Pokemon: Radical Redux - Chapter 30: Cerulean City

[Not Pursuing a Career, Just Falling in Love]

Lin Jianzhi was a crybaby with overactive tear ducts. She would cry when nervous, cry when happy, and cry even more when sad.

One day, the senior she had secretly loved for years stood in front of her and handed her a pack of tissues.

Zhu Lishen: “Can you stop crying?”

Lin Jianzhi wanted to explain herself but couldn’t stop sobbing uncontrollably.

Zhu Lishen was going crazy: “What exactly do you want? Do you want me?”

Lin Jianzhi was stunned for a moment before bursting into loud wails.

Zhu Lishen: “!!!”

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

After I defeated the Demon King, I was executed for false accusations by the heroines.When I came back to life, this was the first thing they said.“I know it’s shameless, but would you help us one more time? Without you, the world will be destroyed.”…Would you help them if you were in my shoes?