Riku’s backpack was loaded. Cash alone came to 26 million Pokédollars, plus another 440,000 in loose change.

The only regret was that he hadn’t stolen any of Riku’s Pokémon. Even if he had, he couldn’t have kept a quasi–Elite Four tier Pokémon under control anyway, so he let that thought die there.

But the items? There were a lot of them, especially Water-type items. Reiji pulled one out at random and—

“Holy crap… a quasi–Elite Four tier Mystic Water. I hit the jackpot.” He cradled it in both hands, fingers trembling a little, terrified he might crack it if he gripped too hard.

There were several more Mystic Water in the bag. He checked them one by one—every single one was Advanced tier. This really was treasure. The Kingler crew could all upgrade their held items.

A quasi–Elite Four tier Mystic Water really was the kind of thing you only ran into by luck. Having even one would’ve been great.

There were also three mid-grade Water Stone, worth at least ten million or so.

Low-grade Water Stone were even more ridiculous: twenty-six of them. At 1.2 million each, that alone was over thirty million.

Then there were Water Gem—over sixty of them, all with purity above 50%. He’d keep those for now. No rush to move them.

He also found several Damp Rock. Riku’s stash really was on another level compared to the trash he’d looted before—even the Damp Rock had much higher purity. These were useful too, so he’d hold them for now.

He set the Damp Rock aside, and what shocked him next was a palm-sized scale sitting in the backpack. It was triangular, almost like a shell.

The top was pink, fading into a pale blue at the tip. It rested in a special wooden box, giving off a faint, shimmering glow that made it look unreal.

“Holy crap… Prism Scale. Jackpot—again.” Reiji stared without blinking, then slowly reached out and lightly touched it with one finger, pulling up the item panel.

[Prism Scale: A precious scale shed from a Milotic (Energy Concentration: 63.11%)]

“Holy… this is from an Elite Four tier Milotic.” The number alone made his scalp tighten.

This Prism Scale was close in concentration to the Dragon Scale he’d picked up on that deserted island—both were scales shed by Elite Four tier Pokémon.

The origin of that earlier Dragon Scale was a mystery, and he wasn’t about to chase it. But this Prism Scale belonged to Riku, which meant Riku knew exactly what it was for.

Even knowing the use didn’t make it easy to obtain. An Elite Four tier Milotic shedding a scale wasn’t something you just “found.” The most likely answer was simple: Riku knew that Milotic. The scale was probably a gift.

An Elite Four tier Milotic… an Elite Four tier—

He had it. Last night at the port, he’d run into the captain of that black ship, and that guy was an Elite Four tier Trainer. If the captain had an Elite Four tier Milotic, everything lined up.

A Milotic dropping a Prism Scale and rewarding a trusted subordinate with it? That wasn’t impossible at all.

None of that mattered, though. What mattered was that the Prism Scale was in his hands now. If he found a Feebas with quasi–Elite Four tier potential, evolving it into Milotic would be easy.

He already knew Milotic had two evolution methods…

First: raise its Beauty and then level up. In this world, that “Beauty” probably meant confidence. He’d read old forum analyses in his previous life—once Feebas believed in itself, it could evolve.

Second: have Feebas hold a Prism Scale and trade it to evolve. If that worked the same way here, it would save a ton of trouble.

But if a Pokémon never gets soaked by storms, how would it ever understand what a rainbow really is?

Feebas evolving into Milotic was the single biggest transformation in its entire life. If it never endured the hard part of being Feebas, where would the confidence come from to carry that beauty afterward?

A confident Feebas was rare. Making one confident was even harder—and doing that was the Trainer’s responsibility.

Reiji didn’t even have a Feebas, so the Prism Scale would have to stay stored for now. He’d wait until he ran into one with decent potential. Either way, he wasn’t selling this thing. Only an idiot would.

If he never found a high-potential Feebas, then he’d sell it to a Trainer who actually understood what it was. A merchant who didn’t know better would treat it like a collectible, but he still wouldn’t let it go cheap.

He closed the wooden box again, then his hand brushed another box. He opened it—and sucked in a sharp breath.

Inside was another Dragon Scale, identical in appearance to the one he’d gotten on the deserted island: the same blue scale.

He touched it. Cold to the fingertip. The item panel popped up.

[Dragon Scale: A precious scale shed from a Pokémon (Energy Concentration: 62.31%)]

Another Elite Four tier scale… but the panel looked slightly different from his.

[Dragon Scale: A precious reverse scale shed from a Dragon-type Pokémon (Dragon-type Energy Concentration: 67.91%)]

Reiji pulled out his own Dragon Scale again. Now that he could compare them, the differences jumped right out.

They were both called Dragon Scale, but his looked like it came from a “true dragon,” while the other felt more like a “pseudo-dragon” scale.

The differences were—

First: the panel didn’t show Dragon-type for the other one.

Second: his was labeled a reverse scale, while the other was just a scale.

Third: the concentration was different. His was higher.

If the Prism Scale and the Dragon Scale both came from that black ship captain, then the captain didn’t just have a Milotic—he probably also had a Gyarados.

An Elite Four tier Gyarados.

If this Dragon Scale came from that Gyarados when it stepped into Elite Four tier… then Reiji couldn’t even guess how far it had climbed now.

He was sure it was Gyarados because even Kingdra was a real dragon. It had the Dragon-type. Gyarados was the fake one.

If the Dragon Scale had come from a Kingdra, the panel wouldn’t read like this. He hadn’t noticed before, but with both in hand, the contrast was obvious.

Even if it was “just” a Gyarados scale, it still wasn’t something you measured in money—same as the Prism Scale.

Elite Four tier evolution-held items were like top-grade Evolution Stones. Stuff like this couldn’t be priced; it could be traded for an Elite Four tier Trainer’s favor.

Even using one to ask an Elite Four tier Trainer to step in just once would be a once-in-a-lifetime deal. Reiji had scored so hard it didn’t feel real.

He couldn’t help wondering if Riku—after losing all of this—would turn the entire Orange Archipelago upside down just to drag the thief out.

Thinking back, stealing Riku’s backpack at all was insane. His nerves must’ve been made of steel. The fear didn’t hit him during the job—it came afterward, in waves.

Thank god he’d overheard that conversation at the port. Riku hadn’t taken him seriously. If Riku had even glanced at him the wrong way, Reiji would’ve been dead. Not “injured,” not “captured.” Dead.

He set the “pseudo-dragon” Dragon Scale down and kept digging, not sure what else was waiting to punch him in the face.

Next came Ground-type items—probably meant for Swampert. There was a quasi–Elite Four tier Soft Sand, plus several Advanced tier Soft Sand.

Reiji stared. Then stared harder.

“Man… you’re really treating Hanhan to a feast.” Whoever prepared this was way too generous.

He didn’t want to feed the Advanced tier Soft Sand to Hanhan yet. He’d wait until he had more items like this stocked up. Either way, none of it was getting sold.

And the Swampert he meant wasn’t the Swampert Riku had carried on him. It was the Pokémon Egg in the backpack—the one that looked exactly like Naoki’s egg.

A Swampert Egg.

All these Water-type and Ground-type items had probably been prepared for that egg. Reiji put the egg back into the incubator.

This egg came straight out of Riku’s bag. The talent wasn’t even a question—at minimum, quasi–Elite Four tier potential. Otherwise, Riku wouldn’t have poured so much into it.

Counting it all up, Riku had prepared close to a hundred million Pokédollars’ worth of resources for Mudkip.

With that kind of investment, the egg’s potential had to be high. Riku had the black ship behind him—whatever kind of eggs they wanted, they could get. They even auctioned pseudo-legendary Pokémon Eggs. A starter Pokémon Egg was nothing.

The starter Pokémon he’d been dreaming about finally showed up—without warning. But why this one? Why was Riku raising a second Swampert?

Wait. Reiji remembered Riku’s rain team: Gyarados, Cloyster, Pelipper, Tentacruel, Swampert, Houndoom…

Yeah. Five of six were Water-type. Of course he’d get wrecked by Electric-types. No wonder he wanted two Swampert—one clearly wasn’t enough.

As for other Water/Ground options like Quagsire, Whiscash, and Gastrodon, they were all Ground-types that didn’t fear water. But among them, Swampert was the best pick. Riku wouldn’t even look twice at the others.

Most other Ground-type Pokémon didn’t shrug off Water at all unless there was some special case, so raising two Swampert made sense.

And once you’d raised the first, you could reuse that whole process for the second. Less trial and error.

Riku had even prepared a massive pile of Ground Gem—about the same amount as the Water Gem. It was a huge surprise. He’d basically completed Swampert’s entire resource package for him.

Hanhan got a huge bonus too. He could mooch a lot of good food from this—Ground Gem were edible for him.

The six gems Reiji had bought before were long gone. He’d been funneling everything into Gastly and never had the money to buy gems for Hanhan. The kid had been starving for upgrades. Now, at least, he could finally eat his fill.

There was also a big bag of Dazzling Honey—food made from honey. A dream for anyone with a sweet tooth. It was probably for the newly hatched Mudkip. Riku had even stocked this.

And of course, there were nutritional supplies like Moomoo Milk—whole crates of it. Reiji didn’t need to buy any more.

Riku’s picks were definitely premium. Reiji wasn’t about to doubt a quasi–Elite Four tier Trainer’s taste.

After the Ground-type stuff, Reiji’s hand found something hot. Another baby-Pokémon supply, for sure. He pulled out a stone box, opened it, and found a Fire Stone.

He went to check the panel, touched it—and yanked his finger back as it burned him. The panel still appeared.

“Holy crap… a high-grade Fire Stone.” He’d lost count of how many times he’d cursed today.

He had no idea which Fire-type Pokémon Riku was planning to evolve, but the purity on this Fire Stone was high. Even holding it felt like keeping a flame in his palm. He lifted it once, then quickly put it back into the stone box.

By his estimate, this high-grade Fire Stone was worth at least 12 million.

If it had been a Water Stone, Leaf Stone, or Thunder Stone, that would’ve been perfect. Those three were in higher demand around here.

Fire Stone had it rough. In the Orange Archipelago, where Water-types were everywhere, a Fire Stone basically sat in jail.

Even so, it still had value in the tens of millions. A Fire-type Pokémon could patch the holes in a rain team, and a “cheaper” high-grade stone wasn’t exactly bad for Riku—except Riku didn’t have the bag anymore.

If it had been one of the other three, the price could’ve been three million higher. Demand set the market, and high-grade Evolution Stones weren’t always even available.

This one had 67% purity—upper-mid quality among high-grade stones.

Reiji had noticed before: in this world, anything above 50% purity counted as high-grade.

Above 50%, evolving with the stone almost never failed. Below 50%, failure became possible.

It was probably a standard locals had learned the hard way after countless attempts.

Around 50% purity was only lower-mid quality—maybe you could negotiate under ten million, if someone was willing to sell.

Over 60%? No negotiation. Without at least ten million Pokédollars, you weren’t taking it.

That was why he called this Fire Stone “12 million minimum.” The extra three million for the other stones was purely market demand.

Especially Water Stone. The Orange Archipelago produced plenty of them—but it also had the most Trainers raising Water-types.

Fire Stone wasn’t expensive here, but in the hands of someone who truly needed it, the price could still shift.

Like unlucky Riku. Reiji could ask Naoki later which Fire-type Pokémon Riku had been planning to evolve. Apparently Riku didn’t just think one Swampert wasn’t enough—he wanted two Fire-types too.

At least it wasn’t a top-grade Fire Stone. If it were, Riku would’ve gone insane. Reiji had already said it before: top-grade Evolution Stones couldn’t be measured in money. They could tie straight to Elite Four-level connections.

For any Trainer below Elite Four tier, if you ever got a top-grade stone, you used it quietly. If you bragged? The ending wouldn’t be pretty.

Sometimes, having something too good while being too weak just meant you couldn’t keep it.

Reiji closed the stone box and let out a quiet sigh. He wasn’t lamenting that the stone was good. He was lamenting that it wasn’t a high-grade Water Stone.

Selling it would be a waste, but he also wasn’t planning to move it anytime soon. A high-grade Fire Stone was the kind of thing that left a trail the moment it changed hands.

If this haul still wasn’t enough to break through Gastly’s potential ceiling, then he’d consider trading the high-grade Fire Stone for Ghost Gem and Poison Gem. For that greedy little Gastly, he really was grinding himself down.

He didn’t know how long the Champion-tier potential threshold was going to keep blocking him. This time he was ready to throw 200 million at the problem. He refused to believe he couldn’t smash open the door to Champion.

Besides the high-grade Fire Stone, there were also mid-grade and low-grade Fire Stone—probably meant as rewards for subordinates.

Only two mid-grade Fire Stone. Those could be sold without drawing suspicion—about six million total.

Low-grade Fire Stone were more plentiful: eleven of them, worth about ten million total. Roughly 1.1 million each, cheaper than Water Stone, and easier to sell off.

Then he found another quasi–Elite Four tier item: Charcoal. If he sold it, a conservative estimate would be around ten million.

As a quasi–Elite Four tier Fire-type held item, it wouldn’t lose value just because Fire was unpopular here. It was probably meant for the Fire-type Pokémon evolved with that high-grade Fire Stone.

There were even two Advanced tier Charcoal in the bag. Riku really was swimming in money. Sold together, they’d be worth around six million.

There were also piles of Fire Gem—enough to use as bedding for Riku’s Fire-type Pokémon. You could simulate a volcano-like environment. Perfect for raising Fire-types.

None of this Fire-type stuff did Reiji any good. He wasn’t about to start training Fire-types just because he’d found Fire resources. That would be completely backwards.

If he raised whatever element he happened to loot, what happened to his rain team? A rain team was a rain team. He wasn’t about to turn it into a sun team.

There were also a ton of Heat Rock. Their effect was to extend Sunny Day.

Riku had really gone all-in raising that Fire-type Pokémon—he’d prepared an absurd amount of Fire resources.

Too bad they were useless to Reiji. It was painful to look at.

If he sold the Heat Rock, the price was hard to judge. He hadn’t studied that market. He could ask Naoki later.

Or he could just keep them and let Hanhan eat them. Hanhan didn’t fear fire in the first place. Maybe eating them could even teach him some Fire-type moves. Maybe.

After the Fire-type items, he found Leaf Stone.

Two mid-grade Leaf Stone, nine low-grade Leaf Stone.

Then one mid-grade Thunder Stone, and five low-grade Thunder Stone.

If he sold them all, that alone was still a serious payday.

He also found a few Advanced tier Poison-type items: Black Sludge.

And two Advanced tier Poison-type items: Poison Barb.

Both were boxed up. He wasn’t selling these either—he could keep them for Gastly, and for Croagunk and the others.

He hadn’t kept the Beginner tier items before because they were too weak. Advanced tier items were different. These could last him a long time.

There were also some Poison Gem, probably meant as food for Tentacruel. Reiji planned to give all of it to Gastly and push for that Champion threshold.

After putting away the Poison Gem, he found two more Advanced tier items: Sharp Beak.

These didn’t need to be sold either. He’d keep them. He did have Flying-type Pokémon, after all.

After that came more gems—this time Dark Gem. No need to think about it. He wasn’t selling those. He could toss them to Darkrai and let it absorb them slowly.

…

Besides all the items, he also found several Fire-type Pokémon breeding manuals, and some Poison-type ones.

He flipped through a few pages. They weren’t cheap street-stall junk—there was real content in them.

Still, he wasn’t raising Fire-types. Even a few Water-type breeding books would’ve been better, but no—everything was Fire and Poison. What a sick joke.

Were Water-type Trainers here just passing everything down by word of mouth? Not a single book?

The Poison-type manuals still had some value to him. The Fire-type ones were dead weight.

He trained Water, damn it.

So why was he getting fire twice over?

Yeah… thinking about it just hurt.

If the high-grade Fire Stone had been a high-grade Water Stone, and the Swampert Egg had been a Blastoise Egg…

That would’ve been perfect. Exactly what he needed right now.

But wishes were cheap. Reality wasn’t.

He tossed the books aside and looked at the food piled in the corner of the room. It was all premium Pokéblock—Water-type Pokéblock in the greatest quantity, plus Flying, Poison, Dark, Fire…

Those five types together were impossible to count at a glance. There were just too many.

Probably thousands of boxes. He could sort them later and count properly. Either way, he wasn’t selling them. Premium was premium.

Pokéblock weren’t the main event, though. The real event was the gold, silver, and jewelry that had come out of the bag.

Every piece on the bed—rings, chains, ornaments—looked like high-end craftsmanship, like art.

This wasn’t like the earlier haul where you could still spot flaws. Those older pieces could be dumped casually since they were just thugs’ stolen goods.

Riku’s pieces were all premium, instantly recognizable. Flipping them as a middleman was impossible. It would leave a trail immediately.

So Reiji gave up on selling them. He gathered every necklace and jewel, carried them out to the balcony, and threw everything that wasn’t metal into the sea.

No evidence. No trail.

(End of Chapter)

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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