"Ah!"
Standing where he was, Junichi could still hear some screams, but he did not care. As a Ninja, he had long seen blood and even killed people. He was also somewhat skilled in interrogation.
Junichi could guess Gu Yuan's intention, which was simply that he was worried Junichi was lying. However, judging by the fact that he was not interrogated, the other party still trusted him, but was being cautious.
In this regard, Junichi was wrong.
Gu Yuan's reason for interrogating them was simple: why were they chasing Junichi, a member of the Fuchsia Gym? Although the League had always promoted Team Rocket as an evil organization, which was true, there was one point he was sure of: Team Rocket's way of doing things was very clear. Unless there was a benefit, they rarely took action.
Perhaps some members might attack League Trainers, but Junichi belonged to the Fuchsia Gym. Attacking him could easily provoke a counterattack from the Fuchsia Gym. To prevent any hidden complications, Gu Yuan felt it was better to interrogate them personally.
Under torture, the two men quickly confessed. They had received orders from above to attack people from the Fuchsia Gym and were offered a large number of rewards. Any more detailed information was beyond what they knew.
"I can guarantee what I said is true!" Seeing Gu Yuan walk over with a gloomy expression, Junichi thought the two men had said something else to Gu Yuan. He quickly tried to explain himself.
"It's fine. There's no problem with your identity. Although I've dealt with those two, you should return to Fuchsia City as soon as possible."
"I still have some things to do. We'll meet again if fate allows it." As he spoke, Gu Yuan recalled Charizard and the others into their Poké Balls. Alakazam also appeared by Gu Yuan's side without him noticing. After Gu Yuan finished speaking, Alakazam immediately used Teleport.
Junichi, who was about to thank him, could only shake his head helplessly and then hurried to Fuchsia City.
***
"That's the situation." Gu Yuan found a hidden spot and immediately reported the incident to Shadow.
"I understand. I will investigate what's going on. Unless necessary, do not contact me. You can help the League take action to make Agatha trust you more."
"Yes, I understand." Shadow hung up the phone without further conversation.
Looking in the direction of Fuchsia City, Gu Yuan felt that something was wrong. From the interrogation, Gu Yuan learned that there were no tempting benefits in Fuchsia City that would incite Team Rocket to make a move. Furthermore, based on his conversation with Shadow, this was clearly not a plot orchestrated by Team Rocket.
This suggested that this was the idea of a Team Rocket Executive stationed in Fuchsia City. The best-case scenario now was that someone at the Fuchsia Gym had offended this Executive, causing the Executive to start targeting the Fuchsia Gym, but planning to keep the matter under control.
The alternative was that this Executive had a deeper plot, but such an action would undoubtedly be detrimental to Team Rocket. Unfortunately, Gu Yuan didn't get enough information to make any guesses.
Gu Yuan kept this doubt in his heart and decided to stay near Fuchsia City for a while to try to gather more intelligence.
"Next, Alakazam, I will need you to work hard. You need to use your psychic power to constantly scan the surroundings. Notify me immediately if anyone approaches."
"Yes." Alakazam did not feel much pressure about this. Since its evolution, Alakazam's psychic power had greatly increased, and its growth rate after its training sessions had become much faster than before. As long as he was given some time to rest in between, Gu Yuan could make it last for a very long time.
***
In a secret Team Rocket base, Shadow quickly retrieved Hawkins' file. Hawkins was the Team Rocket Executive stationed in Fuchsia City. Like Gu Yuan, Hawkins was also a Psychic (person, but only at the middle-tier of the Advanced realm. He had been stuck at this level for a long time. It was likely that his highest achievement in this life would only be at Lower-tier Expert realm, considering his talent.
However, Hawkins' strength was not weak. He had a Leader Rank Hypno and a Leader Rank Alakazam, besides many other Psychic-type Pokémon. Relying on the strangeness of Psychic types, even a regular Elite Rank Trainer could not do anything to him. Especially due to his perception, which was able to counter even Koga's stealth infiltration, which made him the best candidate chosen by Team Rocket to counter Koga.
There is no helping it. Koga was not one of them, so Team Rocket naturally had to maintain a certain level of alertness. Unfortunately, based on the information at hand, Shadow could not figure out what Hawkins wanted to do. Gathering intelligence would still take some time.
Unlike Gu Yuan's intuition, Shadow's sense of something being wrong was based on experience, so after some thought, Shadow still reported the matter to Giovanni, leaving it to his boss to decide how to handle it.
***
At the same time, Gu Yuan was continuously searching in the forest near Fuchsia City. To attract Team Rocket members into action, Gu Yuan intentionally disguised himself as a Ninja from the Fuchsia Gym, keeping only Ditto by his side. There was no helping it. Compared to Sylveon or Primeape, Ditto was more in line with the style of Pokémon used by the Fuchsia Gym.
Under the lure of massive rewards, Gu Yuan had already encountered three waves of attacks. Unfortunately, their strength was mediocre. Two waves were at the Junior Rank, and one was at the Intermediate Rank. Opponents of this strength could not affect Gu Yuan unless their numbers reached a certain level. They were all converted into points and League Contribution Value.
The most critical thing was that with the power of these individuals, they could not give the intelligence Gu Yuan wanted. Later, Gu Yuan simply stopped pretending and released Primeape to find suitable opponents for it to battle.
Since leaving Vermilion City, the power of Primeape and Ditto had improved considerably, both reaching the threshold of Intermediate Rank. Gu Yuan could take advantage of drawing the snake out of its hole to also let Primeape and Ditto increase their power a bit more.
Gradually, as more and more Team Rocket members disappeared, the rest of Team Rocket's members sobered up from their greed. The Junior Rank or Intermediate Rank Team Rocket members began to act around the area where Gu Yuan was located. However, this also caught the attention of some Team Rocket Executives.
Within Team Rocket, Rookie Rank and Junior Rank were the bottom layer. The Intermediate Rank above them could serve as squad leaders or similar positions, so there was an increase in rank. When they reached Senior Rank, they could become captains or leaders, having gained some authority.
Further up, Ace Rank corresponded to Beginner Executive, Leader Rank corresponded to Intermediate Executive, Elite Rank corresponded to Advanced Executive, and Champion Rank corresponded to the Peak Executive.
Currently, many Senior Rank captains and squad leaders were targeting Gu Yuan. After all, the reward offered for a Senior Rank member of the Fuchsia Gym was extremely tempting even to these captains and leaders.