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

Although it didn't become completely exhausted like Snowball and Garchomp, it had suddenly started to feel very uncomfortable.

"Speaking of which, Togepi has been sleeping all day. He should have woken up much earlier than usual."

At this moment, Xiaoxia also realized that Togepi was acting strangely, so she quickly released her Pokémon. Sure enough, her Pokémon also seemed powerless as soon as it came out of the Poké Ball.

Just as the two were wondering, Ash suddenly caught a glimpse of a strange energy flashing by not far away.

"Perhaps it's this energy that's related to the current strange phenomenon." Ash recalled his Pokémon into its Poké Ball and then pulled Misty along, heading in that direction.

Along the way, they saw that the Bug-type Pokémon in the bushes all looked weak.

It turns out that it wasn't that there were few wild Pokémon in this forest, but rather that they had all fallen into a state of exhaustion and were unable to move normally for some unknown reason.

"The situation is getting weirder and weirder." Ash and his friends sped up and ran forward again.

And at the end of that energy was a large lake.

"Sigh, this seems to be the Lake of Wrath."

Xia, who usually enjoys reading travel magazines, immediately recognized the location.

Unexpectedly, they also stumbled upon a place where they could determine the coordinates.

"Great, Ash! We've escaped our lost path!" Misty exclaimed with joy.

"This place is very close to Kaji Town!"

"Really?" Ash was also very happy.

But after touching Pikachu's shoulder, whose expression was still serious, he immediately released his Aura Sense to carefully investigate the surroundings.

"But where does that energy that makes Pokémon exhausted come from?"

Suddenly, a powerful yellow beam of light shot out from the lake toward their location. Ash immediately ran in front of Misty and used an elbow strike to disperse the beam.

At that moment, a red figure leaped out of the lake, its face contorted with rage and its eyes filled with brutality.

"Ugh, how annoying!"

Misty, who loves Water-type Pokémon the most, has encountered her only fear of Water-type Pokémon.

This is a huge red Gyarados; it was the one that fired the Hyper Beam just now.

"It's really rare for a wild Gyarados to grow this big."

Although it's a bit smaller than Ash's Gyarados, it's still pretty good.

However, its breathing was very unstable, and it didn't seem to be in good condition.

And although it looks like a shiny red Gyarados, the red on its body is somewhat mottled.

"Something's just not right..." Ash tried his best to appear friendly.

However, this Gyarados seemed to be in a state of extreme rage, continuing to fire Destruction Beams at Ash and his friends without saying a word.

Xiaoxia was startled again. "Xiaozhi, the other side doesn't seem like we can communicate at all!"

Then there's nothing we can do. If they won't listen to friendly conversations, then we can only try to negotiate in a language they can understand.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Pikachu!"

The electric current and destructive rays intertwined violently, creating a massive explosion.

"Pikachu's 100,000 volts are much weaker than usual."

"Pikachu, Pikachu..."

Pikachu also felt that it was very clunky when using its skills, as if a machine was running out of lubricant.

Even if there were some minor issues with the use of skills, the power of his body was still effective, and Ash simply tossed Pikachu away.

The electric mouse immediately leaped up and delivered a resounding slap to the Gyarados's large face.

A crisp slapping sound echoed across the lake.

The blast sent Gyarados completely disoriented, causing it to fall flat on its face and plunge into the lake, splashing water high into the air.

Although he successfully defeated it, Xiao Zhi wasn't very happy.

"Something is wrong with this Gyarados; it's filled with fear and pain."

While a normally evolved Gyarados may also have a bad temper, it would never be like this.

Gyarados seemed to be frightened by Ash and Pikachu, and after falling into the lake, it swam straight to the bottom of the lake without looking back.

Just as Gyarados disappeared, a burly man suddenly led a group of people in black uniforms to the lakeside.

"Huh? Where did this brat come from? How did he get in here?"

They looked at Ash and his friends in surprise.

"What were the people in charge of sealing off the forest doing? How could such a huge blunder have occurred!"

With a fierce glint in the leader's eyes, the group immediately surrounded Xiaozhi and his friends.

"Now that you've seen that red Gyarados, I can't let you leave!"

Xiao Zhi remained calm in the face of the people who suddenly rushed out, because he was extremely familiar with the symbol on these people.

"Are you Team Rocket?"

"Hmph, that's right!"

"I am Tatsumi, the captain of the special operations team of Team Rocket's Project R. Regardless of whether you accidentally broke into the experimental base, you're just unlucky now!"

They're still as responsive as ever; it's definitely the Rockets.

Looking at the people surrounding him, Xiao Zhi smiled disdainfully.

"You think you can surround me with your lot?"

"What do you mean by 'just the bunch of us'? There are ten elite members of Team Rocket here, and most importantly, I'm the captain leading them!"

Tatsumi got angry when he saw Ash's nonchalant face. These kids' Pokémon should be too old to fight, so how could they be so confident?

In the past, whenever he mentioned the Rockets, the opposing team would be terrified.

"How dare you look down on me like that?" Tatsumi snapped his fingers, and the Team Rocket members behind him immediately released their Pokémon.

"Disrupting Team Rocket's experiment is a capital offense. Surrender now!"

He also released his two rather ferocious Finch, which approached Ash and his friends menacingly.

However, Xiaozhi also keenly caught the word "experiment" in their words.

"So, the strange phenomena of Pokémon near Lake Rage were indeed your doing after all."

With the puzzle solved, Ash slowly clenched his fist, and Pikachu was ready to pounce.

But then, several incredibly powerful bolts of lightning suddenly struck down from the sky, hitting Team Rocket's team.

The Rockets were immediately thrown into disarray by the powerful blows.

"Damn it, who is it?"

Amidst the thick smoke and dust, a large, fat creature swooped down rapidly from the sky.

It is extremely powerful, and it unleashed a storm at Team Rocket and their Pokémon.

With a single blow, it blew all the Pokémon away and knocked them down, then immediately turned around, grabbed Ash and Misty, and flew away into the distance.

Dragonite reached the edge of the forest at an extremely fast speed and gently placed Ash and Misty on the ground.

Once they were away from the vicinity of the Lake of Rage, Pikachu and Togepi miraculously regained their energy.

At that moment, a handsome red-haired young man jumped off the back of the Dragonite that had rescued Ash and his friends.

"Are you all alright?"

He was wearing a black and red leather uniform with a flashy black cape behind him, but his tone was very gentle.

"Yeah, it's nothing."

Although he didn't really want to be rescued, since the other party meant no harm, Ash wouldn't deliberately give them a sour look.

But he soon realized that the person in front of him looked somewhat familiar.

"I think I've seen you on TV a lot before... Excuse me, are you Mr. A-Du?"

“That invincible champion, A-Du!” Xiaoxia quickly took out the poster she had received in Asagi City from her backpack and compared it with the young man in front of her.

This poster was printed shortly after Wataru became the champion in the Johto region and returned to Kanto, where he successfully swept aside his old comrades who had given him a hard time in the past.

Having conquered both regions, A-Du earned the title of invincible champion, enjoying unparalleled fame.

"Haha, I don't know if I'm invincible, but I am indeed the Adu you're talking about."

"Great! I've finally met the legendary flying champion!"

Ash was overjoyed to finally meet Lance, whom he had always missed before.

But A-Du's expression suddenly froze. "It's the Dragon-type champion!"

"Although my team did have a bit more Flying-type Pokémon in a previous competition, there was a reason for that!"

Then it quickly repeats things like, "Flying Pokémon are great too... Why can't Dragon Tamers use Flying Pokémon...?"

Such language is difficult to understand.

When this kind of thing is mentioned, A-Du becomes noticeably more talkative.

However, at this moment, A-Du finally took a closer look at the young man in front of him.

"Hmm~, you must be Ash, right? I've been looking forward to meeting you."

As the winner of the Kanto Alliance Tournament, he also helped many regional alliances solve numerous major problems.

Ash is now quite famous in both the Kanto and Johto Leagues.

A-Lv had naturally seen Ash's picture, the League's rising star, and recognized him immediately.

"It seems I probably didn't need to help just now."

He shook hands with Ash and greeted him.

"But why are you here? Generally speaking, trainers' travel routes never pass through the Lake of Rage."

"Well... because I got lost." Ash was a little embarrassed and quickly changed the subject, asking Lance why he was there.

"I came here to fulfill my duty as a Pokémon Investigator."

"Now that I am the league champion, I naturally have to set an example, so I also serve as the league's Pokémon Investigator."

"Bringing those who abuse Pokémon power to justice is my most important task right now."

He assigned the Four Heavenly Kings to guard various regions of Johto, while he himself, as the leader of the investigators, roamed freely, maximizing the Champion's deterrent effect against evil organizations.

"This forest has been secretly sealed off by Team Rocket. They have deployed a large number of troops here and the defense is tight."

"And they've been experimenting with it for a long time. That red Gyarados we just saw was Team Rocket's creation."

"We don't know what their purpose is yet, so I have to figure out their conspiracy completely and stop them."

Recently, the Rocket teams in the Johto region have been unusually active, seemingly attacking from all sides.

The simultaneous riots in multiple locations immediately tied up the already short-staffed Alliance investigators.

A-Du suspected there might be some secret involved, so he, as the champion, personally went to deal with the Lake of Rage, the most dangerous place where Team Rocket had the largest troop deployment.

After listening to what A-Lv said, Xiao-Zhi immediately replied.

"Mr. A-Du, let us help out too."

Ash decided he couldn't stand idly by because of the appearance of that red Gyarados, and Misty nodded in agreement.

After giving Ash and his friends a long look, Lance agreed with relief, "If it's you guys, then okay."

Ash is definitely capable, and the League is indeed short-handed; every bit of help they can provide is a bonus.

[Ding! A-Du: Affection +3]

[Ding! Congratulations, host, you have triggered a new side quest, "Defeat the Plot": Please join Lance in stopping Team Rocket's plot!]

【奖励：联盟币+4000；攻击+2；特攻+2；自由属性点+2；随机进化石+1】

"Let's start preparing to infiltrate." Lance took out the Team Rocket uniforms that had been prepared in advance and handed them to Ash and the others.