Black Market Acquisition Point and Meeting Brock Again

Anyone who got such a pleasant surprise during morning training would be as happy as Tetsuya. It was basically like picking up money while walking down the road.

As for what would happen if Pichu was raised until it evolved?

In this world, there was also an item called an Everstone. Its function was rather niche: it prevented a Pokemon from evolving to its next stage.

Generally speaking, for pet-type Pokemon like this, people would have them carry an Everstone so they would not evolve.

The key point was that although Everstones were niche, they were not common, and they were still fairly expensive.

On top of that, Pichu could suddenly discharge electricity when it got emotional, so it would also need to be educated by a specialized Breeder. Otherwise, shocking yourself with a discharge was no joke. It did not hurt, but it was hard to save face afterward and looked rather embarrassing.

That was another huge expense.

All he could say was that the hobbies of those noble ladies really were, well, expensive.

But what did that have to do with Tetsuya? He only needed to know that the Pichu he had just caught could bring him around five million in income.

"Today, us common folk are truly, truly happy," Tetsuya hummed as he walked down the road.

He arrived at a small wooden house in the suburbs of Pewter City and took a mask out of his bag to cover his face.

Following the signal, he struck the ground with his foot in an orderly rhythm.

Before long, a hidden panel in the floor opened, and Tetsuya walked straight in.

Below was a narrow passage. Only a faint bit of light from above allowed people to see the path clearly enough to walk.

After walking for a while, he reached the end, and the space suddenly opened up.

Before him was an underground hall. Roughly a dozen sealed small rooms were scattered neatly through the middle, and all around were pitch-black passage entrances, just like the one Tetsuya had just walked out of.

Beside him, a masked person in black walked forward and guided Tetsuya toward one of the small rooms.

He pushed the door open. Inside, there was still a black-clothed, masked person sitting in front of a table.

Tetsuya was utterly speechless. Was this a nesting doll?

Even so, he pretended to be very cold and took out the Poke Ball containing Pichu, placing it on the table.

The man in black said nothing. He released Pichu and examined it.

Pichu also looked bewildered. Before it could even react, the man in black took it back.

"4.8 million." The man in black's voice sounded. It was very strange, a little like the sound of electric current.

Tetsuya did not mind either. He nodded to indicate that it was fine.

After all, although it was still a little short of his psychological price of five million, selling directly to a place like this would definitely be a bit lower.

Seeing that Tetsuya had agreed, the man in black took out a bearer card, operated it briefly, then handed the card to him.

After confirming through his wristwatch that the amount really was 4.8 million, Tetsuya turned and left.

After he walked out of the room, a man in black—he did not know if it was the same one from earlier—came forward and gestured for him to follow.

Tetsuya followed behind him and left again through another pitch-black passage entrance.

After an identical return route, he arrived back at another wooden house that looked more or less the same.

Tetsuya took off the mask and walked out of the wooden house. When he checked his location, he was already far from where he had been just now.

"Good grief. Everyone's dressed in black and masked. This Black Market Acquisition Point really is something. Though this semi-random entrance and exit setup is pretty good."

Yes, the place he had gone to just now was a black market acquisition point. Although there was only one black market in a region, black market acquisition points were spread throughout every city. Some cities even had many acquisition points.

To put it simply, people could sell their gains to the black market acquisition points, but the price would definitely be a bit cheaper than if they headed to the black market in Viridian City to sell them themselves.

The main advantage was convenience. After all, traveling and setting up a stall both took time.

If you wanted to buy Pokemon or Pokemon Eggs, then sorry, you had to go to the black market. Black market acquisition points only bought; they did not sell.

As for worrying about running into someone else, that basically would not happen. After all, the black market had people watching each passage.

Although Tetsuya did not know exactly how they avoided it, the black market had its own set of rules. Otherwise, it would not have survived for so long.

After returning to the Pokemon Center, he handed Combusken's and Pidgeot's Poke Balls to Miss Joy for recovery.

Tetsuya himself headed to the Pokemon restaurant to enjoy breakfast. After training early in the morning, his stomach was hungry.

Not long after he had sat down, before he had eaten more than a few bites—

Just like last night, a black hand landed on Tetsuya's shoulder.

Tetsuya fell silent for a moment, then turned his head. Sure enough, it was Brock, holding a sandwich and milk.

"Good morning, Tetsuya!" Brock greeted Tetsuya, then naturally sat down across from him.

Tetsuya looked at Brock speechlessly. You're the heir to a Gym, yet you come to the Pokemon Center every day for breakfast, acting like you live here. Are you kidding me?

Brock acted as if he had not seen Tetsuya's gaze at all and very naturally started eating his sandwich.

The dining table fell into silence for a while.

Neither side knew how to start.

"I came to find you today for something serious." In the end, it was Brock who broke the awkward situation first.

Tetsuya gestured for Brock to continue.

"I told you yesterday. I'm the future heir of Pewter Gym, and yesterday was also my first time handling the review for a Gym Battle."

Brock paused there and looked at Tetsuya.

"After I finished talking with you last night, I felt you were Very Impressive, so I went back and told my father about you, then assessed you and filed a report."

Tetsuya laughed. "Oh? Then what exactly did the report say about me?"

Seeing that Tetsuya was not angry, Brock relaxed slightly.

In this world, it was very common for certain families to invest in talented Commoner Trainers, and many Commoner Trainers were more than willing to accept it.

After all, without sponsorship, no matter how gifted they were as trainers—or in other ways—it would still be very difficult for them to become strong. At most, they would simply have to offer help later and repay favors and resources.

Once they became powerful, none of that would be a major problem. It was just a normal exchange of benefits.

There would also be no situation where the support and effort put in were out of proportion.

However, there were still many people in this world who believed they could succeed on their own, that owing favors in the future would be bad for them, or that they would lose their freedom, so they were unwilling to accept investment.

Even though Brock felt Tetsuya was not that kind of person, because Tetsuya had a clear understanding of his own abilities and future, something that had been obvious from their conversation yesterday.

The report also stated it very clearly: the other party had accepted the Joy Family's initial investment. But there was still a chance that Tetsuya might not want to accept investment from Pewter Gym.

So Brock had been somewhat anxious at first. After all, investing in Tetsuya had been an idea he had raised first, and it was also the first investment in a person that his father had entrusted to him.

Tetsuya's current reaction let him breathe a sigh of relief. At the very least, Tetsuya did not reject him coming to discuss this matter as Pewter Gym's representative.

Brock organized his thoughts, combined them with the report and assessment the Gym staff had given him, and continued speaking.

P.S. My original setting was still that the Black Market operated by having Psychic Type Pokémon carry out large-scale random transfers, which made it feel more impressive.

Later, after thinking about it, in order to preserve the rarity of Psychic Type Pokémon and Teleport, I decided to forget it.