Jubilife Breeding Center.
The two-hour breeding class passed quickly, and Wayne finally took advantage of the break to check his mission rewards.
"Ding! The second phase of the main mission, 'A Place of Our Own,' has been completed."
With the 1,000th customer genuinely believing that Wayne's family business was the best Breeding Center in Jubilife City, the second phase was finally complete.
The mission's completion speed far exceeded Wayne's expectations—he'd originally estimated it would take at least a year. At least half the credit for this rapid completion belonged to Cynthia.
Simply having people learn about Jubilife Breeding Center online or watch Wayne's videos wasn't enough. They had to personally visit the Breeding Center—otherwise, Wayne would have completed this mission ages ago. Wayne's account already had over 140,000 followers, so gathering 1,000 people theoretically shouldn't have been a problem.
Cynthia's autograph session at the Breeding Center had resulted in many attendees becoming actual customers, which significantly boosted the mission's progress. Then there was Wayne's video content. After the last video was edited—showing wild Pokémon spontaneously protecting the Breeding Center—many internet users came to visit and pay their respects. Some officially became customers, and the mission progress soared again.
This goal, which Wayne had originally estimated would take a full year to complete, was finished in just over two months.
Wayne examined the mission rewards carefully.
Mission Rewards: Employee Management System, Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish Recipe (A-Class), Pokémon Item Lottery Ticket × 3.
Third Phase Mission: Loyal Customers.
Goal: Make customers genuinely believe that Jubilife Breeding Center is the best Breeding Center in the entire world. Mission Progress (1/10).
Rewards: Random Item × 1, Random Specialty Dish × 1, Pokémon Item Lottery Ticket × 5.
Jubilife's best? No—the world's best! This mission was considerably more difficult.
The requirement was actually to be considered the absolute best in the world. If Professor Oak's backyard research facility was also considered a Breeding Center, the mission difficulty would undoubtedly be hellish.
The fact that the mission progress already showed "1" surprised Wayne. He wondered who thought so highly of his work. Wayne could only say gratefully, "Thank you, whoever you are."
After reviewing the third phase mission, Wayne first examined the new recipe.
Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish (A-Class): Shaped like a squirrel, sweet, sour, crispy, and tender. After consumption, grants a Lucky buff (24 hours duration).
(Click to view detailed cooking video)
Quarterly production limit (0/1).
Only once every three months! Based on this restriction, Wayne inferred that this Lucky buff must be incredibly powerful.
Wayne could still prepare the dish normally without the system's help, but it wouldn't grant the Lucky buff. Although Wayne's current cooking skills couldn't reliably produce A-Class dishes, he could make B-Class dishes consistently. A-Class dishes, however, depended heavily on luck and perfect execution.
Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish tested knife skills specifically, and knife work was Wayne's strongest culinary talent, so there might be a reasonable probability of success.
Wayne decided to attempt it soon.
During this period, Wayne had tried making Chopped Chili Fish Head and Crispy Apple, but these two A-Class dishes proved extremely challenging. He hadn't been able to replicate them successfully yet—the dishes he made were edible but lacked the special buffs.
Skipping past the Pokémon Item Lottery Tickets for now, Wayne directly examined the [Employee Management System].
All employees of the Breeding Center were clearly listed, sorted alphabetically by first name. Wayne began with Alan.
Name: Alan
Age: 28 years old
Position: Official Breeder, concurrently Head of Security
Loyalty: 100
Skills: Close Combat (Master Level), Intimidation (Master Level), Weight Training (Master Level), Breeding (Intermediate), Management (Intermediate)
Note: Only work-related skills are displayed. If "cannot be improved" is not shown, there is room for improvement.
Three Master-level skills! As expected of the three-time Pokémon World Martial Arts Tournament Champion. Wayne's own Close Combat (Intermediate) seemed very humble in comparison.
The value of this Employee Management System far exceeded Wayne's imagination. First, it allowed him to understand employee potential. Second, it helped discover their strengths. Third, it revealed employee loyalty. Being able to see loyalty was incredibly valuable!
Wayne then checked his father's profile.
Name: Leon
Age: 46
Position: Owner
Loyalty: 100
Skills: Encouragement (Master Level), Cooking (Advanced), Breeding (Advanced)
Overall, his father still had room for improvement—at least it didn't say "cannot be improved." But what was "Encouragement (Master Level)" really about?
Although Wayne knew that two and a half out of every three sentences his father said were optimistic encouragements, seeing it formalized like this was amusing!
His mother Fumie's panel was almost identical to Leon's, but with an additional "Management (Advanced)" skill. Even her "Encouragement" was at Master Level. So he'd been living with constant encouragement his entire life?
"As expected of a married couple," Wayne muttered with a smile.
Wayne then looked at his uncle.
Name: Levin
Age: 50
Position: Fashion Designer
Loyalty: 100
Skills: Design (Master Level), Painting (Master Level), Aesthetics (Master Level), Photography (Master Level), Fishing (Intermediate)
Another powerhouse! Four Master-level skills! Undoubtedly a top-tier designer. Most importantly, none of his skills showed "cannot be improved," meaning there was still room for growth.
Wayne remembered that his uncle was quite passionate about photography, and the photos he took genuinely looked professional.
Name: Claire
Age: 25
Loyalty: 99
Position: Official Breeder
Skills: Management (Advanced), Pokémon Medical (Intermediate), Breeding (Intermediate)
So Claire was also a management talent—Wayne had somewhat expected this, as she'd shown those abilities already. As for her healing skills, Wayne had witnessed them firsthand. She'd been learning from Nurse Joy.
Wayne then opened Kinsley's profile.
Name: Kinsley
Age: 21
Position: Receptionist
Loyalty: 98
Skills: Affinity (Master Level), Communication (Advanced), Persuasion (Intermediate), Graceful Command (Beginner)
The most surprising was Shion—her panel was completely empty. However, considering Shion was only 12 years old, she was a future-potential talent, so it was understandable.
After reviewing several other employees' panels, Wayne finally examined his own.
Name: Wayne
Age: 19
Position: Official Breeder
Skills:
Center of Attention (Master Level) Energy Cube (Top Class) Breeding (Advanced), Cooking (Advanced) Fishing (Intermediate), Ancient Language (Intermediate) Close Combat (Intermediate) Affinity (Intermediate), Identification (Intermediate)
Due to system rewards, Wayne had accumulated the most diverse skill set. Actually, there wasn't much difference from his personal status panel—in fact, this version lacked the proficiency percentages.
Wayne currently possessed three A-Class dish recipes: Crispy Apple, Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish, and Chopped Chili Fish Head.
Wayne planned to start by tackling Squirrel-shaped Mandarin Fish. On one hand, his knife skills were his strongest culinary talent, so his success rate for this particular dish would be highest. On the other hand, Wayne desperately wanted to know what kind of benefits this Lucky buff could provide.
Over the past two weeks, Wayne had uploaded two more videos—both cooking videos featuring Braised Prawns in Oil and Garlic Crab. The honest reason? He'd simply wanted to eat them himself.
However, before cooking, he needed to use his three Pokémon Item Lottery Tickets.