Early the next morning, Icarus arrived at the city gate around 6:50 with his two Pokémon.
"Hello, Icarus!" At that moment, Aze, wearing a protective suit, also arrived at the gate.
"Aze, long time no see."
Although he still felt a little uncomfortable about that previous incident, he still responded for the sake of team harmony.
In fact, he had already considered that with Weepinbell's current mid-stage Normal-level strength, he should be able to find another team.
However, the change in Ashu's attitude back in the alley made him decide to make a call and ask.
After all, they had successfully cooperated once before. Ashu's strength was indeed good, and he felt like a reliable captain.
Then the "big mission" Ashu mentioned on the phone had successfully attracted him again, so he still came today.
"Icarus, I heard from Ashu that your Bellsprout evolved. So its strength should already be at the mid-stage of the Normal level."
Aze walked over, looked at the Poké Ball on Icarus's waist, and asked with a smile.
"Yes, Aze. I remember your Geodude was about to evolve as well. Has it evolved?"
Since they were still teammates, Icarus answered honestly.
"Yeah, my Geodude evolved too. It's a Graveler now, and its strength has reached the mid-stage of the Normal level. With three mid-stage Normal-level Pokémon, this mission will be a lot safer."
After hearing Icarus's question, Aze nodded. His last sentence also revealed that he already knew what the mission was, which immediately aroused Icarus's curiosity.
"Then Aze, can you tell me what the mission is now?"
"Alright, I'll tell you. This mission is to investigate Team Rocket activity in the inner area of the forest!"
When mentioning Team Rocket, Aze instinctively lowered his voice and leaned closer.
"What?! Team Rocket!" Icarus was shocked when he heard that the mission involved them.
In this world, Team Rocket was also defined as an evil organization by the Pokémon League. Every day, the law enforcement broadcasts called on people to resist such organizations, so he was well aware of them.
In fact, he had once thought about joining Team Rocket.
But he had grown up as an orphan with nothing. He didn't even know where to find them.
In this town, there was no secret recruiter from Team Rocket who would approach a poor orphan like him. So even if he had wanted to join, he simply had no way to do it.
In the end, he survived by relying on League subsidies and working in a butcher shop.
"That's right, Team Rocket. Originally, after Gym Leader Arai returned to our town, Team Rocket basically disappeared from the surrounding area.
But a few days ago, someone discovered several Pokémon corpses in the inner forest whose life force had been completely drained. Some of their limbs were even missing.
You know Team Rocket's signature methods—life-draining potions and biological modifications. That's why this mission was issued."
Seeing Icarus's shocked expression, Aze patted him on the shoulder and continued explaining.
"Of course, this mission doesn't limit the number of participants, and we're not required to capture any Team Rocket members. We only need to confirm whether they are really involved. Once the video evidence is verified, the reward will be given.
If we can even find their base, the reward will be even greater!"
"Alright… give me a moment to process this, Aze. This is Team Rocket we're talking about!"
Icarus fell into deep thought.
The first thing that came to his mind was the League's constant propaganda about Team Rocket.
In this world, buying and selling Pokémon was actually allowed. That alone wasn't why Team Rocket was labeled an evil organization.
The real reason was their human experimentation and biological modifications.
Humans were not born extraordinary. Even with the help of the trainer contract, a trainer could only truly step into the extraordinary realm after reaching the Elite level.
But reaching the Elite level was far from easy.
So some people began looking at Pokémon—creatures born with extraordinary power.
Team Rocket was the most prominent among these groups. They developed a life-overdraft potion that forced Pokémon to release all the energy and vitality within their bodies, concentrating it into specific parts.
They would then hunt the Pokémon, obtain those materials, and transplant them into human bodies to grant powerful strength or extraordinary bloodlines.
Of course, if the process were truly successful and had no side effects, the League would probably have absorbed Team Rocket long ago and directly taken their results.
The real problem was the success rate and the side effects.
Because the success rate was so low, Team Rocket couldn't find enough volunteers. No trainer was willing to risk their life.
So they began preying on ordinary people, which was when they were first labeled as an evil organization.
Later, by accident, they captured a hostile trainer and discovered that trainers had stronger physiques, making them better subjects with a higher success rate for modification.
This led them to focus their attention on trainers.
However, since the success rate was still unreliable, they obviously wouldn't use only their own members as experimental subjects. Instead, they began attacking other trainers and using their bodies for experiments.
This naturally caused enormous resentment among trainers across the Pokémon League, and Team Rocket was officially classified as an evil organization.
Over the years, the League had constantly tried to eliminate them. Yet according to available information, Team Rocket had not weakened—in fact, the organization had grown stronger.
It was rumored that after years of experimentation, their success rate had improved significantly.
Icarus suspected that this improvement in success rate had probably tempted certain high-ranking figures within the League.
After all, even powerful people couldn't guarantee that all their relatives could reach the Elite level and become extraordinary.
If there were an easier path to gaining extraordinary power, it would certainly be tempting.
Of course, even if the success rate improved, the side effects still remained the biggest issue.
Although transplanted organs could grant humans tremendous strength or special bloodlines, they were not originally part of the human body.
As a result, some modified individuals would occasionally lose their sanity, others experienced rapid organ failure, and some even suffered physical mutations.
According to League propaganda, no modified individual had ever died peacefully.
This was probably the main reason why the faction advocating for the complete destruction of Team Rocket still dominated within the League.
"The three of us together—if we really run into them, do we fight or run?"
After a while, Icarus recovered from his thoughts and asked Aze, who had been waiting beside him.
The strength of these modified trainers wasn't limited to their Pokémon. After modification, they themselves were already half extraordinary.
And anyone who dared to operate in the inner forest would certainly be at least a Normal-level trainer. Human experiments couldn't be done alone. If they encountered a small Team Rocket squad, things could become very dangerous.
"There are definitely risks," Aze admitted with a grin. "But according to the mission report, those Pokémon corpses were only around the low-to-mid Normal level in strength. With the three of us together, we should have a chance.
Besides, once the video evidence is confirmed, the reward for this mission is 100 merit points and 50,000 in cash. If we discover their base, the reward will double!"
Seeing Icarus still worried, Aze carefully explained the mission rewards and details.
(End of Chapter)
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