Back to when Silver had just arrived at the Celadon Game Corner.
"Hey there, cutie, all on your own? Want to come play with me? If it's you, your first time here is on the house～"
At the entrance of the Celadon Game Corner, one of the heavily made-up women noticed the cold-faced pretty boy walking up, swayed her hips over to him, and let her fingers brush lightly against his shoulder.
"Get lost."
Silver shot her a vicious glare, shook off her hand, and walked straight into the Game Corner.
"Tch～ fine, whatever. Acting all cool when you're still just a kid～"
The woman snorted twin streams of white air from her nose, clearly annoyed by Silver's attitude.
She, the mighty No. 88 attendant of the Game Corner, had actually been ignored by some brat today!
Unforgivable!
Had she really gotten so old she'd lost her charm?
"Ma'am, you're in the way."
Just then, another person strode past her, swaggering right into the Game Corner.
"Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable! I'm only twenty-eight and he calls me ma'am?!"
Furious, she was just about to blow up when her phone suddenly rang.
Ring ring ring～
"Damn it, who the hell dares call me now?"
Face twisted in anger, she grabbed her phone and glanced at the caller ID—only for her expression to swing a full one-eighty.
Caller: General Manager.
"Hellooo, Manager～ What can I do for you～? Want to come by my room tonight and relax a bit?"
She picked up and immediately pitched her voice higher, trying to hook her manager's heart with the sound alone.
"No. 88, that red-haired kid who just walked into the Game Corner—go keep your eyes glued to him. I don't care what it takes, do not let him leave. Got it?"
Proton's voice exploded right in her ear.
She shuddered and quickly replied, "Leave it to me, Manager! I guarantee he'll be drowning in pleasure here, won't ever want to leave this place alive!"
Hanging up, she trotted into the Game Corner in search of Silver, determined to keep him inside.
Silver, meanwhile, was sticking strictly to his own pattern of surveillance and counter-surveillance.
He made sure no one could tail him, and at the same time he was looking for any possible passage leading down to the underground base.
With how packed this place was, there had to be some way down, if you thought about it logically.
As for why he was so certain Team Rocket had hidden the entrance right here in the Game Corner, that came down to an old saying:
The most dangerous place is the safest place.
Hide the passage in the Celadon Game Corner, throw a perfectly ordinary disguise over it, and almost nobody would ever notice.
The problem was figuring out where the passage was and how to open it.
That part, Silver didn't know yet.
All he could do was take things step by step—and maybe, if he got lucky, he'd just stumble right onto it.
"There you are, sweetie～ So this is where you ran off to～ How about this big sister gives you a full VIP tour of the Game Corner? I don't usually do this, you know, not even the regulars can get me to agree～"
Right then, No. 88 minced her way over to him.
She was carrying a basket overflowing with game coins, the clinking of metal echoing with every step.
One listen was enough to tell there was a lot in there.
Clearly, she'd gone all in to keep Silver here.
Of course, she'd be able to expense it afterward.
"Save it for—"
Silver was about to turn her down when he stopped mid-sentence.
On second thought, instead of wandering around aimlessly, why not use the "local guide" that had come to him on her own?
If he let her drag him around a few circuits, he might just find the entrance to the secret base along the way.
With that in mind, he changed tack and nodded. "Forget it. Show me around the Game Corner."
"Great! Just stick with me, and I promise you'll be taken very good care of. I'll have you feeling like you're flying."
No. 88 thumped her chest enthusiastically and led Silver weaving through the noisy game floor.
Lights flashed all around them; slot machines chimed with a constant rain of coins, and the crisp rattle of pachinko balls sounded one after another.
"So, handsome—want to test your luck?"
No. 88 leaned in, smiling so hard her cheeks hurt. "I can trade in a lot of game coins for you, totally free～"
Silver's gaze swept quickly over every corner of the area, but he didn't see anything suspicious.
Compared to that, not even the limited-edition Pokémon plushies in the crane machines could get him to spare them a second glance.
"Somewhere else."
After he finished scanning this section, Silver tossed out those two words, hands in his pockets as he walked straight ahead.
No. 88 hurried to catch up, a few beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead.
"Damn kid, why is he so impossible to work with…? He's just a little brat, how is he not interested in pachinko or slots? He won't even touch them when it's free—what is going on in that head of his…"
Faced with Silver's attitude, so far beyond his age, No. 88 had already cursed his entire family out in her heart.
If she ever got the chance, she had to meet the parents who'd raised a kid like this.
What an unbelievably rude child!
"Hey. Where'd you go? Can you walk a little faster?"
Realizing she hadn't caught up, Silver turned his head to the side and called out to her.
"Okay, okay, you really are a little prince, huh."
No. 88's smile was starting to stiffen, and she unconsciously slowed down even more.
She led Silver on a winding route through the Game Corner.
Silver's eyes scanned every corner.
Behind counters, under the counters, air vents, behind decorative potted plants…
Yet still he didn't find anything out of place.
His frown deepened, fingers rubbing at his chin.
"Weird…"
He muttered under his breath. His first thought was that Team Rocket had hidden things way too well this time.
He'd been wandering for so long without a single abnormal spot—completely unreasonable, in his book.
Normally, if there was a secret base underneath a place like this, a Game Corner on this scale had to have some sort of entrance.
Maybe a hidden door behind a wall, maybe a trapdoor under a machine.
But everything in front of him was so flawless it was suspicious, right down to the perfectly polite, textbook smiles on the staff at the exchange counter.
The more perfect it looked, the more suspicious it was.
Most people would've thought this was great.
But to Silver?
Heh. What, you think you're fooling a Gengar here?
"There's one place we haven't checked yet. I'm gonna take a look over there."
Silver's attention fell on a corner not too far away, where a poster was plastered on the wall.
Someone nearby had lit a cigarette.
The guy was half-squatting on the floor, lost deep in his own little world.
"Huh? That spot? No way!"
No. 88 seemed to remember something and quickly tried to stop him.
"Snea." (If you try to get in our way, my claws might have something to say about it.)
Sneasel popped out of its Poké Ball, raising its claws toward No. 88. Its icy stare looked at her like she was already a corpse.
Yeah. Definitely a vicious one.
"Kid, this isn't the kind of place you should be."
The smoker lifted his eyes to Silver, his tone grim.
"Whether I belong here or not… we'll find out soon enough."
Silver raised his phone and sent a message to Grey…
A big battle was about to erupt!
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