Pokemon: Reborn Rich Alternate Earth

"Professor Frank, you were looking for me?"

Frank was on a phone call at his desk when Julian walked in. Julian sat on the sofa nearby, waiting for him to finish.

Before long, Frank hung up the phone and said, "Julian, the head of the Sky Mountain Wilderness Reserve has discovered a group of poachers sneaking into the protected area."

"The university wants you to handle it."

"Alright."

Julian nodded. As a student of Imperial University, aside from the mandatory university assessment every year, students were sometimes assigned additional tasks. However, these tasks were optional, and students had the right to refuse them.

That said, it was rare for anyone to decline. After all, with so many students at Imperial University, why would the university assign the task specifically to you?

It was obviously because you were strong enough, and the university trusted you to handle it.

In most cases, Imperial University rarely assigned tasks to Julian, since he was already at the Elite level. Any task given to him naturally had to match his strength.

Just as Julian was about to leave, Frank immediately called out to him.

"Professor Frank, is there anything else?"

"Aren't you going to ask who the poachers are?" Frank said helplessly.

Julian realized he had a point. "Who are they?"

"It's the Blackstar Poaching Group, there are about twenty of them. Their leader is at mid-Elite stage, with three deputy leaders at peak pseudo-Elite level. You don’t need to worry about the small fry."

"Them, huh?" Julian nodded.

The Blackstar Poaching Group was infamous in underground circles. They were said to be capable of catching even a Kyogre for you—as long as you paid enough.

Though that was obviously a joke, the group had indeed captured pseudo-legendary Pokémon and their hatchlings before. In one case, they even stole a pseudo-legendary from an Elite trainer.

That was over a decade ago, yet the Blackstar Poaching Group still hadn’t been caught.

Clearly, it wasn’t just their strength that kept them free—it was their cunning as well.

"Do you need backup?" Frank asked.

There were several students in the special recruitment class currently at the university, including Hugo, a skilled assassin, who would be a solid choice.

"Backup?" Julian eyed Frank suspiciously.

Even if he couldn’t beat them, he could still retreat safely on his own.

But if he brought along a backup, and that person was captured by the enemy and used as leverage against him, what then?

Well, there would only be one option—he’d have to retaliate. He would take down the enemy, and if the backup died, at least he would have avenged them.

"Just go already. Stay safe."

Frank waved him off impatiently, understanding Julian’s point.

Julian didn’t mind having backup, but the backup couldn’t be much weaker than him. Otherwise, they would only become a burden.

The Sky Mountain Wilderness Reserve, located to the east of Imperial Capital, was one of the top ten wilderness reserves in Drakoria. It was home to many Pokémon, including rare and powerful ones—even pseudo-legendaries could occasionally be spotted there.

Rumor had it that the Embodiment of the North Wind, Suicune, had once been seen there. At the time, many trainers, believing themselves to be "chosen by fate," flocked to the reserve, hoping for a fateful encounter.

However, driven by greed, some individuals poisoned the reserve's water sources, causing a large number of Pokémon to die, all in the hopes of forcing Suicune to appear.

Their twisted logic was that since Suicune had the power to purify polluted water, if it was in the reserve, it would surely show up upon seeing the contamination and the suffering of the poisoned Pokémon.

And indeed, Suicune appeared, hundreds of trainers stationed themselves along the rivers, and the moment Suicune showed itself, they acted.

But those who dared to covet a power beyond their grasp paid a heavy price.

That day, Suicune ended all who targeted it and caused the Pokémon to die.

Afterward, Suicune vanished without a trace, and no one in Drakoria had seen it since.

The last confirmed sighting was three years ago—in Wyvernia.

---

Back at his villa, Julian recalled all of his Pokémon into their Poké Balls and gathered a few supplies.

Just as he was about to leave, Nicole walked in.

"Heading out?"

she asked, noticing Julian’s packed bag and the wind goggles already on his face.

"Yeah, a little mission."

"How did you get in?"

"The door was open."

Nicole pointed at the wide-open door.

Ah, right. Julian had forgotten to close it when he came in.

"If there's nothing urgent, I'm heading off now."

Nicole nodded, she had only dropped by to check out Julian’s Pokémon.

"Close the door for me when you leave."

Julian said before hopping onto Dragonite and flying off.

"Treating me like a doorman... fine. You have to make it up to me when you get back," Nicole muttered under her breath as she watched him leave.

Lately, a rumor had been spreading among the aristocratic families—that Julian was not only an Elite-level trainer but also a top-tier breeder.

The rumor claimed that his Pokémon were so powerful because he personally crafted enhanced Pokéblocks using his top-tier breeding skills.

To most people, this sounded absurd—just a baseless rumor.

Becoming an Elite before the age of twenty was already a huge accomplishment, but it was believable. After all, Julian had the backing of the Walker family and was their sole heir.

With all the family’s resources poured into him, reaching the Elite level before twenty wasn’t entirely shocking.

But being a top breeder? That was another story.

Breeding required a vast amount of knowledge and expertise, making the claim far less believable.

Becoming a junior or intermediate breeder at twenty wasn’t anything special.

Even reaching the senior breeder level by twenty had been recorded in Drakoria before.

But a top-tier breeder? Not just in Drakoria—there wasn’t a single person in the whole world who had become a top-tier breeder at twenty.

Without decades of accumulated knowledge and experience, it was absolutely impossible to reach such a level.

That’s why most people didn’t believe that Julian was truly a top-tier breeder.

But then again, if he wasn’t, why were his Pokémon so ridiculously powerful? Especially his Metagross—it had practically become a walking definition of 'unscientific'.

Nicole had once been fooled by Julian herself.

Without realizing it, she had let the secret slip to one of her close friends. The friend had promised to keep it confidential.

But, well—haha, what a joke.

It wasn’t until Nicole noticed that even her grandfather was asking about whether Julian was truly a top-tier breeder—and attributing Julian’s Pokémon’s overwhelming strength to that title—that she realized she had been used as a pawn.

She also started having the noble heirs who she was friendly with, subtly probing her about the rumor, trying to verify its authenticity.

That was when Nicole finally understood Julian's game.

He had deliberately used her to spread the fabricated claim of him being a top-tier breeder, creating a plausible explanation for why his Pokémon were so absurdly strong.

If Julian knew she had seen through his scheme this quickly, he might actually praise her for being sharp and call her a genius.

But then again, as a future Pokémon scholar, being sharp was only natural for her.

*****

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