Chapter 124

"Hey, what are you talking about, Meowth? I don't want to die."

"That's right, that's right, I'm only in my twenties, I still have a great life waiting for me, I don't want to die either."

Jessie and James surrendered.

"You two cowards, I won't surrender. We Team Rocket are invincible!!! Meow!"

"It's been a long time since I've eaten cat meat skewers. Let's try it today." Saying that, Ash took a boning knife out of his backpack.

"Meow!" Meowth was scared. It didn't dare to pretend anymore. It quickly lowered its head and begged for mercy: "I was wrong, you have a large heart, please spare me!"

After scaring Meowth, Ash took away all the tree sap collected by Team Rocket.

Carrying buckets of sweet tree sap, Ash and the others left the forest. As for Team Rocket, they could only pray for their own luck.

Just after walking out of the forest, Ash and the others discovered Heracross following them stealthily.

"Just as you guessed, Heracross followed," Erika said with a smile.

Everything was within Ash's expectations. Under the temptation of the tree sap, Heracross took the initiative to ask to be caught by Ash.

After leaving the forest, Ash and the others arrived at the Valley of Phanpy.

In this valley, you could see Phanpy everywhere, and all these Phanpy had owners.

"Excuse me, is this the Phanpy rental center?"

Ash: "Phanpy rental center? What kind of thing is this?"

Ichiro: "It's a place to rent Phanpy. As long as you spend money, you can rent a Phanpy at the Phanpy rental center. During the rental period, all the agates found by the Phanpy belong to the renter."

Steven: "Wow, who came up with this idea? It's definitely a genius concept. This guy is definitely a business genius!"

Finding agates depends on luck. If you're lucky, you can make money; if you're unlucky, you might not find anything for several days.

But renting Phanpy to tourists is different. This is net income; it's making money while lying down.

Malva: "Doesn't feel very reliable. If I were the owner of the Phanpy shop, I would deliberately rent the Phanpy with poor skills to tourists and keep the ones with good skills to find agates for myself."

Diantha: "Malva, if you went into business, you would definitely be a treacherous merchant."

Ichiro: "There used to be such situations, but in recent years, these bad behaviors have basically been eliminated. Only Phanpy that have passed the assessment are allowed to be rented."

Tourists aren't big fools either. If the Phanpy rented in the shop never find agates, they won't patronize it over time.

Cynthia: "Wait. I suddenly thought of an important point. Why do Dark Ash and the others need to rent Phanpy? If they want to find agates, isn't Dark Ash's Aura power more reliable?"

Bruno: "That's right, with Aura power, why rent a Phanpy?"

Lorelei: "Very simple, their real goal isn't to find agates at all, but to enjoy the fun in the process of finding agates."

After working for most of the day, the Phanpy only found a small piece of agate. With so many girls in the team, this one piece of agate wasn't enough to go around.

In the end, Ash had to take action himself.

After Ash returned to the Phanpy rental center with three top-quality agates, everyone exploded.

"The luck is too good, actually found such beautiful agates!"

"Wuwuwu, why did I work for a whole day and find nothing."

"Does anyone know which number Phanpy he rented? I'm going to rent it tomorrow!!!"

Because Ash helped make the shop famous, the owner made the agates Ash brought into accessories for free.

The agates Ash found were made into necklaces and given to Nana, Misty, and Erika respectively. As for the small agate found by the Phanpy, it was Brock's gain.

Brock: "Unfair, why did I get the most broken and smallest one!"

Everyone is a companion traveling together; this bias is too serious.

Erika: "It's good enough that you got one. I originally thought the four agates were one for each of us four."

Brock: "Us? Hey, I'm the core figure of the team, right?"

You, Erika, are the outsider!!!

After leaving the Valley of Phanpy, the five of them moved forward and arrived at the Ilex Forest.

Here they met Gary, who was catching Pokémon in the forest.

"Ash, have you caught any new Pokémon?" Gary asked proudly.

After learning that Ash had only caught one Heracross after traveling in Johto for so many days, Gary was even more excited.

He took 5 Poké Balls from his belt and said proudly: "I've already caught 5 Pokémon!"

Erika was a bit displeased with Gary's smug look and said lightly: "Catching Pokémon shouldn't be about quantity, but quality, right?"

"Are you doubting the level of my Pokémon?" Gary couldn't stand being questioned with his stinky temper. He immediately challenged Ash to a battle.

Chairman Goodshow: "Sure enough, Gary in any world is very brave."

Bruno: "Amazing, Gary. He's been a trainer for less than ten days and he's already challenged Dark Ash. Not to mention anything else, just this courage is worth learning from."

Steven: "Learn what? Learn his way of courting death?"

Gary: "..."

Facing Gary's provocation, Nana took the initiative to accept the challenge for Ash.

Both sides were beginner trainers, so neither side was at a disadvantage.

The Pokémon Nana sent out was Chikorita. The opponent was a girl, and a complete beginner, so Gary was embarrassed to take advantage of the attributes. Since the opponent sent out a starter Pokémon, he also used his starter Pokémon to respond.

In the end, Gary chose the Water-type Squirtle.

Although he was at a disadvantage in terms of attributes, Gary still had sufficient confidence in himself.

He was Professor Oak's grandson, had been influenced by Pokémon battles since he was a child, and didn't know how many people had praised him as a genius. A mere disadvantage in attributes would definitely not affect the direction of the battle.

Just like that, Gary started the duel full of confidence.

The duel hadn't even started, and he was even considering which Pokémon to use to challenge Ash after winning the duel.

The result.

"How could this be?"

Gary simply couldn't believe his eyes. His Squirtle was actually being suppressed by Nana's Chikorita.

Nana's Chikorita waved the leaves on its head, hitting his Squirtle one by one. If it weren't for the shell providing some protection, Squirtle would have lost its ability to battle long ago.

"Heh heh, now you know how amazing I am," Nana said triumphantly.

Looking at Squirtle lying on the ground motionless, Gary silently recalled it into the Poké Ball, then turned and left.

"D-did I go too hard?" Nana was a bit at a loss.

She was too familiar with Gary's state. After her first battle with Ash, she was in this state.

To put it popularly, her heart for battle was shattered.

"Don't worry, Gary isn't that fragile. The failure of this battle will only become the motivation for him to move forward," Ash replied affirmatively.

He had confidence in Gary; Gary wasn't someone who could be easily defeated.

120: Erika dancing gracefully, the Moon Concubine who delivered herself to the door

Gary: "Dark Ash still understands me. That's right, Master Gary is a cockroach that can't be killed. Failure won't make me despair, it will only make me stronger."

Lt. Surge: "Oh? Is this the reason why you didn't make it into the top 16 of the Indigo League? You want to become stronger?"

Ash: "Is that really the case? Gary!!!"

Lt. Surge's sarcasm didn't break Gary's defense; what broke Gary's defense was that Ash actually believed it.

Damn!

"This forest is a bit strange," Erika leaned toward Ash involuntarily. "Didn't you hear a strange sound?"

Misty didn't have the heart to scold Erika for taking advantage of Ash at this time, because she also heard a strange cry.

The cries were one after another, making one's heart crawl.

"Eh? Why didn't I hear the sound you guys are talking about?" Nana tilted her head.

Erika: "Maybe it's because Nana is a fool who isn't afraid of ghosts."

"Hee hee, right, I'm not afraid of anything!" Nana was very satisfied with Erika's evaluation.

"It's probably Ghost-type Pokémon making trouble."

You can't see the sun a few times a year in the Ilex Forest; such a place is most favored by Ghost-type Pokémon.

"I wonder if I can meet a decent Ghost-type Pokémon in the forest."

Ash had wanted to catch a Ghost-type Pokémon for a long time, but he had never been able to find a suitable target. Hopefully, good luck would fall on him this time.

Moving forward, they walked out of the Ilex Forest easily. As for Ghost-type Pokémon, they didn't even see a shadow.

Ash: "??? Wrong, why did Dark Ash walk out of the Ilex Forest so easily?"

Everyone is Ash, why didn't the Ghost-type Pokémon in the forest tease Dark Ash? Is it bullying the weak and fearing the strong?

Phoebe: "You guessed it, it's bullying the weak and fearing the strong. If they don't bully the weak and fear the strong, are they still Ghost-type Pokémon?"