Matchmaking

Before leaving the Ecopark, Yuga instructed the Medicham to practice yoga poses diligently and, in the process, teach Medidite the skill as well.

Although Medidite could learn this skill through leveling up, none of Yuga's Medidite had grasped it until they evolved into Medicham.

Not long after Yuga departed from the Ecopark, he received a call from Steven. It was unclear what Steven had said during the call, but Yuga's expression shifted from surprise to delight.

After ending the call with Steven, Yuga headed to the new store.

With time, Auntie Hisako had become exceptionally adept at handling her current job.

Upon Yuga's arrival at the store, Auntie Hisako was greeting customers with a cheerful smile.

The Pokémon and Pokémon Eggs at the new store were low potential Pokémon, so most of the customers were local residents of the Verdanturf Town. This made Auntie Hisako's work relatively easy.

After all, it was rare for someone from afar to travel all the way to Verdanturf Town just to purchase a low potential Pokémon.

Now that the Verdanturf Gym had its own Pokémon Trade Machine, he didn't need to go to the Pokémon Center to transport their Pokémon. Many customers who purchased Pokémon at the new store made it through online orders.

As the store's reputation gradually spread, Grass-type Pokémon from the new store with a proficiency in Grassy Terrain moves became popular. The customer base expanded beyond just local residents of Verdanturf Town.

These Grass-type Pokémon, despite their low potential, were affordable and easy to raise, making them a preferred choice for many ordinary families.

However, the new store had its own rules.

While purchasing Pokémon at the new store didn't require customers to be physically present like the old store, it still necessitated the presentation of valid identification through video verification.

Only after verifying their identity would YoYo Day Care sell Pokémon to customers and register them.

This process ensured that Pokémon sold by YoYo Day Care would find good homes, to a great extent.

Of course, this was relative.

This procedure wasn't cumbersome, so most customers were willing to cooperate. Up to this point, YoYo Day Care hadn't encountered any troublesome customers in this regard.

With the growing reputation of YoYo Day Care and the fact that the owner was a legitimate Gym Leader, many people felt that purchasing Pokémon from YoYo Day Care was safe and trustworthy, leading to a thriving business.

Gym Leader were among the most familiar League officials to ordinary citizens, after the Elite Four. They were also more readily accepted by the public.

However, Yuga wasn't here today to see Auntie Hisako; he was here to meet Lain.

This was because just now, Steven had informed Yuga that he had introduced a business deal related to incense to YoYo Day Care.

Although the Devon Corporation was a large enterprise, it had no industry related to incense.

There was simply no connection between the Devon Corporation, a modern and comprehensive company, and traditional incense crafting.

Devon Corporation was relatively young, and it was evident that traditional craftsmanship wasn't their forte.

For instance, even though they sold Poké Balls, they didn't offer handcrafted Poké Balls like Mr. Kurt from Johto region do.

However, whether it was handcrafted Poké Balls or incense craftsmanship, both were highly profitable industries.

As a result, typical incense was produced in specialized incense-making factories and sold through dedicated retail stores. Their owners seldom collaborated with others, as incense crafting was their pride.

In contrast, YoYo Day Care's incense seemed quite unusual because it wasn't a specialized incense-making place; their primary business was Pokémon sales.

Steven's business deal was connected to an aristocratic school.

This school shared its location with the Devon Corporation's headquarters, both situated in Rustboro City. It was a specialized Trainer school that trained the children of wealthy families.

The school had a facility dedicated to Pokémon training for its students called the "Incense Training Room."

In different Incense Training Rooms, various types of incense were burned year-round to cater to the different needs of the students when they trained with their Pokémon.

This implied that the aristocratic school consumed a significant amount of incense annually and monthly.

Of course, the school didn't offer this training room for free, but the students attending were from wealthy families and could generally afford it.

It had to be acknowledged that this was a substantial business deal.

Steven's father, Joseph Stone, was good friends with the school's principal. A few days ago, the principal had invited Steven to give a performance for the school's students, and Steven had taken the opportunity to connect Yuga with them.

However, the school originally had its own supplier, so for Yuga to secure this business, the quality of his incense had to surpass that of the current supplier.

Fortunately, when Steven had left Verdanturf Town earlier, he had bought some incense and introduced it to the school. They had tried it out, and they were very satisfied with the quality of YoYo Day Care's incense.

Still, they couldn't make a decision solely based on Steven's recommendation. After all, this was a significant deal, and the school's annual expenditure on incense was not a small sum.

Therefore, they requested a visit to YoYo Day Care to inspect the incense themselves before making a decision. If the quality of all of YoYo Day Care's incense met the standard demonstrated by Steven, they would enter into a supply agreement with YoYo Day Care.

Yuga hadn't expected Steven to be so helpful, but he knew that the reason Steven had gone to such lengths was because of their exchange involving the Metagross Mega Evolution Stone.

Just a few days ago, when Yuga had obtained the Key Stone from Bridges, he had been complaining about how he losing money in the deal with Steven.

Now, in hindsight, Yuga felt like he had profited immensely. After all, he had no use for a Metagross Mega Evolution Stone, and rather than letting it gather dust, converting it into tangible benefits made more sense.

Moreover, Steven had compensated him earlier, covering the price difference between the Key Stone and the pseudo-Legendary Mega Evolution Stone with his own credit.

Reflecting on it now, Yuga realized that if this business deal went through, he would be at a significant advantage.

When Yuga entered Lain's personal workspace, she was completely absorbed in figuring out ways to improve the efficiency of incense production and hadn't noticed Yuga's arrival.

Over this period, the medicinal herbs cultivated in the Ecopark had gradually matured, essentially meeting the material requirements for incense production, achieving self-sufficiency.

Lain herself was an incense enthusiast. With an ample supply of materials, she spent most of her day working in her studio. Consequently, in recent days, the store had accumulated a substantial stock of finished incense products.

Incense was a high-end commodity, so it couldn't be sold in the same manner as Pokéblocks, for example, where you could simply sell as much as you had.

Sometimes, Yuga even wondered if, at this rate, the incense stock in his store might pile up like a mountain.

If it weren't for the fact that these materials were grown by himself, with little cost involved, another shop might find themselves in a difficult situation if incense didn't sell well and they had to compensate for their losses.

It had to be said that Steven's introduction of this business deal was indeed a timely blessing.