"Haunter, same routine—Hypnosis, then activate Night Shade to empower yourself and eliminate the target."
From behind his monitor, Jack observed the situation inside the building in perfect clarity. Haunter, already lurking inside the room, followed the order to the letter.
Within seconds, the unsuspecting target fell into a deep sleep. The moment their breathing slowed, Haunter activated Night Shade—but not just the standard version.
A dark shadow engulfed Haunter's body, expanding and coalescing into a monstrous figure—a massive specter cloaking Haunter like an avatar of death. This was the true form of Night Shade, as Jack understood it. Not just an attack—but a transformation.
In this enhanced state, Haunter's strength and speed surged dramatically. The tradeoff? A much faster drain on his stamina. And if used in active combat, the energy cost would multiply—making it a skill that needed to end battles fast.
Which is exactly what it did.
In this ghostly form, Haunter became a true assassin—swift, silent, and lethal. The target never even had the chance to scream.
With the deed done, Haunter, well-trained under Jack's methods, began searching the room with practiced ease—looting valuables and intel before slipping away. They vanished into the night, the job clean and quiet.
Mission complete.
The payout: 150,000 Alliance Coins.
After completing his first mission with the temporary agent, Jack laid out new requirements: All targets must be elite-level. Not because he'd gotten cocky after Haunter's breakthrough, but because it suited his alias Awen—a man driven by revenge and desperate to grow stronger, faster.
The agent, uninterested in Jack's survival, agreed without hesitation. But what he didn't expect was that Jack would complete four elite-level missions in rapid succession—each within two to three days, including reconnaissance and execution.
His efficiency was unheard of.
Jack's reward?
20k experience points
20k mercenary points
More Alliance coins than he could count
He used some of the experience to raise Night Shade to level 5, refining Haunter's control over the transformation. But leveling up Haunter further? That was another matter.
Now that Haunter had reached Elite Level, the EXP cost to level up again had jumped to 100,000. That meant twenty D-rank missions just to move up a single level.
So Jack made a strategic choice—let Haunter grow through natural battles and conserve EXP until absolutely necessary.
The agent, impressed and increasingly reliant on Jack, proposed something unexpected: a long-term partnership.
He even hinted that once Jack became powerful enough, he could leverage his network to help him get revenge.
It was a subtle olive branch—a vote of confidence in Jack's fabricated persona.
Jack accepted.
Once the partnership was established, he immediately asked the agent to feed him more elite-level targets. The agent complied, relieved to have someone to clear his backlog of dangerous missions.
He even began researching Jack's list of enemies, not out of loyalty, but to keep Jack alive longer. If Jack died, the workload would return to him—and that, he didn't want.
In his eyes, Jack had become a machine. Relentless. Efficient. Lethal.
But Jack's motivations were simple: accumulate resources before the Kusaka family discovered his true identity.
Unlike normal trainers, Jack could convert those resources into tangible strength through the system. He could evolve his Pokémon with experience points. He could buy elite-level bombs. Every mission was another step forward in his calculated climb.
That drive earned him a nickname whispered on the black market: "The Mission Crusher."
Meanwhile, back in the Kusaka family...
The hunt for the Ghost Fox intensified.
Their operative, Suna, had begun shifting the search. No longer focusing just on those who revealed themselves with bombs, he started tracking assassins and mercenaries who owned ghost-type Pokémon—and had recently risen to fame.
Thanks to the Kusaka family's intelligence network, names flooded in.
While ghost-types were rare, in a region as vast as Kanto, they weren't unheard of. But Suna's method was brutal:
"Eliminate them all."
Either they'd flush out the real Ghost Fox—or purify the underworld in the process. Either way, the Kusaka family would spin the narrative and emerge as heroes.
Among the names on the list?
Awen, Jack's mercenary alias.
Unaware of the Kusaka family's renewed pursuit, Jack continued hunting targets.
One particular target showed weakness even in daylight.
Jack didn't hesitate.
He had Haunter climb into the canopy above the resting target. From there, Hypnosis was cast, blanketing both the man and his Pokémon in sleep.
Jack seized the moment.
"Haunter, take him."
A flicker of black light, a flash of shadow, and a spray of blood.
The target never even stirred.
Now, all that remained was Haunter's duel—with Arbok.