Amazing information was everywhere right now. But when he thought that Red of parallel world probably still had a lot of precious information in his hands, Rope couldn't help but get a little excited. Although he didn't know why Red of parallel world was suddenly thinking of seeking cooperation from himself. But this was ultimately a good thing, wasn't it?
"I think it's better for you not to be too optimistic."
Whitley somewhat mercilessly threw a pot of cool water directly at Rope after hearing the news.
Rope wasn't annoyed, but just frowned and opened his mouth to ask, "So what do you think?"
"It's possible that it's a trap targeting you ah. parallel world's Red there isn't a fool. He must know that you are the one among our qualified worlds that prevented him from carrying out the operation in the middle. So he will definitely take a shot at you."
Whitley said very seriously.
Diana and Sennogi on the side were not quite sure of the situation. But their intuition told them that it was better to keep quiet now.
Rope pondered for a while, then said to Whitley, "But this is a conspiracy..."
When Whitley heard this, the little essay she had prepared in her mind was all useless. It's like a punch that's been building up for a long time, but before it gets out of the ring, the other guy says he's in the wrong ring.
If you throw a punch, it doesn't work and there's no point in not throwing it. It felt like a loss.
The good thing was that after a few moments of digesting it, Whitley was able to take that in stride.
There was certainly nothing wrong with what Rope was saying. This was the yang plot. No matter what the other party's purpose was. Since the other party didn't want to meet them in a head-on conflict, then Rope would definitely agree. After all, they actually wanted to figure out the other party's purpose.
Furthermore...would Rope not go if there was any danger? That's too little confidence in Rope's strength...
Rope was also very confident that she was strong enough to handle these small things.
"So what are we going to do next, go straight back or look for clues to the next village first."
Whitley inquired as she opened her mouth.
Rope then looked over at Sennogi in return, handing out a questioning look. Then on second thought he remembered that he and Sennogi had only just met, and even Diana couldn't necessarily read his eyes. So he planned to open his mouth to explain.
And to her surprise...
"We don't have information about the next village here anymore. The information has been cut off."
Sennogi looked straight into Rope's eyes and said blandly.
Rope raised an eyebrow. He hadn't really expected Sennogi to actually read his eyes.
But he was too late to pursue this now.
"The message broke off?"
Whitley asked with a frown.
"Um, we haven't actually had any communication with that village in many, many years. And then the older people in the village might still know the location of the village that wasn't very friendly to us."
"But all of the old people in our village, and those who might know about it, are dead."
As she said this, Sennogi's eyes, which were as brilliant as a sea of stars, were shrouded in a layer of gray. Her body shivered, obviously remembering something really horrible.
Such as witnessing one's friends and family die in front of one's eyes.
Sennogi raised her head and looked at Rope somewhat stubbornly.
''You're the only thing I can rely on now. I am not going to give up.'
Rope seemed to see such words from those talking-like eyes before falling into a headache once again.
"The man who destroyed your village, how much of the village's whereabouts does he know?"
Sennogi pursed her lips and gave Rope a somewhat sultry look.
Of course Rope knew that revealing someone's scars was bad behavior, but there were times when such things were just unavoidable. You can't just put the big picture at risk for the sake of one person. That wouldn't just be irresponsible for the greater good, but also for the one you hold dear.
Realize that there is no such thing as a nest in a nest. If you save her (him) a moody pleasure today. But what kind of torture he will face next is still a matter of opinion.
That's why it's not to say that the one standing here today is Sennogi, even if the one standing here is Cynthia, Rope is still going to ask this question.
"I don't know how much he knows about the whereabouts of the village. But we originally had a map of all the villages in our village."
Rope's heart clenched for a moment as well. Damn, a distribution map of all the villages...isn't this going to be a big fucking deal?
Not only Rope, even Hoopa, Whitley, and Diana had a 'something bad' expression on their faces when they heard this news.
Seeing this, Sennogi didn't have the idea to continue teasing them.
"Don't panic guys, that map was already burned by my brother before he saw it."
"That's the reason why he was so enraged and massacred our village at that time."
Sennogi's eyes darkened again as she said this, but after a moment she looked at Rope and gave a proud smile.
"But my brother did nothing wrong right! My brother and the others' sacrifices were worthwhile right!"
Rope could see the tears fighting in Sennogi's eye frames. And the hopefulness in the depths of those eyes.
"That's right, they renewed the life of this world for decades. Until the world was given a chance to be saved."
Rope said it with earnestness, seriousness, and respect. And he wasn't consoling Sennogi. if it was true that the man had gotten that map decades earlier, it was only that he would have gotten all the origins long ago.
Though Rope hadn't figured out exactly what the man wanted with all the Origins for the time being. But just like what was said before. It was nothing more than power, strength, immortality, resurrection, and so on.
Rope felt bored too. All of those things were things that were just out of reach for him as well.
There was really no difference between eternal life and damnation alone. Which is suffocatingly lonely.
Sennogi listened to Rope's words and the smile on his face widened a bit more before he gently wiped the teardrops from the corners of his eyes with his hand.
"That map seems to be of great interest to you."
That was, of course Rope was interested. It was a treasure that could turn his passivity into initiative. But soon he froze. He suddenly realized there seemed to be a different way to interpret that statement.
"Are you saying that 'I' am interested in that map?"
Rope asked in an aggravated tone.
Sennogi nodded, then smiled, "I guess you always see whatever you want to see."
Rope let out a bitter laugh, and didn't know whether he should thank Sennogi for trusting him, or criticize himself.
It seemed there was no escaping this trip after all.
Rope himself was the one who knew it best, even the God of Time - Teiya Luka didn't have the means to manipulate time in the true sense of the word. You think you're manipulating time, playing with it. But chances are you're just patching up the history, that's all.
Time is like a joke. You never know if what you're doing actually makes sense or not.
Whether you're changing history or just time playing a harmless joke on you.
"Eh, I guess I'll take a look at it after all."
Rope wasn't sure where the timing was, or if he should actively seek it out. But he believed. When the time came, fate would make the best of it.
Though he didn't really believe in fate is all.
"Since the clues have been broken, let's get ready and go straight back to Celestic Town. There I had someone buy a small house for me. It's been a long time of labor. Everyone should also take a good rest and recuperate. It won't be too late to set out again when we get new clues."
Rope said to Whitley, Diana and Hoopa.
All three of them nodded as well, thinking that Rope had a point. After all, it had been months of running around in the wilderness. They were tired too.
"Say... it seems like it's almost New Year's Eve."
Whitley looked at Rope as if he suddenly remembered something and opened his mouth to confirm.
Rope was stunned at first, and then there was a bitter smile. He had really forgotten about this one. If it wasn't for Whitley's sudden reminder, he had really forgotten that it was almost New Year's Eve.
"Then we should still return to True New Town before we take advantage of the New Year."
Rope also spoke with some helplessness.
It wasn't that they didn't want to go back to True New Town. But the main thing was that Rope would probably be in trouble if they were to celebrate the New Year now. A lot of people would come over.
The previous New Year's Eve could perhaps still be about ten of them getting together for a meal, but now, it would only be dozens of people. It just wouldn't get to the point where the kind of pomp and circumstance of the last League convention would be recreated.
Rope prayed that it wouldn't, in fact, he didn't even like the hustle and bustle.
"Let's leave it at that for now, let's go back."
And at that moment, outside of the village one, Gabite was looking at Gible with a serious look on his face.
"We don't than leave here! This is our home!"
Gible shouted.
"But there is no way to feed us here. There's no way to make us strong."
Gabite looked at Gible with the same insecurity.
"But this is home!"
"A place where people can live is home. Otherwise that's just a graveyard."
Gible looked at the guy in front of him with a shocked face. As far as he could remember, Gabite had always gone the dragon that was most supportive of his decisions. When the other Pokémon had any grievances, no matter if they were positively pressurized or reasoned with, Gabite would always do his best to smooth things out for himself.
But the one standing against himself now was his biggest supporter, his best helper, his last resort.
"I see, you're scared aren't you, or were you fooled by that human's rhetoric? It would be strange if they humans could really be our reliance! All we can rely on is ourselves!"
Gible shouted almost in a sobbing voice.
"That's all Uncle told you." Gabite said seriously, "Why would so many powerful Pokémon rely on humans if they really, really weren't trustworthy?"
"You've also seen that human Pokémon. a random one of them can kill all of our partners."
"Such a human, do we need to be consulted if they have any ill will towards us?"
The truth is, of course it doesn't. Rope is going to get these Pokémon killed if he wants to. Throwing a fireball would be enough.
After all, the Pokémon here are weak as hell because they don't eat or sleep well. Even the Gabite Gible of the Pseudo-Legendary Race was even about the same as a normally grown Pokémon of a normal race.
This could be described as shameful for a Pokémon of the Pseudo-Legendary race.
But Rope wouldn't discriminate against them, after all, it wasn't their intention to be so weak.
Gible wasn't feeling it right now. But Gabite was well aware of it. He had evolved for a while. An evolution that took place in the middle of a crisis. This evolution was enough to make him regret it for the rest of his life. He knew very well that he was already overdrawing his strength by forcing this evolution because of his insufficient accumulation of energy.
So he absolutely did not allow Gible to evolve. It absolutely could not evolve under these circumstances.
How sad a Pokémon without power was they acquired not yet clear. But the pride inside would never allow them to trash their potential like this.
"So, you guys want to betray this place just because you live your own lives!"
"If this place had ever given me any good memories, I would have stuck it out to the end. But, Gabby...this place can't let us live anymore. Sooner or later, we're going to die here. Because there's nothing here. It's a cursed land!"
Gabite's words hit hard. Gible's eyes reddened and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Then you guys go, I'll keep this place, it's my dad's will, I won't leave."
"No Gabby!"
Gabite snapped as she looked solemnly at Gible.
"It was my uncle's will that you guard this place, but with what you have now, with what we have now, what the hell are we going to do to guard this place?"
"Just like that group of humans, if they must enter the ruins, what will it take for you to guard this place? Take your own life? And the lives of every Pokémon here?"
"I'm just afraid that even if we did, in the end we'd just lose our lives for nothing."
Gible's eyes widened as she looked at Gabite and yelled, "Then what do you want me to do !!!!"
What could she do? She was just a Gible. Dealing with such a harsh desert environment alone was close to her limit.
"We have to promise that human. Then when we reach a certain level of strength, we will return here to guard this place."
Gabite's face was serious and earnest: "Only then will we have a chance to truly solve this problem."
"Only the strong can gain the right to speak in this world."
This Dao was indeed the unmistakable truth.
It was the same no matter which world it was in. Only those who had power in their grasp could truly control their destiny.
Gible still wanted to retort, but couldn't think of any rebuttal. She looked at the Pokémon that surrounded her, and they seemed eager to get out of here.
Gible looked at the barren desert.
She did the same.