Read advance chapters for both of my work, exclusively on Patreon at - www.patreon.com/Sniperwoof
-----------------
Lastly, among the weapons on display, one in particular caught Sato's attention—a gun capable of firing a special beam from the arm, called the Petrification Gun.
As the name implies, this gun's function is to petrify living beings. Any creature struck by its unique energy beam would become petrified.
However, while the description made it sound formidable, this so-called "petrification" didn't literally turn a creature into lifeless stone. It merely immobilized the target for a certain duration. In essence, it was more like an advanced version of a tranquilizer gun.
Though the name was a bit exaggerated, the sight of the Petrification Gun immediately reminded Sato of a very famous villain.
That villain was none other than Hunter J, a Pokémon huntress who wielded a Salamence and operated primarily in the Sinnoh Region.
Sato remembered that she wielded a similar high-tech weapon. However, the technology she used was clearly far superior to the Petrification Gun before him.
According to the brochure, this gun could at most petrify Pokémon below the pseudo Elite-Four level, and the effect lasted no more than 10 minutes.
Hunter J's weapon, on the other hand, could transform living beings into gold-like statues. Without special tools to reverse the process, restoration was nearly impossible—and it even worked on some Legendary Pokémon.
Sato suspected there was a deeper connection between this Petrification Gun and Hunter J's high-tech weapon.
He had a strong feeling that the weapon Hunter J wielded was likely a future, enhanced version of this gun.
Whether in the anime or special episodes, Sato had rarely seen humans using advanced weapons in combat. Most battles were still fought using Pokémon trained by their Trainers.
It was something that had initially disappointed him. After all, the technological level in the Pokémon world seemed incredibly advanced—humans should've been able to counter Pokémon with science alone.
But after arriving in the Pokémon world, Sato realized that it wasn't that humans lacked the ability to develop high-tech weapons.
It was just that, compared to creating such costly weapons to fight wild Pokémon, training and commanding Pokémon through battle was a far more cost-effective and efficient approach.
In short, it wasn't that high-tech weapons were ineffective—they were just extremely expensive for both making and using, making large-scale usage nearly impossible.
Furthermore, when dealing with such mysterious creatures, ordinary humans holding advanced weapons often couldn't land effective hits on Pokémon.
Pokémon weren't mindless beasts. Once they suffered a loss, they would quickly adapt to counter human tactics.
With just a light touch or by firing off any number of bizarre long-range moves, they could reduce a weapon worth tens of millions of PokeDollars into a pile of scrap—and then deal with unprotected humans at their leisure.
In conclusion, even with advanced technology, Pokémon were vastly superior in individual combat capability. In the Pokémon world, becoming a Trainer was far more promising than being a regular tech-savvy human.
While the current trend in the Pokémon world prioritized Trainers with science playing a supporting role, Sato believed the potential of scientific development for humanity was still enormous.
Take Hunter J's top-tier weapon, for instance—capable of even petrifying some Legendary Pokémon. If ordinary people could each possess one, then as long as no Super Legendary Pokémon appeared, regular Legendaries would be easy to capture.
However, Sato figured this idea was unrealistic. That kind of weapon was likely astronomically expensive, and the materials required were surely rare beyond measure.
Not to mention, even Hunter J herself only had one. If her subordinates each had one too, then even Ash's plot armor and his aura of making every opponent act irrationally wouldn't help—he'd be captured instantly.
Without a doubt, the weapon in Hunter J's hands was of legendary caliber. It was precisely because of this weapon that she could operate so smoothly—up until she crossed paths with Ash.
Now, Sato couldn't help but wonder—if he could obtain such a weapon, then even when facing powerful Legendary Pokémon in the future, he might stand a chance at capturing them, even if his own team wasn't strong enough to defeat them.
To this day, Sato was keenly aware that the reason he had made such progress in such a short while was largely thanks to the system within him—granting him an uncanny ability to identify rare and valuable things.
But currently, the system remained mostly inactive due to insufficient energy. Sato couldn't imagine how powerful it would be if fully charged.
From his exploration so far, he had discovered that only a Legendary Pokémon's primal energy could recharge the system.
Therefore, if Sato wanted to unlock more powerful system features—or obtain mythical items like the Mew Gene Enhancement Serum—he would need to embark on a journey to capture Legendary Pokémon.
That said, he figured average Legendary Pokémon probably didn't possess primal energy. To obtain it, he'd have to go after the truly powerful ones.
Unfortunately, if he were to grow at a normal pace, it would take him at least two to three years to build enough strength to advance to the Elite-Four level and form a team capable of capturing a powerful Legendary.
After all, capturing a strong Legendary wasn't just risky because of the Pokémon's counterattacks—it also involved dealing with do-gooder Trainers like Ash and pressure from the League and others.
But if he had a weapon like Hunter J's, he could attempt to capture powerful Legendary Pokémon much earlier and reduce many unpredictable risks.
All it would take was one good shot, and everything would be settled. That's how powerful the gun was.
"These two guns are definitely related. If I follow this trail, there's a chance I could get my hands on Hunter J's gun… If the opportunity arises, I must try to contact the scientist who created this Petrification Gun. He's currently in Cinnabar Island."
Just imagining the possibility set Sato's eyes ablaze. His mind raced as he considered how he might acquire a high-tech weapon like Hunter J's.
Unfortunately, this was still a black market—one backed by powerful individuals.
With his current strength, there was no way he could interrogate the staff or managers here and learn which scientist in Cinnabar Island had made the Petrification Gun.
Luckily, Sato knew that there was still plenty of time before Cinnabar Island would be destroyed in a massive volcanic eruption. He would have many chances in the future to locate the scientist responsible for creating it.
Incidentally, even though the Petrification Gun was rather mediocre in terms of performance, its price was a staggering 500 million PokeDollars.
'This immediately crushed Sato's thoughts of buying the gun to use as a means to connect with the scientist who built it.