After going around the mountain and passing through the dense forest, Ash and his friends finally arrived in Oreburgh City, a place known as the "City of Ore."
This city is similar to Pewter City in Kanto; both are cities rich in minerals. However, compared to Pewter City, which has a long history of mining, Oreburgh City is still very young, and its mineral resources are quite abundant, enough to support its citizens for a long time.
But none of this mattered to the trio. After all, none of them spent their days with rocks, not even Brock, who was born in Pewter City. What kind of person would be interested in rocks all day? Even Brock knew that pretty girls were better than useless rocks.
Upon arriving in the city, the trio didn't immediately go to challenge the gym. Instead, they went to the Pokémon Center to check in. It was already noon after half a day of travel. As someone who loves to eat, Ash naturally chose to fill his stomach first and let Nurse Joy give his Pokémon a routine checkup to avoid any unexpected situations.
After eating and taking a short nap, Ash and his friends slowly got up around 1:30 PM. They picked up their Pokémon from Nurse Joy, who had been taking care of them, and prepared to head to the Oreburgh Gym. Unfortunately, Dawn woke up to find her hair was a mess again. She shyly shooed Ash and Brock out of the room so she could fix it by herself.
"Sigh, Brock, let's just go ahead," Ash said with a helpless sigh. He knew that girls could be a bit troublesome about these things, so he and Brock decided to wait in the Pokémon Center lobby.
In the lobby, they ran into a familiar person. He had a cold face, purplish-gray hair, and his hands were in his pockets, giving off a cool and aloof vibe. Just as Ash noticed Paul, the other trainer's cold eyes fell on him. "Want to have a battle?" he asked flatly.
"Not this time," Ash said, waving his hand without hesitation. "I'm going to challenge the Oreburgh Gym soon." The gym challenge was his reason for refusal. After his last battle with Chimchar in the Eterna Forest, he learned that battling has a cooldown period. Challenging the same Pokémon within a month would reduce the gold coins earned to just one percent of the original amount. For maximum profit, he wouldn't accept Paul's challenge unless it was after two weeks had passed.
Upon hearing this, Paul's eyes narrowed. Being a meticulous person, he naturally knew that Ash's reason was just an excuse to refuse a battle. But he really wanted to get revenge, and unable to hold back, he said, "Why bother challenging these gyms? They're all weak. They have no value other than being defeated." Paul was trying to change Ash's mind, but Ash didn't respond.
This made Brock frown, his expression showing his displeasure. After all, he was once a gym leader himself. Even though he was now traveling, he hadn't lost his pride as a gym leader. Unfortunately, Paul's view of gym leaders was set in stone, and Brock knew that arguing with him would be a waste of words.
Ash, who didn't respond, also knew this. As a Pokémon fan who was lucky enough to have read the Pokémon Adventures manga and now had a golden touch, he wouldn't underestimate gym leaders. No one knew better than him how many "old pros" were hiding among the gym leaders.
Just take Kanto, for example. Can you believe that the very first gym leader near the starting town was actually the boss of a criminal organization? Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket in Kanto, was the pride of all Kanto citizens before he was exposed. With his powerful strength, he earned the title of "strongest gym leader." Everyone at the time knew he was a match for the champions of other regions. Just by using Ground-type Pokémon, he was given the title "Giovanni of the Earth" by the people of Kanto.
Similarly, there was Koga of Fuchsia City. In the year Ash challenged the Johto League, Koga successfully advanced to the Elite Four, becoming the Poison-type Elite Four. And not far from Fuchsia City, on Cinnabar Island, was the retired Fire-type Elite Four, Blaine. And then there was Sabrina of Saffron City. When Ash first went there, she was incredibly overpowered, and her psychic abilities made the original Ash's life a living hell. If not for a comical Haunter that made the emotionless Sabrina laugh, it's hard to say whether Ash would have won the Marsh Badge from her. Plus, once the emotionless Sabrina returned to normal, her strength would definitely skyrocket.
Finally, there was the gym leader of Vermilion City, Lt. Surge, who was also not to be underestimated. He was said to be a retired soldier who, for some reason, became a gym leader. To become a gym leader right after retiring shows that his true strength has not yet been fully realized. And the three gyms of Pewter, Cerulean, and Celadon are all old-school gyms; it's just that their current successors are still young and haven't reached their peak strength yet. You can see from Brock and Misty's performance in Sun and Moon that with their Mega Steelix and Mega Gyarados, they were more than enough to send rookie trainers from Kanto running back to their parents.
Putting aside the mysterious Celadon Gym for a moment, we can see from these gyms that gym leaders are a group of "old pros." It's not that they can't defeat the trainers who come to challenge them; they are simply fulfilling their duty as gym leaders, which is to provide a challenge and help these young trainers grow. They nurture them little by little until their strength is recognized by the gym leaders. Only then can these trainers get the badges and go on to participate in the Pokémon League. Otherwise, do you really think gym leaders are as weak as they seem?
To become a gym leader is to be a genius among trainers. They themselves will also continue to grow. They are simply accepting the League's request to be responsible for testing rookie trainers. And this is just the "Easy Mode" of gym leaders. Paul has probably never seen the "Hell Mode."
In the Pokémon Adventures version of the world, can you believe that almost every gym leader has the ability to go toe-to-toe with an Elite Four member? Although their strength fluctuates, they are all incredibly powerful. The most exaggerated of them all is the hidden boss of the Johto region, the Mask of Ice, Pryce. A starting-form Swinub defeated Lugia, the god of wind and ocean currents, and another starting-form Delibird defeated Ho-Oh, the god of life (I forgot Ho-Oh's title, so if you know, please let me know in the comments). These absurd feats instantly raised the ceiling for gym leaders. This also made him glad that he didn't get transported to the world of Pokémon Adventures. If he had, he would have to cling to the coattails of the battle genius Red to avoid getting eliminated by the Dark Forest-like world of the manga.
This once again proves that gym leaders are all "old pros." It also tells us that if a champion or Elite Four-level character wants to retire, or if a villain wants to hide their identity, they should always be looked for among the gym leaders. So remember, never underestimate a gym leader, because there are "old pros" among them.