Meanwhile, in the PVR lab, one of the scientists was leaning back, sipping from his coca cola can. He longed to be in the game too, to feel the rush of addiction, just like all the others.
He imagined himself as a pokemon warrior, fighting against the best of the best and becoming the pokemon champion! He was too absorbed in his daydreams that he wasn't paying attention, he twitched and hit the coca cola can, sending it flying and crashing against the floor, liquid spraying out from the can, hitting the massive game server that was right beside him.
The server of the game flickered, as electric sparks jumped from the machine and the whole thing began to shake visibly.
Quickly, he wiped the cola from the machine, mopped up the soda from the floor and put the can in the bin, trying depeseratly to hide the evidence that he had messed up.
But the server was still broken, and now, all the people in the game could not exit. No one could get in, and no one could get out. The 'entrance' and 'exit' data chips of the server had been damaged, perhaps irrepairably.
"They're trapped in there..." he muttered to himself, "Oh god what have I done..."
He decided to keep quiet, the game was making millions, and, he assumed, that if anyone knew what he had just done, he would get fired and therefore lose out on the money.
Meanwhile, in a nuclear power plant in Kansas, the Kansan scientists had put on their virtual reality helmets so that they could go into the game for a while. They only had to check on the nuclear core of the plant every half an hour or so, and while they waited they played the game.
One of the scientists petted his Bulbasaur.
"Bulba... bulbasaur..."
"This game is great," he smiled, but he was interrupted by the sound of his in-game Pokedex beeping at him.
It read, "check the nuclear core in 10 minutes."
"It was a great idea to set my Pokedex to remind me to check the core, huh?"
"Bulba! Bulba bulbasaur!"
"Ok you guys," the scientist turned to the other scientists who were with him, "It's time to exit the game and check on the nuclear plant."
"Ah, it's ok," replied another scientist, "We have ten minutes."
"No no, we can't get sloppy with this. The entire state of Kansas is in our hands, let's get back."
"Fine."
The scientists all hit the exit button on their Pokedexes.
-Beep beeeeep-
They beeped and yet, nothing else happened.
"What the, come on Pokedex, exit!"
"Exit unavailible..." the Pokedex beeped in a robotic monotone.
"What do you mean exit unavailable?" the scientist started jumping up and down, "We need to check the nuclear reactors!"
The scientists ran around the forest that they were in, frantically looking for someone who could help them.
"Help! Someone help! Oh god!"
The water in the nuclear reactor was burning away, fast, soon the nuclear rods would contact the air and explode.
"Check the nuclear core in 1 minute." the Pokedex beeped.
"Oh god," one of the scientists dropped down to his knees, "Oh god no..."
The water in the power plant had evaporated fully, the nuclear rods started to glow and burn through the ground below.
"Oh god, someone help us..."
KABANG!
The nuclear shockwave shook the whole of the city, as the entire state of Kansas erupted in a giant ball of flame and ash.
In the game, everyone from Kansas started disappearing. People just dropped down and flicked out of the game, their pokemon looking around for their now non-existent owners, bewildered.
"Why are so many people leaving at once?" Lena asked, as people started disappearing from the game.
"You'd be surprised," said Giorgios Alkaios, "Maybe people don't like the game as much as us."
"Or maybe they're actually going to do something constructive," Stefan said.
"Come on Stefan!" Lena said, "Becoming the pokemon master is the most constructive thing we will ever do!"
"You won the Eurovision not so long ago!" Stefan snapped, "...Wasn't that more constructive?"
Lena thought for a moment and then said... "No way! I want to be a pokemon master!"
"The Eurovision was six months ago," said Sieneke, "This is now!"
They had left pokemon forest a while ago, and where now walking through Veridian Forest.
"This whole game seems to be one giant forest," said Daniel Diges, "I can't wait until we get to a city."
"I hope the cities are just like in the pokemon games," said Vukasin Brajic.
Suddenly, a Pikachu jumped out before them.
"Pikaaaa pikachuuuuu~"
"Hey hey, you guys!" Gjoko said, "Could you catch this pokemon for me? I mean, then I'll have a strong pokemon too, right?"
"No way," laughed Jessy Matador, "Then you'll be the only one of us with two pokemon!"
"I'm on it!" said Michael von der Heide, as he sent out his pidgey, "I choose you, Pidgey!"
"Pidge... pidgey!"
The pidgey attacked the pikachu, but was no match for it's thunderbolt attacks.
"Oh no! Pidgey!" yelled Michael, as he returned the defeated bird pokemon to it's pokeball.
"Hahaha, go, Horehronie!" yelled Kristina Pelakova, holding her blue pokeball to the air and sending out her squirtle.
"Squirrrtttt... squirtle..." and the squirtle summoned a water blast and blasted the pikachu against a tree, knocking it out.
"YES!" yelled Gjoko, jumping up and down exitedly, "I've got a pikachu! Wait a second, does anyone have a spare pokeball?"
"I have one in my bag for some reason," answered Peter Nalitch, "Here, you can have it,"
And he threw the pokeball over to Gjoko, and Gjoko caught the pikachu.
"Yes! Pikachu is mine!" and he held the pokeball high up in the air, proud of himself.
"I don't see why you are so proud," Stefan said, "You didn't do anything."
"Yes, but now I have a pikachu! With a pikachu I can do stuff!" Gjoko laughed happily.
"I still don't feel comfortable with this," Juliana said as Gjoko put his pokeball into his bag.
"Juli-" Milan began, but was cut off by Juliana's rants.
"I mean, we're playing god with all of this. Our technology has advanced so far, and what good has it done us? It has done us no good at all. Everyone spends all their time in this silly game, humanity has gone too far and now we are paying the price. We can no longer tell reality from simulation. We are in the Matrix."
"Why does that even matter you religious zealot." Stefan shrugged, "People are happy here, and don't care for your 'holier than thou' fundamentalism."
"You sir, yes YOU," Juliana pointed at Stefan, "Are the most digusting example of a human being I have EVER witnessed in all my life. Spreading the lies of evolution and the dinosaurs and poisoning the minds of our young ones with this scientific filth of nonsense!"
"God damn, and I thought you are annoying in the contest! You're even more annoying now! If you hate this game so much, leave, and get lost!" Stefan spat, still annoyed with her for chucking a Bible at him.
"Fine, I will leave, and when you are burning in hell for your sins, don't come crying to me, because I'll be looking down at you from heaven, and I'll laugh. I'll laugh at YOU Stefan Raab, I'll laugh."
And with that, Juliana hit the exit button on her pokedex.
-Beep beeeeep-
"Exit unavailiable," the pokedex replied.
"What the-?" Juliana said.
"Ah, they're probably just updating the hardware," Milan smiled, "You'll probably be able to leave in a second."
"I'll walk with you guys for a while then," Juliana said, "There is only one bad egg in this crowd, after all," and she shot a glare at Stefan.
After a while of walking through Veridian Forest, they came across a signpost, but there was no writing on the sign.
'This way to Lavender Town!' the sign said in a robotic monotone.
"Oh wow, a talking sign!" said Harel Skaat.
"Lavender Town?" asked Peter, "That's that place with all the ghosts and stuff, right?"
'Correct.' said the sign.
"Let's go there!" Lena said happily, "I'm sure we can catch some ghost Pokemon there!"
"I want a ghastly!" said Sieneke, as they all set off on the way to Lavender Town.