c15: Setting Up a Stall?
Leng Yue said excitedly, "Xiaoxiao, why don't we set up a stall!"
After the earlier "farce" ended, Chen Xiaoxiao and Leng Yue continued to stroll through the plaza at ease, as if the chaos from earlier had already faded from memory.
Perhaps they were just tired from shopping, or perhaps Leng Yue, always eager for new experiences, simply thought it would be fun to set up a booth in the Free Trade Square.
Chen Xiaoxiao readily agreed. She had actually wanted to try setting up a stall for some time now, hoping she might come across a rare or well-bred Pokémon through a trade.
However, she had been unable to do so on her own. Setting up a stall in official squares required a certified Trainer license and though she possessed elite-level strength, she wasn't technically of age to hold one yet.
Now that Leng Yue had brought it up, she agreed without hesitation. And since they had "veteran driver" Uncle Li with them an official license-holder there was no real barrier. Chen Xiaoxiao had felt a bit awkward asking him for help, but Leng Yue had no such reservations.
They soon arrived at the booth rental office in the square.
The moment the staff recognized the "big shots" from earlier the ones involved in the Ice Beam incident they didn't even ask to see any trainer credentials. One of the managers instantly pulled up the stall management system, loaded the real-time square map, and invited them to select an empty location. Of course, the booth rental fee still had to be paid.
They chose a standard stall with a two-meter-long by one-meter-wide table. After paying the afternoon rent of 8,000 yuan, they went to the location and laid out various Pokémon-related goods, including evolution stones and battle props.
A hand-written card read:
"Top-tier Evolution Stones, high-grade Pokémon props available for Psychic, Ice, and Flying types. Negotiable!"
After setting up the goods and writing out their desired exchange conditions, the two girls began whispering among themselves while casually browsing news headlines on their phones, waiting for potential customers.
"SHOCKING! The man is silent, the woman weeps.Elite Trainer assaults teenager in plaza?"
"FLASH! A rare Shiny Gardevoir appears in Beijing's Free Trade Square, heroically confronting a corrupt vendor!"
"EXPOSED! Undercover police dismantle bizarre cult; suspected Anti-Alliance ringleader arrested!"
As expected, within just over an hour, the dedicated "UC Shock Department" had done its job delivering three back-to-back dramatic headlines and racking up clicks like wildfire.
"I've got a really solid Pidgey. Want to trade for a Sharp Beak?"
Finally, the first customer approached offering a basic Pidgey in exchange for a valuable Flying-type boost item. The audacity!
Chen Xiaoxiao didn't even glance at the system verification.
"No deal."
Her tone was flat. She didn't even bother explaining. It wasn't that Pidgey was inherently bad when evolved into Pidgeot and then Mega Pidgeot, it became a fast and formidable Flying-type Pokémon.
But the real issue was the existence of the mobile app "Didi Bidiao", a Pokémon rental service where Pidgeot had been reduced to little more than a glorified taxi bird. With that kind of oversaturation, Pidgeot's value had plummeted.
Chen Xiaoxiao wasn't remotely concerned about attracting customers. The worst items they were offering were still high-value Pokémon props, and they covered a wide range of elemental types.
Even the Silver Powder generally considered the most basic Bug-type hold item sold for over 3 million on the open market. Meanwhile, the rarest Dragon-type gear could sell for tens of millions. Among the stock laid out were high-grade evolution stones of nearly every elemental affinity.
(Using an Advanced Evolution Stone grants a small chance to boost a Pokémon's potential upon evolution. Each stone sold for millions of yuan on the market.)
And even rarer: they had premium evolution stones such as the top-tier Fire Stone and Leaf Stone.
(These rare stones offer an even greater chance of raising a Pokémon's IV or aptitude during evolution. Their market price was tenfold that of Advanced Stones, ranging from tens to hundreds of millions.)
All of this was now displayed openly by Chen Xiaoxiao and Leng Yue.
Although Chen Xiaoxiao could only use props she exchanged through the system for herself and couldn't legally trade them, she'd had six years since arriving in this world to collect other valuable gear. Thanks to her unique single-bloodline inheritance, she also possessed every rare item passed down through dozens of ancestral generations giving her the ability to fill an entire shop if she chose.
As for Leng Yue, while she didn't bring rare props herself, she hardly needed to with Elite-tier Uncle Li stationed quietly behind her.
It was nothing special to borrow a few top-tier props just to draw attention. Leng Yue hadn't really expected to trade for her ideal Pokémon anyway it was all just for fun.
Even if someone had actually offered a Pokémon she really liked, she could just return home and have her Elite-level father reimburse her. After all, being the pampered only daughter of an Elite trainer came with its perks.
Thanks to the high quality of the items displayed at Chen Xiaoxiao and Leng Yue's booth, they quickly began to attract attention.
To further draw the crowd, Chen Xiaoxiao released her Espeon, and Leng Yue released her Glaceon. Both Pokémon had been raised together at the same Eevee breeding facility since infancy making them childhood companions just like their trainers.
The sight of two evolved forms from the Eevee line Sun and Ice types playing together immediately began to draw onlookers, especially Trainers looking for potential trades.
With props available for Psychic, Ice, and Flying types, the booth quickly became a hotspot. Several Trainers approached, bringing Pokémon like Bronzor, the dual Steel/Psychic-type often seen as a less-developed form of Bronzong; Woobat, a Flying/Psychic Pokémon that evolves into Swoobat with high friendship; and even rarer Pokémon like Alolan Sandslash, the unique dual Ice/Steel-type evolution of Alolan Sandshrew, and Skarmory, the classic Steel/Flying Pokémon known for its armor-like feathers.
Unfortunately, all of the Pokémon presented had just average stats. According to Chen Xiaoxiao's standards, only those with at least Elite-level potential were worth trading for.
Among the crowd, Leng Yue was clearly intrigued by an Alolan Sandslash its typing and aesthetic fit perfectly with her Ice specialization. The opposing Trainer was willing to trade it for an Advanced Ice Stone.
However, upon checking its stats, Chen Xiaoxiao found it only measured up to Elite-level at best. She advised Leng Yue against the trade, and surprisingly, Leng Yue didn't push back. Though she was slightly disappointed, she respected Chen Xiaoxiao's judgment.
(Alolan Sandslash, an Ice and Steel type, cannot evolve further once it has used an Ice Stone to evolve from Alolan Sandshrew.)
Later, Chen Xiaoxiao offered an explanation: anyone asking to trade for an Advanced Ice Stone while offering a fully evolved Ice-type Pokémon was probably hiding something. Sandslash couldn't evolve any further, and based on its stats, the likely scenario was that the Trainer had raised it themselves from an Alolan Sandshrew, only to discover that its strength plateaued too quickly after evolving.
This kind of plateau was often an indicator of low genetic potential, even in rare or exotic Pokémon.
One study by a prominent Pokémon professor a geneticist from the Kanto Research Institute had shown that Pokémon whose parents were both Elite-level demonstrated significant training gains compared to Pokémon of similar species but lower ancestry. In his experiments, Pokémon that eventually surpassed the Elite threshold displayed consistent growth under the same training regimen, while others hit a bottleneck at mid-quasi-Elite level.
The rate of improvement, not just final strength, was a critical indicator of natural aptitude.
After listening to this detailed analysis, Leng Yue finally understood why the Sandslash wasn't worth it.
Uncle Li, who had remained silently seated behind them the whole time, also nodded with approval. Once again, he found himself impressed by Chen Xiaoxiao not only for her impressive combat skills despite her young age, but also for her deep and technical understanding of Pokémon theory and breeding science.