"Ash, thank you so much for your help today, if not for you, our very important research may not be with us anymore."
After confirming that the member of Team Aqua had escaped, President Stone personally sent Ash and his party back to the Pokémon Center and treated them to a very luxurious meal.
It was not just luxury cuisine. As the leader of such a large company, President Stone was naturally interested in making friends with Ash, a future Champion and a high ranking member of the International G-Men, so he naturally gave him lots of good things.
Ash was naturally not stingy when it came to using his hard earned funds. He has solved various incidents and participated in various competitions along the way, which is also a major source of income for Ash during his journey. Of course he also gets a large amount of money from his job as being a member of the G-Men.
Therefore, in a sense, Team Rocket is also basically Ash's main source of wealth.
In addition, Ash also got a new PokéNav from the Devon Corporation, and it is a newly developed version with multi-function machine. Its functions are far superior to May's and Max's PokéNav, which will short-circuit if it gets into water.
May had obviously eaten the most out of their group, but she is still at stuffing her cheeks at this moment. After leaving such a big city, she feels like it will take a long time to eat such delicious food again, not to mention such luxurious cuisine, so she will not miss such an opportunity.
"No, I was unable to catch the man from Team Aqua. I believe you still need to be careful and always have guard near your research." Ash said modestly.
Seeing Ash's clear attitude, President Stone nodded repeatedly, "It's truly the best to go out on adventures when you are still able to. My son Steven is also traveling around the world now while I can only stay here with my old age." He said with a bit of melancholy.
"I heard that Steven resigned from the title of the Hoenn Champion and embarked on his journey again. His courage is truly something that I admire." Ash said with a straight face.
When it comes to business exchanges like this, Ash knows how to do that because of his training from Lance.
It is obvious that President Stone was very proud of his son Steven. If he praises Steven in front of him, he will definitely like to hear it.
Just like Ash thought, President Stone laughed heartily, "Ash, Steven is also full of praise for you. I believe you two will become friends if you two were to meet. I believe he is still on Dewford Island now. It would be great if you could meet him there."
Ash smiled and nodded slightly, "It seems that after finishing my Gym Battle on Dewford Island, we can take a nice walk around the island. If Steven is also out there, there must be something good waiting for me."
Seeing Ash and Steven's eyes look exactly the same with their inner strength, President Stine kept nodding his head, "Ash, your PokéNav has a new function that allows you to call people who have your number. I have logged in my contact information. You can contact me at any time in the future."
This means that Ash's future travels will be protected by President Stone, a very rich and influential person in this region.
Of course, there is no such thing as too much good thing, but no matter how much support someone receives, it is still not as reliable as your own strength. Ash has no plan to change the current path he is taking now, he will continue to travel and become the Pokémon Master he is destined for!
After another night of rest at the Pokémon Center, Ash and his team are finally ready to head towards Dewford Island.
"Before that, let's go eat the best pasta in Rustboro City before we leave, can we?" May has a pure fanatical pursuit for food.
Every time she visits a place, she will investigate what popular delicacies there are and then make sure to check in and taste them.
Yesterday, she visited five restaurants in one go until she was exhausted and full. In the end, she was left with this one as the last one left to be untouched, which is considered to be the best pasta restaurant in all of Rustboro City, so she definitely wants to taste this delicious food before leaving.
So before the boat sailed, she took the group to the shop for breakfast.
"But is there really a restaurant in a place like this?" Max looked at the increasingly deserted streets in front of them and became confused. Following May, they seemed to have arrived at an abandoned and uninhabited street.
But May was still very confident in herself, "There is no problem with it, I have printed out all the information I needed from the Pokémon Center computer!"
She is looking forward to the so called "Best Pasta in the whole of Rustboro City", "We can just eat the pasta and then take a boat ride, this is the perfect plan!" She said excitedly.
After their long search, they did find this so called famous pasta restaurant, but it had been closed for a long time now. Even the outer walls were peeling off. It had obviously been closed for many years, one did not need to be bright to seee this.
"No way! How can that be?!" May was immediately embarrassed and depressed. "It clearly said that this is the restaurant with the best reputation in the whole city!"
Ash took the information in May's hand and immediately didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "May, although the day here is correct, you got the complete wrong year."
"Ah?" May took it back and looked at it carefully, "This...how is this from a whole ten years ago?"
There are just way too many things that can change in ten years. The popular store ten years ago may have been relocated or closed because of something. In short, what is in front of them now is nothing but a very dilapidated, old, empty store.
They had nowhere to go to eat, no store close to them, let alone breakfast, they couldn't even find any people. Even the location of the main harbor had been moved in the past ten years. They could only watch the passenger ships sail away from the harbor across the coast, the place where they previously were.
If you want to go around there, you probably have to walk halfway!
"Well, forget about it, Brock, let's check where we can have breakfast. We have to fill our stomachs first." Ash, as the soul and brains of the team, finally made the decision for the group.
He didn't exactly blame May for being unreliable, he was just disappointed with her lack of awareness.
He was more surprised she brought a magazines from ten years ago to visit the store, like will even sells them anymore?
They just have to make peace with their situation.
There are many passenger ships from Rustboro City that goes to Dewford Island. There are three departures a day. If they couldn't catch one in the morning, they can just take the afternoon or noon one.
But the more Ash said things like this, the more guilty May felt. She hesitated and said, "Everyone, sit here for a while, and I'll find a boat that can take us to our destination."
Just like Max's decision yesterday, she planned to take responsibility for the mistakes she had made and tried to make amends, so she wanted to search around as much as possible to see if there were any boats that could let them board.
"But there's no sign of any ships here anymore." Max questioned May; after all, can a ship really be found here?
But May was quite optimistic about herself. "Since this place used to be a harbor, it shouldn't be that difficult to find one or two boats that we can use."
She just relied on her momentum to go out alone to find it, but it was a long way along the coast. Not to mention the boat, there was not even a human figure in sight.
In the past, she would have been unable to move in such a deserted place out of fear, but now she is looking around for someone, looking for where she can get help.
Of course she didn't notice that Ash and the others were following her quietly, without eating breakfast, and were all hungry together, so they just protected her safety and her self-esteem from the background.
"Looks like she's really lucky, there are actually really people here." Seeing the old man fishing at the old pier not far away from them on a good looking boat, Ash smiled slightly and looked at the two people beside him, "Let's go back and wait for May to come find us."
"Okay, I'll try to make some jelly filled donuts for everyone to fill their bellies with in the meantime."