"This trading market is actually a good resource," Naoki thought.
Having access to it would save him a considerable amount of effort going forward.
The hundred-plus stones he had pulled out of Ambrette Town included a good number of standard Evolution Stones, miscellaneous items, Mega Stones, and seven Jaw Fossils.
He had no plans to sell off the Evolution Stones or Mega Stones for now. Who knew when he might actually need to use them himself.
The fossils were a different matter entirely.
Jaw Fossils could be restored through fossil revival technology into Tyrunt.
Tyrunt, a juvenile dragon Pokémon that legend said could devour rocks. It had gone extinct roughly a hundred million years in the past, long before the modern era.
This species had an appearance that managed to be both cute and intimidating at once, though back in the world Naoki had originally come from, it had never been considered anything particularly special among Pokémon fans.
But to the players in this world, what Pokémon could possibly compare to something this rare?
After all, in this era, the species had already gone extinct entirely.
A baby dinosaur. Genuinely rare, genuinely hard to find. Naoki could already picture how popular a Tyrunt would be among the player community.
"In that case, let's list one on the trading market first."
He smacked his lips. Scarcity drove value up, after all.
He listed one Jaw Fossil directly and wrote the following in the item description below it:
Urgent sale, need funds! Extraordinarily rare Dragon-type Pokémon fossil! Want to stand above the crowd? Want to own a Dragon Pokémon so rare the whole world will envy you? What are you waiting for, get yours now!
Listed price: ten million League Credits.
Naoki felt absolutely no hesitation about the price.
If a Beedrill egg could sell for ten million, why couldn't his Tyrunt fossil command the same?
At roughly the same time, Kanto region. Viridian City. A repair garage.
This was the meeting point for the Dragon Conqueror guild.
Right now, the guild leader, Dragon Conqueror, sat mounted on top of an imposing Arcanine.
This particular Arcanine had come from completing a hidden quest a while back, which had rewarded him with an extremely rare Growlithe egg.
He had also learned from an NPC that using a Fire Stone on Growlithe would evolve it into Arcanine.
So the moment the Growlithe egg hatched, Dragon Conqueror evolved it immediately and had been riding around town on Arcanine ever since, grinding levels in style. Genuinely imposing, in his opinion.
Unfortunately, much as he liked Arcanine, what Dragon Conqueror really wanted was a Dragon-type Pokémon.
A dragon was a symbol fit for kings.
As the leader of a guild literally named Dragon Conqueror, how could he not have an actual dragon on his team?
For weeks now he had been combing through every wild area and major town across Kanto with his guild members.
Unfortunately, they had not managed to find a single Dragon-type Pokémon anywhere in the entire region.
Charizard? That was a pure Fire-type. How did that count as a dragon?
Gyarados? Also not a Dragon-type, despite the name.
Dragon Conqueror had also tried working the trading market and reaching out to other players directly to buy one. No luck there either.
There were "dragons" listed on the market, technically. But what kind of dragons?
Desert dragonflies. Tanabata bluebirds. Sound wave serpents.
A giant dragonfly. A bird. An oversized bat.
Tell him honestly, were these actually dragons?
Look him in the eyes and say that with a straight face!
Dragon Conqueror was thoroughly fed up.
Just then, one of his subordinates let out a sharp exclamation.
"Boss, I found an actual Dragon-type Pokémon on the trading market!"
"What?" Dragon Conqueror snapped to attention immediately.
He leaned in to look, and sure enough, there on the listing screen was a fossil, along with its description.
"Tyrunt? What kind of Pokémon is that? Ten million League Credits... why isn't someone just robbing this guy?" Dragon Conqueror frowned at the price, then drew in a sharp breath despite himself.
"Found it, boss. Here's what Tyrunt looks like." His subordinate had searched the forum and pulled up a photo within seconds.
Unlike the standard in-game Pokédex from a normal Pokémon game, this real world had its own version, run by enthusiasts and gaming bloggers who had built out detailed strategy resources and compiled every Pokémon players had documented so far into something resembling an unofficial Pokédex. Players could pull it up anytime through a small program inside a messaging app and search whatever they needed.
Tyrunt had only recently been revived by a player using fossil restoration technology. Small as it currently was, it already carried the unmistakable presence of something destined to be powerful, and its reveal had drawn enormous attention the moment it appeared.
After all, this was a Dragon-type Pokémon modeled directly on a Tyrannosaurus.
They barely needed to check its evolved form to imagine what it would eventually become. Something undeniably commanding, something built on raw, overwhelming power.
Riding something like that down the street, soaking in the envy of every other player around. What man could possibly turn that down?
More importantly, according to the NPC researchers studying fossils, this species had gone extinct a hundred million years ago. How much rarer could a Pokémon possibly get?
Dragon Conqueror snapped fully alert.
"This is actually Tyrunt?"
"A hundred percent confirmed. Though boss, it's listed at ten million. Are we actually buying this?"
"Buy it." Dragon Conqueror gritted his teeth. A Tyrannosaurus was still a dragon as far as he was concerned, and the next time his guild competed, he wanted to walk in riding one. Nothing else would do.
Besides, a Tyrannosaurus looked infinitely more dragon-like than the mess of giant dragonflies and oversized bats currently passing for "dragons" on the market.
As a wealthy second-generation heir in his thirties with no particular skills beyond looking impressive and showing off, an opportunity like this was not something Dragon Conqueror was going to pass up.
And it was not even his own money on the line. His father's, technically. Not his problem.
He bought it without a second thought. When his League Credits ran short, he simply paid the difference in real money directly to the seller.
A moment later, the Jaw Fossil appeared in Dragon Conqueror's inventory.
He stared at it in his hands and burst out laughing.
"Ha! I finally have a real dragon to ride."
Was there genuinely someone out there willing to spend ten million on a single Tyrunt fossil?
Naoki stared at the notification showing his League Credit balance update, completely stunned.
It made him briefly wonder if he had priced it too low.
That thought did not last long. His eyes quickly drifted to the remaining six Jaw Fossils still sitting in his bag, and something lit up in him.
That was roughly sixty million more, sitting right there.
He had a reasonable amount saved already, but money was never something to turn down lightly. And he was going to need considerably more of it going forward.
Once he got his hands on Lawrence's airship, everything from there on would cost money. Maintenance. Modifications. Staff. Repairs.
Not to mention everything else that came with running an operation like that.
Without hesitating any further, Naoki listed all six remaining Tyrunt fossils on the trading market at ten million each.
Trades on the market were conducted anonymously. The buyer would never know who he was.
Back in Viridian City, at the garage.
The moment the market refreshed, one of Dragon Conqueror's members let out a startled shout.
"Boss! Six more Jaw Fossils just got listed!"
Dragon Conqueror, who had been on his way to the science museum in Pewter City to get his fossil restored, froze. "What?!"
"What do we do?" his subordinate asked.
"Buy them. Buy every single one. I'm building a whole legion of Tyrunt. Let that little upstart NPC see who the real Dragon King is." Dragon Conqueror gritted his teeth.
Now that was their boss. Absolutely ruthless.
His subordinate was about to say something appropriately impressed when he noticed Dragon Conqueror already walking off.
"Boss, where are you going?"
"Going offline to hit up my dad for cash."
He didn't even turn around to answer.
Real-world money could not be deposited directly into the game, technically, but it could absolutely be used to buy from other players. And there was never a shortage of people in the real world who needed cash. Ten thousand not enough? A hundred thousand. Not enough? A million. Still not enough? Ten million.