"This is so annoying!" Hisoka slammed his palm onto his laptop keyboard and leaned back heavily into his lounge chair. He felt as if someone were deliberately working against him.
He had been scouring every major trading site and auction house on the web for two hours. While Prism Scales were exceptionally rare, they weren't nonexistent.
Hisoka had found transaction records for them on several large trading platforms, and just a moment ago, a small auction site with very low traffic had held an online bidding war. Among the items listed was exactly what he needed: a Prism Scale.
The IP address for that small auction site was based in the Johto Region. According to the data provided by the site, this iridescent, strange scale had been discovered by an ordinary fisherman in Cianwood City just this morning while he was out on his boat. His son had then tossed it onto the auction site to see what it would fetch.
3,000,000 Poké Dollars.
Someone had snatched it up instantly for three million. Talk about being filthy rich. Looking at the display on the screen, Hisoka felt a surge of anger. But there was nothing he could do; when the other party had the money to hit the "Buy It Now" price, you didn't really have a say in the matter.
The fisherman's son hadn't even known what the iridescent scale was or what it did. He just thought it looked pretty and hoped it would attract some collectors online. Because of that, the starting bid had only been 30,000 Poké Dollars.
Online auctions, however, followed a rule that distinguished them from real-world auctions: the Buy It Now rule. This was a rule specially designed for the wealthy, allowing them to instantly end an auction by paying a price 100 times higher than the starting bid.
As he calmed down, Hisoka's reason returned. He pulled the keyboard back toward him and plugged a USB drive into the laptop. "Let's see just what kind of big shot this is!"
His hacking skills were top-tier, and this USB drive was filled with programs he had written over the years. Whenever he wanted to verify a theory but lacked the necessary evidence, Hisoka would use these tools to breach the mainframes of research institutes to get the data he wanted.
Hisoka had discovered that hacking technology in this world was still in its infancy; network security didn't seem to be a high priority for the various Regional Leagues. Of course, he didn't dare to be too reckless.
Even though he was often short on cash, he could have easily sold classified data from major institutes to underground organizations for a fortune. While it would be fast money, the consequences of getting caught were far beyond what Hisoka could handle.
When you can't change the rules of the world, you adapt to them!
The IP address was coming from the Hoenn Region! Hisoka watched as the red dot representing Hoenn flashed repeatedly in his program. Once the broad region was locked, he began searching for the specific city...
Hisoka tracked the IP until it stopped at a specific location: Sootopolis City, the Sootopolis Gym!
"So it's him!"
The corner of Hisoka's mouth curled upward into a knowing smile. He opened the official website for the Hoenn League. On the home page was a prominent photograph of a man who was almost unfairly beautiful. He had turquoise hair, eyes of the same hue, and wore a custom-tailored white suit with a black cape fluttering behind him.
As the featured figure of the Hoenn League's official site, this man's background was naturally extraordinary. Wallacethe former Gym Leader of Sootopolis Gym. However, in January of last year, he had become the Hoenn Region's League Champion, the symbolic figurehead of the entire region.
There were four members of the Elite Four, but there was only one League Champion. Only the strongest Pokémon Trainer in a region could hold that title, representing the number one spot and becoming a symbol for that land.
The new Hoenn Champion, Wallace, was a very peculiar individual. He didn't start as a traditional Pokémon Trainer; instead, he was a Pokémon Coordinatorand a Master-rank one at that.
Conventionally, a Pokémon Coordinator focused on commanding Pokémon to use elegant moves to create a unique aesthetic or to showcase a Pokémon's raw, original beauty. The Pokémon Contests they participated in were akin to pageants.
Because of this, most people believed that Coordinators were far inferior to Trainers who specialized in combat when it came to actual battlesseeing them as mere "eye candy."
Yet, such a Coordinator Master had become the Champion of a region. Hisoka remembered that the news of Wallace becoming the Hoenn Champion last year had caused quite a sensation.
Wallace was close friends with the previous Hoenn Champion, Steven Stone. According to rumors circulating online, the two had once fought a private 6v6 duel. The result was a victory for Wallace, the Coordinator. Deeply shaken and discouraged by the loss, Steven Stone had supposedly handed the title of Champion over to his friend.
Of course, that was just the most popular rumor. Whether it was actually true, Hisoka didn't know and wasn't particularly interested.
For a guy who didn't come from a training background and had never served as a member of the Elite Four to suddenly ascend to the position of Hoenn Champion suggested that Wallace was unfathomableor that the power behind him was equally deep.
This was an opponent he couldn't afford to provoke. Hisoka immediately abandoned any thought of planting a destructive virus in the other's computer. The wrath of a Hoenn Champion was not something a lowly Bronze Bounty Hunter could handle.
However, he still needed to collect a bit of "interest." Hisoka secretly copied various classified videos and files from the mainframe. Then, after scrubbing all traces of his intrusion, he disconnected the link.
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