The next day, 5:00 AM.
The sky was just beginning to lighten when William was woken by another knock at the door.
"Coming..."
William sleepily shifted the snoring Turtwig and Minccino off his face, mumbled a response, groggily got out of bed, and stumbled to the door.
Outside the cabin door, William blearily saw two large, muscular silhouettes...
"GOOD MORNING!!!"
"!"
William was instantly awake, wincing and covering his ears in pain.
"H-hello..."
The tanned, muscular man outside didn't seem to realize how loud he was. He spoke to William with hearty enthusiasm. "I'm Kellyn from Breezyville! A Ranger! We received the request, so from now on, our Breezyville Base will be handling the shipments for Macaw Ranch! Do you have any goods to ship out today?"
The man, who introduced himself as Kellyn, had a thick beard and a shock of purple hair. He flashed a wide grin, pointing a thumb at the Ranger badge on his uniform chest. The red uniform seemed a bit tight on his muscular frame. Even the Machoke beside him looked amiably at William, its four thick arms crossed over its chest, giving the impression of two mountains standing before him...
"Um... please wait a moment."
William ducked back inside, quickly splashed water on his face, and then woke the still-drooling Miltank.
"Miiil?"
"Time to get up for milking. Someone's already here to pick up the goods." William shoved the stress-relief doll into Miltank's hands and ushered her out the door, making a mental note to buy an alarm clock today.
"Mr. Kellyn, is it? Could you please wait a little longer? My Miltank hasn't been milked yet today..."
"Haha, no problem! If you don't mind, let us give you a hand!"
"Uh... thank you." William nodded like a chick pecking at rice, pulling Miltank towards the Pokémon shed. Kellyn and Machoke followed, their presence feeling somewhat oppressive.
"So that's what a Ranger looks like... the pixel art in the games didn't really convey it..."
Pokémon Rangers, also known as Pokémon Protectors, were a profession completely different from Trainers. They didn't use Poké Balls but instead used a device called a Capture Styler to temporarily befriend Pokémon, borrowing the power of wild Pokémon to carry out various tasks and requests.
William's strongest memory of this profession was wearing out the touchscreen on two of his game consoles from all the circling... In the anime, they just circled once to capture, but in the game, you had to circle dozens, even hundreds of times. It made him think at the time that Pokémon Rangers were a money-making trap designed by Game Freak and Nintendo...
...
A few minutes later, William began milking Miltank in the shed.
"First, sterilize all four teats... then express a little from each one... everything looks normal, attach the milking machine."
For a first attempt, William was doing okay. But his slightly clumsy technique, combined with Miltank's grumpiness at being woken up, made her unhappy.
"Miiil!" Miltank simply pressed the pump of the milking machine and started milking herself.
"Haha, quite the personality on this Miltank! Excellent! The MooMoo Milk she produces must be delicious!" Kellyn laughed heartily like a boisterous simpleton, making William feel obliged to laugh along awkwardly.
"By the way, Mr. Kellyn, will you be the one handling the pickups from now on?"
Kellyn stopped laughing and replied with a slightly more serious tone, "Of course not! Don't let my appearance fool you; I'm actually the Captain of the Breezyville Base." He proudly pointed his thumb at his badge again. "Since it's the first time, they sent me specially. It'll probably be handled by junior Rangers in the future."
"The Captain of a Ranger Base... that must be tough, having to accept even these kinds of requests."
"Hey, what are you talking about! Our job as Rangers is to solve any problems for people and Pokémon. If there's a request, no matter what it is, we'll complete it! Besides helping ranches with shipments, our Breezyville Base also handles all the milk and newspaper deliveries for Breezyville and Saffron Village. On top of that, we patrol the forest daily, and occasionally handle public safety issues too!"
Wow, William thought to himself. From maintaining public order and protecting the ecosystem down to delivering newspapers and milk, finding lost cats and dogs... Being a Pokémon Ranger was definitely not a job for just anyone. He wondered what motivated these people. Were Ranger salaries very high?
Then again, he remembered there was something like a Top Ranger in the games. It seemed only Top Rangers got tasks involving Legendary Pokémon or confronting evil organizations head-on. For grassroots Rangers like Kellyn, even at the Base Captain level, they still had to handle residents' requests.
"Mr. Kellyn, how long have you been working at the Breezyville Base?"
"Oh, me? Hmm... since I graduated from Ranger School, about ten years now."
"Ten years? Did you join the Breezyville Base right after graduation?" William unconsciously frowned. Ten years and still at the grassroots level? It seemed promotion within the Rangers wasn't easy either. And this was someone who graduated from Ranger School. If you entered through social recruitment, promotion was probably even slower.
"Hahaha!" Hearing William's detailed questions, Kellyn wasn't annoyed but laughed heartily, spewing a bit of spit. "Of course! I've worked at the Breezyville Base for ten years. After the previous Captain was promoted to Top Ranger and transferred to headquarters five years ago, he passed the base on to me. Ranger promotions require accumulating contribution points by completing missions and requests. The previous Captain worked very hard to save up enough points; I'm still far from matching him! After all, becoming a Top Ranger is much harder than becoming a Captain. You not only have to work diligently but also achieve significant results. But me? I'm perfectly happy just being a Captain! Hahaha!"
"I see..." William nodded after hearing Kellyn's explanation.
Just then, Miltank finished milking.
After leaving Miltank to graze in the pasture, William and Kellyn returned to the front of the cabin. William kept about 5 liters of milk for his own use and handed the rest over to Kellyn.
After weighing it, the total was 32 kilograms of MooMoo Milk, filling several metal cans that Machoke loaded onto their truck.
"Right, 32 kilograms of MooMoo Milk. The purchase price is 150 Poké per kilo, so the total is 4,800 Poké. Please take it."
Accepting the stack of bills from Kellyn, William couldn't hide his excitement! This was the ranch's first real income!
"Not bad!"
Even though it wasn't even half of what he spent yesterday, this was genuine income earned through his own labor! It had commemorative value!
The only thing that puzzled William was that he remembered the price of MooMoo Milk in the games was 600 Poké per bottle. That small bottle couldn't have been a kilo, probably not even 500 grams. Compared to the selling price, wasn't the price offered to the ranch a bit too low?
But then William thought of a few possibilities, like the selling price including other costs such as labor, transportation, etc. It seemed that once Macaw Ranch was more developed, he should create his own brand. Then maybe he could learn from the plump shopkeeper at the market and offer direct home delivery, bypassing these middlemen.
Thinking this, William quickly put the Poké away, then turned and poured two cups of MooMoo Milk for Kellyn and Machoke.
"Captain Kellyn, Machoke, thank you for your hard work!"
Kellyn and Machoke didn't refuse, smiling as they took the milk and drank it down in one go!
"Delicious! Truly excellent!"
"Machoke, Machoke!"
Their actions were perfectly synchronized. After drinking, they both wiped the milk from their lips with the backs of their hands.
"Well then, request completed! We'll take our leave now."
With that, Kellyn turned and left without looking back. He and Machoke got into their truck and drove off down the rough country road.
"Not an easy life either... Grassroots Rangers in this world seem even more overworked than volunteers."
William closed the cabin door. It wasn't even 6 AM yet. Looking at Turtwig and Minccino still fast asleep on the bed, William fought down the urge to go back to sleep.
Since he was already awake, it was time to make breakfast!