By the time the first ray of sunlight stubbornly pierced through the mottled gaps in the curtains and hit Miles's face, the sun was already high in the sky.
"Ugh..."
Miles groggily opened his eyes and subconsciously reached out beside him.
His hand met with a furry, warm sensation and a highly elastic belly.
"Gon~"
Munchlax was still smacking its lips in its sleep, seemingly dreaming about last night's savory roast chicken.
"Time to get up, you lazy pig," Miles said, stretching his back until his joints let out a crisp pop.
He washed up, tidied the room, and cleared out the mountain of bones and takeout boxes from the previous night.
Looking at the two massive sacks of compressed Pokémon food in the corner, Miles felt a deep sense of security.
Although last night's spending spree had left his bank account practically empty, this feeling of having food at home and no panic in his heart was something he had never experienced before.
He threw together a simple lunch for himself—and, of course, poured a brimming basin of Pokéblocks for Munchlax.
Watching it bury its face in the food, Miles nodded in satisfaction.
"Are you full?"
"Gon!" (I'm full, Master!)
Munchlax patted its perfectly round belly, its two large ears perked up as it looked at Miles with a gaze full of adoration and reliance.
"Once you're full, it's time to work!"
Miles sat back down at his computer desk and skillfully adjusted the webcam and microphone.
The time was exactly 2:00 PM.
Although this wasn't prime time for streaming—most top streamers chose to go live around seven or eight in the evening—Miles was currently in a highly caffeinated startup phase.
He wished he could stay in the livestream room twenty-four hours a day to rake in... ahem, accumulate Influence Points.
Click...
With a press of the Enter key, the livestream title was updated:
[Professional Pokémon Appraisal: Curing All Kinds of Incurable Diseases! Day 2 of the Newbie Rush, Free Live Calls for a Limited Time! Do You Dare? Swallowing Poké Balls Live is Not Allowed!]
The stream began.
Perhaps because the Squirtle water dungeon rescue from last night had been so explosive, highlight clips of the stream had gone mildly viral on short-video platforms.
As soon as the livestream opened, his popularity skyrocketed.
In just a few minutes, the concurrent viewer count broke past three hundred and was still climbing.
[System Prompt: User "Kindergarten Lunch Snatcher" has entered the chat!]
[System Prompt: User "Drama Frog" has entered the chat!]
[System Prompt: User "Zhang Jiuri" has entered the chat!]
[System Prompt: User "Coin Collector" has entered the chat!]
Looking at these familiar IDs, Miles flashed a professional smile.
"Welcome back to the stream, veterans! And welcome to all the newcomers! This is my channel, focusing on authentic Pokémon appraisals and curing the incurable!"
The live chat instantly came alive.
[Viewer "Kindergarten Lunch Snatcher": Whoa! The streamer is grinding? Going live in the afternoon? What happened to that Squirtle from last night?]
"Don't worry," Miles answered. "That bro sent me a DM. He already lowered the water level, bought the best basking platform, and is currently treating that Squirtle like his own grandfather."
[Viewer "Iron Bro": W Streamer! That clip of the Gloom smelling good blew my mind last night. I came here specifically to catch a live appraisal!]
[Viewer "Random Passerby": Is this the legendary streamer who can see through any Pokémon's problems? He looks pretty young, does he actually know his stuff?]
[Viewer "Angry Boomer": Sounds like cap to me. I've seen plenty of clickbait titles. Curing incurable diseases? Do you think actual Pokémon Professors are just eating dirt?]
Faced with the skepticism of the new viewers, Miles didn't panic in the slightest.
His confidence stemmed from the [Eyes of Pokémon Insight] that could analyze any Pokémon, as well as the two hard-fought battles he had won last night.
Miles casually grabbed the Munchlax, who was trying to secretly stuff more food into its armpits, and hugged it like a plush toy.
He smiled at the camera. "Whether I know my stuff or not, you'll see the results. You won't know until you try."
"I'll say it again: I've appraised more Pokémon than you've eaten Farfetch'd."
"Your streamer never caps. My skills are like a Miltank riding a motorcycle—absolutely bullish!"
[Viewer "Drama Frog": ??? A Miltank riding a motorcycle? What does that even mean?]
[Viewer "Kindergarten Lunch Snatcher": Lmao! He's saying he's the GOAT!]
[Viewer "Random Passerby": This streamer is pretty funny, his trash talk is smooth.]
Although the atmosphere was hyped up, everyone was still just watching. For a while, no one actually applied for a live call.
After all, it was the afternoon. Many students were still in class, and office workers were still slacking off at their desks; not many people had the time to jump on a live video call.
Moreover, seeing the Munchlax in the streamer's arms, quite a few new viewers raised questions.
[Viewer "Iron Bro": Streamer, you're raising a Munchlax? That thing is a bottomless pit! Is your family secretly loaded?]
[Viewer "Too Broke for This": For real, I raised one before and it nearly bankrupted me. I couldn't afford it and had to send it to a reserve. The streamer's place doesn't look that great, can you actually afford to feed it?]
Seeing these comments, Miles groaned inwardly.
'Secretly loaded?'
'My entire net worth is two sacks of compressed food and half a leftover roast chicken!'
But on the surface, he had to maintain his unfathomable expert persona.
"Loaded?" Miles chuckled lightly, rubbing Munchlax's head. "I used to have two gold mines, but this little guy already ate a mine and a half."
"But hey, since I'm raising him, he's family. Even if I have to eat dirt, I won't let him go hungry. Right, Munchlax?"
"Gon!" (Right! Eat meat!)
Munchlax cooperated perfectly, raising its little paws and acting cute for the camera.
This wave of interaction instantly farmed a lot of goodwill.
Right at that moment.
[System Prompt: User "Nidoran Is My Life" has applied to connect with you!]
"Here we go!" Miles's eyes lit up. He finally had a customer!
Looking at this ID...
"Nidoran Is My Life"?
In this world, although marriages between humans and Pokémon were extremely rare, they weren't entirely unheard of.
But people who used this kind of username were usually... ahem, overly fanatical enthusiasts.
"This friend here has a very unique name," Miles teased while clicking to accept the call. "Come on, let me see your lifeblood... I mean, your Nidoran."
The screen flashed.
The video connected.
Appearing on camera was a chubby, round-cheeked boy wearing thick glasses, looking like a high schooler around seventeen or eighteen.
His background looked like a specialized breeding room or a very spacious bedroom, filled with various Pokémon merchandise and figures.
At first glance, it was obvious this was a rich kid.
"Hello, streamer!" the chubby kid said, adjusting his glasses. His voice carried a mix of youthfulness and deep anxiety. "I... I have a really tricky problem I need to ask you about!"
"Don't rush, take your time," Miles said, adjusting his posture. "Do you want me to check your Pokémon's potential, or diagnose an illness?"
"Neither!" The chubby kid's face was full of despair. "It's... it's a breeding problem!"
Pfft—
Miles nearly spat out the mouthful of water he had just taken.
Breeding?
A high school kid came right out the gate asking about breeding?
The live chat instantly exploded.
[Viewer "Kindergarten Lunch Snatcher": Holy crap! Are high schoolers playing this wild nowadays?]
[Viewer "Drama Frog": Nidoran breeding? Isn't that super easy? Just find a male Nidoran and you're done. Why do you need to ask the streamer?]
[Viewer "Veteran Driver": Looking at his ID, I feel like this isn't that simple. Is he trying to find himself a romantic rival?]
The chubby kid clearly wasn't looking at the chat. He just kept pouring out his grievances. "Streamer, here's the situation. I raised this female Nidoran from an egg, and her condition is absolutely perfect! Recently, I thought about letting her breed and produce an egg."
"But! No matter how many male Nidoran I find for her—even the super handsome ones with incredibly high IVs—she hates all of them!"
"Not only does she hate them, but she gets incredibly aggressive! As soon as a male Nidoran gets close, her fur stands on end and she outright attacks them! I've gone through five batches of blind dates, and she beat them all up and chased them away!"
At this point, the kid looked utterly defeated. "I'm starting to suspect if her... if her sexual orientation is messed up, or if she has some kind of psychological trauma? Streamer, can you help me figure out what's going on?"
Hearing this description, Miles thoughtfully stroked his chin.
Pokémon breeding was indeed a profound field of study.
In the games, you just threw a male and a female into the Daycare, ran a few laps, and boom—an egg.
But in the real world, Pokémon were living creatures with emotions and preferences.
Not clicking with a partner was a common occurrence.
But extreme rejection and even active attacks were a bit abnormal.
Especially for a Pokémon like Nidoran, whose temperament was usually quite docile. Furthermore, Poison Pin Pokémon had a very strong sense of community; there was no reason for her to have such massive hostility toward males of her own species.
Before Miles could speak, the chat feed was already memeing hard.
[Viewer "Random Passerby": Hahahaha! I'm dying! A Nidoran with misandry?]
[Viewer "Single Dog Protection Society": This Nidoran is based! Keep men out of your heart, and your Poison Sting will be sharp!]
[Viewer "Drama Frog": Streamer, this question is way above your paygrade, right? Looking at your age, you probably don't even have a girlfriend yourself. How can a maidenless guy understand Pokémon breeding?]
[Viewer "Coin Collector": True that! The streamer is single himself, and he's giving out blind date advice? That makes zero sense!]
Seeing the screen filled with "maidenless" taunts, Miles felt like he had taken an arrow to the knee.
His mouth twitched, and he forcibly tried to save face. "Ahem! Everyone, please refrain from personal attacks. Your streamer is single so that he can dedicate all his energy to the Pokémon industry! This is called boundless love, understand?"
"Besides, even if I haven't eaten pork, haven't I seen a pig run? I'm an appraiser. I look at the data, the inner workings! Breeding, at its core, is just a matching of genetics and personality compatibility!"
Miles straightened up and spoke seriously to the camera. "Chubby bro, just listening to you talk isn't going to help. As the saying goes, hearing is deceiving, seeing is believing."
"Bring out your Nidoran and let me take a look. Let's see what kind of chaste maiden she is to reject all those handsome guys."
The chubby kid hesitated for a moment and glanced toward his door. "Um... streamer, I actually invited my friend over just now. He brought another supposedly excellent male Nidoran, and they're downstairs right now. How about I call him up and we test it live for you?"
"Sure!" Miles slapped his thigh. "A live-streamed blind date? I like it! That's peak content! Go get them!"
"Alright! Give me a second, streamer, I'll go open the door!"
The chubby kid eagerly waddled out of frame.
Taking advantage of this gap, Miles glanced at his backend data.
The concurrent viewer count had already broken eight hundred!
Sure enough, blind date gossip was the ultimate clickbait, whether it involved humans or Pokémon.
Right at that moment.
[System Prompt: User "Ruby" has entered the chat!]
[System Prompt: User "Ruby" has gifted Poké Ball x10!]
[System Prompt: User "Ruby" has gifted Hyper Potion x5!]
A string of gift special effects exploded across the screen. While they weren't insanely expensive, they were very flashy.
Miles paused.
'Ruby?'
This ID looked familiar... No, this style, this generous way of throwing gifts...
The image of a capable, mature woman instantly popped into his mind.
It was Manager Ruby!
She was the operations manager from his previous guild—the one who had taken good care of him and even paid his back wages out of her own pocket when he got fired.
He didn't expect her to actually track him down here.
Miles felt a wave of warmth in his heart and quickly spoke to the camera.
"Thank you for the gifts, Manager Ruby! You really shouldn't have spent so much! Welcome to the stream for an official inspection!"
...
On the other side of the screen.
In the lounge area of a high-end office building, Manager Ruby, dressed in professional business attire and high heels, was holding her phone. She looked at the energetic young man on the screen, a complex smile playing on her lips.
"This kid..."
Ruby took a gentle sip of her coffee.
She had originally just been bored and decided to search for Miles to see if he had given up on himself after being kicked out of the guild.
She didn't find him by searching his name, but the algorithm had conveniently pushed this "Snorlax Appraisal" stream to her feed.
When she clicked on it, well, wasn't this her former employee?
'When he was at the guild, he was always so timid and only knew how to read off a script. How did he become so... smooth-talking the moment he went solo?'
Ruby watched Miles banter with the chat and confidently analyze Pokémon. She felt both surprised and relieved.
'Appraising Pokémon? When did he learn how to do that? Was he hiding his true skills all along?'
Ruby shook her head. Even though she had her doubts, seeing that Miles was doing quite well for himself put her mind at ease.
'Let's see if you actually have real skills, or if you're just scamming people.'
Ruby didn't type anything in the chat. She just watched quietly, her finger tapping lightly against the screen.