"I got everything. The quality's solid. Total comes to 68 million. I'm sending it all to your bank card now. Check it when you can."
"Got it." Reiji hung up and did the math in his head. Once he added that to the money already on his card, his savings would be up to 200 million. Even so, he was still short by another billion.
Koffing was about to break through here too, which would save him another 300 million. At least he no longer had to worry about paying for Koffing's breakthrough.
But that still left a billion to make. He needed another way to get rich fast. For one reckless moment, he even considered stealing some pseudo-legendary eggs. One egg alone could be worth five or six hundred million. Two of them and his problem was solved.
Then he killed that idea himself.
Those things were the kind of treasure you could die stealing and die using. Someone had stolen a pseudo-legendary on Kinnow Island before, and that was enough to bring Lance down on the whole place. If Reiji went after a pseudo-legendary egg himself, he might as well hang a lantern on his chest and go looking for death.
No. That plan was out.
By the time he stepped out of the transfer room, Tai was already waiting outside.
"I still haven't paid for the transfer," Reiji said. He had no intention of breaking the rules and leaving a trail somebody could dig up later.
"It's nothing. I already talked to them," Tai said with a smile. In truth, he had already covered it himself. It was only a few hundred thousand. Compared to what he'd gained today, that was pocket change.
"All right." Reiji didn't question it. Since Tai had said it was handled, the two of them left the power plant together.
Now that the contraband was gone, he still had a pile of items left on him. There were nine Advanced-tier items in total, seven of them from the rich brat alone, and even more at Elite tier.
Still, none of that was urgent. He could deal with it after the Indigo Conference, once he was back in the Orange Archipelago.
After leaving the power plant, he parted ways with Tai. The items weren't easy to move right now anyway, and Tai still had work to do, so they just agreed to talk again another time.
Once they split up, Reiji headed to the Pokémon Center and started a video call with Mikan Gym. A maid picked up. He asked her to call Senta over, and before long, Senta appeared on the screen.
"Rai-nii, where are you? Did you make it to Kanto yet?"
"I'm here already. I'm calling because I want to send a couple of Pokémon over. I caught them on the road."
That was the whole reason for the call. He planned to send back the Magnemite he had just caught, along with the Feebas from that contraband haul.
Magnemite needed three bodies to pull off its combination evolution, and he had no intention of trying that yet. Gringey City was only suitable for Koffing's breakthrough for now.
As for Feebas, that one was going back too. Its evolution wasn't something that happened overnight, so he might as well send it home and let it be raised there for the time being. He didn't need a Milotic yet, and Milotic was far too eye-catching anyway. That could wait until after the League tournament.
"Go ahead and send them."
"It's a Magnemite and a Feebas." Reiji placed the Poké Balls on the transporter and hit the button. A moment later, they appeared on the other side in Senta's hands.
"Rai-nii, I got them. But Feebas is so ugly. Why would you even catch one?"
"Ran into it on the way, so I caught it."
He couldn't be bothered explaining further. Milotic's evolution wasn't exactly a secret, at least not to the League's upper ranks. If Senta really wanted to know, all he had to do was ask his grandfather.
"Okay, Rai-nii. Anything else? I still need to train. I caught a few new partners recently too."
"How are Butterfree and the others doing?"
He had been away for more than half a month now, and he actually missed that little drama queen Butterfree. He also wanted to know whether the rest of them were being looked after properly.
"Everyone's doing great. Farfetch'd has been helping out in the kitchen lately. Its knife work is incredible. Even the head cook keeps praising it."
Reiji only chuckled.
He knew exactly what that meant. Odds were good they had Farfetch'd working for free in the back just so someone else could slack off.
Still, as long as Farfetch'd and the others were staying at the gym, things were fine. Slowpoke and a few of the others could help with matches, Farfetch'd could help in the kitchen, and nobody at the gym would make life difficult for them. That was enough for him.
"With you watching over them, I'm not worried." Reiji smiled and held up his badge case to the screen. Two badges were already sitting inside. "I've got two now, and I'm on my way to get the third. That's all for now."
"Rai-nii, that's amazing. You already have two badges?"
Senta looked so openly jealous that he seemed ready to run off on a journey himself. The problem was that he was still too weak, and his older sister refused to let him go. She had flat-out told him that if he couldn't even win the Mikan Gym badge, he had no right to leave home and travel.
That one really got under his skin, which was why he had been training so hard lately.
"Take good care of the Magnemite and Feebas for me." Reiji caught the frustration on Senta's face and decided to cut the call there. If they kept talking, the conversation would drag on forever.
After hanging up, he ordered a free lunch at the Pokémon Center and pulled out his little notebook while he ate. Time to go over what he had gained these past few days.
Since leaving the Orange Archipelago by ship, he had spent 20,000 on food and cold drinks onboard. After boarding again from Cinnabar Island, two trips to the black market had cost him another 20,000. He had spent 30,000 getting Poliwhirl and Golbat treated and checked over. Renting a training room on the ship had cost 300,000. Then, after arriving in Gringey City, another trip to the black market had cost 20,000, and five days at the hotel came to 10,000.
Hotels were cheap here. The industrial pollution kept tourists away.
Total expenses for this stretch: 400,000.
But his earnings had been good too. The first round of black-market battles on the passenger ship had earned him 400,000. The second brought in another 200,000. Looting those three in the bathroom got him 500,000. Selling the shiny Grimer brought in 2,000,000. Then after getting off the ship, looting those ten-plus bodyguards netted him 13,000,000.
Most of that 13,000,000 had come out of the rich brat's backpack. There had been some genuinely good stuff in there.
Total gains this time: 16,100,000.
Remaining profit after expenses: 15,700,000.
Add that to what he already had, and his current cash on hand came to: 41,420,000.
Seeing that figure, Reiji couldn't help thinking his wallet looked a lot healthier now. Then he added in the bank card balance too: 130,000,000 from before, plus the 68,000,000 that had just come in.
Bank card balance: 198,000,000.
Just a hair short of 200 million.
A full billion in savings was still a long way off.
After checking the numbers, he put the notebook back in his bag. What he needed next was another shiny Koffing, and a lot more toxin crystals.
He was done catching Magnemite for now. He had checked several thousand of them and only found two with decent potential. If he kept poking around, people would start asking questions. Something like that only worked once.
From here on, Koffing was the priority.
The problem was that he had already searched both the factory district and the power plant district last night, and he still hadn't found another shiny Koffing. He hadn't even found any especially high-potential ordinary Koffing.
That probably wasn't just bad luck. His method was wrong too.
Thinking it over carefully, he realized the first Koffing had been inside a chimney. Most of the exhaust pouring out of those chimneys would have been absorbed by whatever Koffing were hiding in there.
Any Koffing floating around outside were only getting the leftovers after the chimney Koffing had already filtered most of it out.
If he wanted a second shiny Koffing, then he had to start from inside the chimneys.
Once the idea hit him, he moved right away.
After lunch, he went to see Riolu and Poliwhirl and stayed with them for a while.
"Riolu, feeling any better?" Reiji reached out and tried to pat him on the head, but Riolu dodged the hand immediately.
"Hah. Still stubborn, huh?" Reiji only laughed and didn't try again. Then he turned to Poliwhirl. "Poliwhirl, stay here and keep an eye on Riolu. I need to head out again."
"Yobo." Poliwhirl thumped his chest, making it clear that Reiji could leave it to him.
"With you here, I'm not worried." Reiji smiled, patted Poliwhirl on the shoulder, and left the Pokémon Center again.
He was going to try his luck with the factory chimneys.
Darkrai and Gengar had already gone back into the sewers to keep gathering toxin crystals. If they ran into another shiny Grimer, there was no need to catch it this time.
He might not like Grimer, but he had no intention of turning wild Pokémon into merchandise. Accidentally catching one shiny Grimer was one thing. Going out of his way to catch more just to sell them was another.
Once they split up, Reiji stopped outside the factory district instead of going in. If he entered the grounds himself, the workers would spot him.
He released Golbat and sent it into the chimneys to scout around. If there was no shiny Koffing inside, then so be it.
And just like that, the whole afternoon slipped away in the middle of all that running around.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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