In Haitian City, within the rge courtyard of the Miller family, the Miller family stood as the most iial family in Haitian City. Their status extehroughout Drakoria, with signifit influence across the try. The family primarily engaged in business, with enterprises spanning the globe and colborations with other promi families.

  Within the family, there were several Trainers at the Elite level, though their ranks were not particurly high.

  At this moment, inside a hidden chamber within the Miller family estate, the family head and three Elite-level Trainers were staring at a Pokémon egg pced inside an incubator.

  The egg was emitting a soft, bluish glow, its light rising and falling rhythmically like o waves.

  "Big Brother, the egg really seems like it's about to hatch. That person wasn't lying!" said a middle-aged man, his face full of excitement.

  "A huop-tier Water Stones, along with various rare Water-type resources—only then could we evehis egg to hatch. This Pokémon must be a mythical endary Water-type!"

  The man addressed as "Big Brother" was Erick Miller, the current patriarch of the Miller family. In his fifties but well-maintained, he carried a dignified presehe speaker was his third younger brother, Derek Miller one of the family's three Elite-level Trainers.

  The other two Elite Trainers were from their grandfather's geion, both in their seventies.

  "If it really is a mythical Water-type Pokémon, then heaven is blessing our Miller family," one of the elderly Trainers said, his voice trembling with excitement, his face flushed.

  Looking at his state, one might worry he'd colpse from sheer enthusiasm.

  "With a Pokémon like this, o's fully traihe Drake family, the Walker family, and the others who've been bleeding us dry will no longer dare to oppress us!" Derek said grimly, smashing the gss of water he held to the floor.

  Gring at the shattered remains, he seemed to envision the downfall of the families that had bullied the Miller family, breaking them into pieces just like the gss.

  The Miller family, being a business family, ranked among the top three in Drakoria in terms of wealth. However, their ck of strength was a gring weakness. With only three Elite-level Trainers— the peak.

  Despite their immense wealth, their limited strength made them a prime target for exploitation. For the sake of survival, the Miller family had no choice but to endure silently, yielding to the demands of the more powerful families.

  More than half of the wealth the Miller family geed was handed over to these oppressors.

  Initially, they thought this would be enough to appease the other families, but the Miller family had uimated their greed. Ohe others tasted easy gains, they baogether to stifle the Miller family's growth.

  Over the years, any promising talent in the Miller family met untimely ends, all uhe guise of acts.

  Once or twice might have been tal, but as the deaths mounted, even a fool could see the Miller family was being deliberately targeted.

  Otherwise, with the Miller family's resources—despite giving away more than half—they still had enough to cultivate at least one or two Elite-level Trainers at their peak.

  The promi families didn't stop the Miller family from amassih, but they firmly restricted their development as Pokémon Trainers.

  Their unspoken rule: 'A treasure trove must remain just that—a source of wealth. If a treasure trove dares to grow fangs, we'll break its hands before it picks up a sword.'

  At the forefront of these oppressors were the Drake family and the Walker family.

  Yes, the Walker family—the same one Julian hailed from.

  As mentioned before, no promi family is without its shadows. To eheir long term survival and dominance, methods involvi, ruthlessness, and darkness are unavoidable.

  The Walker and Drake families rose to their status by leeg off weaker families, growing stro their expense.

  They allied with slightly less powerful families to suppress and exploit those beh them.

  Of course, the prerequisite for achieving all of this is absolute strength.

  The Walker family might have a small number of members, but eae is incredibly powerful.

  John Walker—though beled ae Trainer—has already reached the peak of pseudo-Champion level and is regarded as Drakoria's best hope of breaking through to Champion rank.

  Jake Walker, a national-level Gym Leader, is at the peak of the Elite rank.

  With these two individuals, the Walker family, despite its small size, remains one of the top families in Drakoria.

  Now, with the rise of the third geion, Julian Walker shined brightly. His extraordinary talent surpassed even that of his predecessors.

  "Big Brother, what's wrong?"

  Ren noticed his elder brother's furrowed brows and asked curiously.

  "The person who told us how to hatch this Pokémon egg must have their own motives. We're businessmen; we know there's no such thing as a free lunch," Erick replied.

  Hearing this, Derek hough his gaze lingered on the egg, which radiated a pulsating blue glow. Greed and longing flickered in his eyes.

  "But, Big Brother, this egg might really be a mythical endary Water-type Pokémon"

  "No ordinary Pokémon requires over a huop-tier Water Stones and so many Water-type resources just to hatch. Even pseudo-legendary Pokémon hataturally without such a high cost."

  It was true—free lunches don't fall from the sky. Yet, when you're on the brink of starvation and it appears in front of you, even if you know there's a trap, you're still tempted to grab it.

  The trap might be there, invisible and uain, but the meal is tangible and within reach.

  As for the sequences of the trap, if you're already starving, the priority bees eating first and dealing with the fallout ter.

  The Miller family found themselves in a simir predit. Reduced to being the piggy bank for other families, with their promising young Trainers systematically elimihey were desperate.

  Among the victims were the children of Erid Derek themselves.

  The Miller family's hatred for the major families had long been ingrained. Rather than tinuing as their piggy bank while watg their talented offspring perish, they decided to take a gamble.

  Thus, even though they khe mysterious person who told them how to hatch the Pokémon egg might have ulterior motives, the Miller family's desperate circumstances left them no choice but to proceed.

  "Third Brother, has that ruin been discovered?" Erick asked.

  "Don't worry, Big Brother. That ruin is uer. If the exploration team hadn't stumbled upon it by act, it would've remained hidden. I've already dealt with the members of the team, and now only the four of us in the family know about this."

  Secret realms and Ruins be found all over the world.

  However, the majority of them are located in the o, which covers nearly 70% of the p's surface.

  While surface-level ruins and realms are retively easy to discover, if they're outside any nation's maritime territory, they often bee tested by major tries.

  Uer ruins a realms, oher hand, are much harder to locate.

  This is why uer exploration teams—both official and private—came ience.

  When a private exploration team discovers an uer ruin or realm, they may choose to keep it a secret. To maximize short-term gains, they often exploit the site through aggressive aructive methods.

  The Pokémon egg before them was discovered by the Miller family's exploration team in an uer ruin. Strangely, this ruin tained no Pokémon—only the single egg now before them.

  The egg had bee the heart of the ruin, in a structure resembling a temple.