His bold words, paired with the blood-pumping, textbook-level "rebellious Machop suppression tutorial" they had just witnessed, instantly pushed the stream's atmosphere to tonight's climax.
The screen flooded with spams of "GG" and "W Streamer," the donation effects nearly drowning out the video feed. Miles's popularity skyrocketed, threatening to breach the very top of the platform's appraisal section.
"Phew..."
Miles picked up his thermos and took a tactical sip of warm water to soothe his dry throat.
He wasn't in a hurry to end the stream. His professional Pokémon appraisal radar was pinging like crazy—tonight's excitement wasn't over yet.
"Let's strike while the iron is hot. We can't let tonight's momentum die! Let's welcome the next viewer to our late-night special!"
Miles's eyes quickly scanned the rapidly scrolling list of connection requests in the background. Suddenly, his mouse hovered over a familiar ID with an incredibly arrogant note attached.
[High-Protein Spinarak]
[Application Note: Master! Don't just focus on those brute bulls that only know how to fight! Take a look at this! I spent a fortune buying this 'ancient mythical beast' from the seaside! It's definitely rarer than that bald little pony! Do you dare appraise it for me?]
"An ancient mythical beast? What a big tone."
Miles raised an eyebrow, a playful smile tugging at his lips.
In an era where everyone could be a Trainer, anyone who dared claim they had a 'mythical beast' either actually had something incredible, or they were a massive sucker.
"Alright! I choose you, brother Spinarak!" Miles declared domineeringly, clicking to accept the connection. "Stop lurking and get in the call! Let the master see what kind of bizarre monstrosity you've dug up this time!"
Ding—
A rapid connection tone rang out. The screen on the right flashed with static before a clear image appeared.
Instead of a luxurious villa or a professional battle room, the background was a dimly lit, damp, and cluttered basement. Foam boxes and fishing nets were piled up in the corner, and a faint fishy stench seemed to seep right through the screen.
In front of the camera sat a spirited young man in a floral shirt, sporting a thick gold chain and a buzz cut. He grinned, flashing yellow, smoke-stained teeth at the lens.
"Ayo! Master Miles! It's finally my turn! I've been waiting so long I thought I'd wither away!"
[High-Protein Spinarak] practically vibrated with excitement, his nouveau riche aura radiating through the screen.
"Master, that trick you pulled to tame that Machop earlier was absolutely killer! But this treasure I've got, while maybe not as good in a fight, absolutely crushes everything else when it comes to value and rarity!"
[Viewer "Late Night No Drinking": Who is this guy? Looks like he just got out of the joint. What a vibe.]
[Viewer "Frontline Melon Eater": Looks like a secondhand seafood peddler to me. Big gold chain, cheap watch, dude's living on cheap beer and vibes? This background is way too real.]
[Viewer "Wild Electabuzz": Stop bragging! Last time someone claimed they had a mythical beast, they pulled out a dyed Psyduck. I nearly died laughing!]
[Viewer "Keyboard Holmes": Waiting for the slap in the face! There are too many scammers these days and clearly not enough idiots to go around. Miles, teach him a lesson!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Gotta say, this environment looks pretty shady. Could this be some black market stuff?]
Miles ignored the chat's teasing. Leaning back in his chair calmly, he gestured toward the screen.
"Cut the crap and show the goods. Let's see if it's a mule or a horse."
"You got it! Watch closely!"
Brother Spinarak turned around secretively. From the messy pile of foam boxes, he carefully pulled out a square object tightly wrapped in a black plastic bag. Looking around like a thief to ensure no one was watching, he cautiously peeled back the layers of plastic.
As the final layer fell away, a transparent glass tank filled with murky seawater was revealed to the tens of thousands of viewers.
Resting quietly on the sandy bottom of the tank was a bizarre creature that practically reeked of ancient history.
It had a hard, heavy, spiraled gray-blue shell, deeply scarred by the erosion of time and marked with mysterious ridges. Several flexible, wriggling blue tentacles poked out from the shell's opening, along with a pair of large, round eyes that looked somewhat blank yet alert.
It looked like a cross between a mutant snail and a shelled octopus.
The moment Miles laid eyes on it, his pupils shrank to pinpricks. His heart skipped a beat.
It wasn't just because the creature was rare. It was because... this thing was incredibly illegal!
Seeing it, Miles almost cut the connection to call the police right then and there. What the hell kind of Pokémon appraisal was this? This was a live broadcast of a true-crime show!
In the chat feed, the sharp-eyed veteran Pokémon fans had also finally recognized the creature's true identity. The comments exploded, the tone shifting instantly.
[Viewer "Pokémon Pokédex Collector": Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!!! Am I seeing things? Is that... an Omanyte?! A live one?!]
[Viewer "Keyboard Holmes": Is this guy insane? That's a Fossil Pokémon! Even though there's supposedly resurrection tech now, wild ones are absolutely, strictly protected animals!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Bro is cooked! Straight up illegal! Brother Spinarak, that's not a mythical beast, that's a beast that'll get you a life sentence!]
[Viewer "Newbie Trainer": Genuine question, is this thing very expensive? It just looks like a big snail?]
[Viewer "Late Night No Drinking": To the guy above, this thing once sold for over 150k on the black market! And that's if you can even find a seller! But that's not the point. The point is, privately keeping a wild Omanyte is a minimum three-year sentence, and upto a lifetime in prison!]
[Viewer "Wild Electabuzz": Streamer, run! Don't get involved! This counts as assisting in the illegal trade of rare wild animals! You'll be implicated!]
[Viewer "Frontline Melon Eater": This stream is so hardcore. A minute ago it was psychological counseling, and now we're fast-forwarding to a legal awareness program? Thrilling!]
Seeing the screen fill with terrifying phrases like "minimum three years" and "life in prison," Brother Spinarak's smug smile instantly froze.
Though he was a seafood peddler who knew a bit about the trade, his knowledge was incredibly shallow. He only knew this thing was rare, valuable, and recently fished out of the sea. How could he have known about the massive legal risks behind it?
"Th-this... b-brothers, don't scare me!"
Brother Spinarak's voice began to tremble. He frantically wiped cold sweat from his forehead, looking at Miles on the screen with terrified eyes.
"M-Master, these netizens are just joking, right? Isn't this just a weird-looking conch? How does this lead to jail time? I-I'm a law-abiding citizen!"
Miles took a deep breath, suppressing his shock, and his expression turned unprecedentedly serious.
He didn't answer Brother Spinarak directly. Instead, he leaned forward, his piercing eyes staring dead into the camera. His tone was chillingly stern.
"Brother, some jokes can be made, but others can cost you your life. Tell me honestly, where exactly did you get this Omanyte? Do you have any idea what the sentencing guidelines are in our Federation's Pokémon Protection Act for privately poaching, transporting, and selling Class 1 protected Fossil Pokémon?"
Miles held up three fingers, shaking them at the camera, and enunciated every word.
"Three years minimum, no upper limit! In severe cases, all illegal proceeds are confiscated, and you get hit with a massive fine! And you're telling me it's a conch? Do you think a judge will believe that nonsense?!"
Boom!
Miles's words struck Brother Spinarak's skull like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.
His legs gave out, and he nearly dropped to his knees. He could barely hold his phone steady, the video feed shaking violently.
"I... I'm innocent, Master! I really didn't know it was a protected animal!"
Brother Spinarak cried, his psychological defenses completely shattering as he spilled his guts.
"I bought it! A couple of days ago, some fishermen came back from the sea and said they fished up this rare thing in international waters. I thought it looked like those ancient creatures from the books, and figured I could flip it for a profit, so... so I spent a fortune to buy it!"
"I really didn't mean to break the law! Master, save me! Is it too late to release it now? Or... or can I just stew it and destroy the evidence?!"
[Viewer "Red Moon Descent": Pfft! Stew it? Bro, are you trying to get the death penalty? Destroying evidence adds to the crime! This is a living ancient fossil!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Fished from international waters? That implies smuggling! That's three extra charges! This really is a major criminal case now!]
[Viewer "Iron Straight Man Also Sheds Tears": I'm dying of laughter. Spending a fortune to buy a ticket to prison? With this IQ, bro's beyond saving.]
[Viewer "Forest Deer": Just turn yourself in and hope for leniency. Streamer, hurry up and contact Officer Barrett. This is a huge case!]
Just as Brother Spinarak was panicking enough to consider hanging himself, and Miles was hesitating about whether to privately contact the police, a highly conspicuous, colorful chat message with an official golden verification badge flashed across the stream's public screen.
[Alliance Police - Officer Barrett] has entered the live room!
Immediately following, a message carrying absolute authority slowly drifted across the screen.
[Viewer "Alliance Police - Officer Barrett": Oh, it's quite lively here... I just got off work and heard someone was showing off a 'big treasure'? Let me see, what kind of treasure is so illegal?]
Seeing those words, Brother Spinarak let out a wail and slumped onto the floor, his face pale as death.
It was over. It was all over. The police had literally followed the network cable straight to his door!
"O-Officer Barrett! I surrender! I want to report a crime! I was scammed!" Brother Spinarak bowed frantically at the phone camera, looking utterly miserable.
Miles breathed a sigh of relief seeing Officer Barrett arrive. With an official present, things would be much easier to handle.
"Officer Barrett, you've come at the perfect time," Miles stated plainly, neither servile nor overbearing. "This viewer's Omanyte definitely has some issues with its origins. But looking at him, he probably bought it by mistake without knowing the truth. What do you think about this..."
[Viewer "Alliance Police - Officer Barrett": Since Master Miles has spoken, we'll handle this by the book. Little comrade, you just said you spent a 'fortune' buying it? Exactly how much? Who did you buy it from? Do you have a transaction record?]
Officer Barrett's questions were incredibly professional, striking right at the heart of the matter. Brother Spinarak didn't dare hide anything.
He stuttered, "I... I bought it from some fishermen with out-of-town accents. Cash transaction... no receipt. I spent... I spent five thousand bucks!"
When he said "five thousand," his face twitched with pain, as if it was an astronomical sum.
"Five thousand?" Miles raised an eyebrow, his expression turning somewhat odd.
If this really was an endangered wild Omanyte, five thousand bucks? That was practically giving it away! On the black market, an Omanyte in decent condition started in the six figures!
Were those fishermen completely clueless? Or could it be...
[Viewer "Alliance Police - Officer Barrett": Five thousand? Hehe.]
Officer Barrett sent a meaningful "hehe." The paragraph he sent next completely dumbfounded everyone in the stream, Miles included.
[Viewer "Alliance Police - Officer Barrett": Little comrade, I'm afraid your five thousand bucks might have just gone down the drain. Have you not watched the news lately? Just last month, the Federation's Pokémon Ecological Resources Department issued the latest 'Notice on Adjusting the Protection Levels of Certain Aquatic Pokémon.']
[Viewer "Alliance Police - Officer Barrett": Due to breakthrough progress in 'Ancient Pokémon Restoration Technology' in recent years, as well as the discovery of large-scale wild Omanyte populations in certain ocean regions... After expert evaluation, Pokémon like Omanyte and Kabuto have officially been removed from the Class 1 Endangered Protected Animals list and downgraded to Class 3 Farmable/Tradeable Aquatic Pokémon!]
[Viewer "Alliance Police - Officer Barrett": In other words, as long as you didn't illegally poach it from a large-scale ecological reserve, this thing is now... legal! You just need to come down to the station, register it, pay a two-hundred-buck processing fee, and you can take it home as a pet!]
Rumble—!!!
Officer Barrett's educational lecture was even more explosive than the earlier threat of "three years minimum!"
The plot had twisted too fast, like a tornado! One second it was "life in prison," and the next it was a "legal cute pet"?!
[Viewer "Late Night No Drinking": Holy crap?! It's legal?! How did I not know this?! The evening news didn't say anything!]
[Viewer "Wild Electabuzz": Wait! Does this mean... Brother Spinarak doesn't have to go to jail?]
[Viewer "Frontline Melon Eater": Not only does he not have to go to jail, but didn't he just strike it rich? He bought it for five thousand. Even if it's downgraded, a rare goodie like this has to be worth tens of thousands at least, right?]
[Viewer "Keyboard Holmes": Congratulations, Brother Spinarak! Enjoy your new legal mythical beast! Talk about a blessing in disguise! What a rollercoaster of a life!]
[Viewer "Outlaw John Doe": Even TV dramas wouldn't dare write a script like this! I nearly had a heart attack! I was flipping through my law books until the pages tore, and you're telling me it got downgraded?]
Watching the congratulations roll in, Brother Spinarak was completely dazed.
He sat blankly on the floor for several seconds before abruptly snapping back to reality, his face erupting in wild ecstasy!
"L-Legal?! No jail time?!"
Brother Spinarak jumped up from the ground in excitement, fiercely kissing the glass tank.
"Hahahaha! I knew it! I knew I, Brother Spinarak, was blessed by the heavens! Bought for five thousand! I'm rich now! I'm filthy rich! This is an ancient mythical beast!"
But as he watched Brother Spinarak's manic, overjoyed display, Miles furrowed his brows slightly.
Upto 20 chapters ahead on patreon :-
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