That afternoon, John returned to the Grassmere Gym with a satisfied stretch. With about ten days until his breeding house's next Pokemon sale conference, he could finally enjoy some well-deserved downtime. The gym was in a truce period—meaning no starry-eyed challengers would be pounding at his door, demanding battles they couldn't possibly win.
The World Pokemon Championship had scheduled his first battle for mid-month, just before the sale event. Emerald was handling all the tedious matchmaking details—John's opponent remained unknown, as competitions at the Ultra Ball level were assigned by the official committee's random number generator (or so John suspected, based on some of his previous matchups). With the ranch's day-to-day operations also in Emerald's capable hands, John could truly relax at the Gymnasium.
At least, he could relax in the real world. In the game, John was about to get busy again.
His next goal: defeat all the gyms in the Kanto Region except for the one in Viridian City! With Giovanni, the Team Rocket Boss, temporarily missing from Viridian, John wasted no time. After returning to his ranch, he guided his character to fly from Kanto back to Hoenn, and from there to the Alola Region.
"Sinnoh and Unova badges can wait," he muttered, reaching for his soda. "Z-moves and Gigamax should come first." Once he mastered these powers—assuming his character's spine wouldn't snap under the pressure—his Pokemon's battle capabilities would skyrocket!
John chose Alola because of its relative proximity. A flight there took only half a day by plane, as opposed to the week-long journey to Galar that would leave him with a crick in his neck and an empty wallet. The aircraft touched down at Hau'oli City on Melemele Island. Walking out of the airport, John first visited the Pokemon Center to save his progress, because losing three hours of gameplay was not on today's agenda.
Next, he opened the map and selected Mossdeep City for his Flygon to use Fly.
[Is Flygon going to Hoenn Region - Mossdeep City using Fly? Time required: 117 hours, 33 minutes and 17 seconds]
"Almost five days," he snorted. "I could grow a beard in that time." This was expected; flying back to Mossdeep City from the Kalos Region normally took about ten days, while a plane journey lasted only one. Game logic at its finest.
Exiting the Pokemon Center, John headed straight for Iki Town, where Island Kahuna Hala could be found. This was where the island challenge began in the game, and where Hala would craft a Z-Ring—essential if John wanted to learn Z-moves and strike poses that would embarrass him if anyone walked in while he was playing.
He had walked only a few steps when something caught his eye: an odd sticker affixed to the right of the Pokemon Center's entrance. If he wasn't mistaken, this was a Totem Sticker!
John approached and interacted with it.
You got a Totem Sticker
He opened his backpack to examine it.
[Totem Stickers: Collect a certain number to receive Totem Pokemon from Samson Oak.]
"Totem Pokemon?" John straightened up on the reception sofa, suddenly alert, nearly knocking over his drink.
He remembered that in the game, collecting enough Totem Stickers allowed you to get Totem-sized Pokemon from Samson Oak, the perpetually sunburned cousin of the famous Professor Oak.
But there was an important distinction—these were merely Totem-sized Pokemon, not actual Totem Pokemon with their imposing field abilities! The difference was significant, like comparing a Great Dane to a Great Dane that can control the weather.
"If I could actually switch to proper Totem Pokemon..." John felt a surge of excitement that only fellow Pokemon enthusiasts would understand.
In the game, the Totem-sized Pokemon from Samson Oak were born with at least three perfect IVs, and if a Pokemon had a hidden ability, it would always manifest. The same would be true for any Pokemon he transformed into a Totem.
This could be a major highlight at his next breeding house sale conference! Of course, if the Pokemon proved particularly valuable, he might just keep it for himself. No one needs to know.
He recalled that in one version, Totem Stickers could be exchanged for a pseudo-legendary dragon. Now that was worth hunting tiny stickers for hours.
Since he was now hunting Totem Stickers, John decided to thoroughly search Hau'oli City before seeking out Hala. Better to avoid backtracking later and cursing his past self for laziness.
Finding Totem Stickers proved as time-consuming as trying to catch Abra with a standard Pokeball. Some were stuck in relatively obvious places if you looked carefully—like the corner between the hair salon and clothing store, the right side of the Malasada shop, or the side of the city hall building.
Others were maddeningly tricky to spot. One was floating in the pool by Ilima's doorway, requiring a fishing rod to retrieve. Another was hidden on the rightmost bookshelf in the furthest room on the second floor of Ilima's house. John wouldn't have found it if he hadn't searched every building methodically, which said more about his obsessive personality than he cared to admit.
After more than an hour of scouring Hau'oli City, John had collected eleven stickers.
He remembered that every twenty stickers could be exchanged for one Totem Pokemon from Samson Oak. With one hundred stickers scattered throughout Alola, he could potentially obtain five Totem Pokemon in total. Not a bad haul for some glorified collectible stickers.
Eleven stickers in just over an hour wasn't bad progress. At this rate, collecting all hundred would take around ten hours, and not every city in Alola was as large as Hau'oli. He might actually finish before his real-world responsibilities came calling again.
Pocketing his eleven Totem Stickers, John set off toward Iki Town.
Along the way, he found two more stickers in the Berry fields and another three on Route 2. With sixteen Totem Stickers now in his possession, he was just four away from his first Totem Pokemon. The excitement was building faster than a Diglett tunnel network.
Traveling through Routes 2, 3, and 1 before reaching Iki Town, John encountered several Pokemon species rare in other regions.
He pulled out his notebook and carefully recorded each one, his handwriting growing increasingly messy with enthusiasm.
Route 2 featured Alolan forms of Meowth and Rattata, plus Growlithe, Smeargle, and Abra—all uncommon elsewhere. John made a mental note that this would be a good location to capture Growlithe when he needed one. Those adorable fire puppies were always in demand.
Route 3 offered Delibird, Mankey, and Hawlucha. Seeing the festive Delibird made John wonder if he should find a teammate for his existing one. Two Delibirds meant twice the random presents, although that wasn't always a good thing.
Route 1 was dominated by Bug-types: Caterpie, Ledyba, Spinarak, and Grubbin. The latter could evolve into Vikavolt, known for its extremely high Special Attack. John had raised one as his electric special attacker when playing through the Sun/Moon version on his Gameboy.
And where there were bugs, there were naturally birds that preyed on them—including Alola's native bird, Pikipek, which John had once watched take out an entire Caterpie colony in record time. Nature was brutal, even in the Pokemon world.