A podium was slowly carried into the middle of the arena by two strong Pokémon with exciting music playing loudly via speakers.

This podium had the typical three places for the ranking, each designated with a number. ​​

Steven, Wallace, and Flannery; with their respective medals, went to their achieved positions and took one last picture to finish this tournament.

"What a top 3? 2 Champions and 1 Gym leader. I am sure that after several decades, people will still look back to this tournament," thought Alex as he mused about the distant future.

Alex heard the farewell speech from the organizer and began to leave the arena like some other spectators.

He was a bit curious whether Steven would choose a Royal Pokémon or not, but that had to wait until Steven was done. As a spectator, he is not allowed to come along just like that, even if he is Steven's friend.

Alex waited 20 minutes outside the arena before he saw Steven leaving with Wallace.

It looked like those two were getting along very well, and their relationship looked friendly enough.

Alex was a bit surprised that Wallace was talking to Steven and even made friends after his defeat. It seems that Wallace's self-confidence had hardly suffered a blow from this defeat.

Steven saw Alex and started walking in his direction, with Wallace following him.

Steven gave a friendly smile as he said, "Wallace, let me introduce you to my best friend, Alex. He's the winner of this year's Kanto Rookie tournament and also the person I trained with for this tournament."

Wallace gave a polite smile when he said, "Hi Alex, nice to meet you. Steven has already told me a little about you."

"Is that so... hope that they were all the good things. Though knowing Steven, it is highly doubtful."

Wallace understood that Alex was just kidding. But he played along with him. "Well, what can you expect from a person who looked for a tournament winner as a training partner to win."

Steven smiled slightly and said, "Haha! Ok, ok, that's enough now. Don't take advantage of my good mood after the victory."

Even though Steven said that he was smiling from ear to ear.

Alex, Steven, and Wallace, even went out to eat after the tournament and talked about all sorts of things.

In the end, Wallace said goodbye to both of them after 2 hours. Of course, they didn't forget to exchange contacts.

Alex saw Wallace walking away before looking in the direction of Steven and said, "Ok, Steven, I have to go now too. I have to get the ship tomorrow morning."

Steven looked in the direction of Alex and said sincerely, "Alex, thank you again for your help. If you have time again, you can come by anytime."

"Haha! Steven, you better look for a girlfriend, or people will keep on thinking that you are gay."

Steven heard Alex teasing and said, annoyed, "Shut up, Alex. You can't understand my high standard. Besides, I don't have any time for things like that. It's a huge waste of time, after all."

Alex started laughing as he slowly walked away.

Steven was a bit annoyed, but soon, it was replaced by a detached smile when he saw Alex slowly walking away.

...

Alex, who said goodbye to Steven, immediately called Crobat and flew in the direction of Slateport City.

After renting a hotel for one night, he put on the Ditto mask and went to Slateport City's black market.

He still had about 4 hours before he goes to sleep, and he wanted to make use of this time.

Alex started looking for Silver Pokémon again and quickly realized that he really was out of luck today. After analyzing 90% of the Pokémon from the market, he caught only 5 Silver Pokémon.

The 5 Silver Pokémon were sold together for 300,000 Pokédollars.

Alex continued to walk through the market until his eyes caught a stall selling Ghost-type Pokémon.

Ghost-type Pokémon are kept in special cages unlike other Pokémon and permanently needs to be monitored by a powerful Psychic-type Pokémon.

Although it is hard to catch Ghost-type Pokémon, they can always be sold for a hefty price.

If there wasn't any case of a Ghost-type Pokémon secretly eating away the life energy of its trainer, they would be even more popular and expensive.

Generally, only a few trainers want to train Ghost-type Pokémon. But since they are relatively rare, they are still sold for a high price.

Although it is rare to see Ghost-type Pokémon being sold in a stall, the main thing that attracted Alex's attention was one of these Pokémon's talent being extremely good.

Alex only had one thought in his mind when he saw it.

"I have to have it."

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Pokémon: Shuppet

LV: 6

Type: Ghost

Ability: Cursed Body (Hidden Ability)

Gender: Male

Potential: Gold

Moves:

- Knock Off, Screech

- (Innate Talent) Curse, (Innate Talent) Phantom Force, (Innate Talent) Destiny Bond

-------------------------------------------------

This Shuppet was not only born with a Gold potential but also had 3 superb innate talent moves.

Alex could well imagine how strong [Curse] or [Destiny Bond] is in this world as long as they meet the requirements to be used.

With such moves on the Master-rank, a trainer can ensure that these moves can be used effectively to defeat Pokémon that are much stronger than Shuppet.

Alex could already imagine in his fantasy world how his LV 43 Banette can defeat a LV 48 Metagross with these moves. Although Banette would also be defeated, it is an exchange that Alex would make every time.

Although he doubts that this can happen exactly the same way and without any obstacle, he couldn't help but dream about it.

Also, Alex started to think about how easy it is to get this Pokémon on the Diamond rank.

A Pokémon born on the Gold rank should almost certainly get on the Shallow Diamond rank after its evolution if Alex does it right.

So far, of his Pokémon, only Vulpix had a Gold rank when she was born. That alone shows how rare it is.

"Sorry, I wanted to ask how much you are selling this Shuppet for," Alex inquired as he tried to keep his face composed.

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