Icarus happily held the Pokédex-like device for quite a while. Only after he had carefully examined every function did he reluctantly put it aside and begin sorting through the rest of the items.
This device was a first-generation Pokédex, which had already been phased out by the Pokémon League's direct-line trainers a few years ago. Because of that, he didn't have to worry about any tracking or hidden monitoring functions.
The latest maps, Pokémon data, and information could still be updated through the Pokémon Center's self-service computers. Fortunately, Ah Shu had already updated it recently, saving Icarus another trip.
"Let's see… a field tent, alarm bell, Potion, Antidote, and… a stack of cash!"
"Pidgey, your eyes are really sharp!"
Inside the small house, one trainer and two Pokémon were busy organizing the items.
From time to time, Pidgey would pull another bundle of money from the pile of miscellaneous items. It knew perfectly well that Icarus liked those.
Meanwhile, Weepinbell used its vines to sort larger equipment and group together duplicate items.
"Ah Shu really carried a lot of gear. No wonder he's been a Normal-tier trainer for several years."
Icarus looked at the neatly arranged supplies against the wall and smiled in satisfaction.
What surprised him the most were Ah Shu's training notes.
Although they weren't official manuals—just personal records—the fact that Raticate had such strong combat power showed that the notes still had some valuable insights.
There were also training notes for Butterfree and Sandshrew, but the pages dedicated to Raticate were far more numerous.
This indirectly confirmed that Raticate had been Ah Shu's starter Pokémon.
As for money, he counted three stacks of cash and one bank card.
It was obvious that this card contained Ah Shu's entire savings.
Earlier, while shopping in the black market, he had noticed a shop that specialized in cracking bank cards. If he went there, he might make a fortune.
When he first opened his own bank account in this world, he had already realized that the banking system was far less advanced than the one from his previous life.
Password security wasn't especially strong.
With a bank card and ID information, there would definitely be people capable of cracking it—though the service fee might not be cheap.
"Next is that traitor Aze's backpack," Icarus muttered.
"I wonder what he spent his contribution points on."
After finishing with Ah Shu's items, he opened Aze's space backpack and dumped everything onto the floor.
Clatter!
Another pile of equipment appeared.
"Another tent… medicines… and a notebook?"
He sifted through the items and tossed worthless odds and ends toward Weepinbell, letting it carry them away with its vines for sorting.
The notebook caught his attention first.
"Hm… pretty ordinary."
"No wonder Ah Shu stayed at the mid-Normal tier for one or two years while you only broke through recently."
Flipping through it, Icarus discovered that most of the training methods followed publicly available techniques.
The only interesting part was the recent feeding method.
Instead of ordinary iron ore, Geodude had been fed alloy ore, which was much rarer.
That likely explained why it had recently evolved.
"A USB drive!"
Icarus suddenly pulled out a USB drive and compared it with the one he had just exchanged earlier.
It was the exact same type issued by Team Rocket.
"So Aze must have exchanged it for a training manual too," he murmured.
"Judging from his notes, it's probably for Geodude."
He carefully stored the two USB drives together.
After all, these were now part of his most important assets.
"Spri! Spri!"
Suddenly, Weepinbell cried out excitedly as if it had discovered something important.
Icarus turned around and saw the Pokémon waving its vines while holding a purple crystal.
"Spri!"
Weepinbell eagerly placed the gemstone in front of him.
"This… this is a Poison-type energy crystal!"
Icarus was pleasantly surprised.
He immediately guessed that Aze must have prepared it for evolving his Ekans.
But now, it had become his reward instead.
He had been struggling with how to strengthen Weepinbell's Poison-type energy, and this solved the problem perfectly.
Buying such crystals was expensive.
Hunting Poison-type Pokémon wasn't efficient either.
Even Pokémon like Kakuna or Metapod could only be hunted in small numbers, otherwise a swarm of Beedrill would come chasing them.
And their poison sacs weren't very effective for Weepinbell anymore.
As for Ekans, they weren't easy to find or defeat.
The Oddish family appeared mainly at night deeper in the forest—but he didn't dare venture into the inner forest zone after dark.
Originally, he had planned to spend money buying energy crystals.
Now he had obtained one for free, saving at least 10,000 Pokédollars.
"Hold on for now, Weepinbell," Icarus said.
"After I study the training manuals, I'll decide how to use it for you."
He stored the crystal safely in his backpack and continued organizing items with his Pokémon.
Weepinbell nodded obediently.
It already understood that neither Icarus nor Pidgey could use a Poison-type crystal anyway.
Eventually it would belong to it, so it handed it over without hesitation.
Another half hour passed.
Icarus finally collapsed onto the floor, staring at the piles of supplies—and especially the two bank cards in his hand—with immense satisfaction.
"As expected… robbery really does bring quick money," he muttered.
"No… I was just delivering justice."
He began reorganizing his gear.
First came the higher-quality field tents, medicine supplies, and blank Poké Balls.
Some items would be needed later, but since he currently had extras, he stored them in his small personal space backpack.
Next, he took out Ah Shu's medium-sized space backpack and filled it with equipment he would need while traveling in the wild.
Finally, he placed all the items he didn't need—including the materials he had hunted earlier that morning—into Aze's backpack.
He planned to sell the entire backpack and its contents on the black market.
Of course, anything that could reveal a Team Rocket connection was removed and stored separately.
By the time he finished, it was already 2 PM.
They had set out early in the morning and never stopped for lunch.
Now that everything was organized, hunger finally hit him.
After quickly finishing a meal, he put on his mask, changed into common protective clothing, and headed toward the black market to cash in his gains.
About an hour later, he emerged from the black market with his two Pokémon.
"That's highway robbery!" he complained.
"They charged 4% commission just to crack the bank cards!"
Thinking about the man casually typing on a keyboard and taking a slice of his hard-earned loot made Icarus regret not studying computer science in his previous life.
"Knowledge really is power," he sighed.
"The ancients weren't lying."
But soon he checked the numbers again and his mood improved.
"I had 120,000 Pokédollars in my account before.
After adding the cash stacks, it became 170,000.
Even after losing 6% total from cracking the two bank cards, I still have 159,000 Pokédollars!"
He touched the bank card in his pocket and smiled.
For the first time in his life, he felt financially secure.
"Still… if Ah Shu and Aze hadn't spent so much money on things like houses and vehicles, they could have saved even more…"
Looking at the massive purchase records he had seen during the card cracking process, Icarus felt a bit pained.
But he also understood.
For civilian trainers, this was normal.
When they finally had money, they wanted to improve their living conditions.
After finishing his transactions, he didn't return home.
Instead, he headed toward a general goods shop.
"I still need to play dumb in front of that old man," he muttered.
On the way there, Icarus quickly adjusted his mindset.
Since Pidgey had said it wanted to try learning from him again, he would swallow his pride, pretend he knew nothing, and go ask the old shopkeeper for advice.
(End of Chapter 119)
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