Chapter 64 Someone Is Dead!

Old Man Fuji had originally intended to wait for Ash and his group to reply with something like, "We are successors to the great science of materialism and do not believe in ghosts and superstition," so that he could deliver his scripted punchline right back:

"Then what is that white hand on your shoulder?"

And then he would watch the group panic, turn their heads toward their shoulders, and wear expressions of utter dismay.

That would have been immensely amusing.

This was a classic tradition in Lavender Town. Every out-of-towner was given this little scare, bringing joy to the whole community.

After all, apart from the Pokémon Tower, Lavender Town had no other industries to generate extra income. The young people of the town had all gone elsewhere to work as laborers, leaving only the elderly and children behind.

Cultivating a ghostly atmosphere for the town and vigorously promoting the tourism industry had now become the primary direction of Lavender Town's development.

They even paid a hefty amount in advertising fees to the Vermilion Headlines every year, all to build up the reputation of the haunted house, making it famous throughout the Kanto region and even the world.

Nowadays, countless paranormal enthusiasts listed it as a holy site every year for a pilgrimage.

However, Ash's unexpected reply caught him completely off guard, leaving him momentarily at a loss for how to continue.

Yet, the very next second, Ash had already seized the initiative, throwing back the exact same question.

"Grandpa, do you believe there are ghosts in this world?"

Hearing this, the old man was slightly stunned, feeling a strange sense of bewilderment.

How the tables had turned!

Before he could respond, Ash suddenly pointed at his shoulder, eyes widening in apparent terror as he exclaimed:

"There's a ghost hand on your shoulder!!"

The white-browed, bald old man smiled with disdain. Did an out-of-towner really think he could turn the tables and pull this kind of stunt on an old trickster like him?

Ghost hand, my foot! These were just tricks used to fool outsiders—

"Tap."

His shoulder was suddenly patted, and an uncalled-for chill struck his chest. A sudden sense of foreboding welled up inside the old man.

He stiffly turned his head, and in his peripheral vision, he indeed saw a bizarre, purple-black claw resting on his shoulder.

Wait, why was this claw so chubby?

"There really are ghosts?!"

The old man panicked immensely. Actually, ghosts did exist in Lavender Town, but they were all confined inside the Pokémon Tower. There had never been a single record of one running out.

Danger!

By the time he fully turned his head, a purple shadow flashed first, followed by a pair of blood-red, oversized eyeballs suddenly charging straight at him. An inexplicable chill swept through his heart.

"Aahahaha!!"

Ash and his friends burst into triumphant, explosive laughter.

They had long since known that the people in this town liked to use the "ghost hand on your shoulder" line to scare people, so they had planned it out from the start: whoever tried this ghostly nonsense on them today would get it thrown right back in their faces.

Even if it was an old man, they were going all in!

Stop trying to bully honest folks from out of town!

"Geng-geng-geng-geng!!"

The owner of the ghostly claw, Gengar, also reverted to its original form, its massive, chubby body shaking with phantom-like tremors as it pointed at the old man and roared with laughter.

Teasing humans was its racial talent, and upon hearing Ash's plan, it had immediately joined in. The intimacy meter between the two had started skyrocketing like crazy.

"Hoo, hoo..."

Meanwhile, the white-browed old man on the ground seemed to have suffered a tremendous shock. His movements suddenly froze, his hands clutched at his chest, and even the whites of his eyes began to show.

Then, he collapsed straight to the ground and lay completely motionless.

Ash: "?"

The three of them frowned, a dark, ominous thought dawning on them.

Could they have really messed up?

Damn it!

Were the people in this ghost town really this fragile psychologically?!

"Grandpa, are... are you alright?"

Seeing no movement after a long while, Ash and Misty completely panicked. Brock, being the oldest of the three, quickly took a deep breath and regained his composure. Wearing a grave expression, he hurried over to the old man and squatted down.

He tremblingly extended a finger beneath the old man's nose.

One minute. Not the slightest trace of breath.

Danger!

Even Brock began to panic now.

Was this the first time a counter-prank had actually resulted in manslaughter?!

Was this old man trying to pull a scam on them?!

Seeing that the situation was turning south, Joy, the nurse from the Pokémon Center, quickly ran over as well. Upon seeing the old man showing no signs of breathing, her expression turned exceptionally panicked as she scolded:

"What are you kids doing?! This grandpa has always had a heart condition; he can't be startled!!"

The three of them: "!"

He had a bad heart and he still went around scaring people?!

"What do I do, what do I do? I only know how to treat Pokémon, and the doctor from this town went to treat patients in the neighboring town these past two days!"

Nurse Joy paced back and forth anxiously. The tension in the air was so intense that even Brock, with his rock-solid willpower, didn't dare to step forward and chat her up.

"There's no choice. I've learned a bit of common sense; this is a sign of cardiac arrest. We have to wake him up immediately, or he really won't make it!"

She hurriedly fished a long syringe out from behind the counter and filled it with a yellowish test serum.

"This is adrenaline! We have to give the old man a shot to wake him up!"

With that, she shoved the syringe into Ash's hands.

Ash: "?"

"Of course it's you! You caused this mess, you fix it. I'm terrified of needles!!"

Nurse Joy said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, urging Ash to hurry up and do it.

Given the current state of affairs, if he didn't wake up within three minutes, he would probably be asleep forever.

"..."

Ash knelt on one knee, swallowed hard, and tremblingly raised the syringe, moving it above the old man's body.

Nurse Joy drew an X on the old man's chest.

"Right here, aim for his heart. You have to be precise, or he'll die on the spot," Nurse Joy warned anxiously.

Ash: "..."

The hand holding the syringe began to tremble, and even the scene in front of him started to blur and double.

He was freaking terrified.

He never expected that a casual prank would actually run straight into someone with a heart condition?!

He would rather Pikachu just give him a thunder shock therapy instead!

Misty and Brock quickly rushed over to steady Ash's constantly shaking body.

"Ash, you can do this!"

"If you fail, the three of us are going to become cellmates!"

The other two were also freaking out.

Looking at the old man, whose body even seemed to be gradually stiffening, Ash finally hardened his gaze and forced himself to calm down.

He had to make this old man wake up now!

Damn it!

He fiercely drove the syringe toward the old man's chest, as if expending all the strength of his lifetime.

You have to wake up!!

...

...

"Thwack~"

The syringe suddenly wobbled upon contact with the old man's chest, bouncing back just like a spring.

Yet the elderly man who had fallen to the ground suddenly opened his eyes, his complexion turning exceptionally rosy as he shouted cheerfully:

"Surprise, motherf*cker!"

Ash: "?"

"Are you fertilized?"

The three of them stared like puppets as Nurse Joy took back the syringe and bent the spring-loaded needle tip with her fingers.

The old man also stood up from the ground, brushed off the dust, and threw his head back in laughter.

"Ahahaha, the last time we pulled this routine was 10 years ago. Little Joy, my acting was pretty good, right!"

"Grandpa Fuji is a veteran actor now~"

Joy, standing nearby, also covered her small mouth and chimed in with a smile.

The moment she saw Old Man Fuji collapse to the ground, she had recognized this classic scam posture and hurriedly pulled out the specially made spring syringe.

The three of them stood there in silence, as if they hadn't heard a thing.

This was the traditional art of Lavender Town. Whenever someone successfully turned the tables, the script would immediately reverse, staging the third-tier trope of: "I have a heart condition, please jab a needle into my heart."

And there were even fifth-tier and seventh-tier tropes waiting beyond that.

When it came to understanding these games, out-of-towners would always be out-of-towners—they just couldn't measure up.

"Oh ho ho ho ho~"

Listening to the uninhibited laughter of the two, Ash and his friends collapsed onto the ground just as Old Man Fuji had done earlier, looking completely broken and played out.

This town really was a ghost town.

The devils walk the mortal realm, and the hells are left empty...

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*(There will probably, maybe, be another chapter... Please vote and bookmark! It's the last two days, this is very important!!)*