Flamel woke up late today, so she rushed out of the house in a hurry.
On her way to work at the royal palace, she happened to pass by the park where Angie was selling breakfast.
Seeing the long line of people in the distance and smelling the fragrant aroma in the air, Flamel was really tempted to check out what they were selling.
Unfortunately, she was about to be late for work, so after taking a quick glance, she hurriedly left.
"Good morning, Princess," Flamel greeted Princess Kimia, who was staring intently at a wall when she arrived at the palace.
"You're a bit late today," Princess Kimia teased with a smile.
Flamel was usually quite serious, rarely smiling, and she always arrived early at the palace, almost never being late.
Since today was a rare exception, with her arriving much later than usual, Kimia couldn't resist teasing her a little.
"Ahem..." Flamel cleared her throat awkwardly and quickly changed the subject. "Princess, you're looking at this painting again."
Upon hearing this, Princess Kimia sighed deeply. "Yes, Father entrusted me with the investigation of Prince Angie's tomb robbery, but so far, there hasn't been any progress."
The painting Princess Kimia was staring at depicted Angie and Anna sitting hand-in-hand together.
"Don't worry, Princess. There will be clues eventually. Since the grave robber stole the prince's body, they'll definitely try to sell it. As long as they show the slightest trace, we'll be able to catch them."
"Let's hope so," Kimia replied. She still had no idea what the grave robber wanted with Prince Angie's remains.
What if the thief wasn't planning to sell it but simply wanted to keep it as a collection?
Seeing that the princess was in a bad mood, Flamel tried to change the subject.
"Princess, on my way here, I noticed a food stall doing really well in Nikola Park. I'll buy something from it tomorrow for you to try."
The park where Angie sold his breakfast was named after the arcane scientist Nikola.
"That sounds great!" Kimia finally smiled. "What do they sell?"
As both Flamel's boss and her close friend, Princess Kimia knew that despite her serious demeanor, Flamel was actually a food lover.
"Honestly, I don't know," Flamel replied seriously with a shake of her head.
"Huh?" Kimia was taken aback. "Then how do you know it's good?"
"Because there were a lot of people in line."
"Hahaha~~ You're something else~~"
The two walked off, laughing and chatting.
...
Near noon, Angie finally decided to pack up for the day.
"Alright, that's it, all sold out. Time to head home, everyone," he called out, rubbing his aching back and wiping away sweat, addressing the people still in line.
"What? Already? I've been waiting in line for ages!"
"Boss, are you coming back tomorrow?"
…
The disappointed customers who didn't get to buy anything reluctantly left.
Once the customers were gone, Angie began packing up, moving the tables and chairs back onto his cart.
Once everything was packed up, Angie closed the door of his cart, unfolded a table inside, and sat the Komala down on the chair opposite him.
"Komala, great job today! You were really helpful!" he said as he placed a bowl of steamed buns in front of Komala.
"Go ahead and eat. You must be starving."
Komala's stomach had been growling for a while, and without hesitation, it grabbed a bun and devoured it hungrily.
"Take it easy, no rush," Angie said, pouring water for Komala as he spoke.
Angie then started counting the day's earnings.
He had sold 503 buns, earning a total of 5,030 Pokédollar.
He also sold 1,052 dumplings, which brought in 21,040 Pokédollar.
In addition, he earned 5,600 happiness points, thanks to the Pokémon who had enjoyed the buns.
After tallying everything, Angie opened the system interface and checked the task list.
..
[ (Daily Task 1) Train in the Culinary Training Room for 1 hour — In Progress. ]
[ (Daily Task 2) Entertain 10 Pokémon — Completed, click to claim the reward. ]
[ (Procurement Task) Go to Azoth City to purchase ingredients — In Progress. ]
[ (Temporary Task) Earn your first fortune by selling at a stall in Azoth City — Completed, click to claim the reward. ]
...
Angie decided to delay claiming the daily task rewards until later that night, after completing the remaining tasks. He reached out and claimed the reward for the temporary task.
The system immediately displayed a notification.
[ Congratulations, you have completed the (Temporary Task) of earning your first fortune by selling at a stall in Azoth City. You have been rewarded with the recipe for dumplings. ]
Angie paused for a moment and then opened the system's recipe list. Sure enough, there was now an additional entry.
The dumplings recipe was quite different from the bun recipe, offering a variety of fillings, including vegetable, vermicelli, mushroom, radish, kelp, and red bean paste... It covered almost every filling Angie knew, complete with detailed instructions.
Seeing the recipe made Angie ecstatic. This meant he could now earn happiness points by selling dumplings too!
How wonderful!
After the meal, Angie drove his food cart to a secluded corner, stowed it in his system inventory, and picked up Komala, saying, "Komala, let's go shopping."
Komala had eaten so much that it was already snoring, and as Angie held it, it turned over, burying its head deeply in his chest. Only its round tail and plump little bottom were left sticking out.
Angie shook his head with a smile and headed to the supermarket he had visited the day before with Diancie, embarking on a shopping spree. He spent nearly all the 20,000 Pokédollar he had earned that day.
He bought only food and seasonings, nothing else. After all, ingredients were the one thing he couldn't buy from his system store.
As he was about to leave, Angie suddenly realized Komala was no longer in the shopping cart; only its log pillow was left.
"Komala?" Angie called softly. How did it disappear in the blink of an eye?
"Komala?"
He started pushing the cart around, looking for it. Hopefully, it hadn't gone missing.
Ding~
The sound of something hitting the floor came from beneath his feet. Angie looked down and saw Komala lying at his feet, somehow rolling over with a bottle of alcohol clutched in its arms.
"Did you sneak off just to get that?"
Angie bent down and scooped Komala up.
Komala only tightened its grip on the bottle.
Angie chuckled helplessly. "Other Komala treat their log pillows like their lifeline, never letting them go, yet you'd abandon yours just for a bottle of alcohol?"
Angie tried to pull the bottle out of Komala's arms, but it wouldn't budge.
"Fine, fine. I'll buy it for you," Angie said, sighing. "Now let go and put it back in the cart."
Who would've thought such a cute Komala could be a little boozehound!
Upon hearing Angie's promise, Komala reluctantly released the bottle, crawled back into the cart, hugged its log pillow, and snuggled into a corner to continue sleeping.
Angie glanced at the price of the alcohol—just 30 Pokédollar, pretty cheap.
"Alright, I'll buy it. Komala worked hard today, after all. I can't deny you such a cheap bottle of alcohol."
After putting the bottle in the cart, Angie thought to himself: Once we get rich, I'll buy you some quality booze. You can have as many bottles as you want.
After leaving the supermarket, Angie planned to return to the Nebel Plateau. He wasn't intending to set up the stall again in the afternoon; running the stall all morning had been tiring enough.
In fact, even in the morning, Angie hadn't planned to work for too long. Once he earned enough to cover his expenses, he was done. He couldn't stand hardship at all, preferring to lazily spend his days lounging around the Nebel Plateau.
When he reached the edge of the Nebel River's forest, Angie called out, "Swablu's Dad?"
"Chii~~"
With a soft chirp, Swablu's Dad slowly descended from the sky.
"Are you hungry?" Angie patted its soft wings and asked, then pulled out some buns to feed it.
Swablu's Dad was indeed quite hungry, gobbling down the buns quickly, one after another.
"Thank you for your hard work," Angie said gratefully.
Swablu's Dad shook its head. Not only did Angie save its family of three, but he also provided it with free food every day. Helping out was the least it could do in return.
After feeding Swablu's Dad, Angie climbed onto its back and began the journey home.
On the way, he opened the system interface and claimed the reward for the [Procurement Task], which had been completed when he checked out at the supermarket.
Once the reward was claimed, the system displayed the usual notification.
[ Congratulations! You have completed the (Procurement Task): Purchase ingredients in Azoth City. Your reward: Individual Values +2. ]
Wow, Individual Values!
Angie was thrilled; it was a decent reward.
He allocated the two points to his Munchlax, as usual, putting them into Attack.
Munchlax's current stats were as follows.
HP: 29
Attack: 21
Defense: 20
Special Attack: 6
Special Defense: 10
Speed: 31
Meanwhile, back at home, Munchlax was washing dishes. Suddenly, it felt a surge of strength.
Crack!
Accidentally, it squeezed a dish too hard, shattering it into pieces.
Huh? What just happened?
Munchlax was completely bewildered.
(Note: In this story, a Pokémon's stats are influenced by its level, base stats, effort values, individual values, and nature. For simplicity, nature modifications are ignored, and effort values are earned through Pokémon's daily activities, such as Munchlax training in the Culinary Training Room.)
After a moment of confusion, Munchlax, being carefree, decided to ignore the incident.
Swablu's Dad's flying speed was much faster than Lapras swimming through water, so Angie soon arrived back at the Nibel Plateau.
As they passed the waterfall, he noticed that the number of Magikarp that had evolved into Gyarados after leaping over the "Dragon Gate" had increased to four.
The evolved Gyarados didn't leave immediately. They lingered at the top of the waterfall, encouraging the Magikarp still attempting to climb and waiting for them to evolve too. Once they were all Gyarados, they would set off together on an adventure upstream in the Nebel River.
Even Pokémon as fierce and violent as Gyarados had their tender moments.
"Diancie, we're back!" Angie called out before they even landed, craning his neck and waving to Diancie, who was watering flowers in the garden below.
Diancie smiled and waved back at Angie.
After Swablu's Dad landed, Angie quickly jumped off its back and patted its neck, saying, "Thanks for your help today. Come over for dinner tomorrow!"
Swablu's Dad let out a cheerful chirp, flapped its wings, and soared back into the sky, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
"How was business today?" Diancie eagerly asked.
"Not bad. I earned over twenty thousand Pokédollar, and I've completed all the tasks," Angie said casually.
Diancie looked surprised. "That much?"
Earning over twenty thousand in one day—or more precisely, in just a morning—was quite impressive, especially since Angie's costs were minimal, aside from time and labor. The biggest investment was the food cart that cost tens of thousands of Happiness Points, but it was reusable.
"It's alright," Angie said, smugly. "I've got skills, after all."
Diancie giggled. "There you go, boasting again."
"Hehe~~" Angie chuckled foolishly.
"You water the flowers, and I'll cut some to put in a vase," Diancie said, handing the watering can to Angie. From somewhere, she also pulled out a pair of scissors.
Angie put the Komala down on the ground. "Go play by yourself."
However, Komala didn't move.
"What's wrong?" Angie asked, puzzled.
Komala patted the log it was hugging, and Angie suddenly remembered. He pulled the bottle of liquor he had bought from the supermarket out of his system inventory and handed it to Komala.
"Here, is this what you wanted? You little rascal…"
Komala immediately hugged the log and the bottle and rolled away.
Before long, Angie saw Komala go to its little house, and when it came back out, it was holding only the bottle of liquor.
*Sigh*, it had left the log behind for the sake of the liquor again. At least it knew to put the log in its house.
Watching Komala gradually disappear with the bottle in its arms, Angie turned to Diancie, confused, and asked, "Where's it off to now?"
"No idea," Diancie shrugged. "It seems like it's been going out a lot lately."
"Really?" Angie was surprised. Komala was such a homebody. "Could it have found a drinking buddy out there?" he joked.
"Who knows, maybe it did," Diancie laughed.
She sniffed the bouquet of flowers she had just cut. "They smell wonderful. These flowers are amazing."
The flowers in Angie's garden were no ordinary blooms; they were rare Gracidea flowers.
It said this flower have the power to attract the legendary Pokémon, Shaymin. Angie hadn't recognized them until they started to bloom, and he still had no idea where his Vivillon had found them in the first place.
After they returned home, Diancie placed the bouquet in the vase at the front desk, and the whole hall was soon filled with a subtle, pleasant fragrance.
Just then, Munchlax came out of the kitchen. When it saw Angie, its eyes lit up.
"Munch~~ Munch~~!"
Master, you're back! I missed you so much!
It ran up to Angie and threw itself into his arms.
Angie gently patted its head and asked, "How did things go this morning?"
"Munch~~"
Great!
Munchlax pulled its head out of Angie's embrace and proudly patted its chest.
"Pfft~~" Diancie laughed, seeing Munchlax bragging about itself. "You're pretty full of yourself."
Munchlax gave Diancie a look as if to ask: What are you laughing at?
"Munch~~ Munch~~"
Am I wrong? Everyone loves the food I make.
After casting a glance at Diancie, Munchlax suddenly grew shy. It took Angie's hand and started tugging him toward the stairs.