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In the lounge of the Gym training ground.
Zorua, who had just finished showering, was sprawled lazily on the sofa while clutching a phone.
From its absorbed expression, it was clearly binge-watching either a show or a movie.
Beside it, Riolu was also holding a phone.
After purchasing a phone for Zorua, David naturally didn't play favorites and bought one for Riolu as well.
However, unlike Zorua's flashy, limited-edition phone, Riolu's phone suited its steady personality perfectly—a simple, plain black model.
But upon closer inspection, one would notice that Riolu's use of the phone was quite different from Zorua's.
This little one showed no interest in entertainment like games, TV shows, or movies at all.
In fact, after returning from training, it had even wanted to continue practicing.
David had to talk it out of that idea, and in the end, since Riolu couldn't train anymore, the little Pokémon simply started watching training videos instead.
That's right! Riolu's form of entertainment consisted of having David find training videos and battle recordings online for it to watch.
Heaven knows how surprised David had been when he first discovered this. He knew Riolu was diligent, but he hadn't realized just how diligent it truly was!
This little one was practically a born overachiever.
David had originally felt that he and Zorua were already quite dedicated, but compared to Riolu, he actually felt somewhat ashamed of his own relative lack of discipline.
However, David was still quite pleased about this development.
With such a hardworking role model on the team, when he caught other Pokémon in the future, they would have an excellent example to follow.
Both Pokémon were entertaining themselves in their own ways, but as for David himself, it seemed he wouldn't be idle for a while.
This was the lounge attached to the VIP training ground, exclusively for internal staff use.
It lacked none of the necessary facilities—entertainment rooms, washrooms, study areas, and so on—and naturally, the kitchen was no exception.
Originally, David had planned to take his two Pokémon out to eat, but they both insisted they wanted to eat food that David made personally.
There was no other option; he had to spoil his own Pokémon.
So as soon as David returned, he hadn't even sat down for long before he rushed into the kitchen to get busy.
Although cooking himself required a bit more effort than eating out, seeing his Pokémon enjoy his food so much made David genuinely happy, even if he didn't say it out loud.
"Let me see what to make..."
Zorua liked sweet food, which seemed relatively normal for its personality.
It was just that for some reason, Riolu—who would later evolve into a Steel-type Pokémon—had preferences closer to those of a Fire-type Pokémon, enjoying spicy food.
"Hmm... tomatoes, potatoes, garlic sprouts, cabbage... I've got it! I'll just make these few dishes."
He opened the refrigerator and examined the fresh vegetables that had just been restocked that morning.
Then, picking up a portion of spare ribs and a portion of pork belly from the refrigerator, David decided to make sweet and sour spare ribs and twice-cooked pork, which would perfectly satisfy both Pokémon's tastes.
He then took out a few eggs from the refrigerator, preparing to make a tomato and scrambled egg dish as a vegetarian option for nutritional balance.
"These three dishes should do.
Later, I'll prepare a fruit salad with Salac Berries for the two of them, and the meal will be complete."
"As for drinks, it'll be Moomoo Milk! But for Zorua's portion, I'll add a bit of honey."
Pokémon could eat human food, but compared to Berries, Poffins, and similar Pokémon-specific foods, the energy intake was somewhat insufficient.
That was why David planned the menu to include a Salac Berry fruit salad in addition to several home-cooked dishes.
"But come to think of it, ever since the world merged, the things I make do seem to be getting tastier and tastier.
What could be the reason for this?"
David scratched his head in confusion, as if something had just occurred to him.
David's cooking skills used to be quite good.
Although he was the type who preferred to stay home during holidays, he wasn't someone who relied entirely on takeout for all three meals.
On the contrary, he was quite willing to cook for himself, and sometimes he would even watch cooking tutorials online.
However, these were all limited to amateur-level hobbies.
Among ordinary people, David's cooking skills were quite good and had been praised by many friends who had tasted his food, but compared to a professional chef, he was certainly still far behind.
After the world merged, one of the compulsory courses in school was Pokémon Nutrition, which taught Trainers how to identify, pair, and prepare Pokémon food.
Even students not specializing in Pokémon breeding had to study it, though the content wasn't as in-depth.
David's grades in this course were also quite good, so it was only natural for his cooking skills to improve after his memories merged.
However, it shouldn't have reached this level of quality, should it?
He had specifically asked Zorua and Riolu about it before, and they both thought that his food surpassed even the professional chefs at the Gym cafeteria.
He had initially assumed the two Pokémon were just flattering him, saying so because they loved him, and he hadn't paid much attention to their comments at first.
It wasn't until recently, when David was cooking alone at home, that even he himself noticed that his cooking had indeed become much more delicious than before.
Only then did he realize that what his two Pokémon had said seemed to be true; his cooking skills really had become quite extraordinary.
"I just don't know why this is happening. But it doesn't matter.
It's not a bad thing anyway!"
After failing to figure out the reason, David stopped worrying about it.
It wasn't a particularly urgent matter to solve.
He was in the Pokémon world, and his special ability was the Trainer system; cooking wasn't a particularly important skill in the grand scheme of things.
He wasn't in some cooking-based world where he could rule through culinary prowess alone.
After a flurry of activity with the chosen ingredients—washing, chopping, stir-frying, plating—after more than an hour of work, lunch was finally served on the dining table.
He untied his apron and wiped the remaining water droplets from his hands.
"Dinner's ready!"
No sooner had David's voice fallen than the two Pokémon, who had been tormented by the aroma of the delicious food from outside the kitchen, heard his call and immediately rushed in with a whoosh.
"Zorua!" The little fox's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Rio!" Riolu was equally enthusiastic.
"Alright, alright, let's eat!"
Looking at the two impatient little gluttons, David didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Without further delay, he tied their little napkins around them and announced that they could begin.
Watching the two Pokémon dig in, David observed their eating methods with amusement. Riolu, being a bipedal Pokémon, naturally handled chopsticks with ease, having learned to use them effortlessly under David's guidance.
And Zorua, seeing Riolu successfully using chopsticks, refused to be outdone and came up with a method of using its Psychic power to manipulate the chopsticks.
This not only allowed the little fox to use chopsticks on its own but also turned it into a way to train its Psychic abilities.
To this, David could only acknowledge that even foodies had their clever moments.
Looking at Zorua and Riolu, who were happily devouring their food with blissful expressions on their faces, David thought for a moment that being a chef didn't seem like such a bad thing after all!