Chapter 244

Black World—

From Xiaosheng, Ash learned that his parents had to go out and wouldn't be back for a while, so he couldn't challenge the Gym; the only option was to first go to Cinnabar City to challenge its Gym.

As a fervent fan, upon hearing that Ash was about to continue his journey, he immediately expressed a strong desire to join him.

After calling his parents and learning that he would be traveling with Ash, they quickly agreed and also asked Ash to look after his two sisters.

At that time, Brock also happened to appear at the Orange Gym; he had come here to continue traveling with Ash.

Thus, the travel companions of the Johto Region were formed.

With Brock's addition, Ash could train more easily, without having to worry about logistics.

After traveling for a morning, Ash and his companions chose to rest briefly by the shore.

Ash then began training with his Pokémon, putting the weighted rings one by one on Pikachu.

"Ash, using this on Pikachu won't do much......"

Xiaosheng, who had come over, tried to lift the weighted ring; despite exerting all his strength, the ring didn't budge, and instead he lost his balance and fell backward.

This embarrassed Xiaosheng a bit, but he then noticed that several weighted rings were hanging from Pikachu's tail, and Pikachu appeared to swing its tail effortlessly.

Xiaosheng refused to believe it—Pikachu could lift so many weighted rings, yet he couldn't even lift one; that's just too weak.

His competitive spirit flared; he insisted on lifting that weighted ring, even though he grew flushed and still couldn't lift it.

"This is too heavy; probably only a Pokémon could lift it!" Xiaosheng said, panting and feeling a bit dejected.

"Pretty much, this weighted ring is very heavy."

Ash agreed, came over, took two weighted rings, and began training!

"?"

"You call this heavy?"

Xiaosheng stared blankly.

Just now you said it was heavy, but as soon as you came over you casually picked up two weighted rings.

Misty, standing nearby, watched silently, secretly surprised—not only were the Pokémon impressive, but Ash himself was impressive as well.

【Ash: Black Satoshi is truly outrageous, casually lifting those heavy weighted rings.】

Seeing Black Satoshi's increasingly outrageous training method, Ash himself couldn't help but complain.

【Xiba:?

Ash, aren't you just as outrageous? Did you forget that you casually lifted a young Basulong? That young Basulong weighing about 150 catties you lifted bare-handed; I think you've learned super strength, otherwise how could you have limitless strength!】

【Ash: No, I just eat, drink, and play normally, I don't train like Black Satoshi, Xiaomao said that in Pallet Town I'm the weakest.】

?

Xiaomao stared in disbelief, wondering when he had ever said that.

Is that guy Ash the weakest? Then what about them, are they the weakest of the weak?

No, I really did say that, but it was just when the journey started, mocking Ash; I didn't expect Ash to still remember it and bring it up to embarrass me.

【Xiaomao: You got it backwards, you're the strongest in Pallet Town, your physical prowess rivals that of Pokémon; even without training like Black Satoshi, if you were to awaken aura power, psychic abilities, etc., wouldn't that be even stronger?】

Now everyone had a bold, imaginative idea, and they began discussing it eagerly.

Namely, send Ash out to battle Pokémon, relying on his extraordinary physique and aura power; it's actually quite possible he could defeat some Pokémon.

Besides that, Team Rocket's Meowth should be beatable.

Seeing the comments say its combat power couldn't match that of a brat, Meowth flew into a rage, but it only got angry for a moment.

Black World——

At this moment, Ash gazed intently at the proud-bone swallow before him, his eyes full of admiration.

Just moments ago, the Proud-bone Swallow eyed their lunch, intending to sneak over for a bite, but Pikachu caught it.

Thus they engaged in a battle.

Surely Pikachu was dominating it completely, but the Proud-bone Swallow took volley after volley of 100,000 Volts and still hadn't fallen, and its fighting spirit remained high.

After a few more exchanges, the Proud-bone Swallow stood on a rock, head raised, utterly still.

Only then did Ash realize the Proud-bone Swallow was extremely stubborn, refusing to lose, enduring Pikachu's 100,000 Volts, and even as it neared loss of battle capacity, it remained standing.

Such stubbornness, not yielding—this Pokémon reminded Ash of himself, so he threw a Poké Ball at the Proud-bone Swallow and caught it.

【Yulongdu: Such a stubborn Pokémon is hard to come by; even if it loses, losing battle capacity it absolutely won't fall—what a spirited Proud-bone Swallow!】

【Xiba: How? Are you moved? Do you also want to catch a Proud-bone Swallow?】

Xiba's triple question directly brought back the image of Yulongdu's Flying-type Elite Four; many thought, if they saw Yulongdu again, would he send out a Proud-bone Swallow?

【Xiaosheng: Other Proud-bone Swallows are hard to say, but Ash's Proud-bone Swallow is truly strong; previously seeing the Great King Swallow cooperate with Pikachu, absorbing electricity onto its body to forcibly defeat opponents, that was truly shocking.】

What?

Absorb electricity onto its body?

And it's actually a Flying-type Pokémon...... Everyone couldn't fathom Ash's tactics, Pokémon.

The Black Light Screen dimmed, and the White Light Screen lit up.

On the way to Cinnabar City, Ash and his companions encountered a Trainer named Ake who was disguised as a Snubbull; this would let them understand Pokémon's feelings, then study their behavior patterns, allowing them to catch Pokémon more effectively.

Upon learning that Misty was the daughter of the Orange Gym's Gym Leader, Ake issued her a challenge.

Misty, who didn't know how to battle, reluctantly accepted; her sent-out Torchic faced a Feebas, and due to type disadvantage, Torchic quickly lost.

Having won, Ake momentarily gloated and let slip that the Orange Gym was too easy to beat; Xiaosheng, to prevent Ake from catching a Snubbull, lured the forest Snubbulls with fruit, causing them to surround him, and in the end, Ake, wearing a Snubbull costume, came to his aid.

Later, the Team Rocket Trio showed up to cause trouble, but they were just going through the motions and were quickly blasted away!

Having perfectly resolved the disturbance, Ash and his companions, on their way, discovered part of a poacher's capture net, and they helped Officer Jenny track down the culprit.

Meanwhile, the Team Rocket Trio happened upon a large number of poisonous Pokémon—Arbok and Weezing—caught by the Pokémon hunter Aaron.

Since their longtime partners, Ekans and Koffing, evolve from Arbok and Weezing, and the Team Rocket trio has deep affection for these two Pokémon, they resolved to rescue this group of Pokémon, and incidentally recruit them as companions to strengthen the team.

But Poké Ball hunter Along came over to stop the Team Rocket Trio, and also wanted to snatch the Team Rocket Trio's Arbok and Weezing.

The first time they battled Along, the Team Rocket Trio lost and were even blown away.

But the second time, the Team Rocket Trio had a premeditated plan and engaged in combat with Along.

Weezing used smoke to confuse the opponent's vision, and Meowth took the opportunity to go over and open the cage; even though it was electrocuted, Meowth was super brave, and now its electricity resistance is maxed out, successfully opening the cage.

【Ma Zhishi: Meowth's electricity resistance is also maxed out, that's right, being shocked by Pikachu every day, ordinary electric shocks are nothing to it!】

【Brock: mainly because the Team Rocket Trio's physical fitness is too strong, comparable to Ash, possibly slightly inferior.】

Totally agreed, everyone saw that inside the Light Screen the Team Rocket Trio were either getting hit or on the way to getting hit, but they felt like they were fine.

The Team Rocket Trio defeated Along's Fearow, but Along later released a Sandslash that evolved into Bengal Ras.

They were completely no match for Bengal Ras, and looked at the group of Arbok and Weezing; the Team Rocket Trio exchanged a glance, and in perfect unison they made a decision.

So let the Arbok and Weezing take those companions and flee.

"Listen up, didn't we say fleeing is wise? We can't possibly hand over cute you guys to him."

Xiaociao looked at the Arbok and Weezing.

"Moreover, those Arbok snakes and gas bombs still need you!"

Wuzang said gently.

"Just leave this to us, you guys go ahead and flee!"

The Team Rocket Trio blocked Bengal Ras with their bodies, buying time for those Poké Balls to escape.

Seeing the Team Rocket Trio like this for the first time, in order to protect the Poké Balls, they desperately fought against the Pokémon hunter's Bengal Ras.