(? What's up? If you're confused, just head into the lobby, I've got plans after Willie's battle. I kinda wanna to see Oliver's story, like a lot XD)

Oliver reluctantly opened his eyes and released the breath he had been holding as his body finished manifesting in virtual space. The sensation wasn’t unfamiliar; despite the update, logging in with the VR console felt the same as ever. Even so, the boy had a habit of tensing up during the transition. He couldn’t shake the feeling that moving around too much would cause his body not to load in properly. An unreasonable fear, perhaps, but also one he would have difficulty letting go of.

Before him was an introduction screen not unlike what one would expect of any other Pokémon game. Regardless of the technological strides that had been made in recent years in the industry, precious little had changed. Somewhat irked, Oliver skipped through the introduction as quickly as possible. At last, he was presented with a starter selection screen. Much to his dismay, a notice appeared informing him that several legendaries were available for selection. With a grunt, he expelled the notice with a dismissive wave of his hand and returned his attention to the menu. He quickly scrolled to Murkrow and, without a second thought, made his selection.

In a flash of light, Oliver found himself in a large plaza, his ears met with soothing but adventurous orchestral music. All around, people were chatting, shopping and participating in battles. On the boy’s shoulder sat a Murkrow, and it was staring at him rather intently. Even Oliver was overwhelmed by everything happening around him. He reached over to stroke his new pet’s feathers, but it denied his advance with a peck on the hand.

“Ow!” The boy exclaimed, recoiling.

It hadn’t actually hurt, of course. The boy had simply reacted reflexively. Oliver quickly righted himself before anyone saw him behaving so embarrassingly and shot a brief glare at the Murkrow. Despite its gross insubordination, physically interacting with a Pokémon was in itself exciting enough that he allowed himself to forget his misgivings toward the bird. He decided he would name it at a later time, then moved quickly to the shopping stalls. With his meager starting money, he purchased several Poké Balls, some potions, a few antidotes and a repel. The quintessential starting supplies for any Pokémon adventure. With that out of the way, the boy proceeded to push past the masses gathered in the plaza, uttering an occasional ‘clear the way’ or ’step aside, plebeian’. He had little interest in mingling with the bourgeoisie and was searching for an exit so he could begin the game proper.

Meanwhile, the computer science academic was slowly taking a look at the source code of the program using his glasses. He stumbled upon something which didn't look right.

"If user powers off:
End All"

He looked with eyes wide open. "End All" was a command that shut everything down. He didn't have much experience with virtual reality, but it seemed this place was a bit too real. If this really incorporated the senses into the program, this could be disastrous.

He shut the decompiler off. He didn't want to cause too much panic, just in case he turned out to be wrong.

Over in the distance, he saw an Eevee and a Whismur having a battle. He walked towards them, hoping that what he thought was wrong.

Willie: *sees Dr. Tern-Ivanoff walk towards the battle* [Oh good, more people] *waits for Roul to attack*
..
...
....

Willie is then pushed by Oliver, and hears him say something along the lines of "Step aside, Plebeian" : *mutters* W-Well, aren't you nice...

Roul smiled and pointed towards the whismur. "One more time, Eevee!" She said. "Use return!"

Willie: [Uh-oh] Um, uh, Whismur dodge it!
Whismur tries to sidestep, but still get grazed by the Return, which is enough to knock it out.
A message pops up in front of Willie-

"The battle has finished! You Lost...
100 PokeYen was automatically transferred to Roul's pack. Current Amount: 2900 PokeYen
EXIT? Y/N"

Willie selects Yes.
Willie: *embarrassed and disappointed* A-Aw man... I already lost my first b-b-battle in of all of these people.... *presses the button on Whismur's Pokeball, which returns Whismur to it* [At least that felt good... Take a rest, Whismur...]


Meanwhile in Green Valley-
Backpacker NPC: Hello, young trainer! Welcome to Green Valley, where everything Green is good, and everything's green! Here you'll meet many Grass and Bug-type Pokemon. There's also a Pokemon Center just up ahead! And if you keep going, you'll reach New Azalea.

Meanwhile near the Pokemon Center-
Nurse Joy NPC: *waiting for Ember to come, as she expects him as part of his sidequest*

Dr. Tern-Ivanov kept the decompiler running. He was able to activate "module view", which allowed him to see what was happening in the code. He saw a dot appear. It was a trainer, a player who was called Brian. He examined closer, and saw something which may have all but confirmed his theory.

He saw scans of brain waves. Literal brain waves. Then, the trainer clicked power off. He saw the scans freeze, then the virtual body disappeared. The user was then deleted from the system. He scrolled down to check the backups, but he only saw still images. Heart rate, and many others had just froze.

His theory was confirmed. There was a programming fault which froze you if you powered off.

He broke into a sprint towards the young boy and the young girl. After stopping, he said to the boy:

"Listen to me, I have something to tell you that will likely scare the wits out of you..."

Willie, disappointed was thinking about turning off the game when...

Willie: W-What?! *sweating* Y-you already scared the wits out of me!?

Meanwhile in Green Valley-
Backpacker NPC: Oh yeah, and watch out for Scyther. I hear people say that they are ruthless this time of year.

He turned to the boy and said "Pull yourself together, and whatever you do, DON'T TURN OFF THE GAME!".

He paused, and said "Oh, by the way, I'm Dr. Kristoff Tern-Ivanov, and you are?"

Dyson smiled. "Scyther, eh?" He winked at his Swablu. "It's smooth sailing if I get myself one of those." He headed off into the grassy fields, hoping to find himself a Scyther.

Roul felt a bit bad for the newcomer, and offered him some tips. "Whismur has little feet. Teach it to run around shrieking at things and, I dunno, shooting fireballs and stuff." As she was getting ready to teach him the difference between physical and special attacks, the scientist with the Porygon rushed up in a panic. "Ooooh, something scary? Tell me."

Kristoff turned to the girl and addressed her and the shaking boy.

"I'm a computer scientist. I wear modified glasses which allow me to analyse the code, and I was intrigued by how good this game is in terms of virtual reality. Only, when I ran through the code, I noticed a couple of coding errors:
It freezes your brain waves, and it doesn't reactivate or put them back. Meaning, if you power off the game, you're stuck. Frozen. Crashed. And there's no feasible way for you to come back".

"So, you're stuck here forever. Let that sink in"

Willie: *barely hears Roul's tips* [Well thanks, but-] *hear the Doc* [Stuck here.. FOREVER?!] *lets that sink in n remembers all of the bad things in his life, and then remembers his family... but then remembers Whismur* [Maybe this won't be that bad, right? This means, I'll never see my bullies again! But I'll never see my family...] *a tear drops from Willie's eye, but he makes a shy smile* Oh yeah, I-I'm Willie...

Whsimur, at no HP, comfortable lies down in its virtual PokeBall

Meanwhile in Green Valley-
Backpacker NPC: Good Luck!

In the pathways between the fields, there are some optional NPC trainers

"For god's sake, pull yourself together" he said harshly. Then, remembering that he was only a kid, calmly said

"Listen, I know a lot of programming languages, including a fair bit of the one this is coded in. If I can create a second reality, with the same code, I may be able to find a way to get us out of here. But it's very rocky territory. It may kill us at worst, or not work at a normal level. At best, we'll be free, and then you'll be with your family".

"At the very least, I can try and get a broadcast out to your family, saying you're stuck here. But it'll take a while, ok?"

Dyson eyes the trainers, but instead continues to search the area for wild Pokémon.

Roulette laughed out loud. "Stuck here? Forever?! What sort of update did they release while I've been playing this for three days straight?" She grabbed her Eevee and held it up for them to see. "I'm now your queen, bow before me and my Pokémon army!"

He turned to the girl, and said:

"There's been no update. This is in the untouched game. Problem is, nobody can report it without the game messing up, or the entire population being stuck or dying. Also, my glasses and skill can turn your Eevee into a Magikarp, so now isn't the time to be joking you fool!