"Ye Lan, you could get the Eterna Gym Badge first. It's pretty easy."
"The Eterna Gym's challenges have been strange lately, though. If you pay a little extra, you can take an easier challenge."
"And I've never heard of Gym Leader Gardenia raising a Gourgeist. I mean, it is a Grass-type Pokémon, but still..."
Xiao Li scratched his head. That Gourgeist was actually fairly strong. According to the forums, paying another fee let challengers face Victreebel instead. If that was still too hard, they could pay again to face Wobbuffet.
Why would a Grass-type Gym use Wobbuffet as its defending Pokémon? It really was strange...
Ye Lan's mouth twitched. He already had a theory.
He hadn't expected Gardenia to be this irresponsible. There were almost no videos online of her accepting challenges as Gym Leader, so many trainers didn't even know what the Eterna Gym Leader looked like!
The Eterna Gym's Pokémon handled challenges on their own. As a result, no one noticed when the Team Rocket Trio began openly profiting from Gym Badges.
That was right. Jessie, James, and Meowth had apparently followed them to the Sinnoh Region at some point and were now running the Eterna Gym. The trio had probably come up with this scheme to raise funds.
Ye Lan remembered that Jessie did have a Gourgeist, and James had a Victreebel. Those two Grass-type Pokémon were more than enough for one of the first Gyms trainers challenged, especially when they could pay to lower the difficulty.
The trio had some nerve. What other criminal organization members would think to raise funds like this? It was practically a challenge to the Sinnoh Pokémon League!
What Ye Lan really wanted to know was why the Sinnoh Pokémon League still hadn't fired Gardenia after all this. Apparently, being a