Sunada Kaoru, burning with rage and the shame of having been played, tore toward the south side of the city in a cloud of dust. That sorry silhouette was nothing more than a dull little farce in Kudo Shiba's eyes.
The corners of Kudo Shiba's mouth lifted in a faint arc. His fingertips gently stroked the smooth surface of the Aerodactyl Fossil, feeling the slumbering, surging life force within. Then he carefully stowed it away in his dimensional backpack.
This trip's harvest had already far exceeded his expectations.
But his steps did not stop there.
Kudo Shiba turned around, ignoring the curious looks that had followed the earlier commotion, and headed straight for the deeper parts of the market.
That was the antique and old-goods section.
The air was thick with the moldy smell of old paper, the rust of bronze, and the aged fragrance of old wood, all blending into a unique scent steeped in time. Compared to the noisy item-trading area up front, this place was so quiet it felt like another world. Only a few elderly folk wandered between the stalls, and even the light seemed dimmer.
This was his true hunting ground.
Rare items were certainly valuable, but the things that truly changed destinies were often those supreme opportunities buried in dust and forgotten by the world.
Kudo Shiba's gaze swept across each cluttered stall like a high-precision scanner. Rusted iron tools, chipped porcelain bowls, paintings whose ink had nearly faded away… Countless streams of information poured into his mind as the Prophecy System filtered and sorted them at terrifying speed.
Gray, gray—nothing but gray halos representing completely worthless junk.
His stride remained steady, his mood utterly calm. Patience was a quality every top hunter had to possess.
Just as he was about to walk past a stall that specialized in old books and tattered bamboo scrolls, his pupils suddenly shrank.
A deep, gorgeous purple halo exploded without warning at the edge of his vision!
This light did not come from any object, but from the stall owner himself—who was slumped over the table, face half-covered by an ancient book, dozing off. The halo rose from his body, dense and unmoving, like a giant chunk of purple crystal, faintly exuding an ancient and mysterious aura.
Kudo Shiba's breath caught for a heartbeat.
His feet rooted to the ground. In that instant, all his senses were cranked to their limit, locking completely onto the stall owner.
[Purple-grade causal thread detected. Parsing…]
The System's cold notification sounded. Immediately, an incredibly clear moving image unfolded in his mind like a high-resolution holographic projection.
In the vision, dusk fell, and the market was about to close.
The stall owner yawned, bleary-eyed, as he began to pack up the "trash" no one had looked at all day. He casually grabbed a cracked, half-unraveled bamboo scroll, gave it an annoyed shake to dust it off, and tossed it straight into a junk box full of scraps.
The view zoomed in.
The bamboo scroll lay quietly in the corner of the junk box, gradually buried by more waste paper and odds and ends, as if it would decay there and be lost to time forever.
The image suddenly fast-forwarded.
Years later, an elderly historian with snow-white hair stumbled upon this junk box at a recycling station. Overjoyed, he took it home and, after three full years of painstaking work, finally announced his earth-shaking discovery at an academic conference.
He had successfully deciphered the contents of the bamboo scroll.
What it recorded was nothing less than the supreme resonance secret art between the ancient dragon-tamer clan and Dragon-type Pokémon—long lost, existing only in old legends—
"Dragon Soul Resonance"!
The image cut off, and a line of golden explanatory text engraved itself in Kudo Shiba's consciousness like a brand.
[Dragon Soul Resonance: Core inheritance secret art of the ancient dragon-tamer clan. Allows the user to establish the deepest spiritual link with a Dragon-type Pokémon, forming a bridge between souls, greatly accelerating its energy absorption and level growth, with a very high chance of awakening its hidden ancient bloodline potential!]
Boom!
It felt as if a thunderbolt had split Kudo Shiba's mind in two.
In an instant, his blood rushed to his head, and his heart pounded out of control, beating like a war drum in his chest.
Tailor-made for him.
This was a technique crafted perfectly—for him, for his Dratini!
With this, Dratini's growth speed would surpass that of any other of its kind in the world, and it might even awaken the legendary hidden bloodline of the Dragonite line ahead of schedule!
A fierce sense of possessiveness swallowed his mind in an instant.
Yet Kudo Shiba's expression remained as calm as a still lake. With just a small adjustment to his breathing, he forced those towering waves back down into the depths of his heart.
He walked up to the stall at an unhurried pace, looking for all the world like an ordinary passerby drawn in by the unique atmosphere.
His gaze lingered briefly on a few yellowed thread-bound books, then he picked up a bronze token covered in verdigris and weighed it in his hand. Only then did he, "casually," slide the broken bamboo scroll the stall owner had propped under a table leg into the stack of ancient books he appeared to be interested in.
The entire sequence flowed naturally, without a hint of deliberation.
"Boss, how much for these?"
Kudo Shiba's voice was even, betraying no emotion.
The drowsy stall owner stirred, annoyed at being disturbed. He lifted the book off his face, raised his heavy eyelids, and looked out at the world with murky, tired eyes that spoke of slow business.
He glanced at the things in Kudo Shiba's hands and lazily put up five fingers.
"The books are fifty apiece."
His eyes landed on the bamboo scroll pinched between Kudo Shiba's fingers. He curled his lip and added, a trace of self-mockery in his tone:
"That busted scroll… If you really want it, give me a hundred and take it. It's been sitting here three years. Doubt anyone could figure out what kind of chicken scratch is carved on it anyway."
The massive weight in Kudo Shiba's heart finally came down.
"All right, I'll take them all."
He did not haggle in the slightest. Moving with crisp efficiency, he scanned the code and paid, then gathered up the whole pile of "trash"—including the priceless treasure—and held it calmly in his arms.
Just as he was about to leave this troublesome place, arms full of "junk"—
A roar filled with hatred and madness exploded behind him.
"Kudo Shiba!"
"You bastard! There isn't a single damn Shiny Magikarp in the south side!"
Sunada Kaoru had stormed back and now stood blocking his way.
Right now, Sunada Kaoru looked utterly miserable. His expensive, custom-tailored outfit was caked with dust; his hair was a mess; and there was even a bloody scratch across his handsome face from a tree branch. His chest heaved violently, his eyes bloodshot with humiliation as he glared at Kudo Shiba like he wanted to tear him apart and eat him alive.
Clearly, the young master had come up empty-handed on the south side and, far too late, realized he'd been played for a fool.
When his gaze fell on the pile of dusty old books and ruined bamboo scrolls in Kudo Shiba's arms, the raging fire on his face instantly twisted into a sick, extreme sneer.
"Well, well."
Sunada Kaoru's tone went sharp and drawn-out, dripping with malice.
"Isn't this our exalted heir of the dragon-tamer clan, Young Master Kudo himself?"
He made a big show of circling Kudo Shiba once, then jabbed a finger at the items in his arms and shouted loudly enough for the scattered onlookers nearby to hear.
"What's wrong? Your family stipend not enough anymore? Can't afford proper rare Pokémon items, so now you're rummaging in this junk heap for scrap metal and trash?"
"Tsk, tsk—what a disgrace to us so-called descendants of dragons."
Sunada Kaoru's voice was soaked in glee. He felt he had finally found a chance to viciously humiliate Kudo Shiba.
Yet in the face of this hysterical, powerless rage—
Kudo Shiba merely lifted his eyelids a fraction and gave him a mild glance.
Inside that look there was no anger, no contempt, not even a ripple of emotion.
Only a pure, detached pity from high above.
As though a deity were gazing down at a pathetic ant wallowing in the mud, convinced it was stirring up a storm.
He could not be bothered to waste a single extra word.
Words could never make a summer insect understand the existence of winter snow.
Arms full of a treasure that would overturn the entire world of Dragon-type Trainers, Kudo Shiba brushed past Sunada Kaoru, whose face had gone so red with the sting of that look he seemed on the verge of coughing up blood again.
His steps were steady as he walked straight out of the noisy market.
He left Sunada Kaoru standing there alone, body rigid—while that scornful, pitying gaze branded itself into his pride like a red-hot iron, driving him to the edge of madness.
(End of Chapter)
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[[email protected]/Zukooo]
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