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News of Hague's punishment quickly reached Sato's ears. But since he wasn't really Baku, he didn't care in the slightest. Right now, he was patiently searching the logistics office on the fifth floor of the base for the items he had his eye on.
Of course, to stay in character as the crazed and vulgar Baku, Sato still put on an angry act when he heard the punishment. He loudly swore that he'd make Dr. Peter pay one day, even cursing Hague — a Team Aqua officer — in front of several others.
Team Aqua lived up to its name. With their advantage of the seas, this organization that had entrenched itself in Hoenn for hundreds of years had collected nearly every type of Water-type Pokémon.
At the same time, they had mastered countless methods of raising and training Water-types.
On top of that, Team Aqua had no shortage of rare Water-type resources. For example, the Deep Sea Scales Sato had once desperately sought but failed to find — there were hundreds of them stocked in this base alone.
"They really are loaded. No wonder nine out of ten Team Aqua Trainers specialize in Water-types. It's not just because of the environment, but because the organization controls so many Water-type resources."
"With such complete training methods and such vast resources, any Trainer who isn't a complete fool would know what to focus on. As long as they stay alive, they could use these resources step by step to grow into an Elite trainer one day."
Sitting cross-legged in a guest room of the logistics office, Sato flipped through a thick catalog of items that could be exchanged with contribution points, marveling at the sheer depth of Team Aqua's foundation.
Back when he had only seen them in the anime and games, Sato had always thought Team Aqua was weak, not even comparable to Team Rocket, and perhaps even inferior to their rivals, Team Magma.
But now his impression had completely changed. Any organization that could hold its ground against the Hoenn League at sea for centuries clearly had an extremely deep foundation.
Just the knowledge they held about raising Water-types alone was enough to tempt countless ordinary Trainers across Hoenn — a region where the seas outweighed the land. Their roots ran incredibly deep.
Currently, the Baku identity card in Sato's hand showed over 35,000 Team Aqua contribution points. It sounded like a lot, but it was still far from what he needed for the item he truly wanted.
Since he already owned The Lilycove Compendium — an excellent book on training Water-types — he wasn't very interested in Team Aqua's other Water-type training manuals.
What caught his attention were the vast resources for raising Water-types. Yet, among the many tempting items, what moved him most was a book titled The Complete Psychic Guide.
Yes, just from the title it was clear: this was a precious manual on raising Psychic-type Pokémon. The only pity was that it was incomplete.
According to the brief catalog description, the book only contained training methods for the Ralts line, the Spoink line, and the Baltoy line.
Still, even incomplete, its value was immeasurable.
After all, this was a Psychic-type training manual. The only comparable ones in value would be those for training Dragon-types.
Its price, however, was a staggering 100,000 Team Aqua contribution points. With only 35,000 on hand, Sato could only clutch his head in frustration.
But having stumbled upon such a rare book, even incomplete, there was no way he could give it up so easily.
If he missed this chance, who knew when he would next encounter a Psychic-type training manual?
The problem was that he only had three days to gather the 100,000 points. In three days, the League would launch its assault on the Team Aqua base.
At the same time, he had to locate Prof. Todd and rescue him safely within that same deadline.
To say it wouldn't be difficult was an understatement.
"Forget it. The bridge will straighten when the boat gets to it. If I really can't get enough points, I'll just exchange for some rare Water-type materials. Either way, the rescue mission has to remain my top priority."
Closing the catalog, Sato sighed to himself.
He returned the thick exchange list to the pretty Team Aqua receptionist, then asked her to escort him to the base's Pokémon storage to collect two Pokémon.
Thanks to Hanmo — that reckless fool who had come knocking on his own — Sato had gained not only a Lapras, but also the privilege of receiving two Pokémon from the base for free. That saved him a fortune in contribution points.
The Lapras Hanmo had given him, Sato had examined earlier. Its potential was decent, with an individual value of 155 and the ability Water Absorb.
However, it was just an ordinary Lapras. It wasn't one of the dragon-blooded variants, and hadn't inherited Dragon-type moves like Dragon Dance or Dragon Pulse. The only inherited move it carried was Whirlpool.
The Team Aqua receptionist clearly knew about the order allowing Baku to collect two Pokémon for free. So when Sato requested to be taken to the Pokémon stockroom, she respectfully led the way.
The storage here was extremely well stocked.
Of course, over 95% of the Pokémon were Water-types. The number of Pokémon of other types was pitifully small.
The stockroom itself was vast, filled with neat rows of shelves — all lined with PokeBalls, organized by category.
Sato quickly noticed he wasn't the only one there. At least fifteen other Team Aqua members were busy selecting their ideal Pokémon.
He also saw that the entire storage room was under heavy surveillance, with cameras covering nearly every corner.
Choosing a Pokémon clearly wasn't simple. Since most Trainers couldn't discern a Pokémon's attributes through its PokeBall, they had to release each one to inspect them, then pick the best.
"Oh~ there's even a Pikachu here. That's lucky. Now I can use my Pikachu openly without raising suspicion."
After making half a circuit around the storage room, Sato spotted a Pikachu on the shelf for Electric-types. His eyes lit up, and he smiled to himself in satisfaction.