When Eddie was training in Mt. Silver, he happened to encounter Moltres, who was also recuperating in the mountain. Moltres was grateful for Eddie's help, so it was happy to carry him to Indigo Plateau.
The sight of Moltres carrying a trainer to Indigo Plateau shocked many people. The fact that the Legendary Pokémon was willing to carry someone was remarkable in itself. Moreover, Moltres was the source of the sacred flame. For the Indigo Conference, Moltres held extremely symbolic significance as a Legendary Pokémon.
And the fact that it personally carried Eddie to Indigo Plateau was bound to spark many people's imaginations.
For example, Moltres carrying Eddie to Indigo Plateau was similar to a situation where an honorary professor from a prestigious university personally drives a student to the examination hall for an important exam.
In such a situation, everyone would have plenty of thoughts, wouldn't they?
Even though Eddie used Psychic to leave the scene in public, and although the reporters complained that Eddie didn't even give them a chance to ask questions, the incident with Moltres was more than enough material for numerous reports.
"Shocking! Moltres actually brought Eddie, the hero who defeated Team Rocket, to Indigo Plateau!"
"Has the Kanto Pokémon Champion already been decided?"
"Eddie says Moltres personally sent him to Indigo Plateau, and everyone else can go home!"
Various headlines appeared in the reporters' minds. Anyway, for these reporters, journalistic integrity didn't exist at all. Their main purpose was to create sensational stories.
The registration area for contestants at the Indigo Conference was a large reception hall where many staff members were assisting the participants.
There were many people here, both native residents and players.
Just when everyone was busy registering, the air in the reception hall suddenly trembled, and a distortion appeared like static on a television that couldn't receive a signal.
As the distortion gradually faded, to everyone's astonishment, two figures slowly emerged from another dimension as if they had crossed through a portal that traveled through space.
No, there weren't two human figures. When everyone looked carefully, they found that only one was human, and the other was a Gardevoir, whose body shape was very similar to that of a human and conformed to human aesthetics.
"The sudden appearance of a person and Gardevoir—is this Teleport? How strong is that Gardevoir to be able to move together with a person?"
Some people were surprised. It wasn't uncommon for Psychic-type Pokémon to teleport people in the Pokémon world, but such occurrences weren't exactly common either.
For a Psychic-type Pokémon to be able to teleport a person, first of all it must be very powerful—at the very least it must be Quasi-Elite level. Secondly, it must have extremely precise control, otherwise if it accidentally teleports the trainer to the wrong location, such as inside a wall, the trainer would normally die.
Therefore, even if ordinary people have powerful Psychic-type Pokémon, they don't dare to let their Pokémon teleport them. If something goes wrong, they could die, which is far too terrifying a risk.
However, if the trainer themselves also has psychic abilities, there will basically be no accidents when the trainer and Pokémon work together. In such cases, the Pokémon doesn't even need to be extremely strong—it only needs to have good control.
Currently, there aren't many people who are psychic. Excluding those who are hiding their abilities, the only ones who are publicly known are Sabrina from the Kanto region and Caitlin from the Unova Elite Four. The former is already well known to everyone, while the latter is still young, but because she's the eldest daughter of a wealthy family, she's also somewhat famous in upper-class circles.
Let's get back to the topic. Seeing a certain trainer and Gardevoir appear together, some people thought the trainer was psychic, while others believed the Gardevoir was very powerful, which was why it could teleport with the trainer like this.
The trainer who appeared with Gardevoir looked very familiar to all the contestants and reception staff. Although they were surprised and didn't recognize him at first, most people identified him after a closer look.
Now that they had recognized him, more people were looking at him, and many were whispering to others.
"Is that the hero Eddie? If that's him, it's normal for him to have such a powerful Gardevoir."
"You're stating the obvious, aren't you? He's the trainer who defeated Team Rocket's leader by himself. It would be strange if his Pokémon weren't strong."
"I heard from the League that the three Gym Leaders endured great hardship just to defeat the powerful Team Rocket boss, but in the end they failed to defeat him, while Eddie succeeded. Does this mean he's stronger than the three Gym Leaders combined?"
The League's propaganda had been very effective. After Sabrina, Koga, and Lt. Surge chose to "reform themselves," the League immediately fabricated a series of explanations to let those in the know understand that the three Team Rocket members had all been undercover agents, lurking in Team Rocket just to defeat the boss of Team Rocket.
Of course, only the residents of the Pokémon world believed these things. After all, the League still had credibility, and everyone was willing to believe what the League said.
However, just because the native residents believed it didn't mean the players also believed it.
"Hey, hey, do you actually believe the so-called truth released by the League? Why did those native residents believe it so easily?"
"How should I know? Maybe the League has strong credibility in this Pokémon world, or maybe people in this world don't watch enough political dramas. I don't even know if such things exist here."
"I feel that Eddie probably knows the inside story, but as long as they don't say anything, others can only speculate wildly."
"It doesn't matter. We don't have much contact with the Gym Leaders anyway. At most, we just go to gyms to battle. It doesn't matter whether we believe it or not. We can just watch other people's reactions and enjoy the show."
Yes, most of the players said it didn't matter what the truth was, as it had nothing to do with them anyway, and they were too lazy to investigate these so-called truths. Even if there were some curious people, they were just discussing conspiracy theories for fun, and no one was actually going to investigate the matter.
"That was really exciting—making a grand entrance and then running away. It turns out that using Psychic to travel here was also a way to make an impression. Okay, that felt good. I'll continue using it in the future depending on the situation."
Eddie could naturally see the shock of the crowd, but while he felt slightly pleased inside, his face maintained a calm expression.
He walked up to the receptionist at the registration desk, took out his badges, and quickly registered his information.
"Mr. Eddie, you have successfully registered. The specific date of your matches will be sent to you directly via the internet and text message!"
After checking in, the receptionist handed the badges back respectfully.
"Thank you. Have all the Gym Leaders from the Kanto region arrived? Where are they staying?"
"The Gym Leaders arrived a few days ago and are currently staying at the hotel at League headquarters."
Hearing the receptionist's words, Eddie's eyes gleamed with interest.
He realized that he might be able to relax during the days when there were no matches scheduled. After more than two months of intense outdoor training in Mt. Silver, he was looking forward to some well-deserved rest and catching up with old friends before the competition began.