Berry Market

For 6,000 dollars per night, Hisoka felt like he just got a bargain. Not only the suite was furnished luxuriously, but it also came with an open underwater view. On top of that, the open-air restaurant on the top floor would be open to him for free too.

There was also a small private beach next to the hotel, which was usually reserved for their VIP customers. If it weren't for the attack on S.S. Anne by Team Rocket, Hisoka would definitely not be able to enter the private beach.

On another note, there was still no news about the kidnapped wealthy people whatsoever. It was as if Team Rocket had gone dark. Due to this, many rich people didn't dare to travel to Porta Vista after hearing about the S.S. Anne attack for fear of being kidnapped by Team Rocket, just like those rich people that were on board the sunken ship.

Hisoka received a golden card from the front desk assistants and walked toward the elevator. This card meant that he had permission to use the private beach during his stay.

The restaurant on the top floor was serving lunch right now. Even the food served in the standard section of the restaurant was quite delicious, not to mention the food served in the luxury area.

Grilled lobster with garlic-parsley butter sauce, quail legs with tamarind glaze, scallops with potato pancake and caviar sauce, balsamic roast chicken, etc.

The only snag was the customer wasn't allowed to bring Pokemon into the restaurant due to the hotel's policy. Hisoka thought they were just reluctant to let the Pokemon finish all the food in the restaurant, though.

Each food in the restaurant was expensive and was only available in limited quantities.

The food prepared by the 5-star chef was not only delicious and nutritious, but it also contained a lot of energy. If it were only humans eating, it would be fine. But, if the trainer brought their Pokemon together, their hotel would quickly go bankrupt. Just this small amount of food wasn't enough to fill the stomach of Hisoka's Pokemon, especially Rhydon.

Hisoka finished his lunch with a glass of wine to digest the meal. And today's wonderful lunch finally came to an end.

Back in the room, Hisoka put on a green-colored shirt, a pair of white pants, a straw hat, and a pair of flip-flops before walking out of the hotel leisurely.

Since Hisoka had never been to Porta Vista, he was naturally going to take a stroll around the city to enjoy the sight. After being shipwrecked for five days, Hisoka needed some time to relax before planning his next action.

Hisoka first went to the berry market near the dock. As an important resource in this world, berries were comparable to the oil, coal, and natural gas industry back on earth.

Each city would have a special place where many people can visit to either sell their wares or buy something. It was all set up following the League's guidelines. The people didn't have to worry about the quality of the berries. The League's supervision in this regard was still quite strong.

The shelf life of each berry must be strictly marked, whether it was a wild or an artificial berry. The price of wild berry and artificial berry was the same. The only difference was the variety and the flavor. Some Pokemon preferred the wild berry, and others might like the tastier artificial berry.

"Do you have any Salac berry here?"

Hisoka came to a booth with a three berry trees logo. It was one of the popular berry brands in the Kanto region. Although their berry tasted good, it lacked some rare varieties. The price for each berry was quite low too.

"Salac berry, right? Give me a minute."

The owner of the booth was an enthusiastic middle-aged man. Hearing Hisoka's inquiries, he quickly ran to the back. A few moments later, the man returned, carrying a small sack as he walked to the counter.

Then, the shopkeeper loosened the tied string and took a few green-colored berries, placing them in front of Hisoka.

The man picked up a berry and excitedly said, "This just came in yesterday. They are grown near the Safari Zone in Johto. You won't find a much better Salac berry anywhere else. Our company only uses the best seeds for our berries. You can rest assured. It is tasty, juicy, fresh-"

"Alright, I get it."

Hisoka raised his hand, interrupting the shopkeeper's spiel. He then chose a Salac berry from the pile and observed it carefully.

Hisoka knew how to look for the best berries for making a Pokeblock as a professional Pokeblock maker. He didn't need to listen to the man's incessant talk.

"Can I taste one of these?" Hisoka asked.

"Of course! Sure, no problem."

The shopkeeper smiled and handed a knife to Hisoka.

'Let's hope this guy buys a lot of berries,' the man thought happily.

The shopkeeper had high confidence in his berries. He also knew that Hisoka would buy his berries after tasting them. The quality of berries can only be determined by their taste.

Different types of berries can be used to make different kinds of Pokeblocks and Pokemon food according to their recipes.

As the main ingredients in this regard, berries are particularly important, so a Pokeblock maker will try to personally select the best berries as good as possible.

In fact, many berries can be eaten by humans, but only a few of them are suitable for human taste. Oran berry is one of the popular berries in the Pokemon world. It is nutritious and has a wondrous flavor that spreads in the mouth. It also has a weak-healing effect when eaten raw.

Salac Berry, on the other hand, was a kind of berry that didn't match the human taste.

Hisoka used the knife to peel the berry revealing a cream, almost brown, hard flesh. Then, he cut a small piece of the flesh and put it in his mouth, tasting it. The texture was tangy, dry, and incredibly sour.

"Ptui!"

Hisoka spat the chewed Salac berry flesh out of his mouth and drank some water to rinse his mouth. This berry didn't have a pleasant taste, but some Pokemon preferred this flavor. The quality was not bad, good enough to make a high-quality Nutrition Pokeblock.

"How much is that for a bag?" Hisoka asked.

He needed a lot of Salac berry to make Rhydon's specialized Pokeblock. Just this one booth alone would definitely not be enough to meet his requirement.

The shopkeeper was delighted when he heard Hisoka's question and said, "Each bag has around 200 pieces. 1000 dollars per bag."

Hisoka nodded. On average, each Salac berry cost 5 dollars, which was not really expensive. They were also freshly picked from Johto.

"How many bags you have left in stock?"

"10 bags," the man replied

"I'll take all of them," said Hisoka seriously.

"Yes, sir," the man nodded as his smile became wider. He then told Hisoka to wait for a moment before running to the back of his booth.

Just this business alone will net him several thousand dollars of profits. It usually took one to two weeks to clear his stock of berries, not to mention some berries that would spoil early, which would cause him a loss. He didn't dare to delay getting the berries for fear that Hisoka might change his mind.

Hisoka didn't bargain with the shopkeeper and paid the full amount directly. He then asked the man to deliver the goods to his hotel room before leaving the booth.

After that, Hisoka spent the rest of the day strolling in the market, looking for other berries.

Besides Salac berry, which was suitable for Ground and Rock-type Pokemon, Hisoka also bought some Bluk berry for Weavile, Nanab berry for Kirlia, and Cheri berry for Feebas.

Hisoka also checked the wild section of the berry market to see if there were any rare berries that might catch his eye.

Unfortunately, most of the berries were low quality, barely able to be used as Pokemon food. Not good enough to make a Pokeblock, though. This was why many people started exploring different recipes for Pokeblocks from artificially grown berries. Their qualities were much more consistent than the wild ones.

High-quality berries must be used to make Pokeblock because lower-quality berries get burnt easier than higher-quality berries. It was also much harder to condense the mixed berries into a concentrated block, which meant that the Pokeblock production had failed. The other expensive ingredients would also be wasted along with the Pokeblock.

So for most trainers, Pokeblocks were luxury items. Indeed, they can be a huge help when training your Pokemon, but you also have to bear the high cost. Without a steady flow of income, it was much better to feed your Pokemon with cheaper Pokemon food. Besides, Pokeblock only boosts the Pokemon training speed. It didn't mean that they could become stronger indefinitely.

After walking around the market for about an hour or so, Hisoka had bought fifty bags of berries worth about 25,000 dollars.

There was not much difference between the price of these berries, except for the Nanab berry, which was slightly more pricey.

Next, he went to the other shops to get the other ingredients. Besides the qualities of the berries and the Pokeblock maker skills, the extra ingredients accounted for about fifty percent of the final quality of the Pokeblock.

"Luckily, I studied this stuff back in the orphanage."

Hisoka sighed as he walked out of a shop. These skills gave him a lot of help when training his Pokemon.

He was carrying two packed bags in both hands while walking toward his hotel. These extra ingredients were not cheap at all.

Looking at the bag in his hands,.Hisoka shook his head reluctantly, "Good lord, I just spent 100,000 dollars in a single day."

Hisoka was always short of money, but he never considered saving his money in the bank just to get a meager interest.

As the saying goes, 'you have to spend money to make money.' Use the money earned to make your team stronger. And by doing that, you'll earn more money. Again, use the money to buy better resources for your Pokemon. This cycle goes on and on until one day, you'll realize that you got a lot of returns just by spending money.

And those guys who only cared about short-term interest would never make it to the top. This is the reality. No pie would fall from the sky. Only hard work pays off.

…

12.30 pm,

Oceanus Hotel,

When Hisoka walked into the hotel, he saw the attendant from this morning walking toward him quickly.

The attendant bowed slightly and said, "Sir, we have stored the berries you ordered in the storeroom. If you want to check it now, I can take you there."

"There's no need for that. I'll head to my room first. By the way, can you help me move all of them to the beach? Just leave it on the ground," Hisoka replied after waving his hand.

"Alright, sir," the attendant nodded before leaving toward the back.

…