
"Just throwing numbers at the problem doesn't seem like it'll be enough."
It watched the mist continuing to pour in from the distance, a trace of helplessness crossing its face.
"It was like scooping out the ocean with a cup. No matter how fast you scooped, the water rose faster."
Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly, gaze sweeping over the trainers in the field.
"You're only looking at right now."
"Every time they win a battle, they get stronger."
"Skill, and the strength of their Pokemon, both improve through the process."
"And on top of that, certain extra rewards will make them stronger still."
"As time goes on, the opponents they can handle will keep getting tougher. It won't be long before none of this is a problem anymore."
"Besides, there are still plenty of people outside fighting to get in. The numbers here will only grow."
Marshadow froze again.
It opened its mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out.
Stronger?
You could get stronger through this kind of combat this quickly?
It understood, of course, that battle was the fastest way to grow. But still, this fast?
Did these humans have some kind of special potential that it wasn't aware of?