After lowering his guard, the two of them went together to the Pokémon Center's lounge area—the very place where Lumiere had slept the night before.
Volo took his large travel pack off his back and set it aside. It was hard to imagine how tiring it must be to carry such a huge bag around every day.
As the backpack swayed, a Togepi poked its head out from a gap. But the moment it saw Rowlet, it immediately shrank back inside.
"Rowlet?"
Rowlet's attention was caught. It flapped its wings and landed on top of the backpack, lowering its head to peer into the opening—then it seemed to catch a whiff of something fragrant…
Lumiere and Volo each took a sofa and continued their earlier discussion.
"Let's start with the Ginkgo Guild I belong to," Volo said.
"Alright." Lumiere nodded and focused, ready to absorb the worldbuilding.
Volo explained, "The Ginkgo Guild is a large merchant organization that's existed in the Arce region for hundreds of years. They travel everywhere, handling the trade of goods across the entire region."
"The first guildmaster was Ginter. The current guildmaster is his descendant, Volkner—though he doesn't really manage things… The guild headquarters is located in Sunyshore City in the Sinnoh area. All of this is common knowledge."
"As for me, I'm a freelance merchant in the guild—basically a gig worker. I'm usually pretty free. Sometimes I help deliver goods, or hunt down rarer items to sell at stalls."
Hearing this, Lumiere pondered for a moment. It differed a bit from the Ginkgo Guild he remembered, but it was still within an acceptable range.
By the way, Volkner—did you quit being a Gym Leader? Then again, maybe this world doesn't even have Gyms or a League in the first place…
Putting those thoughts aside for now, Lumiere asked, "Then what exactly is this 'Villain Mutual Aid Society'? And those commissions?"
Volo smiled. "The Villain Mutual Aid Society is basically a mutual-help platform. No one really knows who created it. As for the name—when the platform was first launched, they held an online poll to decide it. A bunch of people were messing around and voted for this name, and it just stuck."
"…" Lumiere felt oddly speechless, but kept listening.
"A commission works like this: after registering a verified account, you enable location services and post a commission in your current town. You pay a service fee to the platform, and then others can pay a deposit to accept your commission."
"If the commission fails or is abandoned, the deposit isn't refunded. But if the client cancels it unilaterally, the deposit is refunded—though the client's service fee is gone."
"Most commissions have a one-day time limit and refresh the next day, unless you pay extra to extend them."
"And if a commission gets refreshed without being completed, the service fee is refunded in full. Any extra money you added, though, is not."
Hearing this, Lumiere immediately spotted an issue. "Wait—if someone accepts a commission but doesn't finish it that day, wouldn't that count as a failure? Wouldn't they lose the deposit?"
Volo laughed. "That doesn't count as a failure—it's considered a platform cancellation. The commission can continue after you notify the client. Both sides get their service fee and deposit back. Everyone wins."
"This…"
"A lot of people exploit that loophole," Volo continued. "But there are downsides. Your account shows a public history of posted and accepted commissions. And if a task is canceled, you don't get the platform reward points either."
"Points? Can you exchange them for items?"
"You can. You can even cash them out—but it's basically like bonus points you get from topping up phone credit. Pretty useless. You need to save up a ton of them… However, there's one important thing!"
"What is it?"
"They aren't consumed. Once your accumulated points reach certain thresholds, your account upgrades—from a regular user to a VIP member, then to a Silver member, and finally to the highest tier: Gold member!"
"Holy crap! You're a Gold member, right?" Lumiere remembered that gold-glowing commission earlier—it was ridiculously flashy.
Volo scratched his head awkwardly. "Uh… it's useless. All it does is turn your username gold and make your commissions more eye-catching."
Lumiere: "..."
"But Silver members and above can accept commissions across different towns," Volo added. "Because of location restrictions, regular users can only accept commissions in their current town. You can see others, but you can't click into them."
"That makes sense…"
Lumiere understood the logic. Towns were far apart—if you accepted a commission you couldn't reach, it'd be pointless. Reaching Silver status proved you had real capability, so you could be trusted.
"Oh right," Lumiere suddenly remembered something and pointed at the white screen. "If you can accept commissions directly on your phone, why bother putting up a screen over there?"
"Not everyone is glued to their phone all day," Volo explained. "Trainers have their own things to do, but coming to the Pokémon Center is part of daily life."
"While waiting, they can glance at the big screen. Maybe they'll spot a side job. Then they just note the number at the end of the commission, search it on the platform, and accept it."
"So that's how it works…"
At this point, Lumiere more or less understood how the Villain Mutual Aid Society functioned. Honestly, it really was a great system.
So next step: accept commissions and make money! Once he had cash, he could start traveling across the Arce region—adventuring everywhere, seeing all kinds of Pokémon! And then beat them up with mud pellets and catch them!
So what was the first step again? Right—register an account on the mobile platform, then… then there was no "then." He was stuck at step one.
Not to mention he was basically undocumented—registering might already be a problem. Worse, he didn't even have a phone. What commissions was he supposed to accept? Use a computer instead? What a joke.
"Um…"
"Anything else you want to ask?" Volo looked at him.
"Well… actually…"
Lumiere had no choice but to awkwardly ask Volo for help. Just half an hour ago, he still hadn't considered Volo a good person—but now, he was the only one he could rely on.
After hearing Lumiere's explanation, Volo stroked his chin and nodded. "I see. Orphaned parents, picked up by a Machamp, undocumented, living deep in the mountains…"
Just when Lumiere thought Volo might believe him, Volo suddenly stood up, adjusted his hat, and said casually, "Next time, come up with a better excuse."
"Uh…"
Lumiere fell silent. He'd lost the gamble—of course Volo hadn't fallen for it.
But then Volo suddenly patted him on the shoulder and smiled calmly. "Alright, let's go. I'll take you to the police station and get you one."
"!!!"
"But the thing about Togepi injuring you—we'll call that even," Volo added. "I don't like owing people favors, and I'm broke too. I can't afford medical bills."
"Thank you!"
Lumiere jumped to his feet, genuinely grateful. No matter what kind of person Volo was in his original impression, right now—he was a good guy.
The two prepared to head for the police station. But wait—where was Rowlet? It had been a while since he'd seen it.
Just then, the big backpack Volo had set aside suddenly shook. Togepi squeezed out through the gap, jumped onto Volo, eyes glistening, crying out pitifully as if complaining.
Right after that, Rowlet puffed up its cheeks, face bulging, struggling to squeeze out of the backpack.
But its face was too big and got stuck. After pushing and wriggling for a long time, not only did it fail to get out, but the Pokeblock it was holding in its beak fell out due to all the movement.
Then it seemed to realize something.
Rowlet froze for a moment, looked up blankly at Lumiere, then quietly retreated back into the backpack, pretending nothing had happened.
Lumiere & Volo: "..."