Chapter 632: Offer

At this moment, under deliberate sabotage by certain parties, seven or eight locations across Verdance City had already descended into chaos. Fortunately, it was around the early hours of the morning, so most people were at home resting.

Still, the explosions in the city center had startled many from their sleep.

The Inspection Bureau, the Supervisory Bureau, the Trainers Association—every available force in Verdance City had been mobilized.

Government officials sat grim-faced as reports poured in from across the city. The repeated emergence of unknown pseudo-Elite Pokémon had completely disrupted their coordinated response.

"What's the situation with the major families?" a high-ranking official asked.

"Led by the Larch family, they've already taken action. It shouldn't be long before those Pokémon causing the disturbance are brought under control," an aide quickly replied.

The government naturally had its own pseudo-Elite trainers, but they had all been dispatched to the city center to deal with the self-destructing Pokémon.

The explosions there had already caused massive structural damage, with casualties exceeding a thousand. Under such circumstances, only pseudo-Elite trainers could handle the situation.

As for Elite-level Trainers, aside from the few that belonged to the major families, the only one in Verdance City's government was the head of the Trainers Association.

And he wasn't even in the city right now.

While the government rushed to suppress the unrest and stabilize public panic, they also had to investigate the disappearance of Julian and track down the beef intestine restaurant's proprietress.

---

In Lake City

Jake immediately bolted upright in bed after receiving his father's call.

"What's wrong?" Tina murmured sleepily beside him.

"There's some disturbance at the secret realm. I need to go take a look," Jake said calmly as he dressed, his expression unreadable.

"Oh… Be careful," she mumbled before drifting back to sleep.

"Got it."

Once in the backyard, Jake recalled all of his Pokémon into their Poké Balls and mounted his Salamence.

"Fly east—maximum speed."

His tone was steady, but Salamence could sense the deep urgency and worry beneath it.

As they soared through the sky, the roaring wind whipped past Jake's ice-cold face.

"You bastards… If anything happens to my son, I'll bury an entire city with you."

---

Meanwhile, deep in the sewers, after walking for another hour, Selina finally called for a rest. Her face was pale, and the wound on her shoulder—where the Rattata had bitten her—was still oozing blood.

She had done some emergency treatment, but in the damp, sweltering environment of the sewers, coupled with constant movement, it was no surprise the wound hadn't stopped bleeding.

"Let's take a break," Selina exhaled.

Then she walked over to the Machamp and said coldly:

"How long are you going to keep pretending? By my calculations, you should've woken up half an hour ago."

Julian: 'How would I know when I was supposed to wake up? It's not like you actually knocked me out.'

So he had simply kept pretending to be unconscious.

Now that the woman had called him out, he figured it was time to "wake up." Besides, pretending to be asleep was starting to get tiring.

Hearing her words, Julian finally opened his eyes and looked calmly at the rather disheveled woman in front of him.

His hands were tied, and Machamp was still standing nearby. On top of that, Ditto was still covering his face, altering his appearance. With no Pokémon visible on him, the woman clearly didn't believe Julian could escape.

"Never thought just eating some grilled beef intestines would lead to walking straight into a spy's trap." Julian spoke indifferently, as if just making small talk.

Seeing how unnervingly calm he was—no panic, no fear, not even a flicker of distress despite being kidnapped—Selina couldn't help but regard him with newfound respect.

"If you hadn't come, I might've lived an ordinary life forever. Running that shop until retirement."

"I was almost starting to forget I was even a spy."

Her voice carried a tinge of regret, a reluctant nostalgia for the life she was leaving behind.

But the moment she kidnapped Julian, there was no going back.

Spies were universally despised, yet every nation relied on them.

Drakoria had spies embedded abroad, just as foreign spies infiltrated Drakoria.

The most heavily infiltrated places were naturally key departments and research institutes, which was why such posts came with intense background checks—even investigating three generations of family history. The spies embedded there were the elite kind.

But this woman… was the lowest tier of spy.

Because she really was just a normal person.

She was a Wyvernian national, who had come to Verdance City as a foreign exchange student during university. It was back then that her country first recruited her.

She studied in Drakoria, fell in love, married a local man. Then, after he died in a traffic accident, she used the compensation money to open her tripe restaurant.

All those years, she maintained only one-way contact with her handler, just annual check-ins.

In truth, she was a woman living an ordinary life under a spy's label, never once engaging in actual espionage.

Until tonight.

Until Howard brought Julian to her restaurant.

She could've chosen not to act—after all, her superiors had no idea Julian was even there.

But she still did it.

Because she wanted to see her parents and daughter again—back in Wyvernia.

A spy with this much freedom? Of course her country needed leverage to keep her in line.

And her family was that chain around her neck.

"You really can't guard against everything," Julian sighed.

Even though she was just a low-level spy, she was the hardest kind to root out—because at the end of the day, she was just a regular person.

There was no evidence—no trail of suspicious behavior—to suggest she was a spy.

Just as she said—unless someone of national importance walked into her shop, she could have lived out her entire life as an ordinary woman.

She might have even died without anyone ever knowing she had once been a spy.

It was like going out to eat or shop—for all you know, the shopkeeper or the server could be a spy from another country.

But because you're just an average person, you're of no value to them.

Julian, however, was different.

He had a father who was a Pseudo-Champion, and a grandfather who was an actual Champion.

And he himself was extremely gifted.

Capturing him might not shake the entire Drakoria, but it would undeniably influence a Champion's actions.

Julian could only sigh at his luck.

'Out of all the late-night snack joints in the city, I had to walk into a spy's front operation. What kind of luck is this?'

"Are Howard and Raina alright?"

He asked, thinking of the two who had been slumped over unconscious at the table when he was taken. The shopping center had also caught fire—undoubtedly the work of this woman.

"They'll be fine. The fire I set was small, and firefighters were already arriving when I took you. It shouldn't have harmed Howard or Raina."

They were her regulars. Her friends, even.

But now… none of that mattered anymore.

"How about this—let me go, and I'll give you anything you want," Julian offered.

Of course, he said this purely to mislead her—playing the role of a desperate captive.

If he didn't at least try to bargain, she might suspect he had some hidden plan. After all, a truly cornered person would grasp at any lifeline… right?

*****

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