Jubilife Breeding Center.
Seven days had passed, and new employees had joined the breeding center one after another.
Leon and Comrade Wen Hui handled recruitment,
while Li Wei, Dayou, and Mizuki trained the newcomers.
Dayou and Mizuki had picked things up quickly and were already used to life here.
Before the day's work began, Leon announced some good news to everyone:
"To help everyone get to know each other sooner, we're having a welcome feast tonight!"
"Don't worry, nobody will be forced to perform or introduce themselves. We'll just eat to our hearts' content!"
As the breeding center grew, its employees needed to build familiarity and teamwork to provide better service for the Pokémon boarded here.
"Whoooo!!!"
"Long live the boss!"
Another busy day began.
"Mr. Haru, here's your Liepard. Please take good care of him."
Xiao Rou, the young woman at the front desk, returned the customer's boarded Pokémon with her sweet smile.
Haru used his Pokédex to check the new moves Liepard had learned.
"Very good. I'm quite satisfied."
[Ding! Haru is satisfied with Liepard's training. Mission progress: (36/100)]
Over those seven days, Li Wei had made very encouraging progress on his main mission.
Yet Li Wei wasn't happy at the moment. He was still trying to figure out how to restore Feebas's confidence.
The good news was that Feebas was eating.
The bad news was that Feebas refused to see anyone.
Li Wei and Feebas had now developed an understanding: he left as soon as he put the food down.
Feebas would wait until nobody was around before eating.
As more people came to the breeding center, Feebas had fewer and fewer chances to come out.
"Feebas, you still need to try coming out. I'll tell everyone to stay away from the pond."
Li Wei exercised his authority as the junior boss and told the staff to steer clear of the pond, but he couldn't keep an eye on the customers all the time.
Dayou suggested, "Why not just put up a barrier tape here and be done with it?"
Mizuki and Dayou had both tried to help, but neither had gotten anywhere.
Li Wei snapped his fingers. "Good idea."
Li Wei immediately made a wooden sign and put up a simple barrier of tape.
The vast majority of people willing to bring their Pokémon to the breeding center loved Pokémon.
After all, this was a paid service, and most of them could understand.
The breeding center's reputation was steadily growing.
Comrade Wen Hui was working on the accounts, her calculator clattering away.
"I never imagined business would be this good."
Leon said cheerfully, "The videos Xiao Wei uploaded to the Eevee Network must have helped a lot. My big brother really had foresight!"
Li Wei had started uploading videos to the Eevee Network on the advice of his elder uncle, Li Wen.
Comrade Wen Hui added another reminder. "The business license has been approved. Find some time this afternoon to pick it up downtown."
After recruiting the new employees, they had found time to apply for a Pokémon food business license.
That meant they could sell Pokéblocks, Poffins, and a whole range of other Pokémon foods.
"Will do!"
Hearing that the license had been approved filled Leon with enthusiasm.
Comrade Wen Hui was a woman who got things done swiftly and decisively. The Berries in the yard had already been planted.
After putting up the barrier tape, Li Wei left Feebas alone for the time being.
He had already given Feebas seven days to adjust, but Feebas wouldn't communicate at all.
Even sending Lucario to talk hadn't worked for Li Wei.
Should I try showering Feebas with praise?
Win Feebas over with love?
Or ask Yellow for help?
Right now, Li Wei especially envied Diantha Viridian's Viridian Force.
Forget it. I'll churn out another video first.
Li Wei planned to make the fourth installment of his Pokémon Trainer Career Guidance series.
For the third installment, Red's requests for an update had prompted him to change his plans at the last minute and make Smoked Apricorn Juice instead.
Li Wei wasn't worried about anyone learning to make Smoked Apricorn Juice from him.
The system had specifically stated that specialty cuisines only produced their special effects when Li Wei made them.
If anyone else learned the recipes, their food would merely taste good at best.
For that video, Li Wei had invited Dayou, Mizuki, Incineroar, and others to serve as taste testers.
His parents, Lucario, and the others had already tried it, so their reactions wouldn't make for much of a show.
This Smoked Apricorn Juice, adapted from the Johto Region's signature Berry Juice, earned Red's praise and pushed the account past ten thousand followers.
Red wholeheartedly approved of Li Wei's decision to improve the Berry Juice and teach the recipe for free.
The two had also struck up a friendly little arrangement over it and added each other as friends.
Though they had barely chatted at all.
Red was busy battling on Mt. Silver every day,
while Li Wei was busy with the breeding center.
Busy. They were both busy. Being busy was good...
Li Wei was just afraid Red would ask him for a battle.
He had already received the mission rewards:
one Signature Recipe Guide and two item lottery tickets.
[Crispy Apple (A-rank)]: A Chinese imperial dessert, crisp on the outside and soft within. The Thousand-Layer Puff Pastry requires repeatedly folding and chilling the dough, with strict heat control. Grants the Double Results for Half the Effort buff after consumption (12 hours). (Click to view video details) Daily crafting attempts: (0/1) Friendly reminder: Please raise your Cooking level before attempting this recipe. Do not waste ingredients. You may also begin practicing with the simplified version.
Without a doubt, this was a dish Li Wei couldn't tackle yet.
The simplified version omitted the outer Thousand-Layer Puff Pastry, coating the apple in beaten egg and breadcrumbs instead.
Li Wei glanced at his Cooking level.
Cooking (intermediate): Details omitted (3,457/10,000)
Now that there were more employees, Li Wei could grind his Cooking level a little faster.
The two item lottery tickets had yielded an Everstone and a Power Band.
[Everstone]: Suppresses a Pokémon's evolution while held. [Power Band]: Increases the power of physical moves while held.
The Everstone wasn't much use to Li Wei.
Who ran a breeding center without keeping a couple of Everstones in storage?
Some Pokémon didn't want to evolve, and some Trainers also wanted their Pokémon to stay as they were.
Mizuki's Glameow, for instance, didn't want to evolve and held an Everstone.
Li Wei gave the Power Band to Metang, fastening it around his right arm.
The third mission in [I Really Didn't Mean to Become a Video Creator] had two main objectives.
100,000 followers (27,589/100,000) Videos with one million views (3/5) Mission rewards: Random Pokémon Item Lottery Ticket ×3, Random Specialty Cuisine ×1, random skill (intermediate) ×1
Inside his room.
Li Wei set up the camera in front of him and adjusted the filming angle.
"Without further ado, let's get into our fourth tutorial video. Today, we're making Pokéblocks!"
"Today, we'll start with Pokéblock colors."
Pokéblocks in five colors-red, blue, pink, green, and yellow-were laid out in front of Li Wei.
Without a doubt, they were all high-quality.
"These five colors correspond to coolness, beauty, cuteness, cleverness, and toughness. Make sure you distinguish between them."
While Li Wei was filming, a message arrived on his phone.
Grandpa: [The teacher I hired for you will arrive tomorrow morning at nine.]
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