"What foreign organization? If they pose a threat to the Illumina League, I remember the bounty goes up to five hundred thousand."
"Where did you hear about this? Count me in on this good deal—at least I won't have to worry about money for a while."
"Didn't you pass the civil service exam? What are you worried about with such a secure job?"
"First of all, I haven't had the interview yet. Second, my little sister has her own Pokémon now."
"And what's that got to do with you?"
"Her Pokémon is a Snorlax. Do you think Snorlax eats like a normal Pokémon? I'm pretty sure my family is planning to cut me off early. From now on, I'll be on my own. It's not like I have insurance like you do."
According to Zhang Lin, as someone who has already graduated, his family is ready to let him fend for himself completely—after all, raising a Snorlax is really expensive.
This is also why many people don't raise Pokémon. Feeding them is easy; raising them well is a whole other story. Pokémon training takes a lot of energy, especially for Trainers' Pokemon. Combat-specialized Pokémon consume a significant amount of resources during training.
Snorlax is just a heavy eater. Larvitar types might need to eat an entire mountain before they can be properly trained.
Of course, there are some that are easy to care for. Pokémon like Oddish can practically be left to fend for themselves. It really depends on the specific case.
But for an average household, raising a Snorlax is definitely a huge expense.
"So where is your foreign organization?"
"I'm not really sure. I don't have any evidence..."
Rowan could pretty confidently guess that it was Jessie, James, and Meowth from Team Rocket, but he had no way to prove it to Officer Jenny.
Aside from building weird machines to try to capture Pikachu—or when they go after other Pokémon—Team Rocket's trio are oddly law-abiding citizens.
They work diligently to earn money—washing dishes in restaurants, assembling screws in factories, or even running small businesses. You can see them in all kinds of jobs, and their money-making efficiency is 100%.
If Giovanni ever reassigned them from fieldwork to internal duties, it probably wouldn't be long before they made Team Rocket rich enough to rival a nation.
But those three have become obsessed with chasing Pikachu. Who knows how many Pikachu they could've bought with the money they spent on making machines.
Of course, Pikagod is not an ordinary Pikachu. As a Pokémon that constantly jumps between legendary-level and beginner-level in strength, it is truly one of a kind Pokémon in the world. [TN: The word for pikachu used is here a pun on Pikachu's Chinese transliteration (pí kǎ qiū) and the word (shén), which means "god" or "deity." The term humorously elevates Pikachu to a "godly" status.]
"Then I can't say for sure. If there's no international warrant and they haven't done anything in Illumina, Officer Jenny probably won't bother with them."
"What a shame."
According to Brock, they had only just arrived in Illumina a few days ago. From that, it could be inferred that Jessie and the others had also just landed not long ago and likely hadn't had a chance to take action yet.
In a way, if he started monitoring Ash now, he might be able to find some evidence. But Team Rocket's target was only Pikachu. For an individual, having their beloved Pokémon stolen was a serious matter.
However, when placed on a regional scale, such incidents weren't considered major. The bounty probably wouldn't be very high.
After adding this to his list of profit-making projects, Rowan returned to his rented apartment with his packed lunch. In addition to his own meal, he had also brought a portion of sliced fruits for Nekomi.
Pokémon have a wide dietary range. Specially formulated Pokémon food was of course great, but in general, Pokémon could also eat human food.
After returning to his small room, Rowan started digging deeper about the world through the internet.
Although the location and terrain of his university hadn't changed, the world as a whole was drastically different. The total land and ocean area of the planet was much larger than that of the original Earth. [TN: He is not in school, it's university. I have fixed it in the previous chapters.]
This brought with it more resources. Combined with the Pokémon's absurd productivity, many social tensions were significantly alleviated.
As for the money-making methods he originally had in mind.…most of them were very clearly outlined in the criminal law.
In summary, regions did not allow companies to directly use Pokémon as a labor force. In essence, it was permitted to hire humans who owned Pokémon, but it was not legal for a company to directly treat a group of Pokémon as employees.
Pokémon were merely considered assistance rather than the main workforce, and there were also specific employee ratio requirements.
It seemed to be designed to ensure employment and maintain social stability. Otherwise, physical laborers would likely face mass unemployment due to the disparity in species.
This also led to job listings giving priority to individuals who possessed suitable Pokémon.
Alongside that came a whole range of Pokémon-related bills.
Technical positions experienced relatively little change. While some Pokémon possessed intelligence close to that of humans, the majority still had noticeable disparity compared to humans.
Only certain species had exceptionally high intelligence.
As for Pokémon Day Care and ranches, those were special cases with separate regulations.
"Looks like Gym Leaders and professional Trainers still get the best treatment—lots of subsidies from the League, and not a small amount in advertising revenue either."
Powerful Trainers undeniably held high status. However, when it came to Gym Leaders… the system mostly operated on inheritance. Starting a new League-recognized gym from scratch was incredibly complicated. Usually, it followed a family or master-apprentice inheritance model.
Once recognized by the previous Gym Leader and passing the League's assessment the following year, one could secure the position. Rowan knew he didn't have those kinds of connections, but that didn't mean he was entirely without options.
As long as Nekomi was as strong as he remembered, she could likely sweep through Kalos Region's Water-type Elite Four member, Siebold, without much trouble. She could even go toe-to-toe with regional Champions. Nekomi was no weaker than their main teams.
In theory, Rowan would only need a year to achieve a decent result in the League Conferences, and then he could use that achievement to gain even more.
He could even return to the university's Battle Department and land a professor position—it wasn't impossible. When students became outstanding, universities were very eager to build closer ties with them.
"Just Nekomi isn't enough. I need to build a full team."
"Meow?!"
Upon hearing the phrase full team, Nekomi, who had been grooming herself beside Rowan, suddenly perked up both ears, then moved directly in front of him and locked eyes with him.
Even if he couldn't understand Meow-speech, Rowan could clearly read what she meant just by looking into her eyes.
[Full team? Just me isn't enough anymore?]
Oh, I forgot! Meowscarada is a Pokémon with a deep attachment to their Trainer and a tendency to get jealous easily.
The closer the bond, the more likely these situations were to happen. When a Meowscarada noticed its Trainer giving affection to other Pokémon, its mood would inevitably sour.
"You can see it too—this isn't like when it was just the two of us on a 'journey.' A lot of the time, you're not enough to make up the numbers."
"Meow! Meow! (I can take on all seven of them myself!)"
"Ahem, most of the time, don't attack Trainers. This is a law-abiding society. Also, it would be too exhausting if only you were to do all the fighting—you need helpers too."
Nekomi didn't seem too pleased with this answer, puffing up her cheeks and sulking to the side—but the mood didn't last long. She quickly composed herself.
"Meow! (You're not allowed to get another masked cat! No Sprigatito or Floragato either!)"
"Don't worry. No matter what happens, you'll always be my most special Pokémon—the one and only."
"Meow~"
In a sense, this counted as drawing a rough outline of the future. But just then, Rowan noticed that the once gray software had finally finished loading.