The black market really was a black market; everyone wore black robes, covering their bodies.
On both sides of the road were stalls selling all kinds of things.
Nobunaga only found a shop specializing in selling intelligence after walking to the end of the street. On the shop's signboard was printed a huge Murkrow.
After walking into the shop, Nobunaga lowered his voice and said to the black-clothed person behind the counter: "I want to buy recent intelligence on Team Rocket in Cerulean City."
That person took the intelligence out of the cabinet, then extended his right hand to Nobunaga and said: "Fifteen hundred thousand."
Nobunaga said in shock: "Intelligence on a Team Rocket branch is already this expensive now?"
The black-clothed person replied to Nobunaga: "The intelligence here is definitely the most complete in this black market, so it's reasonable for it to be a bit more expensive."
After saying that, he stared straight at Nobunaga.
Nobunaga gritted his teeth, but still bought this intelligence, and then started browsing the black market.
This was also Nobunaga's first time truly coming to the black market; before, he had only heard Captain Yingcai talk about the various situations of the black market.
As he walked, he saw a stall displaying a lot of venom from Poison-type Pokémon. Nobunaga walked up to ask the price, and the boss set up a wooden sign.
Arbok, Nidoking, stinky Grimer, Weezing, Seviper, Crobat, Drapion, Toxicroak, Beedrill, Vileplume, Victreebel, Venusaur, Tentacruel, Ariados, Scolipede's poison powder and venom are all 20,000 per liter, no bargaining.
After seeing the sign, Nobunaga directly replied: "Except for Arbok's, give me one portion of every other kind." Then he took out 280,000 in cash.
After receiving the money, the boss ran it through a bill counter, then packed up the poison powder and venom Nobunaga wanted and handed it to Nobunaga.
Nobunaga carefully put these things that could poison people to death into the space backpack.
In his heart he thought: "With these highly toxic things, I can prepare strong poison for my Pokémon."
He had bought the intelligence, and had also run into toxins he couldn't usually buy, so Nobunaga was also in a very good mood.
He then wandered around other stalls again, bought some Berries, and also bought some other uncommon things.
Suddenly he saw a stall with Pokémon Eggs spread all over the ground, with a layer of people outside pointing and talking.
After Nobunaga squeezed in, he saw that the sign next to it read:
Gastly Pokémon Egg 800,000
Misdreavus Pokémon Egg 850,000
Duskull Pokémon Egg 900,000
Litwick Pokémon Egg 900,000
Shuppet Pokémon Egg 800,000
After Nobunaga saw the Gastly Pokémon Egg, his eyes lit up.
When he was at the Pewter City base, he had wanted a Gastly, but as soon as Gastly appeared in the logistics department, it would be bought up by the elites.
This time, encountering someone selling Gastly eggs on the black market, Nobunaga decided he had to get it.
He went up and handed the seller 800,000, then said: "I want a Gastly Pokémon Egg, but I want to pick it myself."
After the seller got the money, he replied: "You can only look and touch; you can't pat the Pokémon Egg."
After Nobunaga heard that, he walked to several Gastly Pokémon Eggs, and in his mind recalled knowledge about Poison-type Pokémon and applications.
The more flashy the patterns on a Gastly Pokémon Egg were, the higher the Pokémon's potential would be, and the color of the patterns had to present a deep purple.
After finding a Pokémon Egg whose pattern color was the deepest and was also somewhat flashy, he picked it up.
He felt the whole egg body, confirmed there was no damage, and after the Pokémon Egg was intact, he put it into the incubator. After indicating to the boss that it was confirmed, he hurriedly left.
After leaving the black market, Nobunaga walked to a piece of wasteland on the outskirts of Cerulean City again, turned around, and shouted toward the small path:
"I've seen you all, come out!"
Three seconds, five seconds, one minute.
Not a single person; above Nobunaga's head seemed to appear a row of crows, saying to him, "Idiot, idiot..."
"Clearly in novels it's written that after the protagonist goes to the black market to buy things, he will definitely be robbed and killed and then counter-kill; how come when it gets to me, there isn't a single person." After confirming again that no one was following him, Nobunaga took off the black robe and put it into the backpack, and swaggered home from the main road.
As soon as he entered, he saw Menyan and Stone drinking beer in the living room.
After seeing Nobunaga come back, Menyan said to him: "Why are you back so late? It's already 1 a.m."
After Nobunaga put the Pokémon Egg on the table, he explained to the two: "The black market only opens at nine. I looked around and bought some things, and I also ran into someone selling Pokémon Eggs, and bought a Gastly Pokémon Egg."
After hearing what Nobunaga said, Stone asked Nobunaga: "Counting this Pokémon Egg, you have six Pokémon. Can you take care of them?"
Nobunaga said to the two: "Six is just right; my team is formed."
After that, he gave the space backpack he bought in the afternoon to the two, then took out the intelligence and sat on the sofa, flipping through this intelligence worth 150,000.
Ever since the incident half a year ago where Team Rocket captured Pewter City, the League began large-scale sweeps, and many Team Rocket bases were cleaned out.
Because the resignation of Cerulean City's Cascade Gym Trainer Fulang caused there to be no top-tier Trainer here.
So the League dispatched directly affiliated elites, completely destroying the Team Rocket branch in Cerulean City, and it was the most thorough sweep among all Team Rocket branches.
Three months ago, after the League's directly affiliated elites withdrew, Athena, one of Team Rocket's four generals, led Team Rocket Pokémon to rebuild the Team Rocket branch in Cerulean City.
Menyan added: "Although the branch was rebuilt, I don't know why, but the Team Rocket members here haven't gone out to carry out missions for three months already."
Stone also said: "And I heard that the Cerulean City branch now isn't recruiting newcomers anymore."
After the three analyzed it, they still decided to go to that grocery store to make contact one week later.
The few chatted for a while more, then each returned to their rooms to rest.
After returning to his room, Nobunaga began preparing the raw materials for strong poison.
Each person's Pokémon's strong poison is different, because the venom each person feeds their Pokémon is different, and the toxicity is high or low.
Because the toxin ratios are different, ordinary antidotes can't neutralize the severe poison of strong poison.
After mixing his own strong poison, Nobunaga injected the toxin little by little into the poison sacs of the little Pokémon.
At first, the faces of several Pokémon all showed painful expressions; after a while, they slowly adapted.