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Chapter 28: Breeder Assessment
🕑 Added 2025-09-12 15:43:25 +0000 UTCThe next day, when the first ray of morning sunlight shone through the Daycare windows, Kawaki, who had rested all night, began a new day's work. The first thing he did after getting up was to go to the backyard to check whether the Swampert and Quagsire that the previous guest had left for breeding had produced any eggs.
After searching around the lakeside and grass areas and confirming there were no Pokémon eggs, Kawaki left the backyard, opened the Daycare's front door, and hung up a sign with "OPEN FOR BUSINESS" written on it.
Kawaki looked up and around, his gaze falling on the roof and trees, but he never saw that Taillow anywhere.
That Taillow who provided him information hadn't come by for several days now, which made Kawaki inevitably worry whether something had happened to it, or if it had been captured by other trainers.
However, compared to these guesses, Kawaki thought it was more likely that it had found somewhere with better food than what the Daycare provided.
Kawaki: "..."
These past few days he'd been training the Clefairy and hadn't had time to go buy higher quality, better tasting Pokémon food.
But whatever, these things depended on fate. If Taillow didn't come, he couldn't force it.
Just as he was about to go back inside, a familiar engine sound suddenly came from behind him.
Kawaki turned around to see Officer Jenny riding a police motorcycle speeding toward him.
Officer Jenny turned off the engine and stopped the bike at the Daycare entrance, then removed her helmet and looked at Kawaki.
"Officer Jenny?" Kawaki was slightly stunned.
Officer Jenny nodded and said: "That matter from last time already has results."
Kawaki immediately realized which matter Officer Jenny was referring to.
It was about her previous proposal to apply to the Hoenn League for a batch of Pokémon eggs for the Daycare!
"How did it go?" Kawaki asked.
Officer Jenny opened her mouth, looking at Kawaki in front of her with a face full of hesitation.
Kawaki: "?"
Only then did Officer Jenny speak: "It's like this - the Hoenn League is very willing to approve our application, but they also have one condition."
"Go ahead," Kawaki nodded. Did they want money or something else?
Officer Jenny: "They said you must prove to the Hoenn League that you have the ability to care for those eggs before they'll distribute them to your Daycare."
Under normal circumstances, ordinary people couldn't operate Daycares because regular people didn't know how to care for Pokémon of different attributes and species, nor did they understand breeding matters.
To operate a Daycare, the owner had to first become a breeder - even a novice breeder would do.
If you weren't a breeder, while it wasn't impossible to open shop, the League wouldn't provide Pokémon eggs or anything like that. Everything would have to rely on your own hatching, and the difficulty could be imagined.
Moreover, such a Daycare would be incomplete.
"In other words, if you want that batch of eggs, you need to first go to the Breeder Association in Petalburg City to complete some tests and register as a novice breeder..." Officer Jenny explained.
But the problem was, little Kawaki had just turned ten this year and had always lived in an orphanage. Whether it was trainer knowledge or breeder knowledge, he knew absolutely nothing and had no way to pass those assessments.
"..."
Kawaki understood - so his place had been an unlicensed operation this whole time!
Although he felt somewhat speechless inside, thinking of the Pokémon-related information he'd learned in his previous life and the breeding-related books he'd read since arriving here, Kawaki pondered for a moment before looking up at Officer Jenny.
"Can I go to the Breeder Association to look at the assessment content?"
"Of course no problem!" Officer Jenny nodded: "I happen to have no work this morning. Shall we leave now?"
Kawaki nodded. He turned back to close the Daycare door, then instructed Bewear to take good care of the Pokémon in the Daycare before riding Officer Jenny's motorcycle to the Breeder Association in Petalburg City.
And coincidentally, they happened to be holding a breeder assessment there.
Officer Jenny used her connections to directly bring Kawaki to observe this assessment.
There were five people participating in the assessment, and they were currently taking the first round written exam.
Officer Jenny handed Kawaki a test paper for reference.
Kawaki looked down - the paper had two sides, with the first side being multiple choice questions.
[1. Gardevoir cannot breed with which of the following Pokémon?]
[A. Machamp]
[B. Lopunny]
[C. Swampert]
[D. Muk]
Kawaki: "..."
Among these four options, only option C, Swampert, wasn't a Pokémon in the Human-Like egg group.
"The test maker has a twisted sense of humor..." Kawaki complained internally.
Besides the first one, the following multiple choice questions were more normal.
[2. Lum Berry can cure which of the following status conditions?]
[A. Burn]
[B. Poison]
[C. Paralysis]
[D. Freeze]
Kawaki roughly scanned through and found that this test assessment mostly covered fairly basic breeding knowledge.
Pokémon egg groups, types, ecological habits, and applications of berries and herbs.
This made Kawaki feel relieved - for him as someone who'd crossed over, these questions were quite simple.
Since that was the case, he might as well start directly! The sooner he finished, the sooner he could return to work at the Daycare.
So Kawaki looked up at Officer Jenny and asked: "Officer Jenny, can I participate now?"
Officer Jenny was slightly stunned, then asked somewhat shocked: "Are you sure? Do you know the answers to all these questions?"
Kawaki smiled and said: "I'm sure. I've been reading related books these past few days."
Officer Jenny opened her mouth, looking into the young man's eyes, and finally chose to believe him.
"Alright, since that's the case, I'll help arrange it for you," Officer Jenny said.
She immediately found the person in charge of the Breeder Association and said something to them.
Then Kawaki saw that elderly man look at him with a face full of surprise.
He vaguely heard their conversation.
"Only ten years old? Never went to school? No breeding experience either? Alright, I understand. Since this is your request, I'll make an exception this once!"
Soon, Kawaki was arranged into the examination room.
Someone provided him with a test paper and pen.
Kawaki glanced at it twice, then began answering rapidly.
Outside the exam room, Officer Jenny and the elderly man watched the situation inside.
"Is this child really not just fooling around?" the elderly man asked.
But Officer Jenny shook her head, thinking of Kawaki's eyes just now, and said: "I believe in him."
The elderly man held no expectations whatsoever in his heart.
Just turned ten, never went to school, no breeding experience, and hadn't even had his starter Pokémon for a week...
If he could pass this assessment, he'd write his name backwards from now on!
