Ash, with his invincible physical body, wants to become a Pokémon Master...

"Flying Praying Mantis Cross Scissors!"

"Iron Head, the Scizor!"

The attacks clashed, and both sides landed their blows.

In the end, it was Abi's Scyther that fell.

"Scyther is unable to battle, Ash wins!"

After the match, Abi wiped away her tears and handed the badge to Xiaozhi.

"Thank you for bringing your Scizor to challenge me... This is a good battle!"

"That's too much!" Xiaoxia didn't understand. She had only brought a bug.

"How could you, a woman, possibly understand the passionate feelings between us men!"

"Yes, Xiaoxia, sometimes it's hard to control your feelings for Pokémon."

"What? Ash, you're actually on their side?"

[Ding! Congratulations on completing the main quest: Insect Badge! : Please defeat Azalea Gym Leader Abi.]

【获得奖励：联盟币+5000；体力属性+2；攻击+2；自由属性点+3；昆虫徽章+1】

[Insect Badge: When you have this badge, the power of Bug-type moves increases by 5%]

————Slashes————

The day after the gym challenge, Mr. Steel returned the Gold and Silver Balls to Ash as he was leaving.

"So, Mr. Steel, has the secret of the gold and silver balls been cracked?"

"There's a strange lock inside this ball that prevents me from seeing its internal structure completely, but I can get a general idea of ​​it."

"This Poké Ball is used to catch a specific Pokémon."

"I can guess roughly who it is, but I can't tell you for now."

What's going on with this steel? It's like they didn't say anything at all, leaving Ash and his friends very confused.

Steel knew that what he was saying was not very human, so he gave an embarrassed smile.

"Could you do me a favor?"

"After Ash challenges the Azalea Gym, his next stop should be the Goldenrod Gym in Goldenrod City, right?"

That's the plan.

"That's convenient, I'd like to ask you to help me take these gold and silver balls to the maple forest."

"There is a place for offerings there. Just take the ball there and you will know everything."

"Since you've put it that way..."

Although he didn't quite understand the purpose of the steel, Ash agreed since it was on his way anyway.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, you have triggered a new side quest: "Delivery quests are common in Japanese RPGs, right?" Please bring the gold and silver balls to the location designated by Mr. Steel.]

[Rewards: Alliance Coins +4000; Stamina +2; Special Attack +2; Free Attribute Points +2]

Chapter 203 Pokémon Exchange Tournament and Reunion with Brock

After leaving Azalea Town, Ash and his friends continued their journey towards Goldenrod City, the location of their next gym.

Of course, this was accompanied by constantly getting lost.

However, getting lost also means that they will have no shortage of opportunities to battle wild Pokémon in the forests of the Johto region.

Taking advantage of this "rare" moment, Ash had Cyndaquil and Chikorita battle more to train them properly.

Is it really that rare?

"Speak up!"

Ever since Rinka discovered Ash's Absol, she's been hogging it and petting it all day, refusing to let Ash train it.

Now she's criticizing him again; this bad woman really needs to be taught a lesson.

However, they don't always get lost; occasionally, they find a way out of the forest and into a big city.

It sounds like they're talking about savages fleeing famine.

Anyway, Ash and his friends finally escaped their lost route and arrived at a seaside city.

However, there's something odd about the atmosphere within the team right now.

A few days ago, Rika finally realized that Ash seemed to have known her true identity all along.

In the past few days, people have even been calling her by her real name, Rika, instead of Yurika.

What an amazing discovery! (Ash: You just discovered that?)

So Rinka simply stopped wearing makeup. After all, putting on makeup every day was not only tedious, but also very uncomfortable to have a thick "mask" covering her face.

Now she's just wearing sunglasses and staying by Xiaozhi's side as before.

However, when she thought about how she had worked so hard to perform in front of Xiaozhi in order to avoid revealing her identity, she was overwhelmed.

To Xiaozhi, it was like watching a monkey show, and she felt incredibly angry and ashamed.

Finally, unable to swallow any more, she went to Xiaozhi with her face flushed red to breathe on him.

And then... and then it was left in Ash's bed as a body pillow.

This morning, when Xiaoxia came to wake Xiaozhi, Lihua didn't sneak away beforehand as usual.

An awkward situation ensued, and now Pear Blossom is too afraid to face Xiaoxia.

Although Xiaoxia appeared calm and indifferent, Lihua became increasingly nervous the more she acted this way.

Now, she gets startled whenever Xiaoxia speaks, and she even tries to do the dishes herself when Xiaoxia does.

In terms of getting Rika to do chores, it seems that Misty is more useful than Satoshi.

However, she was indeed overthinking it; Xiaoxia really didn't care.

This is what it's like when you're with Ash; you even have to lie down next to Misty occasionally.

I'm here to join you.jpg

Of course, Misty would occasionally bite Ash harder as a form of punishment, but that was about it.

"Look everyone, we've finally arrived."

"A grand Pokémon trading convention is going to be held here tomorrow... I mean, a Pokémon exchange convention!"

He pointed out the location to Xiaoxia and Lihua behind him, where there was a huge billboard advertising something very conspicuous.

"What's wrong, Ash? Do you want to trade Pokémon?"

"Of course not, have you forgotten why we came to this city?"

They were able to escape getting lost this time thanks to Xiao Gang they met earlier.

Thanks to his directions, we were able to get here smoothly, and the peat blocks that Ash asked Brock to help him find have finally been found.

At that time, Brock had run ahead with an older girl and hadn't picked up the peat block's package yet, so they agreed to meet at the Pokémon Trading Conference here.

"At the same time, I also have my eye on the Strongest Tauros Tournament, which will be held at the same time as the Exchange Tournament!"

The one-on-one "Who's the Real Bull" battle tournament, only for Kentaro!

Just now, when Ash was training in the city with Pikachu and Cyndaquil, they were almost hit by a large group of Tauros.

At the time, they were blindfolded and undergoing a training exercise in "observation aura," a technique that shields the five senses...

Essentially, the weekly mission requires Ash to dodge 500 ranged attacks consecutively while keeping his senses closed.

He was training with Cyndaquil and Pikachu when, unexpectedly, a large group of Tauros barged into the park where they were exercising.

If it weren't for Absol being placed outside and thus able to sense the impending disaster, it would have been a different story.

They pulled Ash and his friends aside, otherwise Cyndaquil and Pikachu would have gotten hurt.

Xiao Zhi later learned that today and tomorrow were the city's annual Running of the Bulls festival.

Today, large groups of cattle will be randomly and legally roaming around the city, although it's unclear why they'll deviate from their intended path.

But Ash couldn't teach them a proper lesson.

"I can't just let this go like this, since it almost hurt my Pokémon."

After learning that all these Tauros would be participating in tomorrow's Tauros Tournament and battling against the trainers' Tauros, Ash had an idea.

"In tomorrow's match, I will utterly defeat and humiliate you arrogant fools!"

A petty, muscular man.

"It's decided, I'll go to the Kentaro tournament tomorrow!"

"And Cyndaquil, you'll put on two horns and pretend to be Tauros to participate. You absolutely have to win, Cyndaquil!"

Ash picked up the hamster at his feet and excitedly pointed to the billboard for the strongest Tauros tournament.

"Nino?!" Cyndaquil glanced at the muscular Tauros on the billboard, swallowed hard, and shook its head frantically.

"Nino, Nino..." (No, no...)

"What, you don't want to go?"

"That won't do. After all, you've always lacked fighting spirit. Maybe participating will ignite your competitive drive."

"Let's persevere to get stronger!" Ash said resolutely.

Fireball Rat shook its head even more dramatically.

If I, a little mouse, were to be hit by that big horn, I would really die.

At the same time, in order to prove that it would still be motivated even if it didn't go, it immediately adopted a posture as if it was straining due to constipation.

They actually managed to summon the flames of fighting spirit.

"Nino!"

"Hmm, not bad. With enough effort, you can summon the flames of fighting spirit even in normal circumstances!"