Giovanni gestured for Aoki to speak directly.
So many resources were exchanged just like that, no big deal.
Giovanni actually saw it very clearly: once Aoki became a Elite Four member, unless he exposed himself, neither the Alliance nor Team Rocket would have much control over his identity.
But Giovanni believed he could keep Aoki in his current state.
After all, the Hoenn region was different from the Kanto region where Team Rocket was based.
A high-ranking Elite Four member would have access to more things and secrets.
"I wonder if the boss has heard of an organization called the Divine Cult?" Aoki asked.
The origin of this Divine Cult, and its mysterious identity as an organization composed entirely of psychics, truly filled Aoki with questions.
"Divine Cult?" Hearing Aoki's question, Giovanni sat up straight. "They came to you?"
Aoki was startled, then nodded.
It seemed Giovanni really did know about this so-called Divine Cult.
Giovanni's expression was somewhat serious. "This is a very mysterious organization, a force that has appeared recently. I thought they were only active in Kanto and Johto, but I didn't expect them to be in Hoenn as well. This suggests they might exist in other regions too."
"This organization is..."
"Unclear." Giovanni shook his head, placing his hands together on the table.
"Unknown origin, unknown purpose, unknown strength, even unknown scope of activity. Since you've also encountered people from this force, be a little careful. Report any information promptly," Giovanni continued.
Aoki nodded. It seemed that more than one person within Team Rocket had encountered members of the Divine Cult.
How much of the Alliance and Team Rocket had been infiltrated?
The Aether Foundation, and this organization, he wondered if they were related.
"They first approached Sabrina, but she defeated them directly with her psychic powers. When she tried to interrogate them, it seemed to trigger some mechanism, and the person immediately lost their life."
Sabrina?
She was indeed a target with very powerful psychic abilities, fitting the Divine Cult's objectives.
However, those people must have underestimated Sabrina's psychic power. Given its intensity, it probably reached the highest level of psychic power as classified by the Divine Cult.
"Me too," Aoki said.
"In short, be careful of the Divine Cult. They have cast a very large net, and their purpose will not be simple.
You focus on your own matters first, strive for success this time, and become an Elite Four member!"
After Giovanni finished speaking, he hung up the communicator and sat in his chair, silent for a long time.
Suddenly, a confident smile appeared on his face. "This world is really getting more and more interesting. I'm very curious who could have such great energy to set up such a grand scheme.
The Divine Cult, huh..."
Aoki looked at the disconnected communicator and let out a long sigh.
Since Team Rocket also knew about the Divine Cult, he didn't have to worry for now.
What kind of enemy is the most terrifying?
An unknown enemy.
Now the Alliance, Team Rocket, and even local forces in other regions will soon know about the Divine Cult's existence. With multiple parties on guard, it won't be as easy for the Divine Cult to act.
Anyway, when the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up.
Who knows how many old-timers are hidden within the Alliance, yet to appear.
National treasures like Professor Oak, who are active publicly, are truly quite rare.
Most elders who have reached a certain age, like Master Xiuyuan of Bell Tower, who intentionally lost to Lance last time, look very robust and show no signs of nearing their end. They must have retired to live the life they wanted, hiding away, only to appear when the Alliance truly needs them.
Aoki didn't believe that the abbot of Bell Tower, Master Xiuyuan, who had been an Elite Four member for decades, would only have that much strength. At the very least, he was probably comparable to Orange Elite Four member.
And that's just one; who knows how many more are hidden behind the Alliance?
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
Even more terrifying was that, with an Alliance of such strength, Giovanni was actually able to cultivate Team Rocket, an organization capable of standing toe-to-toe with the Alliance.
Team Rocket's interior must also be hiding many people, but Aoki couldn't access them yet.
After ending the call with Giovanni, Aoki began targeted training for his Pokémon.
The battle with Steven Stone couldn't be taken lightly. Steven was probably currently within the Stone family, undergoing training from his uncles, aunts, grandfathers, and grandmothers, who were giving him advice and planning suitable battle strategies and lineups.
Aoki currently had a nearly complete lineup centered around Slowking and Gengar, which was a single-core lineup.
Alternatively, there was the sandstorm lineup centered around Tyranitar, which was also a single-core lineup.
Two single-core lineups wouldn't be too difficult against other lineups of similar strength without a core, but ideally, he hoped to combine these two single-core lineups into a dual-core lineup.
Both the fault tolerance and the power output would be much stronger.
This dual-core mode had vaguely appeared when Aoki fought the man in the silver-grey clothes from the Divine Cult, but it was only a semi-finished product.
The dual-core lineup composed of Mega Tyranitar and Slowking successfully defeated the opponent's single-core lineup centered around Mega Gardevoir.
A semi-finished dual-core lineup was able to defeat a single-core lineup whose average level was considerably higher than his own. Although this was partly due to Aoki's Pokémon being more proficient, it also showed the power of a dual-core lineup.
One core, Slowking, would disrupt the opponent's core, Gardevoir, allowing the other core to perform normally.
Of course, this was the most basic way of using it, and typical of a semi-finished product; the two cores hadn't truly connected.
But after the battle with the Divine Cult member, Aoki already had a certain conception in his mind, along with plans and ideas.
He hoped to fully refine it within this month.
Once they complemented each other, as long as the Pokémon's levels and strength improved, he would have the confidence to challenge even veteran Elite Four members like Kahili and Phoebe.
The first thing to do was to plan the tasks the Pokémon needed to complete during this period and what level they needed to reach.
Even Pokémon that might not have a chance to participate in the battle with Steven Stone a month later still needed to undergo some cooperative training.
After all, he wouldn't only be battling Steven Stone in the future, right?
There were still many powerful trainers he needed to face.
There were quite a few strong, even very strong, individuals within the Divine Cult.
The inactivity of Team Magma and Team Aqua also gave Team Sky a certain opportunity. After this incident was all over, expansion was inevitable, and he would probably encounter many powerful opponents then.
Clap, clap, clap—
Aoki clapped his hands to gather all his Pokémon, preparing to explain their tasks.