"You really want me to name my own price? Hehe~"
Mew narrowed its eyes, covering its mouth with its tiny pink hand, looking exactly like a shady little merchant.
"Go on, then. Worst case, I'll haggle you down afterward," Grey said, smirking.
Mew ate his food and drank his drinks every day—there was a good chance it had no real concept of money, so it probably wouldn't ask for something outrageous.
"I want… one hundred trillion!"
"?"
Grey froze.
One hundred trillion?
Even if you sold Silph Co. and Devon Corporation together, you still wouldn't get anywhere near that!
"Buddy, do you even understand what kind of number that is?" Grey's eyelid started twitching like crazy.
Mew really had the nerve to go big!
He didn't have that many zeroes on his entire body.
One hundred trillion… sure was a nice dream.
"See, see! I knew you'd get mad," Mew said, pouting. "Fine. One hundred million. For that… whatever 'Gym qualification battles' thing you've got going on, I'll help you fight it."
It planted its hands on its hips, then crooked a finger at him. "How about that? Not a bad deal, right?"
"Ten thousand," Grey said, holding up one finger. "I think that's a very reasonable price."
"No way! What can ten thousand do in Saffron City? You buy a few boxes of top-tier Pokéblocks and it's gone!"
The moment it heard Grey only offering ten thousand, Mew immediately decided it was done working.
Grey could do whatever he wanted.
"Fifty million! I already cut it in half!"
Mew used psychic power to form a huge, outstretched hand in midair, a giant "5" floating above it to show how serious it was.
"Fifty million? I don't even have that on me," Grey said. "How about I knock off a zero? Fifty thousand!"
Grey raised his own open hand, feeling like he'd already compromised a lot.
Sure, Mew halved its price—but Grey had multiplied his offer by five!
Forget the base number—just look at the sincerity. That fivefold jump was huge!
"You call that 'knocking off a zero'?!" Mew puffed up angrily. "Fine! I'll knock off one zero—five million!"
The psychic hand it formed shrank a size, as if to match its growing frustration.
Grey raised both hands now. "We meet in the middle—one hundred thousand!"
"Deal!" Mew nodded instantly.
Based on what it knew about Grey, that was already his limit.
Any more than that would be pushing it—better to take the win and stop.
"Ugh… there goes my two square meters of expansion," Grey muttered, feeling a tiny stab of pain. But when he thought of the prize money for winning the Gym qualification battles, his mood lifted again.
This was betting small to win big.
Not a loss—an absolute profit.
"Oh, and by the way~ that one hundred thousand is the price for fighting one Pokémon," Mew added with a sweet little grin. "Once I take down one, I'm not going back in. If you want me to fight again after that, you'll have to pay extra~ Hehehe~"
So Grey wanted to pay a hundred thousand and freeload an entire tournament's worth of battles?
Not happening.
"Alright, now pay up~" Mew curled its finger again, clearly telling Grey to hand the money over.
"You get paid after the job's done," Grey said, patting Mew on the shoulder. "Pay-first doesn't work with me."
Then he put on a serious, lecturing tone. "You're still young—stop thinking about money all day. You're basically part of the Fighting Dojo now, too. You should be thinking about how to make the dojo bigger and better."
"When did I ever become part of the dojo?" Mew asked, confused.
Grey started counting on his fingers. "Tell me—don't you eat at the dojo and live at the dojo?"
"…Yeah."
"And when we take you out to play, isn't it always the dojo staff who do it?"
"Yeah."
"And you've been here this long, eating and drinking every day, basically living like one of the staff. If that's not being part of it, what is?"
"Eh… that actually makes sense," Mew said, blinking.
Mew was ancient, but mentally it was basically a kid.
After Grey talked it in circles like that, Mew suddenly felt like—without even realizing it—it really had become part of the dojo.
"Alright. Go play over there," Grey said, shooing Mew aside. "I'm going to finish sorting the teams."
Then he looked at the last four Pokémon.
From strongest to weakest, they were: Heracross, Dragonair, Farfetch'd, and Beldum.
Only four—currently placed into the third team.
Other than Heracross, the other three all had huge potential, but honestly, their current combat strength wasn't great.
They could handle weak opponents just fine.
But against anyone serious, they'd struggle.
Of course, once they evolved, it would be a different story entirely.
By then they'd skyrocket, and they'd absolutely earn their place in the dojo.
Late bloomers—future's bright!
"Bzz… bzz." (Then… is there anything you need me to do? No matter what kind of training it is, I will do my best to complete it.)
There it was again—that unbelievably robotic vibe.
Grey had only spoken to Beldum fewer than five times, and it was already making him want to laugh.
"For you? Just eat, sleep, and rest," Grey said. "You'll probably evolve into Metang in a day or two. After that, I'll assign you some real work."
He took the opportunity to check Beldum's status panel, just to see what it looked like now.
[Pokémon: Beldum (Shiny)]
[Type: Steel / Psychic]
[Level: 20]
[Ability: Clear Body]
[Moves: Tackle, Iron Defense, Iron Head, Steel Beam, Take Down, Zen Headbutt.]
"—Hiss."
Grey nearly choked on the sharp breath he'd sucked in.
Steven really was loaded—he'd made Beldum learn that many moves!
It had basically learned everything Beldum could learn at that stage… except Tera Blast.
"Bzz… bzz." (Is something wrong, Trainer? Am I… strange somehow?)
Beldum saw Grey standing there in a daze and couldn't help asking.
"Quack." (It's fine. He does that a lot—just stares into space. No big deal.)
Farfetch'd waddled over and patted Beldum's solid body with its brown webbed foot.
"Bzz… bzz." (I see. Then… if there's no problem, I don't need to worry.)
"Yeah. Plan stays the same," Grey said. "For the next couple days, you just eat, drink, and sleep. We'll talk again after you evolve into Metang."
Even with all those moves, Beldum's raw strength still wasn't anything special yet.
So it had to evolve first.
For now, it could have something sweet.
Sweet first, hard later—no idea if "later" would be sweet or not, but "now" was definitely sweet.
Grey didn't think Beldum could reach Champion level in the short term, so he slowed down and took it step by step.
"Quack." (Boss, when do I get to evolve?)
Farfetch'd felt like it was strong enough already. It was definitely time to evolve.
Grey rested a hand on his chin. "Let me think… we haven't really run into many opponents around your level lately. We'll check again in a couple days."
He was being completely honest.
Farfetch'd nodded, then wandered around the dojo with its new buddy, Beldum.
Grey stood by the window, looking toward Silph Co. in the distance, and slowly let out a breath.
"Silph Co… you invited so many people. What are you really trying to do…?"
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