"Here's what you need."

"Thanks," I gave a curt reply after I confirmed that I received what I was here for. Where I am now is a little far from the rundown apartment in Nimbasa, but I had managed to find somebody reliable and trustworthy to take care of Iris during my short period of absence, so it's fine.

I exchanged a few more words with the man everybody here refers to as "Old John". He's the owner of Cafe Sonata, a cafe located within the dingiest and most shady street within the bustling hub that is Castelia City. The cafe is just a front for the true business Old John is running out of sight of Unova authorities. In Cafe Sonata, you can buy any information Old John has as long as you can pay the right money and Old John's information has proved to be quite reliable. It's no wonder that he has such a good reputation and relatively large client base within the Unova underworld.

The guitarist Old John hired to sing in the cafe sang rather well too. The only annoying thing was how he was bugging me to sell him the full version of the song that I was softly humming to myself while having my meal here. It was a song I recalled from my previous life, Yesterday Once More by The Carpenters, and honestly I could not give a damn if anyone wanted to sing it in this world as long as the damn guitarist stopped bugging me during my stay there. So, I wrote out the full song from memory and gave it to him in exchange for any information that he could give me about Team Plasma.

Whether the guitarist would make it big from singing this song is none of my business from then onwards.

"So, are you giving any consideration to my offer to work for me? I could use a guy like you and I pay good money," Old John spoke when I was about to take my leave. I knew of Cafe Sonata through Rusty since apparently, Rusty and Old John knew each other thanks to their line of work. I only stayed in Castelia for a total of three days, but this slimy snake had been trying to persuade me to work for him ever since we met.

Naturally, I rejected any and all of his offers.

"My answer remains the same," I replied and walked out of the room, fully intending to make my way back to Nimbasa. If I stay here for any longer it might mean danger for Iris, because I'm not there right now to keep an eye on the girl and she's a high priority target for Team Plasma.

I left Cafe Sonata and began my walk out of the street Cafe Sonata was located at, a street known by the locals as the Narrow Street and where the most incorrigible thugs and delinquents of the city love to frequent. It is in stark contrast to the bright and sparkling image the local authorities love to portray Castelia City as to outsiders but truthfully, there will always be a dark side to any and all bright and vibrant cities no matter the place and region. Celadon, Saffron, Goldenrod, Violet; as a previous member of Team Rocket I know better than anyone just how much darkness festered in such places where people least expected them to be, and these cities are the heart of their respective regions.

So, I wasn't surprised that I was being followed within minutes after leaving Cafe Sonata. To be fair, they were doing a good job in suppressing their presence, but it's simply unlucky that their target was me.

Either way, the faster I deal with this matter at hand, the faster I can get out of here. I still have a troublesome dragon-crazed girl to babysit back in Nimbasa.

"You can either show yourself, or I can invite you out personally."

The silence only persisted for about two seconds before my stalkers made their move.

A metallic clang was the only indication that bisharp managed to block whatever was being shot at the back of my neck. Greninja had also moved, throwing Water Shurikens at our aggressors and temporarily breaking stealth as a result. Spiritomb had also made his appearance with a ghastly howl, firing a powerful Dark Pulse that gave us the space we needed between us and our aggressors.

A kricketune popped up from thin air and slashed at us, and it might have succeeded in taking me down if it wasn't for bisharp retaliating with a Night Slash. This gave me the time to release shiftry.

"Blow them away."

With a single wave of its arm, shiftry generated enough force to conjure a wind current that blew everything backwards, including our aggressor. This time, I could see for myself the idiot that was trying to make my life difficult.

"Whoa, whoa, time out, time out. Chill, bro, it was all just in good fun, yeah?"

A man who I estimate to be in his late teens or early twenties raised his arms in the air in the universal gesture of surrender. I could spot several bug types around him, which probably was what he used to observe me from afar ever since I stepped out of Cafe Sonata. While not commonly used in such a manner, bug types do make great scouts and observers if trained right. After the brief exchange we had I could easily tell that while these bug types were good at their jobs in observing people from afar, they were not exactly powerful battlers.

My pokemon outclass these bug types by far and we all know it. I have the clear advantage here.

"Good fun? I can show you just how fun things can be," I slowly walked up to the bug type trainer and watched in satisfaction that he visibly shivered at my threat, taking a step backwards for every step I took in his direction.

"I-I-I was wrong. A-And, I'm just being curious, I swear! I'm here to deliver something to you!"

I raised my eyebrows at him ever so slightly.

"It's true! I'm just a messenger! Haven't you heard of the saying, don't shoot the messenger?!"

"That is building on the assumption that the messenger didn't try to shoot the person that was he was supposed to deliver the message to," I replied and upon seeing my hand gesture, bisharp took a menacing step forward, his metallic and hollow sounding footstep resounding loudly in this silent and dark street.

"I was wrong! I'm sorry!" The guy immediately got onto his hands and knees to beg without any sense of pride or shame, to my mild surprise. It's like he really has no backbone in him.

"You said that you wanted to deliver a message to me. You have ten seconds," I spoke. I have no idea who wanted to deliver a message to me since I don't personally know many people here in Unova, but it wouldn't hurt listening to this supposed message.

The trainer looked as if he couldn't believe his luck that he got off so easily, but recovered quickly enough to fumble with his pockets to retrieve a name card which he hurriedly passed over to me.

It's a black name card. At the back of the card was simply a logo with gold plated design. The logo was simple in design too as the logo was simply an opened eye. The front of the card was simply a hyperlink that's obviously very different from the standard format that the general populace uses.

I gave the messenger a silent look, cueing him to explain.

"Y-You j-just have to visit the webpage! T-That's all I know! Really!"

Spiritomb growled softly, indicating that he did not sense any lies from the messenger. I'm also inclined to believe that this was the extent that the messenger knew about his task.

"Scram."

The messenger immediately scrambled and fled together with his pokemon. Sure, I have many questions, but I would not get them from the messenger because it's obvious that he didn't know much.

I flipped the card around and took another look at the logo. The golden eye printed on the back of the card stared back at me and I am unsure if I liked this development.

I know this logo, the golden eye.

Humans are social creatures. Just like how people tend to affiliate themselves with different groups for a common goal and benefit, the same logic applies to the underworld as well. This world is a huge one, one much bigger than the Earth which I came from. In my previous life where this world was nothing but a fictional game the only villainous groups were groups like Team Rocket or Team Plasma. Here, the world is much, much, larger, and many other underworld groups or societies filled up the spaces where even organisations like Team Rocket cannot fill. Among those, there are also several notable and powerful ones that are not in any way inferior to groups like Team Rocket or Team Plasma. The only difference is that these groups are not widely known to the general public or even among the higher echelons of the region their operations are based in. As to why that is the case, there are too many reasons for me to go into the specifics.

To my knowledge, there's only one organisation that uses an opened eye as a logo, and even for me I'm unsure if they are good news or bad news.

Tarot, that is the name of this organisation.

Team Rocket was recognised as the most powerful and notorious terrorist organisation, the only villainous group that managed to spread its influence through more than one region. However, that fact is both true and false depending on how you look at it. It's true that Team Rocket is the first and only terrorist group thus far whose influence extends beyond a single region, but they are not the first underworld group with such a presence. If rumours are to be believed, Tarot was the first underworld organisation with an international presence. The only difference is that unlike Team Rocket, Tarot is not a terrorist organisation, but merely an underworld group that dealt with things in the underworld. As such, strictly speaking, they are not terrorists.

What made Tarot so mysterious was that very few knew that they even existed. Even within Team Rocket, I only knew of Tarot's existence after being promoted to Executive because Tarot's existence was a secret that only the six of us knew of back in Team Rocket. Even then, we were uncertain if they truly existed because there was so little information about them. We don't know just how big their group really is, who their leader is, where their base of operations is, how long they have been around, or what their group's purpose is. All we know is that they exist.

I had heard many rumours about Tarot after I knew of their existence and tried to dig for more information about them, because at that point in time I was of the opinion that such an organisation might just have what I needed to bring Team Rocket down. What I found out was that Tarot truly has an international presence with its members spread all across the world. They are a community where they exchange things among themselves, be it objects or information. I had even heard of a rumour saying that there's nothing that cannot be exchanged within Tarot as long as you can pay the price for it, which was one reason why I wanted to try seeking them out back then until I had to give up when each and every of my efforts quickly reached a dead end. No matter how I searched, I could not find a way to be included into their group or peer into their secrets, so I gave up, because I didn't have time to dedicate to such an endeavour back then.

Now, however…

I pocketed the card and resumed my walk out of Narrow Street. Speculations will remain as speculations until I can verify them, so there's no point dwelling on it. Tarot gave me a hyperlink, so it's obvious that whatever they wanted to show or tell me, I could only know after I visited it. The fact that they could pinpoint my exact location to hand this card over to me told me enough of their capabilities and influence. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if they knew of my identity as a Dandolos.

It didn't take me long to locate the nearest internet cafe. I simply paid the money, found myself a computer at a quiet and unassuming corner, and keyed in the hyperlink into the internet browser. As expected, that weird hyperlink which was made up of a chunk of gibberish numbers and alphabets that was supposed to not yield any results managed to direct me to a webpage and what first greeted me on the webpage was the familiar logo of the opened eye.

Surprisingly, the webpage was a link to some sort of instant messaging platform. Messages started to pop up incessantly the moment I logged in.

[Hermit] : He's here he's here!

[Hermit] : GUYYYSS

[Hermit] : THE NEW GUY IS HERE!

[Hermit] : wElCoMe 😘

I froze for a short moment, because for some reason it felt like I'm texting with some immature child, which is highly unimaginable if this is truly Tarot.

I quickly took another look at this webpage. True to my suspicion, this webpage is a chat group. Including me, there are twenty-two members, each with a nickname that corresponds to a tarot card. From what I could see, the card assigned to me is "Magician" and apparently not everybody is online if the status bar next to their names is any indication.

Still, the name of Magician is oddly fitting for me.

I decided to type a reply back because if anyone could give me an answer, it would be this Hermit person. It's best to confirm my suspicions right away because if this isn't Tarot, then things are going to get awkward quickly.

[Magician] : Hi

[Magician] : Is this Tarot?

[Hermit] : YEEEES

[Hermit] : SO COOL RIGHT

I'm steadily getting convinced that I'm talking to a child. Is this really the Tarot that I'm thinking about?

[Hermit] : Oh you are in Unova?

Did this Hermit person just track my IP address? If so, that person was quick about it.

[High Priestess] : Hermit, we talked about this

[High Priestess] : No tracking of our locations or identities without permission

[Hermit] : I'M SORRY

[High Priestess] : Hello Magician, welcome to Tarot

[High Priestess] : Please look through the rules before proceeding. Once done, we will let you into our main page.

High Priestess has shared an attachment with you

[High Priestess] : If you have any question feel free to voice it here

[Wheel of Fortune] : Whoa

[Wheel of Fortune] : A new magician so soon?

[Wheel of Fortune] : The previous one kicked the bucket like

[Wheel of Fortune] : Three days ago? 😦😦😦

I ignored the messages in the chat group for the time being and opened the attachment High Priestess sent over. What's inside the document was a simple introduction of Tarot and the rules that I have to abide by in order to remain within their organisation. Funny how I never got to join them when I was actively searching for them and only gained entry when I nearly forgot all about them.

What I read in the attachment file was informative. If what's written in there was accurate and to be believed, Tarot was actually set up about 400 years ago, which goes to show how impressive it is for the organisation to still be around in present time because no matter how you look at it, it's very difficult to have a single organisation remain in existence for four centuries. The PWL had been in existence for five centuries, but they managed it because they had the backing of seven regions. Tarot obviously did not have such powerful backers and yet, they are still here.

Similar to the rumours I had heard about Tarot prior to today, Tarot is a place where information and objects are exchanged and by that, I am not talking about ordinary information or objects. At the highest level, the information circulating within Tarot can be considered as state or world level secrets and likewise, any objects traded here can possibly reach such a value. As long as you can pay the price you can obtain what you desire, that is the kind of place Tarot is.

Interestingly, members can also put up commissions for others to complete. Commissions ranked from lowest to highest in order from C, B, A, S, SS, with SS being the highest ranked and thus, the most difficult kinds of commissions. Correspondingly, the rewards for such a commission must be worth that level of difficulty. Even so, the lowest ranked commissions are the kinds with rewards worth a million dollars at the bare minimum. They are not easy tasks to complete.

The attachment did not state just how many members Tarot has, but it did state that excluding the founder, the top twenty one members will be given a special title, making up a grand total of twenty two members in their highest echelon. These members are collectively referred to by the other members of Tarot as "Cards", which is a reference to the twenty two different tarot cards that make up a traditional deck.

Looking at the chat group which I had been invited to, it seemed like I had been directly invited to be a part of their highest echelon. Frankly speaking, even I'm surprised that they view me so highly.

From my understanding, the types of members accepted into Tarot are not restricted as long as they can prove their worth, which is to say, even criminals can be accepted as long as they have value to the organisation. Members of Tarot are sworn into secrecy about the organisation, and anyone who leaked information about Tarot to the general public, or just anything about the organisation to anyone outside of Tarot, will be prosecuted and hunted down by the full might of Tarot.

Considering that Tarot is an organisation with a history of four hundred years, even I would not want to get on their bad side.

From what I read there are two main ways outsiders can join Tarot. The first would be through recommendation from an existing Tarot member, the second would be if they somehow managed to find out and gained access into Tarot through their own effort, because if there are individuals who managed to get into Tarot through their own effort without any help from an insider, then they have the skills to worthy enough to be included into Tarot.

The special members are the Cards, the titles derived from the twenty two cards that make up the traditional 78 tarot pack. There are three ways a title can be awarded to an individual. The first would be awardance of the title by the founder himself, the one who goes by the title of "The Fool". The second way would be through displacing a current holder of their title by challenging them for the title by betting with something of equal value on the line. The challenge can be anything under the sun as long as both the challenger and the one being challenged come to an agreement. If the challenger wins, he gets the title. If the challenger loses, he will lose whatever he had betted and along with it, his Tarot membership. It's a very hefty price to pay considering how hard it is to be accepted into Tarot.

The last way to gain a title would be on the precondition that there's currently an empty slot and somebody had completed a feat that nobody else could replicate. When that happened, the Fool would award the empty title to that person.

From what little Wheel of Fortune had revealed it seemed like the previous holder of the Magician title had died very recently, which was one reason why I was being sought out to fill in the missing position. All of it, from confirming the death of the previous magician to seeking me out to replace him or her, they had done it within a mere three days. The rules of the organisation are simple, but the organisation itself, definitely not.

By the time I had finished reading through the attachment the chat had started to liven up. The chat group is named "Tarot Cards", which was something that I really should have noticed earlier.

[Devil] : Commission, anyone?

[Devil] : In need of money💸

[Death] : The commission board is there for a reason

[Death] : Go look for it yourself

[Devil] : Why bother to look when I can just ask

[Devil] : Hey new guy

[Devil] : Posting any commission?

[Wheel of Fortune] : Devil

[Wheel of Fortune] : Interested in mine?

[Wheel of Fortune] : I need 30 clefairy

[Devil] : The hell you need so many clefairy for?

[Wheel of Fortune] : To put in my garden 😶

My right eye twitched a little at the idea in disbelief of someone putting up a commission for getting 30 clefairies simply just to put in his garden. Clefairies are extremely rare pokemon, just a single one could fetch an astronomical price, and Wheel of Fortune just commissioned for 30 of those. Even for Team Rocket at its prime, we would not even think about trying to purchase 30 clefairies in one go because it simply is not… feasible. Clefairies are just that rare.

Just how rich is Wheel of Fortune?

[Devil] : emotionlessmeowstic. jpg

[Wheel of Fortune] : kissingclefairy. jpg

[Star] : About those clefairies

[Star] : You won't be able to get them

[Star] : Also, hello magician. I've been expecting you.

[Wheel of Fortune] : Aw man

[Devil] : Sorry bro, if even star said that

[Devil] : Then there really is no hope in getting clefairies to put into that stupid garden of yours

At this point I think I had seen enough, so I typed back a reply.

[Magician] : Hi all, nice to meet you

[Magician] : I had finished reading the attachment as well

[Magician] : Thank you for accepting me

[High Priestess] : Welcome to Tarot

[Hermit] : WELCOME

[Hermit] : WOOHOO A NEW MAGICIAN

[Lovers] : Honestly the previous magician sucked

[Hermit] : You say that because the old magician stole the relic before you get your hands on them

[Lovers] : Shh

[Lovers] : Keep quiet

[Lovers] : Adults are talking here

[Hermit] : IM NOT A KID 😭

[High Priestess] : Magician

[High Priestess] : Here's the link to our main page

High Priestess has shared a link in the group

[High Priestess] : Here's the file to download the Tarot app into your phone for easy access

High Priestess has shared a file in the group

[High Priestess] : We will also send you your Tarot Card within the next three days, keep a lookout for it. It will serve as your identification into our physical headquarters if you choose to visit, so don't lose it.

[High Priestess] : Lastly, abide by the rules and the rules will favour you

[High Priestess] : Whatever you did to your previous organisation wouldn't work here

[High Priestess] : Because we are Tarot

I cannot help but frown after reading Priestess' message. That was clearly a warning, because no matter how unbelievable this might be, I find it hard to deny that Tarot clearly knew who I really am. At the very least, High Priestess was aware of my past deeds.

The rumours were right. Tarot is not an organisation to belittle despite how unassuming they looked. Even among the underworld, they are in an entirely different class on their own.

[Moon] : Now I'm interested, what did magician do?

[Moon] : Care to share?

[Sun] : That's obviously not something anyone would share here

[Sun] : Idiot 😒

[Moon] : Sun You don't have to be a dick about it

[Moon] : Anyway

[Moon] : Magician, this is our own exclusive chat group for us Cards

[Moon] : Anything that you cannot find within the webpage where the external members of Tarot lurk about, chances are, you can find it here if you ask

[Moon] : With the right price, of course. That's the rule of the game here.

[Star] : Don't bother. He won't ask for anything from Tarot for a long while

[Star] : When he eventually does, it will be during a gruelling time

The hell? It's like Star just read my mind because it's true that I have no intentions of asking anything from Tarot anytime soon, especially after how they knew of secrets about me that not many in this world are privy to. At this point I'm still unsure if affiliating with Tarot is a wise thing to do, not with how little I know about them and how much they know about me.

At this point I hold no advantage over Tarot, so trying to deal with them is not a wise thing to do. It will be a last resort.

[Sun] : Care to share a little more?

[Star] : Sure, but do you have $$ ?

[Star] : That's the rule of the game here

[Sun] : …

[Hermit] : LOL

[Hermit] : Sun just got pwned

[World] : The last time Star mentioned "gruelling time", Indigo One Day War happened

[World] : Star, how much are you willing to sell the information for the time when and where the next "gruelling time" will happen

[Devil] : Shit

[Devil] : World raised a damn good point

[Devil] : I'm not going anywhere near wherever the next "gruelling time" will happen

[Empress] : I'm placing my bet on Unova, that place is a real shithole right now

[Devil] : Oh look, the money grabbing miser is back

[Fool] : It's nice to see the group being so lively for once

[Fool] : And hello, Magician, I've been looking forward to your addition

[Hermit] : !

[Hermit] : Fool YOU ARE BACK!

So even the mysterious head honcho had appeared. This time, I don't have another eight years to infiltrate and uncover the identity of the leader of another underground group like what I did to Team Rocket. What a pity.

[World] : Fool Where are you this time?

[Fool] : Somewhere you cannot reach

[World] : …

[World] : sadskitty. jpg

[World] : Any advice for the near future?

[Fool] : $$$

[Fool] : The rule of the game

[World] : I thought I'm your favourite

[Fool] : That was a long time ago

[Fool] : But Empress is right, Unova is not a good place to be in right now. Be careful if you are there

[Devil] : Damn

[Devil] : Roger boss. Thanks

[Sun] : Just my luck…

[Sun] : Must be those stupid Plasmas 😡

[Sun] : Has anyone put up a commission to take out those goons? I can offer ten free consultations from me if anyone could take them out

[Star] : Magician, you might be interested in this commission. Sun is a doctor

[Sun] : Magician are you sick?

[Sun] : Nice

[Sun] : Potential client

[Hermit] : ?

[Hermit] : HELLO?

[Hermit] : THATS NOT HOW YOU WELCOME A NEW MEMBER

[Hermit] : Magician eat more apples!

[Hermit] : An apple a day keeps the doctor away!

Oh great, now there are people here who are somehow aware that my body is in a very dire condition. Just how on earth do they know about it? I'm pretty sure it's heavily classified information even within the PWL.

[Star] : Don't need to think too much about me, Magician

[Star] : I can divine the past, present, and future. It's different from mind reading.

[Death] : Star is one of those annoying seers

[Death] : You should introduce yourself too, Magician

[Death] : At least this way, we will know if you are a person we would look for if we ever need to post a S rank commission

I pondered over Death's remark for a few seconds before deciding to indulge them.

[Magician] : My specialities are, and not limited to: backstabbing, lying, infiltration, mass murder, and taking out the trash 😉

[Sun] : Sounds like the kind of guy I'm looking for to complete my commission

[Sun] : Does Team Plasma fall under the category of trash to you?

[Magician] : Yes

[Magician] : But I'm not planning to take any commissions in the near future. Besides, Team Plasma cannot possibly be uprooted so soon

[Sun] : True dat

[Sun] : Unless you are one of those elders

[Sun] : Fool High Priestess Emperor Strength Justice Death Tower Star Judgement World

[Sun] : I'm looking at you guys dammit

[Sun] : One of you hurry and accept my commission and take out those Plasmas!

[Sun] : ragingprimeape. jpg

[High Priestess] : Watch your mouth when talking to Fool

[Sun] : … I'm sorry

[Sun] : Please don't punish me

I was about to log out from the chat group until I saw Sun's wordings. He used the word elders… what do they mean? Is there actually another different form of hierarchy even within the Cards?

[Magician] : Elders?

[Hermit] : Oh you wouldn't know

[Hermit] : See the list of people Sun just tagged?

[Hermit] : Notice how the names in their profile have their fonts highlighted in gold?

[Hermit] : Anyone whose account name is gold in colour means that they have held onto their title for more than a century. We call them elders.

[Hermit] : Unbelievable, I know

I blinked my eyes, trying to make sure that I wasn't reading things wrongly. I counted once again the number of accounts with golden fonts and I counted ten of them. Assuming that the account of a title holder is tied to an individual and cannot be shared with somebody else, are they telling me that there are ten people here who have lived for more than a century?

As if reading my mind, Star sent another message to the group.

[Star] : Emperor had been around for thousands of years

[Lovers] : That's gotta be a hoax

[Judgement] : I assure you it's not

[Lovers] : Judgement Wow a rare guest

Thousands of years… Ordinarily I wouldn't even entertain the thoughts of immortals roaming across our world but this is the world of pokemon. Common sense has no place here the moment wacky pokemon nonsense comes into the picture. If there are ridiculous sayings such as Ho-oh having the power to revive the dead, then honestly, anything could be possible.

[Hanged Man] : Btw, can anyone provide me with one of those master balls?

[Hanged Man] : I heard it was what Team Rocket used to capture the legendary birds

[Death] : shockedpikachu. jpg

[Death] : You don't want to go there buddy

[Death] : If the PWL got wind of this they will be knocking on your door even before you could study those

[Hanged Man] : It's worth the risk. It's a pokeball that could capture legendaries

[Fool] : Worth the risk, yes, but you cannot afford to pay the price

[Emperor] : Agreed

[Hermit] : !

[Hermit] : EMPEROR TOO?!

[Hermit] : YOU HAVENT BEEN ONLINE IN AGES

[Temperance] : If you want pokeballs you could just ask me

[Hanged Man] : Temperance And you can create master balls?

[Fool] : Hanged Man I don't care what you are planning to do but if you bring the PWL attention onto us I will end you myself

The chat which was very active before suddenly went dead after the leader himself typed those words. Everybody seemed to either fear Fool a lot, or respect him a great deal. That is to be expected from someone who is able to lead a mysterious yet powerful organisation like Tarot, but still a daunting thought to think about.

The silence in the group chat was broken when a new message popped up.

[World] : Too late, the PWL is already onto this

[Fool] : You don't count

[World] : stunnedwooper. jpg

[Lovers] : Wait, World is from the PWL?

[Stars] : He's not the only one

[Lovers] : The hell?

[Lovers] : Hold up. How many here are from the PWL?

[Hermit] : Need me to help check?

[Lovers] : You can do that?

[Hermit] : $$$ 💸💸💸

[Hermit] : Rule of the game

[Hermit] : evilgastly. jpg

[Lovers] : Fk off _|_

[World] : Hermit you can try

[World] : If you are ready to pay the price 😃

[Hermit] : NO IM NOT READY

[World] : Good

After staying online for five more minutes and seeing that there's nothing of value that I would be interested in, I closed the page after downloading the app into my phone that High Priestess had shared earlier. The app brought me to an instant messaging and digital distribution platform and there are many functions there. Clearly, this is where the bulk of the members of Tarot interact with each other, especially so for the external members who are not part of their higher echelon, because there are so many other Tarot members online under the member list. Whenever someone logs into their Tarot account, everyone else who is online at that moment would know. Like what High Priestess had shared, there are a lot more Tarot members outside of the Cards and this digital platform is where information is exchanged and deals are struck with each other.

The main highlights of the app were the commission board, a forum, and the news page. The news page itself is in a whole nother league entirely because the kind of news being shared there are truly the latest news going on in the world as of late. Furthermore, it's the kind of news that state leaders will not release to the public and somehow, it seems that Tarot are able to obtain these in real time.

What a real mystery this organisation is. I still cannot fathom how they managed to do this without being an active target of the PWL.

I still cannot trust Tarot, but I cannot deny that joining them just gave me a few more avenues to fall back on if things truly go sideways in my quest to take down Team Plasma. If worse comes to worst, I can always use the remainder of the fortune Alice and Giovanni left behind to post a SS rank commission to remove Team Plasma from the picture. I'm sure that with that kind of reward, someone capable from Tarot will be able to complete the task eventually.

Although I do hope that things will not come to that, because like what the Cards had been emphasising the entire time, there will always be a price to pay for anything obtained from Tarot.

That's the rule of their game.


Edit 25/4/2023: edited the formatting for mobile users so that some of the text wouldn't appear as blank spaces instead.

AN: Sadly FFnet is not able to support every single type of emoji, or else this chapter might just be a little more colourful... LOL. There also seems to be some problem with the formatting if you read it through FFnet mobile app although things seem fine when i read it on my laptop. FFnet really needs to get their shit together lol

I might have to reupdate this chapter a few times to see if I can solve the formatting issue on the mobile version. I apologise in advance if it spams your email inbox (I still blame FFnet weird issues with formatting tho). I don't think the emojis can be read on the mobile version for some weird reason, but it seems to work just fine on the web version. For those who usually read through the app like I do and if you wish to read the full version with emoji, you can try reading the web version. If the presence (or absence in this case) of emojis doesn't affect your reading experience, then the app version is fine as well.

Thanks and sorry for the inbox spam. Still trying to figure out and find a way around this weird formatting issue thing with FFnet

Name: Jayce Dandolos

Age: 22

Pokemon Team:

1. Ninetales, female

2. Exeggutor, male

3. Weavile, male

4. Honchkrow, female

5. Umbreon, male

6. Hydreigon, male

7. Drapion, female

8. Zoroark, male

9. Bisharp, male

10. Shiftry, male

11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless

12. Greninja, male

13. Spiritomb, male