Leo froze.
Leo exhaled. A glitch. A creepy story. That’s all.
“Thanks for the download. Your system will make a fine storm.”
On the eighth attempt, at 3:30 AM, the game glitched. Electra’s Raichu used “Thunder Prison” on his Mareep. But instead of the Mareep fainting, the screen split into four copies. The game audio became a roar of wind and rain. Then, a new text box appeared, typed in a shaky, uneven font:
Leo smirked. It was probably just a difficulty hack. Maybe all the Gym Leaders had Raichus. He clicked the magnet link.
He played through Viridian Forest, but the usual Caterpie and Weedle were gone. Replaced by blinking, angry and Blitzle . The rain in-game never stopped. The sky was perpetually twilight. And every time a real lightning bolt struck outside his window, the game would stutter, and a new, overpowered trainer would appear on the route: Thunder Tamer Liam , Storm Surfer Rosa . They always had Pokémon two levels above his.