"Elite Agatha, Gu Yuan is your disciple. It's best if you make the decision."
"No matter what you decide, we won't have any objections."
In the video call, there was a brief silence before Lance spoke to Agatha.
"I have no objections to this. Young people should be tempered through more challenges."
"Once this call ends, I'll contact Gu Yuan directly. If he agrees, I will give Dar the final answer."
Without any hesitation, Agatha expressed her approval. In fact, after hearing the news, she had already thought it through. As his teacher, Agatha understood Gu Yuan's capabilities better than anyone. Only through continuous large-scale battles and the defeat of strong enemies could he grow at such an incredible speed.
Counting the time, Gu Yuan's strength should have reached another level by now. His ability to maintain such a rapid growth rate even at the Elite rank was inseparable from the League's previous wars against the Hunter's Guild and the major families. Therefore, when the Hoenn League proposed this condition, Agatha didn't think of refusing; instead, she felt this was another opportunity for Gu Yuan.
As for the rewards, the League would naturally not mistreat him, so there was no need for Agatha to say more. After the short exchange ended, she contacted Gu Yuan.
"Yes, I understand. But you should already know my answer. Please tell me the specific time so I can arrive promptly."
Gu Yuan's voice came through the phone without a hint of hesitation, exactly as Agatha expected. After his recent efforts, he had accumulated an astonishing amount of points.
The downside was that the trial point maps Agatha had given him had already been cleared once, and the two major forces—the families and the Hunter's Guild—had been wiped out. Furthermore, as the strength of Charizard and the others grew, the consumption of points increased accordingly. If Gu Yuan wanted to keep this growth rate, he had to accumulate more points; otherwise, he would eventually run out of resources.
Unless he moved against Team Rocket, the efficiency of obtaining points would only continue to drop. With the invitation from the Hoenn League, he naturally wouldn't miss out. After learning the details from Agatha, Gu Yuan began to plan his itinerary.
Five days later, Gu Yuan appeared alone at the Vermilion City docks. He was currently in disguise, looking just like an ordinary Trainer. As the most valued talent in the League, his treatment was quite different.
The reason the Hoenn League requested aid was simple: they needed to borrow the strength of the Kanto League to eradicate both Team Aqua and Team Magma at once! After all, the Kanto League was currently the most prominent, having mostly solved its internal troubles. Their strength far surpassed other Leagues.
Thus, when Steven, the Champion of the Hoenn League, needed reinforcements, his first consideration was naturally the Kanto League. Steven's desire to act against Team Aqua and Team Magma wasn't to gain fame; he simply wanted to get things done so he could step down from his position as Champion and focus on excavating the stones he loved.
As a Champion, Steven's thoughts were truly that simple. Yet, he was also the heir to the Devon Corporation, and his strength was at the top of the world. He handled all affairs with perfect order, truly a model of excellence. To resolve the threat of Team Aqua and Team Magma as quickly as possible, he didn't mind paying a price to invite people from the Kanto League. To Steven, money was really just a number.
Gu Yuan, the outstanding rising star, had naturally caught his eye. According to the intelligence Steven received, Gu Yuan had performed excellently in the operations to wipe out the Hunter's Guild and the families. More importantly, Gu Yuan seemed to have a constitution that attracted hostility; with him around, there might be unexpected results in the campaign against Team Aqua and Team Magma. For this, even if it meant giving up more resources, Steven wanted to meet this young talent.
After successfully boarding the ship, Gu Yuan stayed in his room to rest and look over the intelligence provided by the Hoenn League. For this operation, they had put in a lot of effort, uncovering many clues regarding Team Aqua and Team Magma, including the companies, enterprises, and secret bases they controlled.
However, the most critical issue was that they hadn't found the locations of Archie and Maxie. To kill a snake, one must strike the head. The Hoenn League knew that even if they destroyed all the businesses and bases, as long as Archie and Maxie remained, the two organizations could still rise from the ashes. Only by dealing with or capturing them could the threat be resolved at the source.
Gu Yuan's job was to hide his tracks and try to use these clues to find Archie or Maxie. Of course, he wasn't doing this alone; the Hoenn League had also arranged personnel. Since the Hoenn League was paying, Gu Yuan intended to make the client happy.
Through these clues, he had a general strategy. But how to proceed would depend on the actual situation at the time. Thinking of this, he stopped overthinking and rented a training room for Charizard and the others. On the way, if he found wild Pokémon with decent strength, he would have Alakazam take them to harvest them. With his strength, no one on the ship could discover his tracks if he didn't want them to.
This time, his disguise was perhaps too ordinary, as nothing unusual happened during the entire voyage. He arrived smoothly in the Hoenn region. Moving away from the crowd silently, he released Alakazam. Using Teleport, he began his investigation.
First, regarding those companies and enterprises, he had no intention of investigating them directly. Even if he followed the flow of funds, he likely wouldn't find anything; otherwise, the Hoenn League would have found it long ago. Instead, it was better to start from the simplest line of thought.
No matter what Team Aqua and Team Magma wanted to do, they wouldn't let any news of Groudon or Kyogre slip by. And for this, he needed cooperation from the Hoenn League.
"It's Gu Yuan. There's something I need you to negotiate with the Hoenn League."
"Don't worry, it's not an unreasonable request. I just want the Hoenn League to put on a show."
Calling Dar, Gu Yuan proposed his idea. Dar quickly agreed and began to set things in motion.