Chapter 321: Launching the Milk Subscription Service, Shuckle's Juice, Imminent

Not to mention Garganacl's talent, which is extremely well-suited for double battles; it could perfectly serve as the first lesson after school starts, both to welcome Hearing Nimo and the others back from the Galar region and to greet Shinji, who will most likely be scooped up under Yuzuki and Clavell's wings.

By then, we'll let them compete to see who can defeat a Garganacl holding Leftovers and having undergone Terastallization first.

As for its move set, it would roughly consist of Curse, Salty Cure, Recover, Protect, Iron Defense, Wide Guard, Body Press, and the like.

The Terastal Type can be varied; Ghost, Steel, Water, Poison, or even Fairy Terastallization would all be excellent, though it is a bit expensive.

But by then, everyone will surely wear smiles of "battling makes me happy," right?

Thinking of this, Luo Mu's smile grew even wider; however, all these ideas depend on whether these Naclstacks can successfully evolve into Garganacl within this month.

Although hope seems slim, perhaps after adding soil from the Silver Mountain Range, the Naclstacks, ingesting better nutrients and energy, will accelerate their growth speed significantly?

Luo Mu skillfully collected the rock salt produced by the Naclstacks; just that single spray was equivalent to a week's accumulation during their Naclimb stage, and even though this single burst consumed most of the rock salt stored within the Naclstacks' bodies, the yield was still extremely substantial.

After doing a quick calculation, Luo Mu was surprised to discover that at the current production rate, the value of the rock salt produced by three Naclstacks in one month is approximately equal to 0.8 times Luo Mu's own monthly salary.

If they evolve further...

Hiss, I dare not even think about it anymore!

Luo Mu vaguely understood why many people don't treat being a Trainer as their main profession; indeed, this career generates money far slower than other professions!

Either one works oneself to death completing missions, like Luo Mu previously, investing most of the money into Pokémon feeding and resource supply, or one becomes like Champion Dan Di of the Galar region, whose champion cape is covered in advertisements to earn ad revenue.

Even Whitney, whom he had met not long ago, treats her Miltank ranch as her main profession; she mentioned that her monthly salary as a Gym Leader is slightly lower than Luo Mu's current wages, meaning only the resources provided by the League and the tax reduction policies are particularly attractive.

Speaking of tax reductions...

While interacting with Shuckle and the Naclstacks, Luo Mu began pondering the issue of taxation.

Basically, when income reaches certain tiers, the League collects a certain tax to maintain its operations.

Although Luo Mu has retired as a Champion-rank Trainer, his honors do not disappear.

Currently, the farm's income and his own teacher's salary have not reached the threshold for exemptions, so he basically hasn't worried about being taxed.

But once the farm's various businesses develop and income skyrockets, taxes will definitely be levied; Luo Mu feels this is trivial, as the League maintaining the region's operations and collecting reasonable taxes is only right and proper, and he does not object.

However, recently he seems to have heard that while promoting the development of the Paldea region, Yuzuki intends to implement a policy where the tax reduction quota for Gym Leaders operating city Gyms can be stacked with other quotas, aiming to increase the number of Gyms in various cities and develop the region's strength.

Just like in the original animated series, besides the eight officially recommended Gyms, many large and small Gyms exist in other cities, also capable of issuing badges for participating in the League Conference, after all, a region does not consist of only the few cities found in the games.

Since Pingdie Town happens to lack a Gym, if Luo Mu wants to further reduce his taxes, establishing a Gym in Pingdie Town is perfectly fine; he suspects that if he submits the application, Yuzuki might approve it the very next second.

That's right, Yuzuki; recalling Brother Brother Qingmu's miserable state, Luo Mu, who was currently stroking the slippery, turtle-like heads of two Shuckle, shuddered, feeling that rather than becoming completely subservient to Yuzuki and being exploited by her, it would be better to pay some taxes to save his own skin.

Taking a step back, if Luo Mu really were to open a Gym, he would most likely act as an absentee owner, letting Oranguru serve as the acting Gym Leader every day to accept challenges from new Trainers, or even bringing back some Gardevoir maids and Gallade butlers from outside to take shifts with Oranguru.

Withdrawing his hand from stroking the two Shuckle's heads, Luo Mu sighed; rather than thinking about these irrelevant things, it would be better to go back and discuss with Oranguru the matter of opening up orders for fresh Moomoo Milk, as his intuition told him this business might just take off.

Not long after, Swampert carried the rock where the Shuckle lived back from the wild; watching Swampert carry the huge rock, which was several times larger than its own body, on one arm, Luo Mu was still somewhat shocked even though he had long grown accustomed to Swampert's immense strength.

The rock was placed in the center of the Berry Grove, where there was ample space to set it down, and where branches and leaves extending from the Berry Trees provided some shelter from wind and rain.

In fact, when the Shuckle siblings arrived at the grove filled with the sweet scent of berries, they were immediately dazzled, feeling as though they had arrived in a kingdom they had long dreamed of.

Not only were there high-quality berries on the verge of full ripeness everywhere they looked, but also that huge rock which suited them perfectly; all of this caused the Shuckle siblings' affection for Luo Mu, who had already saved their lives, to skyrocket, and they also felt full of gratitude towards Suicune's arrangements.

"Do you need me to have other Pokémon help you hollow out the rock?" Luo Mu looked at the two Shuckle, who were happily wandering and inspecting the huge rock with delighted expressions, then shifted his gaze to Swampert beside them, who was eager to try, "Hmm, Swampert, if you punch it once, the huge rock will probably crack directly, so let's forget it."

"On the contrary, Mimikyu, Cangyan Cangyan Rengui, and Feng Su Gou should be able to hollow out the inside very quickly."

Hearing this, Swampert, who had been eagerly waving its fists, immediately hung its head in disappointment.

Luo Mu was right; it had almost forgotten that if it really punched once, this huge rock, which it had searched for a long time in the wild to find one with a good appearance and suitable size, would either shatter directly into dust or crack into several pieces.

"It's fine, it's fine; you carried such a large rock back to the farm, Shuckle and the others have already appreciated your kindness; you did great!"

Luo Mu patted Swampert's head, who looked like a dejected big dog, with a somewhat strange expression.

Come to think of it, in the era before the Pokémon games were fully localized into Chinese, Swampert was translated by folk translators as "Big Water Dog," and Mudkip was translated as "Little Water Dog."

Fortunately, Swampert only sank into depression for a moment before perking up again, waving its powerful arms as it walked toward the direction of Leiming Lake.

In order to help Shuckle and the others find a suitable rock, it hadn't yet trained beside the huge, damp rock today.

After Swampert left, the Shuckle, as if they had finished thoroughly touring their new home, came before Luo Mu; the blue Shuckle sister even demonstrated their burrowing ability to Luo Mu—

Both of them had learned the Dig move, so they could handle turning this "raw jade" into their new home themselves.

Since Shuckle had said so, Luo Mu no longer insisted, merely instructing them that after finishing their new home, they could pick some berries from the fruit trees that they deemed suitable to store inside, and once the wooden plugs custom-made by Luo Mu according to the dimensions of the several Kong Dong on their shells arrived, they could begin attempting to ferment berries and make juice.

If they felt bored, they could also go to the adjacent Apple Forest to make friends with Tropius and Applin; apples ripened by Applin taste extremely good.

After the Shuckle siblings nodded to indicate they had remembered, Luo Mu, having settled them both, did not linger, returning directly home to call upon Oranguru and begin discussing the possibility of expanding the milk delivery business.

The final conclusion of the discussion was that it was feasible; Oranguru occasionally walks around Pingdie Town and can see that most families purchase Moomoo Milk cold-shipped from other cities, where the time spent on loading, unloading, transportation, and selling falls far short of what could be called fresh Moomoo Milk.

The demographic structure of Pingdie Town is very healthy, with the elderly, children, and adults maintained at an optimal ratio, which also means the "Fresh Moomoo Milk" brand conceived by Luo Mu and Oranguru would likely be very effective.

In supermarkets, a 750-milliliter bottle of Moomoo Milk sells for 500 League Coins; considering its average quality and the fact that it is not the freshest Moomoo Milk, this price is actually on the expensive side.

On Luo Mu's side, he plans to bulk-purchase 750-milliliter glass bottles at 20 League Coins each.

Regarding the selling price after filling the glass bottles with Fresh Moomoo Milk, Oranguru, after calculating, felt that 550 League Coins per bottle, plus a one-time delivery fee of 50 League Coins, would be quite reasonable.

Among the five Miltank, four are currently in a sub-adult state, so their milk production is slightly less than that of adult Miltank, roughly around 15 liters per day.

After Oranguru's calculations, including the daily consumption by Pokémon on the farm and Luo Mu's consumption for making various foods, if they reserve the 25 liters of Fresh Moomoo Milk produced by the sole Miltank possessing the "Sap Sipper" ability and sell all the remaining Fresh Moomoo Milk... if orders are fully filled every day, excluding negligible costs, the daily income would be sufficient to reach over 45,000 League Coins!

Upon obtaining this figure, Luo Mu and Oranguru exchanged a glance, both inhaling a sharp breath.

Good heavens, it turns out that my month's worth of hard work earns me less than the five Miltank at home.

Connecting this thought to the dozens of Miltank in Hanze's and Whitney's ranches, Luo Mu had an epiphany.

It turns out the rich men and rich women have been right beside me all along.

As for the delivery issue for Fresh Moomoo Milk after launching the milk subscription service, both Luo Mu and Oranguru felt they could make use of the resources at hand.

Rather than letting Feng Su Gou and the others run themselves to exhaustion every day, it would be better to have the Skarmory flock taken under Moltres's command undergo systematic training and then have them handle the deliveries.

The reward for delivery could be the surplus Fresh Moomoo Milk and berries each day; for those wild Pokémon, these foods with extremely high energy and nutritional content would be the best reward.

After completing this series of plans, Luo Mu and Oranguru exchanged a glance, both seeing Tao Zui in each other's eyes.

That was the pride in their genius-like idea.

Before ending the conversation, Luo Mu seemed to remember something and hastily added, "However, if we let Rookidee and Corviknight handle the deliveries, we must be careful of that Pokémon species called Tinkatink."

"Tinkatink?"

The telepathy transmitted by Oranguru revealed a sense of confusion; it did not recognize this Pokémon.

Only after Oranguru took out its tablet to look up some information did it display an expression of sudden realization.

"Tinkatink is fine; it is the one being bullied. The main problems lie with Tinkatuff and Tinkaton. Tinkatuff attacks Steel-type Pokémon to collect the metal on their bodies, while Tinkaton can easily wield a massive hammer weighing over 100 kilograms to smash rocks and attack Corviknight, stealing their armor."

"Hiss—Young Master, they are tough customers. If they are shot down during flight, not only will the Moomoo Milk be shattered, causing delivery delays, but the Corviknight will likely face danger as well."

Luo Mu nodded in agreement, simultaneously very satisfied with Oranguru's speed in gathering information, and added another sentence.

"Fortunately, this Tinkatink population is mostly distributed in places like Cortondo; there are almost no traces of them near the beginner village of Mesagoza, so there is no need to worry too much."

"That is excellent." Oranguru nodded, wearing a thoughtful expression. "Ever since establishing contact with the farm, those malnourished Rookidee in Skarmory Skarmory Sanmao's flock have successfully evolved one after another after receiving sufficient food; there are now nearly ten Corviknight. If they were targeted by the Tinkaton clan, that would truly be a disaster."

Luo Mu nodded slightly and reached a conclusion: "Then the matter is settled. Prepare to launch the milk subscription service, have the Corviknight flock led by Skarmory Sanmao handle the deliveries, and pay them appropriate compensation."

Although the milk subscription service was to be launched, how to promote this business remained a problem.

Generally speaking, promotion is carried out through three channels.

First, offline promotion.

Promoting through means such as flyers and billboards; this method is generally suitable for those just starting out who do not intend to take too big a step right from the beginning.

Second, online and television promotion.

Placing advertisements on various websites, inserting commercials during television programs, or even inviting celebrities to endorse one's products, and embedding soft advertisements in popular shows—all these fall under this promotion model.

For example, if Luo Mu wanted to expand the farm's customer base and grow the Moomoo Milk business, he could even spend a sum of money to invite Elesa, the dazzling model from the Unova region, to endorse while walking the runway.

He could leave the name "Luo Mu Farm" on Champion Dan Di's champion cape.

He could invite Diantha, a household-name superstar from the Kalos region, to provide a named endorsement.

Or he could let streamers like Iono eat a meal on the house, directly inserting a hard-core advertisement when she updates her videos or goes live.

But this promotion model is not just a matter of taking too big a step; the endorsement fees are no small amount either. At least for now, since the farm has not even broken out of Mesagoza, this method is not under consideration.

Third, invisible promotion methods.

This basically relies on word-of-mouth reputation, as well as one's own and the farm's influence, to attract customers; it must be combined with the two methods above to have significant effects.

Luo Mu felt that for the startup phase, besides hiring people in Mesagoza to distribute flyers, it would suffice to promote through some events that would only spread within Mesagoza.

Fortunately, this opportunity arrived very soon.

On July 6th, while Luo Mu went to the market as usual to purchase supplies and prepare for the launch of the milk subscription service, he heard something from Grandma Kiko.

Later this month, the Pokémon Marathon Rally, spearheaded by the mayor of Mesagoza and held every year, had gradually opened for registration.

On the day of the rally, residents of Mesagoza, owners of surrounding farms and ranches, and even trainers passing through during their journeys would register to participate in this grand event to select the "Mount Pokémon with the Greatest Endurance." The winner would receive the honorary prize of the "Endurance Medal" awarded by the mayor under the attention of most people in town.

Luo Mu was not interested in the "Endurance Medal" or becoming famous at the Pokémon Marathon Rally, but he was uniquely concerned about the point of being the focus of the entire town during the award ceremony.

If he could win first place at the Pokémon Marathon Rally and say during the award ceremony, "The Pokémon's endurance is so strong because it drank fresh Moomoo Milk produced by the farm; ordering services are now open," wouldn't the promotional effect be faster than repeatedly distributing flyers in several corners of town!?

Moreover, this Pokémon Marathon Rally tested the Pokémon's "endurance," and in this regard, there happened to be a Pokémon in the farm that had not shown itself for a long time and was very suitable for this event.

Of course, even if speed were tested, in the air Luo Mu had Dragonite and Moltres, and on land he had Feng Su Gou, capable of using the Extreme Speed move, enough to leave all others in the dust.

He was just worrying about a better promotion method besides distributing flyers, and hadn't this opportunity arrived?

The remaining half-month was just enough time to make some preparations before launching the business, such as route-training for Skarmory Skarmory Sanmao's flock, stockpiling containers, and trial-producing qualified dairy products that could also be promoted at the rally.

There was also the need to purchase or customize a set of automated milking equipment to ensure sufficient Moomoo Milk could be prepared early every morning.

There were still quite a few things to do.

On July 7th, Luo Mu formally began preparing for the milk subscription service.

The procurement of glass bottles was easily settled; although the quantity Luo Mu required was not large, the advantage lay in its longevity. Furthermore, his identity as a Champion-level trainer became known to others through subsequent snippets of conversation, giving many residents of Mesagoza a natural sense of trust in him, which facilitated this stable business deal.

Precisely because of this sense of trust, Luo Mu was not the slightest bit careless in his preparation work, striving to make money while also bringing more benefits and convenience to the residents of Mesagoza.

As a transmigrator, Luo Mu knew very well how important the "first impression" was in promotion; just like those flashy titles and eye-catching promotional images on the internet before his transmigration, one needed to attract customers' attention to a certain extent to obtain a steady stream of clientele.

Merely filling an empty glass bottle with Moomoo Milk would only make people feel this was a "three-no" product, somewhat unreliable.

But if some appropriate packaging were added, it would produce extremely significant effects, even causing customers to fixate on your brand and make repeat purchases.

Although Luo Mu currently only planned to launch a daily milk subscription service and did not intend to list products in various supermarkets and shops to compete with those big brands from other cities, it was best to do this kind of work perfectly right from the start.

Simply put, it was to attach a label unique to the farm onto the farm's Moomoo Milk.

After Luo Mu and Oranguru referenced quite a few materials and existing labels from some Moomoo Milk brands, and through the production of Oranguru, who also knew a thing or two about advertisement design, the "label" unique to Luo Mu Farm's Moomoo Milk was born.

For the drawing aspect, Luo Mu used his connections to find Grusha, getting this young master from a dragon-tamer family to collaborate with Grusha, a famous artist and Gym Leader of Artazon in the Paldea region, to paint a picture for him to be printed on the label.

The painting was simple; since it was a label pasted on a glass bottle, within the limited small space, the two of them drew five chibi-style Da Nai Guan with a touch of their personal styles, plus the artistic font "Luo Mu Farm" and the head portrait of a Luxray looking full of dignity beside it.

If fans of Grusha and Grusha knew they had actually painted for a small farm's glass bottles, perhaps they would travel ten thousand li to Mesagoza just to request the purchase of a bottle of Moomoo Milk.

So, when going out in the world, one must have some background and connections.

While busy preparing for the milk subscription service, Luo Mu naturally did not forget the crops planted in the farming zone not long ago.

The watermelon fields of Nimbasa City left a deep impression on Luo Mu, so after returning to Paldea from the Unova region, Luo Mu had Mudsdale and Comfey clear a new field in the farming zone specifically for planting watermelons.

Ordinary crops, under Victini's enhancement and the nourishment of the special Grassy Terrain taught by Tapu Tapu Moumou used by Comfey and Grass-type Pokémon, crossed several growth stages in just over a month, heading straight for maturity.

When he had just returned to the farm from the Johto region, Luo Mu was busy handling various matters and had no time to visit the watermelon field. After the label matter was concluded and he had slightly more free time, Luo Mu directly took Luxray, Victini, and the others to the vicinity of the watermelon field in the farming zone.

The moment he witnessed the watermelon field with his own eyes, a feeling of shock spread through his heart.

In the field, watermelon vines intertwined and tangled with each other, swaying gently under the breeze, and those watermelon flowers that were in full bloom when Luo Mu left had now turned into round, huge watermelons, their smooth, jade-like surfaces sparkling under the sunlight.

Luxray raised its head and sniffed; the tip of its nose was filled with the fragrance of ripening watermelon. Steady as it was, it could not help but imagine the sweet and juicy taste of the watermelon flesh entering its mouth.

Looking at the familiar melon field, Victini's memories were stirred.

It remembered the melon field in the orchard near the Sword of the Earth castle in Nimbasa City.

That was one of its few happy memories in that thousand years; in the hot midsummer, together with its wild Pokémon partners, it admired the brilliance of the night sky, sitting in rows to enjoy delicious watermelons.

"Tini!"

Victini let out a cheer, rushed into the melon patch with its little companions, and proudly began helping them pick watermelons based on its own experience.

Seeing this, Luo Mu wore a helpless smile and shouted, "Don't rush! Oranguru said the watermelons still need a few more days to fully ripen!"

(End of Chapter)