Welcome to the World of Pokémon.
On this planet lived a wondrous variety of creatures.
Across the land, in the skies, beneath the ocean, through the deserts, and even within the cities, their forms could be spotted everywhere.
They were Pokémon.
People and Pokémon shared their lives together, adventuring side by side, battling one another, climbing toward the summit of possibility.
Here, you were free to explore every corner of the world, every forgotten ruin.
Meet your Pokémon.
Write your own legend.
One hundred percent free control.
A fully immersive Pokémon experience.
Note: This is an open-world game with no mandatory quests.
You are free to roam the world as you see fit.
Your every action shapes the direction of this world.
In-game time passes at a ratio of 30:1 compared to real time.
Naoki stared blankly at the translucent screen floating before him, his eyes clouded with confusion.
He clearly remembered sitting at his workstation, running a final check on the last proposal of the project, a review he had been pushing himself toward through months of relentless overtime.
Then, somewhere in the middle of it all, he had slumped forward against the desk and lost consciousness.
He had assumed it was exhaustion.
Nothing more than a body finally giving out after too many sleepless nights.
But now he stood in a sealed space of pure white, empty in every direction.
‘Was this what came after death?’
“Ow, my head.”
A torrent of information crashed into him without warning.
It took some time before Naoki fully absorbed the memories belonging to this body and grasped, at last, what kind of world he had arrived in.
Unlike the Earth he had known, this place was called Lam Star, a world where science and technology had advanced even further than back home.
Several months ago, a simulation game called Pokémon had appeared without warning.
Its hundred-percent immersive realism and diverse, endearing creatures had set off a global explosion overnight.
Inside Pokémon, a player could live an entirely different life, catching all manner of Pokémon and journeying alongside them.
A player could train them, battle other Trainers, enter tournaments, defeat powerful rivals, and rise to become the greatest Pokémon Master in the world.
A player could run a ranch, raising Pokémon while farming the land together, turning the game into a pastoral romance.
A player could approach Pokémon like a visual novel, pursuing the beautiful or dashing NPCs of that world, marrying, having children, simulating a whole human life.
A player could even build a career in a major city, grinding to the top with Pokémon at their side until they reigned over an entire financial district.
And as countless players from around the world poured in and explored its depths, the significance of this simulation had come to surpass reality itself.
Having processed everything in those inherited memories, Naoki’s feelings grew complicated.
‘Was all of this really something the Pokémon games he knew could do?’
At that moment, the text on the screen refreshed again.
Randomly assigning your starting region and initial identity…
Assignment complete!
Congratulations!
Your starting region is: Paldea!
Your starting identity is: Wage Slave.
“Huh?
Paldea?”
Naoki’s brow shifted slightly as he read the words.
Paldea.
The name alone was more familiar to him than he could say.
He had been a Pokémon player, after all.
‘So I’ve crossed over into the game itself.’
Before he could think any further, the screen refreshed once more.
Warm reminder: Death within the game will immediately end your session.
Your character and all associated progress will be permanently erased.
Game Start.
The screen before Naoki shattered into thousands of points of light.
The world spun.
The surroundings shifted at dizzying speed.
Naoki steadied himself and looked around.
He appeared to be inside a small inn.
The room was not large, pale yellow walls paired with rough-hewn wooden furniture, warm sunlight streaming through a floor-to-ceiling window and spreading across the floorboards.
Through the glass, tall buildings rose in the distance and rolling hills heaved gently on the horizon.
A clean breeze carried the scent of grass and earth into the room.
Against the far wall stood a single bed.
On the nightstand beside it sat an alarm clock shaped like a Fuecoco.
On top of the wardrobe hung a set of everyday clothes.
The small cooking table had been wiped clean, and a map of Paldea was pinned to the wall, with certain regions marked off.
The room was quiet and comfortable.
From somewhere outside came the occasional cry of an unidentified Pokémon.
Everything around him was sharp and real, carrying none of the hollow artificiality he might have expected from a game.
Before Naoki could collect his thoughts, a new screen appeared before him.
You are Naoki.
You were born into an ordinary family in Mesagoza.
When you were six years old, your parents took you on an outing beyond the city.
They were killed in an attack by a wild Pokémon that had lost its senses.
Left with nothing and no one, you were taken in by an orphanage operated under the Paldea League.
The shadow of that childhood left you deeply wary of Pokémon.
To this day, you have never had a partner Pokémon of your own.
After graduating without distinction from a branch campus of the Naranja Academy, you joined the administrative division of the Paldea League and became a civil servant more ordinary than ordinary.
Each day that awaits you is a mountain of dull, tedious work.
The exhaustion of overtime helps you forget everything.
Alone, without worry, without any particular ambition, you ask for nothing more than to pass each day in quiet, unremarkable peace.
Note: This is an open-world game with no mandatory quests.
You are free to explore the world as you choose.
Every decision you make will shape the direction of this world.
“This is my starting identity?”
Wage Slave.
Ground down by management, buried in overtime, stripped of freedom, swallowing every indignity for the sake of a paycheck.
“A wage slave in my last life, and a wage slave after transmigration.” Naoki could not help muttering to himself.
“What a rut.”
Still, he supposed it was only the starting identity.
Things could change.
He read through his character background a few more times, then opened the settings menu and browsed through the available functions.
Leaderboard.
Friends.
Trading Market.
Forum.
World Channel.
Bag.
Pokémon.
Guild.
He tapped the Leaderboard.
A long list of ranking categories filled the screen.
Fame rankings, wealth rankings, strongest Pokémon rankings, strongest Trainer rankings, and more besides.
Naoki noticed quickly that the Fame board tracked not only positive reputation but negative reputation as well.
Having played enough games in his time, he read the system at a glance.
A player’s conduct in this world would shift both values accordingly.
Robbing a passerby of their Pokémon, for instance, the way Team Rocket might, would send that player’s notoriety soaring.
The Friends list was empty.
Whether that was because the game had only recently launched, he wasn’t sure.
The Trading Market had nothing in it either.
He opened the in-game player forum next.
Unlike the barren leaderboards, the forum was alive with activity.
Countless players were exchanging information at a frantic pace.
Attention to all brothers who spawned in the Kanto region: do NOT waste any resources on a Magikarp after entering the game.
That Pokémon is pure dead weight.
It can’t evolve, it only ever learns Splash, and it can’t beat anyone.
New player tip: after leaving your starting town, head straight into the tall grass and catch a Caterpie.
Raise it a little and it’ll evolve into a Butterfree.
One Psybeam and nothing can touch you.
Ha, the roadside NPCs in this game are actually something else.
Just ran into one called Ash and knocked him flat with a Beedrill.
Asking for help: spotted a bunch of rare Pokémon in the back garden of Professor Oak’s lab.
Has anyone tried sneaking in to swipe a few?
…
Naoki’s expression grew strange as he read through the forum.
“Magikarp can’t evolve?”
“Ash is a roadside NPC?”
“Sneaking into Professor Oak’s lab to steal Pokémon?”
What on earth were these people talking about?