Kai walked through many alleyways, looking carefully for ones with piles of yellow leaves.

  His face and clothes were drenched in sweat after spending the last two hours searching.

  He checked his Pokéwatch; it was 17h45.

  He had 15 minutes left to find her, otherwise he would have to wait for another week before having another opportunity.

  In fact, he didn’t even know if she existed here, or if she was one of the things that changed when this world became a reality.

  She only appeared on Fridays between 16h and 18h in a random place in Viridian, but she was always beside a pile of yellow leaves, with a Leavanny at her side, so if he could only-

  He stopped midthought, for he saw the woman he was searching for.

  Frida of Friday was a blonde woman dressed in a Leavanny cosplay, looking to be in her mid-thirties and giving what he could only describe as “motherly vibes.” More importantly, there was both a Leavanny and a pile of yellow leaves at her side.

  As he approached, he saw a “Lv. 50” floating above Leavanny’s head, which showed the power of this Pokémon and trainer duo.

  “Hello, you seem like a bright young man, would you like to play a little puzzle? If you can solve it, you’ll receive a prize.” The woman took the initiative, talking while flashing a sweet smile.

  Good. It didn’t change.

  He agreed, and soon she presented him with a tablet that showed a pokémon battle between two trainers with 6 pokémon. There was information about the abilities, moves, and items of all Pokémon there, including the ones from his opponent. He needed to choose 3 of his 6 available pokémon and defeat all 6 of his opponent’s.

  Kai didn’t look too deeply at it. After confirming that it was the same puzzle he had solved many times, he quickly chose his team and won, then gave the tablet back to Frida, who looked at him with wide eyes, full of surprise.

  The surprise didn’t last long, though, and she quickly returned to her smiling self.

  “What a surprise! You must be what they call a genius, aren't you?”

  “Not really, I just solved a similar puzzle before,” Kai responded matter-of-factly. When he first faced this puzzle, he took more than 5 tries before solving it, so he was just being truthful.

  “Regardless, you solved it, so you deserved this prize.” Not looking even a little bit convinced by his answer, she readily gave him a belt that also looked like a dumbbell.

  “This is a Macho Brace. You can give it to a Pokémon to increase their training efficiency, but I warn you that it will make them slower.” Frida kindly explained to him.

  So this is what a Macho Brace looks like? Kai moved the item, which quickly tightened around his hand. So it can change sizes according to the Pokémon, that’s nice.

  Having finished his first task, Kai then asked Frida.

  “Do you have any Nest Balls?”

  ***

  The sun threatened to vanish over the horizon, gifting the last light of the day to the inhabitants of Viridian City when Kai left the alley.

  He felt the weight of the 5 Nest Balls he had bought at a discount while sighing at the metaphysical lightness of his wallet.

  While in this mood, he stood there for a moment, admiring the view.

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  There was a special type of charm to a city that would only come out at sunset or sunrise.

  A sunrise signified a new day, new hopes, new opportunities for those lucky enough to enjoy them, a new life maybe. People moved with purpose out of their homes, trying to achieve something, to do something with their lives.

  A sunset, on the other hand, brought with it the end of the day, not yet the death of it, but more like its last moments.

  The elderly day could then look back to what it had accomplished; maybe it was a great day, maybe a bad one, maybe it didn’t do much, and was now filled with regrets, but time moved on, and soon it would die as night came.

  For Kai, it was a melancholic time, and he figured that there were others who felt the same, which was why so many of them rushed back home as the sun disappeared in the sky.

  Watching this scene moved him more than he would have liked.

  He knew why he felt this way, but found it inconvenient to think about it.

  Kai moved through the streets, absorbing the scene without paying too much attention to anything.

  His house was the secret base of the Bug Catcher Group. Sammy had offered to let him live in his house, saying his grandpa wouldn’t mind, but he refused, for he would mind. Kai didn’t like imposing on anyone, and he feared that by staying there, he would be reminded of his own grandparents, something he didn't wish to face at the moment.

  After spending weeks living alone in the Viridian Forest, living in the base didn’t seem so bad. At least he had a roof over his head, and he had to say that Rick had done a damn good job making it.

  It was getting dark, but he still had one last stop before returning to his home, so he walked, not in a rush; there was no need to rush.

  Viridian was a beautiful city- what was the name again? Green City? Forested City?- full of trees and plants mixed with buildings, giving a refreshing and natural feeling to the whole place.

  He could see some Butterfree and Vivillion flying in the sky, returning to some tall trees where they lived. Looking in the distance, he could also see a pair of Venomoths and even more bug species close to the trees.

  The fact that the Viridian Gym wasn't a bug-type gym bothered him a bit. Not because he felt it needed to be or because of a deep love of Bug-type Pokémon- although he had learned to appreciate them after spending some time with his group-, but because it didn’t make much sense otherwise.

  It seemed like the most obvious choice, considering that the Viridian Forest was right there, but maybe making the Team Rocket leader a specialist in the “weakest” pokémon type would not have made for a good game.

  A game. Yes, for him it had been just a game, one that he loved, yes, but still a game.

  On Earth, he had been an orphan. Not a particularly tragic one, mind you. He lived a mundane life until his parents died when he was 12.

  First, his father died of cancer. A slow death that he had quite a few years to prepare himself for, so he wasn’t hit that hard. Maybe he was a cold person, or, like the therapist said, he had suppressed emotions. For him, both seemed reasonable, and knowing which one applied to him wouldn’t change anything in his life, so he didn’t stress over it.

  His mother, on the other hand, died a little bit every day after his father’s funeral, in such a way that a bit over a month later, she also died.

  He wasn’t dumb enough not to realise that the big bubble of emptiness that he felt after that was probably grief over his parents.

  Nor did it escape him that the way he let playing Pokémon ROM hacks turn into his only obsession was a form of escapism, but again, he didn’t care.

  As he stayed in his grandparents' house that summer, he played, and played, and played so many different ROM hacks that he couldn’t even remember which ones he had played anymore.

  It was in this situation that he learned of Pokémon Extreme Red, a ROM hack so difficult that even experienced players struggled to complete it.

  The creator stated that the idea was that only extreme players should be able to complete this game.

  And so, many streamers began to run to see who would be the first to complete it.

  He didn’t believe the rumors at first, attributing them to incompetent and unskilled players who couldn’t even finish a simple difficulty hack.

  Oh, how wrong he was. This thing was a monster of a hack, full of unfair battles that would leave him fuming at the mouth.

  At the same time, it had many new features that made it feel very fresh. He felt challenged, and for the first time in months, alive.

  What followed were weeks of him playing the game, devising strategies, and reading the documents to the point of exhaustion.

  After one month, he completed his first successful run, feeling great about it.

  But this wasn’t enough; completing a vanilla run wasn’t enough to prove anything. To do so, he needed to complete a Nuzlocke run.

  The next year went by, with him dedicating every moment of his spare time to this game.

  Was it worth it? He didn’t know and didn’t really care, because he finally completed it.

  He had completed his first Nuzlocke run of Pokémon Extreme Red.

  He just didn’t expect that, as he was getting ready to set a randomizer and start an Ironman run, he would faint and appear in this world.