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At this moment, a war was raging in Saffron City, yet Eddie was sitting on the sofa in the chairman's office of Silph Co. Building, facing Giovanni who sat before the desk.
It was supposed v to be a conversation, but at this moment, both of them were silent.
As for why both of them remained silent, it all came down to Giovanni's opening statement.
Giovanni: "Would you like to join Team Rocket?"
Eddie: "?"
Facing Giovanni's words, Eddie could only respond with mental confusion, and then the two fell into silence.
Giovanni wanted to use this silence to pressure Eddie into responding, thereby achieving an intimidating effect.
But Eddie felt that Giovanni's silence worked in his favor, as he was happy to rest for a while longer.
After all, he had just fought his way up from the lower floors, and he was somewhat tired—his Pokémon were even more exhausted. It would be excellent if he could rest for a bit. Besides, he wasn't in any hurry.
Furthermore, he wasn't some impetuous kid. Facing silence, he not only felt no pressure but instead felt relaxed and comfortable. He even picked up a drink from the table next to the sofa and took a sip.
By the way, he had only had breakfast and some water on Cinnabar Island this morning before rushing back to Pallet Town, flying to Saffron City, rescuing people, battling three executives, and then fighting his way upward. Being tired was one thing, but being thirsty was perfectly natural.
Seeing Eddie's casual and relaxed demeanor despite being in enemy territory, Giovanni admired him internally but also realized that his silent intimidation tactic had failed.
"Eddie, ever since I met you back then, I've been receiving intelligence reports about you."
"I must say, if you hadn't done so much afterward, I might never have been able to see through your disguise."
Giovanni said this with a slight smile on his face despite having been fooled. His eyes were filled with appreciation rather than displeasure.
"Because I discovered your disguise, I collected all available information about you and then organized and analyzed it."
As Giovanni spoke, he retrieved an entire file and threw it in front of Eddie to prove his words were true.
Eddie picked up the file and examined the information within.
As Eddie had expected, these documents recorded the most detailed information about Eddie's experiences from when he set out on his adventure from Pallet Town to the present.
One had to admit—this was Team Rocket, after all. As long as they wanted to, investigating someone's detailed history was a simple matter.
"Wow~~~ What's this? Why does it say here that I eliminated Team Rocket members in Viridian Forest? I don't remember doing anything like that. Uncle Giovanni, don't make accusations without evidence. Be careful, or I'll sue you for defamation."
Eddie was slightly surprised. He hadn't expected Giovanni to have figured out even this. However, he remained composed and immediately refuted Giovanni's claim as if he were the wronged party.
"There is no evidence.
This is merely my conclusion based on analyzing your adventure route.
But even without evidence, just looking at what you've done to Team Rocket, any reasonable person would obviously deduce that you were responsible.
However, only Team Rocket knows about that reconnaissance team, and since I have your detailed information, currently only I know that you did this."
Faced with Eddie's rebuttal, Giovanni remained unmoved and responded very calmly.
"It was because of this incident in Viridian Forest, combined with observing your subsequent actions and your past experiences, that I reached a conclusion that surprised even me."
Eddie remained calm upon hearing this and gestured for Giovanni to continue.
"You, Eddie—after leaving Pallet Town on your adventure, although everything you did aligned with what the League promotes and fits the 'righteous and proper' image, through my investigation and analysis, I discovered that you're not actually that kind of selfless young man. Rather, you're someone who will do whatever it takes to achieve your goals."
"You're not as naive as Ash, Gary, and the others. You have different values from other young people and your own desires. You never concern yourself with meaningless morality and laws. You're calm and intelligent enough. You're exactly the kind of person I need most!"
"Although I haven't yet figured out exactly what you want, it doesn't matter—as long as you meet my requirements!"
Giovanni said this with an extremely rare look of excitement on his face. He seemed to envision the scene of Team Rocket dominating the world after a powerful trainer like Eddie joined their ranks.
"So, how about it? Are you interested in joining Team Rocket? As long as you join, I'll immediately give you a position second only to mine and above everyone else. No one can order you around except me. You'll even have command over thousands of operatives to do whatever you wish!"
"And with you joining us, Team Rocket will become even more powerful.
Team Rocket has enormous financial resources, the world's most advanced black-market technology, sufficient personnel, and the backing of a Gym Leader.
As long as you're willing, with your talent and strength, you can definitely lead Team Rocket to make Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and even the more distant Kalos, Unova, and Alola regions completely surrender.
You could establish a new League—a League that answers only to you!"
Giovanni smiled in an unusually cold manner. He pressed a button on his desk, and the desk unfolded through mechanical transformation, revealing two Poké Balls.
"These are Master Balls. I'm certain you know their function. To demonstrate my sincerity, I'll give you one Master Ball right now!"
To show that he kept his word, Giovanni picked up one Master Ball and tossed it to Eddie.
Eddie caught the Master Ball and placed it into his bag without a word, maintaining a calm expression.
Regardless of whether he agreed or not, this valuable item had to be kept no matter what.
"Speaking of which, this Master Ball—could it be the one that's supposed to be the mission reward?"
With such concerns, Eddie silently checked his inventory.
"Good, it seems this isn't the Master Ball from the mission reward. I should still be able to get another one."
Looking at the list showing he now had two Master Balls, Eddie was extremely satisfied at this moment.
With two Master Balls now, plus the one he would definitely receive as a mission reward after defeating Team Rocket, he would have three Master Balls total.
What did three Master Balls mean? It meant that when he became strong enough, he could capture three Legendary Pokémon!
Including Mewtwo, he would have four of them. Who could possibly defeat him with that lineup?
So Eddie shamelessly accepted the Master Ball directly, even though he had absolutely no intention of agreeing to join Team Rocket.
What should Giovanni's gift of the Master Ball to Eddie be called?
Emmm, it's called 'a free gift,' right?