Chapter 1:My Last fangame

"Which Pokémon fan game should I play?" pondered a young man in his early 20s, navigating through the internet in his room. Just half an hour earlier, he had returned from his university math class, feeling somewhat down because his family had failed, for the fifth time this year, to visit him. But he quickly redirected his focus toward finding a Pokémon ROM hack on his laptop.

'Let's see what we have here...'

Scrolling through titles, he chuckled at the absurdity of some: 'Pokemon Rise of the White?Definitely not. Pokemon Blackey? Equally off the mark. Pokemon Middle East? No thanks, I've had my fill of Middle East coverage from the news.Pokemon Wakanda: Rise of the Queendom? Did Jaden Smith create this one?"

He couldn't help but wonder if his usual ROM hack site had been overtaken by 4chan users today, given the unusual number of odd game titles he was encountering.

Suddenly, his phone rang.

Picking up, he heard his mom's voice. "Adrian, did you have your dinner?"

"No, Mom, I just ca-"

"How many times must I remind you, Adrian? You're gaming too much. One day, you might just get sucked into one of those games, and don't say I didn't warn you."

"Mom, I'm 20 now. Don't worry so much. But why didn't you guys come today?"

His mom ended the call abruptly, as usual, leaving his question unanswered.

Sighing, Adrian returned to his search, seeking a fan game that sounded relatively normal. Despite the familiar lecture he heard from the past 10 years, he remained undeterred, craving an escape from reality without delving into radical content.After a tedious search that took 15 minutes, he settled on a seemingly normal game: "Pokemon: Navigating the World."

The description caught his interest immediately. Instead of the using Pokémon Essentials as a base to make this game, this game boasted a custom engine he'd never seen, promising smooth performance and optimization. Intriguingly, it was an RTS, not turn-based, with hidden stats and levels, Adrian was hooked by the developer's aim to ground the game in reality, with real-world economic and political reflections.

After downloading, he found it odd that the file size wasn't displayed, but he chalked it up to his laptop's slowness. When he returned with some chips, the download was complete, much to his surprise.

[Welcome player, enter your name before your start]

Launching the game, he was greeted by a fast-loading screen and an ominous, glitchy welcome message that only heightened his anticipation. After entering his name, Adrian braced himself for an adventure, hoping the game would meet his expectations.

[3]

As he typed in "Adrian" and watched the countdown, he couldn't help but feel excited for the adventure ahead.

[1]

As the countdown reached zero, the screen turned black. 'Must be my old laptop,' he thought, disappointed. But then, a peculiar sensation grabbed him; the screen seemed to be pulling him in, a wind drawing him toward the laptop.

In a panic, he tried to leave his room, but it was too late. Clinging to the doorknob with all his might, he couldn't resist the growing pull toward his laptop. Despite his skepticism of the unexplainable, it seemed his disbelief was about to be challenged in the most dramatic way possible, where he was no hanging on the door knob, clinging to his life.Alas, resistance was futile.

In his last moments of resistance, Adrian realized the irony of his situation—all his disbelief in the supernatural, all his mockery, was now culminating in this unbelievable event. As his grip slipped, he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the unknown as he was consumed by the void emanating from his laptop.