The time surrounded by the girls didn't last long. Soon, the Chairman, as the host of the banquet, came out.
This gave Ace a moment to breathe.
As usual, there was social interaction, followed by the discussion of the Ultra Balls. Various high-society figures expressed their demand for the new Poké Balls.
The Chairman was naturally pleased with this situation, but he also knew the principle of "rare goods are valuable." The Ultra Balls wouldn't have a large output in the early stages.
With a little bit of "hunger marketing," the Alliance wouldn't be soft-hearted. No matter what, they would first recoup some of the money they'd invested from these spendthrifts.
The banquet proceeded in an orderly manner, while Ace stood bored on the sidelines.
Soon, a staff member came over and asked Ace if he would like to go up and say a few words.
After all, the status of being the creator of the Ultra Ball was quite significant.
Ace glanced at the eloquent Chairman on stage and shook his head.
Originally, he wanted to use this banquet to get to know some influential people, but now it seemed that the Kanto and Johto regions were indeed a bit poor.
There weren't many people who were truly presentable, which was probably why the Alliance developed the fastest in these two regions.
After eating a little something, Ace and his Gardevoir left. Stepping out of the hotel, Ace took a deep breath and sighed helplessly, "What a waste of time."
The night was dark. As Zinnia flew on her Salamence, a communicator she had on her rang.
Zinnia immediately connected the call and said, "Hello."
"How are things?"
Ace's voice came from the other end of the communicator.
"Good and bad."
"What do you mean?"
"The good news is that Team Magma and Team Aqua have both learned about Groudon and Kyogre. Both sides have now put all their energy into this and are doing their best to find the locations of the two Pokémon."
"And the bad news?"
"The bad news is that while I was undercover in Team Magma, I was discovered by one of the Three Magma Flames, Tabitha. I can't go undercover in Team Magma anymore."
"Those are minor issues. So, how many people are willing to follow you?"
"About a hundred people from both organizations, just barely."
"That's enough. I'll be in Hoenn soon. Help me sort out the existing intelligence. I want to see it when I get there."
"Understood. It'll be ready in a day at most."
"Thank you for your hard work."
With that, the call ended.
Zinnia, wearing a Team Aqua uniform and glasses, put away her communicator. She then patted her Salamence and said, "It seems this identity of mine has also served its purpose. Let's go back to Team Aqua and hand over the rest of my duties. After this, we'll be even busier."
Salamence let out a low growl, then immediately turned and flew back in the direction they had come from.
One day later, the plane Ace was on landed in Lilycove City.
Ace walked out of the airport and, following his GPS, soon arrived at the Lilycove Museum.
After buying a ticket, Ace walked through the art gallery, scanning the works of art on display while searching for his target out of the corner of his eye.
Soon, in front of a painting of Pokémon and humans living in harmony, Ace saw Zinnia, dressed in casual clothes.
Ace walked up to her, and Zinnia discreetly handed him a flash drive. After Ace put it away, he immediately left.
After wandering around the museum for half an hour, Ace finally left and found an inn. He paid for three days and temporarily settled in.
Opening the computer in his room, he inserted the flash drive. Ace opened the contents, and soon a series of files appeared on the screen.
Ace quickly skimmed through them. They were important events in the Hoenn region, as well as the current progress of Team Magma and Team Aqua.
As Ace was looking at the files, there was a knock on his door.
He stood up and stretched, took off his windbreaker and threw it on the bed, and then walked to the door and opened it.
"You're not very cautious. If you're like this, you might get killed."
Zinnia, in her casual clothes, leaned against the door frame. She looked at Ace, who was wearing his Dragon Scale Armor, and frowned slightly before speaking.
"You can try to ambush me."
Ace didn't mind. In fact, he had already guessed that it was Zinnia outside the door.
At Ace's words, Zinnia smiled, then pulled a dagger from who knows where and stabbed directly at Ace's heart.
"Whoosh!"
A Psychic barrier appeared on Ace's body. The dagger struck the barrier, and no matter how hard Zinnia tried, she couldn't break through the seemingly fragile Psychic barrier.
Ace took the Psychic Ball containing Gardevoir from his pants pocket. The Psychic Ball opened, and Gardevoir appeared beside Ace.
Looking at Zinnia, who was stabbing at Ace with a dagger, Gardevoir's eyes filled with anger, and it glared fiercely at Zinnia.
"It's okay, Gardevoir. It's just a test."
Seeing that Gardevoir was about to attack, Ace called her off. Then he reached out and grabbed Zinnia's dagger.
Zinnia let go of the dagger. Ace examined it and then threw it back to her.
"What's a girl like you doing with a dagger?"
"Self-defense, or suicide."
Zinnia said with a smile, which also reflected how harsh her daily life was.
Ace stepped aside, and Zinnia entered the room.
The door closed, and Ace locked it.
Returning to the computer, Ace continued to read the files, while Zinnia sat on the edge of the bed, silently watching him.
"How do you plan to proceed?"
Zinnia suddenly asked, her voice full of anticipation.
Ace didn't look back as he said, "Wait until I've finished reading the information. For now, it's not a good time to act. The time has not yet come, so we can only set up some things in advance, just in case."
"How do we set them up?"
"Just do what I say when the time comes."
Ace quickly scanned the information, his mind already outlining the next course of action.
Groudon and Kyogre were still in the Seafloor Cavern, and until the submarine was finished, there was probably no way to awaken them.
Then there was the meteor. The power of the meteor was truly strong. Ace wanted to acquire it as much as possible, whether to feed it to Rayquaza or to study it himself. It was a very powerful force for Ace.
Ace also wanted to acquire the power of the two Orbs. The research on removing the Rock-type from fossils had reached a bottleneck, and if he could get his hands on the two Orbs for research, he might have a breakthrough.
After all, they were all Pokémon from ancient times, and it was logical to assume there was some commonality between them.
More and more thoughts popped into his head, and Ace's eyes grew brighter and brighter…
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