Late that night, Zorua curled up against Naoki’s side and fell into a deep sleep.
Naoki finally had time to open the forum.
As he had expected, his friend requests had nearly hit the cap.
Every single one of them wanted information on rare Pokémon locations.
He stared at the list and felt a mild headache coming on.
There were too many to address all at once.
As it happened, Kenji sent a message at that exact moment.
Kenji: Thanks for the strategy.
Every member of Origin Guild has their Badge now.
Larry: Don’t mention it.
You paid for it.
Though I’m curious, if the Gym was giving you that much trouble, why not skip Goldenrod for now and head to the next one?
This was an open world after all.
Players could go anywhere they wanted.
There was no obligation to challenge Gyms in order.
Kenji’s reply carried a note of resignation.
Kenji: You don’t know the half of it.
This game is too real.
Taking a detour to the next Gym means we’d still have to come back eventually, and just the travel time alone would cost us a week.
It’s not worth it.
That made sense.
Another message followed immediately.
Kenji: I saw your forum post.
You’re selling hidden Pokémon location data?
Larry: You want to buy?
Kenji: Would that be alright?
Actually, it’s not really for me.
A friend of mine is interested.
I mentioned your name to her and she sent you a request, but it hadn’t been accepted yet, so she asked me to reach out.
Larry: What’s her name?
Kenji: Dream.
That’s what she goes by.
Naoki found the request in his list and accepted it.
She had clearly been waiting.
The message came through almost instantly.
Dream: What exactly are these hidden Pokémon you mentioned?
Larry: Gyarados.
At that same moment, somewhere in the Johto region, inside a lavishly appointed manor, a woman of considerable presence read those words and went quiet.
She knew Gyarados.
A Pokémon that resembled the dragons of legend, ferocious in temperament and staggering in its destructive capability.
They congregated in the deepest waters and were notoriously difficult to catch.
Even so, that alone was not enough to interest her.
She already had a Gyarados on her team.
Dream’s disappointment was already forming when the next message arrived, as though the person on the other end had anticipated exactly that.
Larry: This isn’t an ordinary Gyarados. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
It was subjected to experimentation that triggered a mutation.
Its strength far exceeds that of a normal Gyarados.
Dream’s eyes sharpened.
Gyarados was already a terrifying Pokémon by any standard measure.
If this was true, then a mutated one would be…
Still, one question remained.
Dream: If this Pokémon is so rare, why haven’t you gone after it yourself?
The reply came quickly.
Larry: I’m currently stuck in a hidden map and can’t leave.
That’s where I found the information on these Pokémon.
A hidden map.
That explained it.
She recalled hearing about a player whose starting identity had been researcher, who had been trapped on a hidden map called New Island.
Surrounded entirely by open ocean, he still had not found a way off.
Dream: I’m interested.
What’s your price?
Larry: Two million League Credits.
Dream: Fine.
We can use the trading market.
Player transactions fell under official game oversight regardless of whether they involved goods or agreements.
If either party violated the terms or attempted to exploit a bug, their caught Pokémon would be confiscated immediately.
Naoki had no objection to that.
He sent Dream the information on the red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage, the one affected by Team Rocket’s experiments.
The moment she located it, the payment would clear automatically.
“The Lake of Rage,” Dream murmured to herself, reading through the details with undisguised interest.
“A red Gyarados.”
Dream: What about the other hidden Pokémon?
If I remember correctly, you used the word “many.”
Larry: The other two are worth considerably more than this Gyarados.
That only sharpened her interest.
Dream: Is that so.
Money isn’t a concern.
In the real world she ran a publicly listed company.
After entering the game she had converted a substantial sum of real currency into nearly ten million League Credits by purchasing from other players.
The player called Larry went quiet for a moment after reading that.
Nearly two minutes passed before the reply came.
Larry: The other two are Legendary Pokémon.
Or perhaps a better word for them would be: gods.
Legendary Pokémon.
Dream’s eyes went sharp.
The game had only been running for a few months, but players had already mapped out a rough understanding of the Pokémon hierarchy through exploration. Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
Pokémon like Pikachu, Gyarados, and Charizard occupied the ordinary tier.
Above them existed something else entirely, creatures that certain NPCs called Legendary Pokémon, and others simply called gods.
The heat that came into Dream’s eyes at that moment was difficult to conceal.
If she could actually catch one…
Dream: Whatever the price, I’ll take both.
Name it.
Larry: Ten million.
Naoki had not asked for twenty million or more, though he could have tried.
Partly because no player at the current stage of the game stood any realistic chance of catching the giant Dragonite or Zapdos.
And partly because burning bridges served no one.
The price seemed to stretch beyond what she had available, however.
Dream: I don’t have that much liquid right now.
The game had been running long enough that players had woken up to the value of League Credits.
Aside from those in genuine financial difficulty, almost no one was trading them away for real money anymore the way they had at the start.
Larry: A shame.
Dream gritted her teeth.
An opportunity to catch a Legendary Pokémon was not something she could afford to walk away from.
Dream: I can trade something of equivalent value instead.
She sent over an image of an item she had acquired, describing it as extraordinarily rare.
According to the description, the feather was connected to a hidden quest, though she had tried every approach she could think of and had never been able to trigger it.
Compared to a vague hidden quest with no clear path forward, a Legendary Pokémon felt considerably more concrete.
Dream: According to an NPC in the Johto region, this feather came from a Legendary Pokémon called Ho-Oh.
I don’t think its value falls short of the two leads you’re offering.
Four million, and we have a deal.
Naoki looked at the image.
A single feather lay at the center of the picture, vivid in color, radiating a soft rainbow light.
The Rainbow Feather.
Larry: Fine.
Four million it is.
Consider it the price of making a friend.
The information would lose its value soon enough regardless.
Some player out there could stumble across the giant Dragonite or Zapdos tomorrow during routine exploration.
Six million League Credits was already a strong result.
Two years of salary in a single transaction.
And a Rainbow Feather on top of it.
This deal had gone very well.
They completed the transfer through the trading platform as before.
The funds would clear the moment Dream confirmed the information was genuine, whether by sighting the giant Dragonite or Zapdos directly.
“An ancient Dragonite,” Dream said quietly, reading the screen.
“And the god of thunder, Zapdos.”
Her eyes burned.
On Naoki’s end, he read through the Rainbow Feather’s item description.
Rainbow Feather: A feather belonging to a certain existence.
It carries a special power within it and is the key to unlocking a hidden quest.