When Wataru and Sato arrived at the lucky guy's slot machine, there was already a crowd around it.
The boy, with an ordinary appearance and a somewhat clumsy expression, stared intently at the machine in front of him. His hands were on the machine and only moved when he needed to insert coins, proving that he was alive.
"Wow, wow, he really is lucky; he's won quite a lot."
"So, you can play this way, just keep inserting coins, and even if you don't win the jackpot, the small prizes keep coming."
"Wow, he's won more than I make in a year! Sometimes fools are lucky..."
"Hey, I'm just curious... could he be cheating? That winning rate seems a little high..."
"Are you dumb? If he were cheating, those guys in black would've already caught him. Besides, there's someone else over there who's won even more..."
The crowd murmured around him. Sometimes, when you can't get something yourself but see others achieve it easily, you feel a bit resentful.
"Did you call the technicians? Is the machine okay?" asked Wataru, noticing nothing unusual about the boy. His hands were visible on the machine, with no way to cheat.
"They already came and checked it out, and they're still watching. They also adjusted the machine this morning; there are no issues," replied Sato quietly.
However, as the crowd grew, the boy's luck seemed to run out. He inserted more than a hundred coins without winning anything.
"Kid, I think your luck's over. You might want to go cash in your tokens; it doesn't make much sense to keep going," said a well-meaning middle-aged man.
But the boy seemed not to hear and kept inserting coins into the machine: a hundred, two hundred, three hundred... In the end, he inserted close to five hundred tokens without winning anything.
"Looks like his luck's run out, hehe..."
"Shh, don't say anything. I want to see if he keeps playing."
Someone muttered with a hint of malice, but it expressed what everyone was thinking. No one else pointed it out.
Wataru and Sato, watching from the back, breathed a silent sigh of relief. It seemed he wouldn't exceed ten thousand tokens, meaning they could avoid bigger problems.
Finally, after the boy had inserted nearly nine hundred tokens without winning, he decided to stop.
When the number of tokens is high, the game corner employees automatically convert them into a storage card, so the boy, though he had many tokens, only had one card. Each coin insertion was virtual, not physical.
So, when the boy got up to leave, he only had a card with the game corner's logo on it.
Ignoring the envious gazes from the crowd, the boy walked over to the computer to redeem his prizes.
After he left, his machine became very popular. Veteran players knew that sometimes there were glitches in the game corner's machines and thought the boy might have found one.
Others tried to copy the boy's method, choosing a random machine and starting to insert coins non-stop, whether they won or lost. But these "clever" strategies would probably only make them lose all their money.
The clumsy boy sat in front of the computer and began operating it awkwardly, clearly someone who didn't use computers often.
After five minutes of struggling, he finally added items to his cart, then paid with his card using his earned tokens.
He redeemed two TMs for the move Protect and one for the move Toxic, spending a total of six thousand tokens. He converted the remaining three thousand tokens into Pokédollars.
He went to the counter, ignoring the looks from Wataru and Sato, and quietly waited for his items to arrive.
Soon, a door behind the counter opened, and a middle-aged man in a work uniform came out with a box. He placed the box on the counter and left.
"Here's your stuff and an anonymous bank card with three hundred seventy-five thousand Pokédollars. Check everything," said Wataru grumpily, pushing the items towards the boy.
Although they had avoided a bigger issue, they knew they would likely lose their monthly bonus, which left them in a foul mood. Moreover, seeing this boy win more than they could earn in years stirred deep envy.
The boy nodded, picked up the box, and left the game corner, ignoring the looks from others, including some tattooed youths who murmured things as they watched him go.
When the boy left the game corner, the sun was already on the horizon. He walked with his head down but couldn't help but smile slightly.
This clumsy boy was none other than Cain. He had entered the Goldenrod Game Corner at noon, following the crowd. With his previous experience in game corners, slightly manipulating the machines' internal system through his own system was very easy for him.
However, to avoid raising suspicion, Cain ensured his token gain wasn't too fast. He earned tokens bit by bit, with more losses than wins, but with a total gain that exceeded the losses, allowing him to win consistently.
Cain knew that as long as his earnings didn't exceed a million Pokédollars, he wouldn't attract the game corner management's attention, and he would only cause the employees to lose some bonuses.
After all, in a gambling game corner, it's normal for there to be wins and losses. As long as the business remains profitable, the management won't worry too much about occasional small losses.
Knowing he was close to winning a million Pokédollars, Cain deliberately lost a bit to ease the employees' nerves, then redeemed some needed moves and left.
Cain had no intention of turning the game corner into his personal "ATM." He knew that even if he used disguises, he'd eventually be discovered if he visited too frequently, as things like height or visible hands and feet are harder to conceal, even if a person can change their appearance.
That's why Cain saw the game corner only as a place where he could get some TMs and earn a bit of money from time to time, without returning for a while after each visit.
"Wow, money really can corrupt people..."
Cain shook his head, knowing that his winnings would surely provoke envy in some. And although he anticipated that someone might try to rob him, he didn't expect them to be so impatient. He had barely left the game corner when he was already being followed.
When Cain left the game corner, some of the criminals who frequented these places had already marked him and began to follow him clumsily.
With his experience in Team Rocket, Cain easily noticed this crude attempt at a tail.
(End of chapter)