The moment the video was posted, it rocketed to the top of every major community feed.
A flood of new viewers poured into Rosie's livestream through the pipes of the internet, and the discussion exploded into a full-scale frenzy.
The comment stream was a dense, tangled wall of text.
"The disappearing Trainer is absolutely the biggest setup in the whole thing. Wonder if they'll ever explain it in the story."
"If Ditto can transform into a person, does that mean it could eventually transform into other Pokémon forms as the game progresses?"
"Are all the Pokémon here really this gentle? Watching this is making me want to just move in and live there forever."
"Something is seriously off about this game. I can't find any developer information on the public internet. The servers are completely hidden inside an encrypted network. There has to be an incredibly powerful tech team behind this."
"Every game those big conglomerates put out is garbage. This one is actually healing my soul. Total anti-formula move. Absolutely insane."
"I'm calling it right now: this Pokémon thing is going to blow up."
---
While this grassroots celebration was snowballing across the internet, deep in the heart of Neon City, inside those towering conglomerate skyscrapers that pierced the clouds, the network surveillance departments of every major faction and the data control center directly under the city government all lit up with the highest-level red alerts — almost simultaneously — on those monitoring screens that hummed with cold light year-round.
Supercomputer processing power spiked to maximum capacity, frantically tracking the violent anomalous data fluctuations surging through the lower layers of the network.
A team of data analysts in high-grade uniforms, eyes sharp and cold, stood before the main display wall with deeply furrowed brows.
A virtual reality game with no filing record in any department, no registered copyright, and a server address that couldn't be physically traced even with full source attribution: it had appeared without a sound, slicing its way into existence.
And every single metric was off the charts.
User retention sat at ninety-nine percent. The level of mental immersion players experienced far exceeded every existing blockbuster title on the market. The rate of spread was exponential.
"Pokémon." "Trainer." "Eevee."
These completely unknown foreign-sounding terms were spreading to every corner of the internet and bypassing the sensitive-word filtering systems, something that was absolutely not permitted in a world where the conglomerates controlled everything.
This meant unpredictability. This meant loss of control.
The highest-ranking official slammed a red button with his full palm.
This mysterious game was immediately flagged as a priority target by multiple factions and formally classified as an "Unknown Virtual Anomaly."
Countless elite network hackers and armed pursuit units received their orders and began casting their nets in the shadows, launching an exhaustive investigation into the game known as Pokopia.
---
Meanwhile, the person responsible for all of this, Kairos, glanced at the figures on his system panel and raised an eyebrow slightly.
The player count had already reached six thousand.
Pokopia was performing even better than he had expected. It made sense: for a game, what truly mattered above all else was its soul and how fun it was to play.
Even without any overwhelming technological edge, the mere existence of this game was a complete steamroll compared to everything else in this world. So now, it was time to head back, and finish the game completely.
Unlike the earlier projects, the nature of Pokopia's gameplay meant the content he needed to build wasn't particularly extensive. With the module's help, he estimated he could wrap up the entire thing within three days. Releasing the finished version would give him a much better shot at hitting the mission target within seven days.
With that settled in his mind, Kairos activated a Transit Scroll and returned to the First World in a blaze of light.
---
A brilliant white flash cut through the living room of the villa in Cerulean City.
Kairos opened his eyes and breathed in deeply. He rolled out the stiffness in his neck, feeling like he'd finally come back to life.
He didn't linger in the living room. Dragonite and Omanyte were probably napping in the backyard.
He went straight upstairs and buried himself in the study.
The Fifth World mission had been set in motion, but the real work had barely begun.
For the next three solid days, Kairos almost never left that room.
He had to fully polish every corner of Pokopia, and at the same time push the original series animation further along. The two projects running in parallel made for a punishing workload.
Then, on the fourth evening, the last light of the setting sun fell across his desk through the window.
Kairos finally pushed back his chair and walked out of the study.
He stretched until his whole body cracked. He couldn't remember the last time he had worked himself this hard.
He walked to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of cold water, and drained half of it in one long go.
He let out a slow breath, settled back onto the couch, and pulled up the system panel.
He synced the fully completed version of Pokopia to both the First and Second Worlds with a single tap, then sent the game data package through to the Fourth World as well.
At that moment, the system pushed a notification. After all the groundwork and buildup over this period, the virtual reality network infrastructure of the Fourth World had fully matured. The game could now be officially launched.
Previously in that world, he had only been able to release the original Pokémon anime as a foundation. Now, at last, it was time to close the net.
Kairos thought it over and decided not to release Pokopia first. Instead, he synced the 3D remaster of Pokémon: The Dusk That Devours as the Fourth World's very first official game.
---
At that moment, in the Fourth World.
The original Pokémon anime had long since become a cultural phenomenon, a dominant force that brooked no competition.
Pikachu posters covered every street and alley. Countless people sat in front of their screens every day, waiting for the next episode to drop.
Several large traditional entertainment companies had eyed the profits and poured serious money into hiring top-tier artists and writers, attempting to copy the Pokémon model and produce similar "monster battle" animations.
Every single one of those knockoffs vanished without a ripple.
Those companies had no understanding of what made Pokémon genuinely compelling. The creatures they designed were hollow, and the writing was stiff and graceless.
In less than a month, Pokémon's position in this world had become untouchable.
---
Eight o'clock in the evening.
Dan the Demon King opened his stream right on schedule.
The moment he went live, the comments exploded.
"Dan! A game dropped! That mysterious company that made the Pokémon anime just released a VR game!"
"It's called The Dusk That Devours. It's already up on the platform!"
"Go play it, go play it, I'm dying of curiosity."
Dan the Demon King looked at the wall of comments and frowned slightly.
He opened the gaming platform and sure enough, right there on the front page was a new release with a stunning cover.
He leaned toward the mic, speaking with a skeptical edge in his voice.
"Brothers, not trying to rain on anyone's parade here. An animation studio suddenly crosses over and tries to make a full-scale 3D VR game. Are you all actually sure this was made by the same people?"
A flurry of replies came back immediately.
"Seems like it's theirs, but I mean, people cash-grab by crossing over all the time these days, right? Question is, do they actually know how to make a game?"
Quite a few others in the comments agreed.
"True, animation and game development are completely different disciplines."
"Probably just a reskinned fan-service game to squeeze money out of kids who watched the anime."
"Dan, go taste-test it first. If it's garbage we'll skip it."
Dan the Demon King shrugged, bought the game without overthinking it, and launched it.
"Alright, since everyone wants to see it, consider me your canary. Let's see what this animation company actually managed to put together."
---
A flash of light swept across the screen, and he entered the game.
The moment the image came into focus, he froze.
No shoddily thrown-together tutorial village. No cheerful, sunny opening sequence.
He found himself standing in a deeply unsettling space, surrounded by warping geometric shapes and dark violet mist.
This was the classic opening dream sequence from The Dusk That Devours.
Then came the dormancy cutscene. Once the professor had finished his explanation, before Dan the Demon King could even react, the dream shattered, and his character woke up in a bed in Littleroot Town.
He stepped outside. Sunlight hit him. Wind rustled through the leaves with a soft, papery sound. Unknown bird calls drifted in from somewhere distant. Thick, lush grass lay underfoot, indistinguishable from the real thing.
Physics feedback and environmental rendering at this level were simply beyond what any ordinary studio could produce.
So it really was made by them?
The tone in Dan the Demon King's voice had shifted completely.
"Holy... brothers... this was really made by them?"
The comments had gone noticeably quiet.
"The quality is actually solid, I'll give it that."
"Hold on, so from here... we actually get to be Trainers?"
"Oh my god, I think we actually do!"
Just as the comments had predicted, as the story unfolded, Dan the Demon King visited the research lab and chose a small Fire-type pig as his starter.
He guided his character into the tall grass along Route 101.
Suddenly, the grass ahead lurched violently.
A Poochyena burst out from inside, jaws wide open, eyes burning with aggression.
Dan the Demon King startled, but almost immediately, a red flash lit up the field and his little Tepig appeared.
"Use Ember!"
Drawing on Ash's moves from the anime, he made his call without hesitation.
Tepig opened its beak and shot a burst of scorching flames directly at the Poochyena. He could actually feel the heat wash off those flames as they cut through the air.
The Poochyena yelped and stumbled backward several steps.
Dan the Demon King didn't hesitate. He reached into his bag, pulled out an empty Poké Ball, and hurled it straight at the Poochyena.
The ball snapped open in midair, pulled the Poochyena inside, then dropped into the grass.
Once.
He held his breath.
Twice.
His palms were starting to sweat.
Three times.
Ding.
A clean, bright chime rang out, and the indicator light on the ball faded dark.
A notification appeared on screen: Poochyena was caught!
Dan the Demon King leapt to his feet and punched the air.
"I caught it! Did you all see that? I caught a wild Pokémon!"
The sense of accomplishment from catching a Pokémon with your own hands was something no shooter or role-playing game had ever come close to replicating.
The comment section detonated.
"No way, that combat system is so smooth!"
"Those fire effects are incredible. I felt warm just watching."
"Dan's reaction is too real. Getting that hyped over catching a basic route Pokémon."
"Fully converted, brothers. I'm going to buy it right now."
Over the hours that followed, Dan the Demon King was completely absorbed into this world.
He leveled up his Pokémon in the tall grass, battled the Youngsters and Bug Catchers along the route, and discovered that every NPC had their own story, and every Pokémon had a completely distinct way of fighting.
Then, after grinding through an especially brutal Gym battle, his little Tepig suddenly erupted in a blinding white light.
Dan the Demon King's eyes went wide as he stared into the glow.
Inside the light, Tepig's body began growing rapidly. Its silhouette broadened and hardened, the once-delicate limbs thickening with muscle.
When the light dissolved, a powerful, battle-ready Pignite stood before him, head thrown back, releasing a roar that rattled the air, flames shooting half a meter from its nostrils.
"It evolved..."
Every hair on his arms stood on end.
At that moment, the viewer count in the livestream shattered its all-time record.
The comments buried the screen entirely.
"IT LOOKS SO COOL AAAAAAA"
"Just like the anime! Exactly like the anime!"
"I can't sit still. I'm going to buy the game right now."
"Who was it that said this company didn't know how to make games? You call this not knowing how to make games?"
"Nobody stop me. I need to go be a Trainer. Right now."
His playthrough kept going. The game's content wasn't particularly complicated, but there was something about it — some inexplicable pull that kept dragging you back in — and Dan the Demon King had almost entirely lost track of time.
When he finally surfaced and realized he should wrap up the stream, it was deep into the night.
He looked into the camera and exhaled slowly.
"Brothers, I take back everything I said before I went live. Tomorrow I'm not playing anything else. I'm going to finish this game."
---
Back in the First World villa.
Kairos was leaning on the couch, watching the data coming in from the Fourth World, and gave a small, quiet nod.
Everything was moving exactly according to plan.
Just then, the system chimed cleanly in his mind.
The Fifth World mission progress had updated. With the full version of Pokopia now fully rolled out, the player count had surged explosively, and the target of two hundred thousand had been cleared.
[Ding! Fifth World mission detected as complete.]
[Mission Name: Dawn of Virtual Reality]
[Mission Content: Travel to the Fifth World, leverage that world's advanced technology to release a virtual reality game, and reach two hundred thousand players within seven days.]
[Mission status: Complete.]
[Distributing mission rewards: 50,000 Emotion Points, one random high-tier module!]