บท 5: Chp 5: Black Market
Vic had no idea how far he had travelled or how many turns he had made. He just kept going while being led in the dark. This continued on for more than a few minutes until he saw light in the distance.
The thing that was leading him a second ago had disappeared into the darkness. Vic shrugged his shoulders and carried on. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a number tag that had been put in there at some point and pinned it on his shirt.
After making sure that his disguise was still up, Vic exited the dark passage and entered the large hall filled with people wearing cloaks and masks.
After checking his attire, Vic left the dark passage and headed into the large room crowded with people in cloaks and masks. This was the black market, and there seemed to be a lot of people today.
Apart from a few, most of the shops here deal with stolen items. Despite the large number of people, it was remarkably quiet. All around, people were haggling over the prices while keeping their voices as low as possible.
This was an unwritten rule in the black market. No one knew for sure if there was someone else listening. Most people wanted to do their business on the black market as soon as they could without drawing attention to themselves.
'I hope you're not lying to me old man,' Vic thought as he began to wander around the black market in search of his item.
The old man Vic thought of was his former boss. When he first arrived in this world, he found it difficult to adjust to his new life. Coupled with his lack of money, he could only find some small jobs in the slum to support himself.
He had no notable skill when he first started. Vic, who was weak and small, could only work as a cleaner in a warehouse. This continued on for a long time until one day, an old man dressed in stylish clothes, with a Rattata on his shoulder, came to the place where he worked.
The old man was looking for someone to work at his place. Although everyone didn't know what they were going to do, the old man didn't look poor and it was much better than staying here. So everyone started to shout and raise their hands, recommending themselves.
Vic naturally joined them. Luckily, he was among those selected.
A total of eight people were selected. After that, they were led to a building where the man quickly told them to stand in a row. The man then told them he only needed one person and he would select the most promising one among them.
As time passed, the eight people standing in front of the old man, including Vic, were trying their best to stand straight, hoping they would be chosen. When everyone wasn't paying attention, the Rattata on the man's shoulder disappeared, followed by four people falling to the floor, groaning in pain.
"I want you to try your best to treat them," the old man said, pointing at the four people clutching their bleeding wounds. "I will choose the best one among you. Well, what are you waiting for? Go on. I don't have a lot of time to waste."
At first everyone was angry by the old man's action, but after hearing what he said, everyone quickly tried their best to treat the four people lying on the floor. No one really cared what the man did just now. In fact, they were secretly thankful, it wasn't them.
Vic as well. He chose one of the men with the worst injury and quickly put the man in a recovery potion. Then, he ripped the man's shirt off and grabbed a bucket of water before slowly cleaning the blood around the cut.
The reason he did this was not because he wanted to show off, but because he was quite familiar with treating people. He worked as a nurse on a ship in his previous life.
A few minutes later, he breathed a sigh of relief as he finished bandaging the man's wound. He took a look around him and saw that the other people were finishing as well.
The old man started to look at the wounded people with no regards whatsoever, even though he was the one who injured them in the first place. The man then walked to Vic and nodded at the bandage he had done around the man's wound.
"Very well, I choose you kid," he said to Vic, taking a wad of cash from his inner coat and dividing it among them all. "Take the money, and go back."
After that, he signalled Vic to follow him and together they left the building, leaving behind seven people staring at their back in disbelief while holding on to their money.
The selected Vic was directly taken by the old man to an underground fighting arena, where he saw many injured Pokemon being carried out of the ring after a fight. He then realised the reason behind the old man's action. His new job was to tend to the wounded Pokemon.
Later, he found that there were a couple of Chansey owned by the old man. But they were obviously only reserved for the top fighters. As for others? Sorry. That was all he could say.
Vic has been working under the old man for nearly six months, and all he did was basically tending to the injured Pokemon. The old man clearly had no intention of teaching him anything else and only cared how well he did his job.
The only thing that brought solace to Vic was the fact that his skill in treating Pokemon wounds had improved greatly through practice. Plus, he could watch the fights for free.
'Found it!'
Vic spent considerable time exploring the black market before discovering what he was looking for at a corner stall. Along with the Pokeblock Blender, various berries, including those used in Grandma Cici's pokeblock recipe, were also sold there.
After some bargaining, Vic was satisfied with the price and paid for the blender, as well as a bunch of berries that he bought at a good discount. He put them all inside a large bag that he had prepared and quickly headed for the passage where he had come from earlier.
Carrying the big bag on his back, Vic stepped into the dark passage along with other people. Once again, something wrapped around his arm and steered him forward through the dark as he followed its lead.
After what seemed like eternity, Vic finally reached the exit. Tightening the strap of his bag, he followed the route he had planned long ago, and ran toward his home under the cover of the night,
However, nothing went as planned. Just about halfway to his home, Vic was stopped by a few people dressed like thugs. Clearly, these guys had been lurking around the black market, looking for easy prey like Vic.
"Drop your bag and scram, kid!"
Seeing the bats they were carrying, Vic knew that he would have to fight today. Fortunately, they had no Pokemon on them.
Without much talking, Vic put his bag against the wall, took out a knife from his back and rushed toward the nearest person. These men obviously didn't expect a kid like him to fight back as Vic quickly cut one of them down.
Vic then picked up the bat that had slipped from the man's finger and swung it hard at his head, knocking him out. Without a pause, he threw it at the next man and saw it hitting the man's face.
Seeing that, the other gangsters knew they had met a tough one, but how could they just stand and do nothing? Under their leader's signal, they summoned their courage and rushed over to Vic.
Aware that he was outmatched, Vic grabbed the collar of the first one to run over, slung him back at the other two people to block them, and made a beeline for the leader.
Compared to the others, this guy was at least twice as big and he was holding a metal pipe in his hand. It wouldn't be easy for Vic to get close to him.
As he approached the leader, Vic first blocked the pipe with his knife and quickly reached for the man's hand with his other hand. However, his hand was easily pushed away, preventing Vic from getting close to him.
As they exchanged blows, Vic was hit twice in the arm. This guy had a lot of strength and his arm hurt like hell, but thankfully, he managed to put his knife on the leader's neck.
"Stop!"
When the man realised his life was in danger, he quickly halted the other thugs who were going to help him.
"Drop your weapons if you don't wanna see me slit his throat!" Vic grunted.
Seeing their leader was taken hostage, they dropped their bats unwillingly. One of them, who seemed to possess a modicum of compassion, remembered his injured friend and hurried over to stop the bleeding.
"Look kid, we give up. Can you let us go?" the leader asked.
"I will let you go, but you have to follow my orders, understand? Don't try anything else, or I will kill you," Vic said darkly.
Sensing Vic's killing intent, the man hurriedly nodded and slowly went toward the bag that had been left on the ground with the knife pressed against his back.
"Whoosh!"
'Damn! There's another one?'
When the man was picking the bag up, Vic suddenly heard something being swung at him. It was pretty clear in the quiet alley at this time of night.
Just when Vic thought that he was going to die tonight, a purple energy ball appeared out of nowhere and knocked the bat that was aimed at his head, along with the assailant.
Vic heard the man scream as he crashed into a wall and fainted. He looked in the direction the Shadow Ball had come from, and there, slowly emerging from the shadow with glowing sapphire eyes, was Zorua.
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