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When Sato glanced at the bustling internal trade market before him—despite it being close to midnight—his expression naturally turned into one of unsurprised understanding.
In truth, even when he left the temporary dormitory, he had already seen many contestants heading here in small groups. It was clear these people had weighed the difficulty and stakes of the upcoming competition.
Tonight marked the final chance for pre-battle preparation. If they didn't use this time to exchange their useless items for things that might increase their odds in the competition, those items would likely end up collecting dust forever.
Unfortunately, this competition allowed no option to voluntarily withdraw. The only way to exit was either by being defeated by other competitors or by the wild Pokémon inhabiting the mysterious island.
As soon as Sato stepped into the internal trade market, the stalls that caught his attention the most were the ones selling intelligence reports and maps of the mysterious island.
At a glance, at least seven or eight out of every ten booths were either selling intel or maps of the island.
The market, after all, had a self-regulating nature—wherever there was demand, supply always found a way to manifest quickly.
The veteran Rocket members stationed at this base were all seasoned and cunning. Naturally, they were well aware that the second stage of the Rookie Competition would be held on the mysterious island, and they were familiar with the rules.
So, those with business acumen had long begun collecting intelligence and drawing detailed maps of the island to make huge profits from contestants like Sato.
Now, for Sato and the other rookies about to head into the island for the second phase of the competition, competitor intelligence and accurate maps were invaluable.
The former could help them better understand their opponents and avoid picking fights with monsters they had no chance of beating—thus improving their chances of progressing.
The latter could prevent them from blindly stumbling around the island, significantly lowering the odds of walking into deadly danger and boosting their survival rate.
So, to obtain these two critical resources, Sato and the other Rocket grunts were being ruthlessly exploited by the veteran Rocket members, but in this case, it was a matter of mutual consent.
Taking in the scene, Sato inhaled deeply, then stepped into the feast where the sheep willingly offered themselves up to be slaughtered.
However, once he truly joined the fray, Sato realized he was facing merchants with truly black hearts.
"Hey there, little brother! Take a look! This book here contains detailed profiles of the contestants in this competition. If you want it, you can trade items worth 5,000 merit points, or 10,000 credits, or 200 million PokeDollars!"
As he passed by a stall selling information, a chubby Rocket member shoved his fat face forward and raised a thick book in front of Sato with exaggerated praise.
At present, all Sato had was a rough registry that gave a superficial overview of the contestants. Naturally, he was interested in the detailed intel this chubby merchant claimed to have.
Even though the asking price was sky-high, it was still within Sato's financial means. Still, before making a purchase, he naturally wanted to inspect the goods first.
And the moment he did, Sato was momentarily stunned. The thick profile book wasn't nearly as useful as even his own rough registry.
Rather than calling it a book, it was more like a photo album—eighty percent of the content was just photographs. The actual data on contestants only included basic info like name, age, and height.
Faced with such a bizarre "intel book," Sato lost all interest and immediately tossed it back to the merchant before heading off to the next information vendor.
After making a full round through the bustling market, Sato had to admit helplessly that the intel being sold here was extremely fragmented.
Most of it was even less useful than the basic registry in his hand. At best, it offered vague background details. As for the truly valuable intel—the Pokémon each contestant had—such information was pathetically scarce.
So far, the most detailed information Sato had seen came from a mysterious seller cloaked entirely in a black robe.
And even that so-called "detailed profile" merely listed each contestant's basic info and what Pokémon they owned—no explanations, no in-depth data.
Yet this bare-bones book carried a staggering price tag of 500 million PokeDollars—daylight robbery, plain and simple.
Still, even though they knew these veteran Rocket members were extorting them, many contestants still sold everything they had just to get their hands on these books.
Some were more clever. Though they were short on money, several teamed up to buy a single copy. As for how they would split the use of it later—that remained a mystery.
At this point, Sato was extremely grateful that he hadn't tried to extort Nogu, but had instead offered PokeBlocks in goodwill. The registry that Nogu had given him was far superior to anything these veteran Rocket grifters were selling.
That alone saved Sato several hundred million PokeDollars.
With intel being so expensive, it was no surprise that maps of the mysterious island—something that directly increased one's odds of survival—were even more so.
Fortunately, unlike the crude contestant profiles, the veteran Rocket members here had a solid understanding of the island's terrain. Their hand-drawn maps were much more detailed than the ones distributed during the earlier briefing.
However, since each Rocket member had only explored limited regions, each map only covered a small section of the island, albeit with high accuracy and detail.
Taken together, these maps resembled fragmented puzzle pieces of the island.
Most of them only detailed the outer rim of the island. As for maps of the inner regions, Sato had only seen three such examples during his sweep of the market.
And these inner-region maps were, unsurprisingly, even more exorbitantly priced. The cheapest one went for 1 billion PokeDollars—an outrageous price.
At that moment, Sato witnessed what it meant to be truly wealthy.
Tomoki—the contestant with the strongest background in this competition—made a move that stunned everyone. He bought all three inner-region maps in one go, spending a total of 4 billion PokeDollars without batting an eye.
All Sato could do was marvel at the man's absurd wealth. In the end, he gritted his teeth and shelled out 300 million PokeDollars for a fairly detailed map of the island's eastern region.
With that purchase complete, Sato turned his attention to booths selling Pokémon-related items. Compared to intel and maps, what he was most interested in now were basic revival potions.
Unfortunately, those life-saving items were treated like lifelines by the Rocket veterans themselves. Even after searching the entire market, Sato couldn't find a single person willing to sell one.
In the end, he had no choice but to set up his own stall in a favorable spot—and the item he planned to sell was none other than that pseudo Elite-Four level Yanmega.
At the logistics department, that Yanmega was valued at 5,000 merit points. But Sato knew full well that its true value was far higher than that.
He believed that once he displayed the Yanmega for sale, it would instantly attract the attention of many Rocket veterans—so much so that someone might even be willing to trade a revival potion for it, a potion that was often seen as equivalent to a second life.
To any trainer, a powerful Pokémon was the foundation of their strength and the key to growing even stronger. This was especially true for Rocket veterans who faced deadly situations every single day.
For them, the death rate of their Pokémon was undoubtedly higher than that of trainers in the outside world.
If one of their hard-trained Pokémon died, even if it was brought back with a revival potion, the trainer would still likely fall in their next battle.
So for these Rocket veterans, one could never have too many powerful Pokémon.