The door opened, and carl casually hung his coat on the rack by the entrance.As usual, he dropped a few ice cubes into a glass, opened a bottle of whiskey, and poured himself a drink to unwind.
But what carl didn't know was that a hidden camera had captured his every move.
Completely unaware, carl settled into the sofa with a drink in hand, ready to watch some adult programming.That's when he noticed something felt off about the couch beneath him.
Before he could react, the bomb planted beneath the sofa detonated.
Boom!
The deafening explosion ripped through the apartment, consuming the room in flames and shrapnel.As an ordinary man with no defenses, carl died instantly in the blast.
From a nearby rooftop, Jack lowered his telescope with practiced ease and opened a secured website to report the completed mission.
The system's job review process was handled by specialized personnel.
Once he submitted the task, a blue holographic projection appeared in front of Jack—visible only to him and no one else, human or Pokémon.
That projection displayed the familiar interface of the system.
Jack wasn't originally from this world. He had traveled into the Pokémon world by accident.
When his soul crossed dimensions, it merged with the memories of the body's original owner. It didn't take long for Jack to realize he'd ended up in a very different Pokémon world—and it wasn't quite like the one in the anime he once knew.
In his previous life, Jack had been a fan of the Pokémon anime. He followed it regularly until Goh was introduced, at which point he lost interest. Even so, he'd occasionally revisit older story arcs.
When he first arrived in this world, Jack thought his anime knowledge would give him a head start.Worst-case scenario? He'd head to Professor Oak's lab, work some odd jobs, and slowly build experience like Ash Ketchum (Satoshi). After all, if he was in the Pokémon world, becoming a trainer was a must, right?
But reality hit hard.
The memories he inherited showed him the truth—this Pokémon world was far more brutal than the bright, adventurous version he'd expected.
Behind its colorful surface lurked a grim and violent underworld.
As a nobody, Jack had no chance of meeting Professor Oak. Even simple assistant jobs at the lab were fought over by top university graduates. There was no way someone like him would be considered.
Still, Jack had held out hope. If he couldn't rely on connections, he'd earn his way up the hard way.But fate had other plans.
Getting a Pokémon in the first place wasn't easy.
In the anime, wild Pokémon just chased you off. Here, they hunted you.
Wild Pokémon weren't cute pets. They were apex predators that saw humans as prey. They had powers humans couldn't compete with.
And even if you did find a wild Pokémon, most of them were weak and barely worth catching.
To find better Pokémon, you had to enter League-controlled breeding zones.But capturing Pokémon there without permission? That was theft, and it came with a prison sentence.
The sheer difficulty of acquiring a Pokémon discouraged most people from even trying.
And even after you got one, you'd need Poké Balls, food, potions, TMs, training gear...Being a trainer was expensive, and the costs never stopped.
Still, Jack would've accepted all that. He could've lived a quiet life as a civilian.But fate hadn't just dealt him a bad hand—it shackled him with a nightmare.
The original body Jack took over had unusual talent, which made him a target for dangerous people.He was kidnapped by a terrorist organization before even becoming a trainer.
With his parents dead, there was no one to report him missing.
At just twelve or thirteen years old, the boy's despair opened the door for Jack's soul to take over.
From then on, Jack was forced into training as an assassin. That's when he learned the name of the organization that had taken him in—it was a mercenary kill squad.
Jack bided his time, planning to escape. But another unexpected event changed everything.
The organization apparently stepped on the wrong toes—or left behind the wrong evidence—because one day, Alliance investigators raided their base.
Jack saw his chance.
He thought: if I surrender, explain I was kidnapped, I can return to normal life.
He wasn't alone—other kids tried the same thing.
But they were all killed on the spot.
The logic was simple: rescuing them brought no merit. Killing them meant wiping out another "criminal" and earning an actual reward.
Their lives ended just like that.
Jack had no choice but to run.
Luckily, as a child with no Pokémon, he didn't attract much attention. The investigator chasing him treated it like sport and never went all out, giving Jack a slim chance to escape.
He fled to a waterfall and leapt without hesitation. He lost consciousness in the plunge.
When he woke, Jack was battered and bruised, lying in a meadow.Beside him hovered a Gastly.
It hadn't attacked. In fact, it followed him around protectively.Jack guessed it must've pulled him out of the river and even fed him fruit to keep him alive.
That Gastly was likely the only reason he survived.
Clinging to life, Jack limped his way to a nearby town.
He wanted to start fresh—save up, buy a Poké Ball, and ask Gastly if it would officially become his partner.
But life wasn't so easy.
Jack was an illegal resident. As a twelve-year-old outsider, he didn't qualify for aid or citizenship.
It was during this time that Jack truly saw the darkness behind the Pokémon world's surface.
He lost hope.
But Gastly stayed.
Its quiet companionship gave Jack the strength to endure.
Eventually, Jack confirmed that Gastly wanted to be with him. So, after waiting for the right moment, he stole a Poké Ball—and captured it.
That was the turning point.
The moment Gastly was registered as his own Pokémon, a mechanical voice rang in his mind.
[Mercenary System Initialized.]
From that moment on, Jack's destiny changed forever.