Chapter 25: Rest and Training

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Sato was in a great mood. Selling 120 medium-quality PokeBlock for 480 points that only cost him about 75 point to make and earning a considerable profit of 405 points was undeniably a fantastic deal.

"Adding the 39 points I already had, my balance is back up to a decent amount of 519 points. Now I don't need to worry about points for the time being. Tanya is pretty good, too. It'll take her at least a week to finish using up that batch of PokeBlocks, so I don't have to rush to make more," Sato thought to himself, maintaining a poker face while inwardly grinning.

Not long after, Sato arrived at the public cafeteria. It was peak dinner time, and the huge cafeteria was nearly packed, with long lines forming at the free meal counters.

Seeing the overwhelming crowd, Sato felt a bit helpless. After thinking for a moment, he bypassed the free meal counter and headed to the paid meal section, where there were fewer people in line.

"Now that I've got a steady stream of income from PokeBlocks, I should treat my body better. This body has been in a state of malnutrition and is still in a growth phase. I need proper nutrition, or I'll wear myself out before I can even take control of my own destiny," Sato thought as he touched his obviously skinny frame.

The food at the paid counter wasn't cheap, costing at least 5 points for a meal, but the quality was definitely worth it.

The meal in Sato's hands included: a generous portion of high-quality rice, a large bowl of beef bone soup with several chunks of succulent, tender meat, a hefty serving of grilled steak, a berry salad as an appetizer, and a variety of freshly squeezed juices to drink.

All in all, to make consumers feel like their points were well spent, the chefs at Team Rocket's cafeteria did their best to make the meals both delicious and nutritionally balanced.

"Quality food comes at a price. This dinner would probably cost a couple hundred Alliance dollars outside. Mmm, it's been so long since I've had such a tasty meal," Sato thought happily as he sat alone at a table in the paid section, enjoying his lavish dinner.

Having lived through hard times, Sato cherished food greatly. He ate slowly and carefully, savoring every bite, finishing everything on his plate without wasting a single crumb. He even went back for another large bowl of rice.

After finishing his dinner, Sato started preparing food for his Zubat. This time, he went to the cafeteria's back area and, after spending 3 points, easily obtained a large bucket of fresh cow's blood and some discarded plastic containers from a chef. He estimated that the bucket contained at least ten liters of blood, enough to last Zubat several days.

"Thanks a lot! Here are 5 points for you. Give me your contact info—I'm Sato. Next time I need more blood, I'll look for you directly," Sato said with a smile to the large, round chef in front of him.

"No problem, boss. I'm Bob. You go ahead and take care of your business, I'll get back to work," Bob, the chubby chef, replied cheerfully after receiving the points from Sato.

"Come on out, Zubat. This is your food for the next few days. Use your saliva to keep it from coagulating," Sato said as he released Zubat after Bob left, instructing it to spit into the bucket of fresh cow's blood.

Zubat's saliva had an anti-coagulant property (a substance that prevents blood from clotting), which allowed it to drink blood without any issues during feeding.

Following Sato's command, Zubat resisted the urge to immediately start drinking the fragrant blood and began spitting saliva into the bucket. Once there was enough saliva to prevent the blood from coagulating, Zubat happily perched on the edge of the bucket, eagerly drinking the fresh blood rich in nutrients.

After gulping down nearly two liters of blood in one go, Zubat's tiny body swelled into a plump, round blue ball. It lay on the ground, wings wrapped around its now-bloated belly, looking completely satisfied and oddly adorable.

At this point, Sato had finally finished washing the dozen or so plastic bottles. He used them to store the remaining cow's blood from the plastic bucket.

"Take a good rest in your PokeBall and digest that quickly. We'll need to continue training later," Sato said. After spending a few minutes bottling the remaining blood, he washed his hands and returned the still-overstuffed Zubat, who was too full to fly, back to its PokeBall.

Sato then returned to his dorm. After resting for more than an hour, Zubat's training resumed, this time within the dorm room.

It's worth mentioning that the grunts' dorms were much more spacious than the rookies'. The room was about 40 square meters. Unlike the rookies' dorms, which had only a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom, the grunts' dorms included an extra room, a living room.

Of course, since Sato hadn't furnished his space yet, the 20-square-meter living room was still empty. He was already planning to turn the living room into a training room.

"Zubat, let's skip stamina training tonight. We'll focus on skill practice. Show me the Protect move you just learned," Sato said as he stood in the empty living room, instructing Zubat, whom he had just released.

Zubat nodded and flew in front of Sato. He began to concentrate, using his energy and stamina to create a bright green protective shield that enveloped his entire body.

At that moment, Sato pressed the timer on his wristwatch. After 3 seconds, the green shield around Zubat disappeared.

"The duration is 3 seconds, and the coverage area is about 0.5 meters in diameter. Shield strength is unknown," Sato observed as he stopped the timer and quickly jotted down the data in his notebook.

"Good, now use it again," Sato said after noting the data, instructing Zubat to perform Protect once more.

However, Zubat failed to execute the move again. The downside of Protect immediately became apparent—it took Zubat a full 3 minutes to successfully use the move again. After this second attempt, Zubat looked visibly tired, having clearly expended a lot of energy.

"After using Protect once, there is currently a 3-minute move cooldown," Sato thought with a frown as he looked at the timer's display.

From the collected data, it was clear to Sato that Zubat's Protect could only be used at critical moments and that its protective range was very limited. It would be hard to use it for full protection.

Moreover, the side effect of Protect was more severe than in the games. Instead of just having a reduced success rate after consecutive uses, Zubat couldn't use it again for a certain amount of time, and it required a good amount of energy to activate.

"The drawbacks are considerable. It takes time to charge up, and it consumes a lot of Zubat's energy," Sato thought as he reviewed the data on his watch and considered Zubat's current state of exhaustion.