Pokémon: The Cheating Life

**Chapter 9: Bounty Challenge**

"Ding! Congratulations to the host for completing the side quest: Help Lillie overcome her fear of Pokémon. Reward: 1000 Poké Dollars, 20 Diamonds, 50 Popularity Points."

The system's notification sound informed Ronaldinho that Lillie was completely healed. At the same time, he couldn't help but sigh at the power of Sabrina's psychic abilities. Lillie closed her eyes and focused on her hidden memory, tears sliding down her face.

After a long moment, Lillie finally opened her eyes, wiped her tears, and said gratefully to Ronaldinho, "Thank you for bringing me to Kanto and helping me discover my sealed memory."

With that, she hugged Charizard tightly and smiled. "It's wonderful! I can connect with Pokémon again! I have to thank that Pokémon when I get back."

"Lillie, are you going back?" Ronaldinho asked, feeling a bit reluctant.

"Well, I probably won't head back for a while. I need to deliver the Pokémon egg to Professor Oak, and I also want to travel around Kanto," Lillie replied, shaking her head. "Ronaldinho, can I travel with you?"

"I couldn't ask for anything more," Ronaldinho smiled as he extended his right hand toward Lillie, who shook it warmly.

The two left Saffron Gym, and Ronaldinho decided to spend the night in Saffron City before heading to Cerulean City the next day. It was a perfect opportunity to show Lillie around this bustling city.

While shopping with Lillie, Ronaldinho called upon the system and asked, "System, is there any way to quickly earn money or diamonds? I'm really short on cash. I need evolution stones, held items, and now a skill machine. I'm nearly broke!"

"...Host, please be patient. Laying a solid foundation is key," the system replied.

"I understand I need to build a foundation, but this main quest is incredibly strict. There are so few high-quality Pokémon, and diamonds are so expensive. I've only caught two Pokémon for this main quest. It's making me anxious!" Ronaldinho lamented.

"Ding! A special bounty challenge has been issued. Please go to the game center and achieve the highest score before 10 PM. Rewards: 10,000 Poké Dollars, 10,000 Diamonds, and 10,000 Popularity Points."

Ronaldinho was stunned. Was the system really offering such a generous reward? He checked the time and saw it was only 3 PM. Excitedly, he took Lillie to the game center in Saffron City.

Upon entering the game center, he noticed that the top player on the score leaderboard had over 300,000 points, which was said to have been accumulated by playing games all day long. Ronaldinho realized then that there was no free lunch in the world!

However, for such a substantial reward, he risked it all! He took out 300 Poké Dollars to buy game coins, knowing that one Poké Dollar was exchanged for ten game coins.

Ronaldinho gave Lillie 1,000 game coins to play with, then sat in front of a slot machine and began inserting coins.

An hour later, after experiencing some losses and wins, he managed to double his money to 5,000 game coins. Looking back at Lillie, Ronaldinho's eyes widened in surprise: she had three full baskets of game coins!

Clearly, when you're the protagonist, your luck tends to be on the brighter side. Ronaldinho decided to give his game coins to Lillie and let her play.

"Cheating!" the system exclaimed.

"Which eye of yours saw me cheating?" Ronaldinho retorted. "Lillie and I are using the game coins I bought. This is called teaming up to pass the level!"

The system responded, "...You have lost your moral integrity."

Ronaldinho waved his hand dismissively. "How many diamonds is moral integrity worth? In poké dollars? In diamonds? In popularity points? I'd trade it all!" he said, fully aware of his actions.

With Lillie's help, he successfully topped the score ranking list before 10 o'clock. In front of the boss, he began redeeming points for prizes.

As he opened Poké Balls one by one and examined the Pokémon, Ronaldinho couldn't help but marvel at the vast variety and number of Pokémon available in the big city.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he spotted a pair of Nidoran (male) and Nidoran (female) – both top-quality Pokémon! He considered taking both, but realizing they had the same attributes and similar skills, he felt taking both would be redundant.

After careful consideration, Ronaldinho decided to give the Nidoran (female) to Lillie, especially since he had put a lot of effort into earning it. He then picked a high-quality Cleffa for her, recalling that Lillie's mother had a Cleffa too, which had been her childhood playmate. This Cleffa would surely be a perfect match for Lillie.

After going through nearly two hundred Pokémon, Ronaldinho found another top-quality walking Oddish. Catching three top-quality Pokémon at once was an impressive achievement! There were so many different kinds of Pokémon that he had almost completed most of the side quest regarding the Pokémon collection in an instant; he just needed to select more than 20 rare ones.

He chose more than 20 high-quality rare Pokémon and prepared to send them to Professor Oak, who wanted to study Pokémon and could assist with their care. It seemed like a win-win situation.

Leaving the Nidoran (male) and Oddish with him, he now had six Pokémon. He asked the system to keep the Nidoran (female) and Cleffa for now, deciding that he would wait until Ice Vulpix was born and became Lillie's first Pokémon before handing these two over to her.

Meanwhile, Lillie was busy choosing clothes and stuffed toys. Ronaldinho directly asked for a year's supply of energy cubes for Pokémon food, as they were much more nutritious than regular Pokémon food.

After Lillie finished selecting her clothes, supplies, and toys, the two left feeling satisfied, leaving the boss behind to lament his losses.

In the evening, Ronaldinho excitedly received a reward and then headed to the mall to start shopping. In the item column, he spent 10,000 Poké Dollars without hesitation to purchase a Focus Lens. He discovered a small bug in the system: items purchased can be integrated into a Pokémon's body, and evolution stones can be directly worn by the Pokémon.

This means that a Pokémon capable of evolution can hold two items! In reality, however, held items cannot be integrated into a Pokémon's body; they can only be held. This is a minor flaw in the system. Although the bug has been detected, it has not been fixed and is considered the default behavior.

Next, he looked at skill machines and evolution stones. The evolution stones correspond with keystones. The cheapest evolution stone costs 3,000 diamonds, while the most expensive one is 10,000 diamonds, and the evolution stone for the legendary pokémon costs 50,000.

After a moment of hesitation, he decided to buy a skill machine. This choice would broaden the attack range of the Pokémon. Although Mega Evolution is powerful, it can also make a Pokémon an easy target, as it lacks a wide attack range.

For added security, even evolution stones provide little protection.

Finally, he considered the skill machine options. With 10,000 diamonds, he could purchase 10 skill machines. Fortunately, these machines are permanent and effective, making the diamonds well-spent.