Pokemon: Master of tactics
Chapter 212 - Pokemon Master Of Tactics: 212

Alex's subordinate quickly began to put the situation back in order after seeing that the Pokémon with no trainer to deal with had started to attack uninvolved rookies. Although every Pokémon was put back to its Pokéball before the situation got out of hand, the number of trainers killed or injured by their own Pokémon was not small.

More than 10 participants were killed, and 7 were injured. In the end, there were only 81 participants left who were uninjured and able to take part in this test.

Alex examined the 19 Pokéballs of the participants who were in no condition to take part in this test. 16 of them were Pokéballs from his 100 A-rank Pokémon, so he kept those with him and gave the rest to Andrew to take care of.

He had the participants, who were injured, immediately brought to the Team Rocket hospital in order to heal their injuries quickly.

Even though these 7 injured participants failed the test, they could still come to use to Team Rocket.

Team Rocket Lackeys fulfill many tasks that normal members don't want to do for very little money even though they have little chance of rising in rank.

This position has many similarities to slaves Alex knows from his world.

Though this position is a good deal better since these 'slaves' still have a chance to rise with enough hard work. Not to mention, the chance of dying is slim as long as you are very respectful of all other Team Rocket members.

According to Alex, this hope is most likely why these Team Rocket Lackeys do not try to retaliate or escape.

As long as you give people a little hope, they can endure even such living conditions.

When the rookies saw the dismembered and broken bodies, fear crept into their hearts as they looked at their Pokéballs with apprehension.

Alex ignored these frightened participants and looked at the participants who were different than them.

He saw indifference, spitefulness, sadness, and even excitement on some of the participants' faces when they saw what had happened to these people.

Alex looked back at the group when he said, "You have 3 or 7 days to conquer your Pokémon, depending on which group you chose from. If you can't do that, you will fail the test, and you will become a Team Rocket Lackey if you had chosen the Pokémon from the group of random potential."

After a pause, he continued with an indifferent tone, "For the participants who have chosen an A-rank Pokémon, there are only two options: Success or death. If you can't control your Pokémon in three days or don't make it into the top 10 after 14 days, you will pay for your over-confidence with your life."

"I didn't give you an A-rank Pokémon to waste my time. You should make an effort if you want to live."

Alex didn't come up with this rule out of sheer cruelty. Rather, he was doing it to increase the odds of replaceing a good trainer.

As soon as the participants understand that failure equals death, they will exert their potential to the full to survive.

In addition, Alex had no intention of killing the participants who did not manage to meet his requirements, to begin with. His only purpose was to scare them.

His plan was to secretly send the participants who did not manage to conquer their Pokémon to another base as Team Rocket Lackey. So the participants only know that the failed participants have 'disappeared' and not what happened to them.

Although many participants will probably do desperate things to tame their Pokémon in three days and may die, Alex didn't have a bad conscience about it.

As per him, he only told them they might die. Living as a slave is a life of a dead person. He didn't ask them to go kill themselves by doing something stupid and reckless. He holds no responsibility for their actions.

The situation with the Butterfree created a lot more moral weight on him than this.

This has a lot to do with Alex's view of morality.

He doesn't replace it wrong to give a person two options: The first option, which is relatively safe, and the second one, which is very rewarding but can lead to death if one fails.

Alex has no problem doing the same to more than 100 people as long as they have reached an age where they can make such a decision for themselves.

Even if he ends up indirectly killing more than 50 of those 100 people, Alex wouldn't feel that it was necessarily his fault. People who overestimate themselves in the Pokémon world will not live long anyway, so Alex is only speeding up this process.

What really troubles him is enslaving or killing innocent Pokémon or humans.

Especially when he doesn't give these innocent Pokémon or people any other choice.

Innocence and the right to make a choice have always been considered greatly meaningful to Alex, so he had also formed his morals around it.

Of course, it is not an ironclad morality. Alex takes other factors into account, too. Such as personal feelings of the person, advantages and disadvantages, maliciousness of the person, etc.

Even though Alex had these kinds of thoughts, it doesn't mean that he follows this morality to the point in reality.

As soon as it can bring enough advantages for him and his Pokémon or avoid future dangers, Alex will spontaneously discard his questionable morals.

Alex was sure that his morals are very questionable if you look at it objectively. But as long as this morality helps him guard against any psychological problems due to his actions, it is perfect for Alex.

....

Alex sent his subordinates to show the rookies their rooms and other rooms they were allowed to enter.

He then went to his room and opened his laptop to see if any rookie had potential.

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