As the door slowly opened, the scene inside came into full view.
The vast, open space teemed with people. More than a thousand had already gathered.
Most were boys and girls like Giovanni, while a few were full-fledged Team Rocket members accompanied by various Pokémon.
The boys and girls still looked bewildered and frightened, some fidgeting uneasily.
But under the watch of those Team Rocket members and their glaring Pokémon, they could only stay obediently where they were.
After closing the door, Miyamoto gently patted Giovanni on the back. "Go on. Here's a little tip: you'd better stand at the very front or the very back."
Giovanni frowned at her words, but when he looked again, Miyamoto was already leaving without looking back.
The sight of that Houndoom looking back with every step made Giovanni swallow his words.
Looking at the dense crowd, getting to the front was clearly impossible now.
Giovanni could only settle for the next best option and quietly stand at the very back.
His arrival drew no particular reaction.
After all, they were all youngsters who had come here the same way. Giovanni was even scrawnier than these peers of his and hardly looked threatening. Even if he wanted to attract attention, he didn't have what it took.
All the youngsters were looking in one direction, toward a huge R-shaped emblem hanging on the wall.
Standing atop it was none other than Giovanni Rika, Team Rocket's current boss.
The "mother" of these thousand boys and girls, a "deity" who said she would let them choose their lives anew.
Giovanni naturally saw her too, but rather than knowing who she was, he wanted to figure out his own situation.
Team Rocket always operated in extreme ways, and coupled with what Miyamoto and Dr. Naliangmu had said, that left Giovanni feeling very unsafe.
He felt as though he had been swept into a whirlpool, one where a single careless mistake could cost him his life.
Up on the R-shaped emblem, Miyamoto had already reached Giovanni Rika's side. She whispered a few words into her ear, then stood behind her.
Giovanni Rika smiled gently at those below. "My children, first of all, welcome officially into Team Rocket's embrace. I am Giovanni Rika, your mother and the leader of Team Rocket!"
"You may not have heard of Team Rocket, but all you need to know is that Team Rocket is a top organization in the Kanto Region. And I, your mother, am the head of this organization."
"Just as I promised you, starting today, your lives will undergo earth-shattering changes. You will have Pokémon, wealth, and status!"
Hearing Giovanni Rika's words, the boys and girls below grew wildly excited, as though they really believed they were Team Rocket's young masters.
Watching the youngsters around him behave like this, Giovanni smiled coldly. As someone who had watched No More Bets, he found these mere words barely made an impression.
She seemed very satisfied with the emotions and attitudes of the boys and girls below.
Giovanni Rika dropped another bombshell. "In fact, the next boss of Team Rocket will be chosen from among you! But as you understand, there can only be one boss."
Those words startled even Giovanni. Wasn't this moving a little too fast?
He hurriedly turned to look at those around him and, sure enough, found that these youngsters had already begun eyeing the others with hostility and wariness.
The air was thick with tension!
If Giovanni Rika hadn't still been speaking, chaos probably would have broken out already.
Only because he stood at the very back and was so scrawny had he escaped their hostility.
Giovanni Rika continued:
"To pass this position on to the most outstanding successor, I will conduct round after round of selection. The one person who holds out until the end will be Team Rocket's next boss."
"You are candidates, brothers and sisters, and also competitors."
With a wave of her hand, tables covered in incubators containing Pokémon Eggs rose up, surrounding the entire space.
They were marked with symbols for the different types, and some even had Pokémon pictures and text.
There were even starter Pokémon!
These had all been caught in Viridian Forest and Viridian Forest.
This was the Pokémon world, after all. Even without access to them, people would still know some basic facts about Pokémon.
Starter Pokémon far surpassed ordinary Pokémon, while pseudo-legendaries far surpassed starter Pokémon.
A starter Pokémon with good potential might cost a million Pokémon Coins, while a pseudo-legendary might cost ten million, or even over a hundred million.
This really was a powerful dose.
Almost every youngster's gaze fixed on the platform holding the starter Pokémon Eggs.
Even Giovanni couldn't help taking a couple of extra looks.
But only a couple. Any more, and he feared he wouldn't be able to control himself!
With these instructions, along with Miyamoto's earlier warning, Giovanni had already guessed what Giovanni Rika wanted to do. Cold sweat was already breaking out on his forehead.
In a riot involving a thousand people, deaths and injuries would be perfectly normal.
Giovanni Rika clapped her hands lightly, and the restless scene immediately fell silent.
She concluded:
"There are five hundred incubators containing Pokémon Eggs here, with everything from ordinary Pokémon of average potential to starter Pokémon of exceptional potential."
As though to prevent excessive casualties from everyone fighting over the starter Pokémon Eggs, she added another remark.
"What kind of Pokémon Egg you obtain will depend entirely on your own ability. However, there is one thing I must remind you of: after obtaining a Pokémon Egg, if you cannot hatch it within fourteen days, you will also be disqualified."
"Pokémon Eggs are very special. Not only do higher-quality eggs take longer to hatch, but their hatching will also accelerate according to how active the person carrying them is."
Once she said that, more than half the youngsters looking at the starter Pokémon Eggs turned their gazes away.
Giovanni had never intended to lay a hand on the starter Pokémon Eggs in the first place. Hearing Giovanni Rika's words only made him more certain.
He didn't know what would happen after disqualification, but it definitely wouldn't end well. He might even "die"!
Giovanni wiped the sweat from his forehead and scanned the various platforms. He needed to find the most suitable Pokémon.
Eventually, his gaze settled on the Bug-type Pokémon closest to him, which likewise had drawn little attention.
When it came to Pokémon with the shortest hatching and growth times, only Bug-types fit the bill!
However, Bug-types also had their drawbacks: they generally weren't very strong once fully grown, and there was that awkward period during their second evolutionary stage.
If Giovanni's guess was right, the later selection rounds would definitely involve battles, and Bug-types would be at a disadvantage then!
As for Bug-type Pokémon's growth rate, as long as they successfully made it through their second stage, they could temporarily gain an advantage over Pokémon at the same stage.
As evolution progressed, this advantage would gradually diminish, and they might ultimately be easily surpassed by other Pokémon.
At that thought, his gaze naturally shifted to his second choice, the Ground-type Pokémon.
For some reason, he had a particular fondness for Ground-type Pokémon. Perhaps it had some subtle connection to their name.
He had also considered hatching a Beedrill, but ultimately abandoned the idea.
One reason was that Beedrill often displayed a fierce, hard-to-tame temper after reaching their third stage. If a Trainer wasn't strong enough to keep the Pokémon under control, the risk of it turning on them would increase greatly.
It was like "that idiot" and his Charizard. Although Charizard eventually became powerful, not everyone had the physical constitution and skills to handle one the way "that idiot" did.
If an ordinary person was unlucky enough to have a Charizard turn on them, they would end up cooked.
Besides, not just anyone could raise a Beedrill capable of rivaling a first-tier legendary!
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