After being well-fed and hydrated, the shiny Mareep also ran into the yard. It wanted to integrate into the group of five other Mareep.
Unfortunately, due to its golden wool, the other Mareep were somewhat unwelcoming towards it and didn't want to play together.
"Mareep, Mareep!"
Seeing its companions rejecting it, the Mareep returned to the house with a crestfallen expression, curling up at Rex's feet.
"Mareep, don't be sad. Your friends are just not familiar with you yet. They will become good friends with you once they get to know you better!"
Seeing the deeply affected Mareep, Rex stopped reading and comforted it by stroking its golden wool.
Sure enough, after hearing Rex's comforting words, the Mareep's spirits lifted slightly.
"Mareep, do you want to earn the respect of the other Mareep and become their leader?"
Rex continued speaking to the Mareep.
"Mareep, Mareep!"
Upon hearing Rex's words, the Mareep jumped up with excitement, clearly very intrigued.
"If you want that, you have to become a strong protector for them!"
At this moment, Rex seemed like a villain enticing a child, but unfortunately, the Mareep had already fallen into the fantasy of becoming a leader among the Mareep, admired by the others.
Yes, this was intentional on Rex's part.
He knew that Mareep were gentle by nature and disliked fighting, so he wanted to change their mindset from a young age so they could accept training well in the future.
Under Rex's persuasion, the young Mareep had already begun urging to start training quickly so it could become stronger.
"Mareep, what you need to do now is eat well and sleep well. Only then can you quickly grow out of your infancy period and start training."
In the end, with dreams of becoming the leader of the Mareep in the future, the Mareep fell asleep slowly. Watching the Mareep occasionally smile in its sleep, Rex knew it was dreaming sweet dreams.
Rex went outside and gave a pep talk to the other five Mareep, making them feel ashamed of their behavior and promising not to reject the shiny Mareep in the future.
After they got tired of playing, they all squeezed around the shiny Mareep to sleep.
"It seems I can't scold you anymore!"
Seeing that he had arranged these Mareep so clearly, Rex couldn't help but give himself a thumbs up.
With these Mareep, once they grew out of their infancy, they could continue to provide wool for Rex. Normally, Mareep could be sheared once a week.
However, because of these Mareep, he seemed unable to leave the farm easily. He couldn't just leave the Mareep alone, could he? Taking the Mareep with him would be troublesome and not conducive to their growth!
"It looks like I need to recruit an employee to help take care of the Mareep!"
Rex couldn't help but think.
This was inevitable. He had other things to do and couldn't always look after the Mareep.
And if he left Tailow behind, Rex's own safety couldn't be guaranteed, and Tailow wasn't suitable for feeding the Mareep either.
"It seems I'll have to sell the Fire Stone!"
Originally, Rex wanted to keep the Fire Stone so he wouldn't have to buy one in the future when he captured Pokémon that needed it to evolve.
However, now he needed to focus on managing the farm well so it could bring in profits as soon as possible.
And he also needed to buy a cellphone, otherwise it would be inconvenient to contact others.
As he thought, Rex put all the Mareep back into their Poké Balls while they were sleeping. He didn't feel comfortable leaving them alone on the farm.
Then, Rex took Tailow with him and headed to Fallabor Town.
"Nurse Joy, can I stay at the Pokémon Center tonight?"
That's right, as soon as Rex returned to town, he went straight to the Pokémon Center. He had a lot of things to do today and couldn't finish them all.
"Of course, no problem, Rex. How's your farm doing?"
Nurse Joy still had a good impression of Rex.
"It's going well, but there are still many things missing. I need to slowly add them. By the way, could you please check on my Mareep? They just hatched today."
After saying that, Rex handed the Mareep over to Nurse Joy, including the shiny Mareep.
Rex wanted to train the Mareep as his own battling Pokémon, and he would definitely need to battle in the future. He couldn't hide it for long.
It was better to be straightforward, and he believed Nurse Joy wouldn't have any objections to his Mareep.
After leaving the Pokémon Center, Rex first visited Officer Jenny. There was no way around it, he owed Officer Jenny a lot of favors anyway, and one more wouldn't make a difference.
"Rex, didn't you just go to the farm? Couldn't stand it anymore?"
When Officer Jenny saw Rex coming over, she teased him, thinking he couldn't bear the hardships of the farm.
"No, it's not like that. I just have something I want to ask for your help with!"
"Oh, tell me about it!"
Rex then told Officer Jenny about wanting to sell the Fire Stone and hiring an employee.
After all, in this town, Officer Jenny was probably the only one capable of getting a good price for the Fire Stone.
And as the town's policewoman, the employee recommended by Officer Jenny would definitely have no problems with character.
"No problem, I can ask around for you, but it might take some time."
As expected, Officer Jenny readily agreed to Rex's request after thinking for a moment.
"Thank you very much for your help, Officer Jenny!"
After expressing his gratitude, Rex didn't want to disturb her further and left the police station directly.
He still had tens of thousands of Alliance coins left and planned to do some more shopping.
First, of course, was to buy a cellphone. This way, it would be more convenient to contact people in the future, and others could reach him when needed.
At the cellphone store, Rex chose a sturdy and durable phone suitable for outdoor use, and also got a SIM card and topped up some money, which cost him 6000 Alliance coins.
Then, Rex went to the seed shop in town, where there were various seeds available, as Fallabor Town was a genuine agricultural town.
Under the shopkeeper's recommendation, Rex purchased some grass seeds suitable for Mareep, as well as common tree fruits like Apricorns, Peacha Berries, and Oran Berries.
As for why he bought grass seeds, it was because Rex planned to conduct an experiment to see if he could enhance these seeds with his ability.
If he could strengthen them, then he believed the grass grown from these enhanced seeds would be of better quality than the grass currently planted on the farm, thus aiding in the better growth of the Mareep that consumed them.
However, because he had exhausted his ability usage for the day, Rex could only wait until tomorrow to conduct the experiment.
The next day, early morning
The first thing Rex did when he woke up was to use his ability to enhance the seeds. Since there were a lot of seeds, enhancing them one by one would take too much time.
So Rex simply reached into the seed bag and released his ability.
"As expected, it works. Looks like my idea was right."
Rex picked up the enhanced seeds and compared them to the unenhanced ones. He found that the enhanced seeds were fuller and emitted a strong aura of life.
After using his ability three times, Rex finally completed the enhancement of all the seeds. Looking at these seeds, he knew they were the key to competing with other farms.
"Hey, who are you?"
"It's me, Rex, remember?!"
"Of course, I remember you. You're my rival! You finally bought a cellphone."
"Yeah, I bought a phone and called you first thing. Where are you traveling now?"
"I just arrived at Slateport City. I'm planning to have some battles with people. We'll chat later when I have time!"
"Alright, good luck! Bye!"
"Goodbye!"
Rex first called Rina, who had set off a few days ago, as he had promised.
When he retrieved his Mareep, Rex also got Nurse Joy's contact information. In the future, if there were any questions about Pokémon, he could consult her.
Don't think that Nurse Joy could only heal Pokémon. Rex had learned from his previous life that she was knowledgeable about Pokémon. This might be because of her family's background!
After all, Rex's knowledge about Pokémon in his previous life was quite lacking compared to his current self, who had crossed over.
(End of this chapter)