Pokémon: Start with a Dragon-type Gym Leader, and pick up Guroton.

Upon hearing Man Chong's words, Li Luochen subconsciously followed his gaze and looked ahead.

A girl with medium-length brown hair stood under the shade of a tree not far away. Her hair was tied with a red and white striped bow, which made her look both playful and neat.

Two strands of parted hair fell naturally from her ears, curving slightly inward at the ends and gently brushing against her cheeks.

She was wearing a red short-sleeved shirt and a white short skirt.

A section of black leggings extended from under the short skirt, covering her shapely and slender thighs and extending all the way to above her knees. She wore a pair of yellow and orange sneakers.

This is the Haruka that Manchong mentioned.

After a quick glance, Li Luochen had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

This outfit is exactly the same as the timeline in the animation.

Upon seeing Xiaoyao, Manchong quickly walked forward and stood in front of her, slightly out of breath.

While catching her breath, Manchong explained haltingly, "Sister Haruka, I couldn't find Mr. Senri at the dojo entrance."

"Then I met this older brother who helped me... Haha, he even lent me a Pokémon and taught me how to fight a battle, and I won!"

When he said the last sentence, Manchong's eyes lit up, and the little bit of pride in his tone made his words sound more confident.

After listening, Xiao Yao looked Li Luochen up and down, her face showing surprise.

She never expected that the stranger she met by chance at the dojo entrance would quietly do her such a big favor.

Then, Haruka flashed a bright smile: "Thank you so much! Mitsuru is usually timid, and I was worried that he would get nervous waiting alone at the gym entrance for too long."

She clasped her hands together and bowed slightly to Li Luochen. Then, as if she had suddenly thought of something, she said with some distress, "But if Xiaosheng finds out about this, he'll probably start nagging his dad to lend him his Pokémon to battle."

"That kid has recently become obsessed with watching Pokémon competitions and keeps saying he wants to be a Pokémon Trainer. His dad is so annoyed by him that he's hiding in the training room in the gym's backyard and doesn't dare to come out anymore."

"By the way, where is Xiaosheng now?"

Manch looked up and, upon hearing Haruka mention Kacchan, asked about it.

He and Xiaosheng weren't that far apart in age. Although one was introverted and shy and the other was lively and active, they inexplicably got along very well.

"Him?" Xiaoyao shrugged. "He's still in school."

"I see..."

Manchong nodded slightly, lowered his eyelashes, and the excitement of winning the battle had quietly faded away.

"Manch, what's wrong?" Haruka noticed Manch's low spirits, bent down, and tilted her head to look at his expression.

Manch pursed his lips: "After I catch all the Pokémon, I'll have to go back and take a bus to Verdant Town. I don't know when I'll be able to come back."

"So soon?" May was taken aback, her smile faltering slightly. "I thought you were just here to catch Pokémon, and that you were still a while away from moving. You're leaving today? This is so sudden..."

"I didn't want to either, but things just happened so suddenly... The doctor said that the air in Green Shade Town would be more helpful for my recovery, so my parents moved up the trip."

Manchong was feeling a bit down.

Li Luochen glanced at the time and asked, "When will Xiaosheng be back?"

Xiaoyao was slightly taken aback, clearly not expecting him to ask this at this moment, but she still subconsciously answered, "He gets out of school at four o'clock, and it takes about ten minutes to get home from school."

Li Luochen glanced down at his phone screen; it was 3:30.

He then turned to Manchong and asked about the specific time he was leaving: "When exactly are you leaving?"

Manch looked up, his eyes slightly red: "We have to leave at 4:30. If we find the Pokémon by 4:00, it's still quite a journey from Route 102 back to Petalburg City. We'll arrive in the city around 4:30."

In the end, Manchong himself was somewhat discouraged.

Time is too tight.

Finding the Pokémon at 4 o'clock means they have less than half an hour left.

And this half hour also includes the time spent subduing the monster and the journey back...

After calculating this and that...

The possibility of saying goodbye to Xiaosheng in person is almost zero.

Li Luochen had thought time was tight, but after Man Chong finished calculating the time, he waved his hand dismissively: "That's it? I thought there were only five minutes left. No problem, I've got it covered."

Manchong raised her head blankly, the redness in her eyes still lingering, but her expression had already shifted from dejected to bewildered.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say, "But time is really tight," but when he met Li Luochen's eyes, which were so determined that they were almost unreasonable, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Xiao Yao glanced at Man Chong, then at Li Luochen, gently patted Man Chong on the shoulder, and said with a smile:

"Now that this big brother is helping me, I feel relieved. I'll go to Xiaosheng's school first. As soon as the school bell rings, I'll bring Xiaosheng directly to the dojo entrance to meet him."

After saying that, Haruka waved to Mitsuru and turned to run towards Petalburg City.

Man Chong watched Xiao Yao run away, then turned back to look at Li Luochen. After hesitating for a moment, he couldn't help but ask:

"Brother Luo Chen, how are we going to find Ralts? We still have to walk to that pond that Miss Qianjia mentioned, and even after we get there, we still need to find Ralts' location. Won't we run out of time?"

Li Luochen glanced at him sideways, a slight smile playing on her lips: "Watch closely."

As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of azure light suddenly erupted from his body.

The power of waveguides erupted, and blue light enveloped his entire body, causing visible ripples to spread through the surrounding air.

The light was not dazzling; it spread rapidly in all directions from Li Luochen as the center, like a net covering the entire Route 102, along with the surrounding forests and waterways.

A moment later, the blue waveguide light around Li Luochen slowly receded, and his gaze pierced through the layers of bushes, precisely locking onto a certain direction.

The information fed back by the waveguide power was clear and unambiguous. He raised his eyebrows slightly, his tone carrying a hint of surprise.

"Found it. About two hundred meters to the east, by the pond surrounded by those bushes... and it seems there's more than one. Two Ralts, one big and one small, they should be a brother and sister."

Seeing the changes in Li Luochen, Man Chong, who was usually sickly, widened his eyes, his mouth slightly agape, and it took him a long time to stammer out, "What kind of ability is this? He can sense how many are behind the bushes from this distance?"