This was something Charles Chen had set up beforehand whenever he received a special-grade reward, the system would announce it.
But… Mew's eyelashes?
To… cook with?
No matter how he looked at it, those two pieces of information just didn't belong in the same sentence.
Pondering the odd reward, Charles was completely baffled. In the end, he could only store it away in the system's space for later research.
Speaking of special rewards from the system…
While pan-frying pork ribs, Charles began to think.
He already had quite a collection of special rewards.
For example, Technical Machines he had hundreds of them. At first, he used to check them daily to see which TMs might suit each of his Pokémon.
But as the rewards kept piling up, he eventually gave up on checking them altogether. They were all just gathering dust in the system's storage.
Then there were all sorts of other items:
"Sacred Feather," "Silver Wing," "Soothe Bell," "Bent Spoon"...
"I really need to find some time to go through all of this."
The thought flashed through Charles's mind before he focused back on the sizzling ribs.
When the meat's surface turned a light golden brown, glistening with a honeyed sheen, and the iron skewer could slide easily through the tender flesh, the pork ribs were ready.
He checked the dish's rating.
This time it was only a B+ dish, with the single effect of slightly increasing happiness. So Charles turned his main attention to the fried eggs instead.
But when he brought the ribs to the table, he froze for a moment.
The sixty perfectly plated fried eggs… were gone.
"What the ? Are you all bottomless pits or what?"
"Yip yip~" ("So tasty~")
Vulpix was perched in Dragonite's claws, wiping its mouth with a paw, letting out a soft, sweet cry.
Behind it, Dragonite gave its belly a satisfied pat.
After traveling so far in pursuit of that last Energy Cube, Dragonite now felt these fried eggs were even better than Energy Cubes.
And as for why Mewtwo had run off something about meeting more Trainers and seeing how other Pokémon got along with them well…
Strange creature.
Wasn't staying here already happiness enough?
"Well… guess I'd better make some more."
Charles sighed helplessly, set the ribs aside, and took out more eggs from a storage ball to start frying again.
By the end…
All three hundred eggs he had in storage had been completely devoured before the dinner finally ended.
From Charles's rough estimate:
Combusken had eaten more than 40 eggs, but Dragonite had eaten over 60…
Looked like Combusken's title of "Biggest Eater" was about to be challenged.
After dinner, with everything tidied up, Charles finally sat down to rest, placing his hand on Dragonite's belly just as he'd been wanting to all day.
Yup, as expected soft and warm.
"Dragonite, would you mind staying in your Poké Ball for the night? Tomorrow I'll have a construction crew come over and build you a bigger wooden cabin in the garden."
"Roo roo~" ("Sure~")
Dragonite nodded without hesitation.
Today had been a great day not only had it released days' worth of pent-up frustration in battle, it had also eaten the most delicious fried eggs it had ever tasted.
And all of this happiness… was thanks to the human in front of it.
When it saw Charles's hand on its belly, Dragonite couldn't help but hug him tightly.
"Huh? Whoa—"
Suddenly enveloped in a wall of softness, Charles froze, then gave up resisting and hugged back.
"So soft…" he murmured.
Then, still holding it in his arms, he returned Dragonite to its Poké Ball.
Next, he asked Gardevoir how her control over the Curse ability was coming along.
Her reply: she could now maintain it for over two hours.
That made Charles nod in approval.
From just half an hour to over two hours his level-80-plus Gardevoir had achieved this in just over a week.
At this rate, before long, she'd be able to stay in the nursery at night without having to isolate herself.
Which meant… she'd need her own room soon.
Finally, Charles turned to Serperior and took out its Poké Ball.
Before he could say anything, Serperior refused outright. "Shyu shyu!" ("Not going in!")
It had spent the whole day inside already.
Even though it could still sense Charles outside, the Poké Ball was like an invisible wall between them and it hated that feeling.
Charles didn't force it. He put the ball away. "…Alright, then come with me."
He led Serperior to his bedroom, used telekinesis to clear a space on the floor, fetched a blanket from the cabinet, and spread it out. Then he went to the treehouse and brought its quilt, placing it on top of the blanket.
And just like that, a warm, cozy little nest was ready.
"All set you can sleep here, right next to me. How's that?"
"Shyu?"
Serperior blinked, then couldn't stop the corners of its mouth from curling upward. "Shyu shyu~" ("Okay.")
"Good thing the room's big enough."
Charles let out a small sigh of relief.
His room was simply furnished: the right side held a large bed beside a desk; on the left was the door and a wardrobe. A removable treehouse sat against the middle wall, and the rest of the space was mostly empty.
Now, with the blanket laid down, the space fit Serperior perfectly.
Coiled up comfortably, it filled the area just right only the leaf-decorated tip of its tail had nowhere to rest, so it ended up lying across Charles's bed.
That immediately caught the attention of Alolan Vulpix.
Its eyes lit up at the sight of the tail. It reached out a paw to swat at it
But the tail, as if equipped with an automatic dodge function, flicked out of reach.
"Yip?"
Vulpix frowned, its little pink mouth pouting, before hopping to another spot to try again.
Of course, Serperior's tail was not so easy to catch.
And truth be told, it was enjoying teasing the little fox.
A twist here, a dodge there always just out of reach.
After watching for a while, Charles began to feel tempted himself.
Finally, when Vulpix missed again, he moved in fast grabbing the restless tail with perfect precision.
"Ha! Gotcha!" he exclaimed, laughing triumphantly.
But his laughter died abruptly, replaced by a startled yelp.
"Ah—!?"
The tail he'd caught reacted instantly, coiling from the tip all the way up Serperior's body, wrapping tightly around him and lifting him into the air bringing him face to face with the tall serpent.
"Shyu shyu…"
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