◉◉◉◉◉
Silverlake Town, Starter Village.
In the crowded central plaza, space suddenly warped and blurred.
Countless tiny streaks of dazzling white light appeared out of nowhere, drawn inward as if pulled by an invisible vortex.
The scattered light gathered rapidly at the center.
Gradually, the outline of a slender human figure began to take shape.
Golden twin ponytails.
Fair, delicate skin.
Doll-like, finely sculpted features.
The figure that reappeared at the player spawn point was none other than Wendis the girl who had just tried to capture Kael.
Even though her HP had been completely wiped out by Water Gun and she had been sent back to the village, her expression still remained frozen in that moment of panic.
Her arms were raised defensively in front of her.
Her brows were tightly furrowed.
Her eyes squeezed shut.
Her face was pale.
Only when the noisy chatter of nearby players reached her ears did she finally snap out of it.
Her arms slowly lowered.
Her golden eyes filled with disbelief.
"I… lost?"
She had been defeated by a wild Sobble.
Sent straight back to the starting town.
Strangely, instead of frustration, the crushing defeat something she had never experienced in her life ignited a fierce competitiveness deep within her.
The unwillingness.
The frustration of failing to capture Kael—
Only made her obsession stronger.
Ignoring the strange looks from other players around her, Wendis decisively logged out of the game.
She didn't have time to waste.
Every minute she delayed increased the chance that that incredibly rare Sobble would disappear.
---
Hailan City.
Inside a luxurious residential complex.
A blonde girl suddenly sprang up from her soft bed.
She tossed her VR headset aside, slipped into a pair of pink slippers, and rushed out of her room.
"Brother! Brother!"
"Hurry!"
"What is it?"
"A wild Sobble with perfect IVs?"
Jacob stared at his younger sister, who sat before him with an unusually urgent expression.
"It's real, I swear!"
"Believe me!"
Her anxious voice echoed through the spacious living room.
Jacob fell into thought.
First, the source of the information was reliable.
He knew his sister well.
She wasn't the type to joke about something like this, nor would she lie for no reason.
Second, it was unlikely she had misread it.
As a top student about to enter university, identifying a Pokémon's rarity based on system text and color coding was trivial for her.
And with the urgency she was showing right now—
Jacob made his decision almost instantly.
Better to believe it's real than risk missing it.
Even if there was some exaggeration, the worst he would lose was manpower.
But if she was right—
If a Deep Purple-quality Sobble had truly appeared near a starter village—
Then this was a golden opportunity.
His current ventures had hit a bottleneck.
He was looking for a breakthrough.
And riding the explosive popularity of Pokémon: World was his best chance.
If his guild could secure that Sobble, they could gain a massive early advantage.
They could leave rival guilds far behind and seize the initiative.
Whoosh!
Jacob stood up abruptly.
Under Wendis's hopeful gaze, he activated his communicator.
His fingers tapped rapidly across the screen.
Messages began appearing one after another.
Guild Leader Jacob: Anyone spawned in Silverlake Town? Speak up. Urgent task.
Logistics Vice Captain Trist: Pokémon game? Haven't registered yet. I'll check later.
Exploration Team 03 – Luo Mingrui: Unfortunately, none of us did.
Gold Team Operations 12 – Xia Shu: Buying Bug-type items above Light Green quality. High price!
Jacob's eyes scanned the screen intensely.
Spawn points in Pokémon: World were completely random.
Even players living in the same apartment building could end up on opposite ends of the continent.
And at this early stage of the game, even a large, well-organized guild like his didn't have the capability to travel safely between towns.
If he wanted that rare Sobble—
He needed someone who had spawned in Silverlake Town.
And the odds of that were incredibly low.
The game world alone had over thirty-two thousand starter villages.
Even accounting for some inactive ones, the probability was still near zero.
Jacob had already prepared himself for the worst.
"If no one's there… I'll just hire capable players with credits."
He made up his mind.
Then—
A new message appeared on the screen.
Jacob's brows lifted.
A spark of surprise flashed across his face.
"…What are the odds?"
---
Meanwhile—
Deep within Jirong Forest.
Kael watched as Wendis's figure dissolved into white light and disappeared.
There was no satisfaction in defeating her.
Instead, his expression grew serious.
"…Didn't expect that."
Even with three reincarnations behind him, he was still amazed by the system's capabilities.
"It can even send me into a game world?"
For a moment, anticipation stirred within him.
The thought of what other worlds he might experience in the future filled him with curiosity.
He had read plenty of virtual reality stories in his past life.
And now—
He had actually become something inside one.
An NPC.
The thought made him feel a strange sense of excitement.
By the logic of those stories, NPCs were often treated like VIPs by players.
Maybe he could hand out quests.
Gain experience.
Profit from interactions.
But he quickly dismissed the idea.
Because reality reminded him of one thing.
He wasn't just an NPC.
He was also a Pokémon.
And judging by the blonde girl's behavior earlier—
His future, especially when dealing with players…
Was not going to be easy at all.
◉◉◉◉◉
~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
◉◉◉◉◉
For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!