Reiji was completely absorbed in the joy of counting money. He had no idea Riku was furious, and the sheer amount of cash was enough to make his fingers cramp.

After he finished counting the bills, he dumped out everything from more than forty backpacks. There was simply too much good stuff—piled up like a small mountain—and every new stack he uncovered made his pulse jump.

He checked each emptied backpack with painstaking care, making sure he’d pulled out every last thing, then tossed the hollow bags into the sea.

He kept a handful of battered, small-capacity backpacks on purpose. He could use them to carry things later, and bags that plain—old, scuffed, and forgettable—were less likely to have trackers or other tricks.

The fancy ones were a different story. Anything that looked too luxurious, too high-end, too expensive might have a backup plan attached.

Riku’s backpack, for example, was an eye-catching blue-and-white mess. Reiji threw it away along with every flashy, attention-grabbing premium bag, just to avoid an owner showing up later.

He did the same with all electronic devices. Into the sea they went—once they hit seawater, they’d be dead.

That said, the incubator he’d given Naoki earlier was just an empty shell.

There was no point throwing that away. Incubators cost only a thousand each, and with no Pokémon Egg inside, nobody would bother hiding a tracker in one.

But Riku’s incubator couldn’t stay. It was Riku’s, and it still held a Pokémon Egg. An Egg from a quasi–Elite Four tier trainer wasn’t going to hatch into anything ordinary.

And Riku’s backpack was packed with treasure—especially Evolution Stones. Fire Stone, Water Stone, Leaf Stone, Thunder Stone…

There were so many, in so many colours, that one glance was enough to hook his eyes.

Before he started a full inventory, he decided to leave Riku’s backpack for last. He’d work through everyone else’s first as an appetiser—Riku’s haul would be the main course.

As he counted everything out, he sorted the loot into five major categories…

…

Category One: Cash

From those forty-plus backpacks, he pulled out twenty million in cash, plus another two hundred and thirty thousand in loose change.

Spread out, that was a little over four hundred thousand per backpack. Not that much, really.

In a place like the black market, trainers were always doing deals. Keeping a few hundred thousand in cash on hand was normal.

If you couldn’t even scrape together that much, you had no business calling yourself a trainer. You probably couldn’t even cover your Pokémon’s food.

…

Category Two: Pokémon

He selected 119 Pokémon that still had some value.

Those were carefully picked out of more than three hundred.

Only two were high-potential young Pokémon, meaning potential over fifty.

They were Krabby, potential fifty-six, and Sandshrew, potential fifty-two.

Neither was rare. In the Orange Archipelago, both were common.

Krabby was everywhere on beaches, and Sandshrew was common in underground rock caves.

If someone wanted them, he could sell them for ten million and eight million.

Compared to Krabby, Sandshrew really wasn’t worth much here. At the same potential, Krabby simply sold better.

There were also eight other young Pokémon with slightly lower potential—still strong, but not at the level of the other two. One of them was even a Magikarp. All eight sat between forty and fifty.

They were all common types too—Rock-type, Ground-type, Grass-type, Bug-type, Poison-type, Water-type—so pricing them was tricky, especially that Magikarp.

As long as Magikarp didn’t evolve, it was still a useless idiot no matter how high its potential was. Still, he could probably move them at three to four million each. Eight of them came out to around thirty million.

Stolen goods like this could only be sold through the old man. The old man knew what Reiji could do and trusted his character, so he was the best outlet.

Then there were eighty-six middle evolutions—mostly Elite tier, all common types.

At two hundred thousand each, that was roughly seventeen million.

There were twelve fully evolved Pokémon too. Only a few were Advanced tier, and they were still common types.

At one and a half million each, that was another eighteen million, and the Advanced tier ones might push up to two million.

He also had six Electric-type and Fighting-type Pokémon—everything above middle evolution, a mix of Elite tier and Advanced tier. On Kinnow Island, those were especially valuable.

Those two types had real demand there. At around three million each, that was another eighteen million.

He had five Dragon-type and Psychic-type Pokémon as well. The Psychic-types were all above middle evolution, while the Dragon-types were all young Pokémon.

The Dragon-type young Pokémon he had was Trapinch. Its talent was mediocre. It was probably stolen from the Rock Gang—likely the kind of Pokémon they handed out to new recruits.

As for the Psychic-types, they were Grumpig, Exeggutor, Starmie, and the like. Nothing particularly rare.

Even so, those two types sold well in Kinnow City. At around four million each, five Pokémon came out to roughly twenty million.

That was the full haul of Pokémon. Only two were genuinely high-potential; everything else was fairly average.

Those 119 were already picked from a pool of over three hundred. The remaining hundred-plus were basically blank-slate young Pokémon—common types, low potential in the twenties and thirties, with no real market value.

He released all the Water-type and Flying-type Pokémon immediately by tossing them into the sea.

As for the remaining Rock-type, Ground-type, Grass-type, Bug-type, and Poison-type Pokémon, he’d release them after the passenger ship reached Sunburst Island.

Sunburst Island had forests, lakes, rivers, and caves—decent environments for wild Pokémon. He’d let them go there. Right now, he didn’t have the conditions for it.

…

Category Three: Items

He had several Smooth Rocks—brown stones with mediocre purity, only good as beginner items. They extended the duration of Sandstorm.

He also happened to have a rock-eating goofball. These could become its food, so he wouldn’t sell them.

Stones like that were both held items and food for Rock-type Pokémon. Eating them produced the same effect, and the more they ate, the stronger Sandstorm became—and the longer it lasted.

He also had several Damp Rocks—light-blue stones, also low purity, also beginner items.

They extended the duration of Rain Dance. Keeping them would help with training Rain Dance, so he wouldn’t sell those either.

He had two Toxic Orbs, both beginner items. They poisoned the holder. He didn’t have much use for them—Gengar already had one.

He could sell these two for about a million.

After all, who carried an item that poisoned their own Pokémon unless they had a specific ability that needed it?

He had seven Black Sludges as well—also beginner items. This Poison-type held item restored HP for Poison-type Pokémon. It was popular among Poison-type items, selling for around eight hundred thousand each—about five million, six hundred thousand total.

Shame they were only beginner grade. If they were higher level, they’d be far more practical. An Elite-grade version could sell for three million or more, but beginner-grade items had to suffer.

He’d sell the seven Black Sludges too. Croagunk and the others were already Elite tier, so they didn’t need these. Later, he’d get higher-grade Black Sludge for them instead.

He also found several Everstones. Perfect timing.

He could put one on Spinarak first. If it evolved into Ariados, it wouldn’t fit on his shoulder anymore—and Ariados wasn’t as cute as Spinarak.

He also had more than ten Float Stones. He could keep them for Scizor, or give them to his rock-eating goofball.

He knew there was a special training method: use Float Stones while raising Steel-type, Rock-type, or Ground-type Pokémon. With enough conditioning, those Pokémon could become lighter even without holding Float Stone. The method was designed specifically for heavyweight Pokémon.

That method wasn’t hard to find in concept—the Stone family had it. They specialised in those three types, after all. But it was definitely one of their secrets, and getting it wouldn’t be easy.

Still, the idea behind it probably wasn’t complicated. It was either feeding, or integrating Float Stone’s weight-reduction effect into Scizor’s red armour so Scizor itself became lighter.

Getting the method wasn’t impossible. Besides the Stone family, he could think of another trainer who likely had a similar approach.

Compared to the Hoenn region’s behemoth Devon Corporation—built on mining iron and refining steel, backed by the Stone family—getting the method from that trainer would be far easier.

That trainer lived in the Johto region. In the anime, he was like Shun—only appeared once—but he was anything but simple.

His name was Muramasa. He had a Scizor so fast it earned the nickname The Crimson Streak.

Muramasa also ran his own dojo and had won many championships. Scizor was his ace, and Scizor’s first appearance was tied to that place.

Muramasa’s Scizor matched Reiji’s vision for Scyther’s future perfectly: Float Stone conditioning for high Attack, high Speed, explosive burst—then pair it with a high-Defense teammate.

Scizor’s only real weakness was its Special Defense. Even then, its base Special Defense was eighty—already decent. And in rain, it barely had any holes at all.

And Muramasa didn’t just have an incredibly fast Scizor. He also had a son—arrogant and self-confident to the point of being unbearable—named Shingo, who also owned a very fast Scizor.

Both father and son shared one trait: fast. Ridiculously fast.

Muramasa’s Scizor especially. To earn a nickname like Crimson Streak, it had to be fast enough to make people remember it.

A weak trainer doesn’t build a reputation. If that Scizor had a name of its own, it meant Muramasa had unique insights into training Scizor—exactly what Reiji wanted to learn.

That was also why Reiji suspected Muramasa used a special Float Stone method: boosting Scizor’s Speed without sacrificing its Defense.

Either way, getting the method from Muramasa sounded far simpler than prying it out of the Stone family.

One group could just refuse, and that would be the end of it. The other… if they refused, he could always apply a little more pressure.

From what the anime showed, Muramasa had won many championships. At minimum, he should be quasi–Elite Four tier. That Scizor in particular—if it wasn’t quasi–Elite Four, then the ceiling was Elite Four tier at most.

Compared to Steven—Hoenn’s Champion—even an Elite Four member was something he could manage later.

As for the anime scene where Muramasa “lost” to Shingo—where the father couldn’t beat his own son—Reiji refused to believe it.

No chance. Not even if you thought with your backside.

A man who won that many championships couldn’t be sitting at merely Advanced tier. Quasi–Elite Four made far more sense.

Shingo’s only real achievement was losing to Ash, plus hearsay that he’d beaten everyone at the dojo.

Everyone knew Ash was ridiculous. In everyday battles he pulled off miracle comebacks—type disadvantage, bad position, it didn’t matter.

Then the moment the big regional tournament arrived, he’d start making bizarre choices, drop the ball, and the miracle streak would vanish with almost comedic consistency.

From that alone, that battle reeked of padding. The episode’s goal was clearly to preach the “right values”: trainers should be positive and hardworking, not arrogant and contemptuous…

If Shingo couldn’t even beat Ash, he wanted to beat his own father? Dream on.

His father was a trainer who’d won championships over and over.

Ash only managed a Top 8 finish at the Johto Conference.

That was it?

It was pure plot-induced loss. The writers basically handed Shingo an ocean of help, which was why Reiji said that battle’s “result” meant nothing.

As for the gap the episode tried to show—Muramasa’s Scizor losing to his son’s Scizor—two explanations fit.

First: Muramasa was old, and Scizor was old too.

Second: Muramasa wanted an outsider to fix his son’s attitude. A father beating his own son wouldn’t convince him—getting thrashed at home wouldn’t “wake him up.”

Only an outsider could knock him down hard enough to force a change.

That could wait. Even if Reiji wanted to buy the Float Stone method, Muramasa lived in Johto, while Reiji was in the Orange Archipelago. The distance was ridiculous.

For now, he’d finish organising the loot. Once he built up some strength, he’d head to Johto, find Muramasa’s dojo, and track down both father and son.

And if this world didn’t even have those two, then Hoenn still had Steven. He could go to Steven instead.

But only if he was strong enough. If not, he wouldn’t bother—someone like that wouldn’t even look his way.

There are a lot of good items this time, so it’s easy to mess things up. If there’s a problem, just fix it.

(End of Chapter)

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep