Chapter Summaries

Ye Li accepted Giovanni’s Eevee Egg, studied how to care for it, and watched it hatch into a timid but vigorous Eevee. After their clumsy attempt at training drew mockery from Team Rocket members and Apollo, Ye Li began devising a strategy suited to Eevee’s cautious nature.

• Giovanni gave Ye Li an Eevee Egg, an incubator, care materials, and a week of leave to raise his first Pokémon.
• After three days, the Eevee hatched and showed a timid, trouble-averse personality much like Ye Li’s.
• When Ye Li took Eevee to the public training grounds, it refused the obstacle course, then tripped at the first hurdle and gave up.
• Ye Li tried demonstrating the course himself, but his clumsy, exhausting run prompted nearby Team Rocket members to mock him and Eevee.
• Apollo passed by with his Golbat and despised Ye Li for receiving what he considered a wasted Perfect Talent Pokémon Egg.
• While tending to Eevee, Ye Li planned a strategy based on evasion, harassment, and wearing down opponents before striking at an opening.

Apollo challenged Ye Li to a Pokémon battle to expose his lack of combat skill, and the old-guard officers supported him. Giovanni accepted the challenge on Ye Li’s behalf and scheduled a public battle for three days later, leaving Ye Li with no way to refuse.

• Apollo questioned the Breeding Plan’s value in combat and challenged Ye Li to a friendly Pokémon battle.
• Many old-guard officers backed Apollo and called for Ye Li to prove himself in battle.
• Ye Li panicked at the thought of facing Apollo with his timid, less-than-a-month-old Eevee.
• Giovanni decided Ye Li needed to be tested and accepted the challenge on his behalf.
• Giovanni scheduled the public battle at the main training ground in three days.

Ye Li studied Apollo’s battle records and devised a risky plan to give his underpowered Eevee a chance to land one surprise attack. With Giovanni’s approval, he gathered the necessary items and began three days of intense training.

• Ye Li reviewed Apollo’s past battles and identified the arrogant executive’s direct, aggressive tactics as a possible opening.
• Ye Li chose a black-market Teleport Scroll to help Eevee set up a powerful Take Down.
• Giovanni watched Ye Li’s preparations, approved his resource requests, and gave him access to the supplies he needed.
• Ye Li spent nearly all his points on the Teleport Scroll and other support items, then took Eevee to a training room.
• Ye Li trained Eevee to dodge, run, and use Take Down against a designated target when given a particular command.

Ye Li and Eevee faced Apollo and his Arbok in a battle the crowd expected them to lose. After using a Courage Capsule and their practiced evasion to survive Arbok’s attacks, Eevee used a scroll to appear behind Arbok and prepare a counterattack.

• Apollo sent out Arbok instead of Houndoom, and the referee started the battle.
• Ye Li had Eevee bite the Courage Capsule to overcome Arbok’s Leer, then ordered it to evade Poison Sting using their practiced route.
• Eevee dodged Arbok’s attacks while Apollo and the crowd mocked Ye Li’s defensive strategy.
• Apollo ordered Arbok to use Bind, and Ye Li seized the opening after its charge to tell Eevee to use the scroll.
• The scroll transported Eevee behind Arbok, and Ye Li commanded it to use Take Down.

Ye Li used Eevee and a hidden electric shock device to defeat Apollo’s Arbok despite the huge difference in their strength. Both Pokémon fainted, leaving everyone stunned by Ye Li’s victory.

• Eevee struck Arbok with Take Down, then used a Binding Headband to cling to its neck and bite it.
• Apollo ordered Arbok to use Venoshock at point-blank range, giving Ye Li the opening he had planned for.
• Ye Li ordered Eevee to use Helping Hand to activate a hidden high-voltage shock device.
• The device overloaded and sent a powerful current through Arbok, leaving it unable to battle.
• Eevee also fainted after exhausting its stamina and suffering the shock’s aftereffects, and the onlookers stared in disbelief.

Ye Li defeated Apollo through careful tactics, and Giovanni appointed him head of Team Rocket’s newly established Strategic Development Department. Ye Li realized his new position tied him firmly to Team Rocket, leaving no easy way back.

• Apollo recognized that Ye Li had outmaneuvered him and regarded him with deep wariness.
• Ye Li confirmed Eevee was safe, then collapsed from exhaustion as medical staff carried Eevee away.
• Giovanni led the applause and praised Ye Li’s strategic ability before Team Rocket’s executives and members.
• Giovanni established the Strategic Development Department, which would report directly to him and operate independently of combat and logistics departments.
• Giovanni named Ye Li the department’s sole member and highest-ranking officer, granting him authority over intelligence, logistics, and noncombat personnel.
• Ye Li was stunned by the appointment and understood that he was now firmly tied to Team Rocket.

After becoming the sole director of Team Rocket’s empty Strategic Development Department, Ye Li realized Giovanni was forcing him to build a team from marginalized members. He planned an internal recruitment drive for overlooked technical talent, and Giovanni secretly approved the plan and ordered Personnel to give Ye Li full support.

• Ye Li sat in his new executive office and recognized that Giovanni had made him a commander without any staff or troops.
• Ye Li concluded that Giovanni was steering him toward recruiting Team Rocket’s marginalized members and bringing its unconventional forces together.
• Ye Li decided to recruit overlooked technical specialists through professional assessments and generous project bonuses.
• Giovanni watched Ye Li’s thoughts through a concealed camera and approved his plan to create a new force within Team Rocket.
• Giovanni ordered the Personnel Department to fully support Ye Li’s internal recruitment and provide whatever people and resources he requested.

Ye Li recruited three technical specialists to form the Strategic Development Department’s first project teams. He set them the goal of using Dr. Anya’s research to increase the occurrence rate of Shiny Pokémon by one in a thousand, while Giovanni watched their work with interest.

• Ye Li issued a recruitment notice seeking technical specialists and designed challenging assessments for the applicants.
• Lin Feng decrypted encrypted communications, Engineer Wang built a signal jammer from scrap, and Dr. Anya submitted a paper on increasing the likelihood of Shiny Pokémon.
• Ye Li hired the three specialists and assigned Lin Feng to network intelligence, Engineer Wang to equipment development, and Dr. Anya to biotechnology.
• Ye Li launched the department’s first project to improve the Breeding Base’s genetic screening algorithm and increase Shiny Pokémon occurrence by one in a thousand.
• Lin Feng, Engineer Wang, and Dr. Anya began working intensively, while Apollo and the others dismissed their project and Giovanni observed them with interest.

Ye Li and Lin Feng used a predictive simulation program to guide Pokémon Egg hatching toward Shiny mutations. Their first experiment successfully produced a golden Shiny Magikarp, proving the method could artificially increase the odds of a Shiny Pokémon appearing.

• Lin Feng developed a program that simulated hatching mutations and calculated environmental conditions likely to produce a Shiny Pokémon.
• Ye Li presented the program and Dr. Anya's theories to Giovanni, who approved an A-Class Hatching Laboratory and thirty Magikarp eggs.
• Lin Feng used the program to control the eggs' incubation conditions while Ye Li and his team waited for them to hatch.
• The experiment produced one golden Shiny Magikarp among the thirty newly hatched Pokémon.

After the successful hatching of a Shiny Magikarp, Ye Li proposed mass-producing combat-capable Shiny Pokémon, beginning with Zubat, and Giovanni ordered all of Team Rocket to supply his department with high-quality Zubat eggs. Ye Li’s Strategic Development Department gained unprecedented authority and access to the organization’s resources.

• Team Rocket’s executives watched footage of a golden Shiny Magikarp hatching and recognized the potential value of the technology.
• Ye Li told Giovanni that Shiny Magikarp lacked combat value and argued that Team Rocket should mass-produce powerful Shiny Pokémon for its troops.
• Ye Li proposed Zubat as the next target, envisioning an army of fast, gifted Shiny Crobat.
• Giovanni approved the proposal and ordered every Team Rocket branch and operational squad to collect high-quality Zubat eggs for Ye Li’s department.
• Ye Li’s Strategic Development Department gained the authority to mobilize Team Rocket’s resources.

Ye Li suspected Erika’s proposed game-machine purchase was a Pokémon League investigation arranged by Lorelei, but saw a chance to turn it into a partnership that would legitimize the Rainbow Game Corner and attract new customers. Giovanni approved Ye Li’s plan, and Team Rocket’s machines were installed in the Celadon Department Store.

• Erika’s representative contacted Matori about buying game machines for the Celadon Department Store.
• Ye Li concluded that Lorelei had prompted Erika to investigate the game corner through a business deal.
• Ye Li proposed selling the machines at a discount and giving Erika vouchers to draw department-store customers to the game corner.
• Giovanni ordered Matori to follow Ye Li’s plan and use Erika’s reputation to publicly legitimize the business.
• Matori reached a cooperation agreement with Erika’s representative, and Team Rocket’s machines were installed prominently in the Celadon Department Store.

Ye Li cared for Eevee after its battle with Apollo and chose Umbreon as its future evolution, preparing to trigger it through friendship and moonlight. As Giovanni watched from the surveillance room, Eevee began to evolve beneath the simulated full moon.

• Ye Li helped Eevee recover and watched it grow more confident, including when it growled at a contemptuous Team Rocket member.
• Ye Li rejected the Evolution Stone forms and decided Umbreon's defensive, disruptive fighting style best suited his tactics.
• Ye Li spent nights with Eevee in the Simulated Ecosystem Garden to build their friendship beneath simulated moonlight.
• Giovanni monitored Ye Li's activities, learned about Espeon and Umbreon, and chose to observe without interfering.
• When Eevee's friendship reached a critical threshold under a full simulated moon, it began glowing and entered an evolution cocoon as Ye Li and Giovanni watched.

Ye Li’s Eevee evolved into the unknown Pokémon he named Umbreon, impressing researchers with its unusual Dark-type energy and defensive stats. The next day, Apollo sought Ye Li’s tactical advice for his Houndoom, while Giovanni watched Ye Li’s influence on Team Rocket grow.

• Eevee completed its evolution under the moonlight, and Ye Li named the new Pokémon Umbreon.
• Researchers measured Umbreon’s exceptional Defense and Special Defense and detected energy unlike any known type.
• Giovanni watched the researchers’ findings and concluded that Ye Li possessed knowledge of Pokémon evolution from the future.
• At the Advanced Training Ground, Apollo approached Ye Li and asked for advice about his Houndoom and the unfamiliar Pokémon evolution.
• Ye Li suggested that Apollo teach Houndoom Nasty Plot and use the boost to deliver a decisive attack.
• Apollo hurried to the Move Training Area to try Ye Li’s advice, while Giovanni watched and recognized Ye Li’s growing influence on Team Rocket.

Team Magma sent Tabitha and an elite squad to infiltrate Team Rocket’s Pokémon Breeding Base and steal its research data and Flash Plan secrets. Lin Feng detected a faint anomaly in the base’s Energy Field, and Ye Li suspected Team Magma had arrived.

• Maxie sent Tabitha and an elite squad from Hoenn to infiltrate Team Rocket’s base and steal its technology.
• Tabitha’s squad used Ground-type Pokémon to dig an underground passage that bypassed the base’s surface sensors.
• Lin Feng noticed a faint anomaly in the Energy Field and reported it to Ye Li.
• Ye Li received Lin Feng’s warning and suspected Team Magma was behind the infiltration.

Ye Li took command of the Strategic Development Department’s response to Team Magma’s infiltration, choosing to test the department’s combat capabilities without requesting combat support. His traps and deception drove Tabitha’s squad toward an abandoned warehouse, where his final plan awaited.

• Ye Li reported the intruders to Giovanni and asked to handle the response himself, receiving full command authority.
• Ye Li used the base’s detection network to locate Tabitha’s squad in the pipe area and ordered Engineer Wang to activate defensive traps.
• Magnets immobilized the intruders’ Poké Balls and equipment, while concealed Hydro Pumps scattered them.
• Ye Li directed Dr. Anya to prepare hypnosis gas and had Lin Feng play a recording of Apollo’s troops over the intruders’ communications.
• Believing Team Rocket’s main force had surrounded them, Tabitha’s squad panicked and fled toward the abandoned warehouse in Zone D.

Ye Li turned Team Magma’s infiltration of Team Rocket’s base into a controlled test of the Strategic Development Department’s defenses. Tabitha and his squad were trapped, incapacitated by drowsiness pollen, and surrounded by miniature robots.

• Ye Li ordered Lin Feng to take control of the base network and flood Team Magma’s earpieces with false alarms.
• Tabitha dismissed the alerts as a diversion and followed a stolen duct map that Lin Feng had secretly altered, leading his squad into dead ends.
• Ye Li directed Engineer Wang to activate humiliating traps that stuck a Team Magma member to the floor and trapped the squad between closing alloy walls and a boulder.
• Dr. Anya released concentrated drowsiness pollen into the ducts, putting the squad to sleep one by one.
• Tabitha resisted the pollen long enough to see miniature robots surround him before he succumbed to sleep.

Ye Li’s Strategic Development Department captured an elite Team Magma squad without casualties by using technology to render them unconscious. Giovanni praised the department and promoted its clearance and budget, then assigned Ye Li to lead the interrogations and introduce his methods across Team Rocket.

• Ye Li’s department used technology to put the Team Magma squad to sleep and restrain them without firing a shot.
• Apollo and the other executives arrived expecting a battle and were shocked to find the enemies unconscious and Ye Li’s team unharmed.
• Giovanni publicly commended the Strategic Development Department, raised its clearance level to S-rank, and doubled its budget.
• Ye Li considered using psychological tricks to interrogate the captured Team Magma members.
• Giovanni assigned Ye Li full responsibility for the interrogations and told him to introduce his methods throughout Team Rocket.

Ye Li broke Tabitha’s resistance by showing him fabricated videos of his squad betraying him, then learned Team Magma was searching Kanto for ruins linked to Groudon. After Ye Li reported the intelligence, Giovanni ordered Team Rocket to change its strategic focus.

• Ye Li confined Tabitha in a soundproof room for three days before confronting him with fabricated confessions from his squad members.
• Tabitha’s anger and disbelief gave way to despair, and he agreed to reveal everything if he could deal with the supposed traitors himself.
• Tabitha told Ye Li that Team Magma was searching Kanto for ancient ruins connected to Groudon and a key item that might awaken or control it.
• Ye Li compiled the intelligence and sent it to Giovanni.
• Giovanni recognized the opportunity and ordered an immediate change to Team Rocket’s strategic focus.

The Strategic Development Department expanded after its success against Team Magma, and Ye Li launched the Flash Crobat Legion project with a specialized speed-and-stealth training plan. Apollo then sought Ye Li’s advice on teaching his Houndoom Nasty Plot, leaving Ye Li to hope his improvised guidance would work.

• Ye Li welcomed a flood of technical specialists into the Strategic Development Department as its reputation grew.
• Dr. Anya, Lin Feng, and Engineer Wang helped hatch the first batch of thirty Flash Zubat from the organization’s collected eggs.
• Ye Li designed an extreme speed-and-stealth training course to turn the Flash Zubat into covert attackers.
• Apollo visited Ye Li and asked how to train his Houndoom to use Nasty Plot.
• Ye Li recommended scenario simulation to develop the Houndoom’s patience and concentration, and Apollo eagerly left to try it.

Ye Li and Lin Feng planted fabricated intelligence to mislead the Pokémon League agent investigating Team Rocket's game machines. Lorelei believed the fake report might be real and diverted League investigators to search for a supposed spatial distortion in Celadon City.

• Lorelei sent a League agent undercover to Celadon Department Store to investigate Team Rocket's game machines.
• Lin Feng detected the agent's infiltration, and Ye Li ordered him to let the agent access a fake database.
• The agent downloaded and sent Lin Feng's fabricated files to League headquarters.
• Lorelei read the report claiming Team Rocket planned to create a spatial distortion in Celadon City.
• Despite her doubts, Lorelei assigned personnel and experts to investigate the supposed spatial energy fluctuations.