Chapter 120: Toxic Cooking

Evening.

Inside the spacious master bedroom.

Baimu lay on the bed, searching the internet and asking how to buy a mountain through proper channels, and how much a mountain cost.

Needless to say, most of the responses weren't very reliable.

But there were still one or two suggestions worth considering—

Nowadays, most wilderness areas have been designated as nature reserves, with forest rangers posted everywhere, prohibiting anyone from privately holding or developing them.

Therefore, if Baimu wanted to acquire a mountain in another region, he could only get it from ancient clans who had held fiefs since antiquity, or buy it from some super-rich person.

In short, it's simple: either be extremely wealthy or extremely powerful, and possibly both.

"So to get a mountain, I'd need to be at least Elite Four or Champion level?" He scratched his head, not too surprised.

The main series regions produced talent in abundance, powerful trainers everywhere, and rich people as common as sparrows—you could grab a handful with one try; the benefits had long since been distributed.

He was a person from another region; to wedge his way in, there was no option but to become an Elite Four member or Champion.

But Baimu just wanted a mountain—a mountain that could satisfy Aggron.

"In any case, earning as much money as possible can't be wrong."

He cleared his distracting thoughts, and just as he turned off his phone, he suddenly heard a piercing screech—creeeak—coming from outside.

"What's going on?"

He got up and went out, and immediately saw Aggron and Mawile carrying the Princess bed they had bought earlier—the new house didn't have a Princess bed, so they had to move this one over.

The Princess bed had been slept on for less than two months; it wasn't old at all, and there was really no need to buy a new one.

Besides, Mawile had a bit of a habit of being attached to its bed.

"What are you doing?" Baimu asked Aggron and Mawile curiously.

"Chido~"

Mawile pointed at the master bedroom and gave a soft cry.

Baimu said in surprise, "You want to sleep in the master bedroom? It's so empty, won't you be scared? If you want to, I don't mind…"

"Chido!"

Mawile shook its head wildly, the Soothe Bell on its head jingling and clanging noisily.

It found that its trainer completely hadn't understood what it meant, and got so angry its cheeks puffed up like a bun.

Just then.

"Gudong~"

Aggron, very considerately, enlightened Baimu, gesturing animatedly with all sorts of movements.

The latter suddenly understood and said in surprise, "You want to sleep in the same room as us?"

"Chido!"

Mawile turned its face away, refusing to look at Baimu, wearing an expression that clearly said "absolutely not," looking quite tsundere.

But after all these days, Baimu had gotten to know it fairly well.

If it truly didn't want to, Mawile would refuse very directly and straightforwardly, just like how it absolutely refused to eat green peppers no matter what—say a couple more words and it would lose its temper, pointing its huge jaws at you.

"Then let me lend a hand."

Baimu patted its head, ignoring the "you're so annoying" look it showed after desperately twisting its head away, and helped Aggron carry the Princess bed inside.

The old two-story house had limited space and couldn't house so many Pokémon; at most they could only stay in their Poké Balls. But now this room could fit even a Steelix if you wanted—

Actually, now it couldn't fit anymore, with an extra Princess bed added.

"You two, let's go to the backyard and get a little exercise—it's still early."

Baimu didn't want to waste such precious time. He shooed the two Pokémon to the backyard, then went to the big kitchen to call Chansey, who was studying various cooking utensils, only to find it staring at a bowl in deep thought.

This kind of pondering posture was rather rare for Chansey, and he couldn't help feeling a bit curious.

"What's wrong? What's going on with you this time?"

"Lucky!"

Chansey gave a start and quickly reached for the bowl, but halfway through its motion it froze, and instead lowered its head in some dejection.

Baimu took the opportunity to see what was in the bowl—

A thick, glowing clump of multicolored substance.

A seemingly corrosive smell hit him in the face.

"…A new style of cooking?"

He looked at Chansey uncertainly. The latter lowered its head and rubbed its little hands together, wearing an expression that didn't dare speak.

Clearly, this was a cooking failure.

Baimu didn't really feel angry—even chefs occasionally produce deadly glowing dishes, the kind only a Snorlax with the Immunity ability could accept; wasn't it perfectly normal for Chansey to make something poisonous?

Tomato

"Try harder next time. You might just not be used to this new kitchen here; after using it a few more times you'll be fine." He comforted Chansey this way, gently stroking its head again.

But his usual gentle approach seemed to have lost its effect today.

Chansey not only didn't recover, but became even more dejected, looking up several times in a row, yet hesitating to speak each time.

Not until it saw that its trainer's face held not a trace of impatience did it, while calling out, slowly tell him of the predicament it had run into.

Only then did Baimu learn that virtually every dish Chansey had made in the past two days or so had turned out like this.

No matter how simple the dish, it would ultimately turn into a clump of pungent unidentified substance. It had never happened before, and the unexpected situation troubled it greatly—so much so that it had even begun to think it had lost its cooking talent.

Losing its cooking talent was a small matter, but it didn't want to disappoint its trainer, so it had never said anything.

"Why didn't I see any of the failures before? You… you didn't eat them, did you?" Baimu didn't pay attention to that, and changed the subject instead.

"Lucky…"

Chansey guiltily lowered its head.

"You really are a dummy…"

How could he not have figured it out by now—Chansey had quietly been eating the failed products, and it was lucky that after eating them so many times it still hadn't been flagged for food poisoning by the Pokémon Center…

Wait.

When was the last time its moves were checked?

"Do you use Heal Bell on yourself every time after eating?" Baimu suddenly asked.

Chansey saw the light in his eyes, hesitated for a moment, then nodded to confirm that was indeed the case. It also braced itself for a scolding, since it knew what it was doing was wrong.

But to its surprise, Baimu didn't get angry at all—instead he burst out laughing with unrestrained delight.

"You might have learned Toxic!"

"Lucky?"

"No need to be surprised. The poisoning caused by food and the poisoning caused by type energy are different things. Your Heal Bell hasn't reached the level where it can instantly cure food poisoning, so what it could cure must be the latter."

He spoke at length, "Of course, this kind of thing needs a specific test to confirm—right now I'm only guessing."

Though at first hearing it sounded a bit far-fetched, the logical relationships in the Pokémon world were often very simple.

Check it and you'll know.

Baimu excitedly headed to the backyard, told Mawile and Aggron about this possibility, and told them to train on their own while he took Chansey and ran off to the Pokémon Center.

Among the anime world's black technologies, move-detection was赫然 a feature—Paul in Diamond & Pearl had used a related machine to discover a Taillow that knew Aerial Ace.

But because that handheld device was rather expensive, Baimu had never been able to bring himself to buy it; going to the Pokémon Center for regular check-ups worked just as well anyway.

Now he had no choice but to buy it.