Pokemon - A real story

Chapter 70: Things are too Cheap (Edited)

"A Cleaner is someone who does menial jobs to earn points. But may have already heard it from Althea. But what you may not have known would be its difficulty. It is hard to live as Cleaner. If you want to be a member, you would need 200 points. 200 points may be easy for members like me to earn but it is a different story for you.

I was a Cleaner before and it took me 6 months to collect 200 points. A cleaner could not have a Pokemon and you would have to do those dirty and low-level works for a long time."

"Man !, is it that hard. 6 months is a long time. Maybe I should leave Pride and try my luck somewhere else.", said the cleaner.

Hearing this response the member started to laugh hysterically. After he had his time to laugh, he added, "Haha, you think Pride could not appoint people that could do menial jobs. Why do you think that you, a potential trainer have to work as a cleaner?

Now listen to me very carefully. Pride is a secret organization. So if people who have failed get the right to go out, do you think it would be a secret organization anymore? No.

You are trapped here. You now become a member or live the rest of your life being a cleaner. If you want to go out from here, then your end would not be pleasant.", replied the member.

After listening to that explanation, a few cleaners who had heard it became nervous and they now had pale faces. The member tried to console them by saying,

"But don't worry there are benefits of being a Cleaner. If you become a member after being in the ranks of cleaner, you would be respected more than a normal member. The elite members and executive would give you preferential treatment and other members would also show you some respect."

"Why?"

"This is because of the organization's policy. Being a cleaner is not easy. Pride respects the people who deserve it. So, you would not be bullied even if you are a cleaner here. So, that's a load off your back."

Bruno stopped hearing after this. He had his shit to take care of. He knew about the ranks of Pokemon but didn't know what an elemental or Pseudo-king or King ranked Pokemon could possibly do and how he could train them.

He thought to buy the book with his remaining 800 points. He thought to just buy the elemental Pokemon training manual for now and hoped that 800 points would cover it.

Member of Pride had their own market to buy these things. You could buy almost all of the things you needed. He went to the shop once again to buy it. He had gone there yesterday to buy the ingredients.

"Oh hello, new member. What have you come here for today, buy or sell?", asked an old man.

He was the shopkeeper of this shop.

"Buy, I want to buy an elemental Pokemon training manual."

"We have it. Do you want a general one or for a specific Pokemon?"

"A general one would do."

"Ok then, it would cost you 20 points."

"20!! ??", Bruno was shocked.

"Alright, I could give it to you for 10 points."

But seeing Bruno shocked again, he said, "5 points, that is my last offer. Damn! You know how to haggle."

He had thought to earn some extra points because Bruno was a newbie and didn't know anything. You could actually see the prices in the forum and they are fixed. But Bruno had come prepared, at least he thought so.

But Bruno was surprised because the price was so low. 5 points for such a valuable book was too cheap. But he straightened his face and said,

"Ok, the price is acceptable. Give me a general book on elemental, Pseudo king and King ranked Pokemon. I would also like a specific training manual for Zubat line, Scyther line, Pidgey line and Slakoth line. Of course only of elemental ranks for now."

"Here are your books, 35 points in total.", said the old man handing the books. Bruno handed over his Pokecard and the points were deducted.

After the transaction was successful he asked, "What I want to know is, why the books are so cheap and the ingredients are so pricey. I actually expected it to be way higher."

"Oh my sweet luck, I made a bad business today. So that is why you were shocked.", said the old man.

But the transaction was already completed so he thought to give an explanation to the boy. The boy may be grateful and be his regular customer.

"The price of the books is low cause it is not a one-time use item. It is a copy. Pride wants its member to grow strong so it would not place a high price on these books. However, the prices of ingredients are high as they could not be used again. There is a forum about the prices of everything. You should check it."

Bruno thanked the old man for the information and went towards his room. He first thought to give a simple read of the general books to get a general idea. Then he would read about the specific books and think of a new training plan.

But first, he decided to check the forum. He didn't want to buy anything now but wanted to see all those things that could be bought.

After searching in the forum, he found out about a miraculous thing called, TM. This thing could increase his practice pace. But the prices of the TMs were in hundreds. Some of the rare ones were actually in thousands. Expensive moves like 'Sky attack' were worth 25000 points. These TMs had a lot of zeros. But Bruno was not disappointed in this. He would take 1 step at a time. Kanto was not built in a day. It would take his baby steps toward ultimate power.