Carefree Days

A single low-grade Pokéblock cost five hundred Pokémon Coins. Zhang Cheng had four thousand on hand, so he spent two thousand on four Pokéblocks for Poliwag.

With the remaining two thousand Pokémon Coins, Zhang Cheng bought five ordinary Poké Balls to catch Pokémon in the wild later.

After choosing his purchases and paying, Zhang Cheng took out a Pokéblock and gave it to Poliwag.

The moment Poliwag saw the Pokéblock, he dug in without hesitation.

And so Zhang Cheng walked home with Poliwag in his arms, munching away on the Pokéblock.

Once home, he chatted briefly with his mother before returning to his room to give Poliwag another relaxing massage.

After the massage, Zhang Cheng put on a cartoon that Pokémon enjoyed on his phone for Poliwag to watch, then went to take a shower.

When Zhang Cheng returned to his room after washing up, he found Poliwag already asleep.

Two straight days of intense battles had worn Poliwag out. Today, he would let Poliwag get some proper rest.

The night passed uneventfully.

The next morning, sunlight spilled across Zhang Cheng's face. His sweet dreams were interrupted by the ringing of his alarm.

After switching it off, Zhang Cheng went back to sleep. The past two days really had been exhausting, so he decided to let both himself and Poliwag rest properly.

Balancing work and rest would make their efforts more effective.

Zhang Cheng slept until noon. After a quick wash and lunch, he took Poliwag out to train.

Zhang Cheng planned to start by improving the accuracy of Poliwag's moves.

He found some broken roof tiles nearby and tossed them into the air, having Poliwag practice hitting moving targets with Water Gun.

At first, the tiles were difficult to hit because they were small and moving fast.

As Poliwag kept practicing, his accuracy steadily improved. By the end, he was hitting half his targets.

Zhang Cheng was delighted with this progress. Poliwag had now mastered Water Gun.

As soon as practice ended, Zhang Cheng rewarded Poliwag with a Pokéblock.

With Pokéblocks as an incentive, Poliwag was even more eager to train.

After resting, Poliwag eagerly asked to keep training. Following his plan, Zhang Cheng had Poliwag practice Bubble Beam.

Bubble Beam was one of Poliwag's Egg Moves, and by now, he had gained a fair amount of battle experience and proficiency with his moves.

Zhang Cheng thought it was time for Poliwag to develop a new move to improve his combat strength.

First, Zhang Cheng showed Poliwag a video of Bubble Beam on his phone, then guided him through the process using an online tutorial.

Poliwag was highly talented, and after a period of trial and error, he gradually learned to use Bubble Beam.

Poliwag spat a stream of bubbles from his mouth, quickly damaging a tree trunk.

His Bubble Beam was beginning to take shape, but it was still less powerful than Water Gun.

Zhang Cheng believed it would only improve with practice. For the next stretch of training, Poliwag would use Bubble Beam as his main means of attack.

They trained until sunset, when Zhang Cheng brought Poliwag's session to an end.

Training was not something to rush. Steady progress, one step at a time, was the best approach.

After returning home, Zhang Cheng gave Poliwag his usual massage, then put on a Pokémon TV show for him.

During their time together, Poliwag and Zhang Cheng had grown closer, and their coordination kept improving.

Over the next two days, Zhang Cheng focused on giving Poliwag intensive Bubble Beam training.

During the subsequent training sessions, Poliwag also mastered Mind Reader.

This came as a pleasant surprise to Zhang Cheng. He had never expected Poliwag to be so talented that he could learn another Egg Move so quickly.

After Mind Reader was activated, the next attack was guaranteed to hit the opponent. Against a Pokémon with barely any HP left but exceptionally high evasion, this move could be extremely effective.

Zhang Cheng also tried having Poliwag activate Mind Reader, then attack moving targets with Water Gun.

Sure enough, every shot hit. His Accuracy after using Mind Reader was frighteningly high.

However, Mind Reader had a drawback: repeated use would fail, limiting how often it could be used.

After thinking it over, Zhang Cheng felt that was reasonable. After all, endlessly pairing a move like this with powerful but inaccurate attacks would be far too overpowered.

For the next week, Zhang Cheng followed the same routine. He took Poliwag out to train during the day, then cared for him after returning home at night, letting him relax properly.

Poliwag thoroughly enjoyed this balance of training and rest.

But after a week of these days, Zhang Cheng realized there was a serious problem.

He was out of money!

The four thousand Pokémon Coins he had left last time were gone, and the food he had bought when purchasing Poliwag's Pokémon Egg was nearly finished too.

If he did not start taking missions to earn Pokémon Coins soon, Zhang Cheng and Poliwag might starve.

And so Zhang Cheng and Poliwag had no choice but to bring their carefree days to an end and start taking missions posted by the Pokémon League Center to earn Pokémon Coins.