When Cole returned home that night, he told everyone about attending Professor Oak's summer camp, which would last one month.
When he asked who wanted to join him, Daisy was the first to refuse, saying she was at a critical point in her training and didn't want to leave.
She also told her son that Carbink would stay home with her to train.
Cole's face fell upon hearing this. What was up with his mom? She used to follow him everywhere, and now she didn't even bat an eye about being separated for a month!
This was too much!
Unknowingly, the mother-son relationship had undergone a complete reversal. Daisy was no longer the doting mother, and Cole had become the mama's boy! How ridiculous!
But with his mother being so insistent, he had no choice.
In the end, only Brionne, Heliolisk, Bayleef, and Pidove were willing to go to Kanto with Cole.
At this point, Daisy suggested that he take Lopunny along as well. This way, the couple wouldn't be separated, and someone would take care of his daily needs — killing two birds with one stone.
Her words made Lopunny and Heliolisk blush, but Lopunny was clearly willing to go.
Cole looked at his mom speechlessly: You're so thoughtful!
And so, the Pokémon accompanying him on this trip were decided. Next was preparing the things needed for the journey, though Lopunny would help him get everything ready.
Besides that, Cole also needed to prepare things for Norman's travels, such as a storage bag, Poké Balls, energy cubes, and so on.
Since he was going to Kanto for summer camp, he definitely wouldn't be able to see his brother off, as Norman would likely depart soon.
After that, he needed to inform the orphanage and ask Alfred to help look after his orchard.
Another day of troubling his brother — how embarrassing!
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The next day, the installation team for the Pokémon transfer device arrived. They worked efficiently, completing the installation in just one morning.
Since Cole was at school, Lopunny received the team. Thanks to the chattering bird that understood human language, they had no communication problems. Cole had given the bunny all necessary instructions before leaving for school.
When he returned from school, the transfer device was already installed. He called Diantha to test it by transferring a Pokémon, and it worked perfectly.
Soon it was time for Cole and his Pokémon to depart for Kanto. He entrusted Norman's prepared items to Alfred and then took his Pokémon to school.
The school had specially rented an aircraft to transport the students to Kanto, eliminating the need to go to the airport themselves.
However, when Cole arrived at school, he discovered that only four students from their Breeding Class were attending the summer camp: himself, Keith, Daniel, and Valerie.
The Battle Class had quite a few more participants — at least ten.
While waiting to board, Cole approached Valerie and asked, "Why are there only four people from our class participating?"
Valerie shrugged, "Because it costs money, duh?"
Fair enough — a realistic reason.
The fee of P$30,000 per person was indeed substantial. Students in the Breeding Class were generally not as wealthy as those in the Battle Class, so it made sense that fewer of them were participating.
The school had also assigned a teacher to lead them. Cole knew this teacher — the Battle Class homeroom teacher, a young and beautiful woman who was reportedly a very powerful trainer.
Soon it was time to board. He and the others began boarding in an orderly manner as instructed by their teachers.
Their homeroom teacher, Sarah, was also there today. She kept giving instructions to the four of them, "You must listen to Ms. Victoria. Don't wander around in unfamiliar places. If you encounter any difficulties there, be sure to ask a teacher for help. You can also call me anytime if needed, understand?"
Victoria was the teacher accompanying Cole and the others on this trip.
Although Sarah was talking incessantly, none of the four found her annoying. They listened attentively and nodded repeatedly.
Only after sending the four onto the aircraft did she finally close her mouth.
As the aircraft took off, Cole and the others could still see their teacher through the window, waving enthusiastically and seemingly calling out something. Since they couldn't hear her, they simply waved back to reassure her.
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The aircraft rented by the school wasn't particularly advanced, and its flying speed was painfully slow.
It took everyone a full four days to reach Kanto.
The aircraft landed in Celadon, the largest city in Kanto. Cole and the others would rest there for a day before taking a car to Pallet Town to register the next day.
After Victoria had settled the children in a hotel, she gathered everyone together.
"We still have some time today. You can wander around Celadon as you wish. It would be a shame not to take a good look at this metropolis, said to be second only to Goldenrod City in Johto. However, one thing — you must return by 5 PM, or I'll have to call your parents."
The students from their school were all old enough to move around independently, so the teacher wasn't particularly worried about them going out.
"Yes!" the children answered in unison, then left in small groups.
Valerie was pulling Cole and Keith, about to discuss where to go, when Daniel suddenly approached, "I'll take you guys to a great place! A place you absolutely can't miss when in Celadon."
"What place?" Valerie looked at him suspiciously.
"Come on, you'll know when we get there. Why do you have to keep asking?" Daniel impatiently brushed her off.
Valerie was quite annoyed and raised her fist to hit him on the head.
Seeing this, Cole quickly stopped her, "Alright, let's go see this great place Daniel is talking about. Maybe there will be a surprise!"
Keith nodded repeatedly, indicating agreement.
Seeing that Cole had spoken up, Valerie gave in and no longer argued with Daniel. She just waved her fist at him and said, "If it's not fun, you'll see what I'll do to you!"
Daniel turned away, ignoring her threat.
He didn't actually know the way and needed to use his navigator to guide them.
Under Daniel's leadership, the four finally stopped in front of a huge building. Above the building, the sign read "Celadon Game Corner" in large characters.
"This is your great place?" Valerie looked at Daniel in disbelief.
"Of course! I've wanted to visit Celadon's Game Corner for a long time. Now that we're here, we must check it out!" Daniel said proudly.
"Isn't this just a gambling place?" Valerie said, stomping her foot.
"Nonsense! What gambling?" Daniel retorted angrily, "How can games be called gambling? This Game Corner has a legitimate business license. I won't let you slander it!"
"You!" Valerie glared at him.
Seeing that the two were about to argue again, Cole quickly intervened, "Alright, alright, since we're already here, let's go in and take a look. I've heard this place is famous and you can exchange for many prizes, even rare Pokémon."
"Right, right!" Daniel's eyes lit up, "I knew Cole understands me best!"
"Cole, how can you side with him!" Valerie glared at Cole, then turned to Keith, "Keith, what do you say?"
Keith was startled, "I... I... I'll follow Cole!"
Valerie: "..."
The minority follows the majority, and finally she entered the game hall with the three boys.
When the four walked into the hall, they saw all kinds of gaming machines, mostly related to gambling, with slot machines being the most common.
Many people were sitting in front of the machines, busy in the hall — some crying, some laughing, some restraining themselves, some acting wildly... all kinds of people were there.
As soon as Valerie entered, she immediately frowned at the unsavory atmosphere.
Cole smiled and comforted her, "Don't be so serious, just think of it as gaining some experience. Sometimes experiences like this will come in handy in the future."
Hearing this, Valerie's brow relaxed slightly.
Under the guidance of the arcade staff, the group exchanged some game tokens at the counter, with Daniel exchanging the most.
After getting their tokens, they approached a slot machine.
"Me first, me first!" Daniel couldn't wait and sat down right away.
The rules of the slot machine were simple: insert coins, pull the lever, and the patterns on the machine would change rapidly. When they stopped, if all three patterns matched, you won.
Different patterns had different payout rates.
After sitting down, Daniel immediately inserted game tokens into the machine and pulled the lever hard. The patterns began to flash. He swallowed and stared intently at the screen.
Ding-Ding~
With the sound of a bell, the patterns suddenly froze, showing Pichu, Jigglypuff, and Oddish.
"Aaaah!!!" Daniel let out a wail, "Bad start! Let's try again!"
He immediately inserted several more game tokens.
But he lost again.
As he pulled the lever more and more times, his expression grew increasingly grim. Before long, he had lost all the game tokens he had exchanged.
Daniel had exchanged several tens of thousands of League coins for tokens, and he had lost everything!
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How can my luck be this bad?" Daniel couldn't help but roar.
Seeing this, Valerie yanked him away from the machine and said, "Enough, stop making a fool of yourself! Seriously! Let me try!"
With that, she sat down and began inserting coins into the machine.
Sure enough, like Daniel, she lost on her first try.
"Hmm hmm~~" Daniel looked at her with a mocking expression, "Let's see how good you really are!"
Valerie's face darkened. I refuse to accept this!
She inserted more coins into the machine.
Meanwhile, Cole observed the other players and quickly noticed that people at the slot machines generally lost more than they won. Even when they did win, it was just a pittance — not even enough to recover their initial investment.
Although gambling typically means more losses than wins, the probability of winning here seemed unusually small, almost approaching zero.
Thinking this, Cole's eyes flashed with an almost imperceptible purple light, and he soon discovered something wrong with the slot machines.
To verify his suspicion, he deliberately examined other slot machines and found that indeed, most had been tampered with, with only a limited number working normally.
As expected, before long, Valerie had also lost all her game tokens.
"Haha... haha..." Daniel laughed heartily, "With luck like yours, you dare mock me? How are you any better?"
Valerie kept a straight face and said nothing, her expression visibly darkening.
At this point, Keith stepped forward, "Let me try. My luck has always been pretty good."
However, Cole held him back, "Let me go first. My luck is definitely better than yours."
Keith didn't think much of it and nodded, giving the spot to him.
Cole sat in front of the slot machine and began inserting game tokens. Since they've tampered with the machines, it shouldn't be against the rules if I cheat a little, right?
He pulled the lever forcefully while his eyes once again flashed with an almost imperceptible purple light.
Ding-Ding~
As the bell sound rang, the rapidly flashing patterns suddenly stopped, and a round of cheers came from the machine.
"Holy crap!!!"
Seeing the patterns on the machine screen, Daniel exclaimed in shock. There were three identical Pichu patterns.
"Cole, how many tokens did you just put in?" Daniel quickly asked.
Before Cole could answer, a clattering sound came from the bottom of the machine.
Coins were coming out!
Cole had inserted ten tokens, and the payout rate for three Pichu patterns was 1:10, meaning he had just won 100 tokens.
Cole reached out to collect the game tokens from the machine when Daniel urged, "Cole, quick, while your luck is still hot, keep going!"
He nodded and inserted another ten game tokens. The slot machine had a limit of ten tokens per play.
Cole suspected that the arcade had set a limit on the number of tokens that could be inserted to prevent players from losing too much at once and potentially trashing the place in anger.
As the lever was pulled, the patterns on the slot machine screen flashed rapidly again.
With a series of celebratory sounds, the patterns stopped again, this time showing three Bulbasaurs.
"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap!" Seeing this, Daniel nearly jumped up in excitement, "Cole, tell me, did someone bless your hands or something?"
He was about to grab Cole's hand to rub it on himself for luck, but Cole mercilessly refused!
The payout rate for three Bulbasaurs was 1:100, which was the highest rate in this game. Cole had just won a thousand game tokens on this play.
As the clattering sound came from the bottom of the machine again, Cole pulled out a plastic box from under the machine to hold the game tokens.
This arcade was really something — they had rigged the machines so players couldn't win many tokens, yet they thoughtfully provided plastic boxes for players to hold large amounts of tokens.
"Cole, Cole, let's keep going! Let's continue!" Daniel said eagerly, rubbing his hands together.
However, Cole waved his hand and said, "That's enough for today. We can leave now."
Quit while you're ahead — winning twice was enough. If they played too much, it might not be easy for them to leave today!
With his performance, the arcade staff must have noticed he was cheating. If they won just a little, the staff might turn a blind eye, but if they won too much, that would be a different story.
"Why?!!!" Daniel didn't understand and grabbed him, not letting him leave.
Why stop with such good luck?
Sigh~" Cole had to whisper a few words in his ear.
After hearing what he said, Daniel became furious and immediately wanted to confront the arcade staff.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Cole grabbed him.
"Where else? To confront them, of course!"
Cole patted his forehead, "Are you stupid? This is their territory. If you confront them, do you think they'll admit it?"
Hearing this, Daniel immediately deflated.
"What's going on?"
Valerie and Keith looked confused.
Seeing this, Daniel whispered to the other two what Cole had told him. They were both more rational than him; although they were angry too, they knew it wasn't appropriate to make a scene here.
"Alright, let's go. We really shouldn't have come to a place like this." Valerie sighed.
Just as the four were about to exchange their winning tokens for something and leave, they suddenly heard a commotion nearby.
"What's happening?" Daniel asked curiously.
They saw a crowd gathered around a slot machine not far from them, with occasional exclamations coming from the group.
"Let's go see." Valerie's curiosity was also piqued.
So the four squeezed their way over.
Fighting through the crowd, they reached the front of the slot machine where they saw a black-haired little girl frantically pulling the lever.
Every time she pulled, identical patterns appeared on the screen.
Three Eevees, three Charmanders, three Squirtles, three Bulbasaurs... she never missed. The machine's celebratory sounds were constant, accompanied by the continuous clattering of tokens falling from the bottom.
Exclamations from onlookers followed each win in succession.
All four of them watched in astonishment.
Though not very tall, the little girl was clearly only a year or two younger than them. What surprised Cole was that she was using Psychic Powers to cheat, just like him — except while he had done it secretly, she was doing it blatantly.
Cole recognized this girl. Wasn't she Sabrina, the Psychic-type Gym Leader from Saffron City? Shouldn't she be guarding her gym? Why was she here in Celadon?
The commotion quickly attracted the arcade staff, who looked at the girl with a mixture of headache and helplessness.
Clearly, this wasn't Sabrina's first time here.
After a while, she seemed to have had enough fun. She carried a pile of game tokens to the counter and exchanged them for a bunch of not-very-useful dolls while the counter staff fawned over her.
Coming out of their shock, Cole called to his three companions, "Let's exchange our tokens for something and leave too."
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