Pokémon: Chronicles of Freedom (200 - 398)

Chapter 214: Buying Grimer

This is how Cain's fishing trip, originally meant for relaxation, ended with him being recruited to resist a group of Gyarados, ultimately earning 1.55 million, not counting the light-green-quality Gyarados.

That Gyarados is worth at least 500,000 Pokédollars, so Cain made over 2 million on this trip, going from almost being out of money to a more comfortable financial situation.

As expected, no matter what happens, strength is always the most important thing. Once you have strength, you can earn more money.

Now Cain has a total of 3.5 million hunter points. He only needs to earn 1.5 million more to be promoted to a three-star hunter, which will allow him to make money even faster.

Additionally, there's a detail: points in the Hunter Association are cumulative, meaning you only need to accumulate 5 million points in total to advance, rather than needing to save each point without spending. It's a pretty reasonable rule.

After assigning the missions, Cain decided not to take on any more missions for now. Two-star missions still mostly offer tasks with yellow-quality Pokémon, and green-quality ones are rare.

Moreover, Cain will be spending time on a cruise, which means he won't be able to capture many Pokémon. It's better to capture a green-quality Pokémon first and then match it to a mission.

Some might wonder, if you can capture Pokémon directly and then assign them to a mission, what's the point of ranking hunters by stars?

Firstly, ranking up unlocks more missions and allows you to assign more tasks. For example, both two-star and three-star missions have a task for capturing a Gyarados.

The three-star mission requires a dark-yellow-quality Gyarados and offers 400,000 Pokédollars, while the two-star mission requires the same dark-yellow-quality Gyarados but only offers 350,000 Pokédollars.

So, if you're a two-star hunter, you'll only be able to assign it to a two-star mission and receive less money for the same work.

Not only that, but the missions assigned to three-star hunters have a lower percentage of fees retained by the Hunter Association. Although these fees are extracted from the mission sponsor, this percentage is also reflected in the total price.

So, no matter how you look at it, the higher your hunter rank, the more money you can make, and the difference between stars is significant.

Another key thing is that the Hunter Association allows you to exchange points for Pokémon, but not all Pokémon are available for all ranks. For example, some Pokémon that are available to three-star hunters cannot be fully redeemed with points by two-star hunters.

This means that if a three-star hunter can redeem a light-green-quality Gyarados for 600,000 points, a two-star hunter might need 300,000 points plus 300,000 Pokédollars to get the same Pokémon.

Of course, if you have a lot of money, you don't have to worry about the points system. Even if you're a zero-star hunter, you can pay the full price. The Hunter Association is a business, after all, and it won't turn away a customer unless they're blacklisted. So, as long as you have money, rank isn't as important.

But for professional hunters, rank does matter. They can redeem a high-quality Pokémon entirely with points and then sell it to another for Pokédollars, earning much more than the points are worth.

This is the real method that high-ranking hunters use to make money. In his previous life, Cain reached five-star rank and also used this method to make a lot of money.

At the same time, Cain used many hunter points to upgrade all his Pokémon to better quality. Thanks to the quality advantage and the accumulation of money, he managed to become a quasi-elite level Trainer.

Cain went directly to the Pokémon point exchange room.

The staff greeted him with an indifferent expression as Cain asked if they had any Grimer available.

When the staff learned that Cain wanted to exchange for a Grimer, they looked at him strangely. It's no surprise, as very few trainers opt for a Grimer, so few that you almost never see them.

Nobody wants to be near a pile of smelly sludge every day, so Grimer's price is generally not very high, and it can even be difficult to find one available.

After all, keeping a Grimer contained isn't easy. At least a metal cage isn't enough.

However, Cain got lucky. After a computer check, the staff found that there were indeed two Grimer in the Hunter Association's warehouse in Vermilion City.

It's said that one is light-green quality, and the other is green quality—both are decent.

Grimer isn't like Gyarados; it's not a popular Pokémon. For it to be worthwhile, it has to be at least green quality, so those in the warehouse are light-green quality at minimum.

Surprised that they actually had two Grimer, Cain smiled. After all, this Pokémon really stinks!

At Cain's request, the staff reluctantly led him to the warehouse where the Grimer were kept.

No matter the Pokémon you're exchanging for, even if it has good quality, it's always important to check it first. Especially for someone like Cain, who has a system to cheat, he can immediately see which of the two Pokémon is superior.

Of course, if both Grimer are good, Cain wouldn't hesitate to buy both. After all, both are an investment that will double in value.

When they arrived at the location, the staff quickly left, saying that if Cain decided to buy one, he only needed to enter the ID number into the device on the side and swipe his card to redeem the points. The Poké Ball would be delivered by the device.

Cain, somewhat resigned, covered his nose. Although the Grimer were enclosed in two transparent glass boxes, these had small holes to allow air in and prevent the Grimer from suffocating. This also allowed the foul smell to escape.

Cain activated his system and scanned the data of the two Grimer.

As for quality, there was no difference from what the staff had said. One was green quality, and the other was light-green quality.

As for egg moves and learned moves, Cain didn't care much. After all, he didn't intend to keep these Pokémon as part of his team, only to improve their quality and then sell them.

"System, check if either of these two Grimer has improved in quality and if there are chances for further improvement."

In situations like this, it's better to let the system collect the data and compare it.

"Beep. Scan results displayed."

The data of the two Grimer were compared with the data of other Grimer that Cain had.

(End of chapter)