Elf: Seriously? You only get a cheat code when you're about to die?

Chapter 294 Tea Making

With a loud "bang," Zeraora was successfully captured.

It was already exhausted from being beaten by Metagross, so naturally it didn't have the strength to break free of the Poké Ball.

Seeing that Zeraora had been successfully captured, Metagross exited its Mega Evolution state and floated to Angel's side.

Ange smiled and asked Metagross, "How was your first official battle using Mega Evolution?"

"Meta~" Not bad!

The Metagross's voice was tinged with laughter.

It had been buried in the laboratory for a long time and hadn't had a proper battle in a long time. It felt very good to stretch its muscles occasionally.

"That's good," Anjie teased. "You still need to move around more, otherwise you'll rust!"

The Megalodon, oblivious to Anjie's teasing, replied seriously, "No way, I take great care of myself!"

Angel never mistreats his Pokémon. He buys all the materials needed to maintain the body of his Steel-type Pokémon, and he only chooses the most expensive and best ones. Metagross is indeed kept shiny and well-maintained.

Upon hearing Metagross's words, Anja chuckled, leaving Metagross completely bewildered.

Then Angel released Zeraora, which was slumped on the ground, panting heavily, its fur soaked with sweat.

Anjie looked at it and asked, "So, are you convinced? If not, I can keep playing with you!"

Jeraora stared at Angel without saying a word.

Anjie laughed and said, "You're making it sound like we're the ones in the wrong."

Zeraora lowered his head upon hearing this.

Ange asked in confusion, "Where did you come from in Azoth? We shouldn't have a Pokémon like Zeraora in Azoth."

Zeraora remained silent with her head down.

Seeing this, Anjie sighed deeply, thought for a moment, and said, "How about this, you stay and work at the energy plant for now, and we'll provide you with electricity to absorb. Once you've paid off your debts, we'll let you leave."

Zeraora looked up at Angel in surprise upon hearing this. How could someone have caught such a rare Pokémon and then let it go?

It's not that it hasn't had contact with humans before, but everyone who has seen it in the past has acted as if they've discovered a new continent and can't wait to tame it.

Unfortunately, none of those people were its match, and none of them were qualified to subdue it!

Anjie looked at Factory Manager Finn and asked, "Manager, is this alright?"

Factory Manager Finn said, "Since Your Highness has said so, then so be it."

The factory was funded by the royal family, so of course he listens to the royal family.

Ange looked at Zeraora again, waiting for its reply.

After a long while, Zeraora nodded slightly.

Anjie asked with a smile, "Now you can tell us where you're from, right?"

Zeraora hesitated for a moment before finally revealing its origin.

It turns out it's not a Pokémon from this world after all!

Speaking of the Pokémon world, we must mention Arceus, the mythical Pokémon that stands at the top of all Pokémon and is known as the creator god.

Legend has it that Arceus's true form lies dormant in an unknown land, while its countless clones govern all of the Pokémon world.

As the Pokémon world develops, countless parallel worlds emerge, and each of these parallel worlds contains an alter ego of Arceus.

In other words, all the Arceus seen by people throughout history have been its clones, not its true form.

Zeraora comes from one of these parallel worlds.

Its home is in the Alola region of a parallel world, but it was destroyed by a special Pokémon.

That Pokémon is Guzzlord, one of the Ultra Beasts.

Guzzlord, a strange-eating Pokémon, is a Dark/Dragon type and one of the Ultra Beasts. It is an unknown life form among the Ultra Beasts.

Ultra Beasts are Pokémon from another world. In their original world, they are just ordinary Pokémon, but after crossing the Ultra Slug and arriving in the Pokémon world, they are influenced by unknown forces and become extremely dangerous aliens with a desire to devour everything.

Zeraora's homeland was devoured by a Gluttonous King that crossed over from another world. (It was its homeland that was devoured, not the world.)

During her battle with the Gluttonous King, Zeraora was defeated and accidentally fell into a spatial rift, where she came to this world by chance.

Unable to return to her own world, Zeraora began to travel around this world.

And since her homeland is gone, Zeraora doesn't have much of a desire to return to her original world. Her only regret is probably not knowing what happened to the Gluttonous King in the end, and whether anyone defeated it.

During its journey, Zeraora passed through Azot. Due to the huge drain on its battery, it decided to pause its journey to recharge.

However, it didn't expect that Azot hadn't had thunderstorms for some time.

The lack of power would cause Zeraora pain, so it thought of stealing some electricity from humans to replenish it.

However, its demand is too great, and ordinary electricity cannot meet its needs at all, often causing large-scale power outages in the surrounding area when it steals electricity.

By chance, it discovered the existence of the energy plant and sensed a large amount of pure electric current inside, so it secretly sneaked in.

Sure enough, the electricity from the energy plant was completely different from the electricity outside, and it felt refreshed after absorbing it.

Sure enough, it seized the opportunity to inhale rapidly, eventually attracting the attention of the factory workers.

After listening to Zeraora's story, Anja sighed, "It seems you've had it tough too."

His hometown was destroyed, and he was forced to wander in a strange world. His plight was beyond description.

After learning about Zeraora's experiences from Ange, Factory Manager Finn and Ji Meiya also felt great sympathy for it.

Factory Manager Finn patted Zeraora on the shoulder and said, "Although you're pitiful, you can't let the damage to the factory equipment go unpunished. However, I'll take good care of you from now on. Just stay here and relax!"

Zeraora: ...

After treating Zeraora's injuries, Angel returned the Poké Ball to Zeraora.

"I'm returning the Poké Ball to you. You can decide for yourself whether you've repaid enough for the energy plant's losses, and you can also decide when to leave."

Zeraora looked at the Poké Ball in her hand, momentarily unable to believe that this human trusted her so much.

Isn't he afraid I'll run away right now?

After a moment of silence, Zeraora suddenly asked Angel, "Human, what's your name?"

Ange was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and replied, "My name is Ange, Ange Azot!"

After saying that, Anjie looked at Factory Manager Finn and said, "It's a mess here right now. I'm sure Factory Manager Finn has a lot of things to do. We won't bother you any longer. We'll come to see you again when we have time."

Factory Manager Finn quickly replied, "We await Your Highness's arrival at any time."

Then Ange waved to Zeraora and said, "Well then, Zeraora, good work, goodbye!"

With that, Anjie and Ji Meiya left the energy plant together.

Jeraora watched Ange's retreating figure, silently repeating his name until Ange completely disappeared from its sight.

When Ange returned home, Snorlax and Gengar were making lunch, while Diancie and Inteleon, along with Spellneton, Mystique, and Lucario, were drying herbs on the wall.

Before herbs can be roasted into tea, they need to be dried in the sun.

Because of the presence of the sun rock, the drying process takes significantly less time.

Angie walked over, scooped up a handful of herbs, and squeezed them. "They're almost dried. Let's move on to the next step this afternoon." Tianxi agreed, "Okay, what's the next step?"

Just then, Snorlax stood at the door and waved wildly at Anjie and the others. Seeing this, Anjie smiled and said, "Lunch is ready. Let's eat lunch first, and we'll talk after lunch."

So he brought a few Pokémon into the house.

After lunch, Anjay, along with Diancie, Magearna, Snorlax, Gengar, Inteleon, Throwing Monkey, and Babubo, sat around a large bamboo sieve filled with dried herbs.

Anjie then took out a small pair of scissors and said, "Our job now is to cut the herbs into shreds."

He then demonstrated, "Look, that's how you cut it!"

With each snip of Anjie's scissors, the vanilla in his hand instantly transformed into strands of vanilla of uniform thickness.

As a chef, I have nothing to say about this.

Vanilla leaves are quite large, with one leaf being as big as Angela's palm. If they are not cut into thin strips, they cannot be processed into tea leaves.

"Babu~ Babu~"

After watching Anjie's demonstration, Babu Tubo immediately said that it was simple and that it could do it easily too.

As it spoke, it reached out its hand to Anjie.

"Be careful, or I'll make you regret it!" Anjie took out another pair of scissors and placed them in its palm.

"Babu~ Babu~" Babu the groundhog confidently puffed out his chest, then grabbed the scissors and started cutting.

It had only cut two snips when it immediately received a punch on the head from Diancie.

"What did you cut? Did a dog chew it?"

Babu Tubo looked at the herbs in his hand and saw that one of the herbs had been cut into tiny pieces.

"Ba-bu-tu-bo!" Anjie glared at Ba-bu-tu-bo through gritted teeth.

Babubo was so frightened that he trembled all over and reluctantly shoved the scissors into Snorlax's hand.

"Gah~ Gah~" The little Snorlax recalled Ange's technique from earlier, picked up a leaf and started cutting it.

After it finished cutting, it excitedly held up its work to show Anjie.

"Gang~ Gang~" Master, how do you think my haircut is?

Anjie gave a thumbs-up and praised, "Great cut! No wonder it's a Munchlax!"

"Gah~" Upon hearing this, the little Snorlax happily started cutting again. It was indeed much better than Baloo Marauder.

Babutop moved closer to Munchlax, rested its head on Munchlax's shoulder, and muttered resentfully in a low voice:

"They're not much better than me!"

The throwing monkey, which overheard its mutterings, couldn't help but think: It's really lying through its teeth.

"Babu~ Babu~"

Clumsy Babubo was forbidden by Ange from touching the scissors again, but it couldn't resist, so it kept giving pointers to the little Snorlax from the side.

Anyone who didn't know better would think he was the expert!

Luckily, Munchlax didn't listen to it, otherwise who knows what the outcome would have been.

Everyone received the scissors from Anjie and started cutting like Anjie, each of them doing a better job than Babu Tubo.

"Babu~" Seeing everyone busy, Babu pouted and looked unconvinced.

Just then, Anjie slapped his forehead, "Oh right, the afternoon's match is about to start, I almost forgot!"

As he spoke, Anjie turned on the TV, just as the live broadcast of the League Tournament had just begun.

And so, Anjie and his friends watched the League tournament live while cutting vanilla.

Soon, Ash appeared on stage amidst applause from the audience.

Because it was still a qualifying round, Ash won very easily, winning the match with just one Talonflame.

After Ash, Ange saw Ayaka appear, and she indeed participated in the League Tournament.

Ayaka uses Aegislash, and her dual-sword sheath, like Angel's, has evolved into Aegislash.

Ayaka's Aegislash is very strong. With just this one Pokémon, she defeated three of her opponent's Pokémon in a row and won the match.

After Ayaka, Anjie saw Ailan appear.

This trainer, who had battled Ange, was also ridiculously strong, winning the preliminaries with a Tyranitar.

Ai Lan's match ended, and An Jie and his team had almost finished cutting the vanilla.

Because they had many helpers, Angie and his team finished in a very short time, even though there was a lot of vanilla.

After the herbs are cut, the next step is to knead them.

Anjie said, "Let's move on to the next step!"

How do I do "du~ki~du~"?

Maya asked in confusion.

Anjie thought for a moment and said, "You all watch, I'll demonstrate first."

The Pokémon nodded and gathered around Ange.

Anjie gripped the bamboo sieve with one hand and rolled the vanilla shreds back and forth with the other, while simultaneously applying waveguide force to the vanilla shreds.

The amount of force used during kneading is important; too much or too little force will not work.

This was also Anjie's first time. Although he was demonstrating for everyone, he was actually quite nervous.

Under Anjie's kneading, the vanilla shreds began to slowly deform, changing from their original filamentous shape into small, spring-like bends.

This step is necessary to reduce the volume of the tea leaves, preparing them for the subsequent roasting process. It also slightly damages the internal structure of the herbs, making it easier to brew tea after they are made into tea leaves.

After kneading it, Anjie wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to the Pokémon, "That's about it. Everyone, give it a try."

So everyone took a sieve of shredded vanilla and started kneading it.

But no one expected that Babu Tubo would be the one to do this best.

The fleshy ball of the babutupa stores an electric current. During the kneading process, the tiny currents flow into the vanilla threads with its movements, precisely disrupting their internal structure.

Moreover, because of his practice of waveguides, Babu Tubo has very precise control over his own electrical currents, which did not have any adverse effects on the vanilla threads. On the contrary, it brought out the aroma of the vanilla completely.

Anjie walked up to Babu Tubo, grabbed a handful of the kneaded vanilla threads, and inhaled their fragrance, unable to resist praising Babu Tubo:

"Babu, you're a genius!"

"Babu~ Babu~" Hmm~ Now you know how powerful I am!

Babu Tubo proudly tried to puff out his chest, but what he did puff out was his round belly.

(End of this chapter)