“Then I’ll thank Sun Ge first,” Lin Fan said gratefully.
“There’s nothing to thank me for; I didn’t help much.”
Sun Qi shook his head and changed the subject.
“Didn’t you want to try making energy cubes to earn money? Come on, I still have some leftover fruit here, and I can guide you.”
Making energy cubes?
Lin Fan’s eyes lit up, and he followed Sun Qi with Weedle into a room. There were no fancy decorations inside; the only item was a seemingly ordinary machine, looking very simple and unadorned.
“This is the tree fruit mixer. This one is a primary tree fruit mixer, a result of my careful selection. Its quality is excellent, and it cost about five hundred thousand.”
Sun Qi’s casual remark instantly froze Lin Fan in place, his hand half-extended in mid-air, unsure whether to touch the tree fruit mixer.
“Five… five hundred thousand?”
Lin Fan stammered, feeling like his world had collapsed.
Weedle was also shocked. Five hundred thousand? Wouldn’t that be one, two, three… twenty-five thousand peach fruits?! That’s enough for it to eat for a lifetime!
“This machine is of very good quality. It greatly helps with the crushing and mixing of tree fruits, saving me a lot of effort, so it’s worth the price. However, for beginners, a regular mixer costing around one hundred thousand is enough.”
Sun Qi smiled, signaling Lin Fan not to worry so much and to touch it if he wanted to.
If this thing broke so easily, then making energy cubes would truly be charity work, losing more than earning.
Seeing this, Lin Fan finally breathed a sigh of relief and carefully examined the machine in front of him, wanting to know what secrets it held internally.
Stare~
After watching for a long time, Lin Fan rubbed his sore eyes and gave up.
No matter how he looked at it, it was just an ordinary machine. It seemed that specialized fields were truly like mountains apart; he couldn’t even distinguish the quality of basic equipment.
“The theoretical knowledge of making energy cubes and being a Pokémon breeder can, to some extent, be considered two independent things. For making energy cubes, ‘making’ is important, which means hands-on practice, while theoretical knowledge leans towards memorization and recall.”
Sun Qi explained to Lin Fan while picking up a few tree fruits.
“Actually, the profession of a breeder is somewhat similar to that of a Pokémon doctor; both are divided into theory and practice, and the practical part is what determines the upper limit. Theory is a slow, grinding effort, while practice, I personally believe, relies more on talent. Do you know about the art of balance?”
Sun Qi changed the subject and asked Lin Fan.
“Art of balance?” Lin Fan thought for a moment. “Is it that thing where you keep stacking things together without them falling? I know, it’s a very magical thing.”
At the same time, he silently added in his heart: Actually, my art of balance is pretty good; I can stack five or six layers of things.
Weedle perked up its ears to listen, then lay down again, bored.
Stacking things? It could do that too, and it could stack several layers of leaves!
“The key points of making energy cubes have some commonalities with the art of balance. The latter requires finding the right balance point, while the former requires mastering the degree of tree fruit crushing and mixing. Both seem simple to look at and simple to hear about, but once you start, you have no idea how to do it.”
After a general explanation, Sun Qi had already prepared three tree fruits: two Oran Berries and one Sitrus Berry.
“This is the most basic universal energy cube. Its purpose is to help Pokémon recover faster and slowly improve their self-recovery ability. I’ll demonstrate it for you; pay attention to my movements and timing.”
With a warning, Sun Qi quickly entered a focused state, his eyes intent. He swiftly dropped the three tree fruits into the tree fruit mixer, constantly fine-tuning the knobs on the machine to control the speed of the fruit crushing.
Lin Fan watched clearly from the side. As the machine crushed, it also threw certain things to the very edges, away from the central essence area.
“Impurities? Do tree fruits also have impurities? It should be that part of the energy isn’t rich enough, so it needs to be discarded, and only the most essential part is retained.”
Although a bit puzzled, Lin Fan continued to watch carefully, afraid of missing any details.
Whether he could make money from this depended on this one time.
Perhaps because this type of energy cube was too simple for Sun Qi, he stopped crushing and separating after just five minutes. He used the compression function in the machine to instantly compress the remaining pulp in the very center into the most stable cube shape.
Done, this is an energy cube!
Hiss—
A slight hissing sound emerged, and the machine opened, revealing the light blue energy cube inside.
Within it were scattered dark specks, which should be the so-called impurities, a result of imperfect crushing and blending, affecting the energy cube’s final effect.
“Not bad, a primary top-grade energy cube.”
Sun Qi smiled and tossed the energy cube to Lin Fan. It was still warm and felt pleasant to the touch.
Lin Fan handed it to Weedle, who tasted it carefully and nodded in approval.
“Woo~”
Sour and sweet, very delicious! But peach fruit is still the best~
Lin Fan was speechless.
Was he supposed to taste it?
“Oran Berry’s energy leans towards the Poison type. After neutralizing it with peach fruit, it becomes a neutral energy cube. Slightly increasing the Oran Berry ratio might help Weedle. However, you’ll need to explore those yourself, as your needs are quite rare, and currently, there isn’t a cheap energy cube that can meet your requirements.”
“However, making special energy cubes for specific needs is a technical skill. It’s better to gradually try it after you’ve learned the true method of making energy cubes.”
Sun Qi reminded him, then pointed to the tree fruit mixer and smiled, “Want to try?”
It wasn’t that he wanted to see Lin Fan make a fool of himself; it was how he learned to make energy cubes back then.
Or rather, that’s how everyone learns. For any hands-on skill, practical application always comes first.
Continuously failing and then learning from mistakes.
Those with talent can quickly grasp a bit of the knack, while those without talent can never achieve fusion and compression, only producing a superficial, unknown cube-shaped object that is outwardly beautiful but inwardly rotten.
It’s not that simple to make a living in this line of work.
Under Sun Qi’s emotional gaze, Lin Fan nervously rubbed his hands, constantly recalling Sun Qi’s movements. After a slight contemplation, he quickly raised his hand and threw the three tree fruits into the machine. Not only his speed, but even his angle was identical to Sun Qi’s.
Sun Qi’s smile froze.
This kid, he’s got something.
He hadn’t expected that without his guidance, Lin Fan would understand that the moment his hand touched the tree fruit, the making of the energy cube had already begun.
Sun Qi’s face grew more serious as he carefully watched Lin Fan’s operation.
Hiss—
After an unknown amount of time, a hissing sound identical to before rang out. Lin Fan picked up the result of his work, looking helpless.
It still failed. He had tried his best to follow Sun Qi’s movements, but it still wasn’t enough?
Sigh, if making energy cubes were as simple as the art of balance, that would be great. He remembered that the first time he tried the art of balance, he could stack two layers.
Compared to Lin Fan’s helplessness, Sun Qi looked at the unevenly colored blue cube in Lin Fan’s hand, which also had yellow stripes, and silently clutched his heart.
Damn it, this guy really is that talented. He achieved this level just by watching once. He remembered that it took him a full month to reach this step, wasting countless tree fruits.
“Sun Ge, do I have talent or not?” Lin Fan squeezed the cube in his hand and asked sincerely.
Sun Qi was silent, then after a while, he sighed with a hint of envy.
“Of course you have talent, and a lot of it. At least I’ve never seen anyone like you who can make a semi-finished product on their first try. Perhaps only those chosen ones with special abilities could be even better.”
Lin Fan was startled.
Special abilities? Chosen ones?
Then, does the Insect Plate count?