Chapter 251: The S-Class Ground (Rock) Secret Realm in Northern Huaguo

Chapter 251: The S-Class Ground (Rock) Secret Realm in Northern Huaguo

"In this world, as long as you're strong enough, you can ignore any rules."

Gengar's eerie voice echoed through the room.

It had high hopes for Hikaru.

That confidence in him had been there since Mizuki City.

Watching Hikaru grow step by step to where he was now, it felt a sense of accomplishment.

If compared to humans, this feeling could probably be described as "nurturing".

However, Hikaru wasn't swayed by Gengar's words. Instead, he fell into silence.

This wasn't even related to the issue that had been troubling him.

Moreover, he was a citizen of Huaguo.

At best, he was only a Master-level trainer right now.

He still had respect for rules and laws.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have always chosen to avoid city areas when riding Latias.

"Kehehehe…"

Seeing Hikaru unmoved, Gengar chuckled.

At first, when it arrived in the human world, it found the concept of rules utterly bizarre.

Among Pokémon, strength alone determined status.

The strongest Pokémon in the wild were the ones who dictated the rules—absolute power meant absolute authority.

But in the human world, all sorts of rules were put in place to protect weaker people.

At first, it found this hard to understand.

But over time, Gengar realized—

Even in the human world, status and strength were still closely connected.

It was just less obvious.

Talented trainers received widespread recognition and had the opportunity to gain power and influence.

Hikaru was a perfect example.

After winning the High School League Championship, universities competed to recruit him.

The Hayashi Clan was another example.

With access to Dragon Island Secret Realm and their Dragon Affinity, they consistently produced elite trainers.

And with their powerful Dragonite, their status as a Pokémon lineage family would never fall.

"Hmm…"

Hikaru nodded slightly at Gengar's words.

"Kid, keep working hard. One day, you'll understand what I mean."

Seeing Hikaru's indifferent attitude, Gengar didn't push further.

It simply faded into the wall, disappearing completely.

The flickering lights in the room returned to normal.

With Gengar gone, Latias returned to her human form, sat beside Hikaru, and patted his shoulder with concern.

She had never seen Hikaru look so lost before.

"I'm fine."

Hikaru gave Latias a reassuring smile.

Even if he didn't agree with most of what Gengar had said,

One thing did resonate with him—the need to become stronger.

That much, he could agree with.

He shifted his focus to his next plan.

After some thought, he glanced at the Mega Evolution Keystone on his wrist.

Taking out his phone, he logged into an academic research site and registered a research paper titled "The Hypothesis of Mega Evolution After Charizard."

However, instead of publishing it immediately, he saved it in his drafts.

Mega Evolution…

To the scientific community, that would be too shocking.

Besides, with more Pokémon to care for, Hikaru was starting to feel a financial strain.

If he were in the wild, it wouldn't be an issue—he could find secret treasures and craft energy cubes himself.

But now, in Kyoto, he had to buy rare ingredients for his Pokémon.

And buying secret treasures… required money.

Sure, he could make money by selling energy cubes, but that method was too slow and required constant effort.

Hikaru found that annoying.

A one-time big payday would be much better.

And Mega Evolution gave him the perfect idea.

Before publishing his research, he planned to collect as many Mega Evolution Keystones as possible.

Then, after revealing Mega Evolution to the world, he could sell the Keystones at a high price.

A simple but effective plan.

Given the impact Mega Evolution would have, if everything went smoothly, he could make a fortune.

He had been thinking about this for a long time.

His only problem was finding a way to acquire Keystones.

As for why he hadn't asked Team Rocket to search for them…

The Elite Team Rocket member (Randa) had stayed for too short a time, and Hikaru hadn't thought about it in time.

"I need a way to find Mega Evolution Keystones in the real world…"

Hikaru picked up his phone and searched for mountainous secret realms.

Generally, mountain regions had a high chance of containing Ground-type and Rock-type treasures.

And if he was lucky, some of them might include Mega Evolution Keystones.

He had already seen evidence of this in New Rock Town.

However, before he could look anything up, a GreenBubble notification popped up.

It was a group chat invitation—

Hayashi Mei had added him to the Battle (Class 18) group chat.

As soon as he joined, the group chat became lively.

[Actually Too Beautiful]: "Huh? A new member joining this late?"

[Greed, Hatred, Ignorance]: "And it's a guy?"

[Even Caterpie Has Big Dreams]: "Holy crap! It's this year's High School League Champion—Hikaru!!"

[Pokémon Master]: "No way. That Hikaru? The one who took a leave of absence?"

[Fox White Immortal]: "Impossible, right? No one announced which university he joined."

[I Want to Catch a Groudon]: "Just ask him or Mei-jie! @Hikaru @Hayashi Mei."

"Yeah, @Hayashi Mei, Mei-jie, tell us~"

[Hayashi Mei]: "I don't know. Ask him yourself."

Hikaru found it amusing and played along.

[Hikaru]: "I don't know. Ask me yourself."

[It's Sakura]: "I don't know. Ask me yourself."

After that, everyone in the group started copying the message.

As expected, human nature was just mimicking each other.

It took a while before someone finally broke the chain reaction.

[Fox White Immortal]: "This newcomer is interesting. Anyway, we'll see you tomorrow, Hikaru. Then we'll know if you're really the Hikaru."

Closing the chat, Hikaru switched to the Secret Realm Index app.

He searched for secret realms in Huaguo.

With his Perfect Memory trait, it didn't take long to memorize the key locations.

There were five S-Class Ground and Rock-type secret realms in Huaguo.

Most of them were in the far north, where Ground-type and Rock-type treasures were abundant.

There was even an entire gambling system built around mining these treasures.

It worked just like the mystery stone rewards system in New Rock Town.

Traders displayed unprocessed stones for sale, and inside those stones were secret treasures.

However, the quality of those treasures depended on the buyer's ability to evaluate the stones.

Realizing this, Hikaru's eyes lit up.

This was perfect!

Not only did he have Aura Power to detect hidden items,

But he also had Detection Eye.

This was basically free treasure for him.

Tyranitar's evolutionary food source was secured!

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