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In this room filled with high-tech equipment, aside from advanced weapons and armor, there existed another category of high-tech product.
This one, however, belonged to the field of biology—an exceptionally advanced and mysterious invention that ordinary people found difficult to understand. Yes, these products were generally known as serums.
Yet, the serums currently on display in the room found themselves in a rather awkward position compared to the high-tech armor.
Why?
Because they were concocted by mad scientists using unknown methods, and without the support of substantial clinical data, both their efficacy and side effects remained largely a mystery.
As a result, these serums were akin to a lottery—if luck was on your side, they could bring unimaginable benefits. But if your luck ran dry, they might cause irreversible damage or even sudden death.
Still, the materials used in creating these serums were clearly extremely rare and valuable. Because of this, even shady merchants who trafficked in them didn't want to suffer losses—they were sold at roughly their cost price.
Even so, their prices remained sky-high. So high, in fact, that they might as well have been decorative pieces—left untouched and ignored by most.
Uncertain effects and exorbitant prices—perhaps only a true fool would consider buying one. After all, while outlaws may be unafraid of death, no one wanted to die a pointless death.
However, at this very moment, Sato's attention was entirely absorbed by one item—a serum that every other customer had treated as mere decoration.
It was an astonishingly expensive serum labeled at 50 million PokeDollars. On the surface, it looked no different from the kind of standard medicine you'd see in any hospital. And yet, there it lay quietly in a neglected glass display case.
To most, this item—called the Awakening Serum—was a terrifying poison with unpredictable risks. But in Sato's eyes, it was a wondrous, almost mythical creation. It was a key… one that could unlock a brand new world.
After using his system's appraisal ability to examine the serum, Sato became convinced that the person who had created it was a genius far ahead of their time.
...
Awakening Serum – Appraisal Data
Item: Awakening Serum
Effect: 20% chance of awakening psychic powers in an ordinary person by enhancing their mental energy.
Side Effects: None
Description: A miraculous serum developed by a mad scientist desperate to become a psychic. After exhausting all his resources on rare materials, he only managed to craft two vials. Unfortunately, the first one failed to activate and was deemed a failure. The second was sold at a bargain to a black market merchant—who now deeply regrets that decision.
...
"Even if the success rate is only 20%, the fact that it can awaken psychic powers in an ordinary person without side effects is already enough to bet everything on," Sato thought, his heart pounding with excitement after confirming the appraisal results multiple times.
Yes, Sato had already learned from Maya—a naturally awakened psychic—that those who forcibly awaken psychic powers through external means typically have poor talent and limited potential. But that didn't diminish his enthusiasm.
Why?
Because ever since witnessing Sabrina's insane psychic powers firsthand in Saffron City, he had harbored a deep and burning envy of psychics.
Now, seeing this serum that offered a chance—no matter how slim—of turning an ordinary person into a psychic, that long-buried seed of envy exploded to life and instantly grew into a massive, flourishing tree in his heart.
Sato's mind was now entirely consumed by one thought: Buy the Awakening Serum. Try it immediately. Spending 50 million PokeDollars for a shot at becoming a psychic? Worth it.
To Sato, if he could really become a psychic for just 50 million PokeDollars, it would be the bargain of a lifetime.
Even if his psychic powers ended up being weak, he would still be a psychic—and that meant he would finally be able to wield the one psychic ability he had always admired the most: telepathy.
Maya had told him that telepathy wasn't considered a high-tier psychic ability. It was more of a fundamental skill—something that even those with poor talent could learn.
What stood out most in Sato's memory wasn't that psychics could silently interfere with their opponents—like how Sabrina would often "cheat" during battles—it was that they were born with the ability to give commands without speaking.
Yes, thanks to telepathy, psychic Trainers didn't need to speak when issuing commands to their Pokémon. They just had to think, and their Pokémon would know what to do.
This was precisely why psychic Trainers were such a headache to others.
"Elusive"—that was the word most regular Trainers used to describe psychic Trainers after facing them in battle.
Because without hearing your opponent call out commands, how could you possibly predict their next move?
As far as Sato was concerned, if he could just learn telepathy—the psychic ability that offered such a massive tactical advantage in battle—he would be more than satisfied.
Those other flashy powers like teleportation, future sight, or telekinesis? He honestly didn't care about those at all.
Sato was confident that if he mastered telepathy, his win rate in future battles would increase by at least 30%.
In fact, he had never even fantasized about the high-level powers like teleportation or telekinesis. Everything indicated that such abilities required exceptionally rare psychic talent.
That said, he didn't think it mattered if he couldn't use those advanced powers—so long as his Psychic-type Pokémon could.
He guessed that the reason the Awakening Serum had only a 20% success rate was largely because it didn't significantly enhance a person's mental energy.
To put it in numbers—if the average person had a base mental strength of 5, then psychics typically had 10 or more. So, if a person's mental strength could be boosted to 10, they could awaken psychic powers.
The serum's function was to increase a person's mental strength—but the exact boost was uncertain. All that was known was that the upper and lower limits were low. Sato guessed the increase ranged between 1 and 5.
So even if you got lucky and awakened, your talent would likely be on the low end of the scale.
Still, not everyone started with a base of 5. Some people naturally had 3, 4, or even 6, 7, 8, or 9—5 just happened to be the most common.
This meant that people with slightly above-average mental strength had a significantly better shot at awakening.
And if Sato did become a psychic, he would enjoy another massive benefit: the chance to earn the loyalty of powerful Psychic-type Pokémon.
Psychic Pokémon were generally high-intelligence species. If it weren't for their difficulty reproducing and their low interest in creating offspring, the Pokémon world might not have had room left for humans.
With base mental strength in the double digits, these Pokémon were extremely proud creatures. In terms of obsession and stubbornness, even Dragon-types couldn't compare.
To most Psychic Pokémon, the idea of being caught and commanded by a human whose intellect they vastly outclassed was humiliating—about as insulting as a human being ordered around by a gorilla.
Could they accept that? Absolutely not. Their pride wouldn't allow it.
To most Psychic Pokémon, only human psychics could be considered worthy equals. So being defeated and captured by one wasn't seen as disgraceful at all.
In fact, many young Psychic-types would actively seek out human psychics. If they found someone who matched their ideals, they would willingly become that person's Pokémon.
Psychic-types weren't stupid. Many of them knew that human Trainers could help them grow stronger at a much faster rate. They just didn't want to follow any ordinary Trainer—out of sheer stubborn pride.