The valley Alex chose as his base, known as Clearstone Valley, was an alluvial valley roughly 2 to 3 square kilometers wide, divided into one-square-kilometer plots. The section Alex wanted was located at the mouth of the valley, spanning 2 square kilometers across the valley floor and extending 4 additional square kilometers into the dense forested region to the north. The bundle was priced the lowest to serve as the valley's defensive wall, an incentive meant to attract a Champion willing to settle there.
The area had originally drawn interest from several Elite ranked groups planning to establish a town, but it quickly became clear that the most dangerous plot needed to be secured first before anyone could safely move into the surrounding land. Several Elites had tried to claim it, but their efforts ended in disaster when a Pokemon flood swept through the entire valley, killing everyone there.
Since then, the land had remained unclaimed, forcing the League to lower the price. Alex found it easily while searching for the lowest cost per unit area. That was when he got the idea to try and gain additional benefits in exchange for taking responsibility over the defense.
However, he quickly encountered a major problem when he tried getting people interested in investing in his plan.
"What do you mean you're only Elite ranked?"
"Are you one of those idiots who thinks spamming Roar can fight off a flood?"
"So what if you beat a Champion before? Go beat a full team of six, then we can talk shop."
Needless to say, his credentials were quite weak. He couldn't convince any of the groups, organizations, or businesses to invest in his defenses.
Even when he sent his bounty records, it didn't make a difference. It was impressive work given his age, but overall, he was still at the bottom of the barrel.
"Any suggestions?" Alex asked his financial team.
"We can livestream you clearing the land and building up the base," Nyx suggested.
"Wouldn't that be too much information? I don't think I want any publicity pointed at us."
"We can make it so that only the Pokémon are shown hunting in the area. We avoid taking schematic shots and focus on the finished products. Rotom and I can handle the editing so it looks entertaining while occasionally showing the progress of the construction."
"Unfortunately, we can't go far into the construction with our remaining funds," Celise explained. "The credits are only enough for the main hub. The cash is only enough for the hydroponics farm and the defenses Rhea wants to put everywhere. We would need more to build the walls, the very expensive telecom tower, and the tech lab."
"If all we need to do is show our power, how about we upload videos of my babies laying waste to the flood?" Rhea asked.
"No," Celise, Nyx, and Alex said in unison.
"That's a horrible idea," Celise added.
"Team Dominion would upgrade their arsenal," Nyx reasoned.
"I guess we'll do this the old-fashioned way," Alex said as he gave up. "I'll go back to bounty hunting and saving up. Credits will be hard to get, but we only really need to spend those on the main hub for protection. The rest can be bought using cash, which is significantly easier to earn."
The biggest difference between League credits and Pokédollars is the types of materials they can buy. With League credits, the materials used to build structures can be up to Champion rank, similar to the League gyms, while Pokédollars can only afford Elite rank.
It would have been ideal if the walls, telecom tower, and tech lab were built using credits, but they weren't exactly essential during a flood. The main hub was the priority since it would act as a bunker for staff during emergencies, while the rest could simply be rebuilt using cash.
"Rhea, keep building more turrets for the Tri-Lock Defense Network. Your goal is to completely cover the entire hub with them. Nyx, look for more jobs for me. Cash or credits, it doesn't matter so long as it pays well. Celise, try and find more people who would be interested in building up the area," Alex said as he ended the meeting.
In the end, he still needed 200 million credits to even start construction. They could just buy the property now and start clearing it out, but they would end up with incomplete facilities leaving the place unlivable. On top of that, they didn't have enough Pokémon to completely cover the area.
They had more than enough to lay claim to the area, but they lacked the numbers nests had to intimidate the surroundings. If they had a Champion ranked Pokémon, that would be a different story, but Alex only had Elites.
He wasn't far from reaching Champion, though, thanks primarily to Gravik's Champion ranked Snorlax, which was being divided evenly between Arcanine, Raticate, Gardevoir, Forretress, Frosmoth, Alcremie, and the Maushold.
They were the ones who contributed in taking down Snorlax, and so they would get a share of the spoils. Arcanine and Raticate in particular took the lion's share, considering it was their kill.
Alex would have wanted Hydreigon to have all of it, but even then, it wasn't enough to reach Champion, so it was pointless to break their contribution policy.
After the meeting, Alex headed for Vera's room in the mansion. She had moved to a guest room ever since she came back so Alex could be close to his daughter.
"How's Alvera?" he asked as he entered, finding Vera breastfeeding the baby.
"She's been quite hungry recently," Vera answered. "How'd the meeting go?"
"Horribly," Alex answered. "We only have enough funds for the command center where we will be staying, but we lack funds for other important structures like the lab and tower. I'll have to earn another 80 million credits for those and the walls that would surround the main hub."
"I thought you had options for making it cheaper."
"I don't have enough credibility despite my accomplishments. They want a Champion ranked trainer to sit on the property to guarantee survival. At this rate, we will have to bite the bullet and fund everything while someone comes along and just builds up a wall between us with no extra benefits."
"What's wrong with that?" Vera asked. "Leave them to their own devices while we focus on ours. Besides, I think you've been too fixated on the wrong problem. You've been too worried about the future while forgetting about the present."
Alex tilted his head, rearranging his thoughts. It took a moment, but he eventually snapped out of it.
"I think you're right," Alex said as Vera finished putting the baby to sleep. "I may have been so eager that I missed an obvious solution. Thanks, Vera."
Alex leaned in and gave Vera a kiss as thanks, then called for another meeting. Fortunately, they hadn't gotten far, so it didn't take long for them to get back into the meeting room.
"Celise, forget about finding collaborators and move forward with purchasing the land. I also want you to finish estimating everyone's needs and make a plan that doesn't care for expenses. It just has to be practical. Give me the total amount of credits needed when you're done."
"Nyx, forget about looking for cash bounties for me and build a for-sale listing on Elite ranked Pokémon using the stock of living ones I took from dead trainers. Sell for credit only. Also, keep an eye out for any Dark types that are extremely cheap."
"Rhea, keep building turrets and feel free to use up all the cash I have," Alex finished.
"What happened?" Nyx asked.
"Vera told me to focus on the present rather than the future," Alex answered. "So instead of holding onto my stock of living Elite ranked Pokémon for their meat, it's better to sell them now and just hunt for more later. We already have a decade's worth of meat stored, so we might as well put the living ones on the market."
"Our total might exceed 200 million credits after the land is purchased. Six square kilometers is quite a significant area to cover," Celise calculated.
"The land hasn't even been cleaned up yet, so there's no point in worrying about what we're going to build right now. If we're going to have to save up for it anyway, we might as well do it right the first time. That means we go big and try to cover all our bases."
"What happens if the total significantly exceeds the amount of credits we end up with?" Celise asked.
"Once the area's cleaned up, we'll take a look at the dream home schematics, see how many credits we've earned, and reevaluate our situation. No need to worry about it just yet."
"We're going to throw our problems to the future?" Nyx asked, one brow raised, doubt written across her face.
"We're going to throw our problems to the future," Alex replied confidently.
"Procrastination! I love it," Rhea celebrated.
Once the meeting finished, Alex picked up his phone and made a call to an old friend. Just because he didn't plan on relying on benefits to start up their base didn't mean he was going to let others profit off him for free.
"If they want to benefit from me, they'd better be ready to pay up."
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