They arrived in Lumiose City by evening.
Since James and the others couldn't stay at the Pokémon Center, Ron led them straight past it toward a hotel not far away.
James, who had been worried about how to talk their way through staying at the Pokémon Center, immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"If we're staying at a hotel, do we have money, meow?" Meowth asked in a lowered voice.
"—" The two fell silent, exchanged glances, then James couldn't help but take a deep breath and walked straight to Ron's side.
"Ah, um, we—" Just as James was struggling to find the right words, Ron suddenly turned around and interrupted him.
"You'll stay here tonight. I'll pay, and we'll deduct it from your wages when you get to the farm." Ron pointed to the hotel beside them.
"Huh?" James stood frozen in place. Jessie hurriedly stepped forward behind him to express her thanks.
Ron waved his hand and turned to enter the hotel lobby.
"That place might really have a lot of treasures." Meowth watched the two entering the hotel one after another, and couldn't help but whisper to James: "He pulled out such a large sum of money so easily. Maybe it's really a place where gold is everywhere, meow."
At these words, they exchanged glances, and after a while, they also entered the hotel.
Time skipped ahead to the next day.
Because they were challenging the Lumiose Gym today, the group timed it carefully and went to Lumiose City after breakfast.
As the largest city in Kalos, Haley had already been rendered speechless with amazement when they entered Lumiose yesterday.
Her understanding of cities was still stuck at Zuzu City, or perhaps Santalune City.
Of course, when she saw Lumiose on the map back then, she had a premonition that this city might be quite large. But actually arriving here, she still found it somewhat unbelievable.
And there were also astonishingly many people here. The streets were bustling with people, most accompanied by a Pokémon strolling along with them.
Besides ordinary transportation, there were actually Corviknight and Gogoat serving as public transportation—and they were cheap and reasonably fast.
Watching a Gogoat galloping away on the sidewalk, Haley raised the camera hanging from her neck and snapped a photo of it.
"That's really great. This way it's convenient to get anywhere." Haley said, then noticed a Cyclizar rapidly racing past on the street.
"That's a Pokémon too." Haley paused, scanning the receding figure with her Pokédex.
[Cyclizar: Mount Pokémon. It seems to have allowed humans to ride on its back since ancient times. Murals from ten thousand years ago seem to depict such scenes.]
"So amazing, it's just like Sebastian's motorcycle!" Haley said, taking another photo.
Unfortunately, that Cyclizar ran too fast. By now, not even its silhouette could be captured.
Lumiose was almost exactly like the big city Emily had imagined, even more exaggerated than that.
On one hand, the technology was advanced; on the other hand, Pokémon were utilized to the utmost extreme here. People and Pokémon lived together in harmony and comfort, helping each other and striving to live well.
"If only Pelican Town could become a place like this one day," Haley said, turning to look at Ron, who was also observing Lumiose City.
"Mm." Ron nodded, his gaze moving away from the advertisements plastered everywhere.
Those advertisements were almost eighty to ninety percent from the Lumiose Food Processing Company. Besides beef, chicken, and other raw food materials, their main products also included processed by-products. It seemed this had sparked a craze in Lumiose City, with their brand name written everywhere.
It seemed the people here also took pride in Lumiose City being able to produce such specialties.
"Ah, that, that's the specialty you brought back for Gus last time!" Haley also noticed the billboard Ron was staring at, and couldn't help but point: "That's it! Emily even specially took me to the Saloon to eat it the day before the Festival of Ice!"
"Huh?" At these words, Jessie and James behind them were stunned. They pointed at the billboard above and asked: "That thing?"
Seeing Haley nod, expressions of disbelief once again appeared on their faces.
The reason was nothing else.
Because of supply not meeting demand, this thing had even reached a point where it was hard to find at any price. Currently, it was being prioritized for supply to some high-end restaurants. Only a small amount of slightly lower quality product was sold in limited quantities, requiring people to line up early in the morning at stalls, or they couldn't buy it at all.
"It seems like a very wealthy place, meow." Meowth said, raising its head and staring at Ron's back in thought.
The reason they had attached themselves to Ron was partly due to orders from Team Rocket.
But they were only told to investigate the secrets of this place, without specifics on what exactly.
Besides, they couldn't even find this place's location on the map.
Before Meowth could figure it out, the group had already stopped in front of the Lumiose Gym.
Because Ron had told them about today's plans beforehand, knowing they would challenge this gym, Jessie and James had done some disguising to avoid being recognized by their old acquaintance Clemont.
"Hello, are you here to challenge the Lumiose Gym?" Before they could even enter, a robot ran out from the entrance and asked considerately.
"Yes."
"Alright, registering you now."
The robot said, taking Ron's Pokédex from his hand.
"Information entering—Pelican Town's Ron—currently held badge count—"
"0." The robot paused and returned the Pokédex to Ron: "Are you certain you want to challenge the Lumiose Gym?"
According to the program Clemont had set, the robot asked considerately.
Because Lumiose City was the center of Kalos, it was common for passing trainers to want to challenge it once. To avoid adding unnecessary trouble to his already heavy workload, Clemont had specifically added this procedure.
"Although this gym does not set challenge thresholds, we still recommend you follow the League's recommended challenge order for gym challenges—"
The robot said, raising its head to stare at Ron, waiting for his answer.
"He doesn't have a single badge." The Team Rocket group whispered behind him: "His Pokémon are just a beginner Froakie and a Bellossom. Can he really win?"
It wasn't that they looked down on that Froakie and Bellossom. No matter what, even that super-strong Pikachu had suffered quite a bit at Clemont's hands before successfully obtaining the Lumiose Gym badge.
Not to mention Ron's Froakie was even at a type disadvantage.
"But that Froakie is still very strong, meow." Based on Pokémon intuition, Meowth said as much.
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