Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye.
Blaine arrived at the computer room and pulled Cain out of there.
"How was it? Did you find the information you wanted?" he asked with a smile.
Cain, with a thoughtful gesture, nodded. "More or less."
Seeing that Cain was still lost in thought, Blaine shook his head and said no more, leading him directly out of the lab.
Before leaving, Blaine patted Cain on the shoulder and said, "Prepare well. The success of this research depends on you."
"Mm-hmm..."
Cain remained distracted, slowly heading toward the area assigned to temporary visitors.
As a high-ranking member of Team Rocket, no matter which base he was at, he had to receive the best treatment.
With a mix of fear and respect from the staff, Cain entered his room.
His absent state wasn't an act—he was genuinely thinking about many things.
Even with the enhanced system's download speed, he hadn't managed to download all the data from the base in just thirty minutes.
Even after inputting keywords, he barely completed the download right as time ran out.
Even so, the system stored a colossal amount of data.
There was useful and useless information alike, and it would take considerable time to analyze it all.
He had only skimmed through some interesting fragments, stopping to observe and compare them with his own Pokémon training methods.
And yes, Team Rocket's information was vast.
Cain suspected that, aside from the Pokémon League, no other organization in the world had such a complete database.
Once inside the room, the first thing he did was instruct Gengar to check the room's security.
After confirming there were no problems, he dropped heavily onto the couch.
This mission had come up suddenly.
And it would likely involve a long absence. The League and other regions would need certain arrangements to avoid issues.
First, he instructed the system to program a fixed subprocess in Porygon's body, so it could continue performing daily tasks in his absence.
Though he would bring all of his island Pokémon with him, since he didn't know what kind of situation awaited him in the new space and preferred to have them nearby.
Second, he took out his communicator and sent a message to his mentor, Matsuda Takashi, current acting Elite Four member of the Hoenn region.
The message stated that he would be leaving for a while to train and improve his strength.
He also sent the same message to Steven and the others, so they wouldn't worry about him.
Third, he messaged the members of Team Heaven in Mauville City, asking about Rose's condition.
Rose replied that everything was going perfectly in the team, and that he shouldn't worry.
Feeling more at ease, Cain sent her a Pokéball containing an Elite-level Pokémon.
With two Pokémon of that level at the Heaven team base, there shouldn't be any problems.
Fourth and last, he sent a message to Lysandre in the distant Kalos region.
Since the founding of Team Flare—motivated by Cain himself—he hadn't intervened in their development.
He didn't know how their progress was going, and had planned to contact them after the Celebi incident, but would now have to postpone that.
Nonetheless, Cain trusted the "seed" he had planted in Lysandre's mind.
As long as that seed wasn't overstimulated before it matured, Lysandre would never escape his influence.
The message he sent was simple: he asked Lysandre to look for a place called Nebel Plateau.
Supposedly, it was an area inhabited by Pokémon abandoned by humans.
And in that place was something—and some Pokémon—that greatly interested him.
He only knew it was somewhere in Kalos, and if Lysandre found it, he was to inform him immediately.
After settling all of this, Cain used a portable teleporter to bring over his Pokémon from the island, one by one.
This was an unknown place, likely outside the conventional Pokémon world.
Therefore, having everyone with him was best.
With everything ready, Cain left his room and went straight to the base's resource exchange area.
It wasn't the usual exchange center, but a place where only raw materials and resources could be traded.
There were practically no finished products.
What Cain exchanged the most were piles of minerals and stones rich in rare components.
Ever since he exhausted all the Carbink's diamonds, both Tyranitar and Aggron had to make do with eating minerals.
Although the minerals weren't as high-quality as diamonds, they were the only thing available.
Even if he had the money, he couldn't get more diamonds.
No one stored diamonds in those quantities.
They're usually measured in carats... some exaggerate with kilos.
But by tons, like Cain? That was a whole other level.
After completely emptying Team Rocket's diamond reserve, he had no choice but to focus on minerals.
Certainly, many minerals provided energy comparable to that of diamonds, but they were also absurdly expensive.
Fortunately, Giovanni was very generous this time.
In addition to the reward from the previous mission and this dangerous task, he also gave Cain a large amount of exchange points.
And he activated a temporary function on his ID card: for three days, all exchanges would have a 30% discount.
Thirty percent?
"Hmph, do they think they can buy me with that?" Cain thought with disdain.
And then, without hesitation, he spent all his points.
That's how...
Cain emptied the entire mineral reserve of Team Rocket's base.
Not a single stone left.
Not even dust.
A thing of beauty.
The staff, with faces of resignation, respect, confusion, and fear, handed Cain the storage equipment filled with all the minerals.
These resources cost him 90% of his points.
The remaining 10% he used for other materials.
For example, with the Moltres blood he had obtained, he still hadn't crafted proper medicine or Pokéblocks.
With the materials from Celebi's space, and the new ones he had just acquired, he hoped to create some unique items before departing.
After these exchanges, Cain felt more prepared—and richer—than ever.
And if that weren't enough, he decided to go all in: he used all his Pokédollar savings to convert them into points.
Even with a 5% loss, he didn't care.
Five percent?
Please.
The only thing that disappointed him was not having emptied the entire resource center.
He only managed to take half.
Others asked for resources by grams or pounds.
The boldest ones, by kilos.
Cain asked like this: "Give me this, that, and that one. The rest—pack it all."
If it weren't for the Elite Officer badge on his chest, they probably would've kicked him out of the place.
(End of chapter)