A few days later, when the chubby kid, now proudly holding four gym badges, came running home, he finally earned the right to take his Snorlax out for a walk!
When he placed his level-45 Snorlax at the front of his team, the entire park erupted with jealous screams from his friends.
"Why is your Snorlax level 45?! My Lapras is only level 38!"
"My Gengar's just level 40!"
The chubby kid puffed out his chest proudly — he was the model trainer who never forgot to feed and interact with his virtual pet every day.
All that love and care during the "virtual pet" era was now paying off in full!
Just as he was basking in everyone's admiration, feeling like he'd reached the top as a true Pokémon Master, a laid-back voice came from nearby.
"Your Pokémon… they all follow behind you, right?"
They turned around. It was an older boy in a high school uniform, watching them with interest.
"Yeah," the chubby kid replied instinctively. "If you put them first in your lineup, they follow you from behind, right?"
"Is that so?" The high schooler smiled and handed over his GAMEPOCKET.
On the screen, the in-game protagonist was walking around town — but his Pokémon wasn't following behind.
It was a small, yellow Pikachu sitting affectionately right on his head!
"!!!"
All the kids' eyes went wide in disbelief.
How was that possible?! They'd all caught Pikachu before, but theirs always followed from behind!
"And also," the high schooler continued, clearly enjoying their shock, "my rival's starter Pokémon is Eevee."
Not one of the three traditional starters!
That meant the entire storyline began completely differently from the one they'd played!
"Dude! Bro! How did you do that?!" The chubby kid couldn't even think about his Snorlax anymore. He and his friends surrounded the older boy, eyes sparkling.
The high schooler revealed the secret slowly, like a magician. "When you start up the game, first connect with another version through the link cable. Then, when the alarm wakes you up, don't get up — choose to keep sleeping.
"When your mom wakes you up for real, go to the professor's lab — you'll find all the three starters already taken. Only a Pikachu that refuses to enter its Poké Ball will be left for you."
He added with a grin, "In the story, you'll even run into Team Rocket — Jessie, James, and that talking Meowth!
"And when you challenge Giovanni in the Viridian Gym, he'll bring out one more Pokémon — an armored Mewtwo!"
Boom!
Each revelation exploded like a bomb in the children's hearts.
So all this time, what they'd been playing was just the tip of the iceberg!
It turned out Sega had hidden such deep, anime-accurate secrets in this seemingly cute game!
This — this was the real Pokémon!
In an instant, countless kids looked down at their own games and felt a sudden, irresistible urge — to delete their save files and start all over again.
This "Sega-style surprise" made the charm of Pokémon explode geometrically.
By the fifth day after release, Famitsu only gave it a score of 34.
But a week later, as players uncovered a flood of hidden features, the magazine did something unprecedented — they retracted their score and reissued a 37, publishing a public apology calling it "a masterpiece with a profound soul, worthy of endless exploration."
The secret of "Pikachu on the head" swept through schools all over Japan like a storm.
At first, only the chubby kid and his friends bragged about it.
Soon, the rumor spread faster than anyone could imagine.
After school, countless kids rushed to game stores — not to buy new games, but to find anyone who owned the "alternate version" that could unlock the hidden storyline.
"Do you have the Red version? Let's trade cables!"
"Who's got Green? I'll lend you my Snorlax if I can start with your game once!"
The link cable, originally meant for trading Pokémon, suddenly became the key to an entire new world.
For a while, GAMEPOCKET's link cable became the newest symbol of friendship among children.
And Famitsu's unprecedented apology reignited the entire market.
Players who'd hesitated because of the 34-point score now saw the magazine praise it as "a masterpiece with a profound soul" — and finally made up their minds. They joined the massive rush to buy GAMEPOCKET and Pokémon.
Outside the electronics stores of Akihabara, parents were dragged along by their kids, forming long lines. Shelves emptied before their eyes. As soon as staff brought out a new box of GAMEPOCKETs, the crowd swallowed it up instantly. "Sold Out" signs went up again and again, and the phones rang nonstop asking for restocks.
In this frenzy, there were also casual players — those who didn't care about hidden storylines or Pikachu sitting on heads. They just wanted to play a few rounds of Tetris on their commute or during lunch breaks.
Thus, the combined power of hardcore explorers, competitive kids, and casual gamers created an unstoppable buying force.
Fueled by word-of-mouth and hype, GAMEPOCKET's first-week Japanese sales reached a number that stunned the entire industry — over 400,000 units.
Across the ocean, thanks to a more mature distribution network and every console being bundled with Tetris, North America's sales also neared 400,000 units. Even Europe, which entered the market a bit later, added over 50,000 units.
In Sega's headquarters, executives stared at the sharply rising sales graph — their expressions mirrored those same kids seeing Pikachu on someone's head for the first time.
The Sega launch command room buzzed with constant excitement. Every morning, the first thing the executives did was check the latest daily sales reports.
A week later, the curve didn't flatten — it kept climbing steadily.
"President Nakayama, these are the latest figures up to last night," said the head of sales, handing over the report.
The room fell silent except for the rustling of papers.
Executives read the report aloud in hushed tones:
"Japan domestic — GAMEPOCKET total sales: 980,000 units. Pokémon Red and Green combined — 1.4 million copies."
"North America — bundled Tetris strategy successful, 430,000 units sold."
"Europe and other regions — total of 110,000 units."
A cup clinked softly as one executive set down his coffee.
He adjusted his glasses, checking the numbers again to make sure there wasn't a misplaced decimal point.
"So that means… GAMEPOCKET has already sold over 1.5 million units? And game cartridge sales have surpassed 3 million?"
No one answered — everyone was lost in the same stunned emotion. The numbers had far exceeded even their boldest projections.
Their original goal had been to secure a million-unit lead before Nintendo's GAMEBOY launched — which would've already been a huge victory.
After all, many players were Nintendo loyalists, likely to wait and see how the GAMEBOY and its lineup would turn out before deciding.
And now, only one day remained before the GAMEBOY's official release.
"Any movement from Nintendo?" President Nakayama finally asked.
Marketing head Masao Suzuki cleared his throat. "They've been quiet. Nintendo only released a brief statement reaffirming that GAMEBOY will launch on schedule."
"Quiet?" Director Yoshikawa couldn't help but laugh. "I bet President Yamauchi's office isn't quiet right now. He's probably tearing our posters to shreds."
The joke loosened the tension in the room — everyone burst into laughter.
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