Pokémon's Lord of Fear

"No, how come there are so many scripts accumulated?" Teng Shu felt a little scalp-tingling when looking at the things in his hand, but Zoroark acted as if it was a matter of course.

"Boss, how long have you not worked in the company? Naturally everyone has a lot of ideas, and these are not many, okay." Zoroark said helplessly. Ghost Pictures always receives some strange scripts. Some scripts are judged to be usable, so they are used, but the judgment of some scripts is very complicated, so until now, there is no way to confirm it, and it can only be handed over to Teng Shu to deal with.

As a result, Teng Shu was away for most of the day, and as a result, these things could not be dealt with, so naturally some scripts piled up. Now the script that Zoroark took out was considered to be the one that was carefully selected.

Teng Shu sighed, but didn't say anything. He knew that this was his own problem, so he resigned himself to picking up the script, intending to see what the content of the script was that could make people so entangled?
In a small town in the Kalos region, the sun was still warm, and the children on the street were riding bicycles, chasing their Pikachu and Eevee. However, this day was destined to be remembered, not because of any great Pokémon battle, but because of the beginning of a nightmare.

It was a rainy afternoon. Seven young people gathered in an old apartment on the edge of the town. They were all avid fans of the Pokémon game and often got together to discuss the latest game versions and hidden easter eggs. This time, one of them, Xishu, mysteriously took out a long-dusty game disc.

"Hey, I'm not saying anything, what the hell is this Xishu?" Teng Shu couldn't help but wonder, what kind of name is this? Why does it always feel like it's implying something about me? However, Zoroark said that it might be similar, so Teng Shu took a deep breath and said nothing.

"Look at this," Xishu said excitedly, "This is an old thing of my grandfather. It is said to be a Pokémon game that has never been released, called "Shadow Forest."

Everyone gathered around curiously. The surface of the CD was a little worn, and the label was vaguely printed with the words "internal test version". They found an old game console and carefully inserted the CD. The moment the game started, a strange forest appeared on the screen. The background music was low and depressing, completely different from the cheerful Pokémon music they were familiar with.

"This doesn't feel right." Tengs said with a frown. She always had an inexplicable intuition.

? ??
Teng Shu didn't want to talk anymore, but he didn't say anything either. The plot seemed pretty good and quite attractive.

At the beginning of the game, they chose their respective trainer characters and entered a world called "Shadow Forest". At first, everything seemed normal, but the forest was much darker than they had imagined, and the Pokémon's behavior was also a little abnormal.

"The wild Pokémon here are very aggressive," Dagang complained. His Charmander had just been defeated by an unknown dark Pokémon. "Even Pikachu's electric attack has been reduced in effect by half."

They continued to go deeper into the forest and found that not only were the Pokémon behaving strangely, but even the expressions of the NPCs (non-player characters) seemed stiff and unnatural. What was even stranger was that the passage of time in the game seemed to be synchronized with the real world - the longer they played the game, the darker the sky became in reality.

“I think we should quit,” Xiaoguang said. She noticed that the game had lasted for nearly three hours and the sky in reality had completely darkened. “This game is too depressing.”

At this moment, a dazzling white light suddenly flashed on the screen, and a trainer wearing a strange mask appeared in front of them. The trainer's name was displayed as "???", and his Pokémon was a black shadow Pokémon they had never seen before.

This setting
Teng Shu had a strange expression on his face. He thought of some weird settings, such as a strange Pokémon game where you would be hypnotized if you were defeated. Teng Shu had played it before, but that was not Pokémon. It just used a setting similar to Pokémon. It was a very weird game, and later it was said that DLC2 was released.

But that kind of script obviously cannot be written. If it is written, people will die. It will definitely not pass the review. But looking at this script, it doesn't seem to develop in that direction.

"Wait, my Charmander hasn't fully recovered yet!" Dagang exclaimed.

The shadow Pokémon launched an attack instantly, and Gang's Charmander had no time to dodge and was knocked down by the blow. The words "Charmander has lost its combat ability" popped up on the screen, followed by a harsh electronic noise.

Something even more terrifying happened - the Dagang in reality suddenly covered his chest and fell to the ground in pain.

"Dagang! What's wrong with you?" Xishu rushed to his friend in panic.

However, it was too late. Dagang's body twitched a few times and then stopped moving. The other people in the room were stunned. The scene in the game continued and the masked trainer was still standing there, as if waiting for something.

"We...we have to quit the game!" Tens screamed, and she reached out to pull out the game disc with trembling hands.

However, the game console suddenly crashed, and no matter how they pressed the buttons, they could not exit the game. Even more bizarrely, the masked trainer on the screen began to speak, his voice distorted and blurry:
"The game has begun. Death is inevitable and only by clearing the level can you escape."

What happened next was even more terrifying. Every time a character in the game died, the corresponding person in reality would die in the same way. The next day, Tengs was found to have stopped breathing in her sleep, her expression frozen in horror, just like when the character in the game was frightened to death.

On the third day, Hikari suffers a heart attack while bathing, while her character in the game is being hit by a poisonous attack from a Poison-type Pokémon.

Fear quickly spreads, and the four remaining people - Xishu, Rock, Taketsuki and Honniwa - decide not to sleep properly anymore, and take turns staring at the game console, trying to figure out a way to escape, but they soon discover that no matter what they do, the game will advance at its own pace.

"This is crazy," Locke said in a trembling voice, "We are trapped in this game, and reality and the game are entangled." They found that certain specific events in the game seemed to be able to temporarily delay the arrival of death. For example, when they found the "Fountain of Purification" in the game, the vitality of everyone in reality seemed to be briefly restored, but this fountain could only be used three times, and after each use, the difficulty of the game would increase exponentially.

As time went by, they gradually discovered more secrets of the game. It turned out that "Shadow Forest" was an experimental game that was urgently stopped by the top management of the Pokémon Company because it used some forbidden technology - projecting part of the player's consciousness into the game world. A serious accident occurred during the testing phase of the development team. All the people involved in the testing died mysteriously and the game prototype was also sealed.

"So this game...it's revenge?" Zhu Yue asked, her face as pale as paper.

With no one to answer this question, they can only keep moving forward, hoping to find a way to beat the game. Each area in the game corresponds to a way to die, and they must find all the hidden clues to solve the mystery at the heart of the forest.

On the fifth day, Locke was defeated by a huge Shadow Tyrannosaurus in the game. In reality, he screamed and then fell silent. His body was in a strange posture, just like when the character in the game was bitten to pieces by a Tyrannosaurus.

There are only three people left. Xishu, Taketsuki and Hontei decide to go all out and go directly to the deepest part of the forest to find the end of the game. They find that every time they pass an area, the character in the game will get a "Leaf of Truth", and collecting seven Leaves of Truth will open the door to the real world.

"So, the seven leaves in the game correspond to the seven of us." Ben Ting suddenly realized, "But four of us have died, which means..."

Her voice trembled, and the unspoken truth made everyone feel despair. The characters in the game fell one after another, and people in reality also died one after another. Now, there were only three of them and three leaves of truth left.

In the deepest part of the forest was a huge altar, surrounded by seven stone pillars, each with the name of the seven of them engraved on it. In the center of the altar was a crystal that flickered with a strange light.

"We have to put the Leaf of Truth on this," Xishu said, his voice already hoarse.

When they placed the three leaves of truth on the altar, the crystal emitted a dazzling light, the entire forest began to shake violently, and the characters in the game fell one by one. In reality, Benting suddenly felt a sharp pain, and the same wound as the character in the game appeared on her arm.

“No! There is another way!” Zhu Yue screamed. She rushed to the altar and tried to take away a leaf of truth by force. “We can’t die like this!”

But it was too late. All the characters in the game died, and the leaves of truth on the altar were all extinguished. The three people in reality fell down at the same time. Only Xishu seemed to see something at the last moment - a seventh leaf of truth that had never been seen before emerged from the crystal and slowly floated towards him.

When he held the leaf, the scene around him suddenly distorted, he felt dizzy, and then lost consciousness.

When Xishu woke up in the hospital, he found himself lying on a hospital bed with the sun shining brightly outside the window. The doctor told him that he was the only survivor of the "Shadow Forest" game incident and the other six people had been confirmed dead. What was even more strange was that the game disc that had never been officially released had disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.

But Xishu knew that it was not a dream. He had a scar on his wrist that was exactly the same as the character in the game, and the strange forest and the six people who would never come back kept appearing in his dreams.

Three months later, a new game called "Pokémon: Shadow Forest" was announced. The game description stated that this is a psychological horror game that explores the dark side of human nature and was produced by the most mysterious development team of the Pokémon Company.

Xishu stood at the door of the game store, looking at the game disc displayed in the window, the familiar cover design, and the blurred words "internal beta version". He was sure that this was the game they had played.

But some things, once they enter reality, can never be erased. That night, when he was alone at home, the TV suddenly turned on automatically, and a trainer wearing a strange mask appeared on the screen. His Pokémon was a black shadow Pokémon that he had never seen before.

"The game continues." The masked trainer's voice came from the TV, low and cold.
"This ending..." Teng Shu looked at the ending and understood why other people couldn't be sure of it. After all, the script was really weird and the setting was quite troublesome. There were some troublesome problems. For example, under this setting, it was easy to be attacked for deliberately vilifying Pokémon or something. After all, it did seem to have such an intention, which was very troublesome.

And this ending is not so bright, but such a failed ending of the protagonist is actually quite common in the future, especially in horror movies. The Dead Silence Brought by Teng Shu is a similar work. Didn’t the protagonist in it have his tongue pulled out in the end and completely lost his life? In fact, that’s the meaning.

"It's still passable, and this script setting can be used as a match for a game." Teng Shu personally thinks it's still possible, and the biggest advantage of this script is that it can make a similar game to increase the players' sense of involvement, and it can also increase the audience's sense of involvement, which is like killing two birds with one stone, and such a script itself does not have such strict requirements for the game, so it is a relatively easy problem to solve.

"Okay, then I'll go down and talk to the marketing department." Zoroak also recorded this matter. Teng Shu nodded and said nothing, but continued to look at the documents in his hand. Ghost Pictures still had a lot of things accumulated that needed Teng Shu to deal with, which was very troublesome, but Teng Shu still planned to deal with it. After all, this matter was somewhat related to Teng Shu.

Teng Shu sighed. Life is not easy. Teng Shu sighed.

"These things...ah, are really troublesome. Fortunately, we have Fugui." Teng Shu sighed. Fugui has been learning how to manage a company from Teng Shu at home during this period of time. Now some basic affairs of Dewen Company can be handled by Fugui. It has to be said that this is a huge improvement, which also makes Teng Shu feel more relaxed.

However, Teng Shu thought that maybe he could still ask other Pokémon professional managers to help him manage the ghost company, or maybe he didn't need to, because Teng Shu had a better candidate.
"Boss, these things have been dealt with. Now..." Zoroark walked in. Teng Shu smiled. Zoroark is not bad. (End of this chapter)