After spending the whole morning of trying to get used to a body that looked twenty years younger, Aiden Crowe finally accepted the unbelievable truth that he had traveled into another world.
Just six hours ago, Aiden had been a game modder who specialized in selling custom-edited Pokémon saves on Pokemon website.
He had just received a massive order: three hundred flawless, max-IV Pokémon. He was preparing to stay up all night grinding through the edits when his vision suddenly went dark.
The next thing he knew, he had woken up here.
At first, he thought he was dreaming, but when a green Caterpie crawled right over his leg, Aiden froze. The bright colors, the smooth texture of its skin, the way it wriggled it wasn't CGI, it was real.
He was in the Pokémon world.
Normally, this should've been a dream come true. He was a lifelong Pokémon fan, after all. But instead of waking up in a safe city like Pallet Town or Lumiose City, he had landed in the middle of a dense forest.
And it got worse.
Just his luck , Minutes ago he'd stumbled out of a Caterpie nest and now he had wandered straight into a Beedrill nest.
Everyone who knew anything about Bug-type Pokémon knew Beedrill were territorial and vicious. Trespassers were usually dealt with swiftly and painfully.
The Beedrill in front of him glittered with menace: compound red eyes, wings beating like sharp blades, and twin white stingers gleaming with a deadly sheen.
If either stinger found flesh… Aiden swallowed hard. His "trainer career" if you could call it that would be over before it even began.
"Bzzzt!"
A low, threatening buzz rolled from the Beedrill's mandibles and the Beedrill's wings vibrated as the undergrowth behind it rustled.
One by one, dozens of glowing eyes emerged from the shadows.
A swarm.
Seeing this Aiden turned on his heel and ran for his life.
The sound of angry buzzing chased him through the forest. Branches whipped against his face as adrenaline pumped through his veins. A fork in the path appeared up ahead, and for a moment he felt like he was trapped inside a game of Temple Run.
Then stab!
"Argh!" Pain lanced through his side. A stinger had grazed him; a sharp burning spread under his shirt.
"Shit poison!" Aiden gasped, stumbling forward.
He was done for. His Pokémon journey was going to end before it even began.
But then he saw it a river, glinting through the trees.
Without hesitation, he dove in. Cold water surged around him, filling his ears and nose, but he kicked desperately, pushing with every ounce of strength he had.
Something rough brushed against his hand. Aiden opened his eyes underwater and nearly choked in surprise.
A Magikarp.
Its scales shimmered red as it thrashed against the current. For a brief moment he grabbed hold, but the current ripped it free and slammed Aiden deeper into the water. He was battered by the flow, his lungs screaming,for a terrifying moment he feared he'd drown.but he didn't dare surface above, the swarm of Beedrill was still buzzing furiously.
Above the surface, Beedrill hovered, unwilling to let him escape.He forced himself to swim downstream. After what felt like forever, the angry sound faded. Gasping for air, he finally dragged himself onto the muddy riverbank ,he was coughing, trembling, and utterly spent.
In the water's reflection, a boy stared back at him. Around ten years old, sharp features, messy black hair himself, but twenty years younger.
He couldn't help but mutter sarcastically, "Hah… still handsome, even at ten."
His clothes were soaked through, his body trembling. Pulling off his jacket, he examined the wound where the stinger had pierced. The skin around it was swollen and purplish. He had been poisoned.
Panic twisted in his gut. Pokémon could faint or die if untreated but what about humans?
And if that wasn't enough, his stomach growled. Hungry and poisoned. Perfect.
He'd noticed strange fruit growing in the trees earlier berries and other "tree fruits" that, in this world, had effects beyond mere nutrition.Cheri Berries cured paralysis; Rawst Berries heal the burns condition and the Pecha Berries neutralized poison. If he could find a Pecha Berry, maybe he could treat the toxin.
But could a berry used by Pokémon help a human? He had no idea. Hunger and the poison's creeping numbness clouded his thoughts.
Exhausted, Aiden gathered his jacket, folded it into a makeshift pillow, and Collapse onto his jacket.he stared up at the sky through the forest canopy. He needed to find a way out of here. A town. A Pokémon Center. Anything.
Something hard pressed against his side. Frowning, Aiden reached into the pocket of his wet jacket and his fingers closed around a small purple sphere. For a moment he didn't know where it had come from. The sphere expanded in his palm until it took on the familiar shape of a Poké Ball except this was no ordinary ball.
His eyes widened.
Purple on top, white on the bottom, with a bold "M" etched above the button.
His hands trembled as he pressed the button. With a click, beam of white light shot out.
When the glow faded, a bird Pokémon stood before him.Its feathers were bright orange with a snowy-white chest, its long beak tilting curiously as it blinked its round eyes.
Cramorant.
And And not just any Cramorant this one shimmered differently. A Shiny Cramorant.
"Gaaah?" it squawked, tilting its head.
Before Aiden could process, a stream of data filled his mind like a system overlay:
Species: Cramorant (Shiny)
Type: Flying/Water
Ability: Gulp Missile
Base Stats: 1530 (All maxed at 255)
Moves: Sacred Sword, Earth Power, Spacial Rend, Roar of Time
Condition: Perfect
Friendship: 100 – It loves you more than anything.
Aiden's jaw dropped.
This wasn't normal. These were impossible stats. And moves from Legendary Pokémon? Roar of Time? Spacial Rend? On a Cramorant?
His brain clicked. This was the very first Pokémon he had just finished editing for website order before he blacked out.
And sure enough, more glowing text flickered into his vision, like a game interface:
Pokémon Modifier (Trial Version 1.0.2)
Functions Available:
• Pokémon Identification
• Move Teaching
• Shiny Modification
• Ability Modification (Template missing, cannot be used)
• Base Stat Modification (Template missing, cannot be used)
• IV Modification (Template missing, cannot be used)
Note: This product is currently in trial stage.
If you discover any bugs, please take a screenshot and send it to the developer's email.
Aiden stared blankly at the screen.
The program he had been using on his computer… had followed him here.
This wasn't just the Pokémon world anymore.
It was a Pokémon world with his modifier system.
His first priority was obvious: find a Pecha Berry and treat the poison. His second priority was the one that made his pulse quicken even through fatigue was to figure out what this Modifier System could do here, in the world of Pokémon.
The journey had just begun.
....
(25 chapters ahead on p@treon)
[email protected]/Panda_suraj