Once I was done checking out the rest of the folder, I began considering my next steps. I felt that starting with lissa would be the best way to go about it. If she ended up choosing her new Pokemon before I got to her, I would lose the easiest and least suspicious way to approach her.
I did have to be subtle during the process after all if I wanted to avoid alerting the others, and lissa suddenly vanishing, getting hurt, acting different, or straight up warning the others would cause them to hide, which would make my mission extrely hard or even close to impossible.
Anyway, since I knew that lissa had 4 Pokemon, I chose to openly carry 4 as well. I did not want to look like an easy target so they could not be too weak, but at the sa ti, they could not be obviously stronger than hers to avoid startling or scaring her. The goal was to seem to be a run-of-the-mill grunt/seller under a black-market dealer after all.
To that end, I chose a (high) bronze-stage Raticate, a (mid) bronze-stage Fearow and a (low) bronze-stage Beedrill as well as Raticate. Yeah, I chose to have two of those, one weaker than the other. It seed right for my cover, so I went with it.
Naturally, one could not forget the "commodity" if one wanted to act as a seller, so I chose a (mid) iron stage Ekans to act as the "product". For soone like her, the Ekans was strong enough that it could join her team after training it for a while, and weak enough that she could train it however she wanted without it being capable of causing any problems.
Obviously, there was a reason why lissa was trying to get a poison type from the black market instead of simply trying to get one in the wild, and that was the Pokemon's potential. I deliberately chose one with green potential (4-star), so it was definitely above average but not that great.
However, to ensure that lissa would actually be interested enough to talk to/haggle with for long enough that I could rummage through her mind, I made sure that the Ekans I chose had a point that stood out. It actually knew Poison Fang which was sothing that was not in Ekan's innate move pool.
Obviously, there was no way that lissa, or any other criminal for that matter, would take another criminal, Pokemon dealer/seller or not, by the word, so I had to go and have Ekans potential verified first before I could head toward Viridian City.
Naturally, I made sure to stay anonymous when I handed in Ekans for the potential check, so when I left with the 4-star certification in my pocket, no one knew who I was. I also made sure to use blue contact lenses to change my eye color and dyed my hair dirt blond with a soluble hair dye before I left the house.
That, together with so light powder to adjust my face for a bit along with a change in get-up, caused to look totally different from my usual look. I doubted that soone aside from my parents and maybe my close friends would be able to recognize even when looking right into my face.
I was sure that directly heading to lissa's "hideout" would have been pretty stupid since my appearance there would have definitely been suspicious. Instead, I made my way to the black market I knew lissa had visited. I proceeded to spend the next two-plus hours there, going around looking at so of the poison types while trying to "act" subtly and asking around for anyone interested in a good Ekans.
My goal was to create the image of a newcor to the Viridian Black Market that was "subtly" looking around trying to get so information on so potential custors. I did not mind if I was not able to reach my goal today, since I was confident that my thod would help get either lissa's na or her attention by tomorrow.
Well, it would probably attract all kinds of attention, and most likely not the good kind, but the only one I cared about was lissa's attention, so I would have to fend off everything/everyone else until I succeeded. Besides, the other kind of attention was good as well since it gave a good excuse to vanish after "closing" the deal with lissa.
Anyway, shortly before my third hour at the market I chose to leave seeing how none of the people there ntioned lissa during my inquiries. I went around a few crowds before settling in a rather average motel. After that, I spent the next three hours ditating before handing out everyone's dinner and eating sothing myself.
Once I was done with that, I went back to the black market to see if my previous act had borne fruit or if I would have to spread so more seeds for tomorrow. Thankfully I only had to go around for 20 or so minutes before soone approached to act as a middleman.
The guy straight up told that he would call over a potential custor that was interested in my Ekans for if I paid him 10.000 Poke. I could have naturally plucked the number from his mind, but that would have been useless since it would not have fit into my plan.
Still, I did a bit of mind-reading to confirm that the person he was referring to was lissa. I did not want to "accidentally" et up with soone else after all, and I was lucky enough that it was actually lissa.
Anyway, the plan was also why I did not agree with the price even though I actually would not mind paying that much for the completion of the mission. However, there was no way that soone in the position of my role would be willing to do that, so I directly complained.
"What are you on my man? Are you trying to rob or what?" I directly retorted. "I'll give you 100 at most," I counteroffered instead and he looked seriously affronted at my bid.
"100?! Are you sh*tting ? Do I look like I am running a charity? What am I supposed to do with that buy milk? Actually, forget it, you can't even buy milk with 100 Pokes. Who taught you how to haggle? 8000, take it or leave it," the dude fired back, and I raised an eyebrow in return.
"Do I look stupid? There's no way I'll pay you 8k just for a phone call. I'm sure I'll find soone else willing to refer soone to for much less.
Let's say 1k, sounds like a good deal, right?" I returned and the guy released a snort in return.
"Right, my ass. I think you're mocking my intelligence. 7000 is already generous on my part," he went a bit lower but did not forget to cuss a bit before he did that. Still, I released a short mocking laugh for the next bit.
"7000 in exchange for 7 seconds sounds like a dream co true. I think it's ti you woke up. I'm feeling generous right now since you made laugh, so I'll pay you 2k for the referral. Aren't I generous?" I returned and the man glared at .
"2k, I'm starting to think you're not serious about this. Are you trying to waste my ti? 6000 is my last offer," he semi-growled the last part, and I felt that it was about ti to finish up.
"Wow, dude, calm down, don't get all rabid on ," I joked first before taking a slightly more serious tone. "Alright, my mom always used to tell to be nicer to the old, children, and ntally retarded, so I'm willing to give you 5k in return for the call," I threw in a not-so-subtle taunt with my last offer. You know, in the spirit of the negotiations, but looking at his face he might have taken it a bit too seriously.
"You're the retard. You can either pay 7000 Pokes, or you can spend the rest of the day wandering around the market like a drunk Mr.Mi," he actually raised the price again while pretty much calling a clown.
"I happen to like Mr. Mi, so I'll take that as a complint. Still, I'm getting bored of this, so how about you make that call and I give you 6k return so we can get out of each other's hair?" I offered and he agreed but he seed unwilling to let have the last word.
"Fine, I was starting to get tired of you anyway. Hand over the 6000 Poke and I'll call the interested gal," he said and I took another peek to ensure that he was actually planning to do it instead of pulling off a running man.
After I confird that he was going to do what he said, I gave him a skeptical look and said "How do I know you won't run off once you have the money" in accordance with my role, and he released a snort.
"I won't ruin my rep for your ager money. I worked too hard to earn it. Everyone knows that Greg delivers what he promises," he half bragged, half assured , and having already confird that he was saying the truth, I pulled out the money and paid him. In return, Greg pulled out his phone and called lissa.
"l. Yes, it's ," he said before throwing a glance. "Yeah, I have soone here looking for soone to buy his Ekans and I imdiately thought of you. How about it, are you interested in taking a look?" he asked her, and I heard her asking if the Ekans was worth her showing up.
Thankfully, the guy did his job seriously. "You know , I would not have called you if I did not think you might be interested," Greg assured her, and I heard her agree. She said that she would go to the usual place as quickly as possible.
Greg gave a smug smile before speaking up again. "Don't forget to pay my referral fee," he told her and I heard her promise to pay his 3k imdiately. No wonder he gave that smug look. Not only was he earning money from both sides, but I had paid him double his usual referral rate.
Now, I might not have cared all that much about having to pay him 6k, but I had to admit, his smug look coupled with what I heard did irk a bit. Actually, it irked quite a bit, but I let it go since causing a scene right now would only throw a wrench in my plans. lissa might not show up if she heard that I beat up her contact.
Once they hung up, Greg turned to and told "And now we wait". Just a minute later his phone rang once and he smiled after looking at the notification. I was guessing he had received his paynt from lissa, but aside from giving a smirk he kept quiet.
A few minutes later his phone rang and he picked up. I heard lissa's voice telling Greg that she had arrived. Greg told her that we were coming over before hanging up. Looking at he asked to follow him before leading outside the black market.
He explained that he had rented a room close to the market where he allowed his clients to et so that they could handle their business in private and that lissa was waiting there.
I knew that he was saying the truth since I could tell that he was doing so and because I had confird it, but I had a role to play so I acted hesitant when he ntioned following him to a different place for a private eting.
"How do I know that you're not leading to an ambush or sothing like that," I stopped and questioned. He simply looked amused.
"I told you that I value my reputation, and robbing clients is not good for one's reputation. Still, you don't have to follow if you don't want to. You've already paid after all. I'll simply pay l back and treat it as earning 6k by wasting my breath with you," he said with a shrug.
I acted indecisive for a bit before pretending to look resolved. Then I told him to lead the way and followed him while he brought to a building two blocks from the black market. We walked to a flat on the third floor and I saw my first target waiting for us at the door of the flat.
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