In the middle of the night, Aoki arrived above Saffron City.
Matsuda had left with the Aerodactyl, saying his experiment progress had been delayed for a day due to Aoki, and he needed to return to continue the experiment tomorrow.
Reluctantly, Aoki returned to Saffron City alone.
Shortly after entering the city, a relatively hidden communicator on him suddenly rang.
Feeling the internal vibration, Aoki's face changed.
Shaking off his lethargy, he slipped into the dark alleys of Saffron City.
He then summoned Slowking and took out the communicator he kept nearby after confirming no one was around.
There was no number displayed on it, but it could only dial one person—Shadow.
This communicator was reserved exclusively for Aoki's use.
After connecting, a voice came through, "Aoki, where are you now? Are you still in Saffron City?"
Aoki replied respectfully, "Master Shadow, this subordinate is currently in Saffron City."
There was silence on the other end for a moment before Shadow said, "Okay, I see."
The call ended abruptly.
Before Aoki could put down the communicator, the surrounding space distorted.
In the blink of an eye, two figures appeared before him.
It was Shadow and Sabrina, the owner of the Psychic Gym in Saffron City, who had been teleported there.
"Master Shadow, Master Sabrina," Aoki called out respectfully.
Sabrina's eyes lit up as she noticed Slowking beside Aoki, and she quickly reached out toward it.
But Slowking was no longer the same as before. Although it couldn't match Sabrina's strength, it managed to evade her touch.
"Huh? Your Slowking is the previous Slowpoke? You were able to unleash its talent? I underestimated you a bit," Sabrina said, retracting her hand.
However, her expression changed slightly. "Have you reached the level of a junior psychic?!"
Although to Sabrina, a junior psychic was no different from an ordinary person, Aoki's ability had caught her off guard.
She was very familiar with Aoki's talent; in this life, he seemed to lack the capacity to become a primary psychic, but now he had activated psychic powers.
It shattered her understanding of psychic talent.
Sabrina's own awakening as a primary psychic had been swift, but Aoki's situation was entirely different.
"Luck, just a bit of luck," Aoki replied.
He couldn't explain his progress to Sabrina, so he attributed it to fortune.
Just as Sabrina was about to press further, Shadow interrupted them.
"Alright, now is not the time for this, Sabrina!"
At this, Sabrina recognized the urgency, gave Aoki a lingering look, and said, "Put away your Pokémon and come with us to meet someone."
Aoki complied, storing Slowking away while feeling a surge of anxiety.
If two elite trainers were coming to find him and wanted to introduce him to someone, he didn't need to guess who that person was.
The leader of Team Rocket!
A figure feared even by the top management of the League.
The man who could compete head-on with the League Champion and still hold an advantage.
In terms of strength and influence, he belonged to the upper echelons of the world.
Aoki had met Sakagi in his previous life, but that time, it was only through video calls amidst a large gathering, where he was merely following orders.
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Sabrina grasped Aoki's shoulder and placed her other hand on Shadow.
Her psychic power surged.
Aoki felt like a small boat in a stormy sea, precariously balanced and at risk of capsizing.
Sabrina teleported them.
In a flash, the three found themselves in a forest.
Without stopping, they teleported again.
Within less than a minute, they arrived in a secret room.
"Huh, this is really troublesome. I have to take the two of you with me. If I were alone, I would have come directly," Sabrina said, letting out a sigh.
"Where is this...?" Aoki couldn't help but ask.
"Viridian City, the base of Team Rocket," Shadow replied casually as he walked deeper inside.
Sabrina followed closely behind, and Aoki was taken aback but could only follow.
As expected of Sabrina, she managed to transport them to Viridian City so quickly.
Viridian City was a relatively large city in the Kanto region, situated near the Viridian Forest.
While ordinary people might not know its significance, the top executives of the League were well aware that it was essentially the base camp of Team Rocket.
Sakagi, the leader of Team Rocket, was based in Viridian City.
He also served as the gym leader there.
Initially, before Sakagi revealed his true identity, the League regarded him as a key figure for future development.
But due to his rising power, he established his own gym in the pivotal city of Viridian.
Surprisingly, Team Rocket thrived, shifting their focus from Viridian City to Saffron City.
Yet, Viridian City remained their true base.
As for Sakagi's gym leadership, the League had likely reached a compromise, allowing him to maintain that position.
After all, who else would dare to serve as gym leader in Viridian City if not Team Rocket?
In Kanto, out of the eight major cities, four had gym leaders who were members of Team Rocket—a frightening statistic.
It showcased just how deeply Team Rocket had infiltrated the League.
Of course, this was also related to the gradual decline within the League, the discovery of new regions, and a shift in focus.
But it also reflected the strength of Team Rocket.