Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

It was 9:47 PM. Reiji had spent almost two hours wandering through the department store.

Back out on the street, he once again saw crowds of Trainers and Pokémon, people chatting about battles, about Pokémon...

Boasting about who won again, who went on a win streak — all of them wishing they were the ones battling on those big stages.

That was the reality for most ordinary Trainers: everything felt within reach… except it never was. The ones on the battlefield were always someone else. The winners were always someone else.

Amateur battles were still doable. But if it came to professional battles? Forget it — they’d be crushed.

That was pretty much the fate of ordinary Trainers and ordinary Pokémon — background extras, or opponents to be beaten by the main character.

Around 90% of rookie Trainers couldn’t get their hands on a League-issued starter. Most had to buy their first Pokémon from breeding houses like the ones Reiji just visited. Only a rare few caught their own in the wild.

While breeding house Pokémon weren’t on par with the lab-issued starters, the baby Pokémon from large-scale breeders were still decent in quality and reputation — definitely more reliable than wild ones, whose potential varied wildly.

From what Reiji had just seen, the signature offerings from those seven breeders were all top-tier.

If money wasn’t an issue, you could buy them all and easily form an Elite Four-tier team — but just purchasing the Pokémon alone would cost upwards of 100 million.

He didn’t doubt that there were rich enough people to do that. And those with ambition would naturally aim for true starters; these ”signature” baby Pokémon were only a second choice.

Breeding houses were an incredibly lucrative business. The price of a baby Pokémon factored in species, inherited moves, Ability, innate talent, potential, and more.

Even among the same species, prices could vary wildly depending on natural gifts. The better the baby Pokémon, the higher the price — no question.

Abilities had been discovered, and certain rare ones definitely influenced price. But so far, only dominant Abilities had been identified. Hidden Abilities were still unknown.

So how to consistently produce high-quality baby Pokémon? That had become the core secret of every breeder — no different from trade secrets in major corporations in Reiji’s past life.

Speaking of secrets, Reiji had to mention the breeders’ daycare services.

Some breeders, in order to produce stronger baby Pokémon, would breed excellent Pokémon left in their care by Trainers with other top Pokémon from their own facilities. The goal: better offspring.

But for the Pokémon forcibly used for breeding, it was a draining, exhausting experience — both mentally and physically.

In some cases, the Pokémon lost all interest in battling. In extreme cases, overexertion could even stunt their long-term potential.

Most Trainers despised this practice. The story had long spread in Trainer circles. As a result, daycare services for breeding Pokémon were now practically obsolete.

These days, the only Trainers still willing to leave their Pokémon at breeding houses were either friends of the owner, people being paid for it, or Trainers who didn’t care. Anyone who knew the truth wouldn’t dare do it.

Other than that, there were also no breeding houses specializing in Fire-, Ground-, Rock-, Steel-, Ice-, Poison-, or Dark-types.

Fire-types simply weren’t viable here. This city leaned heavily Water-type, and Fire-types were completely suppressed. Even Electric-types were a better choice.

Ground- and Rock-types faced similar problems — not only countered easily, but also difficult to maintain. They ate a lot.

As for Ice-, Poison-, and Dark-types...

Ice-types did exist — but only as secondary types. If you liked Ice-types, you could find baby Pokémon with Ice as a sub-type.

Poison- and Dark-types, however, were deemed unsuitable as starters for rookie Trainers. Poison-types could be deadly if mishandled, and licensed breeders would never sell something that dangerous.

Most Dark-type Pokémon harbored malice toward humans. Their appearance was often intimidating. Not beginner-friendly. Take Carvanha for example — classified as the ”Savage Pokémon,” and reportedly capable of biting off fingers.

Then there were Psychic-types, Ghost-types, Fairy-types, and Dragon-types…

None of these were available here simply because they were too rare. Whether Psychic, Ghost, or Dragon — scarcity was the issue.

Psychic- and Dragon-types were extremely rare, and Ghost-types? Some were even said to drain human life force.

They weren’t the kind of Pokémon a rookie could handle. Putting aside whether one could even afford them — Ghost-types could literally kill someone.

As for Fairy-types, Reiji hadn’t even heard of them yet. Probably still undiscovered.

Dragon-types, on the other hand, were still sitting at the top — widely recognized as the strongest among all types.

To most Trainers, Dragon-types were the very definition of power.

There was no doubt about it: among all Pokémon, Dragon-types had the highest starting potential. Their base stats exceeded most regular Pokémon.

From babies to adults, Dragon-types remained powerful throughout all stages of growth — bulldozing through opponents right from the start.

Just look at how many pseudo-legendaries from each region were Dragon-type — it spoke volumes.

If you could get your hands on a Dragon-type that inherited powerful Dragon-type moves, that meant its bloodline was strong and pure — true Dragon-typing.

Having such a Pokémon already meant the Trainer had one foot in the door of the Elite Four. That’s the terror of Dragon-types — their influence rivaled even that of League starters.

And if it was a Dragon-type pseudo-legendary? That was basically a pre-booked Elite Four membership. As long as you didn’t lose the Pokémon, you were set.

For normal people, it was a pipe dream. Getting a real Dragon-type was impossible. But some pseudo-Dragons with slight Dragon ancestry were still obtainable.

Like... the idiot.

Don’t be fooled by how dumb it looked — that idiot could learn Dragon-type moves.

It was like a blind box draw — like that book From Magikarp to Gyarados. Open box after box, and eventually you’d hit the jackpot.

If it didn’t work, it was just a probability issue. Didn’t mean the idiot itself was useless.

That’s why he could spam pseudo-Dragon-types with decent potential. Another example was Horsea. But since its three-stage evolution line had already been discovered — and its final form revealed to be Dragon-type — its price had skyrocketed.

The evolution requirements were steep though, needing a Dragon Scale. Which, luckily, Reiji already had.

Now it all came down to whether he could find a high-potential Horsea. If not, the scale was worthless.

After leaving the department store, Reiji walked back to his hotel, replaying everything he’d seen and mentally planning his next steps.

Along the way, he also asked about regular hotel room rates. A standard single room ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 Pokédollars.

All he could say was — as expected of a tourist city. Prices were even crazier than hotels in the southern part of town. This area could easily be considered the city center.

He wondered if real estate here was also inflated. If someone owned a property and a shop here, they’d be set for life.

Muttering about the outrageous costs, he finally returned to Room 8012 of his hotel.

Time to sort through everything he’d bought earlier, and prepare the things he needed for his visit to the black market.

[End of Chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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