Inside the little wooden cabin, Ash finished setting up the laptop and the Poké Ball transfer machine. After carefully teaching Melanie how to use everything, he added her to the Skill Shop customer fan group and promoted her to administrator.
Once all the miscellaneous tasks were taken care of, Ash handed over the Pokémon food stored in his inventory, along with all of the customers' Poké Balls, officially allowing Melanie to begin her new job.
"Yes! I'll work hard!" Melanie replied earnestly.
Then she began releasing the Skill Shop customers' Pokémon in batches and preparing the appropriate food based on each Pokémon's type.
"Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!"
A series of Pokémon appeared:
Sandslash
Fearow
Nidoqueen
Golbat
Haunter
"Sandslash is Ground-type, Fearow is Normal and Flying, Nidoqueen is Poison and Ground, Golbat is Poison and Flying, and Haunter is Ghost and Poison..."
After releasing them, Melanie took out feeding trays and carefully portioned out the correct Pokémon food according to each Pokémon's attributes.
This time, Ash didn't help.
Instead, he stood nearby and quietly observed.
After all, he was the boss, and Melanie was the employee. The monthly salary of 6,600 Poké Dollars plus social insurance benefits wasn't being paid for nothing.
Even though he had already handed over the operation of the Pokémon Day Care to her, today was her first official day on the job. Ash still wanted to evaluate her work ability and her affinity with Pokémon.
He wasn't particularly worried about her competence.
Melanie might be shy and introverted, but she was a healthy, capable adult. Moreover, her job was simply caring for and feeding Pokémon, something she had years of experience doing.
At first, however, she was a little nervous.
These were unfamiliar Pokémon belonging to strangers, it was her first day working, and Ash himself was standing nearby watching.
As a result, she fumbled a little while preparing food, appearing somewhat flustered and awkward.
But after a short while, she adjusted her mindset.
Her movements gradually became smoother, and feeding the Pokémon soon became second nature.
As for the affinity Ash cared about most, there were no problems at all.
Melanie possessed excellent rapport with Pokémon.
And since all of these Pokémon had already been caught and raised by Trainers, they were generally gentle and well-behaved. None of them caused trouble or refused to cooperate.
...
Feeding Pokémon was a simple task.
Still, since it was her first day, Melanie wasn't yet completely familiar with the process.
As a result, it took her nearly an hour to feed all 125 Pokémon belonging to the Skill Shop's customers.
Throughout the entire process, she remained attentive and gentle, while the Pokémon responded with obedience and trust.
Ash was very satisfied.
"Ash, for today's customer orders, you need to teach these Pokémon their requested moves."
Melanie consulted the order list.
"You need to teach:
Sandslash → Dig
Fearow → Drill Run
Nidoqueen → Thunder Punch
Golbat → Air Slash
Haunter → Shadow Ball
And the ten Magikarp from the Rento Family need to learn Tackle."
Once Melanie finished her work, Rotom floated over and reminded Ash of his own tasks for the day.
"Okay~"
"Melanie, send over Sandslash, Fearow, Nidoqueen, Golbat, Haunter, and the ten Magikarp from the Rento Family."
"Got it."
Melanie nodded and returned to the cabin to operate the transfer machine.
As for why Ash had her send the Poké Balls through the machine even though he was standing right there instead of simply handing them to him directly—
Melanie assumed that Ash wanted her to experience the complete workflow from start to finish.
Soon, Ash's transfer machine received the Poké Balls from the cabin.
Without hesitation, Ash pretended to use psychic powers on the Pokémon inside while secretly communicating with the system.
Immediately, he began fulfilling the move-learning orders.
[Ding! Sandslash learned Dig!]
[Ding! Fearow learned Drill Run!]
[Ding! Nidoqueen learned Thunder Punch!]
[Ding! Golbat learned Air Slash!]
[Ding! Haunter learned Shadow Ball!]
[Ding! Magikarp learned Tackle ×10!]
"Rotom, process the orders and send the Poké Balls back to their original addresses."
"Got it, Rotom (_)"
Rotom immediately got to work.
A moment later, notifications began appearing on Ash's phone.
[Poke Coin Pay payment received: 6,600]
[Poke Coin Pay payment received: 8,500]
[Poke Coin Pay payment received: 5,500]
[Poke Coin Pay payment received: 7,500]
[Poke Coin Pay payment received: 8,500]
[Poke Coin Pay payment received: 250,000] ×10
...
Because Melanie was standing nearby and Ash didn't want her to know exactly how much money the Skill Shop earned, he had already switched his phone to silent mode.
Watching Ash complete the move training so quickly, Melanie couldn't help feeling impressed.
She didn't understand exactly how he did it, but it somehow felt incredibly powerful.
Once the Poké Balls were returned and Rotom tagged all the corresponding customers in the fan group, the batch of orders was officially complete.
"Rotom, prepare the next order batch."
"Increase the order limit to fifty."
Ash turned toward Rotom and gave the instruction.
"Understood, Rotom (^_^)"
Rotom immediately opened the shop's order channel.
Previously, due to Ash's limited psychic cultivation and lack of available time, the Skill Shop only accepted one batch every five days.
The batch size had originally been five Pokémon before gradually increasing to twenty-five.
Now, however, the Pokémon-feeding responsibilities had been completely transferred to Melanie.
The amount of time Ash personally needed to spend managing the business had dropped dramatically.
As a result, he directly doubled the order capacity.
Fifty Pokémon per batch.
"Bzzz…"
The Skill Shop's operations were already highly standardized.
Customers knew exactly when their Pokémon would finish learning a move and be returned.
Whenever a batch was close to completion, the shop would update its homepage and notify Trainers with reservations to temporarily deposit their Pokémon at Pokémon Centers.
That way, the moment Ash reopened the order channel, Pokémon could immediately be transferred over without delay.
The instant the new batch opened—
A flood of Poké Balls began pouring in once again.
The newly established Pokémon Day Care had officially entered operation.
And Ash?
At this point, he had practically become the ultimate hands-off boss.