Although the citizen who shared that meditation method claimed it had been passed down from an ancestor with psychic powers…
The man himself wasn't actually a psychic.
Nor had he ever truly cultivated it.
As a result, his understanding of the "Listening to All Things" meditation technique was extremely limited.
Core concepts such as frequently changing environments and listening to a wider variety of sounds—
He simply didn't know them.
Of course—
Ash still hadn't fully verified whether his theory was actually correct.
Whether constantly changing environments truly was the proper way to use the "Listening to All Things" meditation method…
Remained uncertain for now.
—
After finishing his Aura Power meditation, it was already close to eleven at night.
It was getting late.
"Pikachu, Greninja, Pidgeot, Fearow, and also Valor and Lumina."
"It's getting pretty late, so time for bed."
"Especially you, Lumina. You still have to participate in the Beauty Contest tomorrow morning, so absolutely no staying up late."
Pikachu: "Pika OK"
Greninja: "Gua~ right away."
…
Magikarp: "Splish~ understood."
Feebas: "Blub~ okay."
—
"Ash, Gary, Green, you guys should sleep early too."
"Clarissa Joy, goodnight."
"Goodnight, Ash."
After reminding all of his Pokémon, Ash also wished Clarissa Joy goodnight.
Then he sent brief goodnight messages to Serena and Misty on his phone before finally returning to his room with his Pokémon to rest.
—
In the night sky—
Soft clouds, light as silk and smooth as woven satin, drifted around the bright moon as it slowly rose from the sea.
Soon, that brilliant moon hung high in the heavens, spilling clear silver radiance across the world.
The cold moonlight reflected upon the ocean outside the hotel windows, forming shimmering ripples atop the waves.
Combined with the mysterious shadows cast by the hazy moonlight…
It looked almost as though countless silver fish were leaping across the sea.
—
The night passed quietly.
Until dawn approached and faint morning light began to appear in the east.
Although he was no longer in Pallet Town—
And although he still had competition matches this morning—
Ash still woke everyone up precisely at 6:00 AM, just like always.
After washing up and changing clothes, he brought all of his Pokémon out of the hotel and headed toward the nearby beach for morning training.
However—
Since they still had to participate in the Cerulean Water-Type Pokémon Beauty Contest later this morning—
Ash intentionally kept today's training lighter than usual to avoid exhausting everyone.
Especially Valor and Lumina, the two Pokémon participating in the contest.
—
After jogging along the beach for a while—
Ash allowed Magikarp and Feebas to enter the ocean so they could gradually adapt to Cerulean City's seawater and avoid any issues from environmental incompatibility.
At exactly 7:00 AM, the morning training session officially ended.
Ash then brought all of his Pokémon back to the luxurious seaside hotel.
By this point, daylight had fully illuminated the world.
—
Inside the restaurant on the hotel's first floor—
Many people were already eating breakfast.
Some were Trainers who, like Ash, had come to Cerulean City for the Water-Type Pokémon Beauty Contest.
Others were business elites visiting the city for work.
In short—
Even though it was only seven in the morning, the hotel lobby had already become lively and bustling.
—
After returning to the suite—
Ash quickly took a shower and changed into a clean, fresh set of clothes.
Then he knocked on Gary's, Green's, and Clarissa's doors.
While waiting for the three of them to wake up so they could head downstairs together for breakfast—
Ash took out a massive bathing barrel from his system storage.
After filling it with water—
He released dozens of customer-owned Magikarp from his Skill Shop into the container for feeding.
—
Ever since Ash's Skill Shop introduced the "Magikarp + Tackle" move-learning service—
Magikarp, once universally hated by Trainers throughout Kanto—
Had suddenly become incredibly valuable and highly sought after.
Nowadays—
Catching a healthy, energetic Magikarp and sending it to Ash's Skill Shop to learn Tackle had unknowingly become a small trend among Kanto Trainers.
—
Whether in the past or present—
The reason Magikarp had always been so disliked wasn't just because they were everywhere in rivers and lakes.
The real issue was:
They were too weak.
They lacked offensive moves entirely.
Leveling them up was painfully difficult.
If not for that problem—
Magikarp would probably have been hunted nearly to extinction long ago.
Because while Magikarp themselves were annoying…
Their evolution, Gyarados, was both incredibly powerful and unbelievably cool.
—
Even though the Water/Flying typing caused Gyarados to suffer a devastating four-times weakness to Electric-type attacks—
Against most other Pokémon types—
Gyarados was extraordinarily dominant.
Which was exactly why so many Trainers dreamed of owning one.
—
By all logic—
With Ash's Skill Shop teaching Magikarp the move Tackle, there should already have been countless new Gyarados appearing throughout Kanto.
And in reality—
The number of Gyarados within Kanto's Trainer circles had indeed increased significantly.
But not to an outrageous degree.
—
First of all—
Even after learning an attacking move, Magikarp only gained a single move:
Tackle.
And Magikarp still needed to reach roughly LV.20 before evolving into Gyarados.
That meant leveling and evolution still required effort and time.
There was still a certain training cycle involved.
—
Secondly—
Although Ash's Skill Shop always seemed to have over a hundred Magikarp at any given moment—
Most of those actually belonged to the League, major Kanto noble families, and powerful corporate factions.
The number sent in by ordinary Trainers was surprisingly low.
Usually, only around five per batch every few days.
The ratio spoke for itself.
—
However—
Ash honestly didn't care much about what kind of imbalance this created.
Because one thing was already abundantly clear from this detail:
Even within Kanto alone—
The "Magikarp + Tackle" business would remain profitable for an incredibly long time.
At this point—
Magikarp had practically become a golden goose.
A supreme money-generating machine constantly producing profit for him.
—
Still—
Even though his Pokémon helped assist with feeding duties—
Taking care of more than a hundred Magikarp plus all the other customer Pokémon every single day was absolutely exhausting.
Each feeding session took around forty minutes.
Three meals per day.
That totaled nearly two full hours daily.
In the eyes of others, that probably sounded insignificant.
After all—
Just two hours of work per day brought Ash tens or even hundreds of thousands of Poké Dollars in income.
But Ash still wasn't satisfied.
To him—
Making money was secondary.
He had far too many important things to do.
He refused to waste precious time endlessly feeding customer Pokémon.
—
"As the Skill Shop business keeps expanding…"
"The number of Pokémon I receive will only continue increasing."
"At some point, I definitely won't be able to manage it all myself anymore."
"And outsourcing the feeding operations to an outside Daycare…"
"First, there are major security concerns."
"Second, service quality would be difficult to control."
"And most importantly…"
"Outsourcing would significantly increase the risk of exposing the system."
"So in the end…"
"There's really only one viable path left."
"I'll have to establish my own private, dedicated Pokémon Daycare."
"A facility whose sole purpose is helping care for and feed customer Pokémon from the Skill Shop…"
While feeding the Magikarp and other Pokémon—
The idea of building a private exclusive Daycare became increasingly firm within Ash's heart.
--------------
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