Daily Life

Beneath the blazing sun.

Heiduo leaned against a large tree, holding a book in his hands and occasionally glancing at Elekid and the others working hard in the flowerbeds nearby.

This was Jihua City, a small coastal city.

Clusters of vibrant flowers that bloomed year-round and the gentle sea breeze were this place's defining features. Compared to the modern atmosphere of East Gate Town, Jihua City felt much closer to nature.

Three days had passed since he had caught Weedle. During those three days, Heiduo had visited the malls and libraries in both places, reading through most of the books he could make use of.

At the same time, he had discovered a special benefit of his mental stat—Broad Knowledge and Strong Memory.

Once his mental stat had exceeded ten points, he could remember the general contents of a book after reading it carefully once or twice. Whether he understood it or not, at least he did not immediately forget everything after putting the book down.

His earlier achievement involving Weedle had been an unexpected windfall, contributing fifty stat points. Combined with the eighty stat points he had harvested by having the Pokémon under his command stage fake battles against one another—

Heiduo's savings had directly broken past one hundred points.

"If you can't take it anymore, come back and rest!"

Heiduo called out from afar. It really was hot, but the sea breeze felt pleasant. Unlike the salty, damp air by Earth's coastlines, Jihua City's sea breeze carried a faint floral fragrance.

In the flowerbeds.

Heiduo's Pokémon were each training, improving their physical fitness.

Basic training in the morning. Move training in the afternoon. Free battles at night.

This routine, set by Heiduo, had continued for several days.

The results had been surprisingly good. Perhaps it was because their levels were still relatively low.

Meanwhile, among the three out doing field drills.

Ekans was exhausted, lying limp on the ground without wanting to move. Only under Gible's urging behind it did it reluctantly wriggle its body twice.

Honestly, if it were not for a better life in the future, it would never train itself this hard.

With such wonderful weather, would it not be more comfortable to find a spot that was neither too cold nor too hot, coil up, and enjoy the sea breeze instead of training? If it could have its favorite sour plum juice too, that would be perfect.

Once it thought that way, how could Ekans possibly keep running?

"Hiss hiss!" It called twice at Gible, saying that it could not hold on anymore and needed to rest.

"Gible?" Gible thought, Whenever you have free time, you always slither toward the sun. The weather is so nice today, so why not bask in it a little longer?

Ekans flopped onto the ground. "Hiss!"

It liked sunbathing, but not this kind of sunbathing!

Ultraviolet rays could roast a snake to death!

"Gible gible gible!" Gible waved its claws and let Ekans off. Although it had joined a day later than Ekans, it had somehow taken the position of the boss in the group.

When Heiduo was absent, every major and minor matter in the group depended on its mood.

Of course, not everyone accepted its position as boss. There would always be one or two who wanted to challenge the leader's authority.

For example, Elekid.

"Ele ele ele!"

Elekid grabbed Ekans's tail, signaling it to keep holding on.

As a young Pokémon with dreams and ambitions, Elekid had never been willing to submit to anyone, even if its type was at a complete disadvantage against theirs.

Gible ate a lot, so it would eat even more!

Gible had a heavy training load, so its own would be even heavier!

In short—You're the boss? I don't accept that!

"Hiss!" Ekans helplessly pulled free. After several days of simple interaction, it had come to understand that Elekid was nothing more than a muscle-brained battle maniac. Just to compete with Gible for an illusory position as boss, it had to oppose Gible in everything.

No matter what it was, as long as Gible was involved, Elekid would stick its nose in.

It really could not understand what these little brats were thinking. Would it not be nice to just curl up and relax?

Elsewhere.

Elekid paid no attention to Ekans's complaint. For now, Ekans had the highest Energy Level, but with its current growth rate, Elekid was confident that it could surpass Ekans within two weeks at most.

Besides, that guy would lie down whenever it could instead of standing, and lie flat whenever it could instead of sitting. It posed no threat at all.

Only it! Only that Gible that ignored its proud electric current!

Damn it! Why could Ground type be immune to Electric type?

Elekid glared resentfully at Gible frolicking in the flower field. If it did not know a move called Ice Punch, it truly would have no way to deal with it!

Was Ground type really that overpowered?!

Just as it simmered with indignation, it vaguely heard a soft rustling, spitting sound by its ear.

It was Weedle!

Elekid instantly remembered the latest member of the team. Turning its head, it saw a golden chrysalis continuously spitting silk threads at a rock, and felt a wave of discomfort.

Among Heiduo's four Pokémon, no one could say who had the greatest potential. But when it came to diligence, none of them could compare to Weedle.

Do not be fooled by Weedle's tiny size. Once it buried its head in training, it was not careless in the slightest. Every time basic training began, Ekans still needed Gible to urge it along, while Weedle had already been training for quite some time.

Yet Elekid did not know whether it should feel fortunate or sigh, because Weedle's Energy Level had not risen ideally.

Originally, Elekid had been level five, while Weedle had been level six.

But after Elekid reached level six, Weedle was still level six.

Elekid reached level seven, while Weedle remained level six.

It was not until Elekid reached level eight that Weedle slowly rose by one level.

Though it was only a single small level, it brought an earth-shaking change to Weedle.

"Ele..." Elekid shuddered as it looked at the shell on Kakuna's body reflecting a metallic gleam. It did not want to evolve into something like that. Was that not just a target for others to hit at will?

Thinking of its prideful speed and lightning-fast steps, Elekid forced itself to look away. It was not jealous of that sort of Evolution at all.

Hopefully, its evolved form would not be like that guy's.

Under the shade of the tree.

"Yo! You're back!" Heiduo waved at Ekans.

Ekans raised its head and looked at Heiduo holding a book, its movements somewhat hesitant.

"What are you spacing out for?" Heiduo urged Ekans, pulling out a bottle of glowing blue drink from behind his back. "Drink it!"

Ekans stopped short, not daring to approach.

The painful experiences of the past three days were impossible for it to forget.

"Hiss!" Ekans shouted at Heiduo, roughly meaning, What poison did you make this time?

Heiduo obviously could not understand Pokémon language, but that did not stop him from seeing the sheer disgust on Ekans's snake face.

He looked at the drink in his hand, finding it hard to imagine that a snake could taste sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty flavors—and that this snake preferred sweet and sour tastes.

"Don't worry! It's a flavor you like!"

Heiduo placed the bottle on the ground. This was a Pokémon nutrient solution he had learned to make over several days. It could accelerate a Pokémon's metabolism, promote growth, speed up wound recovery, and more.

Since it was his first attempt, he had not been able to properly control the dosages of certain ingredients.

The defective products he made in the end still had their effects, but as for the taste... Heiduo had tried a little himself and nearly vomited up the previous night's dinner.

That flavor... Had you ever eaten burnt stir-fried bitter melon? It tasted like that.

Out of a desire not to waste anything, Heiduo had forcibly restrained Ekans and made it drink the stuff.

Even Nurse Joy had said it was harmless and non-toxic, so how could Heiduo waste it?

The final result was what stood before him now.

Ekans had practically developed a conditioned reflex toward bottled things. That showed just how great a psychological shadow that bottle had left on it.

"Hiss!" Ekans cautiously dipped its tail into a little of the liquid and brought it tremblingly toward its mouth, not daring to take a sip for a long time.

Seeing it so terrified, Heiduo felt deeply helpless.

This team was hard to manage. Kakuna was still better—it did whatever it was told!

He glanced at Kakuna beside the rock, continuously spitting out a silk thread before retracting it. This was the training task Heiduo had set for it.

The goal was to make it able to poison the silk it spat out, laying the groundwork for it to poison other objects in the future.

It sounded simple, but actually doing it was very difficult.

Kakuna had trained all morning without finding even the slightest clue.

Heiduo turned a page and discovered that, at some unknown point, Ekans had already slithered onto him and rubbed affectionately against his neck.

"Hm?"

Heiduo turned his head and found that the nutrient solution on the ground had long since been drunk clean, without even a trace left behind.

"You're pretty practical, huh?" Heiduo laughed, spreading his hands. "Sorry, one bottle a day. No more than that."

This stuff was good, but it could not be drunk like water. Everything had its limits.

Ekans failed to get what it wanted and left in disappointment. Why else would he call it practical?

By chance, it noticed three bottles of drinks arranged neatly beside Heiduo's backpack, each a different color.

This was!!!

Ekans narrowed its eyes at the three guys still doing drills and understood that Heiduo had prepared them for them.

Its eyes rolled. Drinks did not take up much stomach space. Sneaking a little should be fine, right? Just a little. It would only have a taste.

"Hiss hiss hiss hiss!"

A pained shriek disrupted Heiduo's train of thought as he read.

Heiduo hurriedly tossed down his book and sprang into action.

But the scene before him made him laugh.

Could you imagine what a snake rolling around looked like?

Whatever a snake rolling around looked like, that was exactly Ekans's current state.

Beside Ekans was an opened bottle of ruby-red drink, its cap tossed to one side.

"So greedy!" Heiduo put the drink away.

This was the nutrient solution he had prepared for Kakuna. Because Kakuna liked spicy food, he had added plenty of Tamato Berries. Ekans definitely could not handle it.

But it was not a major problem. It only needed time to recover.

Ekans stuck out its tongue, looking miserable. It had really only wanted to try a little.

"Remember today's lesson. Don't eat things that aren't yours." Heiduo tapped Ekans on the head. "At Team Rocket Base, you didn't eat much of the free food. But this is something you can't have much of, and you went all out eating it?"

This flavor was good...

Ekans drooped listlessly. Team Rocket's food had no flavor at all.

P.S. There will be another update tonight. Could you kind readers please give me more support...