Team Rocket’s Second-in-Command! [474]

“The League Council probably never expected that Kanto had already been thoroughly infiltrated by Team Rocket,” Luo Yuan said with a faint smile.

“In this exchange event, Kanto’s official partner, Silph Co., is under our control. The representatives—me and Sabrina—are also ours. And among the Champions and Elite Four of both Kanto and Johto, half of them belong to Team Rocket.”

“The participants, the judges—every last one of them is one of ours. What does the League have left to win with?”

Hearing this, Giovanni chuckled as well.

That was exactly why he hadn’t rushed to call Luo Yuan the moment he received the news.
Because frankly, Giovanni couldn’t think of a way they could lose.

Still, even if he was confident that Team Rocket was in an unbeatable position, they couldn’t afford to get complacent. Some preparations were still necessary.

“The Strategy Division submitted a plan,” Giovanni said. “Roughly speaking, the idea is to take advantage of the information gap. Sacrifice some low-value assets as a cover, and use this opportunity to legitimize and launder the others. What do you think?”

It was a simple, straightforward plan.

Team Rocket wasn’t ready to come fully into the public light just yet.
So using this event to abandon a few expendable assets in order to clean and legalize the more important ones—this could be a major boon for long-term development.

Luo Yuan thought for a moment under Giovanni’s expectant gaze, then offered his take:

“I think the plan’s a little too conservative.”

“Oh?” Giovanni raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

He’d had the same thought himself. The proposal from Strategy felt overly cautious. After all, Team Rocket currently had every advantage. If all they got out of it was a tactical retreat, Giovanni wouldn’t be satisfied.

Now that Luo Yuan seemed to have a better idea, Giovanni was all ears.

“If Silph is already ours, and the League Council is pushing for a partnership between Silph and Macro Cosmos, then why don’t we use Silph to swallow up some of the assets we’re interested in?” Luo Yuan said.

Even though Team Rocket now spanned most of Kanto, there were still plenty of prime assets that hadn’t been brought under their control—thanks to their former strategy of staying hidden.

If the League was willing to risk Kanto’s economic stability just to undermine Team Rocket, then wouldn’t it be shameful not to make them pay for it?
In the world of business, no move was ever precise—if the League ended up damaging some of their own in the process, well… that was their problem.

“Besides,” Luo Yuan continued, “I’ve been thinking about Macro Cosmos. This trip to Galar might give us a few opportunities.”

This was a rare chance to stir things up under the banner of an official diplomatic exchange.

Because Macro Cosmos—and its head, Rose—were definitely not as simple as they appeared.

“Go on,” Giovanni said, clearly interested.

“According to intel I’ve gathered, Rose seems very interested in Eternatus—the legendary Pokémon of the Galar region. Over the years, he’s been secretly researching and investigating related materials,” Luo Yuan explained.

“Eternatus?”

Giovanni’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Back when Mewtwo was being engineered, he’d collected data on Legendary Pokémon from all over the world—including Eternatus of the Galar region.

The records described Eternatus as a Pokémon that arrived in Galar on a meteorite twenty thousand years ago. Several thousand years later, it was defeated by the local legendaries Zacian and Zamazenta—and that defeat gave rise to Galar’s most iconic trait to this day: [Dynamaxing].

“You’re sure about this intel?” Giovanni asked.

“It’s solid. According to our sources, Rose intends to capture Eternatus as a solution to Galar’s looming energy crisis.”

Luo Yuan wasn’t relying purely on his knowledge of the original storyline. With Team Rocket’s recent takeover of Team Galactic, he had already begun preparing for their next phase of operations.

That included intelligence-gathering on Galar.

And Rose’s unusual movements hadn’t escaped Team Rocket’s surveillance net—further confirming Luo Yuan’s suspicions.

“An energy crisis?” Giovanni’s expression turned a little strange.

If Luo Yuan hadn’t said it himself, he wouldn’t have believed anyone would go after a Legendary Pokémon… just to generate electricity.

Capture a god-like being to power the grid?

Giovanni didn’t bother praising or criticizing the idea. He simply thought Rose had a very… unique way of thinking.

But Rose’s reasons didn’t matter.

Even if he wanted to capture Eternatus just to lock it in a cage and charge people admission, that had nothing to do with Team Rocket.
What did matter was that Legendaries weren’t so easily tamed.

And Team Rocket could use that.

Exploiting their opponents’ greed for Legendaries—then waiting for them to expose a weakness in their pursuit—that had become one of Team Rocket’s standard strategic models.

They’d used it successfully in Hoenn, Alola, and Sinnoh.

And the organizations they’d targeted—Team Magma, Team Aqua, the Aether Foundation, Team Galactic—had all become Rocket subsidiaries.

“Then I’ll leave it to you,” Giovanni said confidently. He had absolute trust in Luo Yuan’s ability.

With Luo Yuan handling things in Galar, Giovanni could focus entirely on defending Team Rocket’s holdings in Kanto from the League’s assault.

After ending the call, Luo Yuan turned to look at Sabrina sitting beside him.

She was lost in thought.

Originally, she’d just wanted a relaxing vacation with Luo Yuan.
She hadn’t expected things to escalate into this level of trouble.

Not only were they trying to expand Rocket’s reach into Galar… they were also getting caught up in the full-on political chess match between the League and Team Rocket.

This exchange event was clearly going to be anything but simple.

Seeing her brows furrow and her quiet unease, Luo Yuan smiled.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Even if it sounds complicated, we’ve got Giovanni handling the League’s end. All we have to deal with is Galar.”

The truth was, the League’s Kanto and Johto branches had already been so thoroughly infiltrated by Team Rocket, they were practically swiss cheese.
If the League tried anything, the best-case scenario was that they only lost badly.

As for Galar… Luo Yuan already had a preliminary plan in mind.

He pulled out his communicator and dialed into a small video conference with Silph’s president, Lusamine, and Malva, who had just returned to Kalos.

Luo Yuan’s voice was calm, focused:

“Team Rocket is preparing to carry out an operation in Galar. I’ll need your support.”

Taking down Rose and Macro Cosmos wasn’t something brute force alone could accomplish.
They’d have to cripple them economically as well.

Since the League had asked him to lead this diplomatic exchange, Luo Yuan figured—if he didn’t turn this into a truly spectacular event…

Wouldn’t that just be a waste of their trust?

A faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

—

This is a fan translation of 我，火箭队二把手！ by 落唯 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!