Chapter 582. Trade Negotiations

“I’ll be honest, I was skeptical of the reports about your life force and strength. Calling you a Legendary Pokémon of all things seemed a bit much, but after seeing you move around and handle yourself, I can’t help but accept it. You’re basically a freak,” General Stroud said. “On top of that, you’re claiming you gained that strength through food, exercise, and the power of friendship, which sounds like a whole lot of bullcrap to me. But I can’t deny the results.”

“So,” he continued, “we want a thorough examination of your body, as well as samples of your food for analysis, so we can determine its effects on ordinary people. From there, we can establish a proper exchange rate between your food and our technology. In addition, I’d like to get my hands on a few of your weapons. That 5-meter-tall giant robot was a surprise, but the guns you were using were even more so. The fact that they can punch through Protect and even a Shield Bearer’s energy shield is beyond absurd.”

“That’s fine,” Alex accepted. “But I also want information about your cutting-edge technology before I decide what I’m willing to trade for. I’m interested in your Arclight Cannons, vehicles, space expansion technology, and especially that jamming tower, or whatever techniques you’re using to protect your machines from the virus. If you’ve developed a way to block its influence and prevent it from taking control of your technologies, I want to know how it works. If any of these technologies rely on specific resources, I’d like access to those as well, or at least a map showing me where I can scavenge more.”

“We can do that much,” General Stroud said with a grin.

The pair shook on their preliminary agreement before deciding to conduct one final sweep of the hydroelectric power plant. Meanwhile, Alex had Rotom begin accessing the servers, working through them one rack at a time. There were a lot of them, so it would take quite some time for Rotom to collect and sort through all the information stored within them.

General Stroud was willing to allow it, provided Alex submitted his database for examination. They needed to make sure his systems were free of any dormant viruses that could reactivate and begin spreading once they weren’t being monitored.

A few hours later, in the middle of the afternoon, more transport vehicles arrived carrying soldiers, engineers, scientists, and logistics personnel. They came to take over control of the power plant, establish a more permanent presence in the area, and assess just how much Alex was worth to them.

The soldiers, including teams similar to Captain Reyes’s Seviper Unit, immediately spread out to secure the surrounding area. They surveyed the terrain, identified potential threats, and marked any high-value targets in the vicinity that might be worth investigating.

The logistics personnel got to work setting up a semi-permanent base camp, while the engineers began repairing the damage to the power plant and connecting its power lines to the network that would eventually link it to their main headquarters.

Finally, the scientists descended on Alex and subjected him to a battery of scans, tests, and examinations. They wanted to determine just how different this supposed “alien” was from themselves, as well as analyze the food he had brought with him. They also examined his weapons and the Mauler, hoping to understand how they worked and determine whether any of the technology could be replicated.

Alex cooperated with all of it.

The technology this world possessed was well worth whatever indignity he had to endure. After all, access to Master ranked weapons, a bigger loot bag, and protection for Rotom were more than enough compensation for being poked and prodded by scientists.

And so, an entire month passed before the negotiations finally entered their final phase.

“The eggheads got pretty much everything they needed,” General Stroud said, seated across from Alex. “They basically want every scrap of food you have left. They found an unknown energy permeating the meat, and it seems to enhance the human body by unlocking its genetic potential. I’ll also happily take whatever ammunition you have left. After analyzing it, they determined that the crystals your weapons fire have the peculiar ability to store Pokémon moves, so we’ll take as much as you can give us. As for that giant robot, aside from its peculiar armor, it isn’t all that special compared to what we already have.”

“You already know what I want,” Alex replied. “There’s nothing particularly special about the Arclight Cannons, jamming towers, propulsion engines, or space expansion technology beyond their underlying principles. So, the schematics and a few samples should be enough. In exchange, I’m willing to hand over all the food and ammunition I have on me.”

“Hmm… that doesn’t seem fair,” General Stroud said, resting his chin on one hand. “We’d be giving you cutting-edge technology that can be replicated in exchange for limited resources.”

“I agree. It isn’t fair considering how expensive the food and ammunition are,” Alex replied, leaning back in his seat, completely unbothered. “To put it into perspective, what I’m surrendering is worth about as much as a huge city. Probably even more if we’re talking about a city in this world. The only reason I’m even willing to do this is because one of my girls is an engineer who’d happily bend over backward for me if I brought this stuff back. Basically, I’m trading a city for some ass.” ℴℴ𝘮

“Gahahaha~ A man’s got to have his ass!” General Stroud laughed boisterously, slamming a hand down on the table. “Alright, whatever. So long as I get those weapons and can use them to wipe out a few datacenters, I’m fine with it. Let’s finalize this deal.”

General Stroud and Alex rose from their seats and shook hands, finally bringing their trade deal to an end. It wasn’t much of a negotiation, but both men hated going back and forth over minor details, so they were able to wrap things up after a bit of due diligence.

Alex surrendered his food, much to his Pokémon’s dismay. It didn’t matter much though, considering the over one thousand Master ranked corpses he had collected over the past 6 months from taking down Future Paradox Pokémon. While these were inedible to most of his Pokémon, they could be traded to the League for Master ranked meat.

He also gave up all of his remaining ammunition, but that was fine as well. Sable had been working hard to fill their storage with Move Crystals, so they had plenty of ammunition to spare.

In the end, although Alex’s claim that he was taking a loss was technically true, it wasn’t much of one for him. More importantly, he received a data drive containing schematics, along with several units of Arclight Cannons, space bags, jamming towers, and some of the fastest vehicles they had. It was a worthwhile trade that would no doubt get Rhea to wiggle her ass for him, assuming she was done playing with her new toys.

“What are your plans now?” General Stroud asked. “Scavenging for more junk?”

“You took all my food, remember?” Alex replied with an accusing look. “My Pokémon are less than happy about that, so I’ll be returning to my dimension.”

Alex could have continued hunting in this dimension and completely filled his inventory, but he didn’t want to break his promise to his Pokémon. They deserved the best, and that meant they shouldn’t have to fight without the best meals at the very least. Besides, his inventory was already filled with the corpses of the Paradox Pokémon they had taken down during the raid, along with a few more robots. They didn’t have much use beyond scrap metal, and the humans here couldn’t eat the corpses, so Alex was more than happy to take everything with him after the battle.

“No complaints about the ammo?” General Stroud asked with a smirk.

“My Pokémon are more than enough to take down the Artificial Pokémon, so it doesn’t really matter. You managed to get almost my entire ammunition supply for this trip, except for what I used during the raid.”

“Ahahaha. Right, well, safe travels,” General Stroud said as he began waving a hand behind his back, signaling to the guards in the room.

Alex ignored him as he made his way outside and activated the return beacon on his arm. While he waited, several scientists rushed over with all sorts of recording devices, pointing them directly at Alex in his Deep Suit with his backpack strapped to his back.

“What’s all this?” Alex asked.

“Oh, nothing,” General Stroud replied with a placating smile. “Just go about your business and pretend we aren’t here.”

Alex shook his head. It was obvious what they were doing. They planned to record him jumping between dimensions. Unfortunately for them, without access to Hoopa’s teleportation energy, there was no way they could replicate the process.

A few hours later, surrounded by a ring of high-tech sensory devices, Alex vanished into a stream of light and finally returned to his own Pokémon world.

The moment he arrived, however, sirens began blaring throughout Prism Tower.

“Warning! Unknown foreign contaminant detected. All personnel are to remain in place. Initiating emergency quarantine protocols.”