Chapter 122: The Underground Auction

"Mm…"

Shan Ren ate the fried rice, occasionally closing his eyes to savour it carefully. Not long after, he looked at Baimu with a complicated expression. "You learned it from a video recipe?"

"It's not like a Loppy chef came to Huang Tie Town to teach me, right?"

Baimu laughed in spite of himself, looking at him expectantly. "So how is it? Satisfactory or not?"

"…"

The noble-looking young man took a sip of water to clear his palate and said, "Honestly, this is no longer a question of satisfactory or not. If I hadn't met you here in Huang Tie Town, I'd have sworn you were an apprentice of Loco Moco."

His decisive tone made Baimu laugh in pleasant surprise. "That good?"

"Very good. From now on, whenever I have the time, I'll have all three meals here."

Shan Ren said this first, then turned to look at the wall. "I'd love to say that, but you only open for three hours here — what a shame. And your fame isn't all that big either; I only found out about you through some higher-up in your team."

Some higher-up?

Probably someone from the Crystal Group — they've always been Quicksand Team's public-facing PR team.

Baimu replied, "Right now the fame is actually enough. After all, I only open for three hours a day, and the customer base is already showing signs of saturation. Unless I raise the price again, I'll very likely be too busy to cope."

"Then raise the price. Your current pricing doesn't match your cooking at all. If you don't raise it, are you trying to benefit the masses? The masses can't afford your current price either — just bump it up two tiers."

He offered his opinion with great familiarity. "That way you can earn more money while keeping the number of customers from becoming a burden on you."

"Seems like that really…"

"Don't overthink it. The news that I came to eat at your place today will reach the mayor's ears soon, and it'll reach even more people's ears. Your shop is going to blow up."

"This—!"

Baimu was a little startled; he hadn't expected Shan Ren's status to be even more exaggerated than he'd guessed — just coming to eat here could set his shop on fire.

Xiao Shu Ting

"I really don't know how to thank you." He looked at the other man gratefully, yet a wariness rose in his heart.

There's no love or hatred without cause in this world. Shan Ren first gave him the Soothe Bell, then specifically came to patronise his business — who would believe there was nothing fishy going on here?

And Shan Ren, as if he knew the wariness in Baimu's heart, smiled and said, "It's nothing. Once you get out there, you'll understand that helping each other without expecting anything in return is perfectly normal. Even someone as lofty as a Champion will, without hesitation, accept challenges from rookie trainers, or lend a hand.

"Their bearing is beyond comparison with the people of Huang Tie Town. You can always trust every one of them — Huang Tie Town really isn't the right fit for you. It'll only drag a pride-of-heaven talent like you down into a filthy mud pit."

Here we go again, praising him again.

Baimu felt his face redden just listening, but Shan Ren could praise him with perfect bluntness — in his memory, most characters in the anime seemed to be like this, expressing admiration without the slightest hesitation when they encountered something worthy of awe.

So he really was just looking out for him, with no ulterior motive?

One can't be too careful around others; stay on guard.

"Thank you for this wonderful meal."

Shan Ren stood up, preparing to pull out money.

But Baimu firmly refused. "This one's on me. You've looked after me so much — it wouldn't make sense for you to pay for even a single meal. From now on too, whenever you come, I'll treat you."

"Isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

"Nothing inappropriate about it. I just want to be your friend — provided, of course, you're willing to give me that face."

"Friend?"

Shan Ren was briefly taken aback, then beamed. "I thought we'd been that for a while now."

"Uh, my mistake."

Baimu gave a helpless plea for mercy.

Afterwards.

The two chatted for a while longer, until a new customer came in to order, which ended their conversation.

Before leaving, Shan Ren told him one more thing. "In two days, Dungeon 6 will be hosting an underground auction. There might be something or a Pokémon in there that interests you — you might want to take part."

"An auction?"

"Yes, a members-only auction. It's very hard for ordinary people to get in. But I just happened to receive an invitation, so if you don't mind, I'll bring you along. You happen to be short on Pokémon, right?"

"…I don't mind!"

"Then I'll come find you here the day after tomorrow. Farewell for now." With that, Shan Ren departed.

Baimu, meanwhile, digested what had just been said in the back kitchen.

If he wasn't mistaken, Shan Ren's main purpose in coming this time was to invite him to the auction.

A show of goodwill? An olive branch?

Or some other scheme?

Whichever it was, Baimu couldn't really refuse — because the auction was very likely the place for him to obtain a new Pokémon. But honestly, a place like that… would only drive the price of a Pokémon or anything else up to a level it shouldn't be at.

Would ten million be enough?

He could already envision the scene of his freshly acquired thirty million vanishing into thin air.

If only he could get it for free.

Baimu couldn't help but indulge in some unrealistic fantasies, though he had no idea what the wooden token's effect was — it might turn out to be a scam like the iron ingot.

Back then, the Aron hadn't been interested in the iron ingot at all.

——

In the blink of an eye.

The day of the auction had arrived.

Shan Ren came to the shop as promised, and Baimu, seeing this, closed up shop accordingly.

"If you don't mind, take my car."

He pointed at a dust-covered hover off-roader outside.

Baimu was a little surprised. "Your car?"

"Right, this is the vehicle best suited to Huang Tie Town's environment—far better than some sports car or sedan. Motorcycles aren't really my thing." He explained as he pulled open the driver's side door.

Baimu walked around to the passenger seat, and just as he was about to sit down, he caught a strange gaze coming from the back row.

Then, a Pokémon with golden fur, a humanoid fox face, revealed itself. It wore a strange brown armor, like a wise old man.

"Alakazam?"

"My ace Pokémon. I didn't bring it out to battle you last time. If there's a chance, I don't mind another round—your strength has improved again, hasn't it?"

Mountain Tsuma started the car and smiled, turning his head.

"Sure, I'm looking forward to it." Baimu nodded.

That one's strength ranked among the best in all of Huang Tie Town. Whenever he could defeat them, he could swagger through Huang Tie Town unchecked.

On the road.

The two chatted idly to pass the time.

"Forgive the bold question—how many conferences have you taken part in?"

"Conferences? I've entered four—the Indigo League Conference in Kanto, the Hoenn Grand Festival, the Sinnoh Lily of the Valley Conference, and the Kalos Lumiose Conference. My results weren't great: Round of Sixteen, semifinals, semifinals, and runner-up."

"That's… that's already really strong, isn't it?"

"If you can't win the whole thing, you can't enter the Champion League. And if you can't enter the Champion League, you can't challenge the Elite Four or the Champion to take their place. So being runner-up is meaningless."

Mountain Tsuma smiled at Baimu. "We're here. Get ready to get out."

The latter looked up and realized that, at some unknown point, they had already arrived at some underground city—a vast, silent building stood before them.

The two found a place to park and walked in through the only front door that let light through.

Not long after.

A grand banquet hall, with rows of neatly arranged sofas, came into Baimu's view. At the far end of his line of sight was a bright stage where spotlights converged, with many staff members bustling about around it.

By the time they arrived, quite a few other invitees had already reached the scene.