Next, Reiji picked up the Ghost Gems and checked them one by one. The purity of the stones on the table hovered mostly in the fifty–sixty range, with one hitting seventy. In total, there were ten Ghost Gems.
There was also a high-tier held item: a Spell Tag that boosted Ghost-type moves by twenty percent.
Spell Tag: A held item that boosts the power of Ghost-type moves (boost +19%) (Item Level 41.23%).
It was just barely into the "veteran" tier at level forty-one. To be honest, he didn't think much of it.
Gastly was still in the experimental phase, but that didn't mean this thing wasn't worth buying. If it could trigger some kind of chain reaction during evolution, the data alone would be valuable.
Right, and there were also the Toxic Orb and Black Sludge—one inflicted bad poison, the other restored HP on Poison-types.
Both of those suited Gastly perfectly. The guy loved to guzzle poison; its Poison-type talent clearly wasn't bad.
Then there was its psychic side. Whenever Gastly ate Pokéblocks, it always used telekinesis, which meant its psychic potential was worth developing too.
Ghost, Poison, Psychic—if he could fold all three power sources into this evolution research, this Gastly really might take off. Really fly.
Even more absurd than his fully optimized Waterfall setup for Poliwhirl.
In the anime from his previous life, Mega Evolution worked by having a Mega Stone and a Key Stone resonate, using that energy to trigger Mega Evolution.
And humans?
That was just humans plastering their faces onto the process.
Even without humans, Pokémon themselves could complete Mega Evolution. You could see it in the old murals from the Kalos region—those showed Pokémon choosing to Mega Evolve on their own.
They only dropped out of that form because they ran out of energy, reverting back to their normal forms.
Take Mewtwo, for instance—a perfect example of something that could Mega Evolve freely.
So that raised a question: what if the energy was sufficient?
Could a Pokémon complete Mega Evolution entirely on its own?
Take this Gastly in his hands. Ghost-type energy, Poison-type energy, Psychic-type energy… all piling up in one body…
"Holy crap. That's terrifying."
Reiji felt like he was really about to take off. If he could actually raise this Gastly the way he was imagining, it would become a Gastly that didn't need a Mega Stone at all—one that could Mega Evolve on its own.
Just because Gastly could freely evolve and devolve, and because three different power sources were stacking inside it, the accumulated energy might be enough to push it into Mega Evolution.
If potential really had a ceiling, then that ceiling was Mega Evolution.
Once Gastly's potential hit its limit and its level capped out, it should naturally be able to break free of the Mega Stone requirement and Mega Evolve on its own, turning into a Mega Gengar.
Earlier, he hadn't thought this far. He'd only considered Dynamax and "tier-one legendary" stuff, and completely overlooked the energy behind Mega Evolution.
It all still came back to conservation of energy. Energy neither appears nor disappears from nowhere; it only changes form or moves from one object to another, with total quantity unchanged.
All Gastly needed to do was convert the energy in its body into energy for Mega Evolution. If that solved the energy problem, then what about the Mega Stone? And the resonance between Mega Stone and Key Stone?
Those two weren't actually problems at all, because this Gastly could control its own evolution. That meant the energy and resonance issues were both solvable. Gastly's Mega Evolution was basically within reach.
If this plan worked, then with Mega Gengar plus Dynamax energy, we'd be looking at Mega Gengar plus Gigantamax Gengar—that would be a super Mega Gigantamax Gengar.
"Dammit, if I'd known, I wouldn't have wasted those seventeen levels just on raw evolution tests…"
Reiji sighed quietly. He hadn't known back then, and all that evolution energy was gone now. Once it's spent, it's gone.
From here on out, every evolution test was going to be precious. He needed to test how well Gastly absorbed different stone energies, to see whether it could actually carry out his concept of independent Mega Evolution.
"Heh, I'm really looking forward to this."
Reiji set the Ghost Gems back down, having already made up his mind to pour serious money into this Gastly. He told the greasy manager, "For stones like these, I also want Psychic Gems and Poison Gems—ten of each."
"And I want one Toxic Orb, one Black Sludge, and one Twisted Spoon. All three have to be at least as good as the Ghost-type gear. You understand…"
"Gulp. I understand, I understand." The fat manager nodded blankly. He wasn't spacing out; he was mentally adding the bill. All told, it'd be no less than thirty million.
If he knew how to say "holy crap," he'd probably be shouting it a hundred times. This really was a multimillion deal. He was going to make bank.
"Please wait just a moment, sir. I'll fetch the stock right away." The fat manager had just stood up when Reiji called him back.
"Psychic-type Pokéblocks—bring me a thousand boxes."
Reiji stopped him at the door to add one more order.
Pokéblocks alone couldn't nudge the numbers beyond the first decimal place, but enough quantity would turn into quality. If one box wasn't enough, he'd use a hundred. If a hundred wasn't enough, he'd use a thousand.
As long as he kept piling in energy, he refused to believe he couldn't force out a Mega Gengar.
As for the Poison Barb?
Please. Once he got to Mega Gengar, what was he going to need a Poison Barb for? Would he?
Honestly, a twenty-percent boost didn't impress him much. By that point, Gengar's own toxins might be nastier than the item.
He really hadn't thought about Mega Evolution before this. Realizing it now, and realizing that the key was all about energy, meant he had to give it a serious try. Otherwise it would feel like having a cat clawing at his heart.
Right now he had money and time, plus a Gastly that could evolve and devolve at will. He had his status screen. And he was a transmigrator.
He didn't even know how to describe that combo. Plenty of people in this world had money. But if you wanted a Gastly that could freely evolve and devolve, all you could do was pray to luck.
As for the status screen, only transmigrators had that—along with a transmigrator's weird ideas.
If he wasn't a transmigrator, he wouldn't know about Mega Evolution or Dynamax, and he'd never come up with this plan.
"Hahaha, this is…"
Reiji couldn't help grinning as he thought it through. Fortunately there was no one else in the private room, or they would have seen his smile stretch all the way up to his ears. It really was too good.
He was honestly happy. Couldn't hold it in. When the greasy manager came back, he'd have to hide it again, which was a shame.
Even if he stayed happy on the inside, he couldn't share that feeling with anyone. That was the regret: being forced to get rich in silence. But damn, it felt good. Hahahaha…
If he didn't laugh it out in his head, he'd suffocate. Hahaha…
"Sir, everything is here. Please check the goods." The fat manager had no idea what kind of fit this mysterious man was having now, always bowing his head with his shoulders trembling. The manager understood by now: don't ask what you shouldn't ask, don't say what you shouldn't say. The more you talk, the more mistakes you make. Just do the work.
Facing a volatile client like this, obedience was the only correct answer.
Ouch. The lesson had cost him tens of thousands of little Pokédollar babies.
"All right, I'll check them."
Reiji stopped laughing, lifted his head, and his expression snapped back into cold seriousness. He glared at the manager, who immediately dropped his gaze and didn't dare look up.
That was exactly the effect Reiji wanted. He began inspecting the goods at his own leisurely pace. The quality was consistent: all the held items were veteran tier, level forty-plus.
None of the Psychic Gems or Poison Gems dropped below fifty in purity, and his spot-check on the thousand boxes of Psychic-type Pokéblocks showed they were all premium-grade. That was enough to put his mind at ease.
Next came the bill.
"The goods are fine. Total it up," Reiji said, putting down the Twisted Spoon. He figured a haul like this was going to wipe him out.
But for even a chance at his idea working, draining his savings was worth it—especially if the prize was a Mega Gengar.
Right now there was still no news out of the Kalos region. Even once they started fighting over Mega Stones, he'd need a certain level of strength just to get a piece of the pie—and that level was at least Elite Four.
He needed to hurry. Shelmet had already shown up in the world; Kalos couldn't be far behind. If he could raise a Mega Gengar before that, he'd be much more confident.
While he was lost in those thoughts, the fat manager finished the calculations and gently slid the bill onto the table, reminding him, "Sir, the total is ready. Please take a look…"
"Mm?"
Reiji gave a small grunt. The manager immediately stepped back. Only then did Reiji pick up the invoice and look through the itemized list.
Ghost Gems, ten, 800,000 per stone, total 8,000,000.
Dusk Stone, one, 5,000,000.
Spell Tag, one, 6,000,000.
Psychic Gems, ten, 800,000 per stone, total 8,000,000.
Twisted Spoon, one, 7,000,000.
Premium Psychic-type Pokéblocks, one thousand boxes, 7,000 per box, total 7,000,000.
Poison Gems, ten, 600,000 per stone, total 6,000,000.
Toxic Orb, one, 5,500,000.
Black Sludge, one, 5,500,000.
Total: 58,000,000 (fifty-eight million).
"They're all the same quality. Why is there still such a price gap?"
Reiji of course knew why. Psychic gear was rarer than Poison gear; there was no way it would be cheaper than something you could find everywhere.
"Sir, you must be joking. Ghost and Psychic are hardly common. Naturally they're much more expensive than Poison," the fat manager said with a fawning smile, answering Reiji's "doubt."
"And the difference between the Spell Tag and Twisted Spoon?"
"Those two are fundamentally different. Twisted Spoon comes from Alakazam; Spell Tags can be crafted. Naturally the Spoon is more expensive…"
"Uh… I meant compared to the Dusk Stone."
What Reiji had been trying to say was: why are they cheaper than the Dusk Stone? Evolution stones usually sat above held items in price.
"Sir, that four million is an apology. There's only this one," the fat manager said, cheeks wobbling as he grinned and alluding to the "ten minutes" from earlier, hoping to soothe Reiji's temper.
"This bill…"
Reiji didn't finish the sentence. He simply set the invoice back down, letting the manager fill in the blanks himself and adjust the numbers. Then he fell into his own thoughts again.
Back in Kinnow City's black market, he'd picked up a level fifty-one Mystic Water for six million. Here, every item was only in the low forties, and yet they were pricier than Mystic Water.
He could accept Ghost and Psychic gear being more expensive than Water, but Poison gear selling this well?
On top of that, Psychic Gems here were running 800,000 apiece, while the black market member price back in Kinnow had only been 700,000. The markup here was huge, and that was before factoring in the extra gold-card discount on top.
As for the premium Psychic-type Pokéblocks, there wasn't much to say. Same price as the Life Pokéblocks. With his twenty-percent discount, they came down to 5,600 per box, which was acceptable.
But 600,000 per Poison Gem felt steep. The black market member price for Water Gems was 500,000 each; Ground and Rock were just 400,000.
"How about this instead, sir? Will this look better to you?"
After Reiji set the bill down, the manager took it back, made some edits, then passed it to him again.
The revised invoice now read:
Ghost Gems, ten, 750,000 per stone, total 7,500,000.
Dusk Stone, one, 5,000,000.
Spell Tag, one, 5,500,000.
Psychic Gems, ten, 750,000 per stone, total 7,500,000.
Twisted Spoon, one, 7,000,000.
Premium Psychic-type Pokéblocks, one thousand boxes, 7,000 per box, total 7,000,000.
Poison Gems, ten, 550,000 per stone, total 5,500,000.
Toxic Orb, one, 5,000,000.
Black Sludge, one, 5,500,000.
Subtotal: 55,500,000 (fifty-five and a half million).
After 20% discount: 44,400,000 (forty-four point four million).
Final total: 44,000,000 (forty-four million).
After reading the new total, Reiji was basically satisfied.
On the first pass, the manager had quietly shaved off 2,500,000 for him—which Reiji hated as a number.
On the second pass, the 20% discount took off over ten million.
On the third pass, the guy rounded down the last four hundred grand.
Reiji set the invoice down. It felt about right. He got ready to pay. This time he really was going back to being poor. Forty-plus million Pokédollars was everything he had; once this bill was settled, he'd have a few million at best.
His prior balance was 31,573,000.
This morning he'd spent 11,000,000 on Life Pokéblocks, plus a 10,000 tip for the waitress, 2,000,000 for ten kilos of venom, 10,000 for the mini fridge, and 80,000 for villa rent.
Total: 13,100,000.
That left him with 18,473,000.
Add in the 27,000,000 sitting on his bank card: 45,473,000.
In other words, he was about to drain himself dry. Even thinking "I'll still have a few million left" was wishful thinking. For this Gastly, he was effectively dumping more than fifty million Pokédollars into a single basket.
To pull the twenty-seven million from his card, he had to eat a one-percent handling fee—another 270,000 gone.
So his real total was 45,203,000.
After paying, his balance was 1,203,000.
He had a little over a million left.
Ever since selling off the Pokémon hunter's starter capital, he hadn't been this broke.
His money pouch sagged again. It held just enough to keep him going for a while. Converted into the currency from his previous life, he had about sixty thousand left.
Back in Kinnow City's underground, the gold-card price wasn't just a special sticker; it also came with an extra ten-percent discount.
Here, even with a "gold card," all he got was twenty percent off. The first discount had come from haggling. The third, rounding off the last bit, was basically the manager doing him a tiny "favor."
He stowed the Dusk Stone, the ten Ghost Gems, ten Psychic Gems, ten Poison Gems, and the thousand boxes of Psychic Pokéblocks.
Then he packed away the Spell Tag, Toxic Orb, Black Sludge, Twisted Spoon, and the other one-off items, and stood up to leave.
As he did, he casually patted the dazed fat manager on the shoulder and walked out of the private room.
The moment Reiji's hand landed, the man shivered from head to toe. It was the height of summer, but he suddenly felt the temperature drop by several degrees.
Only after Reiji had stepped out the door did the manager come back to his senses. He scrambled up and ran after him, not even sparing a glance for the stacks of cash on the table.
By the time he rushed out, Reiji was already gone. His heart spiked, and he sprinted all the way to the department store entrance, craning his neck to scan the street. No sign of that mysterious figure anywhere.
Head drooping, the fat manager trudged back to the private room, where he found the salesgirls already running the money through the detector.
"Manager, this is a huge sale. You closed two massive orders in one day—you're definitely winning salesperson of the month. Congratulations, Manager…"
"Congratulations, Manager, congratulations…"
The black-stockinged salesgirls showered him in flattery, but the manager was too dazed to hear any of it. His mind was still stuck on that pat on the shoulder. Was that a warning?
Was it really just because of those ten minutes? But ten minutes wasn't that short…
He'd originally planned to pick a few of them, line up a dinner to apologize and keep the big client sweet. But the moment he saw all that money, he'd zoned out calculating his commission and hadn't even noticed when the man left.
Damn that big mouth of his. This had been a fifty-million client. And he'd thrown it all away over one stupid sentence.
The manager's strange mood after landing such a huge sale didn't escape the salesgirls' eyes either, and they started whispering among themselves.
"Manager doesn't look happy. I really don't get it. With a sale that big, why isn't he excited?"
"Who knows. But that mystery guy is seriously loaded—spent fifty million on Pokémon resources in a single day…"
"Heh. You three were the lucky ones picked to go in. Nothing really happen in there?"
"We wanted something to happen. His hands just got smacked away. Didn't let us touch him at all…"
"See what he looked like?"
"Skin really fair, face pretty handsome…"
"Think he'll come back again?"
"What, planning to throw yourself at him?"
"If you're not interested, don't fight me for him when he does…"
"In your dreams…"
If Reiji could have heard them gossiping, he'd probably be cursing them out.
Tch. Total rip-off joint. This place was a black shop through and through. They'd squeezed him dry—why would he ever come back?
He didn't have any money left. Not a drop. That last sixty thousand was his retirement fund…
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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