"Turning back time, meow." Meowth stared out the window. "So is that why the flow of time here is different from the continent's?"
"Maybe?" James yawned, walked a few steps to the bed, and sat down. He glanced at Jessie and Meowth, who were still observing by the window, and yawned again after a moment.
Given the current situation, it seemed that whether they understood anything about Pelican Town or not was no longer important.
On one hand, this place was indeed, as he had thought, full of hidden secrets.
On the other hand, he was afraid that not a single one of them in this house could really bring themselves to lay a hand on the townspeople of Pelican Town, or Ron for that matter.
Thinking this, James leaned back against his pillow, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
—
The next day.
Ron had been out all day yesterday, so he only found out about the Void Egg that had appeared in the coop this morning.
After examining the rather strange egg in his hand for a while, Ron passed it to the Fletchling to incubate.
"The chicken that hatches from this egg later doesn't need to be sent to Kalos," Ron said to Shane, who was standing nearby. "If it lays eggs in the future, show them to me first before we make any other plans."
Shane nodded at his words and turned to continue his work.
He was usually a man of few words, and Ron didn't mind. After a long-overdue inspection of the farm's work, he briefly explained the farm's future plans to the Indeedee following behind him, then brought along Sailor, plus a few Rattata, a few Geodude, and Orthworm, and headed to the beach.
The Night Market had ended last night, and the boat was fixed yesterday, so they could set off for Ginger Island today just in time.
Because he wasn't sure if Ginger Island, like in the game, had an activity where you collect Golden Walnuts and trade them with parrots for building upgrades, Ron still brought a few tents for camping on the island.
Compared to the initial land clearing on the farm, clearing land on Ginger Island this time was much more leisurely.
Ron glanced at his surplus labor force and stepped lightly onto the boat heading to Ginger Island.
However, he didn't bring Shaymin and the others this time.
Ron's current plan was to first clear the wasteland on Ginger Island, determine the number of sprinklers needed for the deserted island and how many seeds could be planted, and then buy the seeds and bring Shaymin and Bellossom back on his next trip.
While he was planning, the boat gradually sailed away from Pelican Town. Before long, a hot wind blew in from the sea.
Ron took off the scarf he was wearing around his neck. Willy, who was steering the boat, glanced over and asked with a teasing tone, "Penny gave that to you, didn't she?"
Seeing Ron nod, Willy gave an understanding smile.
"Come to think of it, you've been in Pelican Town for almost a year now." Looking at the small island approaching in the distance, Willy glanced at Ron and the Pokémon playing around on the boat, and couldn't help but sigh, "Time really flies— I never thought I'd have a chance to return to this island."
As he spoke, the boat docked at the harbor. Willy took out his fishing rod and confirmed with Ron, "How many days are you planning to stay on this island?"
"Two days, at most two days."
Although Ron had the intention of raising a Pokémon that could use Rain Dance to meet the water supply needs, the farm was not short of any materials at the moment. Even the Battery Packs, which were previously in short supply, could now be produced steadily thanks to Rotom and the Lightning Rod.
In comparison, there was really no need to have that unlucky Pokémon stay on Ginger Island just to water the crops every day.
From his observations, the vast majority of Pokémon were social creatures and mostly friendly to humans. Only a very small number disliked being with other Pokémon.
In this situation, leaving a few on this deserted island would be far too cruel.
While mulling this over, Ron said goodbye to Willy, who had already caught a fish, and headed into the island.
He was still fairly familiar with the map here, so Ron easily found the giant sea turtles blocking the only path to the farm.
Logically speaking, this should be the part where you find Golden Walnuts on the island, then locate the little boy living on the island, and finally have him use the walnuts to drive the turtles away.
However—
"Geodude, use Rollout!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the three Geodude he had brought with charged towards the two sea turtles.
After a loud crash of stone against shell, the two sea turtles shot Ron an extremely displeased look, then slowly crawled towards the nearby beach.
"That must be the farm over there—" Ron glanced at the dilapidated wasteland, and after confirming, he began to assign the work.
First were the Geodude and Orthworm, responsible for clearing the land. In addition, one Rattata was assigned to scout for danger, to avoid any accidents while clearing the land.
The remaining Rattata were to search everywhere for Golden Walnuts.
As for Ron himself, he planned to visit the island's native resident—Leo.
After the Pokémon scattered, Ron headed for the bushes on the east side of the beach.
Because it was a rainforest, the trees here were astonishingly dense. However, probably because Leo had taken care of the place, the path leading to his treehouse was relatively clear.
Ron found the location of the small cabin with almost no effort.
Remembering that a Golden Walnut was needed to bribe the parrots, Ron searched the bushes and, as expected, found a golden walnut. Tucking this walnut into his pocket, Ron walked a few steps to the front of the treehouse.
Before Ron could get close, a red figure flashed before his eyes.
"Who are you?"
The figure was clutching a stick and was staring at Ron with extreme caution.
It seemed as if Ron's answer was even slightly off, he would fight Ron to the death with that stick.
Leo was now on high alert, guarding against Ron.
The reason was simple. On one hand, Ron had suddenly intruded into this place, which had rarely seen strangers since his birth.
On the other hand, he had just witnessed the entire process of Ron commanding monsters to crash into the sea turtles over there.
Having survived on this island, Leo had seen quite a few monsters, but this was the first time he had seen one made entirely of stone, with hands, and looking so ferocious.
"—" Ron paused, and under Leo's wary gaze, he simply introduced himself.
"Pelican Town?" Leo backed away cautiously. He didn't stop until a parrot flew onto his shoulder.
Then, he and that parrot began a series of bird calls that Ron couldn't understand at all.
I should have brought Indeedee.
Ron thought to himself while pondering a way to get on Leo's good side.
He really wasn't the type who was good at interacting with children. After thinking for a long while, he took out a berry from his pocket, and then took out the Golden Walnut he had just found.
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