Read advance chapters for both of my work, exclusively on Patreon at - www.patreon.com/Sniperwoof
-----------------
After the dizzying and nauseating sensation gradually faded, Sato quickly opened his eyes and found himself lying in a narrow, small room.
From the signs posted on the walls, such as "Welcome to the Pewter City Team Rocket Underground Base," "Leave Immediately After Waking Up," and "No Long-Term Occupancy Allowed," Sato realized that he had indeed returned to the Pewter City Team Rocket Underground Base.
Sato wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, he quickly changed into a Team Rocket grunt uniform before opening the door and stepping out of the cramped room.
He then entered a relatively spacious area where people dressed in Team Rocket uniforms were bustling about.
After carefully observing his surroundings, Sato realized that this was the teleportation room of the Pewter City Team Rocket Underground Base.
The room was divided into two sections. On both the left and right sides, there were rows of narrow small rooms, while the center was an open space.
The small rooms on the left housed many Psychic-type Pokémon capable of using Teleport. These Pokémon were clearly the means by which Team Rocket members exited the underground base.
The small room Sato had just come from was on the right side, which served as the entrance to the base.
"I expected this in Saffron City, but I didn't think Pewter City would also use Teleport-capable Psychic-type Pokémon for entering and exiting the base. This way, even internal members of Team Rocket would have a hard time figuring out the exact location of the Pewter City Underground Base. This base is incredibly well-hidden."
As Sato watched the Team Rocket members entering and exiting the base through the teleportation rooms on both sides, he couldn't help but feel amazed by Team Rocket's wealth and their emphasis on secrecy.
The teleportation room of the Pewter City Team Rocket Underground Base was clearly a separate space. Following the signs, Sato walked down a long corridor, twisting and turning for over half an hour before finally entering the more familiar parts of the underground base.
By this point, Sato had completely lost track of the teleportation room's general direction.
If he hadn't followed the winding corridor, which was equipped with cameras and stationed guards every few steps, he would never have been able to find his way back to the teleportation room underground.
Based on his intuition, Sato guessed that the corridor was spiral-shaped. From the subtle changes in temperature, he deduced that he was heading deeper underground.
Roughly estimating based on the number of steps he had taken, Sato concluded that this heavily guarded corridor was at least several kilometers long.
However, due to its winding nature, he guessed that the straight-line distance between the Pewter City Team Rocket Underground Base and the teleportation room wasn't very far.
As for why the teleportation room of the Pewter City Team Rocket Underground Base was designed in such a strange way, Sato simply noted it in his mind without dwelling on it further. His main focus now was on the rookie competition mission.
Following the signs along the way, Sato quickly made his way to the mission hall.
The spacious mission hall was much like what Sato remembered. It was still quite deserted, with only about seven or eight people wandering around the stone pillars hung with mission plaques.
However, one thing was different: the supply station on the left side of the mission hall, which had previously been closed, was now open again.
Sato vividly remembered that his first "bucket of gold" had come from the Berry Mixer in the corner of that supply station.
The rookie competition mission wasn't hard to find. It was displayed like a proud peacock on the most prominent position of one of the stone pillars, taking up a large portion of one side. Sato only had to walk around a few of the stone pillars to spot it.
Seeing the information firsthand was far more informative than hearing about it secondhand. After carefully reading the mission plaque for the rookie competition, Sato finally gained a comprehensive understanding of the event.
The location of the rookie competition wasn't explicitly stated. The mission plaque only provided the location of the first checkpoint.
To obtain the final location, participants would have to pass numerous checkpoints along the way.
"Interesting. This kind of test is somewhat similar to the Hunter Exam in *Hunter x Hunter*. Indeed, with such a layered screening process, the vast majority of mediocre individuals would be filtered out, leaving only those with exceptional talents. Only such individuals are worth investing significant resources into training."
After reading the mission details, Sato couldn't help but feel admiration for the person who had devised this talent selection method. At the same time, he deeply felt Team Rocket's desire and emphasis on recruiting true talent.
However, there was one thing about this rookie competition that puzzled Sato: the rewards were far more generous than in previous years.
The first-place winner would not only be promoted to a reserve officer but would also receive a pseudo-legendary Pokémon egg.
As for which pseudo-legendary Pokémon it would be, the mission plaque clearly stated that the first-place winner could choose from any of the pseudo-legendary Pokémon across the regions.
Additionally, the organization promised to provide a year's worth of food for that Pokémon.
It had to be said that the reward for first place was incredibly generous. When Sato first saw it, he couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
For the vast majority of trainers, owning a pseudo-legendary Pokémon was almost the ultimate goal of their training journey.
The power of pseudo-legendary Pokémon had been deeply ingrained in people's minds through the dominant performances of regional champions in the Pokémon League.
"If Legendaries don't appear, pseudo-legendaries are invincible."
This domineering statement was something most trainers wholeheartedly agreed with.
Now, such a golden opportunity to rise to the top had appeared before Sato. It would be a lie to say he wasn't excited. At this moment, he couldn't help but entertain the thought of seizing the first-place position.
However, after calming down, Sato quickly dismissed the idea. He was currently just an ordinary Team Rocket grunt with no background to speak of. Although his current strength was decent, he was far from being invincible.
Team Rocket was a dark organization, and the law of the jungle was deeply ingrained in the bones of every member. The weak were not worthy of owning such Pokémon.
While pseudo-legendary Pokémon were undoubtedly powerful, for someone like Sato at this stage, they were more of a liability than an asset. Even if he had the ability to compete for first place, he wouldn't be able to hold onto such a Pokémon.
At best, Sato could exchange the pseudo-legendary Pokémon for some benefits. At worst, it could bring him fatal trouble.
With this in mind, Sato reluctantly shifted his gaze away from the incredibly generous first-place rewards and continued reading further down.
Compared to the top reward, the prizes for the top 10 were significantly less valuable—but still highly desirable.
Even so, the rewards for the top ten still greatly interested Sato, as all of them would be directly promoted to reserve Elite executives.
"Reserve Executive? That's perfect. With that status, I'll have far fewer restrictions within Team Rocket. Aside from the top-ranking operatives and Giovanni himself, almost no one would have the authority to order me around. Plus, I'd be able to legitimately set up my own territory."
Sato's eyes gleamed as he looked at the rewards for the top ten in the rookie competition mission. His heart burned with ambition as he fixed his gaze on the tenth-place reward.
He had made up his mind: barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would safely aim for the top-ten place in this rookie competition, instead of fixating on the first.
(Note: I changed end part a bit as, although it probably wouldn't play out as such in the end, it was still kinda annoying and pissed me off a little.)