After seeing Dratini, Jiang Ming suddenly remembered something: would ordinary Berries have the same effect as Energy Cubes?
After all, his original plan had been to sell Berries to the public.
Since each type of Berry had a different flavor, Jiang Ming had to force himself to taste every variety he had.
By the time he finished, his tongue practically felt as though it no longer belonged to him.
Fortunately, his sacrifice hadn’t been in vain.
After conducting his tests, he discovered that although ordinary Berries contained some spiritual energy, that energy couldn’t be easily absorbed by the human body unless the Berries were first processed into Energy Cubes.
One particularly interesting detail emerged when his sense of taste had recovered somewhat.
He deliberately tried some of the Energy Cubes he’d obtained directly from the System.
Although these System-produced Energy Cubes contained considerably more energy than the ones he’d made himself, their energy couldn’t be absorbed by the human body either.
This left Jiang Ming completely baffled.
They were all Energy Cubes, after all!
In fact, the ones produced by the System seemed to be of slightly better quality than his own.
So why was there such a huge difference between them?
After racking his brains for a while, Jiang Ming suddenly wondered whether the answer might lie in the production environment.
He didn’t understand exactly how the Berry Blender worked yet.
However, since it operated in this world, it would inevitably come into contact with the spiritual energy present in its surroundings.
It was even possible that the machine somehow infused that energy into the Energy Cubes during production.
As for the Energy Cubes produced directly by the System, they most likely hadn’t come into contact with anything called spiritual energy during their creation.
That was the only reasonably logical explanation Jiang Ming could come up with.
As for whether it was actually true, he had no way of knowing.
Fortunately, the question didn’t trouble him for long.
Even if the explanation sounded unreasonable, how could it be any more unreasonable than the existence of the System itself?
Why waste time worrying about it?
As long as it benefited him, that was all that mattered!
Having endured all sorts of psychological blows since childhood, Jiang Ming liked to think that if he had any particular virtue, it was his ability to take things in stride.
Putting those distracting questions aside, he refocused on making Energy Cubes.
He’d obtained so many Berries from the lottery that he might as well use them to practice.
Besides, processing Berries into Energy Cubes increased their nutritional value and could also help Jiang Ming cultivate his own strength.
It was a win-win situation!
The only problem was that Jiang Ming had overestimated his talent in this particular field.
At first, he had used just one type of Berry at a time.
The process went smoothly: his success rate was high, and the quality of his Energy Cubes steadily improved.
His success rate plummeted.
Even on the rare occasions when he managed to produce a finished batch, the quality was so terrible that it was almost embarrassing.
After more than a dozen consecutive failures, Jiang Ming finally stopped wasting Berries and obediently returned to making Energy Cubes from a single type of Berry.
By the time he was finally full to bursting, more than an hour had passed.
Fortunately, Energy Cubes were relatively easy to digest and absorb.
Otherwise, even allowing for the time he’d wasted on repeated failures, he could never have eaten so many.
After replenishing his body with a substantial amount of spiritual energy, Jiang Ming felt better than ever.
Unfortunately, because he lacked the talent for cultivation, his knowledge of the subject was almost entirely theoretical.
He had practically no experience to draw upon, so he had no idea how close he was to reaching Tier Two.
After lying on the sofa and resting for a little while, Jiang Ming opened the System again.
This time, however, he didn’t dare touch that cursed lottery button.
Instead, he headed to the System Shop.
Since the current month hadn’t ended yet, the shop still displayed the same items as before.
“What should I buy?”
Jiang Ming considered his options carefully.
He’d been earning Reputation Points steadily over the past few days, but after his recent spending spree on the lottery, his balance had fallen to just over 30,000 points—barely enough to purchase a Cyndaquil.
As one of the three Fire-type first partner Pokémon introduced in Generation II, Cyndaquil might not have been as popular as some other Pokémon, but it would certainly be good enough to serve as one of Zhengming Company’s next flagship products.
Still, Jiang Ming wasn’t particularly keen on spending his entire balance on a single item.
There was another important consideration, too.
Cyndaquil was simply too good.
In fact, it was so good that Jiang Ming didn’t dare create one just yet.
Given Zhengming Company’s current resources and influence, the company might not be able to withstand all the consequences its appearance would bring.
“Ah, forget it. Refresh!”
Out of sight, out of mind.
Jiang Ming immediately pressed the Refresh button.
With 1,000 Reputation Points deducted, the System Shop instantly displayed a new selection of items.
“Phew…”
Jiang Ming took a deep breath and carefully examined the new inventory.
As before, there were a few filler items, such as ordinary Poké Balls and Oran Berries.
Unfortunately, their prices were painful to look at.
Almost nothing cost less than 2,000 Reputation Points.
There were also two genetic templates.
The first was for Weedle, priced at 200 Reputation Points.
It would pair nicely with the Caterpie template Jiang Ming already possessed.
Sold!
The second template was even more interesting.
It was a Pecha Berry genetic template.
As one of the most widely used Berries in the Pokémon world, Pecha Berries could cure the consumer of poisoning.
Even more importantly, unlike the complicated flavor of Oran Berries, Pecha Berries had only one distinct taste: a clean, sweet flavor.
If Jiang Ming could cultivate them, the Energy Cubes he produced from Pecha Berries could become his most reliable source of spiritual energy.
There was just one problem.
The genetic template was rather expensive, costing a full 5,000 Reputation Points!
But when he saw that less than three days remained before the shop’s next refresh, Jiang Ming gritted his teeth and bought it anyway.
Finally, there was the item that interested him most of all: a universal Energy Cube recipe designed to improve Pokémon’s stats.
“An Energy Cube recipe? Wait, there are recipes for these things?”
Remembering his string of failures when he’d tried mixing two types of Berries, Jiang Ming didn’t hesitate over the price of 15,000 Reputation Points.
He bought it immediately.
Although he knew he’d acted impulsively, Jiang Ming wasn’t the sort of person who regretted his decisions after making them.
He promptly returned to the Berry Blender and prepared to embark on his next experiment.
First came the ingredients.
According to the recipe, this type of Energy Cube required only two kinds of Berries.
One was Oran Berry, which served as a balancing ingredient.
The other depended on the effect he wanted the finished product to have.
For example, if Jiang Ming wanted to improve Dratini’s physical attack, the second ingredient needed to be a Liechi Berry.
Fortunately, he’d happened to obtain some of those from the lottery earlier.
After cutting up the Berries and placing them inside the processing chamber, Jiang Ming turned to the recipe’s instructions for the actual blending procedure.
This was the most important part of the entire recipe.
“So that’s how it works! No wonder I kept failing whenever I tried mixing two kinds of Berries!”
Jiang Ming studied the instructions, his expression suddenly one of complete enlightenment.