As Brad walked out of the hospital room with a heavy expression, Nicole and her mother immediately approached him.
Even though they didn’t have medical knowledge, the scene they had just witnessed in the hospital room, along with Brad’s "I’ve already done my best" expression, had already given them a bad feeling.
Still, they held onto a sliver of hope, hoping to hear the words they wanted from Brad’s mouth.
Neither mother nor daughter spoke.
John bluntly asked, “Brad, can you cure Old Duke or not? Just say it already—don’t stand there looking like you just lost your parents.”
Brad was already used to John’s rough way of speaking. Back when John was still the Steel Elite, he had listened to this kind of talk for years.
“I want to know who poisoned Champion Duke,” Brad asked.
He firmly believed that when it came to poison, he was second to none. Even on a global scale, he was definitely among the very best.
“It was Murano from Babath, his Arbok bit the old man,” John replied.
Hearing this, Brad’s expression changed slightly. “Murano’s Arbok? I know that one, but as far as I’m aware, its venom shouldn’t be this potent.”
Among Poison-type Pokémon, Arbok’s toxin wasn’t considered particularly deadly—its upper limit was relatively moderate.
That’s why Brad was so surprised that Duke had been poisoned by an Arbok, and even he couldn’t neutralize it.
“That Arbok was probably genetically modified,” John said, recalling its unusual appearance. Some changes in its body clearly weren’t something a normal Arbok should have.
"So that's how it is," Brad nodded in realization.
Genetic modification was something many countries secretly researched. Even though all nations publicly called for a ban on genetic tampering, claiming it went against the natural order.
The louder they condemned it, the more they were likely researching it themselves.
Even Drakoria was no exception.
Combining genetic modification with the abilities of Pokémon, if successful, could yield unimaginable benefits.
The country leading in this field was Celestria.
Three years ago, a genetically modified Hydreigon had escaped from a laboratory in Celestria. Not only was it at the Champion level, but after rampaging through several cities, it eventually collapsed and died.
That incident caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Celestria.
The event was a global sensation at the time.
Rumors suggested that the Hydreigon had undergone genetic modification, allowing it to break through to the Champion level, but in the process, it lost its sanity.
Now, if the Arbok that bit Duke was also genetically modified, its venom’s toxicity might have already exceeded Brad’s understanding.
And because foreign genes had been introduced, the Arbok’s venom might have undergone some unknown transformation.
“Enough nonsense, just tell me—how is Old Duke?” John demanded.
Brad hesitated for a moment, glanced at Nicole and her mother, then slowly said, “With my current abilities, I can’t neutralize Champion Duke’s poison.”
“I thought the silver needles had already purified the toxin, but I didn’t expect that was only the surface-level poison. A much larger amount of venom is hidden deep in his internal organs. And worse, because of my earlier actions, the poison has become even more aggressive.”
“I had my Drapion use Acupressure to temporarily block the poison’s spread, but it will only last for three hours.”
“If we don’t find a solution within that time, Champion Duke’s body will be completely corroded by the venom.”
“He’s lucky to have a rare treasure keeping him alive. Otherwise, with how potent this toxin is, he would have died on the spot.”
Originally, they estimated that the treasure’s power could sustain him for three days. But after Brad intervention, it could now only last three hours.
Even Brad wasn’t sure how to explain himself—he feared Nicole and her mother would misunderstand.
John roared angrily when he heard this, “I don’t want to hear all that! Just hurry up and find a way to cure him!”
Meanwhile, Nicole and her mother had already collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Despite John’s demanding tone, Brad remained calm and replied, “I’ll go discuss this with some colleagues immediately.”
“You shouldn’t just stand around either. Go check the national treasury—see if there’s anything in there that can save Champion Duke.”
Drakoria’s treasury held countless treasures, each valuable enough to make Elite-level Trainers fight over them. Among them were rare elemental treasures.
However, most of these treasures were only effective for Pokémon. Those that worked on humans were extremely rare.
Therefore, treasures of this category were among the most expensive in existence.
“I’ll go right now,” John said.
Brad’s words had reminded him—perhaps there really was something in the Drakoria’s treasury that could save Duke, without another word, he rushed out.
But halfway down the hall, he suddenly stopped, turned back to Julian, and said, "My dear grandson, you stay here. Remember—aside from Dr. Reid and Brad, no one else is allowed to enter this room.”
John left, but the surrounding security remained as strong as ever.
Even though Julian couldn’t see them, he could feel powerful Aura hidden throughout the floor, watching over the area.
If any fool tried to cause trouble here, they would be done for—except for a Champion, of course.
Leaning against the wall, Julian looked at the crying mother and daughter pair but said nothing to comfort them. After all, the person lying inside wasn’t his relative.
Rather than offering empty words of comfort, he preferred to take action.
Looking at the system shop, Julian saw that an antidote for humans was being sold for 10,000 points. Meanwhile, a standard antidote for Pokémon only cost 100 points, and even the most expensive one was just 1,000 points.
'Damn it! Once it was for human use, the price shot up to 10,000 points?!'
That being said, anything in the system shop related to human medicine was always far more expensive than its Pokémon counterpart.
Right now, he had just over 50,000 points. His main source of income was daily missions, which gave him around 800 points per day.
But his expenses were just as high, just the Pokéblocks for his Pokémon cost him 500 points per day.
Relying on daily missions alone wouldn’t get him far. Most of his current points had come from main quests, temporary missions, and hidden tasks.
If his grandfather and the others truly couldn’t save Duke, then he would step in himself.
Although spending 10,000 points would hurt, but saving the strongest Champion of Drakoria was definitely worth it.
The real problem was figuring out where this antidote came from. After all, even Brad couldn’t cure the poison—so if he just pulled out an antidote that worked, it would be suspicious.
Julian never doubted whether the antidote could actually cure Duke, anything from the system was guaranteed to work.
The only issue was how to explain it.
Maybe he could say he found it on the streets.
After all, he had already “found” a Dratini with Purple-grade potential, so “finding” a miraculous antidote shouldn’t be that strange, right?
If people still doubted him, he could just say Mewtwo gave it to him.
A First-Class Legendary Pokémon gifting him a bottle of antidote? That sounded reasonable enough.
Julian thought both of these excuses were fine, he’d just pick one when the time came.
As for the 10,000 points, he would slowly deduct it from Celebi’s food budget over the next ten years, that should cover it.
Upto 30 chapters ahead on :-