"Life is just another evolution… until it ends."
When the light hit his eyes, Aiden thought it was dawn breaking through the hospital blinds. It wasn't. It was fire, a roaring sea of molten light swallowing glass, steel, and sound itself.
He remembered the impact.
The shattering brakes.
The scream.
Then—silence.
It should have ended there.
But then came a voice that didn't belong to Earth.
[Reboot sequence: Initiating host transfer...]
[Neural patterns compatible, synchronizing consciousness...]
[Target world: Sinnoh region — Platinum variant...]
[System online: ARC-Dex initializing.]
Aiden gasped, but there was no air, no lungs. Only data, cascading through the void like falling snow.
He saw fragments, numbers spinning, colors melting into creatures: a dragon of time, a being of distortion, a silver lake with twin eyes staring back.
Then—
[Transfer complete.]
He woke to rain.
Not the cold sting of hospital rain, but rain that smelled of pine and soil, that hit his skin with the rhythm of a living world.
Aiden sat up, drenched, blinking through a forest canopy. A vast sky loomed overhead, silver clouds bleeding sunset over mountains rimmed in snow. The air was electric with the chirping of something not quite bird, not quite machine.
And before him, resting half-buried in mud, was a Poké Ball.
His heart froze. He knew this design, the black-and-gold ring, the central seal that pulsed faintly.
A Dusk Ball.
But that wasn't possible. This was fiction, a childhood game. Sinnoh, the Platinum arc… Cyrus, Giratina, the Distortion World.
He turned the ball over in his hand. It was real. Warm. Weighty.
Then the voice returned.
[Welcome, User Aiden Reyes. You are the 1st bearer of the Adaptive Reincarnation Core System — codename: ARC-Dex.]
[Initializing neural link... completed.]
[Generating baseline data...]
"Wait, what—ARC what now?" Aiden muttered.
[Designation accepted. ARC-Dex active. You may now interface with environmental data.]
[Scanning... 67 lifeforms detected.]
[Nearest entity: Species — Starly. Level 3. Status — cautious curiosity.]
A small birdlike creature, brown feathers flecked with silver, peered at him from a low branch. Its head tilted, sharp eyes watching.
A Starly.
Not pixels. Not sprites. Flesh and breath and heartbeat.
"Oh my god," Aiden whispered. "I'm… I'm in Pokémon?"
[Correction: You are within the Platinum branch of the Sinnoh timeline.]
[World status: variable. Temporal anchor uncertain. Legendary influence detected.]
The voice, ARC-Dex, was calm, mechanical, yet alive.
He flexed his fingers, testing the rain, the mud, his heartbeat. All human. All his.
A transparent interface blinked into view.
ARC-Dex Main Interface
Name: Aiden Reyes
Occupation: Unregistered Trainer
Region: Sinnoh (Platinum Branch — Distortion Anomaly)
Starter Protocol: Uninitialized
Available Slots: 3
Pokémon Database Unlocked: 4 %
Unique Trait: System Link — Pokémon Affinity × 2 Gain
It was an RPG. His life was an RPG in Pokémon Platinum.
The forest suddenly shook. Birds screamed into the sky. Branches snapped. Something huge was moving in the trees.
[Warning: Large entity detected. Class — Alpha. Species — Ursaring. Level 28.]
"Twenty-eight?" Aiden's voice cracked. "I have nothing! How do I even—"
[Emergency protocol engaged. Dusk Ball energy detected. Would you like to deploy?]
The Dusk Ball pulsed faster, brighter, like a heart awakening.
[Containment seal unstable. Pokémon inside: classified.]
"Classified?"
The ball trembled. The trees split apart.
A massive brown bear, eyes glowing red, fur bristling with rain, emerged with a roar that cracked the sky. Ursaring. It smelled the human scent, snarled, and thundered forward.
Aiden stumbled back, heart pounding.
[Warning. Fatal threat detected. Deploying emergency bond link...]
[Initiating forced capture deployment!]
The Dusk Ball burst open.
Light, pure, violent, silver light, flooded the clearing, spiraling in tendrils of darkness. The Ursaring stopped mid-charge, claws raised.
From the light stepped a shape, small, feline, with a tail that shimmered like starlight.
"That's… that's not possible."
[Entity registered. Species — Shinx. Variant Type: ??? (Galactic Residual Energy Detected).]
The Shinx looked up at him, eyes glowing the same eerie silver as the Dusk Ball. Then it turned toward the Ursaring and roared.
Lightning tore the forest apart.
When the world stopped shaking, the Ursaring lay unconscious, smoke curling from the ground. The rain hissed against the crackling residue of thunder.
Aiden stood frozen. The Shinx padded back toward him, tail flicking.
[First battle concluded. Experience points obtained. Synchronization with bonded Pokémon: 38 %.]
[New entry unlocked: ARC Bond Mechanic.]
"Bond mechanic?"
[ARC Bond Mechanic: User and partner share evolution potential. Leveling up or emotional synchronization may cause mutual stat increases or ability transference.]
The Shinx yawned, then head-butted his knee gently, as if to say, You're mine now.
He laughed, shaky and disbelieving, then looked at his trembling hands.
Pokémon battles. Systems. A world with gods of time and space.
And he was a human reborn with a system meant to evolve.
Above the forest, thunder echoed again—but this time the clouds didn't flash white. They flashed purple, as if the fabric of reality was being pulled apart.
[Warning: Spatial instability detected. Distortion World resonance rising.]
[Advisory: Proceed to Eterna City. Connect with dimensional rift anomaly before 72 hours to stabilize host existence.]
The rain stopped. The forest went silent.
Aiden looked down at the glowing Shinx and exhaled.
"Alright," he whispered, smiling despite the fear twisting in his gut. "Let's see how far we can evolve, ARC."
[Acknowledged. Evolution begins now.]