The absolute silence in the Kepler estate living room was deafening.
Dorian had just dropped the meticulously crafted, heavily rehearsed bombshell of his 'Irregular Solar' awakening. He had explained the concept of reality manipulation, the necessity of collective consciousness, and how the games were just a conduit for his powers.
Sitting on the plush sofa, John's mouth was left completely agape. Beside him, Lyra had her eyes narrowed, her sharp mind rapidly putting together a dozen different pieces of past suspicions. Marcus was simply too shocked to even make a face, blinking owlishly at his older brother.
Hovering near the ceiling, Leo's optical lens flickered rapidly between blue and yellow. "Diagnostic... my databanks have no reference for this phenomenon. Master Dorian, this is entirely unprecedented."
John finally swallowed hard, leaning forward. "Are you saying... the farm? The crops? The Junimos in the fields... they are all from another reality?"
Dorian nodded solemnly.
Lyra suddenly gasped, sitting up perfectly straight. "Wait a minute! When we were still living in the lower levels of Nexus Prime... right after you started making Stardew Valley, we suddenly had fresh food! You told us you bargained with a black-market smuggler. Are you saying you pulled those vegetables out of another reality too?!"
"Everything," Dorian admitted, offering an apologetic smile. "The tomatoes, the parsnips, and even the high-grade Iridium minerals that currently fuel the Millennium Falcon. It all came from the games."
Marcus finally snapped out of his stunned stupor. His eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Wait! Does that mean... Hades is real too?!"
Instead of answering verbally, Dorian simply extended his hands.
A flash of fierce, mythical red light illuminated the living room. The air grew instantly heavy with the scent of ancient blood and divine power. Materializing over Dorian's hands were massive, heavily armored gauntlets tipped with razor-sharp beastly claws. They pulsed with a terrifying, ethereal energy. It was the Twin Fists of Malphon, bearing the legendary Aspect of Gilgamesh.
John and Lyra violently startled, pressing themselves back into the sofa at the sheer, overwhelming pressure radiating from the weapons.
Seeing their reaction, Dorian quickly dismissed the weapons back into his inventory. The heavy pressure vanished instantly.
Marcus, however, was practically vibrating with excitement. "Whoa! How about Pokémon?! Did you bring one here?!"
Dorian grinned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pristine, red-and-white Pokéball. He pressed the central button. The capsule expanded in his palm, and he tossed it gently onto the rug.
A beam of crimson light shot out, instantly taking physical form.
A two-foot-tall canine with a bright orange coat and black tiger stripes materialized. The Growlithe shook its head, its fluffy cream-colored chest puffing out proudly. It looked around the room, then locked eyes with the family on the sofa.
"Woof!"
"Go ahead," Dorian said softly, gesturing to the family. "They are my family. Our family."
The Growlithe's tail began to wag at lightning speed. It happily bounded across the rug and launched itself directly onto Marcus's lap. The boy let out a delighted shriek as the heavy, incredibly warm puppy began aggressively sniffing and licking his face.
"Hahaha! Stop, it's ticklish!" Marcus laughed, wrapping his arms around the furry monster.
Lyra stared at the literal, living Pokémon sitting in their living room. She let out a breathless, disbelieving laugh. "Leo is right. This is entirely unprecedented."
John ran a hand over his face, still trying to process the magnitude of the revelation. "But Dorian... why didn't the central scanners detect your Solar compatibility back on your awakening day? They said your ether channels were completely dormant."
Dorian had prepared for this exact question. "Because my power had not actually awakened yet, Dad. It only started manifesting when I was asleep. I kept seeing these other worlds in my dreams. Even then, I always thought the Stardew dream was just a regular dream. But when I programmed the game and people started playing it, the collective belief anchored it. I could suddenly pull things from those universes."
Lyra's sharp eyes locked onto him. "So this is why you make games. To introduce the other worlds to the masses without raising suspicion, and to easily harvest their collective awareness to fuel your powers."
Dorian nodded firmly, impressed by his sister's flawless deduction of his fabricated lie. "Exactly."
Lyra tapped her chin, thinking deeply. "But... why games? Why not just write a novel, or paint a picture? Wouldn't a widely read book be enough of an introduction for you to take things out from the other universe?"
Dorian froze. A bead of sweat formed on the back of his neck.
"Uuuhh..." Dorian stammered, his mind racing. "Well, you see, a game has much more interact-ability! It forces the user to fully engage with the world, making the cognitive resonance much stronger and... highly efficient!"
Lyra furrowed her brow, clearly sensing a slight hole in his logic. "Yeah... I guess so. But-"
Before Lyra could continue her ruthless interrogation, the Growlithe suddenly let out a tiny, concentrated burp.
A bright, swirling sphere of pure fire shot out of its mouth, a flawless execution of the 'Ember' attack. The fireball floated harmlessly toward the ceiling before dissipating into sparks, immediately triggering Leo's localized fire-suppression alarms.
"Warning! Open flame detected in the residential sector!" Leo buzzed frantically.
The living room instantly devolved into absolute chaos as Marcus cheered, John scrambled to check the ceiling for scorch marks, and the Growlithe barked happily at the commotion. Dorian let out a massive sigh of relief, incredibly grateful to his new puppy for abruptly ending his sister's line of questioning.
…
Several days passed, and the Kepler estate had completely transformed into something straight out of a fairy tale.
With his newly established 'Irregular Solar' cover story fully accepted by the family, Dorian hadn't held back. He had spent a few more Resonance Points to materialize the rest of his Gacha pulls, quietly introducing the digital creatures into their daily lives.
Now, flocks of Pidgey and Spearow fluttered happily through the estate's massive oak trees, occasionally chased by a highly territorial Farfetch'd swinging a green leek.
Out in the agricultural fields, John Kepler wiped the sweat from his brow with a massive grin, watching as two pill-shaped Digletts rapidly burrowed through the earth, perfectly loosening the soil for the next batch of crops.
Growlithe had become Marcus's absolute shadow, fiercely protecting the boy and playing endlessly in the grass. Lyra, meanwhile, practically radiated smug joy as a small, incredibly fluffy brown Eevee trailed happily behind her every single step.
And down by the estate's water feature, a confused, yellow Psyduck spent its days lounging lazily by the pond, perpetually holding its head in its hands.
In a way, the magical creatures had become an unspoken, deeply cherished Kepler family secret.
While his family was busy adjusting to their new, otherworldly pets, Dorian had traveled lightyears away to finally clear up the most important relationship in his life.
He was back in Nexus Prime, right where it all began.
The two of them walked side-by-side along the pristine, hyper-advanced skywalks of the upper surface levels. Surrounding them were towering spires of polished glass, luxury boutiques, and the wealthy elite of the Accord.
To the average citizen, the surface level was a paradise. But to Dorian, who had spent his entire life surviving in the grimy, neon-lit lower tiers, the pristine air up here felt incredibly stiff and stuffy. He felt a distinct sense of not belonging.
The only thing keeping him perfectly anchored was the hand currently intertwined with his.
Juno Park walked beside him, wearing a casual jacket and a cap pulled low to hide herself from her rabid fanbase. Standing at exactly 187 centimeters, the Nullbreaker Solar towered a full nine centimeters over Dorian's 178-centimeter frame. It was a height difference she frequently and happily used to tease him.
"So," Dorian began, swinging their linked hands gently as they walked. "How was today's date? Give me a rating from one to ten."
Juno tilted her head, her bright eyes glinting playfully under the brim of her cap. "Hmmm. A rating? Hahaha, okay... I will give it an eight out of ten."
Dorian dramatically clutched his chest with his free hand, letting out a pained mock-wince. "Oof. A brutal eight. Two whole points away from perfect. What can I possibly do to bring up those numbers?"
Juno tapped her chin in exaggerated thought. "I don't know. The surface level is a bit boring. Maybe taking me down to the lower levels would make the score go up." She leaned down slightly, her voice dropping into a theatrical, melodic whisper. "After all... the sun is nearly gone..."
Dorian instantly flushed a violent shade of red, the memories of their impromptu, embarrassing musical duet on the lower level catwalks flooding his mind.
"Stop, stop!" Dorian laughed, quickly shaking his head. "Okay, point taken. But I absolutely cannot do that here in the middle of the street."
Juno, remaining as relentlessly free-spirited as ever, nudged his shoulder with hers. "Why? Are you afraid of my 'Junoverse' recognizing me and asking for an autograph? Ehe."
Dorian scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Wow. Someone is getting a big head. Did you forget who actually wrote those songs for you?"
Juno smirked, leaning closer. "Hmmm, I don't know about that. My Junoverse fan forums are constantly saying that I would make a really good couple with Composer Percival. Since my date today is only an eight out of ten, maybe I will just ask him out instead." She threw Dorian a brazen, devastating wink.
Dorian chuckled, entirely unable to combat her sheer confidence.
Just then, a brilliant, burning streak of light flashed across the twilight sky above the metropolis. A shooting star, likely a piece of orbital debris burning up in the atmosphere, caught the attention of the surface-level pedestrians.
Juno's eyes widened in wonder. She stopped walking and pointed up. "Dorian! Look!"
Dorian didn't look up. He didn't care about the sky, the towering corporate glass, or the passing crowds. He only had eyes for the girl standing right in front of him.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" Dorian asked softly, his voice cutting through the ambient hum of the city.
Juno froze. She slowly lowered her hand, her eyes dropping from the sky to meet his gaze. The playful, teasing smirk vanished from her lips, replaced by a sudden, profound vulnerability. She saw the absolute, unwavering seriousness in his expression. A deep, furious blush rapidly spread across her cheeks and all the way to the tips of her ears.
For a single heartbeat, the galaxy seemed to stand perfectly still.
Then, Juno moved. Closing the height difference, she rushed forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning down to fiercely press her lips against his.
All around them, the oblivious citizens of Nexus Prime were still looking up, completely mesmerized by the fading streak of the shooting star. No one noticed the two biggest cultural icons in the galaxy finally bridging the gap between them.
When they eventually parted, Juno rested her forehead against his, a breathless, radiant smile breaking across her flushed face.
"Took you long enough," she whispered.
…
Meanwhile, deep within the neon-lit, metallic sprawl of a Mid-Rim trade sector, the atmosphere inside a small, rented apartment was incredibly sour.
Jess was sitting alone on the worn fabric sofa, her arms tightly crossed over her chest, fiercely pouting. Today was simply not a good day. She was incredibly mad at Gale.
Earlier that morning, a highly lucrative but incredibly dangerous mercenary contract had come through the local guild. Jess had practically begged Gale to take it. She wanted to help him. She wanted to use her powers to protect him. Instead, Gale had firmly rejected the job, opting to take a grueling, low-paying shift as a heavy cargo carrier at the local market just to keep her out of harm's way.
That was exactly why she was stuck alone in the apartment right now.
She let out a frustrated huff, kicking her legs back and forth. She was a big girl now. By standard Accord educational metrics, her reading and comprehension levels were off the charts. She shouldn't be cooped up in here.
But she couldn't go to a normal elementary school, and she couldn't play with other kids in the sector. Gale had strictly taught her to never, ever reveal her powers to anyone. The galaxy was far too dangerous for a child with anomalous abilities.
Jess glared at the holographic television. A popular Accord morning cartoon was blaring brightly, showing generic heroes shooting generic space-pirates with colorful lasers. It was completely boring. It was just fight, fight, fight.
Slowly, her anger began to melt away, entirely replaced by a profound, heavy boredom.
She turned her head, looking down the short hallway toward Gale's bedroom. She checked the clock on the wall. It would still be a few hours before the massive ex-soldier finished his shift at the market and came back home.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Jess slid off the sofa and waddled quietly down the hall.
She pushed the door open and stepped into Gale's room. It was incredibly sparse, maintaining the strict, utilitarian discipline of a former Accord operative. Sitting in the corner was his heavy, modular power armor, and resting neatly on the metal desk were several disassembled plasma blasters.
Jess knew much better than to touch the weapons. She completely ignored the desk and began to look around elsewhere.
Tucked away on the bottom shelf of a small nightstand, hidden behind a stack of spare energy cells, she spotted something highly unusual. It was a book, an actual, physical book bound in cracked, worn leather. The edges of the paper were severely burned, and several pages looked like they had been violently torn out.
Jess carefully pulled it out. It was a personal journal.
She sat cross-legged on the floor and gently opened the fragile cover, flipping past the damaged sections until she landed on a random, intact page. She traced her small finger over the faded, handwritten ink and began to read.
"There are now only dusty flowers, tracks from somewhere into nowhere. Only the dead were smiling, glad on their release. And, staring me in the face, and threatening me with swift annihilation. An enormous star. Madness with its wings has covered half my soul. It feeds me fiery wine, and lures me into the abyss. I understood while listening to my delirium that I must hand the victory to it."
Jess stopped reading.
She had always been incredibly sensitive. Her latent, powerful solar abilities allowed her to perceive the subtle, lingering emotional resonance attached to physical objects.
For the very first time in her life, she read far beyond the ink itself. As she stared at the words, the sterile walls of the apartment seemed to violently dissolve around her.
She was suddenly plunged into a terrifying, visceral vision. She could feel exactly what Gale had felt when his trembling hand had written those agonizing strokes. She felt a bone-shattering, freezing cold.
She saw endless fields of chilling, blinding white snow, deeply stained with patches of sickening, fresh crimson. Above her, dark, suffocating clouds of ash and smoke were violently billowing in the sky, blotting out the sun entirely.
It was the absolute, crushing despair of a soldier who had lost everything, standing in a graveyard of his own making.
Jess didn't know how long she sat there, completely frozen in the terrifying vision.
CLACK.
A sudden, sharp jolt violently snapped her out of the trance.
The heavy front door of the apartment hissed open. Jess gasped, her small chest heaving as she was violently pulled back to reality. She looked down at the book, then touched her face. Her cheeks were completely soaked with thick, hot tears.
Heavy, familiar footsteps echoed down the hall. Gale appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, still wearing his grease-stained cargo carrier uniform.
He froze, his eyes immediately locking onto the crying girl sitting on his floor.
"Jess?" Gale asked, absolute panic lacing his deep voice as he dropped his gear. "Jess, are you okay? What happened?!"
Jess couldn't stop crying. The lingering phantom cold of the bloody snow was still violently shaking her small frame. Seeing Gale standing there; alive, solid, and no longer the broken man who had written those words, she scrambled off the floor.
She sprinted across the room and threw herself into his arms, hugging his massive waist as tightly as her little arms possibly could. It was the only way she knew how to give him warmth, desperately trying to chase away the terrible, freezing memory of that snowy day.
Gale had absolutely no idea what had happened. He had just arrived home, exhausted from lifting crates, only to find his adopted daughter weeping uncontrollably.
He just sank to his knees, wrapping his massive arms gently around her trembling shoulders.
"It's okay," Gale murmured softly, his large hand gently tapping her back in a steady, comforting rhythm. "I'm right here, Jess. It's going to be okay."
…
On the Stellarcast platform, the legendary Stellarcaster FramePerfect was exhausted, sweating, and heavily leaning into his microphone. He had been streaming for twenty-four hours straight.
On his screen, a genetically modified psychic clone was currently trapped inside a purple-and-pink capsule. The ball shook once. Twice. Three times.
Click.
[Gotcha! MEWTWO was caught!]
The stream chat instantly exploded with the force of a digital supernova. Millions of viewers were spamming fireworks, legendary emotes, and absolute disbelief. FramePerfect was officially the very first player in the entire galaxy to capture the legendary bird trio; Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres and finally conquer the Cerulean Cave to catch the ultimate boss, Mewtwo.
He had beaten the game.
But as the celebratory fanfare played, FramePerfect slumped back in his gaming chair, crossing his arms and aggressively chewing his bottom lip.
"Chat. Stop the hype. Just stop," FramePerfect groaned, pulling up his in-game Pokédex.
He pointed a frustrated finger at his screen. "Look at this. I have scoured every single pixel of Kanto. I have talked to every NPC, surfed on every body of water, and smashed every rock. But look at the numbers! There are exactly twenty-one blank, unknown silhouettes in my Pokédex that I literally cannot find anywhere! And what about this mythical 'Mew' everyone is whispering about?!"
He slammed his hand on the desk. "I'm the first guy to finish the game, but I'm completely stuck at 99%! It's gnawing at my soul, chat. I can't sleep until I see the 100% completion screen!"
As the chat began throwing out wild theories about secret trucks and hidden islands, a sudden, sharp chime echoed through the streamer's audio feed.
A standard Void platform notification popped up in the top right corner of his screen.
[System Notification: Download Complete - Pokémon: LeafGreen.]
FramePerfect blinked, his rant dying in his throat. He leaned an inch away from his monitor. "...What?"
The chat immediately noticed it.
>: "Wait, what did you just download?"
>: "LeafGreen? What the hell is LeafGreen?"
>: "Bro, why are you downloading an illegal knock-off mid-stream?! You're going to get banned!"
"Yo!! I'm not!" FramePerfect shouted defensively, quickly grabbing his mouse. "I haven't clicked on anything! You guys have been watching me play FireRed for twenty-four hours! My hands haven't touched the store!"
Heart racing, he quickly saved and closed FireRed. He opened his Void library. Sitting right next to the red icon with the fire dragon was a brand-new, bright green icon featuring a massive dinosaur with a flower on its back.
He hovered his cursor over it.
[Pokémon: LeafGreen]
Developer: Round Table Studio
"It's... it's official?" FramePerfect whispered, his eyes wide. "It's an RTS game."
The chat went into absolute overdrive. Millions of viewers immediately tabbed out to check the Round Table Studio storefront page, desperately searching for a secret DLC or a sequel announcement. But within seconds, the reports came flooding back in.
>: "It's not there! There is absolutely nothing on the store!"
>: "Frame, you're the only one who has it! I'm refreshing the page and it's completely empty!"
>: "Bro... a game that installs itself without you clicking anything? And no one else can see it? This is literally the start of a horror story."
FramePerfect swallowed hard. A genuine, icy chill crept down his spine. The sheer isolation of being the only person in the galaxy to possess this file felt incredibly eerie. It felt like a cursed data chip from an old urban legend.
"Alright, chat," FramePerfect said, his voice dropping to a serious, nervous pitch. "You guys urging me to play it. But I swear to the stars... if I boot this up and the music plays backwards, or if there is a single bit of bleeding, glitchy texture, I am turning off my computer and burning my entire computer."
He clicked the green icon.
The screen went black. The chat held its collective breath.
Suddenly, a bright, cheerful green title screen appeared. The music was upbeat, entirely normal, and perfectly polished. But before the main menu loaded, a massive, unskippable notification box popped up.
[Congratulations, Champion!]
"You have successfully reached 99% completion in Pokémon: FireRed by capturing Mewtwo. You have proven your worth as a Pokémon Master."
"Welcome to Pokémon: LeafGreen. This is where you will experience the untold side of the story, face the ultimate challenge, and complete the missing entries in your Pokédex."
The revelation hit the stream like a kinetic strike.
>: "CLIP IT! SOMEONE CLIP THIS RIGHT NOW!"
>: "NG+!!! IT'S A HIDDEN NEW GAME PLUS UNLOCK FOR BEATING THE POST-GAME!!"
FramePerfect's fear instantly vanished, replaced by an overwhelming surge of gamer adrenaline. His hands shook with excitement as he quickly tapped 'Continue'.
The screen transitioned to a new page. It was a digital contract.
[LEAFGREEN: TERMS OF CONDITION]
In this advanced game mode, you will be playing through the campaign from the perspective of your Rival. The battles will be drastically harder, the enemy AI is unyielding, and you must abide by the following rigid laws of nature:
Rule 1: You may only catch the first wild Pokémon you encounter in any new route, cave, or town. If you fail to catch it, you get nothing.
Rule 2: If a Pokémon faints in battle, it is permanently "dead." It can no longer be used.
Rule 3: You must uniquely nickname every single Pokémon you catch to forge a true, unbreakable bond before the inevitable end.
Do you accept the challenge?
The rapid-fire scrolling of the multi-million viewer chat suddenly stopped. An absolute, heavy silence fell over the chat.
The rules were undeniably brutal. It was a flawless mechanism to test a player's absolute mastery, stripping away their safety nets and forcing them to form deep, terrifyingly fragile attachments to their digital partners. It was the birth of the Nuzlocke.
Sitting in the dim light of his monitors, reading the ruthless conditions crafted by the maniacs at Round Table Studio, FramePerfect didn't complain.
A slow, terrifying, and deeply satisfied smile spread across his face.
"This is it, chat," FramePerfect whispered, reaching for his controller, the fire of a true speedrunner fully reignited in his eyes. "More challenges."
**A/N**
~Read 14 weeks worth of Advance Chapter on [email protected]/SmilinKujo~
~🧣KujoW
**A/N**