Over the next two days, Zhou Yuan repeated the routine of milking, shearing, and herding.
When he had nothing else to do, he would play virtual battles to earn points, and after two days of consecutive wins, his ranking had risen to around 1,500.
Besides that, Zhou Yuan ate and slept well at the ranch, feeling as if he had gained a little weight.
Although he had agreed to Gym Leader Meng's request, recording videos could be done anytime, while Growlithe's Shell Smash would only happen once, so Zhou Yuan focused all his attention on the incubator.
Finally, on the morning of the fourth day at the ranch, the Pokémon egg in the incubator stirred, beginning to shake.
This change caused Dahong, who was guarding the incubator, to let out a loud Howl.
Zhou Yuan, who was shearing a Wooloo, heard Dahong's Howl and knew that Growlithe was about to hatch.
He dropped the scissors, ignoring the half-sheared Wooloo, and hurried towards the room where the incubator was located.
"Meeh~~~~" (╬◣д◢)
Zhou Yuan ran quickly into the room, followed closely by Liu Yongming.
The two of them opened the incubation device, took out the Pokémon egg, and placed it on the soft couch.
Under the watchful eyes of the two people and one dog, the two Pokémon eggs slowly cracked open.
Pokémon Egg: I'm cracking open.
Growlithe is about to hatch.
As he watched the Pokémon egg, Zhou Yuan's heart also surged with emotion.
"Crack..."
As the Pokémon egg cracked open, a soft light emanated from it.
At this point, the yellow-bottomed, red-patterned Pokémon egg was covered in spiderweb-like cracks.
The first to stir was the egg on the left.
Accompanied by rustling sounds, a black nose broke through the eggshell, followed by a head, and then the entire Pokémon egg crumbled like a landslide, leaving only an orange-red puppy standing on the soft couch.
The Growlithe stood on the soft couch, looking at the two people and one dog in front of it, and tilted its head.
"Woof woof? (゜-゜)"
Just as the Growlithe was curiously looking around, the Pokémon egg to its right finally broke open completely, revealing another slightly smaller Growlithe.
"Woof woof? (O_O)?"
At this point, both Growlithe had finished hatching.
Zhou Yuan and Liu Yongming each picked one up, one on the left and one on the right, and Dahong also ambled over and licked one of them.
Liu Yongming said with a smile:
"We've been looking forward to this, and finally, these two little ones have hatched."
"Xiao Yuan, the one you're holding is the one you chose, right? I just took a look, and it seems to be male.
You've taken the older brother and left the younger sister for me and Dahong."
"That's good too.
Boys, they should go out and explore more.
Don't you agree, Little Ka?"
As he spoke, Liu Yongming lowered his head to ask the Growlithe in his arms, his face almost touching it, smiling so broadly that his features seemed to get lost, and he gently cooed at it while laughing.
What a tough guy with a tender heart.
Zhou Yuan looked down at the Growlithe he was holding, and the Growlithe stared back at him with its dark eyes.
The person and the Pokémon looked at each other for a moment, and for some reason, a thought popped into Zhou Yuan's mind: "Two dogs staring."
Shaking his head to clear away the jumbled thoughts, Zhou Yuan smiled at the Growlithe and said:
"Growlithe, please take care of me from now on."
"Woof woof~"
The Growlithe wiggled its black nose and sniffed hard, as if memorizing Zhou Yuan's scent.
The two of them took the newborn Growlithe to the bathroom to wash off the wet egg fluid from the puppies.
Just as they were about to dry their fur after washing, both Growlithe shook their bodies in perfect unison to shake off the water, splashing Zhou Yuan and Liu Yongming all over their heads and faces.
After Zhou Yuan dried their fur, Liu Yongming also brought over two baby bottles filled with Miltank's milk.
The two of them each took a bottle and began to feed the puppies in their arms.
The Growlithe sucked greedily from the bottle, while Little Ka in Liu Yongming's arms seemed much calmer by comparison.
The two puppies were quickly conquered by the delicious milk, drinking with expressions of enjoyment: ღ(๑╯◡╰๑ღ)
After eating and drinking their fill, the two Growlithe, looking refreshed, went out to play.
Zhou Yuan and Liu Yongming stood at the doorway with their arms crossed, watching the two little ones roll around on the grass.
Just then, Liu Yongming spoke:
"Xiao Yuan, why don't you stay a little longer?
Uncle Liu hasn't had this much liveliness in a long time, and Growlithe and Little Ka have just hatched.
Let's wait until they're a bit older before you leave."
Hearing this, Zhou Yuan glanced at Uncle Liu and noticed that although the 1.9-meter-tall man's expression was calm on the surface, his hands were clenched somewhat tightly.
Zhou Yuan understood.
Uncle Liu had probably been lonely for too long.
Liu Yongming was unmarried, without a wife or children, and his parents had passed away years ago.
After the battle six years ago, his Pokémon suffered heavy losses, leaving only him and his one dog relying on each other.
These past few days, especially today, were likely the liveliest he had experienced.
After years of solitude and then experiencing such liveliness, he probably truly couldn't bear to lose this feeling.
Thinking of this, Zhou Yuan smiled and said:
"Uncle Liu, what are you talking about?
Even if you didn't mention it, I wouldn't want to leave.
I still want to bother Uncle Liu for a while longer."
"Hahaha, good boy, you can stay here as long as you want, Uncle Liu is happy for you to stay as long as you want."
Liu Yongming was overjoyed; he was very happy that Zhou Yuan could stay.
The uncle and nephew stood side by side under the eaves, chatting idly, while in the nearby pasture, Dahong played with the two little Growlithe, together forming a picture of leisure.
After playing for about an hour, the two little Growlithe also got tired.
They stumbled back into the room and collapsed onto the soft couch, falling into a deep sleep.
Looking at these two little ones, Zhou Yuan showed an auntie-like smile.
Playtime aside, Zhou Yuan began to design a training plan for Growlithe.
He had already conceived of it before, and now it was just a matter of refining it.
"Growlithe is currently in its infancy.
About three bottles of milk a day, plus at most one Berry, should be enough.
In about three days, it will enter the Growth phase from infancy, and then other solid food will need to be added."
"After another seven days, the diet will need to be updated again based on that."
Zhou Yuan twirled his pen while brainstorming the plan, gradually adding some Berries suitable for newborn Pokémon.
As for the source of the Berries:
"System, open the shop, Berry category."
【According to the host's needs, the following Berries are recommended for the host】
【Oran Berry 10 Energy Points】
【Wepear Berry 20 Energy Points】
"Hmm, Oran Berry, as the most common Berry, can heal injuries and also has certain nutritional value.
Wepear Berry, although it doesn't come with other special effects, its nutritional content is equivalent to three Oran Berry.
While Berries like Cornn Berry have higher nutritional value, they are not suitable for newborn Pokémon."
After Zhou Yuan analyzed the system's recommendations, he found that the system really hadn't tricked him.
"System, two Wepear Berry."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yuan felt his clothes pocket suddenly become heavier, followed by the system's mechanical voice.
【Host's remaining Energy Points: 1410】
Zhou Yuan then had the system open the limited-time shop page, looking at the items inside but frustrated by the lack of Energy Points.
"It seems I still need to make new videos to earn more Energy Points."
After seeing the two little ones asleep, Liu Yongming went out to continue shearing the half-sheared Wooloo.
At this moment, only Zhou Yuan remained in the room.
Seizing this opportunity, Zhou Yuan pulled out two Berries from his pocket and, one in each hand, popped them into the mouths of the two Growlithe.
Even in their sleep, the Growlithe seemed to smell the scent of the Berries, and with their eyes closed, they vaguely took a few bites and swallowed them.
"System, scan Growlithe."
【Growlithe】
【Level: Newborn】
【Current Health Status: Healthy】
【Ability: Intimidate】
【Moves: Glare, Ember, Thrash, Flare Blitz, Morning Sun, Double Kick, Close Combat, Crunch】
After returning to his room, Zhou Yuan opened his computer and began to conceptualize the content for his next video.
Since he had already agreed to Gym Leader Meng's request, the video's theme was clear: a tactical core based on Bug-type Pokémon.
However, the chosen Pokémon should ideally not be those with higher base stats.
The selected Pokémon should be relatively common, otherwise, it would be difficult to demonstrate the persuasiveness of the tactical system.
In such a situation, Pokémon like Scizor and Heracross would not be suitable for appearance.
Zhou Yuan's first thought was the Durant-Dugtrio team system.
The core of this system is Durant's hidden ability: Truant.
Through Durant's learned Skill, Entrainment, it changes the opponent's ability to Truant as well, and then switches to Dugtrio to restrict the opponent's rotation with its Arena Trap ability.
Taking advantage of the opponent's Truant downtime, it aggressively strengthens itself, ultimately capable of sweeping the opposing team.
However, this tactical system has two cores, Durant and Dugtrio, and could be featured in one or two battles in the video, but it shouldn't be the main content of the video.
After pondering for a while, Zhou Yuan finally decided on a system with Ninjask and Scolipede as the tactical core for the main content of the video, while also including the Durant-Dugtrio system and the Butterfree's superior alternative tactical system as flavor in the middle of the video.
At the end of the text, let's mention the level settings of this book.
Newborn Level corresponds to stages 0-5.
Novice Level corresponds to stages 6-15.
Normal Level corresponds to stages 16-30.
Senior Level corresponds to stages 31-45.
Elite Level corresponds to stages 46-55.
Gym Leader Level corresponds to stages 56-65.
Quasi-King-level corresponds to stages 66-70.
Elite Four level corresponds to stages 71-80.
Champion Level corresponds to stages 81-90.
Above that are things like First level god.
