The next morning, sunlight streamed through the gaps in the window into the room, and Jiang Mo was still immersed in a sweet dream.
Suddenly, a series of "Pika Pika" cries sounded in his ears. Jiang Mo frowned, slowly opened his eyes, and saw Pikachu jumping up and down by the bed, trying to pull off his blanket with its small paws.
Jiang Mo smiled helplessly, sat up, rubbed his eyes, and mumbled, "Pikachu, you woke me up so early. Can't you let me sleep a little longer?"
He had been too tired these past few days and just wanted to sleep in a little longer.
Pikachu, however, didn't care at all. It continued to cry excitedly, pointing at its small mouth and gesturing non-stop, urging Jiang Mo to get up and make breakfast.
"Alright, alright, I'll get up right away and prepare food for you all."
Jiang Mo was helpless, but he had no choice but to get up and prepare food for the Pokémon.
However, Larvitar's food might have to wait a bit, as the ore delivery truck usually arrived at noon. For now, he could only give it some energy cubes to tide it over.
After washing up, Jiang Mo looked at the lively Pikachu beside him, then at Haunter floating around the room, and Larvitar resting with its eyes closed, and an idea sparked in his mind.
Thinking about how hard they had been training with him during this time, he said, "Today, I'll give you all a day off. Get some good rest."
"Pika Pika!" Upon hearing this, Pikachu immediately ran around the room happily, occasionally releasing Discharge and some small Spark.
Haunter also floated out from the corner, grinning and crying "Kekeke," clearly very pleased with the decision.
Because a holiday meant it could go out and play with the nearby Hoothoot. It hadn't been back for so long, their tribe's numbers should have grown by now...
"Keke~"
Thinking of this, Haunter couldn't help but lick the corner of its mouth, revealing a scarlet long tongue.
Larvitar slowly opened its eyes, shook its head at Jiang Mo, and let out a low roar, as if saying that to become strong, rest was not allowed.
Jiang Mo squatted down and gently stroked Larvitar's head, feeling the aura of its origin within its body.
Under the continuous nourishment of his Tokiwa Power during this time, Larvitar's damaged origin had mostly recovered.
Jiang Mo calculated in his mind that Larvitar was about to reach level 30. When it evolved, if he let it eat the Groudon fragment he had been saving, its damaged origin might fully recover.
It might even be able to rely on the powerful energy contained in the Groudon fragment to elevate its potential to a higher level.
Pikachu and Haunter had also made great progress during this time. Pikachu successfully reached level 33 and learned the Discharge move.
Haunter, on the other hand, had been consistently eating high-quality Ghost Gems, and its level soared to 32, learning Phantom Force.
Just then, Jiang Mo's phone suddenly rang. He took it out and saw it was a call from Dr. Ouyang, so he quickly answered.
"Xiao Mo, I really need to talk to you."
Dr. Ouyang's anxious voice came from the other end of the line.
"Recently, that company called Dawn Company has been selling various new types of hybrid Tree Fruit, do you know about this? Many of those Tree Fruit are new varieties! My team and I have been researching for so long and haven't managed to create them yet. I have a strong feeling this is most likely your masterpiece."
Dr. Ouyang thought for a moment and realized that these were Jiang Mo's doing. After all, the Dragon Fruit and sand scale fruit that their team had previously researched were all from Jiang Mo.
Besides him, Dr. Ouyang couldn't think of anyone else who could research these things.
Jiang Mo didn't want to expose the relationship between Dawn Company and himself, so he said with a smile, "Doctor, it's like this, I recently caught a new Larvitar."
"You also know that raising Pokémon is quite expensive, let alone a Pseudo-Legendary Larvitar known for its appetite."
"It just so happens that Dawn Company offered a high price, so I sold some of the new varieties I recently researched to them, thinking I could save more money to properly train Larvitar."
Dr. Ouyang chuckled on the other end of the phone, seemingly not wanting to expose him. After a moment of silence, he slowly spoke, "Xiao Mo, I won't ask about anything else, but I am truly very interested in those new hybrid Tree Fruit."
"Do you think you could get me some samples of the parent plants of those Tree Fruit? I just want to research them. You know I'm almost obsessed with genetic research."
At this point, Dr. Ouyang seemed afraid that Jiang Mo would refuse, so he quickly added, "Don't worry, all the patent rights and everything belong to you. I just purely want to research them."
"And, I can also assist you in publishing papers. You are a Senior Researcher of the Alliance. Once this paper is published, you can get a large sum of research funding from the Alliance. How worthwhile is that?"
Jiang Mo listened to this and pondered for a moment, thinking that as long as he firmly held the core technology of that special fertilizer, even if he gave the parent plant samples, others without the fertilizer provided by the game panel would not be able to successfully hybridize the Tree Fruit.
At most, they could only buy some fruits that couldn't reproduce. Plus, Dr. Ouyang had indeed helped him a lot.
So he nodded and agreed, "Alright, Doctor, since you've put it that way, I'll send you some parent plant samples later. I hope it helps your research."
Dr. Ouyang was overjoyed when he heard Jiang Mo agree. He repeatedly thanked him on the phone and chatted with Jiang Mo for a few more minutes about professional topics such as the unique genes that the Tree Fruit might contain before happily hanging up.
Dr. Ouyang's call also reminded Jiang Mo that he should make good use of his identity as a Senior Researcher of the Alliance.
The Alliance allocates a sum of research funding to Researchers every year, and the amount varies according to their rank.
However, this research funding is not easily obtained. It requires you to have a specific research project, and this project must provide tangible help to the Alliance.
After all, the Alliance is not foolish; it wouldn't spend a large sum of money to support a group of freeloading parasites.
Although Jiang Mo held the title of Senior Researcher, he had no other presentable research achievements besides being a nominal member of Dr. Ouyang's team before, so the Alliance had not issued him any research funding.
Jiang Mo thought to himself that perhaps this time, he could use the hybrid Tree Fruit matter to get back all the research funding he had missed out on.
Moreover, he now had more than just the hybrid Tree Fruit project in his hands. Thinking of the Eevee that Mu Qingxue had caught earlier, Jiang Mo instantly had a plan.
PS: I'm wondering if I should also give the protagonist an Eevee. Does anyone have any good suggestions?
If so, what kind of Eevee do you prefer?
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