Pokémon: Starting with a Pokémon Ranch.

Chapter 56 The Plan to Hire Wild Pokémon

After explaining the reasoning to the woolly sheep, Su Yu went to deliver some food to the hairy crabs.

It's so cold outside; if you leave the energy cubes outside, they'll freeze solid.

Therefore, Su Yu now has to feed the hairy crabs every day, and can no longer add food directly to the trough as before, and then replenish it after the hairy crabs have finished eating.

On his way back to the house from the cliff, Su Yu saw a dumbledore lying in the snow.

"This...it looks familiar?"

Seeing this, Su Yu quickly stepped forward and lifted the dummy mouse out of the snow. After checking its condition, thankfully, the dummy mouse had only fainted from hunger.

After bringing Drummy back inside and placing it next to Growlithe to warm up for a while, Drummy woke up on its own not long after.

Upon waking up and seeing the unfamiliar surroundings, Dongdong Mouse seemed quite flustered. But after seeing Su Yu, Dongdong Mouse paused for a moment, then happily ran to Su Yu.

"Knock knock, knock knock~!"

Seeing the Drum Mouse's reaction upon seeing him, Su Yu thought to himself, "Sure enough, this is the same Drum Mouse I encountered when I was searching for herbs in the forest."

However, when Su Yu went back to the original spot, the Pokémon were no longer there. He wondered where they had gone.

So he asked curiously:

"It really is you! By the way, where have you been lately? You weren't there when I went to your house to look for you before."

Upon hearing this, the Drummer explained to Su Yu where they had been recently.

It turns out that after Su Yu left, the Dongdong rats teamed up and began searching for treasures everywhere, hoping to find something valuable in the forest that they could exchange for delicious food with Su Yu later.

But after searching the area around their home, they didn't find anything good. So, some Pokémon suggested that they move to other parts of the forest and look for something better.

This suggestion was accepted by the vast majority of Pokémon at the time, so Dedric and his friends packed their bags and began to wander through the forest.

During their search for treasure, Dedric and his friends also met many other Pokémon in the forest. After learning of their purpose, some Pokémon even offered to guide them, behaving very friendly.

"Knock knock, knock knock!"

At this point, Dongdong Mouse took out a glass bottle. It's unclear where he got the bottle from, but that's not important.

The important thing is the liquid inside the bottle. The liquid looks like it contains abundant life energy, and it also shows a unique rainbow sheen under the sunlight.

"This is……"

Su Yu threw a reconnaissance shot at the bottle.

"Water of Life: No one knows how it was formed, no one knows where it came from. Perhaps it was a trace of life essence born during its drift in some secret realm."

"Possesses the following abilities: healing power, life force (soaking certain plants or their seeds in these liquids may produce unexpected changes)."

Water of life?

This liquid is somewhat similar to the water flowing from the tree that the Zarudes guarded in the movie, and the effect is also somewhat similar.

"Is this for me?" Su Yu asked.

"Dong dong, dong dong~" Dongdong Mouse nodded happily, looking very pleased.

"Thanks, by the way, let me get you something to eat. I was so busy talking that I forgot to treat you." With that, Su Yu got up and brought Dongdong Mouse its favorite energy cubes. Then, he asked:

"Speaking of which, where are your companions? I only see you, not your companions."

Upon hearing this, Dongdong Mouse, while eating energy cubes, recounted the events to Su Yu.

It turns out that due to the recent drop in temperature and the heavy snowfall in the forest, the Pokémon in the forest have had nothing to eat for the past few days.

After the Pokémon they encountered earlier helped them find the Water of Life, they ran into this problem. With the heavy snowfall, everything in the forest withered, and there was absolutely no food to eat.

The food that the Pokémon that helped Deddin had stored up was far from enough to help them survive the winter. Especially with Deddin and its companions joining in, the food shortage became even more severe. So, in just a few days, all the stored food was gone.

Amidst the food shortage, one of the Drummer's companions said that a human they knew had promised them that if they brought him some good things like the Water of Life, they could exchange them for a lot of delicious food.

Furthermore, they know the human's location and can give him the water of life they find in exchange for food to survive the winter.

This person, of course, is Su Yu.

After persuading the Pokémon that were helping them, they finally decided that Dedric would bring the Water of Life to exchange for some delicious food with Su Yu.

"But... even a single Drum Mouse like you can't carry that much food. Even if you find me, you still can't take all this food back with you."

Upon hearing this, Su Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Dedric explained that it had come with several strong Pokémon, but it got separated from them because of the heavy snowfall yesterday.

If it can find its companions, it can bring the food back.

"I see..." Su Yu nodded.

The forest is now covered in snow, making it much easier to find Pokémon than when the vegetation was lush.

However, you need to have good eyesight, and it would be best to be able to ride a tropical dragon to search, which would make the search faster.

Immediately, Su Yu thought of Farfetch'd. Farfetch'd had the best eyesight of all the Pokémon on Su Yu's ranch, and its observation skills were also quite sharp.

So Su Yu called over Farfetch'd and Tropical Dragon, asking them to help him find Drumstick's companions in the forest.

Soon, they set off.

When Su Yu returned to the house, he saw that Dongdong Mouse seemed to have not eaten for a long time, wolfing down its food even more fiercely than when Morubek ate.

Seeing this, Su Yu said:

"Actually, you don't need to deliberately search for those treasures. If you don't find any treasures, you can still come here to get food. I will definitely treat you well."

"Of course, this only applies to the Pokémon I know. After all... if there are too many Pokémon, I won't be able to feed them all."

However, it seems I could hire them?

Su Yu felt like he had come up with a good idea.

There's more and more work to be done on the ranch now. Next spring, he'll have to cultivate another batch of new fields to grow more grain.

There was clearly too much work for Su Yu to do alone. But if he hired Pokémon to help, things would be a different story.

He hires Scyther to harvest rice, wheat, and hay, and Pokémon that can swim to help him retrieve pearls from the lake. He also hires Pokémon like Dugtrio to help Su Yu cultivate the land and reclaim wasteland.

If we develop a tree orchard later, the Pokémon can be of great help.

These Pokémon help him with his work, which increases the farm's output, allowing him to feed so many Pokémon. As long as the number of Pokémon doesn't exceed the farm's carrying capacity.

With the environmental modification fluid, Su Yu's ranch currently has a very strong carrying capacity. Adding just a few more or a dozen Pokémon is no problem at all.

If you think about it that way, hiring might actually be a viable option.

After thinking about it for a while, Su Yu told Dongdong Mouse about it.

"Perhaps you could bring your Pokémon and companions to this ranch. If they're willing to work for me, I can provide them with food."

"In this way, their food supply will be much more stable, and they won't have to go hungry like they do now. I will take good care of them."

"Knock knock?"

Upon hearing this, Drummy imagined the scene of the Pokémon working diligently on the ranch after it had summoned them all.

After finishing their work each day, they can go to town to see the new things in the human world and broaden their horizons. Or... they can sneak over to Su Yu's house to watch TV.

"Knock knock~!" Life like this doesn't seem so bad.

With that in mind, Dongdong Mouse agreed to help Su Yu convey this suggestion.

Whether those Pokémon are willing to come or not depends on their own wishes.

……

(End of this chapter)