Pokémon: Farm Story

Chapter 81: The Return of the Dragon King and the First Night on the Farm

The room Natsume prepared for Mei was on the second floor of the new house. Natsume himself usually stayed on the second floor, while the first floor was mostly reserved for the Pokémon on the farm to use as a lounge and recreation area.

There was a playroom for Togepi, a screening room for Corviknight and Butterfree, and so on. Natsume had even thought about setting up an esports room in the future if more Pokémon joined the farm.

After all, while he wasn’t good at gaming himself, he figured that with so many Pokémon around, at least one of them had to be skilled.

Yes, Natsume’s gaming skills were quite poor.

His level of proficiency was such that even a Golem might outperform him in understanding the mechanics. Gaming, like many things, required a certain degree of talent.

If the average person’s talent level was a 10, and professional players were at 60 and above, Natsume’s talent hovered somewhere around a 5. He had long since given up on making any notable progress in gaming and now just played casually to relax.

After all, wasn’t that the whole point of gaming? If you obsessed over ranks and stats, wouldn’t that strip the activity of its original purpose? Or so Natsume, the subpar gamer, liked to reason.

“Wow, this room is huge!”

“Thank you so much, Natsume.”

Mei’s eyes lit up as she saw her new room.

As a novice Trainer, Mei was already used to roughing it out in the wild—sleeping in a cramped tent was an everyday affair. Only those Trainers who had already made a name for themselves could afford the luxury of staying in grand hotels and enjoying a life of comfort.

New Trainers, in contrast, would spend most of their time camping out in the wilderness, catching Pokémon, and honing their skills. This was said to cultivate both mental and physical resilience.

Well, at least that’s how the story went. Whether or not this claim had any basis was debatable, but it served as a convenient justification.

It was not unlike how middle school teachers would tell students, “This topic will be covered in high school,” and high school teachers would say, “You should have learned this in middle school.” They didn’t know for sure whether anyone would actually teach it but said it anyway to save themselves the trouble.

Returning to the topic, while Mei had grown accustomed to sleeping in tiny tents, no one would ever turn down a larger room if given the choice—especially one so clean and cozy.

Thanks to the diligent efforts of Cinccino and Loppuny, the guest room was in excellent condition. In anticipation of Mei’s arrival, they had gone the extra mile to ensure everything was spotless, even replacing the bedsheets and blankets with fresh ones.

Incidentally, Natsume had already decided to permanently give Mei this guest room. If another guest room was needed in the future, they could simply clean and prepare another space. After all, land was one thing the farm had in abundance.

“No need to thank me. As long as you like it,” Natsume replied with a wave and a smile.

When setting up the room, Natsume had done his re