Seeing Pinsir’s movement, Aoki almost burst out laughing.
This was one of the core differences between a wild Pokémon and one guided by a trainer.
Without a strategist directing it, relying solely on raw instinct and brute force in battle made it prime target for exploitation.
“Use Snatch again!” Pinsir was exerting all its strength to harden its hide, completely unaware that its opponent was eagerly anticipating this exact move.
The familiar black aura manifested around it once more as Murkrow’s Snatch triggered again.
Pinsir froze, momentarily bewildered.
Even if it didn’t use this move often, it shouldn’t have produced zero effect.
Refusing to believe what was happening, it tried to use Harden once more.
This time, it finally saw the black aura draining away from its body and flying straight toward Murkrow.
Though it didn’t understand what the black energy was, it finally realized that the annoying black creature in the sky was responsible for all of it.
Meanwhile, Murkrow felt fantastic.
With the stack of two stolen Hardens, it felt as though it were wearing a suit of full armor.
Its feathers had grown remarkably tough, producing faint metallic scrapes whenever they rubbed together.
“Kee-ko!
Kee-ko!” Pinsir had nothing left to offer besides furious roars.
After enduring another critical-hit Gust, it gave up.
Pinsir turned on its heels and ran for its life.
Facing such a shameless playstyle, the humiliated creature had no choice but to flee.
However, even with a Base Speed of 85, Murkrow boasted a Base Speed of 91, further amplified by Tailwind.
Could Pinsir outrun it?
The answer was an emphatic no.
Under a barrage of critical strikes enhanced by the stolen Focus Energy, Pinsir finally collapsed halfway through its escape attempt, rendered unconscious.
Aoki didn’t have Murkrow finish it off.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t bear to kill it, nor did he intend to catch it.
He simply felt that this Pinsir was an exceptional target for gaining experience.
Defeating Pinsir had raised Murkrow’s level by one, bringing it to Level 13.
Overcoming an opponent with such a massive level gap provided a tremendous amount of experience points.
“Gah!” Murkrow let out an imposing cry after defeating Pinsir.
It had never experienced such a satisfying battle—or rather, such a satisfying one-sided beatdown.
Who wouldn’t enjoy unleashing relentless attacks without ever worrying about being hit back?
Ignoring the unconscious Pinsir on the ground, Aoki spared its life.
Marked by Aoki as the perfect training target and experience point bag for Murkrow, it was hard to say whether the creature should feel fortunate or miserable.
Aoki walked slowly over to the base of the massive tree.
Looking up from beneath its canopy, the tree appeared far grander than it had from a distance.
Its dense foliage spread like a green cloud, blotting out the sun and casting a refreshing chill over the ground below.
Picking up a dry branch lying nearby, Aoki began digging into the soft soil beneath the trunk.
Lacking proper tools, he had to rely on this primitive method.
Fortunately, the earth here was quite loose, allowing him to drive the stick into the ground with minimal effort.
While Aoki worked, Murkrow flew a full loop around the tree before perching on the largest branch, nodding repeatedly as if admiring the fine growth of the timber.
As an avian Pokémon, it felt a natural affinity for trees.
*Clang!* Aoki drove the stick down hard, striking a solid, metallic object beneath the surface.
Setting the branch aside, he brushed the dirt away with his bare hands, exposing a metallic box gleaming faintly beneath the dirt.
Looking down at the shallow hole, Aoki realized he had dug less than ten centimeters deep.
His eye twitched slightly.
No wonder it had been so easy to dig up; whoever buried it hadn’t bothered to sink it deep at all, doing just enough to cover it up.
He carefully lifted the metal box from the dirt and weighed it in his hands.
It wasn’t heavy.
After slapping off the remaining dirt, a smooth, silver-white container was revealed.
Seeing Aoki finish, Murkrow hastily swooped down from the branch and perched nearby, gazing curiously at the box.
Aoki sat cross-legged, placing the silver-white container across his lap.
A small padlock secured the latch on the front.
“Murkrow, break this lock open gently,” Aoki said to the bird beside him.
*Ding!* A tiny lock presented zero challenge for Murkrow; a casual peck snapped the mechanism instantly.
Aoki slowly lifted the lid.
Inside the laptop-sized container lay a single, hand-sized disc emitting a faint white glow.
Aside from this single disc, the spacious box was entirely empty.
Seeing the interior, the muscles on Aoki’s face twitched again.
First, a treasure map worth a mere hundred points.
Second, a crude, scribble-like map drawn on it.
Third, an unhidden location combined with a ridiculously shallow burial depth.
And finally, a large box holding nothing but a solitary disc.
No matter how one looked at it, Team Rocket’s execution of this entire arrangement reeked of sheer laziness.
Though he knew these treasures were meant to placate trial participants, encountering one so carelessly thrown together was a first even for him.
Shaking his head, Aoki cast the random thoughts from his mind.
For a map that cost only a hundred points, he was actually quite satisfied with the contents.
That disc was indeed a Technical Machine—a TM.
Without specific documentation, one could only determine which move it contained by using a TM reader.
However, given its white glow, it was likely a Normal-type move.
Regardless of the specific move, its value was certainly far higher than one hundred points.
Closing the container, Aoki stowed it into his storage space.
He couldn’t use it right now anyway, so he would check whether Murkrow could learn it once they returned to the base.
If Murkrow couldn’t, he could always resell the TM back to Team Rocket for points.
In Team Rocket, points weren’t acquired solely through test rankings.
Members could also exchange items or complete missions to earn them.
Whether in the outside world or on this trial island, Team Rocket maintained this exact system.
However, earning points was by no means easy.
Aoki had glanced at the island’s mission board earlier.
Most of the available tasks involved cleaning duties or gathering berries and medicinal herbs.
Buying a batch of berries had cost him eighty points, so how much could one possibly earn by picking berries manually?
Cleaning tasks rewarded a paltry single point per completion.
Aoki presumed this was because the current batch of recruits had just arrived on the island and lacked the strength for high-difficulty missions.
While Team Rocket didn’t care if trial participants died, they weren’t eager to waste potential assets unnecessarily either.
After all, these recruits were now trainers with bound Pokémon, making them far more useful than ordinary civilians.
Furthermore, Team Rocket’s item buyback system offered only seventy percent of an item’s standard redemption value.
An item costing one hundred points to buy would yield only seventy points when turned in, ensuring Team Rocket never suffered a net loss.
Even so, countless people still traded rare items for points simply because Team Rocket possessed resources unobtainable anywhere in the outside world.
Thus, buying a treasure map for a hundred points was likely a gamble that only that fat recruit had been willing to take.
He just hadn’t expected the payoff to land in the hands of Aoki and Murkrow.
Although Team Rocket’s half-hearted arrangements left Aoki speechless, he remained thoroughly pleased with the haul.
If he was lucky and the disc contained a rare move, its value could easily reach tens of thousands of points.
Sitting cross-legged, Aoki did not leave immediately after storing the box.
Resting his head on his hand, he sank into quiet reflection.
The one-week recovery plan he had designed for Murkrow was now complete.
Judging by its current state, the results were impressive, though whether it had fully regained its peak condition remained to be seen.
Now that the initial recovery plan had succeeded, he needed to formulate a thorough, detailed strategy for the remaining two-plus months on the island.
First, due to limited resources and time, Aoki did not plan to catch additional Pokémon on this island.
After all, recruits were only allowed to use a single Pokémon during the final trial evaluation.
Concentrating all resources on nurturing Murkrow was the smartest path forward.
Second, raising Murkrow’s level was of paramount importance.
Because they had avoided unnecessary battles recently, Murkrow’s current level was relatively low compared to the rest of the trial participants.
During this treasure hunt, a strategy had gradually taken shape in Aoki’s mind, and defeating the Level 18 Pinsir had confirmed its feasibility.
As a Dark- and Flying-type Pokémon, Murkrow’s Dark typing countered Psychic and Ghost types—though Pokémon of those elements were virtually nonexistent on this island.
However, its Flying typing countered Grass, Bug, and Fighting types, and the former two types were practically everywhere here.
Considering the two territories they had passed through earlier—the Weedle and Caterpie areas—were these not natural leveling grounds tailored for a Flying-type Pokémon?
Though the Weedle had turned into Kakuna and the Caterpie into Metapod, that posed little issue.
Even if swarms of Beedrill and Butterfree eventually emerged, Murkrow possessed Tailwind and Prankster.
As long as it employed guerrilla hit-and-run tactics, the risk was practically zero.