Pokémon: Master System.

The Li family urgently needs a Gym Leader or higher-level Trainer. It would be even better if they could produce a Champion-level Trainer.

Because of this, the Li family has expressed their desire for a marriage alliance to Charlotte more than once, offering an extremely generous dowry. Their only goal is to make Charlotte, the youngest near-Champion level trainer, their son-in-law. With Charlotte's talent, becoming a Fire-type Champion in the future is almost a certainty.

However, Charlotte refused without hesitation. He had a childhood sweetheart with whom he had grown up, and the two had an extremely close relationship. As for material conditions, the proud and ambitious Charlotte firmly believed that once he became a Champion-level trainer, everything would be fine.

…………

Today happened to be the day of the auction. When Xia Yu arrived at the entrance of the second basement level, he was immediately stopped by two thugs in suits who were guarding the door. They quickly searched his back before letting him in.

Upon entering the second basement level, the view immediately widened, with stalls lining both sides of the street selling all sorts of things. Xia Yu walked around, looking around, hoping to find some hidden gems.

He stopped in front of a stall selling Pokémon eggs and began using the system to assess their quality.

Unfortunately, none of the Pokémon eggs contained any with Elite Four aptitude or higher. Xia Yu was somewhat prepared for this; if Elite Four aptitude Pokémon were so easy to find, he wouldn't have gone without a starter Pokémon for so many years.

After passing through the Pokémon Egg area, Xia Yu arrived at the Pokémon area, which was divided into two main categories: baby Pokémon and adult Pokémon.

All the adult Pokémon were chained up and kept in cages; they were thin and emaciated from hunger.

These adult Pokémon are basically fed only once a day, the purpose of which is to control their stamina and prevent them from becoming too aggressive.

"Strange power..."

“Galala…”

These Pokémon generally have low combat power and potential; the strongest is only a near-Lord level.

After passing through the adult Pokémon area, Xia Yu arrived at the baby Pokémon area. This area has the largest number of Pokémon, and most of the baby Pokémon that can appear here are rare Pokémon with poor aptitude, underdeveloped, or defective.

As soon as Xia Yu arrived at this area, his eyes lit up.

Ralts

Gender: male

Attributes: Superpowers, Fairy

Qualification: Lord-level

Combat strength: Rare

Ability: Telepathy

Skills: Shout, Enchanting Voice, Shadow Clone, Telekinesis, Hypnosis, Absorbing Kiss, Teleportation, Black Gaze, Strange Light

It's a good start; the first Pokémon has the potential to be a Lord, which makes Xia Yu even more excited. Maybe he can really find a Pokémon with the potential to be an Elite Four member here.

"Hey buddy, looking to pick out a Pokémon?" the masked vendor said. "This Ralts is pretty good, and its final evolution, Gardevoir, is quite beautiful."

The boss let out a lewd laugh as he spoke.

Chapter 8 Thunder Stone

Ralts has always been a very popular Pokémon, especially its final evolution, Gardevoir, which is sought after by countless Pokémon fans and tops the list of Pokémon waifus.

Xia Yu himself also really likes Gardevoir, but he's not crazy about it. His liking is normal, without any morbid obsession.

"Hey bro, this Ralts is really good quality. It's beautiful and strong. I'll sell it to you cheaply, only 300,000."

Upon hearing the price, Xia Yu couldn't help but mentally complain that they were treating him like a sucker, daring to ask for such a high price on the black market.

"You're trying to rip me off! Sorry, I don't have that much money." Xia Yu directly rejected the shopkeeper's sales pitch.

"Two hundred and ninety-eight thousand, I'll give you a discount of two thousand," the boss advised.

"Even if you reduce the price to 29,800, I still won't buy it," Xia Yu said, and left the stall directly.

"You poor bastard, you've wasted so much of my time."

…………

Xia Yu wandered back and forth in the black market. As night fell, the black market began to fill up with people and more vendors set up stalls. During this time, Xia Yu discovered many Pokémon with good potential, but the highest potential was only at the Totem level. He didn't see a single Pokémon with potential above the Gym Leader level.

This undoubtedly disappointed Xia Yu. After inquiring, he learned that an auction was to be held today, and the high-quality Pokémon had already been taken away by the black market management and were to be auctioned off at the auction.

With no other option, Xia Yu could only wander around some prop stalls, hoping to find some treasures.

"what."

As Xia Yu passed by a stall, he inadvertently noticed a plain-looking stone, dark and coal-like, but the information from the system made him uneasy. Xia Yu stopped in his tracks, his eyes scanning the items on the stall.

He casually picked up a diving ball from the stall and asked, "How much is this?"

"30,000 diving balls."

"So expensive?" Xia Yu was shocked by the price. The diving balls in the official store were only 20,000 each, but the price on the black market was even higher.

"Are you new here? This is an anonymous Dive Ball," the stall owner explained. "All Poké Balls have serial numbers. Once you catch a Pokémon, the data inside will be automatically uploaded to the Trainer Association whenever you connect to the internet or go to a Pokémon Center for treatment. Only illegal Poké Balls like this won't be recorded. As long as you don't say anything, no one will know what's inside your Dive Ball. It can have many uses, and 30,000 yen is considered cheap."

"Forget it, it's still too expensive." Xia Yu waved his hand, there was no need to buy such an expensive Poké Ball: "How much are your other items? Just tell me the price."

"These are treasures passed down from my ancestors, and they're not cheap," the stall owner said cautiously, unwilling to quote a price directly, afraid that Xia Yu would snag a bargain. "Bring me what you want to buy and I'll give you a price."

Xia Yu felt helpless seeing the stall owner being so cautious; these vendors were all shrewd and difficult to deal with.

"I'm just browsing." Xia Yu casually picked up a strangely shaped stone and asked the stall owner, "How much is this stone?"

"This stone is no ordinary stone. It's a family heirloom passed down from my great-grandfather. Look at these white stripes, don't they look like the character 'cloud'? This is a stone with a character on it. If you took this stone outside, it would be worth at least tens of thousands of yuan. But I'm giving you a discount today, only ten thousand yuan." The stall owner casually made up a story. People in this line of work are all full of empty talk, and they'll claim that anything they touch upon is a family heirloom.

"Too expensive, what about this?" Xia Yu casually picked up the dark stone next to him and asked, "Where's this stone?"

The stall owner frowned at Xia Yu, noticing that Xia Yu mostly just asked prices without actually buying. He couldn't help but think to himself, "Brother, if you're really interested, I'll give you a fair price. I found this in Thunder Mountain. You know Thunder Mountain, right? It was the battlefield between Zapdos and Raikou back then. It produces a lot of top-grade Thunder Stones. This thing doesn't look like much, but maybe it's a top-grade Thunder Stone inside. At least 50,000."

Xia Yu's heart tightened. This stall owner was quite knowledgeable. The dark stone was indeed exactly as he described, and there was indeed an S-grade Thunder Stone inside!

However, this S-grade Thunder Stone was encased in a rock, and Xia Yu wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for the system. But the more Xia Yu wanted it, the more indifferent he seemed. He gently put the black stone down and couldn't help but tease, "I can see that everything on your stall is a treasure. You could easily find something worth tens of thousands. I genuinely want to buy something, so give me a fair price, don't try to rip me off."

"what would you like?"

"Do you have any unnamed regular Poké Balls, not Dive Balls?" Xia Yu asked.

"Yes, ten thousand each." The stall owner rummaged through his stall and found a red and white Poké Ball, tossing it to Xia Yu.

"So expensive?" Xia Yu's face darkened. A regular Poké Ball costs five thousand, but this Poké Ball costs ten thousand, double the price.

"This is the price we all pay in the market. It's honest business, and the prices are always fair," the stall owner said.

"Okay, I'll take one." After taking the Poké Ball, Xia Yu looked at the S-rank Thunder Stone on the stall and casually asked, "Can you give me a discount on this stone?"

"Fifty thousand yuan is already the lowest price." The stall owner had no intention of lowering the price at all, and continued to talk: "Think about it, if this yields an S-grade Thunder Stone, there are no S-grade Thunder Stones on the market right now, and one stone is worth tens of millions. Fifty thousand becomes tens of millions, you'll make a fortune, and you still think it's too expensive? Young man, do you understand what it means to go all in? If you win, you'll be in a club with young models; if you lose, you'll have to work in the sex industry."

Xia Yu was speechless. As expected, those who could sell things in the underground black market were quite good at talking: "If it really could produce an S-grade Thunder Stone, would you still be selling it? I genuinely want to buy it, so give me a fair price. Five thousand or not?"

"Brother? You have a Dragon Slayer Saber? It's worth at least 48,000."

"Impossible. I'd only offer six thousand at most. There are so many stones on Thunder Mountain; you could easily sell any one for tens of thousands. How could that be?"

"Young man, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. This stone of mine is different from ordinary stones. Experts have examined it and said that there is a high probability that there is a Thunder Stone inside. So, if you are sincere in wanting to buy it, I will give you a discount, to 45,000."

…………

After a round of haggling, Xia Yu was already hoarse from talking. Finally, he settled on a price of 38,000. Actually, Xia Yu felt that the price could be lowered even further, but the haggling between the two had attracted more and more people. To avoid any complications, Xia Yu decided to proceed with the transaction directly.

Both the stall owner and Xia Yu were overjoyed. The stall owner felt he had struck it rich, while Xia Yu was delighted to have acquired a top-grade Thunder Stone.

Watching Xia Yu walk away, the stall owner took out another equally black stone from his bag, placed it in the empty space, and grinned wickedly: "Fool, you still want to get a Thunder Stone? I have plenty of these."

Chapter 9 Xu Xiu

Looking at the dark stone in his hand, Xia Yu's heart pounded uncontrollably. No one would have imagined that there would actually be an S-rank Thunder Stone inside this dark stone.

Now that he had obtained the S-rank Thunder Stone, Xia Yu naturally did not intend to sell it, but kept it for his own use. S-rank items like this were extremely rare and their market value was over ten million. Once he missed it, he didn't know how long he would have to wait to encounter it again.

Of all the known Pokémon, only seven can use Thunder Stone.

Pikachu evolves into Raichu using a Thunder Stone.

Eevee evolves into Jolteon using a Thunder Stone.

Magneton evolves into Magneton using a Thunder Stone.

Nosegate evolves into Proboscis using a Thunder Stone.

Eel uses a Thunder Stone to evolve into Eelking.

Bug-type Pokémon evolves into Vikadounon using a Thunder Stone.

The Lightling uses a Thunder Stone to evolve into a Frog.

These seven Pokémon are all very strong, and each one is quite good. Xia Yu isn't picky; the key is which one he encounters first.

From now on, Xia Yu needs to keep an eye on these Pokémon. If he encounters any of them with Champion-level potential, he will definitely catch them without hesitation. He is desperately lacking in Pokémon.

Encountering the S-rank Thunder Stone seemed to have used up all of Xia Yu's luck. After that, he never encountered another opportunity to snag a bargain until the auction began, when Xia Yu finally entered the auction hall with the crowd.

Xia Yu once attended an auction. There was an entrance fee of 1,000 yuan, and a 10% commission was charged on all auctioned items.

After paying the 1,000 yuan entrance fee, Xia Yu secured his own private spot and waited quietly for the auction to begin.

The auction officially began as a sexy woman in a red, slit dress stepped onto the stage. The woman wore a shimmering mask, obscuring her face entirely except for her stunning figure.

"The August auction is officially starting. I am your host, Sister Hong." The woman's voice was slightly cold, but charming and alluring, a classic mature woman's voice: "The first item for auction is a Pokémon with extremely high potential. Please take a look."

As Sister Hong's voice faded, a transparent box was pushed onto the stage, inside which was a blue and white Pokémon, Froakie, which is extremely rare in China.