Five minutes later, Liam Shaw stood under the fading evening sky with his phone clenched so tightly in his hand that his fingers had gone stiff.
On the screen, the giant Snorlax burst out of the ball yet again in a flash of white light. It landed with its usual heavy bounce, then lazily rubbed its forehead with one thick paw, as if nothing in the world could possibly trouble it. The creature looked almost confused, like it was honestly wondering why this stubborn human child kept throwing little red balls at its face.
Liam's jaw tightened.
His last Poké Ball had failed.
That meant there was only one choice left.
He had to top up.
His heart was beating so hard it almost hurt. He had already spent more than he wanted to. For a boy his age, even a few extra yuan was not small money. But this was not just any Pokémon. This was a Snorlax. A rare one. The kind people talked about on forums. The kind that made players famous overnight.
His thumb moved quickly. He bought twenty more Poké Balls.
Then he threw another one.
Failed.
Another.
Failed again.
Every time Snorlax popped out and rubbed its head, Liam felt like the big, round monster was mocking him on purpose. It did not even look angry. It just looked calm. Calm and heavy and impossible.
That made it worse.
What frightened Liam now was not even the idea of failing.
It was the idea that Snorlax might disappear.
Rare Pokémon appeared at random. No warning. No countdown. No system notice. They simply appeared, and when their time was up, they were gone. If this Snorlax vanished before he caught it, Liam knew he would not sleep tonight. He probably would not sleep tomorrow night either.
He stared at the screen and muttered through clenched teeth, "It's just money. Just money."
The money he had earned from Northstar Games before? Fine. He could spend it all back into Northstar Games if he had to.
But this Snorlax?
He had to catch it. No matter what.
The throws kept coming.
One ball.
Two balls.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Seven balls later, he still had nothing.
The sun was dropping lower, and the light around him had started to turn soft and golden. Liam glanced at the battery indicator on his cheap phone. There was still enough charge. The old phone was not pretty, and half the village would probably call it junk, but at least it could survive another few hours.
Battery was not the real problem.
Time was.
It was already half past five.
Liam lived far from town, in a mountain area where houses were scattered and the roads were rough. Getting home on foot would take at least forty minutes. If he stayed too long, his grandmother would start worrying. Once she got worried, she would start asking around, and then the whole area would know Liam Shaw was late getting home again.
Still, he could not leave.
Not now.
He sped up.
Another five Poké Balls went flying one after another.
Failed.
Failed.
Failed.
By now, tears were almost rising in his eyes from pure frustration. He was only thirteen. However mature he could act sometimes, he was still a child. A child with a temper, a child with hope, a child who had spent too long chasing one impossible thing.
At the start, every throw had been full of prayer.
Please catch. Please catch. Please catch.
Now that hope had turned into pure stubbornness.
Fine, then. Let's see how long you can keep this up.
When he ran out again, Liam topped up once more and bought another twenty balls. His fingers moved faster this time, almost recklessly. Summer was the only reason he still had light. In winter, darkness would have swallowed the mountain path long ago.
The sky deepened from gold to hazy yellow.
His patience snapped thin.
He missed one throw, cursed under his breath, and nearly hurled the phone into the grass.
Then—
The screen vibrated.
"Buzz—buzz—"
A capture sound rang out.
"Poof—"
For one second, Liam froze.
Then he dropped straight to the ground where he stood, staring at the screen with wide eyes.
Snorlax was no longer in front of him.
It was in his Pokémon box.
Caught.
Actually caught.
For a moment his mind went completely blank. Then all the pressure, panic, anger, and fear exploded out of him at once.
"Ahhh!"
"I caught it!"
"I really caught it!"
"I actually—"
His voice cracked. He almost laughed and cried at the same time.
But just as the joy hit its peak, another thought came crashing in.
Should he keep it?
Or sell it?
That single question pressed down on him harder than the capture had.
He opened the Monster Exchange Center app with shaking hands. Rare Pokémon all had official estimated values listed there. Even if market prices changed, the estimate gave players a clear idea of what they were holding.
He found Snorlax in the rare section.
[Snorlax]
[Type: Normal]
Estimated Value: 32,000 yuan
Liam swallowed hard.
Thirty-two thousand.
And that was only the estimate.
Because this was one of the first Snorlax listed, maybe even the first one in the entire exchange, he could raise the price by a lot. Thirty percent more was not impossible.
His breathing slowed.
His family was poor.
His parents worked far from home. Year after year, they struggled outside and barely saved ten or twenty thousand yuan. His grandmother raised him in the mountains. His older sister was studying at university and money was always tight.
This one Snorlax…
…could be worth almost two years of his parents' savings.
Liam looked at the screen for a long time.
He knew what keeping it would mean. He would become famous on the forums. Players would envy him. His classmates would talk about him. Maybe he could even become someone important in the Pokémon world.
At thirteen, how could he not want that?
How could he not want to show off?
How could he not want to be the center of attention?
But when he thought of his father's tired back, his mother's worn hands, his grandmother waiting for him at home, and his sister trying to stay in school without asking for more money…
Liam made his choice.
He put Snorlax up for sale.
Price: 41,000 yuan.
He did not know if anyone would buy it.
He did not know if that much money could even land safely in the bank card tied to his account.
Three minutes later, his answer came.
A message appeared.
[Pokémon GO: Dear player "256 Little Adult," your Pokémon "Snorlax" has been sold successfully on the Monster Exchange Center. Thank you for your support of Northstar Games.]
Then another.
[Agricultural Bank: Your card ending in 5314 has received a transfer.]
Liam stared at the messages.
He had really earned it.
Forty thousand yuan.
Forty thousand.
Just like that.
Just by playing a game.
His whole body seemed to go light. He jumped up, nearly tripping over himself, then instantly dialed his mother's number.
The call connected after a few rings.
"Hello, son?"
"Mom! Mom, I earned money! I earned a lot of money!"
There was a pause.
Then her voice turned sharp with worry. "What money? What did you do now? Liam, don't scare me. I'm telling you, study properly. What nonsense are you involved in this time?"
Instead of feeling hurt, Liam burst out laughing.
"Stop lecturing me first! I earned forty thousand yuan! If you keep scolding me, I won't give it to you—I'll spend it myself!"
"Forty thousand? I think you want a beating! If you need money, ask me. Didn't I give you allowance last month?"
"I'm serious! I'm sending it to you right now. Look at WeChat!"
He hung up before she could stop him.
The card linked to the account was his mother's. The number tied to it had been given to him long ago. She had probably never expected that one day her son would use that card to send her such a huge amount.
Liam entered the number carefully.
He kept one thousand yuan for himself.
Then he transferred the rest.
A few seconds later, instead of accepting it, his mother called again.
Her voice was trembling now.
"Liam, tell me the truth. Where did this money come from? Don't lie to me. Did you do something dangerous? Did someone make you do something?"
Knowing exactly what she feared, Liam softened his voice.
"No, Mom. I didn't do anything bad. I earned it in the game. I caught a rare Pokémon and sold it. That's all. It's real. It's legal. Don't worry."
There was silence.
Then she said slowly, "That Pokémon game?"
"Yeah. Pokémon GO."
"Oh… your dad plays that too sometimes. Is it really because of that?"
"It is. I earned it fair and square."
Then Liam added, almost proudly, "I kept one thousand for myself. I want to buy a better phone. And maybe later… I want to become a professional Pokémon player."
His mother sighed on the other end. "I don't understand all that, but even if you play games, you still need to study. Only if you study will you have a future."
Still, after saying that, she sent him three thousand yuan back.
"Keep more. Buy a better phone."
Liam blinked at the screen.
"You're really giving me that much?"
She laughed softly. "Silly child. This is your money. You're willing to give so much to the family. How could I be stingy with you?"
Liam rubbed his nose.
Then he shook his head, even though she could not see him.
"No. Send it to Sister instead. She needs it more. She's in university. I can earn my own money now."
That sentence struck his mother harder than he knew.
Because it was true.
He was still young, still a boy walking back home through mountain roads with an old phone in his hand. And yet he was already thinking about the family before himself.
He had every reason to complain.
He had grown up mostly with his grandmother while his parents worked far away.
He had every reason to feel lonely.
But instead of resentment, he gave them what he had.
His mother's eyes filled with tears.
In the end, she kept twenty thousand as emergency family savings.
Then she transferred the other twenty thousand yuan to Liam's sister, Lila Shaw, at Westbridge University.
Not long after, Lila called.
At first she could hardly believe it.
When their mother told her the truth—that her younger brother had earned the money and wanted her to use it well—she fell silent for a long time.
Then the money was sent to her card too.
Later, when she called on video, her ponytail was neat, her red plaid shirt was simple, and her eyes were clearly red.
She claimed she was not crying.
Her mother smiled and did not argue.
For once, she did not tell her daughter to be frugal.
For once, she did not say, "Our family is poor, so endure it."
For once, she just wanted her daughter to live properly.
To eat well.
To study well.
To not always feel smaller than everyone else.
And somewhere on a mountain road, Liam kept walking home with his phone in his pocket and the evening wind brushing against his face.
He was tired.
He was hungry.
But inside, he felt lighter than he had in years.
A few days later, Ethan Reed came across a post on the forum.
It had been written by a female student from Westbridge University.
In the post, she thanked her parents.
She thanked her little brother.
She said that even if her family had never been rich, they had given her something more important than wealth.
They had given her love.
And she gave that story a title:
When Happiness Comes Knocking.
When Ethan Reed read it, he immediately understood what it meant.
This was more than a game.
Pokémon GO was no longer trapped inside screens, accounts, or code.
It had stepped into real life.
It could change routines.
It could change opportunities.
It could change families.
And whether that change would always be good or not was still impossible to say.
But for this moment—
For one younger brother.
For one mother walking back into work with a smile she could not hide.
For one sister sitting in a dorm room with tears in her eyes.
It was a good thing.
A very good thing.
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