The exploration team consisted of fifty members, led by Norman, the Psychic-type Elite among the Eighteen Elites, whose strength was at the peak of the Pseudo-Champion level.
In addition to him, the team included two other early-stage Pseudo-Champions and three peak Elite-level trainers.
These six formed the backbone of the team's safety.
With them around, they could even put up a fight against an early-stage Champion-level Pokémon.
The remaining forty-four members were experts from over a dozen fields, including Pokémon researchers, geologists, botanists, and other specialists.
The team had already been inside the Ruin for a month. Much like Julian before them, they had immediately realized upon entering that this was a Technological Ruin—and the scholars and specialists could hardly contain their excitement.
Based on past experience, Technological Ruins tended to provide the greatest benefits to any nation.
Inside, they discovered cars without wheels, skyscrapers that still had power, and other signs that the technology here was far more advanced than their current world's—by at least a hundred years.
This discovery thrilled the research team.
True to their reputation, the team was made up of real elites. In just one month of organized, methodical exploration, they had already mapped out nearly half of the city within this technological ruin.
They left no building unexplored—not even the residential ones.
Though they encountered dangers along the way, the Psychic-type Elite handled them effortlessly.
And the amount of technological data they had recovered was immense.
"Porygon says some of the data here shows signs of intrusion. And during our stay, we've indeed found servers and mainframes that have been damaged," reported an expert in electronic information systems as they took a midday rest inside one of the skyscrapers.
Metagross's method of hacking into servers was crude, naturally leaving behind obvious traces.
The only reason certain servers hadn't been destroyed was because they didn't contain any information on three particular technologies: spatial backpack systems, tenth-generation solar power, and magnetic levitation.
But every single server that was destroyed, however, had at least one of those three.
"You mean someone's been here before us?"
The speaker was Professor Oliver, head of the research team—one of Drakoria's top scientific authorities, with enough standing to speak directly to the Elders Council.
This wasn't his first Ruin expedition. In fact, Poké Ball transfer technology had been something he'd personally brought back from another Ruin, and it had taken him eight years of research to perfect it.
"That's right," the expert replied. "The cars here clearly use magnetic levitation, yet we haven't found a single document on the technology."
"And there are also some related literary records mentioning space-bagpack technology—we haven't found those either. The same goes for any data related to energy systems."
"Some servers were deliberately destroyed, and they must have contained this kind of information. Those records were definitely taken by that person."
"Professor Oliver, Elite Norman—there's no doubt about it. Someone entered this ruin ahead of us and carried out destructive extraction!" The man clenched his fist in frustration.
When the authorities had first discovered this site, Drakoria's officials had immediately assembled an exploration team. But whether someone had entered before its official discovery was still unknown.
"This ruin is located inside the lair of a late-stage Champion-level Tyranitar. If someone really got here before us, their strength must have been at least Champion level," Norman said quietly.
Their own team had only managed to enter because John had lured that Tyranitar away for them.
If someone else had come first… well, if it was a whole team, perhaps they didn't need to be Champion-level—numbers alone could be used to distract the Tyranitar and get inside.
But if it had been just one person… then they could very well have been a Champion.
"Unlikely. None of our Champions entered, and it would be impossible for a foreign Champion to slip into our territory without us knowing."
Professor Oliver shook his head. Drakoria had only six Champions, and there were no secret or hidden ones. That ruled out the possibility that the intruder was a Champion.
"As long as it's not a Champion, Elite Norman can handle them," someone said confidently.
Norman nodded.
Against a true Champion-level trainer, even their combined strength might not be enough—unless the opponent was only early-stage Champion with a single Champion-level Pokémon.
"Nicole, what are you thinking about?"
Professor Oliver noticed his youngest student, Nicole, seemed lost in thought and couldn't help but ask.
Nicole had joined the expedition through one of her teacher's five allocated slots. As for any danger in the Ruin—she wasn't particularly concerned.
"Nothing," Nicole shook her head.
Before Julian left for the Ruin, he'd mentioned his expedition to her.
At the time, Nicole had assumed Julian was going to an already-discovered Ruin.
But now… she felt that the Ruin he'd gone to was this newly discovered one.
After all, this Ruin was located in the lair of the Champion-level Tyranitar in Hara Desert.
And the place where Julian had found the Glossy Ganoderma… was also here. There was a strong chance that when he had found the Glossy Ganoderma, he had also stumbled upon this new Ruin.
After all Julian himself had told Nicole exactly where he'd found the treasure.
Combine that with Porygon's report that the servers had been violently hacked—wasn't that exactly the work of a Metagross?
Which was why Nicole suspected that the person who entered the ruin before them… was Julian.
But she didn't say it out loud—after all, she didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble.
"Nicole, you're not feeling unwell, are you?"
The speaker was also one of Professor Oliver's students, two years older than Nicole, and was now looking at her with an expression of concern.
Nicole was stunning—tall, elegant, with a figure that turned heads. Even though she'd made it clear that Julian was her boyfriend, many still pursued her—and this guy was one of them.
For months, Nicole had been buried in research and lectures at Imperial University. Since he was her senior, they often crossed paths.
Naturally, he noticed that Julian had never come to visit her. He had even asked her about it, but she only replied that Julian was busy.
He suspected that there were problems in their relationship. Even if there weren't, Julian was a trainer, and just one trip to a secret realm could take at least half a year—completely cutting off contact during that time.
That's why the partners of trainers had the highest rate of infidelity.
The second-highest? The partners of Pokémon scholars—after all, when a scholar got deep into research, they could also vanish for days or months at a time.
So, naturally, he saw an opening.
"I'm fine," Nicole shook her head.
She understood perfectly well what he was thinking, but even if she and Julian weren't together, she would never be interested in someone like him.
"Alright. Let me know if you need anything."
He backed off smoothly—no desperate simpering, just strategic retreat.
The mark of a high-IQ simp.
*****
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