Chapter Sixty-Nine: The New Mission Brought by Jun Shafeng

"Heath, I have a task here. Are you interested in taking it on?" It was Maple, and Heath looked at Officer Maple in surprise. Maple rarely visited his stall during the day, so why had she come by today?

"What kind of task? Just tell me, Maple." Heath nodded without hesitation, curious about what Maple wanted him to do.

"You remember last time you cooked a meal for the prisoners at Evergreen City Prison? The warden was quite pleased." Maple leaned on her waist, her eyes scanning the people and things around them—a habit of hers.

Heath nodded. Of course he remembered that previous task for the death row inmates, and he'd been satisfied with the reward. So now, with Maple bringing it up, Heath wondered if the warden was so happy with his cooking that he wanted Heath to provide more tasty meals for the inmates, to satisfy their palates.

"This time, though, it's the director of Evergreen City Psychiatric Hospital who has come to us. With the annual Mental Health Care Day of the Quartz League approaching, he wants you to prepare lunch for one hundred and thirty-two people and deliver it to the hospital," Maple said with a cheerful smile. Heath's expectant grin froze.

Heath blinked. Evergreen City Psychiatric Hospital wasn't an unusual institution—after all, even in a world with Pokémon, mental illness existed. What left Heath a little perplexed was that he was being asked to cook for psychiatric patients.

"Alright, no problem. How much is the meal subsidy per person?" Heath nodded. Over a hundred people—so be it, as long as he could make money.

"Fifty league coins per person," Maple replied, handing him a thick envelope.

Heath took it. Lunch for one hundred and thirty-two people was no small number, but cooking for psychiatric patients was a challenge. After all, their world was a mystery to anyone.

"Do your best. You have a day to prepare. Tomorrow at eleven-thirty in the morning, someone from the hospital will drive over to collect the meal," Maple instructed before leaving.

[Make one hundred and forty-two psychiatric patients satisfied with your cooking. The reward depends on how many you succeed with.]

After Maple left, a task notification appeared. Heath was stunned—how did it become one hundred and forty-two? Wasn't it supposed to be one hundred and thirty-two?

Heath paused, considering another possibility: could the extra ten refer to multiple personalities among the patients? Dissociative identity disorder was a unique illness—one person might be Professor Oak in the morning and Champion Leon in the afternoon. Heath thought this was quite likely.

"Tough... But no matter how mentally ill, their taste buds should still function like those of normal people, right? In that case, I just need to prepare the meals the same way I did for the prisoners." Heath stroked his chin, having decided how to approach the task.

He chose to make dishes with a variety of flavors, then leave it to the hospital staff to distribute based on the patients' preferences. Whether the patients would get the flavor they liked was beyond Heath's control.

With that thought, he felt much calmer. After serving his lunchtime customers, Heath drove off to the driving school to continue studying for his first subject.

He had to admit, Alakazam's study methods were genuinely effective. Since adopting them, Heath's learning speed had increased dramatically; he estimated he'd be ready to sign up for the exam in another day or two.

Once done at the driving school, Heath went to the Pokémon Center to visit his Pokémon.

"Charmander, you're recovering well." Heath looked at Charmander in its hospital bed. Its injuries had improved significantly, some bandages already removed, though a few scabs remained.

According to Nurse Snow Joy, those scabs shouldn't be pulled off yet—they protected Charmander's new skin and removing them could cause infection.

Charmander's skin would have to heal naturally before the scabs fell off on their own, and only then would it be fully recovered.

"Char!" Charmander seemed in good spirits, smiling as it swallowed mouthfuls of vegetable and lean meat porridge Heath fed it.

"Trainer~ I'm sick too, whimper whimper, my head hurts~" Zorua flopped in front of him, looking weak. Heath, expressionless, picked up the little fox—it had been bouncing around moments before.

Heath smiled at Charmander, bumped its paw with his hand, chatted a bit more, then left the Pokémon Center. Tomorrow he should be able to take Charmander home.

After leaving, Charmander would still need to rest for a while, but Heath had no training plans for it, so it wouldn’t matter.

Heath drove his food truck toward the market. To host tomorrow’s psychiatric patients, he needed to buy plenty of ingredients, some requiring advance preparation.

Farfetch'd showed great interest in the market, following Heath closely and attentively learning his ingredient selection techniques. A qualified chef didn't just shine in cooking, but also in choosing ingredients.

Even a single cut of pork could taste different depending on whether or not it was chosen well. For example, sow meat was generally avoided; sows were usually older due to breeding, and their meat carried a strong, unpleasant odor.

As for boar meat, different dishes required different cuts. Heath spent some time at the market and finally bought pork from a black pig.

He then bought other ingredients and returned to the Officer dormitory with a full load.

"Farfetch'd, start practicing your three-turn egg dish now. I demonstrated the process today—there’s nothing special about it except constant tossing and flipping," Heath reminded, glancing at Farfetch'd before heading into the kitchen.

"Leek!" Farfetch'd nodded confidently, grabbed eggs and a wok, and followed Heath into the kitchen.