Creak... snap!
A harsh, teeth-grating sound, like nails scraping across a blackboard before metal suddenly snapped, drilled straight into Evan's ears.
Still half-asleep, Evan's brows twisted tightly into a deep frown.
The soundproofing in this crappy rental was bad, sure, but this was way too close.
It was practically like someone was crouched beside his pillow chewing on steel bars.
"What kind of construction crew... starts this early in the morning... are they trying to kill people..."
Muttering under his breath, full of morning irritation, Evan forced open his eyelids, which felt as heavy as lead.
Weak morning light, dim and dusty, slipped through the torn curtains and happened to illuminate a shadow by the bed.
That single glance instantly cleared the haze from Evan's mind, and a chill shot straight up his spine.
There was no construction worker beside the bed.
Standing there was a little creature just over half a meter tall, round-headed and round-bodied, with dark blue fur and a cream-colored belly.
It was standing upright, and its large, bear-like ears bounced up and down with the movement of its cheeks.
In its tiny hands, each tipped with only three claws, it was clutching half of a horribly mangled metal object.
It was the "super alarm clock" Evan had bought from a bargain stall last night for a few cheap bills.
At that moment, the little thing bit off another chunk of the alarm clock's metal shell with a crisp crunch, exposing the tangled gears and battery inside. Then it tilted its head back and swallowed it with obvious enjoyment.
"Holy crap! Stop right there!"
Evan let out a startled yell and shot upright from the bed like he'd been electrocuted, slamming his back hard against the cold, peeling wall.
"Munch? Munch?" (You're awake? Hungry...)
Hearing the noise, the little guy paused in the middle of breakfast.
It turned its head, revealing eyes with huge whites and tiny pupils, filled with an expression that somehow combined pure stupidity and absolute innocence.
There was even a red copper wire hanging from the corner of its mouth, making it look exactly like a naughty kid who got caught stealing food without wiping its face.
"This... this is a Munchlax?!"
Evan's pupils shrank violently.
As a veteran anime fan, of course he recognized it.
But the texture was real, the fluffy fur carried a layer of dust, and the unique animal scent hanging in the air was something no hologram or collectible figure could ever reproduce.
Just as Evan tried to explain the situation with materialist logic, a sudden burst of pain exploded deep inside his head like a hammer striking his skull.
"Hiss!!"
He clutched his head in agony, feeling as if countless ants were gnawing at his nerves.
Inside his mind, it felt as though two raging torrents were crashing together, violently merging, colliding, and restructuring.
A full five minutes passed before the suffocating pain finally receded like the tide.
Evan gasped for breath, his pajamas soaked through with sweat.
When he raised his head again, the way he looked at the Munchlax had completely changed.
The terror was gone, replaced by a complicated mix of helplessness, heartache, and responsibility.
"So even the whole world setting changed for me, but work stayed the same. I just got a bunch of extra memories on top of it."
Feeling the flood of information in his head, Evan rubbed his temples.
He had gone from an ordinary modern society straight into a parallel world where human civilization and extraordinary creatures, Pokémon, were deeply intertwined.
In this world, during the morning rush hour, you could see Cyclizar carrying office workers through traffic in place of electric scooters.
At distant construction sites, there were no roaring cranes, only several heavily muscled Conkeldurr swinging concrete pillars as they rebuilt damaged walls.
At the intersection downstairs, instead of police dogs assisting traffic officers, a majestic, sharp-eyed Mabosstiff stood on duty. Anyone thinking about running a red light would have to think twice about those fangs.
Even through the window of the local clinic, you could see a Comfey releasing soft pink healing waves to soothe crying babies.
This was reality.
And Evan, in this bizarre world of magical realism, was still just a low-level nobody on the edge of bankruptcy, a so-called streamer struggling at the bottom of society.
The only difference was that he had gone from being an ordinary streamer to a Pokémon appraisal streamer.
As for the little ancestor currently treating his alarm clock like breakfast...
A while ago, during a stormy night, the previous Evan had picked up what he thought was a Snorlax plush from beside a trash pile.
Then, after the world's logic completely changed, that plush had turned into a real Pokémon.
A great glutton.
A Munchlax.
That was not just the name of a species.
It was a death sentence in the form of a bill.
According to the League Pokédex, this thing ate an amount equal to its own body weight every single day.
Even though he had already been dirt poor, he had still stuck to the principle that if he picked it up, then it was family. He had eaten plain steamed buns and pickled vegetables every day just so he could buy expired milk and discounted energy cubes for the little guy.
And what had that led to?
Looking at the Munchlax in front of him, Evan felt a wave of bitterness well up in his chest.
Other trainers' Munchlax were round like balls, wobbling as they walked with rolls of fat bouncing everywhere.
But his own little guy had loose fur hanging off its body, sunken eye sockets, and was so skinny it looked like a monkey wearing an oversized hoodie.
It was not thin from abuse.
It was simply starving because this poor household could not feed it.
"Munch..."
Munchlax seemed to sense Evan's low mood.
Its simple little brain assumed its trainer was angry because it had eaten the alarm clock, or maybe because it ate too much.
Flustered, it hurriedly hid the remaining half of the alarm clock behind its back.
Then, after hesitating for a moment, it stretched out one tiny clawed paw and awkwardly dug into the thick fur beneath its arm.
After fumbling around for a bit...
It proudly pulled out two white steamed buns that had already been flattened, with a few blue strands of fur stuck to them.
It was the food it had secretly saved from yesterday, the little stash it had not been willing to eat.
Munchlax carefully offered the slightly bigger bun to Evan, then placed the smaller one in front of itself.
Its huge mouth split into a clumsy, ingratiating smile.
It pointed at Evan, then at the buns.
Don't be mad. I won't eat the alarm clock anymore.
There's something tasty here. One for you, one for me.
At that moment, Evan felt as though an invisible hand had clenched his heart.
He had been an orphan in his previous life, and he was still an orphan in this one. Across both lifetimes, the only thing he truly had was this clumsy, greedy, loyal little creature in front of him.
"You idiot..."
Evan felt his nose sting.
Instead of taking the bun, he reached out and vigorously ruffled the soft fur on top of Munchlax's head.
"I'm not hungry. Both of these are yours."
He pushed the bigger bun back toward it and tried to make his voice sound gentler.
"Go on, eat. Stop hiding them. They're already stale."
Munchlax froze for a moment, disbelief filling its tiny bean-like eyes.
But under Evan's firm and encouraging gaze, instinct eventually overcame reason.
"Munch!"
It opened its mouth wide, like a bottomless abyss, and swallowed both buns in a single gulp without even chewing.
It did not even burp.
Watching Munchlax finish eating, Evan let out a sigh and grabbed the phone beside his bed.
There was a crack across the screen, but it still worked. The moment he unlocked it, several news notifications popped up, once again refreshing his understanding of this world:
Morning Bulletin: Sewer system in West City District paralyzed. Suspected cause is a group of Grimer clogging the pipes. The sanitation union has already dispatched Muk for communication and drainage assistance...
Major Crackdown! Illegal workshop caught using Voltorb for explosive fishing. Officer Jenny has arrested everyone involved!
Police Notice: Severe crackdown on Ditto fraud! A criminal gang ordered Ditto to transform into limited-edition Hermès handbags and sell them. Victims only discovered the truth after returning home and watching their bags revert to normal. Police urge the public to beware of counterfeits...
Entertainment Headlines: Jynx Emotional Counseling Center officially opens today. Experts urge everyone: please do not develop feelings for your Pokémon beyond friendship!
Shocking! Fishermen in the East Sea catch a gigantic Magikarp. Experts claim it carries a trace amount of Dragon-type bloodline and may be a devolved variant of Gyarados?
...
Evan gave a bitter smile, swiped away the absurd headlines, and opened his messaging app.
Pinned to the top was not a beautiful woman, but a cold rent reminder from his landlady, along with a long string of voice messages from the operations manager at his streaming guild.
(End of Chapter)
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