Chapter 58: Luxury Cruise Ship
The entrance to the Crescent Bay Protected Area was a small island, and even from a distance, Arthur felt something was off.
"This island... looks kind of strange?"
The biggest anomaly was that the island's edges were all raised reefs. Apart from a pier for ships to dock, the island had no sandy beaches as far as the eye could see.
The cameraman accompanying them quickly answered his question.
"Haha, kid, you don't know, do you? This island isn't naturally formed."
"Man-made?"
"Not exactly. This island was built by Pokémon. Legend has it that Groudon and Kyogre created it together."
The cameraman's tone was quite reverent when explaining this secret. In this peaceful era, many people admired mythical beasts.
But Arthur couldn't help but wonder about one thing - how did Groudon go back after building this island? He clearly remembered that that guy couldn't swim or fly, right?
In the depths of his mind, he seemed to hear an angry roar...
When the ship they were on reached the island, Arthur's eyes were truly opened.
Greeting them after they disembarked was a group of Golduck wearing grass skirts and sun hats. The leader of the group even spoke fluent Alliance Standard language, with a distinct Southern accent.
"Welcome, humans, Crescent Island thanks you for your visit during this open period."
Arthur's eyebrows twitched violently.
He had to admit that this world had changed too fast in two hundred years. Today, he finally felt a bit overwhelmed.
In the past, when he passed by the coast, he was always worried about these cunning blue ducks suddenly jumping out of the water to ambush him. Golduck, although Water-type, were actually skilled in Psychic-type moves. The invisible psychic power was perfect for surprise attacks, and the moves were often launched before anyone could defend.
Back then, he was quite adept at hunting these blue ducks.
He never imagined that one day he would be welcomed by these blue ducks as soon as he got off the boat.
It could only be said that the development of the times was beyond his imagination.
In comparison, the support staff arranged by the organizers were unfazed by this.
These support staff were very experienced, and it seemed they had entered this protected area during open periods many times before.
"Thank you, thank you."
While politely thanking the Golduck, they skillfully offered a few cans of fish.
The welcoming Golduck nimbly accepted the fish cans and equally skillfully hid them inside the sun hats on their heads. This scene was a real eye-opener for Arthur.
So, the reason you wear such oversized hats is for this purpose?
Then, one of the Golduck handed over a picture book, and the leader continued his welcome, then went on to greet the next group of arriving guests, as if the whole fish-can-bribe thing had never happened.
"These Pokémon... have indeed become very clever," Arthur said quietly after the welcoming Golduck had walked away.
The support staff member who had offered the fish cans was cheerful and didn't mind.
"Yeah, they're really smart! But fortunately, these Pokémon don't have strong desires. Most of the time, they're easier to deal with than humans."
At least, in most people's eyes, a bribe that could be settled with fish cans was nothing significant.
Arthur shrugged, somewhat agreeing with this sentiment.
Fortunately, he had never been a human supremacist. Otherwise, if the other two Heavenly Kings from his time saw this scene, they would probably want to summon their Pokémon right then and there.
"Alright, let's go explore the island first. This island is at the entrance of the protected area, and many people can come here. Live streaming directly from here probably won't be very effective. You can familiarize yourselves with the island's environment, pick out some interesting or attention-grabbing locations, and then go there directly after starting the live stream tomorrow, to reduce unnecessary time-wasting.
But I need to remind you that according to the agreement, no later than the day after tomorrow, you must go deeper into the protected area for exploration."
Going deeper into the protected area was risky, because intelligent Pokémon were still a minority. Those less intelligent Pokémon didn't understand the Great Reconciliation or the open period. If humans invaded their territory, they would still attack without hesitation.
The most representative of these were Gyarados.
These social and ferocious predators were sometimes beyond the control of even the protected area's leader, Dragonite, and had to be dealt with by humans.
So the organizers specifically reminded them, fearing that Arthur and Justin might be afraid and unwilling to go deeper, which would significantly reduce the live stream's appeal.
Their preliminary promotion for this show heavily emphasized "bold, in-depth, soul-stirring, and climax-filled!"
It was a good thing Arthur didn't see that promotional poster, or he probably would have suspected he had stumbled onto some strange film set.
"Alright, no problem."
"I'm good too."
Arthur and Justin both readily agreed.
Justin was fearless in his youth, finding everything fresh and exciting, while Arthur simply didn't find anything to be afraid of.
He was even looking forward to seeing the Gyarados of this era.
Because grilled Gyarados meat was really delicious...
While strolling around the island, Arthur quickly noticed something unusual on the distant sea.
It wasn't that the island's scenery wasn't attractive, but the large object on the distant sea was too conspicuous.
It was an extremely large luxury cruise ship. The superstructure above the deck was estimated to be six or seven stories high, and the portholes along the edges had four or five rows, meaning the ship's cabins probably had nearly ten stories.
Such a large ship, even though it was just anchored outside the island and hadn't docked, still gave off a significant visual impact.
Arthur had never seen such a large cruise ship in his time two hundred years ago.
"What's the deal with that ship? Is it going to enter the protected area?"
Arthur asked curiously.
To his surprise, upon hearing his question, the cameraman and the three support staff members all smiled mysteriously.
One of them even warned, "Kids shouldn't worry about that. Our show is for all ages, so that ship can't appear on camera. You'd better not mention it during the live stream, or your account might get banned."
"???"
Arthur was full of question marks.
But Justin, beside him, seemed to understand something.
Seeing that the others on the team didn't seem inclined to explain, Arthur had to ask Justin privately later.
"What's the deal with that ship?"
Justin shrugged, his smile a bit strange.
"To be honest, this rumor I heard from someone else before. You know, even though we already have barter trade, why do some people in the Alliance still insist on promoting the temporary opening of protected areas?"
Arthur was somewhat confused.
"What do you mean?"
Nature reserves were something that simply didn't exist in his time, so he couldn't understand the people of this era's thoughts about them.
"Heh, it's actually quite simple. Because all alliances acknowledge that human laws don't apply in Pokémon protected areas, and the Eastern Alliance, on the surface, prohibits gambling."
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