Mr. Stone, whose full name was Steven Stone's father, was also known as Joseph Stone.
Years ago, Devon Corporation was merely a small company extracting iron ore and refining steel. But now, it had grown to rival Silph Co., and in recent years, it even developed a machine that generated energy using magma as fuel.
All of this was due to Joseph Stone's foresight and iron-fisted leadership. Perhaps his temperament had mellowed with age, but if one truly underestimated him, they'd likely be sold out by him and still count the money for him.
Negotiating with a cunning old fox was never an easy task. Ace could only feign the innocence of a newcomer to society, putting on a naive and guileless facade to lull Joseph Stone into a false sense of security.
However, over a prolonged period, there was no substantial progress. The suited man who had previously brought the money now led Ace and Joseph Stone, introducing the company's situation to Ace, while Joseph Stone walked abreast with Ace, staying very close. This made it impossible for Ace to send out Gengar.
"Excuse me, I need to interrupt." Ace suddenly clutched his stomach and said to Joseph Stone, "Um, where's the restroom? I need to use it."
"The restroom? I'll take you; I also want to use it." Joseph Stone smiled, not leaving Ace's side.
Ace felt a little helpless, silently cursing the old fox in his heart.
Following Joseph Stone to the restroom, Ace immediately rushed into a stall and closed the door. The rustling sound of trousers being taken off echoed. Joseph Stone, standing outside, frowned slightly but still walked to a urinal to relieve himself.
Sitting on the toilet, Ace rested his chin on his hand, looking around the almost completely sealed space. Besides the exhaust fan on the ceiling, there was no way out.
"I need to find a way to trick Joseph Stone, otherwise, there won't be any opportunities later," Ace thought to himself. He then took out Gengar's Poké Ball and began to dismantle it. A Poké Ball opening would produce a certain sound, so opening it normally would definitely be discovered. Ace, however, was trying to remove the switch from the Poké Ball to reduce unnecessary noise and allow Gengar to emerge.
As time passed, Ace successfully removed the Poké Ball's switch. Then, Gengar slowly pushed open the Poké Ball, silently floating beside Ace. Ace gestured to Gengar, and Gengar nodded knowingly, then gradually vanished, becoming invisible beside him.
As for the now damaged Poké Ball, Ace put it into his spatial backpack. Unless the other party searched his bag, there would be no evidence!
"Knock, knock, knock."
Ace knocked on the stall door, then called out, "Mr. Stone, do you have any paper? I suddenly realized I ran out."
"I do, wait a moment." With that, Joseph Stone walked towards Ace's stall, and Ace also unlocked the stall door.
The door opened, and Joseph Stone handed the toilet paper to Ace. At that very moment, Gengar, who had been crawling on the floor, seized the opportunity when the door opened and darted out.
After finishing in the restroom, Ace flushed the toilet and then went to wash his hands. As he washed his hands, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Joseph Stone entered a toilet stall, and in a short while, emerged.
"Ace, where do you usually keep your Poké Balls? I haven't even seen what your Pokémon look like yet." Joseph Stone also came over to wash his hands, casually remarking.
"My windbreaker has special clips inside that hold the Poké Balls." Ace wiped his hands dry, then opened his windbreaker to show Joseph Stone the inside, and continued, "As for my Pokémon, they're just ordinary ones, nothing rare. I hope to catch some rare Pokémon during this trip to Hoenn."
Ace's somewhat emotional words made Joseph Stone nod. He then led Ace out and continued to stroll around the Devon Corporation building with him.
Meanwhile, Gengar, hidden in the shadows, rapidly searched throughout the Devon Corporation. It searched for a long time and finally confirmed that a room on the eighth floor was Joseph Stone's office.
Squeezing tightly through the door crack into the office, Gengar found that Joseph Stone's office was very large. Besides the dedicated large desk and executive chair, a wall-length display cabinet behind him held various strange stones.
Gengar looked at the locked display cabinet but did not enter it. Instead, it looked at the desk. After quickly searching it, it found nothing. Gengar scratched its head. Had it guessed wrong?
Gengar sat on the chair, looking at the computer on the desk and the photo stand next to the computer. The photo showed a picture of Joseph Stone and Steven Stone together, and beside them were Castform and Metagross.
A flash of inspiration struck Gengar, and it quickly had an idea. It jumped off the chair and soon slipped through a tiny gap in the display cabinet, entering it. Then, looking at the precious stones displayed inside the cabinet, Gengar picked up one. It opened its mouth, swallowed the stone, and then transformed into a shadow, hiding itself on another stone.
Less than five minutes later, Joseph Stone entered his office and then, looking at the now missing stone, frowned deeply.
Joseph Stone looked around but found nothing. Helplessly, he left his office and called two security guards to stand guard outside his office door.
Ten minutes after Joseph Stone left, Gengar finally emerged from the shadows. This was the method Gengar could think of to draw Joseph Stone's attention. However, a cunning old fox like him would never do something as idiotic as checking his hidden items directly. Instead, he would use the safest method: having guards at the door to ensure no one could enter or exit through the main entrance.
But for every problem, there's a solution.
While Joseph Stone wouldn't do such a foolish thing, people have subconscious reactions. Even if he wouldn't explicitly check, if there was a hidden spot, he would instinctively glance at it upon realizing something was stolen.
So Gengar had been observing. The moment Joseph Stone confirmed he had lost a stone, his eyes instinctively darted to another spot. This subconscious action told Gengar that there must be a secret passage in this office!
Following Joseph's gaze, Gengar quickly moved to the wall. Reaching out and touching the wall, Gengar soon discovered that there was another space on the other side of the wall! No elaborate mechanism was needed; Gengar merged into the shadows, then circled the wall, quickly finding a tiny crack.
But this was enough for Gengar! Extending itself from the shadows, it easily passed through that crack and entered the room on the other side of the wall.
When it found itself in that almost completely enclosed space, the first thing Gengar saw was the massive pile of Keystones!