Unexpectedly, Sato had obtained a portable flashlight from Miyamoto Sakura and received an iron net and a training tool from Baron. Now, the only items he needed to capture the Zubat were a blood bag and noise-canceling earplugs.

Not wasting much time, Sato exchanged communication details with Baron and bid farewell before quickly leaving the public market. He retraced his steps back to his room from memory.

Upon entering his room, Sato immediately turned on his computer, then used his Team Rocket watch to access the points exchange system. He quickly spent 45 points to purchase 5 packets of blood, a pair of noise-canceling earplugs, and a Pokémon food dish.

About ten minutes later, someone knocked on Sato's door. He opened it to find a middle-aged man in a janitorial uniform holding a package.

As mentioned earlier, in Team Rocket, those with lower status than recruits are the janitorial staff. These individuals failed the recruit trials and are at the bottom of Team Rocket. Their role is akin to doing menial tasks; they handle all sorts of dirty and labor-intensive jobs.

Of course, these janitorial workers have not completely lost their opportunity for advancement, but their path to promotion is much harder than when they were recruits.

After all, those who are exploited the most have no source of points. The heavy janitorial work can only guarantee their meals and housing, completely losing the free time and additional help from points that recruits receive (once the recruit period is over, unless they promote to a soldier, all free points are reset to zero).

Under such circumstances, the difficulty for janitorial workers to tame Pokémon is naturally heightened. In fact, out of every hundred janitorial staff, only one or two succeed in promotion.

Without any exchange, Sato took the package from the seemingly numb-eyed janitorial worker and closed the door again.

There's nothing to complain about; the path chosen is one's own, and after all, Team Rocket is a dark organization, not a charity. Those who cannot pass the recruit trials are doomed to severe exploitation.

Now that he had the blood bag and noise-canceling earplugs, all the preparations for capturing were complete. Sato turned on all the lights in his room and got the tools ready before gripping the only PokéBall on his Pokémon belt.

"Everything is ready. Come out, Zubat." Taking a deep breath, Sato put on the earplugs, pressed the button in the center of the PokéBall, and released the Pokemon inside.

In the next second, a beam of white light shot into the air from the opened PokéBall. Once the light faded, a Zubat of normal size appeared before Sato.

With a blue body, a pair of wings wider than its body, a pair of gradually growing ears on its head, sharp teeth visible from its mouth, and two pointed tail wings at its abdomen, there was no doubt this was a Zubat.

However, this Zubat seemed to have been trapped in the PokéBall for a long time. Its emaciated belly was the best proof. Now starving, it had just emerged from the PokéBall and used its sonic waves to detect Sato.

Upon discovering Sato, the Zubat, having gone several days without food, immediately flapped its wings and swiftly approached him. During its flight, a dizzying ultrasonic wave was released from its large mouth.

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Unfortunately, since Sato was wearing noise-canceling earplugs, the Zubat's sonic waves did not affect him too much.

"It looks like I need to get rough. You brought this on yourself." Seeing the Zubat treat him like an object, Sato's gaze turned cold. He immediately switched on the portable flashlight and directed its beam at the incoming Zubat.

In the next moment, the Zubat was hit by the bright light and seemed to suffer damage.

"Zii~~~" A painful screech came from the Zubat's mouth, and it quickly flapped its wings to retreat, trying to escape the light's range. (Although Zubat has no eyes, it still fears high intensity bright light. Long-term exposure can leave it very weak.)

At this time, Sato seized the opportunity. He kept the beam of the flashlight trained on the Zubat, eventually forcing it into a corner where it was trapped.

Once the Zubat was cornered, a sturdy net similar to what Team Rocket's trio often used to capture Pokémon was thrown over it, effectively trapping it within.

Seeing the Zubat successfully ensnared, Sato turned off the flashlight, ending the bright light assault.

"Zubat, I know you can understand me. Now that you've been caught, I don't want to keep hurting you with the light. How about you obey my commands and become my Pokémon?" Sato crouched down and spoke to the Zubat from a distance.

However, much to Sato Kaede's disappointment, this wild Zubat clearly did not want to submit and was quite cunning.

As Sato approached and crouched, the Zubat flipped over, producing a small black energy ball in its mouth and launching it toward Sato's head.

Unfortunately, the Zubat's little trick was destined to fail. Sato, always on high alert, wouldn't make such a careless mistake. As the Zubat turned, he quickly dodged the shadow ball with a swift movement of his head.

Seeing that Sato avoided its hidden shadow ball, the Zubat struggled hard to escape the trap, but just as it was about to move, an incredibly bright light came rushing in.

In an instant, under the bright light, the Zubat suffered immense damage, much like a vampire in Western mythology.

This time, even if it wanted to use the darkness to mitigate the brightness, Sato, with a cold expression, didn't give it that chance. He quickly adjusted the trap to face it and continued to shine the light on it.

Soon, under the sustained bright light, the Zubat began to make special sounds to plead for mercy, but Sato ignored it and continued to shine the flashlight.

Sato knew that in order to tame this cunning Zubat, which had just tried to kill him, he had to defeat it head-on to earn its respect.

After about another minute, the Zubat lay weakly on the ground, resigned to its fate, and at that moment, Sato, whose eyes were also a bit sore, finally turned off the flashlight.

Then, Sato picked up the fallen PokéBall and used it to release the Zubat. Following that, he aimed and threw the PokéBall at the Zubat trapped in the net.

The PokéBall hit the Zubat, capturing the helpless creature inside.

After the button in the center of the PokéBall flickered red a few times, a "thud" sounded, and the red light extinguished. The Zubat was officially captured by Sato.

Sato picked up the PokéBall from the ground. After a short while, he released the Zubat again.

As the effects of the bright light faded, the Zubat regained some strength and was able to fly in the air. However, as soon as it sensed Sato and the flashlight in his hand, it immediately retreated in fear.

"Don't worry, Zubat, you're my Pokémon now. I won't hurt you again. Here, eat this, it's your food." Seeing the Zubat's fearful expression, Sato smiled slightly.

With that, he tore open the blood bag on the table and poured the fresh blood into a blood-red Pokémon food dish.

As soon as he tore open the blood bag, a strong metallic smell filled the air, and the Zubat, extremely sensitive to the smell of blood, immediately noticed it. Starving, it drooled at the sight but only watched the blood in the dish from a distance, still fearful of Sato's flashlight.

After several gentle persuading attempts by Sato, the Zubat could no longer resist it's hunger. With Sato still holding the flashlight, it cautiously approached the food dish.

Soon, the Zubat was perched on the dish, happily savoring the blood within. At that moment, Sato set the flashlight down on the table and squatted on the floor, his face excited as he watched the Zubat.

"Become my partner, Zubat." Sato extended a hand toward the now well-fed Zubat.

Facing Sato, who no longer had the flashlight, the Zubat hesitated for a moment but eventually landed gently on the outstretched arm, quietly gazing at Sato, letting him pet it as an apology for the flashlight.

From that moment on, the bond between the trainer and the Zubat was formed, marking the official start of Sato's journey as a Pokémon trainer.