"Jigglypuff, Pidgeotto, Wartortle—come out and enjoy the air."
Robin stepped into the lush, digital grass and released her partners. Unlike the millions of players currently screaming over type-matchups or the 10-million-credit prize pool, the galactic singer was a "Stroller." She didn't care about the Indigo League or the Cerulean Cave mystery.
To her, Julian Reed's world was a vast, interactive painting—a sanctuary where she could exist without the weight of her fame.
Because she valued the companionship above all else, Robin had utilized Julian's "Automaton Interface." For a premium fee, wealthy players could bridge high-end artificial intelligence programs into their Pokémon's code. This gave her partners a level of environmental awareness that the standard version lacked.
"Pallet, Viridian, and Pewter are behind us," Robin murmured, checking her holographic map. "Next stop... Mt. Moon."
In the Real Version, Pokémon didn't just spawn in a menu. You had to physically navigate the terrain. Robin had mastered the art of "Stealth Walking"—avoiding the direct gaze of aggressive wild Pokémon and competitive NPCs—allowing her to reach the slopes of the mountain undisturbed.
"The locals in the last town mentioned the night view here is legendary. Let's see it."
Robin sat on a crag overlooking the valley and adjusted the world-clock. Within seconds, the golden afternoon was swallowed by a deep, velvety indigo. Stars ignited like diamonds, and a massive, pale moon bathed the peaks in a hazy, ethereal light.
"I wish my brother was here to see this," she whispered.
But Sunday was always busy with the Family's affairs. He didn't have the luxury of losing himself in a simulation.
Robin leaned back, her Pidgeotto preening on her shoulder while Wartortle rested against her side. She began to hum—a soft, ancient lullaby from her childhood on Penacony. Jigglypuff, a natural empath, immediately began to harmonize, its voice sweet and clear.
For a moment, the war-torn planets Robin had visited and the chaos of the galaxy felt light-years away. She wasn't singing to quell a riot or bless a cathedral. She was singing because she wanted to.
"Is that... a shooting star?"
A streak of white light tore across the sky.
"Pudding! Pudding!"
"Wartortle!"
Suddenly, her Pokémon weren't singing. Her Wartortle lunged forward, grabbing the hem of her dress, while Jigglypuff shoved against her knees.
"What's wrong?" Robin asked, startled.
She followed their frantic tugs just as a deafening roar filled the air. A massive, flaming object—a meteorite—slammed into the plateau exactly where she had been sitting a second before.
Boom!
The impact shook the mountain. A cloud of lunar dust billowed into the air. Robin shielded her eyes, her heart hammering. If she hadn't upgraded her Pokémon's AI to have self-preservation instincts, she would have been sent back to a Pokémon Center in a heap of pixels.
"Mt. Moon... famous for meteorite falls," Robin recalled, waving her hand to clear the smoke. "Julian Reed really wasn't exaggerating the 'Real' in this version."
As the dust settled, she approached the small crater. In the center lay a jagged, dark-grey crystal. It hummed with a mysterious, cool energy—unlike the elemental Fire or Water Stones she'd seen in the anime clips.
"What is this?"
Before she could reach for it, Jigglypuff dashed forward. It scooped up the stone with a joyful chirp.
The next moment, the mountaintop was flooded with a dazzling, translucent white light.
"Evolution?" Robin gasped.
As the brilliance faded, a new figure stood before her. It was taller, with elongated, rabbit-like ears and fur that looked as soft as silk. It had a pair of large, expressive eyes and a tuft of curly fur on its forehead.
[Wigglytuff]
[The Balloon Pokémon — Evolved form of Jigglypuff]
[Type: Normal / Fairy | Ability: Cute Charm]
"You became even more beautiful," Robin smiled, reaching out to stroke its long ears. "But that stone... it wasn't an elemental stone. It was something else entirely."
Driven by a rare spark of curiosity, Robin recorded the last few minutes of her gameplay—the falling star, the strange stone, and the evolution. She uploaded it to the official forums with a simple caption: A gift from the moon.
She didn't expect the reaction. Within minutes, the post went viral, crashing the "Evolution" sub-forum.
"Jigglypuff has an evolution?! I thought it was a dead-end Pokémon!"
"The stone! It's a Moon Stone! That's how you get the rare evolutions!"
"Wait, if she found a Moon Stone on Mt. Moon, then my Scyther... my Onix... do they have stones too?"
"Someone find the developer! We need a list of these items immediately!"
As thousands of players flocked to Mt. Moon, abandoning their Gym grinds to hunt for meteorites, Julian Reed sat in his office and smiled. The "Encyclopedia" hadn't even been released yet, and the players were already writing the first chapters themselves.
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