Hearing that, the man immediately breathed a sigh of relief, then called several people over from the store, who swiftly brought over several sets of brand-new clothes.
Lu Chen accepted without standing on ceremony. He went into the changing room, took off the hide outfit he had worn for who knew how many years, and changed into a clean, neat set of casual clothes.
They actually fit pretty well.
When he stepped out of the changing room, the old appraiser had already spread the hide garment out on the table and was examining it inch by inch with a magnifying glass, his breathing growing more and more rapid.
"Could... could these clothes have been made from the hide of a Pokémon that went extinct tens of thousands of years ago?!"
The old appraiser's fingers were trembling, his face flushed red. He looked up at Lu Chen, his eyes filled with shock and anguish.
"What an utter waste of a priceless treasure!"
Lu Chen scratched his head.
The old man looked at him as though he had caught someone using the imperial jade seal to prop up a table leg.
"So, is this thing worth a lot?" Lu Chen asked.
"Worth a lot? This is an unprecedented, monumental discovery!"
The old appraiser was so excited that his voice changed pitch.
"It's worth at least a million!"
"Would you be willing to sell it?"
The corner of Lu Chen's mouth twitched.
He truly had never expected this windfall.
The priceless goddess statue was worth nothing, while the hide garment he had worn through more than a decade of wind and rain was actually worth a million.
Lu Chen could only marvel at how unpredictable life could be.
The hide garment ultimately sold for one million.
With the contract signed and the payment received, Lu Chen walked out of the department store with an anonymous bank card in his pocket, feeling thoroughly invigorated.
Now that he had money, Lu Chen immediately went on a shopping spree.
A phone? Buy it!
Four expensive Luxury Balls? Buy them!
Daily necessities, pots and pans, all kinds of seasonings? Buy, buy, buy!
Just as Lu Chen was about to pay and leave, he suddenly remembered something.
His home apparently did not even have electricity yet.
So, with a wave of his hand, Lu Chen hired a construction crew to connect the water, electricity, and gas.
The construction crew rolled into the wasteland in force with their equipment. After more than half a day of work, utility poles stood upright and water pipes had been laid.
When the lights came on, Lu Chen stood at the entrance to the mud house, looking at the warm yellow light inside, and nodded in satisfaction.
Just like that, he had leaped straight from the Stone Age into the modern era.
All those expenses had come to less than two hundred thousand in total.
The remaining eight hundred thousand sat in the anonymous bank card in Lu Chen's hand.
Back in the mud house, Lu Chen sat on his newly purchased chair, took out his new phone, and connected to the newly installed internet.
Full signal.
Lu Chen took a deep breath, opened the browser with somewhat unfamiliar fingers, and typed in "League Trainer Forum."
The moment the page loaded, Lu Chen nearly burst into tears.
It had been more than a decade.
As someone from the modern world, he could finally use the internet again.
On the screen, posts kept refreshing. Some discussed Pokémon movesets, some showed off newly caught rare Pokémon, some livestreamed wilderness adventures, and others were full of arguments and flame wars.
Looking at this internet brimming with life and activity, Lu Chen could not help marveling:
"The internet really is a wonderful thing!"
Still, Lu Chen had not forgotten his real business.
He hurriedly began searching online for all kinds of offers to buy agricultural produce.
The most commonly purchased products were various Berries.
Oran, Pecha, Sitrus Berries...
Lu Chen browsed for a long while, his brow furrowing more deeply the more he read.
The purchase prices for these Berries were all very low.
There was no way he could support four Champion-level Pokémon by growing these ordinary Berries.
After all, Aerodactyl and the others already cost a fortune just to feed.
Not to mention all the nutritional supplements and medical supplies he would need to buy in the future...
Most importantly, Lu Chen also planned to have his old companions undergo thorough physical examinations in the future.
After so many years of life-and-death battles, Lu Chen did not dare imagine how many hidden ailments Aerodactyl and the others had.
These hidden ailments would not only affect their battles, but more importantly, their lifespans.
Lu Chen had just searched online to find out how much thorough physical examinations and comprehensive medical treatment for his Champion-level Pokémon would cost, but there was no concrete figure.
Still, from the scattered clues online, Lu Chen guessed it would probably cost no less than tens of millions per Pokémon, and he had four main partners.
That added up to an enormous expense of several hundred million.
Then there were Aerodactyl and the others' regular basic training and various food expenses.
Even if Lu Chen planted Oran Berry trees across his entire plot of land, a whole year's earnings probably would not cover a month's worth of meat for Aerodactyl.
So Lu Chen had to grow crops with a sufficiently high unit price.
Crops with a high unit price...
Lu Chen searched for a long time without finding anything suitable.
Just then, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"That's right! I didn't spend those dozen-odd years in the super-ancient era just fighting and killing. I also learned plenty of ways to raise Pokémon and cultivate resources."
Lu Chen narrowed his eyes, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table.
"If I use ancient cultivation methods, I can definitely grow some Berries or resources that don't exist in this era."
"If I can grow crops from the super-ancient era, why would I worry about making money?"
Once he had opened up this line of thinking, everything suddenly became clear.
Lu Chen immediately changed his search criteria. Instead of looking at ordinary Berries, he specifically searched for valuable Berries that were nearly extinct but still existed, and currently could not be cultivated artificially.
The requirements were demanding, but Lu Chen actually found a suitable target.
The Starf Berry.
The Starf Berry was undoubtedly a top-tier Berry.
It was essential for making top-tier Pokéblocks for Psychic-type and Steel-type Pokémon.
Not only that, but the Starf Berry also had a special effect in battle.
When a Pokémon's stamina fell to one quarter, it randomly raised one stat by two stages.
This almost wish-like effect could very well allow a Pokémon to pull off an incredible comeback from a desperate situation.
That was why the Starf Berry was also hailed as the "king of Berries" and was the most expensive Berry on the market.
Moreover, because Starf Berries had always only been found at random in the wild and could not be artificially propagated, their price remained consistently high.
But as luck would have it...
Lu Chen happened to know how to propagate Starf Berries.
He had dealt with these top-tier resources plenty of times on the super-ancient battlefields.
"You're the one!"
Lu Chen's eyes lit up, and he slapped a hand against his phone screen.
He had settled on the main crop for his future farm.
Starf Berries.
The king of Berries.
From this day forward, they would be his retirement fund.
And in fact, artificially cultivating Starf Berries was not much harder than cultivating other Berries. It was just that one thing was missing when people tried to cultivate them artificially.