Fiona woke up late, so she rushed out in a hurry.
On her way to the palace for work, she had to pass by the park where Ange sold breakfast.
She saw a long line and smelled the delicious aroma in the air. Fiona really wanted to see what was being sold.
Unfortunately, she was already late for work, so after a quick glance, she hurried away.
"Good morning, Princess." At the palace, Fiona greeted Princess Lila, who was staring at a painting on the wall.
"You're a bit late today." Lila teased with a smile.
Fiona was usually serious and rarely smiled. She always arrived at the palace early and had never been late.
Today, she was unusually late, so Lila couldn't resist teasing her.
"Ahem~~" Fiona coughed awkwardly and quickly changed the subject, "Princess, you're looking at this painting again."
Lila sighed deeply, "Yes, my father gave me full responsibility to investigate the theft of Prince Ange's tomb, but so far, there's no clue."
The painting Lila was staring at showed Ange and Anna holding hands and sitting together.
"Don't worry, Princess, we'll find a clue. Since the tomb raider stole the prince's body, he will make a move. As long as he shows a tail, we can catch him."
"I hope so," Lila said, still unsure what the tomb raider wanted with the prince's remains.
What if he wasn't selling them and just wanted to keep them?
Seeing the princess in a bad mood, Fiona decided to talk about something else.
"Princess, on my way here, I found a popular stall in Eliphas Park. I'll buy some for you to try tomorrow."
The park where Ange set up his stall was named after the mysterious scientist Eliphas.
"Great!" Lila finally smiled, "What does the stall sell?"
As Fiona's boss and close friend, Lila knew that although Fiona was serious, she loved food.
"I actually don't know," Fiona said seriously, shaking her head.
"Ah?" Lila was surprised, "Then how do you know it's tasty?"
"Because the line was very long."
"Hahaha~~ you really are~~"
The two laughed as they walked.
***
Near noon, Ange finally decided to close the stall.
"All done, everyone, you can go home." He rubbed his back, wiped his sweat, and shouted to the waiting customers.
"Ah~~ it's all gone? I waited in line so long!"
"Boss, will you come again tomorrow?"
…
The customers who didn't get anything reluctantly left.
Once they were gone, Ange began packing, carrying tables and chairs back to the cart.
When everything was packed, Ange closed the cart door and set up a table inside. He placed Komala on the chair across from him.
"Komala, good job today. You did very well and helped a lot!"
He put a bowl of mantou in front of Komala.
"Eat quickly, you must be hungry."
Komala's stomach had been growling, and it immediately grabbed a mantou and started devouring it.
"Eat slowly, no need to rush," Ange said, pouring water for it.
Then Ange began counting today's earnings.
He sold 503 mantou, totaling 5030p.
He sold 1,052 buns, totaling 21,040p.
There were also 5,600 Happiness Points, contributed by Pokémon eating mantou.
After counting, Ange opened the mission list in the system interface. It showed:
[Daily Mission 1]Train in the Cooking Training Room for 1 hour — Pending.
[Daily Mission 2]Serve 10 Pokémon — Completed, reward pending.
[Procurement Mission]Go to Azoth Royal Capital to buy ingredients — Pending.
[Temporary Mission]Set up a stall in Azoth Royal Capital to earn first income — Completed, reward pending.
Ange didn't rush to claim the daily mission rewards, planning to claim them with another mission at night. He immediately claimed the temporary mission reward.
The system instantly notified him:
[Congratulations, Host, you completed [Temporary Mission]Set up a stall in Azoth Royal Capital to earn first income. Reward: Recipe "Bun.]
Ange was stunned, then opened the recipe section on the system interface and saw new content.
The "Bun" recipe was different from mantou. It was very detailed, including vegetable buns, vermicelli buns, mushroom buns, radish buns, seaweed buns, red bean buns… almost every filling Ange knew, with full instructions.
Seeing the recipe, Ange was overjoyed. This meant he could earn Happiness Points with buns too!
So exciting!
After eating, Ange drove the food cart to a hidden corner and stored it in the system backpack. Then he picked up Komala and said, "Komala, let's go shopping."
Komala was so full that it started snoring. It turned in Ange's arms, burying its head in his chest, leaving only its round little tail and plump bottom outside.
Ange laughed and shook his head, then found the supermarket he and Diancie visited yesterday and went on a shopping spree, spending almost all 20,000p he earned that day.
He only bought ingredients and seasonings, nothing else, since only ingredients weren't available in his system store.
As he left, Ange suddenly noticed Komala was missing from the cart, only its pillow remained.
"Komala?"
He called softly, wondering how it had disappeared so quickly.
"Komala?"
Ange pushed the cart and started searching. Had it run off?
Ding dong~
He heard the sound of glass hitting the ground at his feet. Looking down, he saw Komala had rolled to his feet, holding a bottle of alcohol.
"You went out just for this?"
Ange bent down and picked up Komala.
Komala held the bottle even tighter.
Ange chuckled helplessly, "Other Komala treat their pillows like treasures, never leaving them. How can you abandon yours for a bottle of wine?"
He tried to take the bottle from Komala, but it wouldn't budge.
"Alright, I'll buy it for you, okay? Now let go and get back in the cart."
Who would have thought this cute Komala was a little drunkard!
Hearing Ange's promise, Komala finally loosened its grip on the bottle. It jumped into the cart, hugged its pillow, and curled up to continue sleeping.
Might as well buy it, Komala also worked hard today; I couldn't not buy such cheap wine.
He put the wine in the cart. Ange thought to himself, When we have money later, I'll get you good wine, as many bottles as you want.
After leaving the supermarket, Ange planned to return to the Nebel Plateau. He didn't intend to set up his stall again in the afternoon; running it all morning was already tiring enough.
Even in the morning, he hadn't planned to stay too long. Once he earned enough to cover his needs, he'd leave. Enduring a bit of hardship wasn't as fun as lazily spending days in Nebel Plateau.
At the edge of the forest by the Nebel River, Ange called out, "Swablu's Dad?"
"Swa~~"
With a chirp, Swablu's Dad slowly descended from the sky.
"Hungry?" Ange asked, patting its soft wings and pulling out a mantou to feed it.
Swablu's dad was indeed very hungry, gobbling the mantou quickly, one bite at a time.
"Good work," Ange thanked it.
Swablu's dad shook its head. Not to mention that Ange had saved their family's lives, providing free meals daily was already reason enough for it to help.
After feeding Swablu's dad, Ange climbed onto its back and started heading home.
On the way, he opened the system interface and claimed the reward for the [Procurement Mission], which had already been completed when he checked out at the supermarket.
After claiming the reward, the system interface displayed the usual notification.
[Congratulations, Master, for completing the [Procurement Mission] to Azoth Royal Capital for ingredient shopping. Reward: IV +2.]
Wow, IVs!
Ange felt excited. Not a bad reward.
He added the two IV points to Munchlax, choosing Attack again as before.
Munchlax's full IVs were now:
HP: 29
Attack: 21
Defense: 20
Special Attack: 6
Special Defense: 10
Speed: 31
At that moment, Munchlax was washing dishes at home when it suddenly felt stronger.
Crack~~
Accidentally, it crushed the bowl in its hands.
??? What just happened? Munchlax was stunned.
Note: Pokémon stats depend on level, base stats, EVs, IVs, and nature. In this story, nature modifications are ignored, and EVs are assumed hidden through daily training like Munchlax's cooking practice.
After thinking for a while without understanding, the carefree Munchlax simply ignored it.
Swablu's dad flew much faster than a Lapras swims, and soon Ange returned to the Nebel Plateau.
Passing the waterfall, he noticed the number of Magikarp that had evolved into Gyarados after crossing the "Dragon Gate" had increased to four.
The evolved Gyarados didn't leave immediately. They stayed above the waterfall, encouraging the Magikarp to climb while waiting to evolve together, then journey upstream to Nebel for adventure.
Even the notoriously fierce Gyarados had a gentle side.
"Diancie, we're back!"
Before landing, Ange stretched his neck and waved to Diancie below, who was watering flowers in the garden.
Seeing Ange, she smiled and waved back.
After Swablu's dad landed, Ange quickly jumped off its back, patted its neck, and said, "Good work. Come eat at my place tomorrow."
Swablu's dad chirped, flapped its wings, and disappeared into the sky in a blink.
"How was business today?" Diancie asked eagerly.
"Not bad. I earned over 20,000 Pokédollars and completed the mission," Ange said casually.
Diancie's eyes widened. "That much?"
Earning over 20,000 in one morning was impressive, especially since Ange's only costs were time and manpower.
The biggest investment was the food cart bought with thousands of Happiness Points, but it could be reused.
"Not bad," Ange said proudly. "After all, my skills are good."
Diancie giggled. "You even brag about being fat."
"Hehe~~" Ange chuckled foolishly.
"You water the plants, I'll cut some flowers to put in a vase." She handed him the watering can and, from somewhere, produced a pair of scissors.
Ange set Komala on the ground. "Go play by yourself."
But Komala didn't move.
"What's wrong?" Ange asked.
Ange patted the Komala in his arms and then remembered something, taking the wine bottle bought at the supermarket from his system backpack and handing it to it.
"Here, this is what you wanted, right? You little rascal…"
Komala immediately hugged the Komala pillow and wine bottle, rolling away.
Soon, Ange saw Komala return to its small house and come back out holding only the wine.
Again, it left the Komala pillow behind, but at least delivered the wine to its room.
Watching Komala disappear with the wine bottle, Ange looked at Diancie in confusion. "Where is it going?"
"I don't know," Diancie shook her head. "It seems to go out a lot lately."
"Really?" Ange was surprised. Komala usually stayed home. "Did it make some wine friends outside?" he joked.
"Could be," Diancie said.
She sniffed the bouquet she cut. "So fragrant. These flowers are lovely."
The flowers in Ange's garden were not ordinary; they were rare Gracidea flowers, said to attract the legendary Shaymin.
Ange recognized them only after they bloomed. He didn't know where Vivillon had obtained them.
Back at home, Diancie placed the bouquet in the front desk vase, filling the hall with a gentle fragrance.
Munchlax came out of the kitchen. Seeing Ange, its eyes lit up.
"Munch~" Master, you're back! I missed you so much.
It ran to him and leapt into his arms.
Ange patted its head. "How did you perform this morning?"
"Munch~~" Very well!
Munchlax lifted its head from his arms and confidently patted its chest.
"Pfft~~" Diancie laughed at how shameless Munchlax was, "You've got quite the nerve."
Munchlax looked at her, its expression saying, What are you laughing at?"Munch~ Munch~~" I wasn't wrong. Everyone liked my cooking.
Pulling its gaze from Diancie, Munchlax shyly grabbed Ange's hand and tried to pull him upstairs.