Day 25 of the journey. Clear skies.

In the morning, Reiji had just gotten up and finished making breakfast when Naoki returned to the villa with gems and Pokémon.

“Another all-nighter?” Reiji sat with Naoki at the table. Seeing the deep dark circles under Naoki’s eyes, he didn’t need to ask what happened.

“I caught Pokémon all night,” Naoki said through breakfast. “A few thousand more Water-types this time.” He nodded as he spoke, yawning so hard his jaw wouldn’t stop, his arms trembling from exhaustion.

“Go rest in a bit. I’m staying at the villa for two more days—there’s no need to push yourself this hard,” Reiji said, not sure what else to add. Naoki was a man set on revenge. It wasn’t like Reiji could talk him out of it and tell him to turn over a new leaf.

That was never happening. Reiji didn’t have that kind of influence—unless the girl Naoki was pining after showed up and told him to give it all up and live with her. Maybe then there was a chance.

No way around it: that was Naoki. And against him, that girl didn’t even need to try—she could shut him down effortlessly.

“Boss, I brought 280 Gems this time, including those six. If there are any low-quality ones mixed in, pick them out and I’ll trade them with that guy…”

“This time it’s 150 Poison Gems at the same price—57,000,000 Pokédollars. And 130 Ghost Gems—71,500,000…”

“Alright.” Reiji nodded, took the backpack, and accepted his bank card as well—empty, as usual. “I’ll take these first. Keep buying Gems for me. If I’m short, put it on my tab for now.”

That money wasn’t even close to covering the payment. Reiji pulled out two more backpacks—one filled with Evolutionary Stones, the other with items, all good stuff from Riku.

“Low-grade Evolutionary Stones: 51. Mid-quality Evolutionary Stones: 8. Advanced-tier items: 4. Two Sharp Beaks, two Charcoals. Trade all of it for those two Gems. However many you can get—get them.”

“Boss… I’ve been buying too many Gems lately. Both of those Gems have gone up in price,” Naoki said, numb at the thought. Gems again. Why did the boss always trade perfectly decent items for even more Gems?

“Don’t worry about the price. Just buy the cheap ones you can find. You can sell the low-grade Evolutionary Stones for cash first and then buy Gems, or barter them. But the mid-quality stones and the advanced-tier items have to be traded directly—only for those two Gems.”

“Understood, boss.” Naoki accepted the errand without hesitation. He could handle these items. The earlier stuff had been beginner-tier items, and he’d had no interest in swallowing that pile.

Advanced-tier items were different. If he wanted, he could buy one off the boss. Evolutionary stones were another story—mid-quality stones could be used to raise underlings, but he didn’t have any. For himself, he’d only use the best, at minimum high-grade stones.

“Boss, can you sell me one of these items?”

“Do whatever. Just turn the rest into Gems. I only want Gems,” Reiji said. If he didn’t push Gastly’s potential to the absolute limit, he wasn’t stopping.

“Boss, these are the Pokémon I just caught. Can you take a look? If you don’t, I won’t be able to sleep,” Naoki said, hurrying after Reiji as he finished breakfast and prepared to leave with the Gems.

“Right—almost forgot.” Reiji paused on the way upstairs, then followed Naoki to the pool to check the catches.

Out of several thousand “Water-types,” Naoki had actually found two that were decent: a Tentacool with 51 potential, and a Lickitung with 52.

“Out of everything you caught, these two have the best talent,” Reiji said, set the two Poké Balls down, and headed upstairs to the storage room to keep pushing Gastly’s potential.

“Boss, still no Magikarp?” Naoki stared at the two Poké Balls. Not Magikarp again. He was going to lose it.

Twice now—thousands of Water-types each time—and not a single Magikarp with good talent.

“No.” Reiji didn’t even turn back. “The three Magikarp on the table are all a bit worse than the one you have. If they can evolve, they’ll still be worth decent money.”

Naoki’s fantasy shattered on the spot. Fine. Back to catching “idiots.” This was only the beginning.

“…Alright. I’ll keep fishing.” Naoki accepted reality, called the fishermen to keep catching, and kept paying by the fish. However many they caught, he’d take them.

He also called an acquaintance who’d been helping him move goods these past few days, telling him to line up buyers. This time the goods were Evolutionary Stones and items—everything was valuable, and he would only barter for Gems.

After that, he finally went back inside to sleep, planning to wake up and keep fishing, keep selling, and keep buying the Gems his boss needed.

…

Reiji was already in the storage room, letting Gengar out to continue what they’d done yesterday.

Since evolving Gastly and evolving Haunter both produced the same result—absorbing energy to increase potential—Reiji stopped bothering with Gastly. Haunter needed more energy to evolve than Gastly, but it also raised potential more, and one cycle could absorb eight or nine Gems. That alone cut the time in half.

Reiji laid out all the Gems and Pokéblocks, checked every Gem, and found no low-purity fakes mixed in. Then he told Haunter to begin evolving.

Minutes passed.

More than 250 Gems went in, and it finally made a difference. Gastly’s potential reached—

[Gastly (Shiny)]

Type: Ghost/Poison

Gender: Male

Potential: 95%

That was a 5% increase. Reiji had it evolve again, and Haunter’s potential became—

[Haunter (Shiny)]

Type: Ghost/Poison

Gender: Male

Potential: 97%

Then came Gengar—

[Gengar (Shiny)]

Type: Ghost/Poison

Gender: Male

Potential: 98%

Staring at the panel, Reiji’s breathing grew heavier. Just a little more.

And he knew that “little more” was a cliff face. A wall that stopped him cold no matter how hard he climbed.

He dumped the remaining twenty-something Gems into one more Haunter evolution, burning through the full 280 Gems.

Even after all that, Gastly’s potential still hovered at 95%. Like a turtle crawling. At this point, dozens of Gems barely moved the needle. He needed far more.

If he could find a habitat filled with Ghost-type Pokémon, that would work too. It was all Ghost-type energy in the end. The problem was finding one.

Places thick with that kind of energy existed in the anime—several of them—but those were League restricted zones, guarded and off-limits. He wasn’t getting in.

So he was stuck buying Gems.

An ancient tomb would do. Even an ancient battlefield.

But tomb raiding was illegal, and an ancient battlefield was even less realistic. The League had ruled this region for a long time. Large-scale wars were over; only small conflicts remained. Out of every option, joining an archaeology team was the most plausible.

He’d spend money first. If Gengar still didn’t “transform,” and the potential still wouldn’t break the Champion limit, then he’d go with the archaeology route—follow the team into a tomb and sponge up some Ghost-type energy. That wasn’t asking for much.

When Reiji left the storage room, Darkrai told him Naoki was asleep in his room. Reiji didn’t disturb him. He quietly fed breakfast to the Pokémon, then sat on the sofa and killed time watching TV.

By the time Naoki woke up, it was already afternoon. Reiji and the Pokémon had finished lunch.

“Boss, I’m heading out. I’ll be back soon,” Naoki said, grabbing Reiji’s item backpack. He didn’t even have time to eat before he ran off to sell through his acquaintance, then pick up the Magikarp the fishermen had caught.

Naoki was gone for more than two hours. When he returned, he brought 300 Gems—and several thousand more “idiots.”

“Naoki, did it go smoothly?” Reiji was cooking dinner. He only realized Naoki was back when Naoki walked into the kitchen.

“Boss, mission accomplished. I got 300 Gems. The eight mid-quality Evolutionary stones and the four advanced-tier items traded for Gems worth 30,000,000…”

“Good work. Help me carry the dishes. We’ll talk while we eat,” Reiji said, carrying two plates to the table. Naoki followed right behind. They set everything down and talked over dinner.

“The 51 low-grade Evolutionary stones sold for 68,000,000,” Naoki said as soon as he sat, sliding the bag of Gems across the table toward Reiji.

“Eat first. We’ll deal with Gems after,” Reiji said, pulling the backpack off the table. He’d priced those 51 low-grade stones at 65,000,000.

An extra 3,000,000 was Naoki’s skill. How Naoki pulled it off didn’t matter to Reiji. As long as the price didn’t crash through the floor, he didn’t care.

What surprised him was this: eight mid-quality Evolutionary stones plus four advanced-tier items, traded directly, had brought in 60,000,000 worth of Gems.

He’d priced the mid-quality stones at 28,000,000. For the four advanced-tier items—two of them Charcoal—he’d estimated 7,000,000 each, for 27,000,000 total.

And since Charcoal boosted Fire-type moves, he’d actually undercounted by 1,000,000. Even so, they’d traded for 30,000,000 worth of Gems.

The truth was, “advanced-tier items” still had their own tiers.

Beginner items were usually under 1,000,000. Elite items could be cheap at 2,000,000 or pricey at 3,000,000 to 4,000,000, but they didn’t cross 5,000,000.

Anything over 5,000,000 was advanced-tier—like the items he’d bought at the department store. Those were barely over the line, and the price shifted with the type.

Then there were the four items he’d just sold. They weren’t quasi–Elite Four items, but each was level 50+, roughly on par with the 6,000,000 Mystic Water he’d bought on Kinnow Island last time—back then with a gold card discount.

Quasi–Elite Four items were priced in the tens of millions.

Elite Four tier items and top-grade Evolutionary stones were even rarer. Elite Four evolution held items were in that same “you can’t just buy it” category.

That was why Reiji had asked for 7,000,000 each. And they’d still traded for 5,000,000 more in Gems—around ten extra Gems.

If these 300 Gems still weren’t enough, he’d keep selling other items. After this, he’d need to be careful.

Once you sold everything you could, what was left either had real use—or wasn’t safe to sell at all. Those had to be kept in-house.

After dinner, Reiji and Naoki went to the pool again. Reiji still needed to pick Pokémon for Naoki before he could test whether those 300 Gems could break past the Champion limit.

This time Naoki’s luck was genuinely good. Out of several thousand Magikarp, he had two “idiots” with decent potential.

One had 57. The other had 51. Reiji naturally recommended the 57.

“Not bad. One has Elite Four-tier talent, and one has a shop’s ‘shop treasure’ talent,” Reiji said. That “shop treasure” he always mentioned was, in practice, quasi–Elite Four-tier talent.

Blank-slate Pokémon weren’t worth much—potential usually sat around the 20s or 30s.

Anything a bit better was usually 40+.

A “shop treasure” baby Pokémon was 50+—that was quasi–Elite Four-tier talent.

And true Elite Four-tier talent was close to 59.

That was the limit for ordinary Pokémon. Above that… Reiji had only ever met one Mythical Pokémon with that kind of potential: Darkrai. Legendary Pokémon didn’t even enter the discussion—he’d never laid a hand on a Legendary’s Poké Ball.

“Boss, seriously?” Naoki gripped the two Magikarp, already choosing the better one. He’d even marked the Poké Ball.

Earlier Magikarp had evolved into Gyarados just from rage, and he’d sold them for a few million profit.

This “shop treasure” Magikarp, though? He wasn’t selling it. He planned to give it to the old man who’d been connecting him with buyers—apparently the guy had a little grandson.

If he got the chance, he’d help him out. A favor returned. The old man hadn’t stabbed him in the back even in situations where it would’ve been easy. That kind of old friend was worth keeping.

“Alright. Hurry up and release everything in the pool,” Reiji said, not even bothering to look. Poké Balls floated across the pool like debris—at least ten thousand of them.

“Right away, boss.” Naoki, still grinning, called the fishermen and told them he didn’t need any more fish. The partnership was over.

Catching Magikarp had been the goal. The Water-types he’d caught along the way were just extras. Now that he had Magikarp, he had the Pokémon he’d already caught help release the Poké Balls in the pool. Ten thousand Poké Balls was backbreaking work otherwise.

After releasing the Water-types, Naoki started thinking about his next target: Electric-types. The one he wanted was still Magnezone. He’d raised one before, and he wanted to raise another Magnemite from scratch.

Magnemite were easy to catch. He even knew where to find them—there was an abandoned power plant in the city outskirts, and it was full of Magnemite.

The moment that thought landed, Naoki couldn’t sit still. He fed the Pokémon some Pokéblocks to restore their stamina, then immediately climbed onto Flygon and headed for the abandoned power plant.

This time, he planned to catch a few hundred Magnemite and let the boss pick one with good talent to raise.

…

Reiji had no idea Naoki had flown off again. He was busy enough that he didn’t have time to care.

Whether Gastly could break the limit depended on the final 300 Gems: 160 Poison Gems for 60,800,000 Pokédollars, and 140 Ghost Gems for 77,000,000.

His Evolutionary stones and items were worth 68,000,000 for the low-grade stones, 30,000,000 for the mid-quality stones, and 30,000,000 for the four advanced-tier items—128,000,000 total.

But the 300 Gems cost over 130,000,000. His 128,000,000 wasn’t nearly enough, so Naoki had covered the difference. That guy had over 200,000,000 in savings anyway.

“Haunter, this is the last time. Enjoy it. You won’t ever have this many Gems again…” Reiji said.

He checked the purity one last time. Everything was clean. Then he let Haunter absorb the Gems energy again.

Haunter gave a low chuckle and got serious. If this really was the last time, then rolling around in a mountain of Gems was something it might only ever do in dreams from now on.

It stretched its long tongue toward the pile and began evolving.

Half an hour later, another 280 Gems were gone, and Haunter’s potential reached—

[Haunter (Shiny)]

Type: Ghost/Poison

Gender: Male

Potential: 99.99%

Haunter was practically at the Champion limit, but it just wouldn’t cross it. Even when Reiji evolved it into Gengar, the potential still read 99.99, with no sign of breaking through.

Then he devolved it back into Gastly, and Gastly’s potential became—

[Gastly (Shiny)]

Type: Ghost/Poison

Gender: Male

Potential: 99.89%

Reiji almost cursed out loud. The panel was messing with him.

Back when the level was low, every evolution bumped potential by eight or nine points—sometimes eleven or twelve.

Now? Gastly evolving into Haunter raised potential by 0.1.

Haunter evolving into Gengar didn’t change it at all.

He was completely numb. Just reaching the Elite Four threshold had cost at least 20,000,000. Reaching the Champion threshold had cost over 50,000,000. So what did it take beyond Champion?

How deep was this bottomless pit? When did it ever end?

Reiji took a long breath. He decided he’d throw another 200,000,000 into it and see if it even made a sound.

Before that, he had to settle Naoki’s tab. After cleaning up the mess, Reiji left the storage room, sat on the living room sofa, and did the math to see how much Naoki had fronted.

He started from the 80,000,000-plus point—because that was when Naoki began covering for him. The money for the earlier 70 Gems was already repaid.

That earlier batch was 83,536,000 Pokédollars. He rounded it down for easier accounting and ignored the extra 36,000.

The items from the earlier batch totaled 128,000,000.

Adding the Pokémon value, the total came to 211,500,000.

…

First batch: 280 Gems totaled 128,500,000.

Second batch: 300 Gems totaled 137,800,000.

Two batches together: 266,300,000.

…

Final result: Naoki had fronted 50,480,000.

And after removing the double count from those six Ghost Gems—3,300,000—

The remaining debt was 50,010,500.

…

Reiji stared at the numbers and could only think: seriously? Not because he was shocked at the shortfall, but because he’d already burned through more than 500,000,000 just to get Gastly this far.

From 27 potential to 80 had cost over 100,000,000.

From 80 to 90 had cost 172,700,000.

From 90 to 99.99 had cost 266,300,000.

And the last 20 Gems from that final batch had all been tossed to Gengar to absorb slowly. Over 500,000,000 was gone.

And at 99.99, breaking past the Champion limit could still cost who knew how much.

He’d once hoped evolving Gastly would “cover” the last stretch and reduce the cost. Now it was obvious he’d been naive. Once potential reached this point, shortcuts stopped working.

From here, he’d probably need another 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 at least. He’d decide later. He was tired today.

Later, he could try pushing Gastly toward Mega Evolution. Maybe that would crack the final Champion limit.

And if it still didn’t work, he’d throw in another 200,000,000. He wasn’t broke—he was just numb to money.

[End of chapter]

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep