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Chris speculated that this should be a follow-up to Lake of Rage.
Listening to Orm and Carr's conversation, they mentioned Ariana—not the mythical goddess of war, but the executive of Team Rocket, one of the four generals.
Within Team Rocket, the strength of generals is second only to Giovanni.
In Mahogany Town, Team Rocket used the base as a power source to emit high-frequency sound waves that caused Pokémon in Mahogany Town, Lake of Rage, and other surrounding locations to go berserk. The experiment on forced evolution was led by Ariana.
Just now, Lance deliberately released Orm to track Ariana's Rocket Hideout. Who would have thought the base of Team Rocket was actually within Mahogany Town? It was surprising since the direction in which the Rockets fled earlier was the opposite of Mahogany Town.
It was almost certain that the final boss of the Rocket Hideout ahead should be Ariana, the general of Team Rocket.
After considering his options, Chris chose not to enter. The recommended level of the quest was Level 70, but his Pokémon's average level was only 56. It would be wiser to wait until his team reached at least Level 65 in strength.
Chris didn't even entertain the idea of exploring further.
Considering the timeline, in a few days, the Mt.Chimney "Volcano Plan" copy would refresh.
He decided to head back to Fortree City in the Hoenn Region first.
Upon returning directly to Olivine City, Chris confirmed that Jasmine had not returned and then opted to head to Fortree City.
[Is Flygon using Fly to travel to Hoenn Region - Fortree City?]
Returning to Hoenn Region with the same Pokémon took less time than before.
By upgrading Flygon by one level, Chris managed to shorten the return time by nearly an hour. This confirmed his hypothesis: a Pokémon's speed determined the duration of flight.
Unfortunately, the red Gyarados, despite being a Flying-type, could not use Fly. Thus, Chris relied on Flygon for flying. Otherwise, the red Gyarados's speed might have made the trip even shorter.
"Yes," Chris clicked the confirm button.
A Poké Ball released Flygon, who arrived promptly. Chris mounted Flygon, and they immediately flew southwest.
The screen shifted to the protagonist riding Flygon over the sea, accompanied by a countdown and a tooltip.
[Countdown: 74 hours, 31 minutes, and 7 seconds. (If a special event occurs, you will receive a vibration prompt.)]
"There will be special events? Looks like I need to keep this handy," Chris murmured, securing the device to his body.
The next step was to wait three days to return to the Hoenn Region.
China - Winter Lake - E-Class Dangerous Area.
Early in the morning, the police station near Winter Lake received multiple reports of wild Gyarados sightings. The reports were consistent.
Upon receiving the alarms, the police dispatched their strongest officers and alerted the local Gym Leader.
However, upon arrival at Winter Lake, the police found no Gyarados but instead discovered strange visual phenomena. Consequently, the lake was cordoned off.
Shortly after, the wild Gyarados riot at Winter Lake became a case managed by the Chinese military and the country's Search Officer division.
At the gate of Winter Lake, an iconic army-green tent had been erected.
Inside the tent, several senior figures were reviewing video footage.
"Click," went the remote as the video ended, and a guard paused the screen on its final frame.
"What were the results of the last investigation into Team Magma's activities?" the chief asked Lucas.
Referring to Team Magma, Lucas frowned and replied, explaining:
"The last time I took over the investigation regarding Team Magma, I first searched through the domestic database and found no information about them."
"Later, I went to the World Police Organization to apply for access to their database and consulted with a few senior Search Officers."
"We did find an organization called Team Magma, but it turned out to be a small country's volcano protection group. Its background, strength, and activities were very transparent—not the Team Magma we were looking for."
At this point, the old chief and Lucas fell into silence.
A powerful, evil organization aiming to awaken Groudon to expand the continents couldn't be found even after scouring World Police Organization's database?
There were only two possible explanations for this.
Either the organization didn't exist on this planet at all, or they had perfected their secrecy to such an extent that even Interpol couldn't uncover a single lead.
To be honest, the old chief and Lucas found it hard to believe that an evil organization could operate under Interpol's watch without leaving any trace. It seemed more plausible that Team Magma simply didn't exist on this planet.
But... from the previous video, they could clearly determine that the language spoken by Team Magma members was the language of China. Could it be that another world also spoke Chinese?
Was this really a parallel world?
Such a theory only existed in novels and anime.
If they submitted the current investigation report on Team Magma as it was, the old chief feared he might face severe reprimands from higher-ups.
"Let's put the matter of Team Magma aside for now," said the old chief. "Focus on the incident we're dealing with right now."
"You've seen the video," he continued. "The organization in question this time is Team Rocket. They're using sound waves to force Pokémon to evolve, and their members' strength even surpasses that of Team Magma. While they were eventually defeated by a Trainer with a Greninja, we must investigate this organization and the incident thoroughly."
Lucas nodded. Tracking down and dismantling evil organizations was his specialty. He didn't need the old chief to emphasize the urgency—he was already prepared to dive into the work immediately.
From Team Rocket's brazen actions, Lucas deduced that they weren't likely to be a covert group. Unlike Team Magma, they might leave more trails, making them easier to track.
As for the Trainer who commanded the Greninja…
Lucas frowned, his eyes lingering on the blurry figure in the video.
Something about the Trainer seemed familiar. Could it be the same young Trainer who used a Blaziken to defeat Team Magma?
But Lucas quickly dismissed the idea.
The Trainer's face wasn't visible, and the figure was too indistinct to make any definitive comparisons. It could just be a coincidence.