Shop System In Pokemon World

It was all an act. Roy had never paid much attention to Sima Yi's acting before, but watching him perform up close, he had to admit the man had a real talent for it. There was something almost impressive about the way he could summon genuine-looking emotion on command — the way his voice broke at just the right moment, the glisten in his eyes that made it all feel real. Only by standing right beside him could Roy appreciate exactly how convincing it was.

The boss, for his part, was mildly irritated. He didn't fully understand what Sima Yi was so sentimental about. His older brother was gone — that much was true — but in a world like this, even the loss of someone close didn't warrant much grief. Life moved on. People found replacements. That was simply how things worked. And now, here was Sima Yi's chosen replacement, standing right in front of him.

When the boss thought it through, the deal was actually quite favorable for him. The cost of granting one ordinary person access to a basic Pokémon core essence was minimal. In exchange, he got to avoid paying out Sima Yi's full mission reward and he received the Guzzlord's core — a rare and powerful specimen. Two gains for almost no real cost. He'd rarely seen someone hand him such a clean advantage, and the fact that it had come from someone he'd long written off as dead weight made it all the more amusing.

"Ha! Is that all you're asking for?" The boss laughed, a low, satisfied sound. "Fine. As the leader of this Black Moon Branch, I approve. Sima Yi, take him around and let him get familiar with how things work here. Then bring him down to pick out a Tier 1 Pokémon essence." He leaned back and folded his arms. "Welcome to the organization. Work hard — maybe one day you'll reach fourth-tier master, like me."

The words were spoken loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear. No one raised any objection. The stranger who had been completely unknown to all of them just minutes ago was now, by the boss's own word, one of them. A fellow member. A companion bound by the same goals, however temporary those bonds might be.

The place where the Pokémon essences were stored turned out to be in the basement directly beneath the boss's building. Access required the boss's explicit approval, and even then, reaching the lowest level meant a ride down in an automatic elevator. Roy counted the seconds during the descent. At least a full minute passed before they reached the bottom. Wherever they had placed these things, they had placed them deep.

There was no one watching down here.

"So this is where they keep them," Roy said, glancing around as the elevator doors opened. "The place where ordinary people receive Pokémon power. And based on what your boss said, the plan is to pick out one of these essences — one that'll be mine to use."

Sima Yi nodded, leading him toward the innermost room. Even here, at the bottom of the building, a thick reinforced door blocked the way forward. It made sense. Granting ordinary humans access to Pokémon power — even at the lowest tier — was not something any organization would leave unguarded.

"That's right," Sima Yi said. "Though I should be upfront — the essences stored at this level aren't the most powerful. Think of it as roughly equivalent to a Pokémon that hasn't yet reached its middle stage of evolution, or one that's naturally on the weaker end. Still, it all comes down to your own choice. And a bit of luck, honestly. Even with a compatible essence, there's always a small chance it doesn't take."

For a moment, he had the air of someone who actually knew what he was talking about — almost like a senior mentor walking a new recruit through the ropes.

Roy doubted any of the essences here would work on him the way they were intended. But he was genuinely curious about what was stored inside — the range of types, the variety of Pokémon they'd been extracted from.

After passing through several secured doors, they finally reached the storage room itself.

Rows of shelves lined the walls, each one holding small vials filled with softly glowing liquid. No labels with writing — just the glow of each vial's color was enough to tell you what you were looking at. Ice-type essences shimmered in a pale, crystalline blue. Water-type essences were a deeper, richer shade — ocean blue rather than frost blue. Fire-type essences burned in warm amber and red. Each type had its own unmistakable hue, and each gave off a faint energy that you could almost feel if you stood close enough.

Beneath each vial, a small tag indicated which Pokémon it had been taken from, and which core it had been extracted from.

Roy scanned the shelves. Pikachu. Charmander. Bulbasaur. Squirtle. The starters and common Electric-types filled most of the lower rows.

"Is this everything at this tier?" Roy asked. "I thought you mentioned there might be something with a bit more potential. Are there stronger options — something less common?"

"These are the easiest to source," Sima Yi said, his tone flat. "Wild Pokémon. No Trainer to defend them. No resistance. Easy to collect." He said it the same way someone might talk about harvesting crops — no weight to the words, no acknowledgment of what it actually meant.

Roy didn't react outwardly. But he filed it away.

When Roy pressed further about whether there were rarer options available, Sima Yi paused. He looked mildly exasperated, as if the question was more than he'd bargained for. Still, since Roy was asking, he'd have to take him to the other section — the one with less common essences, ones that hadn't been fully sorted yet but carried real potential.

"It's not that they don't exist," Sima Yi muttered under his breath, already walking. "It's just that most people who actually want power don't overthink it. Turning down a clean, reliable essence because you want something rarer... if it doesn't pan out, you'd never stop regretting it."

He hadn't quite kept his voice low enough.

Roy caught every word.

"I'm not too worried about it," Roy said evenly. "At the end of the day, the real strength is in my Pokémon — not in me borrowing a little of it for myself. If I'm going to take on any power at all, I'd rather it be something genuine than just a pale imitation of what my Pokémon already have." He said it plainly, without any attempt to show off. He simply meant it.