97 Back To Route 3!
Gan didn't have many Star pieces on him right now, so he would just wait. He wanted to try a couple more machines around here.
"This Machine is called the Talent Checker." Gan walked over and stood in front of it.
The price to check your Pokemon's talent didn't cost much, at least when it came to what Gan had.
"According to the booklet, this will display what stats your Pokemon excels in." Gan paid the ₱1,000 fee.
The first Pokemon he wanted to test was Arcanine since she had just evolved. Gan placed her Pokeball into the slot and had the machine run a scan.
This vibrant blue light proceeded to scan Arcanine's Pokeball for three minutes. Gan took a seat and waited until the process was done.
Once it was finished he went over to check the results.
"Oh, so she excels in Attack, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def, and Speed." The display screen showed a 3d picture of an Arcanine. Next to Arcanine's left side, the screen showed a Radar Chart with stats.
"Nice, so she's good at these four stats, which make up the 4-stars." Unfortunately, these stars were randomized if you didn't use a certain method to acquire the said max star stat.
This machine checked the IVs of a Pokemon.
Naturally, Gan wanted to check his other Pokemon to see what they really excelled at.
He quickly paid out the money to see their stats.
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Alakazam Excelled in: Speed, Sp. Atk, Health, and Defense.
Dratini Excelled in: Speed, Attack, Sp. Defense, Health, and Defense.
Wartortle Excelled in: Speed, Sp. Def, Defense, and Sp. Atk.
Machoke Excelled in: Attack, Health, Defense, and Speed
Rhyhorn Excelled in: Attack, Defense, and Health.
Gengar Excelled in: Sp. Atk, Speed, and Health.
Nidoking Excelled in: Speed, Health, and Sp. Atk
Nidoqueen Excelled in: Health, Defense, and Sp. Def.
Koffing Excelled in: Health, Defense, and Sp. Atk.
Grimer Excelled in: Attack, Sp. Def, and Health.
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Gan printed out papers of these charts to remember what they were best at.
Afterward, he moved on to the next machine. This machine was able to check the said Pokemon's affection for you.
Gan first checked Arcanine to see its affection. Red hearts meant its positive love for you, while black hearts meant its hate for you.
As usual, Gan place her Pokeball into a slot before paying the toll due. Gan had to place his hand on a scanner and keep it there.
The machine scanned the Pokeball and his hand multiple times. This was to check heart-to-heart with the Pokemon and Human.
This took the longest to scan out of the machines—with this process taking 5 minutes flat.
Eventually, the numbers rolled in for Arcanine. Gan still wasn't used to seeing Growlithe become an Arcanine. Even though he evolved a decent amount of Pokemon, he felt strange seeing Growlithe change.
She was usually out walking with him or he was giving her her medication. He had grown really used to seeing her as a Growlithe, but those days were now forever over.
Gan could only sigh.
Suddenly, the affection rate appeared on the touch screen.
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-Arcanine's Affection: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
---
"Oh my gosh, that's high for a Pokemon I haven't had long." Gan was stunned
He decided to check everyone else's but found that their affection wasn't as high as Arcanine.
Alakazam's Affection was only 2 hearts, while Gengar was at 3 hearts. Koffing had 3 hearts as well, and so did Graveler.
Now that Gan had accomplished what he wanted, it was time to head out. The group of teens turned to Gan as he was leaving. Some were envious, while some showed admiration.
They really wanted an Arcanine as well.
Gan went downstairs where there were different types of machines. That was when he spotted a TM Tutor machine.
"What's the point of this machine, anyway? We can teach Pokemon manually without such a thing." Gan shook his head.
He found this machine to be useless.
"What's the point of it?" The man at the counter from earlier turned around and frowned. At this time, he was wiping down a few machines.
"Huh?" Gan looked over confused and continued. "Uh, yeah, what's the point of this machine if you can teach Pokemon TMs manually?" Gan asked bluntly.
Gan was just talking to himself, so he didn't expect the clerk to respond.
"Using TMs manually will affect the Pokemon's mental state over time. This is practically forcing information into their minds. It's so forced that the TM disc always breaks when they're used."
The man looked at Gan strangely and continued.
"These machines can be used to slowly implement the information into your Pokemon's mind. The TM disc also doesn't break, but it will still come out as an empty disc—which could be sold afterward."
"What? There was such a thing?" Gan was stunned, but this was something he needed to know. If he hadn't been told this, he would have surely continued to teach his Pokemon manually.
This would surely cause his Pokemon to have many problems down the line! Gan suddenly broke out into a cold sweat, he would have had some mentally degraded Pokemon if he continued down this path.
"Ah, thank you for telling. I didn't...know that." Gan wiped the sweat off his forehead and said.
"No problem, but I'm surprised you didn't know something so basic." The man found that strange. That should have been one of the first things he was taught before thinking of becoming a trainer.
"Hehe, I guess I missed that part." Gan obviously couldn't tell the man he wasn't from this world.
Gan once again thanked the man before eventually leaving the Power Center. He was fortunate to be a part of Team Rocket, they had so many hard-to-come-by resources.
If he didn't join Team Rocket, Gan was sure things would be much harder.
"Hmm, if only I had a bike or something, this would make traveling easier." Gan contemplated buying a bike if he could.
'Hopefully, the prices aren't as outrageous as they were in the game.' Gan remembered the insane prices when you spoke to the clerk. The only way to get a bike at that time was by getting a voucher.
Gan left the Power Center, with his next destination being Route 3. Before leaving Pewter City tomorrow, he needed to catch some Pokemon.
These Pokemon were for selling to the deprived Celedon Branch.
After walking for a while, he finally made it to the city square. Gan noticed that the city was starting to liven up a bit. Nonetheless, Gan kept on his way unbothered by the steadily growing people.
Route 3 was as peaceful as Gan remembered it. Well, not when he first arrived, that's when he witnessed a battle between Mankey and Sandshrew.
Gan was en route until he discovered the familiar tall grass and forest around it. Going upward led to the Pokemon Center near Mt. Moon.
There was an abundance of tall grass here that would sway side to side from strong winds. People avoided walking through it since this would make them a target of attack.
Gan went around this large area of tall grass and went into the forest near it. He summoned Alakazam to help him with some things.
Gan also summoned Arbok and Gengar to help with this as well.
What Gan needed to capture were Sandshrew, Ekans, Mankey, and even Rattata. Alakazam shot out its senses and picked up a large number of Pokemon in the area.
Suddenly, Alakazam squinted in what appeared to be a frown.
"You're being trailed," Alakazam said.
"Trailed?" Gan instantly understood that he was being followed by someone.
"Does someone want smoke with me? Did someone find out who I am or something? But that's impossible!"
Gan's expression changed.
"I don't think so, they seemed to have ill intent against you but not for that reason."
"ill intentions, huh? How many of them are there?" Alakazam told Gan that there were 3 individuals.
With a nod, Gan ordered Alakazam to teleport him and everyone else a distance away. Afterward, he told Alakazam to teleport him to a place close to them—so he could see his stalkers.
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"That brat isn't from our branch from what I've gathered. The information I bought said he was from the Celedon Branch." Marko, who appeared to be the leader said.
"Don't you know, he spent his last 20,000 on heart scales! I'm so pissed, this bastard spent our 20,000 Merit points!" Philip, the fat short man was enraged.
"I saw that. After that, he used them in that new Power Center, I suppose. If he still has those heart scales and didn't use them, then we can sell them for a high price once we capture him."
Ron the slender man was elated. If they could kill this little rookie, then they could earn a decent payout.
"He came into the forest for some reason. Philip, are you still tracking him?" Marko gazed ahead at Philip, who was leading the way.
"Yes, I'm still tracking him. He went this way, he shouldn't have gone too far." Philip was quite good at tracking, this has allowed them to capture many victims in the past.
They had done this many times, they had killed and robbed several brave and outgoing rookies—over the years.
These acts weren't new to them and they were, in fact, experts at this. They would hunt the rookie down and always defeat and kill them.
Selling his Pokemon for money and other valuables, while keeping the important things for themselves. If the rookies were strong, they would all gang up on him to beat and kill him.
"Haha, it's always good to wait by the Merit hall to scout out fat sheep." Ron the tall slender man said happily, but his smile seemed vicious.
The group kept walking until they came to their destination.
"Hmm, it's here," Philip said with a bit of confusion. They were moving cautiously and carefully through the forest, to possibly sneak attack Gan.
"Okay, where's the target?" Marko looked around and frowned from the bushes.
T-the tracks end here...I don't understand. This doesn't make sense, he was supposed to be here." Philip was just as confused as Marko.
"Are telling me he grew wings and flew away?!" Marko was furious, this guy was a really big cash cow, so he couldn't let Gan get away!
"Didn't the information state that he only had a Koffing?" Ron remembered that this was mentioned in the report.
"Yes. I also heard that the rank of this Pokemon was Gold rank. We'll need to be careful, our Pokemon are only at Bronze."
"He isn't here, does he perhaps have a flying Pokemon? That bastard has been giving us the runaround! This guy doesn't sit still at all, it's almost like he has goals other than Team Rocket!"
Mark clenched his teeth as veins appeared on foreheard. This would be the second time this guy had gotten away from them.
Suddenly, a silhouette appeared in the forest. They all turned to look but found that the figure's form was hard to make out.
"W-what is that?" Ron's eyes widened.
The figure smiled at the group, and before they could reply to Ron—they saw another figure next to it.
Its eyes were bright yellow, and that's when they felt something invade their bodies. The three men fell to the group paralyzed.
"W-what's going on? I c-can't m-move!" Philip was shocked and suddenly had a bad feeling.
"I-I think were p-paralyzed by something!" Ron felt a surge of fear, how could this happen?
"Damn it! I saw it! That was an Ekans or something, it must have used Glare on us!" Marko's forehead was filled with sweat.
He knew this area contained Ekans, in fact, this Pokemon ran this territory. There was even a chance of encountering an Arbok—if you were unfortunate.
Gan had been following them closely, and listening to them.
He heard everything that was said up until this point. Alakazam mentioned that he could see a gray aura around them.
Gray meant death and acts of cruelty. Clearly, they had done this many times before!
Gan's expression turned cold. From what they were talking about to this point to what Alakazam had mentioned, they couldn't be allowed to live.
'It looks like I'll have to truly kill someone today.'
