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"What?!" After hearing Ash's words, everyone was stunned.
In their hearts, they had been waiting for Ash to find a solution, because no matter what happened, Ash always seemed to have a way to resolve it.
But they hadn't expected that he would think of such a dangerous method. Although Ash often got into risky situations, they still couldn't help but worry when they heard this plan.
"No, it's too dangerous! If anyone has to go, it should be me!" Erika spoke up immediately.
Erika was very grateful when she heard what Ash was proposing, but the person being held captive was her father, and she couldn't let Ash take such risks for her sake.
"That may be true, but if Erika gets caught too, it will make things even worse!"
"Besides, I'm not just helping you—I have my own score to settle with Team Rocket!" Erika could see that she was worried, but Ash remained determined.
To be honest, after traveling for so long, although it was nice to have companions when journeying, when facing real danger, it was sometimes better to act alone than to have others around.
Why did Elite Four members and Champions always act alone? For them, it was better to work solo if their teammates weren't strong enough to keep up.
Compared to most ordinary Trainers, Brock and Misty were pretty good. They could handle regular Team Rocket grunts just fine, but they were far outmatched against masters like Archer.
It would be more convenient to move alone. If he took them along, it would be more troublesome since he'd constantly have to worry about their safety.
"This..."
Erika also fell silent. She understood what Ash meant. It was a fact that she was weaker than Ash in battle. She might not be able to help him and could instead put him in more danger.
"But it's still too dangerous!" Misty also disagreed with Ash's plan.
"No! You go first, and I'll wait before starting! Team Rocket will be watching for you."
"After I see you take action, they'll definitely alert everyone at Silph Company. I'll make my move when they're distracted by the commotion!"
To reassure them, Ash also spoke seriously.
To be honest, he wasn't sure whether Team Rocket would panic or not.
After all, these were people who dared to take such bold actions in the middle of the city.
Thinking about it, they were probably only afraid of police interference, but they weren't afraid of being arrested by regular officers.
He was just saying these things to put the others at ease.
Everyone listened to Ash's suggestions, and in order to ensure the safety of everyone at Silph Company, they finally agreed to Ash's method.
With Brock, Misty, Erika, and her gym staff there, there should be no need to worry about protecting Kyoko when she went to the police station.
Team Rocket probably wouldn't send many powerful operatives to the gym, because in that case, it would be easy to cause a major disturbance.
Soon, everyone was ready and separated outside the Celadon Gym. The others would act together while Ash would act alone.
Before leaving, Erika and Misty worriedly reminded Ash to be careful.
Ash comforted them and then parted ways with the group. This wasn't the first time he had come to Celadon City, and Ash knew the location of Silph Company well.
The Celadon Gym wasn't very far away. Ash looked at the huge commercial building in front of him. This building wasn't just the company's headquarters.
It was also a massive shopping center in itself, with different Pokémon supplies sold on each floor.
For example, Pokémon food, Poké Balls, evolution stones, evolution items, and held items were all available, and there were also TM sales like in the games.
However, in reality, Pokémon had to learn their moves through training. There was no such thing as a TM that could instantly teach a move just by using it.
Looking at the building's entrance, nothing seemed unusual, but you could still notice people hiding in the surrounding area.
Obviously, they were all keeping watch from the shadows. In fact, although Team Rocket had taken control of Silph Company, they hadn't shut it down. They knew that the more dangerous the situation, the safer it was to act normally. If they suddenly closed Silph Company, it would easily attract attention.
Therefore, they continued to allow Silph Company to operate as usual, and there were still many customers coming and going without anything seeming abnormal.
Ash didn't hesitate and walked directly toward Silph Company.
Since there were regular customers coming and going, he didn't attract any attention at all, so Ash walked in openly and confidently.
Entering the company, everything seemed no different from usual—everything was running normally. But Ash also knew that the entire building was now under Team Rocket's surveillance.
He unconsciously thought of some old jokes about infiltrating Silph Company alone: "Monopolize the Master Ball, don't share the experience, stealth equals going in guns blazing."
When he reached the elevator, Silph Company's building was divided into seven floors. The bottom four floors were for commercial use, the upper two floors were for production, the sixth floor was for research, and the top floor housed the president's office.
Ash stood in the elevator and saw that there were only four buttons available. Apparently, the elevator used by customers only accessed the first four floors.
To go higher, you had to use the employee-only elevator, but Ash had already noticed that someone was watching the employee elevator.
They were obviously Team Rocket members, so taking the employee elevator was out of the question.
So Ash took the regular elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor. Soon he arrived at the fourth floor, which was dedicated to selling evolution items and held items.
When he stepped out, he saw many people shopping, unaware that the place was already under hostile control.
He took another look at the employee elevator, and sure enough, there were still people keeping watch. Ash pretended to be a customer and browsed around while looking for the location of the emergency stairs.
Although it was just one building, each floor was quite large. After all, this was a place that supported an entire business empire, including production and research facilities.
After searching for a while, he finally found the stairway, but at that moment, there were two people guarding the stairs.