Pokémon: Just won the championship, the newbie growth system is here!

At the exit of the White Mist Forest, Ye Luo and the others bid farewell to Brimwyn.

As we left the low-lying forest and walked uphill, the fog became increasingly thin.

Parting the forest mist, Ye Luo walked to a cliff and looked into the distance, where the cityscape of Golden City came into view.

Looking down at the skyscrapers of Golden City, bathed in the midday sun, they are tinged with a golden hue, resembling a golden city.

"The buildings in the city almost uniformly use warm gold-toned exterior walls. The transparent high-rise buildings reflect the light at 7 a.m., noon, and 17 p.m., making the city look like it is covered in a brilliant gold when viewed from a distance during these times."

But this has nothing to do with the origin of the name "Golden City". The name "Golden" comes from the city's level of development.

The Johto region also has a highly developed city, which echoes and draws inspiration from the Goldenrod City in the Kanto region, even sharing a similar name, Goldenrod City.

However, smaller cities are not as developed as Golden City; you can only know how advanced they are by going into the city and seeing for yourself.

Latias gazed at the golden city in the distance, his eyes filled with curiosity.

Although Latias did visit cities when delivering messages, he rarely stopped and seldom had the opportunity to actually explore them.

Ye Luo was a little confused.

"You don't have any holidays during the week?"

Latias shook his head and said cheerfully.

"What are holidays? I'm usually out delivering mail."

That's really dedicated, but mail carriers should have holidays too.

Ye Luo remembered that they implemented a shift system, which allowed them to schedule their rest days to the time they wanted to rest, and if they didn't take a week off, they could accumulate it into their annual leave.

"Latias, how long is your annual leave?"

Latias blinked his amber eyes and thought for a moment.

"Including 46 days of holiday and 15 days of annual leave, it's roughly..."

Latias has lived in human society for quite a while, but the only thing he's not familiar with is that he still hasn't mastered the four basic arithmetic operations.

I have absolutely no idea how to do multiplication and division, but I can barely manage addition and subtraction with numbers up to two digits.

If you give Latias five minutes, it should be able to figure out how long it has been on vacation. Seeing its head shaking and looking like it is in deep thought, Ye Luo decided to give it the answer directly.

"You're not going to stay with me for the entire two months of annual leave, are you?"

"Is that not allowed...?"

Latias looked up with his amber eyes, revealing a pitiful expression.

I took my annual leave just to visit Ye Luo; there was no other reason.

With a lively personality just like her human appearance, she certainly has a few friends at the post office, but being able to relax and play together is another matter entirely.

The people at the post office only know her human identity; her Pokémon identity cannot be revealed casually.

So far, only Ye Luo knows that the humans of Laia are Latias in disguise, which is why he can maintain two forms and play with humans so unreservedly.

Ye Luo originally wanted to say that traveling with so many Pokémon was already enough, and that Latias should just do what he liked and not have to accommodate him by following along.

But seeing Latias's pitiful little eyes, he swallowed his words.

"Sure, but be careful not to reveal your true identity, or it will cause a lot of trouble."

"Hmm~!"

Latias nodded vigorously, the surrounding light distorted and transformed into human form, and he spoke with conviction.

"Don't worry, if it's discovered that it's a Pokémon, it will have to leave the people it knows, so that won't happen again."

This is a rule Latias set for himself; he's heard that similar things have happened before.

They kept calling each other friends, but when they discovered that Latias was actually disguised as a human, they didn't accept the fact and instead felt deceived.

Latias thought he had built a friendship, but when he learned the truth, the friendship vanished like a bubble, and he even faced discrimination because of it.

Not everyone can accept that someone next to them is actually a Pokémon in disguise. It's like a close friend suddenly telling you that they are actually an alien. Some people will think it's cool, while others will be disgusted and immediately end the friendship.

Latias was very saddened by this, so he would never reveal his identity to humans.

Thinking of this, Raya said happily.

"Ye Luo is a special case; he can accept it whether I'm Laya or Latias!"

Ye Luo calmly retorted.

"Anyway, whether you look like a human or a Pokémon, you're still just Latias."

What's the difference? Modern people read a lot more literary works. It's just about pretending to have two identities. Such imaginative works wouldn't have been unusual even 10 years ago. People are more accepting of strange settings.

It's just that people in ancient times didn't know how to adapt, so they just changed the appearance. What's so strange about that?

"Yes! Fallen leaves are the best!"

Latias, sensing these thoughts, actually shed a tear in the corner of his eye. He happily hugged Ye Luo and tried to stand on tiptoe to rub his head against Ye Luo's chin.

From a Pokémon's perspective, hugging and rubbing against its trainer is the most normal way to show friendliness. Cheerful Pokémon like to hug their trainers, but Latias is doing this in human form, which looks somewhat jarring.

Considering her past experiences of not being trusted by humans, and not being too impulsive when she approached, Ye Luo held Latias's shoulder and slowly pushed her away, giving her a warning.

"Have you forgotten that you're in human form now? You can't act too much like a Pokémon."

Raya tilted his head in confusion.

"Why? I am a Pokémon."

Ye Luo felt helpless about this. Latias was the type that didn't think straight at all, and had that innocent and naive personality typical of Pokémon.

Ye Luo had tried to educate her, but it was very ineffective, just like trying to teach a Slowpoke how to use chopsticks. Ultimately, they were different species, and it seemed impossible for her to understand human thinking.

For example, Latias felt no sense of shame, felt that it was not normal to hug and cuddle with humans he was close to, and was completely unaware of his human form.

Most Pokémon have a simple way of thinking, unlike humans who are more complex. Although evolution may lead to some mental growth, there are also many cases where they don't. There are also many Pokémon that, after evolving, still feel that they haven't changed much from before they evolved, and interact with their trainers in the same way they did when they were young.

In addition, some have actually degenerated. They used to be able to interact with their trainers with a sense of boundaries, but after evolving, they have lost all sense of boundaries.

The growth of Pokémon will test the trainer's attitude towards them. In addition, there are Legendary Pokémon, which are quite special.

Whether it's Meloetta using Ye Luo's satchel as a swing and sitting on it, or Latias, who, even in human form, still tries to act cute with its trainer.

Ye Luo was fortunate enough to come into contact with a legendary Pokémon, and thus came to a conclusion.

Their mental development is extremely slow.

Legendary Pokémon are quite intelligent, but like Meloetta and Latias, which have lived for a very long time, they have undergone very little change, both externally and internally.

I don't know how long Meloetta has lived, but she's still like an innocent child.

Latias seems to have lived for over 200 years, and now it appears to have a similar mental age to the starter Pokémon. Living a long time only increases experience, not mental age, which is quite unusual for Pokémon.

Laya appears to be a 16-year-old girl in human form, but her mental state often resembles that of an immature person, even less mature than that of a rookie trainer.

She tends to act impulsively, often acting on a whim out of curiosity. In a bustling metropolis, this makes it easy for her to get lost without you noticing, so you need to put a lot of effort into keeping an eye on her and preventing her from wandering off.

However, Ye Luo had a solution: he took out a Poké Ball and opened it.

A flash of light appeared, and Gardevoir appeared before Ye Luo, opening its eyes and bowing politely with one hand.

"Latias is moving around in the city. Gardevoir, please keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't wander off."

Gardevoir nodded.