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After completing his trade, Sato didn't leave the internal trading market right away. Instead, he continued wandering around, hoping to see if he could pick up anything worthwhile.
Right now, in order to obtain intelligence and a detailed map of the mysterious island, most of the contestants had resorted to selling off their personal collections, often at heavily discounted prices due to urgency.
Sato knew this was an opportunity not to be missed. He had previously spent 300 million PokeDollars on a map, but now that he had a much better one, he naturally wanted to exchange the old, now-useless map for something else of value.
That map still held some worth at the moment, but in a few days, its value would plummet. And after the second phase of the competition ended, it would practically be no better than a scrap of paper.
To be honest, every contestant who had made it this far had encountered their own share of adventures. Many had rare and valuable items, including several high-grade Pokemon food ingredients that Sato had been desperately looking for.
Take, for example, two key ingredients in the custom food recipe for Nidorino/Nidoking: Black-Spotted Venomvine and Purple Toxsoil.
Sato had already obtained Black-Spotted Venomvine, a high-grade toxic ingredient, from the Rocket Team's underground base in Pewter City. And now, he had unexpectedly come across the second ingredient: Purple Toxsoil.
Like the vine, Purple Toxsoil was highly toxic and rich in concentrated Poison-type energy. But unlike the vine, it also contained Ground-type energy, making it even more valuable.
Purple Toxsoil was far rarer and harder to produce. While the vine could sometimes be found in Nido family grave sites, Purple Toxsoil was almost untraceable.
It was said that this rare material could only be found in places where Poison- and Ground-type energies converged.
On the open market, Purple Toxsoil was sold by the gram—each gram costing at least 200,000 PokeDollars. And even then, it was often sold out.
Now, this priceless material was sitting on a near-abandoned stall, and judging by its appearance, Sato estimated the lump to weigh at least 500 grams.
A 500-gram lump of Purple Toxsoil was more than enough for Sato to make multiple servings of Nidorino/Nidoking's custom food—after all, the recipe only called for 0.5 grams per serving.
At market value, that chunk would cost at least 100 million PokeDollars, and realistically, he'd need to offer 50% more to secure it. But since no one was interested, the seller had set the price incredibly low. Sato was able to buy it for just 50 million PokeDollars—half the usual rate.
With that, Sato only needed to purchase a few moderately priced supplementary materials to start producing Nidoking's custom food.
Aside from the Purple Toxsoil, Sato also discovered another exciting high-grade ingredient—Electrowood Leaves, a core material used to craft food for the Pikachu evolutionary line.
Electrowood was a rare tree that formed when a withered trunk was struck by lightning. Due to its unique nature, it no longer absorbed nutrients through sunlight or water, but instead thrived on ambient Electric-type energy.
These mysterious trees only grew in storm-prone danger zones and were typically guarded as precious resources by Electric-type Pokemon.
Harvesting Electrowood Leaves wasn't just difficult—it was life-threatening. One had to avoid being struck by lightning and also escape the wrath of those powerful Electric-types who considered the tree their lifeblood.
Surprisingly, the contestant selling this extremely rare ingredient was none other than a direct descendant of one of the major Rocket Team faction leaders.
That person was Vanna, the wild, tanned-skinned beauty whom Sato had met once before.
Clearly, Vanna—who grew up among wild Pokemon—thought very differently from people raised in human society. She wasn't someone you could communicate with easily.
Her method of selling items was also unusual. She would only trade with people she liked. If she didn't take a liking to someone, she would ignore them—no matter how much money they offered.
"Isn't that chick the adopted daughter of Poseidon, one of the major faction leaders? Why does she look like she's struggling so much?"
Sato watched as Vanna laid out one expensive Pokemon item after another on her stall and couldn't help but feel confused.
According to his intel, Vanna was listed as the adopted daughter of Poseidon, one of the Rocket Team's three major faction leaders. It was hard to imagine someone like her being strapped for cash.
After all, not long ago, Tomoki, a second-generation Rocket scion, had casually spent 4 billion PokeDollars to buy three maps detailing inner regions of the mysterious island—without even blinking.
But it didn't matter. Whatever the reason for her financial troubles, it gave Sato the chance to acquire those Electrowood Leaves.
Of course, there was one condition—he had to be someone Vanna took a liking to. Otherwise, it was all just wishful thinking.
Every item at Vanna's stall was rare and precious. Besides the Electrowood Leaves, Sato also spotted a high-grade Leaf Stone and a Reverse Dragon Scale.
Using his system's appraisal function, Sato confirmed that the Reverse Scale came from an Elite-Four level Baxcalibur. The item's effects were so mouthwatering, Sato practically drooled.
...
Reverse Dragon Scale
Item Type: Pokemon Equipment
Effect: Increases growth speed of Dragon-type Pokemon and enhances the power of their Dragon-type moves.
Description: This reverse scale, shed by an Elite-Four level Baxcalibur, is infused with the purest Dragon-type energy. For any Dragon-type Pokemon, it's an invaluable treasure.
...
For any trainer raising Dragon-types—especially those raising pseudo-legendary Dragons—the hardest part was always accelerating their growth. And it couldn't be rushed unnaturally.
Raising a Dragon-type Pokemon required an enormous amount of resources. If one could speed up their growth naturally, it would save a great deal of time and effort.
More importantly, it meant the trainer could develop a fully trained Dragon-type much faster, increasing their strength and gaining access to more resources in turn.
So the Reverse Dragon Scale at Vanna's stall truly was a priceless item.
"Hey there, gorgeous! How much for the leaves on your stall?"
After calming himself and straightening his posture, Sato put on a friendly smile and approached the wild, dark-skinned beauty.
But the next second, his smile froze.
Vanna glanced at him, sniffed the air a few times, then waved her hand dismissively, her face full of disgust.
"Scram, ugly freak."
Her words nearly made Sato combust with rage.