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Sato's expression didn't change as he took out the detector from his pocket, which was vibrating lightly and emitting a faint warning sound. He glanced at the dim red light glowing on the device, and a trace of delight flickered in his eyes.
Truth be told, the entire Mysterious Island was massive. Based on extensive field surveys conducted by Team Rocket, its total area was estimated at roughly 540,000 square kilometers—about the size of three Oklahomas.
The eastern region alone made up a quarter of the island, meaning Sato would have to search within an area of 135,000 square kilometers to find other contestants.
Unless he had a special method, relying solely on this detector—which could only scan a 10 square kilometer radius—made the task extraordinarily difficult.
Moreover, he would need to traverse the territories of numerous wild Pokémon along the way, adding even more obstacles to his search.
Being able to run into another contestant now was, frankly, a stroke of luck.
Having finally picked up a signal, Sato naturally had no intention of letting this opportunity slip by. He quickly shelved his plan to capture the carefree Poliwag and directed his Arcanine eastward.
A distance of 10 kilometers was nothing for Arcanine; at full speed, it would take no more than two or three minutes.
However, just after Sato had ridden Arcanine eastward for a short distance, he noticed the light on the detector rapidly dimming.
Realizing what was happening, he immediately had Arcanine double back and head west instead. Sure enough, the light on the detector lit up again.
"So they're to the west, huh? Arcanine, let's go—don't let them get away!"
Seeing the detector's light return, Sato instantly understood that the contestant he'd accidentally encountered must be located to the west. He urged Arcanine into a full-speed sprint in that direction.
To be precise, the contestant Sato was desperately searching for was currently located northwest of Poliwag Lake—right where Sato had first landed on the island: Spider Forest.
Meanwhile, while Sato was racing on Arcanine in pursuit of a contestant, the very target of his hunt—Saburo Aoki—was caught in a life-threatening crisis.
Aoki wasn't some clean-slate Team Rocket rookie. He was actually a subordinate of Athena, one of the three major faction leaders within Team Rocket.
Of course, compared to Ranka, Athena's trusted right-hand man, Aoki's status as a regular subordinate was far lower. As such, Aoki currently answered to Ranka's command.
In fact, to climb the ranks within Athena's faction, Aoki had immediately chosen to submit when Ranka attempted to recruit him.
On the first day of arriving on the island, Aoki was relatively lucky compared to Sato. He had landed north of Spider Forest, at the base of Tauros Mountain, and had the good fortune of landing behind a large rock.
What's more, while the Tauros that dominated the area were hot-tempered, they were herbivores. So long as one didn't provoke them or wear bright red, they weren't especially dangerous—even to a regular person.
Thus, Aoki had an exceptionally smooth first day on the island. He even managed to capture three decent Pokémon at Tauros Mountain and passed the night without incident.
Perhaps because things went too smoothly, Aoki got a little cocky. Without fully investigating the true nature of Spider Forest, he dared to lead his Pokémon team deep into its depths.
The reason Aoki even decided to explore Spider Forest had a lot to do with Sato. After all, it was the massive blaze Sato had started there the day before that drew Aoki's attention.
That's right—Aoki's goal in entering the forest was to find Sato. He was convinced that even if the contestant had somehow survived the inferno, he must have lost most of his strength in the process.
Thinking he might easily snag Sato's number tag without lifting a finger, Aoki boldly brought his strongest Pokémon—Scyther—along with three newly captured Pokémon into Spider Forest.
But things did not go as planned. Before he even caught sight of Sato, Aoki found himself in deep trouble—on the brink of defeat before his plan even began.
It was true that the fire Sato had set with Arcanine had temporarily driven the poisonous spiders from the forest. However, it also made them bear a grudge against humanoid creatures like Sato.
When Aoki first entered the forest, the Ariados and Spinarak were cautious around him. But after some probing, they discovered Aoki had no Fire-type Pokémon and lacked the power to burn through their webs.
That was all the confirmation they needed. Aoki was then treated to their "enthusiastic hospitality"—to an even greater extent than Sato had been the day before.
Suddenly, Spider Forest once again became a deadly battlefield. The Ariados and Spinarak set an inescapable trap with their webs, turning the area into a hellish webbed labyrinth. Aoki was completely ensnared.
He had never seen such a terrifying sight before and immediately tried to flee. But the entire forest seemed to turn against him—no matter where he ran, thick webs would shoot at him from the trees.
At first, Aoki didn't take the webs too seriously. But once he saw his strongest Pokémon, Scyther, bound up like a dumpling in an instant, he was scared out of his wits and jumped on Tauros to escape.
In his blind panic, Aoki rode his Tauros straight toward Poliwag Lake. This was exactly why Sato's detector had suddenly picked up a signal from Aoki's number tag.
Unfortunately, Tauros was no Arcanine. Though it had more stamina, its speed was no match for an Arcanine with access to Extreme Speed. Worse still, Aoki's newly caught Tauros was almost useless at channeling flame-based energy.
As a result, Aoki had no way to break through the trap laid by the venomous spiders. Though Tauros charged forward with all its might, it couldn't shake off the relentless pursuit.
Before long, Aoki was covered head to toe in sticky white webs, and his Tauros was so tightly entangled it couldn't charge forward anymore.
"It's over… I never should've been so reckless. I should've used the emergency button on my device. Now I can't even move. I'm done for… Oh god, someone save me!"
With his arms, legs, and mouth bound by webs, Aoki looked helplessly at the swarm of Ariados and Spinarak surrounding him and Tauros. He began sobbing in despair.
He knew that unless a miracle happened, he would soon become just like the many cocoons hanging from the nearby trees—food reserves for the venomous spiders.
Just as Aoki was resigning himself to his fate, a pillar of flame suddenly burst from behind him, rekindling a flicker of hope.
In that moment, tears of relief streamed down Aoki's face.