Pokemon: Reborn Rich Alternate Earth

Chapter 1106: Chapter 1323: BarChapter 1107: Chapter 1324: Land Of Extreme Ice

That evening, Julian and Pierce went out rather than eating at home.

The two of them first had a barbecue outside, picking a random barbecue joint.

Each of them ordered dozens of meat skewers, and neither ordered a single vegetable dish.

In this respect, Pierce was exactly the same as Julian—they were both devoted carnivores who couldn't live without meat.

Whether it was barbecue or hotpot, they basically only ordered meat.

Even if they did order vegetables, it would usually just be some lettuce to wrap around the meat, partly to cut through the greasiness so they could eat even more.

Julian used his psychic abilities to subtly adjust his appearance, though he still looked sunny and handsome.

Anyone who saw him would subconsciously think, 'What a handsome guy.'

The two little ones had wanted to come along as well, but Julian had sent them away with two hundred bucks each.

As a result, no one recognized that the man eating barbecue and drinking beer was actually Julian.

Compared to Julian, Pierce wasn't bad-looking either—especially with the steely, resolute aura of a soldier. Even without his uniform, people could tell at a glance.

Sitting together, the two attracted quite a few glances from the people around them.

Since they were seated outside, many girls passing by couldn't help sneaking a look or two at them.

Men liked beautiful women, and likewise, women liked handsome men.

Even though the two were sitting at a roadside barbecue stand, anyone with discerning eyes could tell from their bearing that they were far from ordinary.

"I thought you'd take me somewhere fancy," Pierce said, eating a beef skewer and taking a big gulp of beer, a contented expression spreading across his face.

"What? You don't like this?" Julian asked with a smile.

"Not at all. Compared to exotic delicacies, I actually prefer this." Pierce grinned.

He knew Julian fairly well. Julian didn't have the slightest air of a wealthy young master, and despite being an absurdly talented trainer, Julian didn't carry himself like a genius.

Most prodigies possessed some degree of pride, but Pierce had never seen that sort of arrogance in Julian.

When it came to making friends, Julian never cared about a person's family background—it all came down to whether he found them agreeable and whether their personalities clicked.

As long as those two conditions were met, that person was his friend.

As the rich juices and fat from the lamb skewer burst in his mouth, Julian couldn't help enjoying himself.

The flavor was nowhere near as good as Slowking's barbecue, but this kind of atmosphere was something that simply couldn't be found at home.

Having stayed at home for far too long recently, Julian felt that coming out once in a while was actually quite nice.

The surrounding noise, the chatter of people talking, and the lively atmosphere all sounded rather pleasant to him now.

"I'm planning to make a trip to the Primal Secret Realm. Anything I should watch out for?" Pierce asked.

At his current level, if he wanted to improve further, one option was to rely on steady accumulation over time.

That method was stable and safe, but it took far too long.

Generally speaking, it took several years just to advance a single level. He wasn't some seventy or eighty-year-old trainer; he was only in his thirties and still at the stage of striving forward aggressively.

Moreover, as Julian's friend, he had already fallen far behind him.

If he couldn't even become a Champion, then perhaps in the future he wouldn't even qualify to stand beside Julian as a supporting character.

So in order to quickly increase his strength, Top-tier Secret Realms and Primal Secret Realms were his best options. And compared to Top-tier Secret Realms, he preferred the Primal Secret Realm more.

The Primal Secret Realm had already begun opening access to domestic Pseudo-Champion trainers.

Of course, not every Pseudo-Champion was eligible to enter. Approval from the higher authorities was required.

As for Elite trainers, entering alone was almost impossible. After all, there were simply too many Elite-level Pokémon inside the Primal Secret Realm.

"With your strength, as long as you stay out of the King's Domain, you'll be fine," Julian said.

He had known about the Primal Secret Realm being opened to Pseudo-Champions for a while—in fact, he was one of the people who had approved the decision.

Although Pierce was only a mid-stage Pseudo-Champion, the strength of the three Regis allowed them to contend against even late-stage Pseudo-Champion opponents.

And the three Regis also possessed the combination move.

Once they used that move, even Peak Pseudo-Champion Pokémon could potentially be defeated.

Therefore, as long as Pierce didn't do something stupid like provoking a Champion-level Pokémon and entering the King's Domain, he was unlikely to encounter any real danger in the Primal Secret Realm.

"As if I'd go there." Pierce rolled his eyes.

He knew exactly how strong he was. Picking a fight with Champion-level Pokémon would be nothing short of seeking death.

The two of them spent a little over two hours eating barbecue. By the time they finished, it was around ten o'clock at night.

"Ready to head back?" Pierce asked after seeing Julian pay the bill.

Judging by his tone, he seemed to have other plans. Julian raised an eyebrow. "You've got something else in mind?"

"Wanna hit a bar? I heard Blue Whisper Bar is pretty famous in Lake City."

When he said that, there was a hint of excitement in Pierce's voice.

"It is pretty famous," Julian nodded.

The Walker family naturally had no interest in small businesses like bars, but he vaguely remembered that this particular bar was owned by one of the Walker family's affiliated clans.

The reason he remembered it was because he had a VVVIP membership card for the place.

Just by showing that card, you could get everything on the house, and you could even just shout "drinks are on me for everyone" and that would be perfectly fine.

Thinking about it, someone had given him the card several years ago at a banquet. A middle-aged man, if he remembered correctly.

And Julian had never used it even once.

"Alright, let's go. My treat."

Thinking of that, Julian patted his chest confidently.

So the two of them hailed a cab to Blue Whisper Bar.

The trip took about half an hour, and by the time they arrived, it was already past ten.

At this hour, the bar already had quite a few people, though it hadn't reached the truly lively peak yet—the crowd would hit its max around midnight.

The two of them sat down directly at the bar counter.

Julian rarely came to places like this, it could even be said that he almost never did. The booming music filled his ears, along with the dazzling lights flickering overhead—and of course, there were plenty of girls around.

Under the stimulation of alcohol and music, you'd find no shortage of players and party girls here. If you weren't careful, you might just run into a walking biohazard.

Sipping a cocktail, Julian chatted with Pierce on and off.

"Hey handsome, can you buy me a drink?" A pretty girl came up beside Pierce, looking at him with a coy, sweet expression.

And Pierce, like a seasoned bar pro, gently wrapped an arm around her waist and smiled, "Of course."

Julian felt that there had to be something wrong with the woman's eyesight.

No matter how he looked at it, whether in terms of appearance or temperament, he was clearly superior to Pierce—so why go for Pierce and not him?

Definitely bad eyes.

Although if she had approached him, he probably would have pushed her away.

Seeing Pierce shoot him a smug look, Julian pursed his lips.

This kind of woman wasn't his type anyway. And not that he cared. Definitely didn't care.

After muttering that to himself, Julian quietly continued sipping his drink.

*****

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The Land of Extreme Ice was a Special Advanced-level secret realm with the Ice-typing. It was one of Drakoria's eighteen Special Advanced-level secret realms and was located in the northeastern region of the country.

At the same time, one of Drakoria's eighteen National-Level Gyms, the Ice-type Gym, was situated near the Land of Extreme Ice.

Its Gym Leader was Anthony, a seventy-year-old Ice Elite who ranked tenth on the Elite Rankings and was also the current head of the Willow family.

The Willow family was one of Drakoria's major Ice-type clans and currently stood at the pinnacle of Ice-type trainers within the country.

At the very center of the Land of Extreme Ice stood a colossal iceberg over ten thousand meters tall.

As for how deep the iceberg extended beneath the surface, no one knew even now.

Centered around the iceberg was an endless expanse of pure white frozen earth, with boundless cold enveloping the entire Land of Extreme Ice.

The temperature was distributed according to distance from the iceberg. The farther one moved away from it, the warmer it became.

Even so, the temperature at the outermost regions remained around minus ten degrees Celsius.

Near the iceberg itself, temperatures could drop to minus fifty or sixty degrees Celsius. At such temperatures, even some Ice-type Pokémon struggled to endure.

As a result, the closer a Pokémon lived to the iceberg, the stronger it generally was.

However, over the past six months, the temperature throughout the Land of Extreme Ice had been steadily dropping.

The outermost areas, which had previously been around minus ten degrees Celsius, had now dropped to more than minus twenty degrees.

And the temperature around the central iceberg had fallen even further.

Because of this continuous temperature drop, a large number of Pokémon had begun migrating outward.

Even some Ice-type Pokémon that had originally lived near the iceberg had started moving toward the outer regions because they could no longer withstand the increasingly harsh cold.

This outward migration caused a significant increase in the number of Pokémon living in the peripheral regions, yet food and resources remained limited.

As a result, the Ice-type Pokémon that had originally inhabited the outskirts found survival becoming even more difficult.

So in order to survive, some Ice-type Pokémon had no choice but to leave the secret realm and pass through the realm gate into the outside world.

Most Pokémon living inside secret realms would never willingly leave, because the energy within the realms was better suited to their survival.

If they chose to leave, it generally meant that something had gone wrong with the secret realm itself, or that they could no longer survive there and were forced to seek a new home outside.

At this moment, more than ten thousand Swinub had gathered near the secret realm gate.

The territory where they had originally lived had already been seized by a group of much stronger Bergmite.

Even if they wanted to migrate elsewhere, it was useless. Any place that had food had already been occupied by stronger Pokémon.

So if they wanted to survive, their only option was to leave the secret realm.

However, the realm gate was currently being blocked by a Pseudo-Champion Glaceon.

The powerful aura emanating from it prevented the Swinub from advancing. They didn't even dare attempt to force their way through.

For wild Pokémon, when facing stronger opponent, most would instinctively retreat—that was their way of survival.

"Distribute the food first."

Looking at the Swinub before him, all in poor condition, Anthony, dressed in a thick winter coat, spoke to his subordinates.

"Yes, sir!"

His subordinates immediately began handing out food.

The Swinub hadn't had a proper meal in quite some time. Now that they finally had food to eat, much of the anxiety in their hearts eased.

Filling one's stomach was the first requirement for survival.

That hold true for both humans and Pokémon.

Throughout history, whenever commoners rebelled against a dynasty, it was because they couldn't get enough food and were on the verge of starving to death.

If you gave them food—not even enough to be full, just enough not to starve—they wouldn't rebel.

Rebellions happened only when there was no way left to live.

The same principle applied to the Swinub. Without their territory, they no longer had a stable food source, and under those circumstances, they had no choice but to leave the secret realm.

Although a Pseudo-Champion Glaceon was currently guarding the realm gate, preventing them from passing through, that situation wouldn't last forever.

As time passed and hunger continued to grow, especially once some of them began starving to death, they would no longer care whether the Glaceon was stronger than them or not.

They would desperately try to get out no matter the cost.

Several batches of weaker Ice-type Pokémon had already left previously.

Because their numbers were relatively small and their strength was limited, Anthony had quickly arranged for them to be relocated to other secret realms under his management.

But the number of Swinub was simply too great—there were forty to fifty thousand of them altogether.

A population of this size couldn't simply be placed into another secret realm—or even several secret realms.

Doing so would severely disrupt the ecological balance of those realms. As a result, they could only continue keeping the Swinub here for the time being.

However, this was not a long-term solution.

The temperature in the Land of Extreme Ice was still steadily dropping.

Right now, it was the Swinub losing their territory and wanting to seek survival in the outside world. But before long, it could very well be the Bergmite who had taken their territory coming next.

Driven out of their territory by stronger Ice-type Pokémon, they would then follow the same path as the Swinub.

As the temperature continued to fall, situations like this were absolutely unavoidable, and would only get worse.

Eventually, if even higher-level Pokémon started trying to leave, then even though Anthony was a Pseudo-Champion, he would be powerless to stop them.

Therefore, finding the reason behind the falling temperatures was the true key to solving this disaster.

Watching the Swinub finally calm down after filling their stomachs, Anthony secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

However, a report from one of his staff members immediately caused his expression to become serious again.

"Gym Leader, the temperature has dropped another three degrees."

The day before yesterday, the temperature had been around minus twenty-one degrees Celsius, but now it had reached minus twenty-four degrees.

Almost every few days, the temperature within the Land of Extreme Ice would decrease further—by three or four degrees at the outermost edges and by over a dozen degrees at the very center.

If they couldn't find the cause of the continuous cooling, then following the current trend, the temperature of the Land of Extreme Ice would eventually fall to a level where even Ice-type Pokémon could no longer survive.

And there were over a hundred million Ice-type Pokémon living in this secret realm. What would happen to them?

If they weren't allowed to leave, they would eventually freeze to death here.

But if they were allowed to leave, no one knew how to accommodate such an enormous population of Ice-type Pokémon.

So the answer remained the same as before: they had to find the cause of the temperature drop.

Solve that problem, and this disaster would naturally be resolved as well.

"Gym Leader, a group of Spheal is heading this way."

Bad news came practically one after another. Just as the Swinub situation was dealt with, here came another group.

"How many?" Anthony asked.

"About over a thousand."

Anthony let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the number wasn't too large.

If the population had reached the scale of the Swinub group, then the daily food consumption alone would have been astronomical.

"Dylan, go handle it," Anthony said to a middle-aged man beside him—his eldest son.

And Dylan was the father of Rowan, one of Julian's few close friends.

"Understood. I'll handle it right away," Dylan nodded and left.

*****

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