Chapter Summaries

Ye Li, a low-ranking Team Rocket clerk, silently criticized Giovanni’s robbery plan, but Giovanni heard his thoughts and adopted his ideas for a game corner and broader business strategy. After launching the new plan, Giovanni wondered who in Team Rocket had such talent.

• Giovanni briefed Team Rocket leaders on a planned raid on a League supply shipment along Route 15.
• Ye Li privately dismissed the robbery plan and imagined building a profitable game corner and underground businesses.
• Giovanni heard Ye Li’s thoughts and canceled the Route 15 operation, ordering a game corner opened in Celadon City and a Dratini acquired.
• Giovanni’s subordinates left to carry out the orders, while he wondered who had voiced the brilliant ideas.

After the meeting, Giovanni resolved to find the hidden strategist who had proposed Team Rocket’s business expansion, while Ye Li returned to his clerical work, unaware that Giovanni was searching for him. Giovanni began reviewing the attendees’ files and decided to investigate the overlooked clerical staff.

• Giovanni ordered files for all thirty-seven people who attended the meeting and left the conference room to search for the strategist.
• Ye Li returned to his cubicle, relieved he no longer had to risk his life on Route 15, and began writing the meeting minutes.
• Ye Li privately worried about the risks of Giovanni’s plan to build a game corner in Celadon City and obtain Dratini through the black market.
• Giovanni rejected files belonging to the meeting’s combat-focused members, concluding none of them seemed capable of devising the business plan.
• Giovanni noticed the clerical staff files and decided to investigate those inconspicuous employees one by one.

Giovanni tested clerical employees by awarding them a large bonus, hoping to identify the hidden strategist behind Team Rocket’s new plans. Ye Li’s delighted reaction led Giovanni to dismiss him as a candidate, while Apollo faced a price hike and a rival group seeking the same Dratini.

• Apollo and Matori traveled to Celadon City with elite operatives to carry out Giovanni’s orders to establish a game corner.
• Giovanni ordered a 100,000 bonus for each clerk who attended the meeting and instructed the finance department to report their reactions.
• Ye Li received the bonus and eagerly imagined spending it on better ramen and a Pokémon Egg.
• After hearing the clerks’ reactions, Giovanni ruled Ye Li out and decided to use a more direct, dangerous way to expose the strategist.
• Apollo confronted a black-market merchant who raised the Dratini’s price and revealed that another group was also trying to buy it.

Giovanni called an emergency meeting after Apollo’s attempt to buy a Dratini stalled, and Ye Li privately devised a scheme to obtain it without exposing Team Rocket. Giovanni recognized Ye Li’s thinking as that of the strategist he had been seeking and searched the room for its source.

• Apollo told Giovanni that the Dratini seller had raised the price and that another faction was competing for it, then suggested taking it by force.
• Giovanni ordered Apollo to wait and called an emergency meeting for administrative personnel.
• At the meeting, Giovanni explained the problem and asked for opinions, while Ye Li silently criticized Apollo’s proposal.
• Ye Li imagined spreading a rumor about Dragonite, inflating the Dratini’s price through a disguised rival, then intercepting the Pokémon after the rival bought it.
• Giovanni heard Ye Li’s thoughts, recognized the plan as the strategist’s work, and scanned the meeting room for its source.

Giovanni adopted Ye Li’s scheme to deceive a rival faction and seize the last Dratini, then secretly made Ye Li his prime suspect. The scheme succeeded, and Apollo’s squad captured the Dratini after the rival faction bought it at an inflated price.

• Giovanni rejected force and restated Ye Li’s plan, assigning a senior officer to coordinate with Apollo.
• Giovanni ordered a subordinate to monitor everyone from the meeting, especially Ye Li, whose panicked reaction made him suspicious.
• Ye Li returned to his usual clerical work, unaware that he was under surveillance.
• A rumor that a Dragonite had appeared in Viridian Forest drew underworld factions away from the Dratini dispute.
• A mysterious buyer drove up the price of the last Dratini, which the unidentified faction won at an enormous cost.
• Apollo’s squad ambushed the faction on its way out and took the Dratini, completing the plan.

Matori’s Celadon City project was stalled by local gangs demanding protection money, so Giovanni called a meeting to discuss how to deal with them. Giovanni proposed turning the factions against each other, while Ye Li privately judged the plan and began considering a more ruthless approach.

• Local gangs obstructed Matori’s construction project and demanded an enormous protection payment.
• Matori reported the trouble to Giovanni, who called an emergency meeting to seek a strategy.
• Ye Li tried to avoid revealing his thoughts by concentrating on what to have for dinner.
• Giovanni proposed secretly allying with one gang to help suppress the others, then dealing with the ally afterward.
• Ye Li privately considered Giovanni’s plan insufficiently ruthless and thought of making the gangs turn against one another.

Giovanni recognized Ye Li as the hidden source of the strategic advice in his mind and adopted Ye Li’s plan to use the League and media against Celadon City’s local powers. Ye Li feared Giovanni had discovered his secret, while Giovanni began plotting how to recruit and control him.

• Ye Li’s advice led Giovanni to revise his plan and use evidence, the League, and reporters to pressure local powers before Team Rocket bought their territory.
• Giovanni and Ye Li met eyes, and Giovanni noticed Ye Li’s sudden shift from satisfaction to horror, confirming that Ye Li was the strategist he had been seeking.
• Giovanni calmly presented the revised plan, adjourned the meeting, and left without confronting Ye Li.
• Ye Li rushed back to his cubicle, convinced Giovanni could read his thoughts and afraid of what Team Rocket’s boss might do to him.
• Giovanni returned to his office and began considering how to place Ye Li at the center of Team Rocket’s operations and keep him under control.

Giovanni tested Ye Li by giving him a deliberately flawed financial report, and Ye Li independently uncovered and corrected its hidden discrepancies. His performance convinced Giovanni that he had finally obtained conclusive proof of Ye Li’s identity.

• Apollo reported that Team Rocket had secured the baby Dratini and made Team Magma waste a fortune.
• Matori reported that the Celadon City trouble had been resolved and that Team Rocket was preparing to acquire properties cheaply.
• Giovanni ordered the Finance Department head to prepare a flawed report as a special test for Ye Li.
• Ye Li spotted irregular procurement costs and a nearly five-hundred-thousand shortfall, then corrected and clarified the accounts.
• Giovanni reviewed Ye Li’s work and concluded that the test had removed his final doubts.

Giovanni tested Ye Li by leaking a deliberately flawed security proposal and then putting Ye Li’s unspoken ideas into the new Rainbow Game Corner plan. Ye Li concluded that a fellow transmigrator was spying on him, while Giovanni realized Ye Li was the source of the voice and began planning to promote him closer to his side.

• Giovanni discarded the security department’s proposal, created a flawed one, and arranged for Ye Li to see it.
• Ye Li spotted the plan’s weaknesses and privately imagined Pokémon-based defenses, then left without saying anything.
• The security department received Giovanni’s new S-Class plan, which matched Ye Li’s ideas exactly.
• After hearing about the new plan, Ye Li dropped his cup and believed a second transmigrator was stealing his thoughts.
• Giovanni heard how Ye Li had reacted, confirmed his suspicions, and began devising a way to bring Ye Li into his inner circle.

The Rainbow Game Corner’s success brought Team Rocket unprecedented wealth and raised Giovanni’s standing, after which he transferred Ye Li to become his personal assistant. Ye Li accepted under threat of being branded a traitor and began work in Giovanni’s office, where Giovanni ordered him to follow him and remember everything he said.

• The Rainbow Game Corner drew huge crowds, and its profits quickly surpassed Team Rocket’s gray-market income from the previous year.
• Team Rocket issued a transfer order naming Ye Li as Giovanni’s assistant and threatening anyone who refused with the label of traitor.
• Ye Li feared Giovanni had assigned him the post to keep him under surveillance, but accepted rather than risk punishment.
• Ye Li reported to Giovanni’s office in a black suit and tried to hide his nervous thoughts while Giovanni listened to them.
• Giovanni told Ye Li that he must follow him wherever he went and keep every word he said in mind.

Giovanni tested Ye Li about a failing Johto branch, then used Ye Li’s unspoken ideas to introduce a harsh new performance management system. Ye Li was left terrified, convinced Giovanni had somehow read his mind.

• Giovanni told Ye Li that a poorly managed Johto branch had suffered infighting and the organization’s worst mission completion rate for three months.
• Ye Li outwardly claimed he had no thoughts, while privately devising KPI reviews, quarterly elimination of bottom performers, and performance bonuses.
• Giovanni listened to Ye Li’s thoughts and recognized the reforms as a powerful way to improve Team Rocket’s efficiency.
• Giovanni called the personnel department and ordered a trial of quantitative reviews, demotions for the lowest-ranked team, and bonuses for exceeding targets.
• Ye Li was stunned that Giovanni had voiced his ideas, while Giovanni enjoyed his reaction and asked whether there was a problem with the plan.

Ye Li silently devised a safer smuggling route after Apollo challenged him to fix a dangerous plan. Giovanni presented Ye Li’s idea to the executives, leaving Apollo humiliated and suspicious of Ye Li.

• Apollo proposed a smuggling route through Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage, then challenged Ye Li to explain how to make it safe.
• Ye Li privately identified the route’s dangers and devised an alternative from Olivine City using whirlpools, Water-type Pokémon, and storms for cover.
• Giovanni criticized Apollo’s route and outlined the alternative Ye Li had imagined.
• The executives were impressed, while Apollo grew suspicious that Ye Li had secretly supplied Giovanni with the plan.

Ye Li tried to keep Giovanni from sensing his thoughts by masking his expressions and playing catchy songs in his mind. Giovanni recognized the defense and appointed Ye Li to control the Rainbow Game Corner’s revenue and build Team Rocket’s Pokémon forces, leaving Ye Li fearing the political danger of the role.

• Ye Li practiced managing his expressions and used repetitive songs as mental cover whenever he was around Giovanni.
• Giovanni noticed the strange songs in Ye Li’s thoughts and realized Ye Li was guarding against him.
• Giovanni decided to test Ye Li by giving him greater responsibility along with rewards.
• Giovanni appointed Ye Li to control the Rainbow Game Corner’s revenue and use it to expand Team Rocket’s Pokémon army.
• Ye Li reluctantly accepted the appointment, fearing that control of the money would make him a target in Team Rocket’s power struggles.

Ye Li devised a plan to create a Pokémon breeding base so Team Rocket could produce talented Pokémon more cheaply and reliably. Giovanni learned of the plan and gave Ye Li the authority, funding, and staff to begin building the base within a month, leaving Ye Li bewildered by his sudden new role.

• Ye Li found that buying powerful Pokémon on the black market cost too much to expand Team Rocket's reserves sustainably.
• Ye Li conceived a breeding base that would use gifted Pokémon and expert breeding to produce talented offspring in large numbers.
• Giovanni learned the full plan through a secret report and recognized its potential to transform how Team Rocket obtained Pokémon.
• Giovanni summoned Ye Li and authorized the plan, granting him top authority, substantial funding, and the best personnel.
• Ye Li accepted the document in confusion, realizing he had been made responsible for Team Rocket's new breeding base.

Ye Li’s breeding-base plan stalled when Lambda withheld essential equipment, and Giovanni decided to use the obstruction to make clear that Ye Li had his personal backing. Giovanni confronted Lambda at the base, exposed his false excuse, and left Lambda on his knees admitting fault.

• Lambda secretly withheld half the breeding equipment Ye Li had requisitioned, claiming it was needed at the front lines.
• Ye Li confronted Lambda but could not overcome his excuses or his own lack of authority in the organization.
• Giovanni heard Ye Li’s private anger and resolved to punish Lambda while demonstrating that opposing Ye Li meant opposing him.
• Giovanni arrived at the breeding base and asked Lambda where the missing equipment had gone.
• Giovanni revealed that the front lines had no need for the supplies, and Lambda dropped to his knees and admitted he was wrong.

Giovanni stripped Lambda of his executive rank and sent him to supervise mining in Johto, while Ye Li’s breeding project produced Pokémon that strengthened Team Rocket and earned him growing authority. The League began investigating Team Rocket’s expanding operations after unusual funds and underground activity in Celadon City drew attention.

• Giovanni demoted Lambda to an ordinary member and assigned him to supervise Geodude excavation in the Johto Region.
• Ye Li saw Giovanni’s punishment of Lambda as a warning and felt increasingly watched and controlled.
• The Breeding Base hatched fifty Growlithe and fifty Koffing with unusually high potential and valuable inherited moves.
• An elite squad’s combat strength doubled with the new Pokémon, earning Ye Li respect across Team Rocket and prompting Giovanni to consider granting him greater authority.
• The success of the Rainbow Game Corner attracted unwanted attention, and a report on Celadon City’s underground activity and unusual financial flows reached Lorelei at Kanto League headquarters.

Lorelei secretly investigated Celadon City’s Rainbow Game Corner over suspected Team Rocket involvement. Ye Li recognized her during a routine inspection and feared the Pokémon League had begun investigating his business.

• Lorelei received a report about the Rainbow Game Corner’s huge cash flow and possible ties to Team Rocket.
• Lorelei traveled to Celadon City in disguise and entered the game corner to inspect it.
• Ye Li reviewed the game corner’s finances and considered changes to its machines, prize reservations, and Dratini’s care.
• Ye Li noticed a woman surveying the game corner and recognized her as Lorelei.
• Ye Li feared Lorelei’s visit meant the Pokémon League had targeted the game corner and walked past her while hiding his alarm.

Ye Li recognized Lorelei as a League threat and devised a plan to hide Team Rocket’s illegal operations behind a fully legitimate appearance. Giovanni and Matori enacted the plan, but Lorelei noticed the sudden changes and approached Ye Li.

• Ye Li realized that Lorelei was secretly investigating the Rainbow Game Corner and feared her discovery could destroy Team Rocket.
• Giovanni sensed Ye Li’s alarm and waited for him to find a response.
• Ye Li decided to let Lorelei investigate while temporarily concealing everything illegal or suspicious.
• Giovanni ordered Matori to activate the “White Glove” contingency plan, and staff replaced Rocket uniforms, illicit prizes, and sensitive accounts with legitimate substitutes.
• Lorelei noticed the Game Corner’s abrupt changes, spotted Ye Li, and walked toward him.

Lorelei investigated the Celadon game corner for illegal operations and rare Pokémon smuggling, but Matori presented clean accounts and named Erika as its majority shareholder. Lorelei left without proof, though she remained suspicious and promised the League would keep watching.

• Ye Li nervously explained the game corner to Lorelei as she questioned him about its Dratini prize.
• Lorelei used a device to scan Dratini, but its encrypted information deepened her suspicions.
• Matori arrived, handed Lorelei clean account books, and said Erika was the game corner’s majority shareholder.
• Lorelei ended the inspection without finding evidence and warned that the League would continue monitoring the game corner.
• Lorelei studied Ye Li as she left and remembered his nervous but controlled behavior.

After Lorelei’s inspection ended, Giovanni praised Ye Li for protecting Team Rocket and led him to the newly completed Breeding Base. There, Giovanni rewarded Ye Li with an Eevee egg, making him a Pokémon Trainer and binding him more closely to the organization.

• Lorelei left the arcade, and Ye Li’s legs buckled until Matori steadied him.
• Giovanni watched the inspection through surveillance and was impressed by Ye Li’s response to Lorelei.
• Giovanni summoned Ye Li and praised him for handling the League’s inspection.
• Giovanni took Ye Li to the Central Hatching Room in the Breeding Base and showed him an Eevee egg from the Perfect Talent experiments.
• Giovanni declared the egg Ye Li’s reward, and Ye Li reluctantly touched it, knowing he could not refuse.