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About ten minutes later, Sato left the auction zone. At the moment, he was carrying the Dratini egg in a backpack with an incubation function, and he also had a bearer card loaded with 200 million PokeDollars.
According to the bald elder, the average auction price of a Dragon-type pseudo-legendary Pokémon egg was around 5 billion.
The Zweilous that Sato had sold could probably fetch up to 6 billion—though that was the ideal amount Team Rocket might get after all the related expenses.
In the end, after a string of complicated and rather stringent calculations, the bald elder concluded that Sato could receive an extra 200 million PokeDollars in auction proceeds.
Sato wasn't too bothered by the elder's efforts to squeeze down the final payout. He didn't take it personally. After all, if he had followed the usual process, it would have taken more than a week just to auction off the Zweilous.
And during that time, countless complications could arise.
Now, thanks to the bald elder's connections, he was able to offload this "hot potato" in such a short time—while also greatly reducing the danger of the deal. To Sato, it was well worth it. Consider it money spent for peace of mind.
After exiting the auction zone, Sato headed straight for the Free Trade Area and began searching for useful TM discs.
During his adventure on the mysterious island, his team had gained several new Pokémon: Kecleon, shiny Gyarados, Heracross, Natu, and Flygon. Plus, he had unhatched Pokémon eggs—Duskull, Misdreavus, and Dratini.
As a result, his demand for TMs had surged. Many of his Pokémon still weren't well-equipped with moves.
Now that he was in the Saffron City underground black market—a place known for its abundance of TMs—and had just acquired a large sum of funds, he intended to stock up properly.
In his plan, two of the most urgently needed TMs were Protect and Hidden Power.
Except for Flygon, none of his newly added Pokémon had learned Protect yet.
These two moves were extremely versatile—nearly all Pokémon could learn them—and they were highly practical. Protect especially was a life-saving technique in battle.
Meanwhile, Hidden Power could potentially compensate for any missing type coverage and expand a Pokémon's offensive capabilities.
Neither move was particularly rare or too expensive, so Sato spent a little extra and quickly bought seven Protect TMs and eight Hidden Power TMs from various vendors, spending a total of 2 million PokeDollars.
After securing those, Sato turned his attention to more valuable TMs: Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam.
Among his new Pokémon, Kecleon, shiny Gyarados, and the unhatched Dratini could all learn those via TM.
Kecleon needed no justification. As his top-tier support and stealth guardian, its combat capability had to be fully optimized whenever possible.
These three powerful elemental moves—Fire, Electric, and Ice—would greatly expand Kecleon's offensive potential. Combined with its Protean Ability and its use of the buff move Nasty Plot, it could potentially serve as a special attacker in the future.
Shiny Gyarados, now already one of Sato's main Pokémon, hadn't received much TM training yet due to the limited conditions back on the island. It was still short on reliable moves.
Of course, thanks to numerous battles, shiny Gyarados was already proficient with certain core techniques—Dragon Dance and Aqua Tail, especially in multi-target engagements.
But that couldn't mask its limited offensive coverage.
If it could learn Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam, then even with its mediocre Special Attack stat, it would still stand a chance in battles against Water, Flying, Steel, and Grass-type opponents.
As for Dratini, there was no question. Though it hadn't hatched yet, preparations had to start early—raising it from the start would make future use seamless.
Currently, Sato had one Thunderbolt TM in his possession—a spoil of war obtained from another contestant on the mysterious island. Taking into account that his ace Swampert hadn't learned Ice Beam yet, he calculated his TM shortfall:
3x Flamethrower
2x Thunderbolt
4x Ice Beam
A serious deficit.
Unlike Protect and Hidden Power, these powerful elemental TMs were extremely rare. Even here in the largest black market of the Kanto region, finding them was still a matter of luck.
Sato searched the entire Free Trade Area and managed to find only: 2x Flamethrower, 1x Thunderbolt, 2x Ice Beam
And even these cost him a small fortune—each TM averaged 3 million PokeDollars, totaling 15 million PokeDollars.
Lastly, to further strengthen shiny Gyarados, Sato also bought Iron Tail and Iron Head—two Steel-type TMs.
He also picked up a Rock Slide TM suitable for Heracross and Steel Wing TMs ideal for both Natu and Flygon, costing him another 10 million PokeDollars.
All in all, he had spent 27 million PokeDollars on TMs, nearly halving his available funds. Now, he had around 193 million PokeDollars remaining.
After completing his TM spree, Sato still wasn't satisfied. He headed toward the specialty Pokémon item zone, hoping to score a rare ingredient used to craft exclusive food for the Pikachu evolutionary line: the leaves of the Electrowood Tree. (Electrowood Leaves)
Unfortunately, those leaves were simply too rare.
Even the Ryurei Clan—a super-family from Hoenn—had no stock in their local store. Despite holding a silver badge from Wallace himself, Sato couldn't acquire any Electrowood leaves.
At around 10 PM, Sato left the Saffron underground black market and checked into a high-end hotel downtown.
That night, he distributed the TMs to his Pokémon. One by one, Kecleon and the rest of the new team members learned Protect and Hidden Power.
Due to the shortage of Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam TMs, only shiny Gyarados was able to learn all three.
Kecleon learned Flamethrower and Thunderbolt, while the remaining Ice Beam TM was used on Sato's ace—Swampert.