Pokédex No. 151 at the Launch Site (4,000 Characters)

Nakayama Hayao and several executives exchanged glances, but ultimately turned their attention to Takuya, signaling him to continue.

Takuya simply smiled and kept everyone in suspense, "No need to rush, Father. Everything will be confirmed when today's Tokyo sales figures come out."

As soon as he finished speaking, the hour and minute hands of the clock tower in the square aligned at the number "11".

On stage, the Pokémon, having just finished their warm-up performance, waved and walked off the stage with endearing clumsiness. The host, full of energy, returned to the center of the stage, his voice booming across the entire plaza through the loudspeaker. "Good morning, everyone! Please look at the paper wristband on your wrist. It has a number consisting of the letters 'MD' followed by six digits. This is your raffle ticket!"

Before the words were even finished, a staff member carried in a huge red button. Next to it, a Pikachu mascot was hugging an inflatable hammer with the word "100t" written on it, swaying its body from side to side, which drew bursts of laughter from the audience.

"First, let's announce some exciting data!" the host raised his voice, "As of 11:00 AM, we have distributed 11,063 wristbands! That means that this morning, more than 11,000 players have come to our event!"

On the large color television screens surrounding the square, a live feed immediately appeared showing the back-end engineer inputting the upper limit number "11063" into the lottery program. This number caused the executives behind Nakayama Hayao to instinctively straighten their backs.

"Next, we will invite five lucky audience members from the crowd to draw the first batch of grand prizes for us today!" The host waved his arm and pointed backstage.

Then, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, and Psyduck, tilting its head and looking completely bewildered, each came out carrying a watermelon-sized inflatable Poké Ball. They awkwardly turned around, their backs to the audience, and then each threw the Poké Ball backward with all their might!

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Five Poké Ball traced five parabolic arcs as they landed in the crowd. The audience instantly erupted into a sea of joy, with screams and arms clapping together. After a moment of chaos, a cool-looking young man, three screaming high school girls hugging each other, and a little boy being carried on his father's shoulders held up the Poké Ball they had "snatched."

After the five lucky draw guests came on stage, they took turns receiving the exaggerated inflatable hammer from Pikachu. The handsome young man decisively smashed it with one blow, while the girls giggled and worked together to smash it. When it was the little boy's turn, he used all his strength, his face turning red, before he barely managed to hit the button. His comical appearance drew laughter from the entire audience.

Five lucky numbers appeared on the big screen. However, when the host read out the last number, "00071," drawn by the little boy, no one came up on stage after a long wait. Clearly, the lucky boy had already rushed home to play games.

"It seems this friend is eager to go home!" the host joked. "No problem, let's give the opportunity to the audience! Little friend, could you do us another favor?"

The little boy nodded vigorously. This time, he held his breath, leaped up with all his might, and slammed the hammer down. With a muffled "bang," a new number was born, and this time a joyful scream immediately erupted from the audience.

Five winners excitedly ran onto the stage, while the host cleared his throat and said in a mysterious tone, "Our prize is neither a game console nor a game cartridge. It's—the 151st item not yet listed in the encyclopedia."

Pokémon- Mew Electronic Pet!

The scene was initially deathly silent, then erupted into a deafening roar of astonishment and discussion. Countless people sighed in regret.

They beat their chests in frustration, their envious gazes almost setting the five lucky winners on fire.

The five audience members who were in charge of the raffle also received a souvenir: a palm-sized, exquisitely crafted Mew doll.

The murmurs of the audience spread like ripples on water after a stone was thrown in, eventually culminating in a raging storm. "Mew? Is it that blank number 151 in the Pokédex?"

"Has Sega gone mad?! They're giving this away as a freebie?"

For most Pokémon players present, this was more than just a prize. Since the release of the first batch of Electronic Pet, they had collected, traded, used evolution stones, and gone to Pokémon Center, painstakingly filling their Pokédex from No. 1 to 149.

Number 150 and 151, however, remained an unresolved legend. Now, this legendary existence had actually appeared before their eyes in physical form.

The Electronic Pet held by the five lucky winners on stage were Master Ball- style devices with a prestigious purple and white color scheme, gleaming alluringly in the sunlight. Below the stage, countless gazes seemed to pierce through them.

"Attention everyone!" the host's voice rang out again. He paused deliberately, waiting for everyone's attention to be focused, before announcing, word by word, "The Mew Virtual Pet is available today only! From now until 3:30 PM, there will be ten rounds of draws, one every half hour! After the event ends, it will never be available again!"

The words "Never to be reproduced again" struck like a heavy hammer against everyone's hearts. Envious glances instantly turned into burning jealousy, even tinged with madness. Some people who were just passing by to watch the excitement and were about to leave immediately stopped in their tracks, clutching their raffle tickets tightly to their wrists.

As soon as the five lucky winners stepped off the stage, they were immediately surrounded by a crowd. A lady in an elegant maid uniform gracefully parted the crowd and bowed slightly to one of the winners. "Sir, my lady has offered five million Japanese yen. We hope you will part with your prize."

Five million! A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.

The winner was the very person the little boy had drawn in a supplementary draw. He paused for a moment, seemingly still reeling from the shock of the huge sum of money. He glanced at the Master Ball in his hand, then at the check the maid handed him, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He promptly handed over the Electronic Pet and snatched the check.

"Make a deal!"

He didn't even look closely at the number on the check before turning around, pushing through the crowd, and rushing to the nearest bank, as if afraid the other party would change their mind.

This surreal scene left everyone dumbfounded. A tiny gadget, no bigger than the palm of your hand, could be the down payment for an apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo. Now, no one doubted the value of the remaining nine rounds of the lottery. The atmosphere in the entire square completely changed; people's eyes were filled with anticipation and anxiety for the next draw.

And in the following nine rounds of drawing prizes, they were all indeed Mew Virtual Pet. Even the audience members who went on stage to help with the drawing...

The souvenirs they received—limited-edition Mew items—immediately became highly sought-after items by wealthy young men and women, selling for tens or even hundreds of thousands of Japanese yen.

Besides the lucky draw, the theme songs of Pokémon and Fatal Fury echoed in the square, and Pokémon in costumes and cosplayers mingled with the crowd, drawing cheers. Influenced by the atmosphere, long lines formed in front of Sega, Sanrio, Mattel merchandise booths. At lunchtime, the Pokémon- themed bento carts from FamilyMart had just come to a stop...

The square was packed with hungry people who refused to leave. The entire event plaza had become a carnival filled with the scent of money and dreams.

The crowds in the open-air plaza had overflowed onto the road, and police officers maintaining order had to set up temporary cordons to guide spectators and pedestrians away from the roadway. Every hour, as a new lucky winner was drawn on stage, a symphony of jubilation and despair would repeat itself in the plaza. The repeated shouts of "five million" acted like invisible fuel, continuously fueling the increasingly heated atmosphere.

But problems soon arose. People in front refused to leave because of their raffle tickets, while players who wanted to buy games and consoles couldn't squeeze in, bringing the entire plaza to a near standstill. The sales staff were sweating profusely, watching as a great business opportunity was about to be blocked.

After an emergency discussion with several executives, Takuya immediately had the host announce the new rules during the break between the next round of the lottery.

"Dear friends, to allow more players to participate in our event, we will be setting up raffle registration points at the sales area and demo area exit after 12:00 PM!" The host's voice echoed throughout the venue through the speakers. "You can register your raffle number, home phone number, and address using your wristband. After registration, your raffle number will remain valid even if you are not present! If you win, Sega will mail your prize to you free of charge and notify you by phone!"

The news caused a brief stir in the crowd. Some people were delighted; now they could go home for dinner and avoid wasting time here. Others were skeptical, whispering to their companions, "By mail? Is that reliable? What if it gets lost?"

"You think Sega will just replace yours with a new one if you lose it?" someone nearby retorted irritably. "This is Sega's venue. They've already given away millions in prizes, why would they take one from you?"

This remark jolted everyone awake. As soon as the registration desk opened, it was instantly flooded with people. The staff were surrounded by layers of people, their hands almost never stopping as they frantically wrote down their addresses and phone numbers, as if they were signing a five-million-dollar contract.

The new rules had an immediate effect; many registered viewers left satisfied, and the flow of people in the square finally began to cycle again. Of course, a considerable number of people chose to stay, especially families with children, who were more interested in the interactive Pokémon performances on stage.

Before 2:30 p. m., the sales manager in charge of the site, his face flushed, rushed into the hotel's observation deck, his voice trembling. "President! Everyone! Sold out! All 30,000 Mega Drive units, including a 5,000-unit Pikachu limited edition bundle and 100,000 game cartridges, are completely sold out!"

The office fell silent instantly, and everyone turned to look at him.

"All?"

"All of them! Not a single plate left!" The manager excitedly waved the walkie-talkie in his hand.

The executives exchanged delighted glances and downed their champagne in one gulp.

Just as the sales manager reached for the phone to contact the warehouse to arrange for additional stock, Takuya stopped him.

"Etc."

The supervisor froze, his face a mixture of elation and anxiety, and looked at Takuya in bewilderment.

Nakayama Hayao frowned, put down his binoculars, and asked in a deep voice, "Takuya, what does this mean? Why aren't you restocking?"

All the executives present cast questioning glances. Selling out the goods was a great thing; strike while the iron is hot and sell as much as you can—this was an instinct ingrained in every businessman.

"President," Takuya said calmly, meeting everyone's gazes as he walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at the still-frenzied square below, "Don't you think the headline, '30,000 Sega Drive consoles sold out in half a day on its first day of release,' is more impressive than the slogans we spent tens of millions on advertising?"

Everyone was pleased.

"The media needs sensational stories, and 'sold out' is the simplest and most direct one." Takuya turned around, a smile playing on his lips. "It's free headline news, and the most convincing kind."

He looked at the sales manager, who was still in a daze. "No matter how much more stock we restock here, it will only make the square more congested. But those who didn't get a game console, their enthusiasm has been completely ignited. Now, what do they crave most?"

Without waiting for anyone else to answer, Takuya gave his own answer, "I want to own my own MD immediately."

"If they're gone, where will they go?"

He pointed in the direction of Akihabara: "They'll take this fervor and rush into every electronics store in Akihabara."

We can't let Nintendo's * Super Mario Bros. 3 * dominate Akihabara. I want to make this Mega Drive buying frenzy a thing of the past.

The wave surged directly back into Akihabara.

"But... but-." The sales manager still felt a pang of heartache; those were all hard-earned cash.

"We're not creating a shortage, we're creating buzz." Takuya's voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly to everyone's ears. It's the urban legend of "I was there today, I saw the MD sell out with my own eyes." It's the bragging rights of "Did you get one? I queued for ages to snag one." These stories will be carried like dandelion seeds by the tens of thousands of players who left today, reaching every corner of Tokyo. This is more effective than our promoters shouting themselves hoarse. We need to give the players who bought MDs today time to let our publicity spread. A weekend evening before Valentine's Day, isn't that perfect?"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the thoughtful crowd. "We need this momentum to continue burning, not to be exhausted in a single day. We need to leave some headlines for tomorrow's papers and enough momentum for tomorrow's sales. Haste makes waste. Who knows, there might be quite a few couples buying MDs tomorrow."

The observation deck was silent, with only the noise coming from the open-air plaza opposite.

A few seconds later, Nakayama Hayao broke the silence first. He didn't speak, but slowly began to clap his hands. Then, applause erupted. The executives' gazes towards Takuya had changed from initial admiration to utter respect.

"Good lad." Nakayama Hayao walked up to Takuya, patted him on the shoulder, and couldn't help but laugh as he looked out at the bustling crowd. "I'll see just how brightly this fire of yours can burn."

The executives exchanged smiles, their last remaining doubts vanishing. They turned and left to handle their respective follow-up matters.

Only the sales manager remained, stunned. He looked down at the now-silent walkie-talkie in his hand and finally understood. He carefully turned it off, as if it weren't a communication device, but a bomb that could destroy the perfect plan at any moment.