Chapter 167

"Travel using transportation is not real travel!"

As a fundamentalist traveler, Mei vehemently condemned Qiao Ran's behavior. When she travels, she walks whenever possible and avoids using a bicycle if possible. She would never even glance at Bullet Train that runs on gasoline.

This is the stubbornness of Trainer.

"... What am I supposed to do? This isn't like the Pokémon World, where you can walk between two cities."

Hearing Mei's complaints, Qiao Ran couldn't help but roll his eyes at her.

"Especially here in China, if we were to walk there, it would probably take us several months to even reach Magic City."

"Do you really want to live in the Forest for months on end and never be able to take a bath?"

"...!" Mei's eyes widened.

"Do you really want to go months without being able to eat normal food, and only be able to eat Berry for every meal?"

"...!" Mei shuddered, as if she had Frisk something.

On the other side, Lillie clearly expressed her opposition after hearing Qiao Ran's words.

"No, absolutely not."

"I think Qiao Ran is right, using a car for transportation is quite good."

Lillie could understand Qiao Ran's choice. After all, they had been traveling by car for a while and then walking for a while all the way from Zhenze Lake. The car saved some time, and the remaining time allowed them to encounter all sorts of Pokémon in the wild.

According to her observation, Qiao Ran often catches Pokémon in the wild. She had previously thought that Qiao Ran also had a mission to assist some Pokémon Professor in collecting Pokémon, but later she realized that the Pokémon that Qiao Ran caught were actually placed in the Wild Area.

"Hmm... well... that's not bad either."

Mei gave an awkward but polite smile.

During the conversation, she gradually understood everything. It wasn't that Qiao Ran Slack Off; rather, this world was indeed quite different from the Pokémon World.

So, why is it so big?

In reality, Qiao Ran may have exaggerated a little bit.

The distance from Hangcheng to Magic City is not as far as imagined. Even if they walked, at their pace, it would only take them about a week.

To put it bluntly, this time, it was Qiao Ran who wanted to Slack Off.

Moreover, it's understandable that Mei and Lillie hadn't paid much attention to this issue themselves; they had been busy playing with Nebby and hadn't been paying attention to anything else, so it was only natural that they would be fooled.

--If you take a car there, it will take about two hours, and you should be able to have dinner at the Pokémon Center in Magic City that evening.

Then, the next day you can challenge the Magic City Gym and get the next Badge.

That's what efficiency is all about.

As for collecting the 100 Pokémon after Yveltal... it's almost over. Although Qiao Ran has been involved in various problems during this time, he has never forgotten about this issue. Whenever he sees a suitable Pokémon, he will "put" it into the Wild Area.

However, this matter can be delayed a little. Compared to the pressing issue of "making money," collecting Pokémon can be done anytime. Besides, there are three of them now. If all three of them get the next Badge, Lillie and the others can support themselves.

In the car, Qiao Ran's lips curled up slightly, and he silently thought to himself, "Plan is perfect."

Once Lillie and Mei have collected all the Badge, he won't need to work anymore.

No, it would be better if they all became Elite Four or Champion.

"So cute... Can this Pokémon float in the sky?"

The Nebby Levitate in the air caused another commotion in the car. Some people even took out their phones to take pictures, but no one reacted much. No one thought it was a scary or powerful Pokémon; they just thought it was some kind of new Fairy Type Pokémon.

What mischievous thoughts could a cute Fairy Type possibly have?

After all, even in the Pokémon World, very few people know the Nebby species, let alone in this world. In this world, Dianxi is considered a harmless and cute creature. If she were in the Pokémon World, Qiao Ran would probably be chased all over the world by Pokémon hunters the next day.

Dianxi is different from other Pokémon; she's a strategic resource that can be directly exchanged for money.

However, Qiao Ran simply didn't want to use the Eternal Diamond she created to make money.

"... Speaking of which, I haven't heard from that guy lately either."

Qiao Ran couldn't help but think of the young lady he had met at the Longjiang Gym. After seeing Dianxi, she had always wanted to catch a Pokémon just like Dianxi.

For a long time at the beginning, she would contact Qiao Ran and describe the Pokémon she had recently caught. Although she had only caught Carbink, she seemed to be enjoying it.

However, recently she has been in contact with Qiao Ran.

The frequency gradually decreased.

"They probably have other things to take care of... everyone's busy these days."

Qiao Ran looked out the window and couldn't help but Yawn.

There's still a distance to go before reaching our destination, so taking a short nap and resting during this time would probably be a good option.

The Magic City Gym is one of the most powerful Gym in southern China.

The Gym's main attribute is Psychic, and the Gym Leader is a highly respected elder in the Pokémon League.

Legend has it that he didn't become an Elite Four of the Pokémon League simply because he wanted to remain Gym Leader. If he had become Elite Four, he would have had to accept the Pokémon League's orders and travel all over the country to handle problems.

It is precisely because of this that there have been people in history who did not become Elite Four in order to become Gym Leader.

However, whether the Magic City Gym Leader is truly at the Elite Four level remains a point of contention in online discussions. Some have even proposed a quasi- Elite Four Realm to refer to individuals like the Shanghai Magic City Gym Leader who appear to be Elite Four, but whose Elite Four strength is unclear.

However, as Lillie flipped through the pages, she discovered something else.

"... Is it because my body is gradually declining that the Magic City Gym is holding a successor Competition recently?"

Sitting in her car seat, Lillie listlessly scrolled through her phone. The network wasn't very good on the road, but with nothing else to do, she could only wait patiently.

Mei and Qiao Ran, who were sitting next to her, both dozed off, and even Nebby lay on her and fell into a light sleep.

... She was the only one still anxiously researching the next Gym.

Are Qiao Ran and Mei really that confident?

"The signal is really bad."

Looking at her phone, which hadn't responded after refreshing for ages, Lillie couldn't help but frown.

The webpage she clicked on was the announcement page for the candidates for the Magic City Gym Candidate. According to the Pokémon League's Rules, the Gym Candidate would first be announced online, displaying their basic information and resumes. Then, registered Trainer would vote, and only the top third of those who received the most votes could advance to the next round.

After advancing to the next round, the real test of strength begins. Candidates will compete in pairs in an elimination tournament, and only the final winners will have the opportunity to become the ultimate Gym Trainer.

Therefore, to become Gym Trainer, you not only need a certain level of popularity, but also the strength to win over everyone.

Another point is that, as Psychic type Gym, the Magic City Gym generally only accepts trainers with Psychic type Pokémon ace Pokémon as candidates, leaving trainers of other types to unfortunately withdraw.

After all, a Gym with a long history carries significant weight in terms of a particular type. For instance, the Steel-type Gym in Jinling contains numerous records of methods for raising and training Steel-type Pokémon. These are invaluable resources and experiences, treasures that cannot be found elsewhere. If Gym were to arbitrarily change its preferred type, all of this accumulated knowledge would be lost with the change of Gym Leader.

This is something that neither Trainer nor the Pokémon League wants to see.

Only by delving deeper into a particular attribute can we continuously improve Pokémon's potential.

"The next Gym is amazing..."

As the wheels slowly moved forward, Lillie's heart grew increasingly uneasy. She had said before that she would participate in the Gym Challenge next time.

If this Gym is that strong, can she really win?

"... They're all strangers."

Lillie opened the candidate's interface, her slender fingers swiping across the screen as she reviewed the information.

Third place... never seen him before.

"The second-place voter... I don't know them."

"The number one vote-getter is a girl...? Her resume... local Performance Competition Champion... no wonder."

"Performance Competition" is a term unique to this world. In the Pokémon World, this type of Competition is also known as the Pokémon Showcase, a type of Competition popular in the Kalos Region.

In this type of Competition, trainers and Pokémon need to cooperate to showcase the bond between Pokémon in a different way, making it a Competition that displays cute charm.

However, in the Pokémon World, the Pokémon Showcase is limited to women, and the ultimate winner is called "Kalos Queen." But in this world, it seems that there is no such restriction.

Moreover, this type of Competition is significantly different from another type of Competition in the Pokémon World —the "Pokémon Contest".

Although Pokémon Contest showcase the beauty of Pokémon and Trainers, they still retain Double Battle component similar to traditional battles, which is quite different from the Pokémon Showcase that only focus on beauty and cuteness.

This is probably why the Pokémon Contest is more popular in a wider area, while the Pokémon Showcase is only popular in the Kalos Region.

After all, competitive matches are what most people enjoy watching.

"Since they're the Champion of a local Performance Competition... it's normal for them to have such high popularity."

Lillie nodded knowingly.

In the Pokémon World, the winners of such Competition are basically like celebrities. Many successful Coordinator and Performing Family eventually become actors and models, continuing to Illuminate on screen.

Lillie clicked into the list of candidates and browsed through it for a while, but since they were all unfamiliar faces, Lillie quickly lost interest.

"..."

Moreover, the signal wasn't very good while in the car, Lillie gradually became sleepy as she watched the constantly spinning circles.

"Ugh..."

Lillie couldn't help but Yawn, but this less-than-elegant action didn't last long. She immediately glanced nervously at Qiao Ran beside her, and only when she found that he was still asleep did she lean back in her chair with relief and close her eyes.

Good night.

"...?"

"Hmm..."

When Lillie woke up again, she didn't know what time it was. She just felt a blinding white light in front of her and her back was against something hard.

It hurts so much.

Lillie opened her eyes, then immediately squinted them again.

--The light pierced her eyes.

"Where is this...?"

After finally getting used to it, Lillie realized that she seemed to be in a Forest. She was lying on an uneven ground, surrounded by tall trees, and sunlight shone through the leaves into her eyes.

"You're finally awake."

Qiao Ran suddenly appeared from the side, holding a laughing ball of gas in his hand.

"Nebby!"

Lillie called out the name of the gas cloud, looking at Qiao Ran with some concern, seemingly not understanding why he was pulling it so roughly.

"Don't take its side. This guy teleported us out of the car while we were asleep. The other passengers might have already called the police."

Lillie: "???"

Lillie stood there, mouth slightly agape.

However, looking at Nebby who was secretly delighted, she was almost certain of one thing—what Qiao Ran said was probably true.

They were indeed teleported out before appearing here.

"It was this guy's prank."

Qiao Ran wanted nothing more than to pin Nebby to the ground and rub it into the ground, but after glancing at it a few times, she ultimately decided against it.

Because this guy is still a child... I definitely can't let him get away with this next time.

"Wait... wait, where's Mei?"

Lillie continued to ask.

"They're still Rest over there."

Qiao Ran pointed to the grass next to them, where Mei was still lying on the ground, her chest rising and falling, sleeping soundly.

As expected of a true trainer, he had already developed strong Adaptability to the wild during his travels, and even after something like this happened, he could sleep better than anyone else.

"Hmm." Lillie was also dumbfounded.

People's physical constitutions are indeed different.