Pokemon: The Legendary Trainer

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"Yes, yes, I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Just don't let it touch me!"

As soon as Aoki heard what Sato said—and saw Ariados's movement—he scrambled backward into the corner in a panic. His eyes were filled with fear as he looked at Ariados, and his speech became incoherent.

"It seems that Ariados's method of storing food is a terrifying torment for living beings. I should try using this method for future interrogations—especially on those stubborn types."

Seeing how terrified Aoki was, Sato immediately understood. The doubts in his heart vanished. He turned to glance thoughtfully at the Ariados beside him.

After letting Ariados intimidate Aoki a few more times, the man quickly began to spill everything he knew—even admitting to wetting the bed as a child.

Over half an hour later, Sato knocked Aoki unconscious. His face darkened, and a heavy seriousness settled over his expression.

"To think this guy went to such lengths to deal with me... Joining forces with over a hundred people from the base to ambush me. He sure thinks highly of me. And the fact that he's this powerful..."

Sitting by the campfire with his back against Arcanine, Sato looked over the intel Aoki had provided, muttering to himself.

From the information he had gathered, Sato now understood just how petty Ranka could be. For revenge, Ranka had managed to contact over a hundred participants in the base in a short amount of time—and had even placed a massive bounty on Sato's head.

There were three types of bounties:

There were three types of bounties:

i) Five billion PokeDollars for the one who killed Sato.

ii) Two billion PokeDollars for anyone who assisted Ranka in killing Sato.

iii) One Hundred Million PokeDollars for providing intel on Sato's whereabouts.

PokeDollars were the standard currency in the Pokémon world—essential for acquiring resources to raise Pokémon. No trainer would ever complain about having more of it.

There was no denying it: as one of Athena's core young protégés and a major figure in one of the three great factions, Ranka was filthy rich. Offering one hundred million just for intel was an absurd amount—it would undoubtedly tempt many of the participants.

Especially since they didn't know Sato's true strength. Sato could already imagine those who received Ranka's bounty offers rushing to sell him out the moment they ran into him—or even attempting to kill him outright.

And Ranka's cunning didn't stop there. He had managed to smuggle in a set of simple communication devices onto the mysterious island without alerting anyone. 

Nearly every participant who had been contacted by Ranka now carried a miniature communicator.

These devices could only be used to contact Ranka unilaterally. Once activated, the communicator would immediately transmit accurate coordinates to Ranka's high-tech radar.

Sato stashed the intelligence document into his storage backpack, then pulled out Aoki's own backpack. From it, he extracted what looked like an ordinary button.

"Who would've thought a simple button on a storage backpack could be a communicator... Ranka's influence in Team Rocket must be enormous. In such a short time, he devised all of this just to deal with me. I definitely underestimated him."

Sato carefully held the button up for closer inspection. When he noticed the tiny red button on its back, he couldn't help but feel that dealing with that drag queen Ranka was going to be a headache.

Moreover, according to Aoki's intel, Ranka's true hidden strength was far greater than what Sato had thought. The man actually possessed both a Key Stone and Mega Evolution stone.

In fact, Ranka's strongest Pokémon wasn't the Zweilous that hadn't yet evolved into Hydreigon—but an Aggron at high pseudo Elite-Four level.

No—more accurately, it was a Mega Aggron capable of Mega Evolution at any time.

It was precisely because Aoki had witnessed Ranka unleash this kind of terrifying strength that he so willingly submitted to him.

In addition to Aggron and Zweilous, Ranka also had a Venusaur, Honchkrow, Manectric, and Houndoom in his team.

Though these four Pokémon were slightly weaker than Aggron and Zweilous, none of them could be considered weak. Each one was at least level 40 or higher.

Learning all of this caused Sato to immediately reassess Ranka's threat level. He now considered Ranka a formidable enemy on the same tier as Tomoki and Vanna.

If he were to engage Ranka directly now, Sato wasn't confident he could gain the upper hand. At best, he might manage to avoid defeat.

And that wasn't even the worst of it—Ranka had three elite subordinates who were extremely troublesome. Each of these "personal guards" had a Pokémon at a high pseudo Elite Four level as well.

The three of them rarely left Ranka's side. Although they were currently scattered across the island due to the randomized teleportation, Sato was certain that with Ranka's means, they'd regroup soon.

In other words, the next time Sato ran into Ranka, he might have to face all four of them at once.

Facing four trainers, each with almost near-Elite Four-level Pokémon—no matter how fast Sato had been training his team—his only outcome would be defeat... or death.

"This is such a pain. Over a hundred contestants with direct contact with Ranka... and all of them departed from the eastern base, just like me."

"In two days at most, I'll probably start running into other contestants who've adjusted to island life and begun exploring. When that happens, I'll be in real danger."

"This won't do—I have to come up with a viable strategy, fast. There's no way I can hide from this many people... and I definitely can't take them all out."

As the potential threats ahead weighed heavily on Sato's mind, he remained calm and began mentally crafting countermeasures.

"Wait... maybe there is a way. This guy—Aoki—only recently joined Ranka. Knowing how arrogant and dismissive that drag-queen Ranka is, he probably doesn't think much of someone like Aoki. He may barely even remember who he is. If that's the case... then I might be able to work with this."

Eventually, Sato's gaze landed on the unconscious Aoki lying a short distance away. A glint of sharp intent flashed in his eyes, and the once-clouded expression on his face began to relax.