Ariel let out a sneer:
"Cooperation? Helping you fight underground matches in the Underground Casino?"
"No, that would be a waste of your talent."
Soro walked to the side of the Black Charmander, reaching out to touch its head, but he withdrew his hand the moment his fingertips were about to touch it, clearly wary of those purple flames.
Soro sat back down in the large leather swivel chair, his fingertips lightly stroking the rim of the dark red wine.
He didn't mention training the Charmander again; his sinister eyes seemed to flicker in the light.
Soro broke the silence, his voice echoing in the luxurious office,
"I want you to go somewhere for me and get something."
Ariel stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the gamblers who were as crazed as ants, and spat out a single word without turning his head: "Speak."
"Deep within Mt. Chimney, there is an Old Mineral Vein that is constantly washed by lava."
Soro stood up and walked to an old, spread-out map, his fingertip pointing heavily at a marked spot near the Crater,
"There's a strange kind of ore there. It doesn't belong to any resource known to the League. My people have gone in several times, but the environment there is too extreme, and the wild Fire-type Pokémon are extremely violent; they couldn't even break through the perimeter."
He paused and turned to look at Ariel:
"I've seen your strength. That kind of calm judgment and control over Pokémon is exactly what's needed to enter that place. Once it's done, besides your deserved reward, I can also use my channels to help you wipe away those small troubles you have in the big cities."
Soro was clearly still testing Ariel's persona of a "down-and-out genius."
Ariel turned around, his gaze lingering on the map for a moment.
Mt. Chimney, mineral vein, unknown ore.
This coincided perfectly with his goal for this trip, even saving him the time of a wide-range search.
"Deal."
Ariel's voice was steady, without any emotional fluctuation,
"Prepare the things I want."
"Pleasure doing business."
Soro gave a twisted smile and handed the old map to Ariel,
"I hope you don't disappoint me."
Ariel took the map without any unnecessary words, turned around, pushed open the heavy oak door, and disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Passing through the cold Underground Path, he pushed open the heavy iron cold-storage door behind the Battle Tent.
The biting cold wind instantly swept over his body, dispersing much of the nauseating smell of blood and smoke from the Underground Arena.
Ariel walked out of the tent; the quiet streets of Fallarbor Town looked exceptionally peaceful under the moonlight.
Who could have imagined what kind of crazy gambling was taking place beneath this calm layer of soil?
He took off the Shiftry mask on his face, crushed it casually, and threw it into a roadside trash can.
Returning to the Pokémon Center, Ariel closed the door tightly and drew the heavy curtains. He took out the pokédex specially modified by Team Rockets from his backpack, his fingertips flying across the screen.
"Mission report."
He packaged all the data collected at the casino tonight.
Soro's asset distribution, the blind spots of the Underground Arena's surveillance, and the detailed combat data and genetic report of that Black Charmander.
To Team Rockets, local powerhouses like Soro were nothing more than fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
Once the time was ripe, the organization would peel off his skin layer by layer like an onion, consuming him entirely.
But at the end of the report, Ariel's finger stopped.
He didn't write a single word about the "strange ore."
His intuition told him that an ore that could make a greedy person like Soro go to such lengths, even using illegal experimental products to test it, was definitely no ordinary resource.
The sickly purple flames on that Black Charmander might have countless ties to this kind of ore.
If this ore could truly forcibly increase a Pokémon's attack limit, reporting it to the organization would certainly yield rich rewards, but that would only be temporary.
In a cutthroat place like Team Rockets, one's own strength was everything.
"Good things should be kept for one's own consumption."
Ariel closed the pokédex, a look of determination flashing in his eyes.
---The morning in Fallarbor Town brought a touch of the mountains' unique moist chill.
The mist was like gauze, shrouding the distant forest, and dewdrops from last night still hung under the eaves on both sides of the street.
Ariel found a roadside stall and ordered a bowl of local specialty Mushroom Meat Porridge.
The warm porridge entered his stomach, dispelling the fatigue of staying up all night and diluting the residual blood and gunpowder smoke from the Underground Arena.
He slowly stirred the porridge in his bowl, but his thoughts had already drifted far away.
The gains from this mission far exceeded his expectations.
Soro's map and the clues about the Mysterious Ore were his biggest trump cards.
As for what he reported to the organization, it was just some scraps used to exchange for surface-level rewards.
He calculated the resources he was about to receive.
One Fire Fang tm, and one Brick Break tm.
Fire Fang, a Fire-type physical attack with a chance to cause a burn or flinch, was practically tailor-made for his Krokorok.
With this move, Krokorok's close-range explosive power would increase by a level.
Brick Break, a Fighting-type god-tier move, could break Light Screen and Reflect.
His Froakie needed such a move to enrich its coverage.
Also, those advanced pokéblocks were enough to keep his Pokémon in top condition during the upcoming high-intensity training.
These things were currently flying toward him through Team Rockets' efficient logistics network.
He opened the special pokédex and skillfully logged into the internal system.
The interface was simple and cold, with features like point exchange, material recycling, and mission posting clear at a glance.
Point exchange and material recycling were the latest features of Team Rockets' pokédex; league coins could not only be converted into points, but items could also be chosen for exchange on the pokédex.
He had already placed an order for the high-quality Charcoal he just got through the pokédex's recycling function last night; someone would come to pick it up soon, and the points were credited immediately.
league coins can be directly exchanged for points, and points can be used to exchange for various rare items in the mall.
This efficient resource integration capability allowed Team Rockets members to quickly turn spoils of war into strength, like a Snowball.
This was very convenient, so Ariel wouldn't have to travel all the way to the Underground Base in Mauville City to exchange items whenever he had materials.
"It seems Team Rockets has already penetrated quite deeply into the Hoenn region."
"But the deeper the penetration, the greater the risk of Team Rockets being exposed."
"I'm afraid the high-level officials in Hoenn have already learned the news of Team Rockets Ingrain Hoenn; it's only a matter of time before it's made public."
Ariel whispered to himself.
This convenience satisfied him but also made him wary.
The more the organization gave, the deeper its control became.
He knew very well that he was just a screw in this massive war machine; if he didn't want to be worn out, he had to become irreplaceable as soon as possible.
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