Chapter 534: Daily Mission

Early the next morning, Julian woke up nestled in Arcanine's soft fur. After stretching lazily, he glanced around.

He saw that Slowking was already preparing breakfast—the aroma had already wafted over.

Lucario was training on the open field.

As for the other Pokémon… well, they were all still asleep.

Diligent as Lucario was, it didn't try to drag Metagross and the others into training. Or rather, the others had no desire to start rolling that early.

"Where's Moltres?"

He looked around but didn't spot the legendary bird.

"That dumb bird didn't regret it and run off, did it?" Julian muttered.

If that really happened, he'd definitely hunt it down, give it a good beating, and then dump it for good.

But clearly, Julian was overthinking.

With a crisp cry, Moltres descended from the sky, faintly glowing in the morning light.

Its landing stirred a few of the Pokémon awake.

Though the heavier sleepers stayed out cold.

Like Steelix, who was still snoring with a bubble at its nose.

It had a bad sleeping posture too—last night it had coiled around Julian and Arcanine protectively, but now half its body was sprawled across Aggron.

Not that Aggron seemed to mind. Any other Pokémon would've been flattened and left gasping under that steel snake's weight.

In fact, Aggron even pulled part of Steelix's body over itself like a blanket and gave it a tug, tucking in more snugly.

"Where'd you go so early?" Julian asked Moltres.

Moltres: "Tapu Lele called me over for something."

Hearing that, Julian's expression immediately tensed. "It wants you to go back?"

Moltres's role had been to guard Akala's volcano, absorbing magma to prevent it from erupting.

However, according to what Moltres had said, even without it absorbing the magma, Tapu Lele had other ways to keep the volcano in check.

Moltres nodded: "Yeah, but I refused. And it couldn't do anything about it."

"Well, at least it's somewhat reasonable." Julian muttered.

If Tapu Lele had tried to forcefully take Moltres back, Julian would definitely have challenged it to a good fight.

Right now, Tapu Lele probably hated Julian's guts—its "tool bird" had been taken away, and now it'd have to manage the volcano itself.

Luckily, Akala Volcano was in the process of nurturing a new Fire-type treasure. So for the next few hundred years, there shouldn't be any risk of eruption.

For breakfast, Slowking had made millet porridge, a side dish, and ten soup dumplings. Of course, the daily glass of Moomoo Milk was non-negotiable.

They say children raised on Miltank milk grow up strong and healthy.

That's the official Moomoo Milk slogan, and Indeedee believed it wholeheartedly, so everyone in the family had to drink a glass every morning.

Even after heading off to university in the imperial capital, Slowking had been reminded over and over by Indeedee to keep drinking it—resulting in Julian being unable to escape his daily Moomoo Milk fate.

Fortunately, the milk tasted pretty good—and it was indeed beneficial for the body.

It was worth noting that all Miltank, the producers of Moomoo Milk, were female, while their counterpart, Tauros, were all male.

As for the Pokémon, their breakfast consisted of Pokéblocks.

By the time everyone had finished eating, it was exactly 8 a.m.

Right on cue, the system's daily mission popped up.

"Ding."

"Daily Mission: Crossdress for a day."

"Reward: 10,000 points. No penalty for failure."

The daily tasks were all kinds of strange. The normal ones were things like going for a run, exercising, reading a book, or cooking for yourself.

The abnormal ones, however, were far more varied, like walking a kilometer on his hands, skydiving, or even shouting "I'm an idiot" three times in a row.

Honestly, those were still manageable. At least, before encountering the truly "suicidal" missions, Julian had considered the above tasks tolerable.

Some of the worst ones included:

- Staring affectionately into a Jynx's eyes for three minutes.

- Telling Slowking to its face that its cooking was bad.

- Telling Indeedee (Love) that he wanted to get a tattoo.

Man, when he completed those last two missions, he was almost beaten to death by Slowking and Indeedee. It took forever to calm them down afterward.

Other suicidal tasks included petting another dog Pokémon in front of Arcanine, or telling his mom she was getting old.

As for today's "crossdress for a day" mission, Julian let out a cold chuckle—who do you think you're looking down on?

He was a battle-hardened warrior at this point. Did the system really think he'd back down from this?

The more absurd and suicidal the mission, the higher the reward.

And right now, what Julian needed most was points.

His daily fixed expenses for his Pokémon already exceeded 3,000 points—mostly for Pokéblocks. And with more Pokémon joining his team, that daily cost kept climbing.

And if any of them got injured in battle? Potions weren't cheap either.

These 10,000 points could cover three to four days of food for Metagross and the others. Normally, daily missions only gave 5,000.

Crossdressing? That's nothing. Plus, they were in a secret realm—barely any Trainers around. And if someone 'did' see him? Well… 'silencing them' was always an option.

Julian bought an outfit from the system shop—it only cost 1 point.

Items related to Pokémon were pricey in the system shop, but anything for humans—like clothes or food—only cost a single point.

Under the bewildered stares of his Pokémon, Julian took off his clothes and changed into the outfit. To really commit, he even put on a wig with long hair—and even shaved clean.

(T/N: Bro is never beating the allegations now… sigh.)

Then he looked into the mirror.

"What a peerless beauty."

He was quite pleased with the reflection.

As a man, he was tall and handsome; dressed as a woman, he was heroic and dashing.

Aside from having a flat chest, there were no flaws at all.

But hey, if the chest isn't flat, how can you bring peace to the world?

"Slow…"

Slowking sighed at the sight. Its Trainer always did some things from time to time that it just couldn't understand.

Especially that one time he said its cooking was bad—Slowking had immediately smacked him in the face with a frying pan.

Julian: 'I'm only doing this for all of you, you know!'

The other Pokémon were already used to it. Based on past experience, their trainer would return to normal in anywhere from a few minutes to a full day.

Moltres, however, was truly stunned. It turned to Melmetal beside it and asked: "Wait… is our trainer actually a girl?"

Melmetal shook its head. "Nah. Dude's got the equipment."

Moltres was even more confused. "Then why—"

Melmetal cut it off. "Don't ask. It's just a personal hobby."

Moltres nodded slowly, only half-understanding.

Apparently, human hobbies were… this broad, huh?

Julian checked the system's countdown. His crossdressing had clearly been approved—once the timer ended, he'd get his 10,000 points.

'Easy money.'

This was his first time crossdressing, and he had to admit, he felt a little excited. No shame at all—after all, his sense of shame had long since been eroded by countless ridiculous daily missions.

He'd done far more embarrassing things than this—crossdressing didn't even register anymore.

Metagross floated over to him. "Are we still going treasure hunting today?"

Julian nodded as if it was obvious. "Of course. I'll search this island for a few more days, then move on to the next one."

Metagross really wanted to say: 'You're seriously going out dressed like that? Aren't you worried about embarrassing your Pokémon?'

'Our reputation is about to hit rock bottom...'

*****

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