Digimon: I really didn't want to be the Digimon Emperor!

No sooner had he finished speaking than a black ball beast let out a "poof," which made his candle beast roll its eyes in disgust.

"Save your energy, let's go!" Cheng Yuan glanced at the sky; the setting sun had already dyed half the sky red.

The little dog suddenly perked up its ears: "Woof! Something's following us!"

Before he could finish speaking, two burning fireballs "whooshed" past the top of the monstrous peak.

"Wild Beast Hunting Team!" Li Yue's Baloo Beast immediately assumed its vine form, transforming into a long whip ready to strike at any moment.

"You guys go first!" Cheng Yuan handed the cubs in his arms to Wen Rou. "Little Dog Beast, Candle Beast, Gear Beast, stay with me and cover our retreat!"

The first two savage beasts quickly fell to the Holy Light Bullets.

But the second wave of four green-skinned dwarves were exceptionally cunning. They hid behind trees, throwing fireballs while making strange "caw caw" noises.

"Watch this!" The Candle Beast puffed out its cheeks and spewed out a wall of blazing fire.

Unexpectedly, the fire spread along the withered vines and quickly ignited the entire shrubbery.

"Setting fire to the mountain will land you in jail for life!" Cheng Yuan gave Li Ming a thumbs-up.

Thick smoke rose into the jungle like beacon fires, quickly attracting more savages.

A rustling sound came from the trees, and pairs of scarlet eyes gleamed in the shadows.

At first, there were only a few wild beasts lurking in the distance, but soon their numbers increased to more than a dozen, and eventually they formed a three-sided encirclement.

"I knew bringing this bunch of burdens along would lead to nothing but trouble!" Zhang Ming adjusted his crooked glasses; his Candle Beast was so exhausted that even its flame had turned blue. "Now look what's happened, we're all going to become the Savage Beast's dinner!"

"Bullshit!" Li Yue's Baloo Beast used its vines to fling away the savage beast that lunged at it. "If you hadn't insisted on taking those digital cores, we would have been long gone!"

Wenrou hugged the black ball beast tightly in her arms: "But...they're so small..."

"Small?" Zhang Ming kicked away the savage beast that was trying to ambush him. "When they grow up, you'll be the first one they eat!"

Cheng Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead, watching the green-skinned figures gradually approaching from all sides.

Although the puppy beast had already eliminated several wild beastmen, the continuous use of Holy Light Bullets left it panting heavily, and the Holy Ring around its neck had dimmed somewhat.

To make matters worse, they also had to protect the defenseless cubs and a few weak human teammates.

"If only I could transform into a Digimon like in Digimon Season 4..." Cheng Yuan thought, so he could fight alongside Puppymon.

"Where are Wang Lin, the beast tamer, and the flying insect beast? We've already fought like this..." a student muttered.

"It's not that easy. I think they're testing whether we're cut out to be professional animal trainers. If we perform well, they might recruit us into their team, so they won't show up until we're half dead."

Meanwhile, flying insects and beasts on the edge of the distant jungle were already scouting deeper into the jungle, searching for the children's whereabouts.

At this moment, the flying insect's compound eye, with its keen vision, spotted the thick smoke in the distance. It connected with Wang Lin's arc light machine and used it to tell her about its discovery deep in the jungle.

Chapter 43 Acquaintances

"Everyone, keep formation! Little Dog and I will cover the rear!" Cheng Yuan shouted, sweat streaming down his face.

A dozen or so wild beasts appeared and disappeared in the jungle, relentlessly pursuing the prey like a pack of hungry hyenas.

Wenrou, carrying three black ball beasts in her arms, ran breathlessly in the middle of the group: "Class representative... I can't run anymore..."

"Hold on a little longer!" Cheng Yuan glanced back at the approaching pursuers. The little dog beast had already released six Holy Light Balls in succession, and the Holy Ring around its neck had dimmed a bit.

At this critical moment, the bushes in front of them suddenly began to sway.

A familiar figure appeared in the sea of ​​fish—the taciturn "Mo" wearing a baseball cap.

"Mo?" Cheng Yuan's eyes widened. "Why are you here all alone? No, why did you come to Savage Valley?"

Mo remained cool and silent, having followed the special dark aura hidden by the little dog beast.

Mo maintained his aura of keeping strangers at bay, his pale face expressionless.

He was torn between two conflicting thoughts: after entering the Savage Valley digital space, he didn't know where to find the Demon Beast. He had killed batches of Savage Beasts but still couldn't find out where the Demon Beast was. If he searched for the Demon Beast aimlessly, he didn't know when he would find it. He thought he might need something like "information," so he thought of Cheng Yuan and the Little Dog Beast.

However, he didn't expect this duo to cause so much trouble.

What foolish humans.

This group of foolish humans actually provoked so many savage beasts!

Should I kill all the Savage Beasts? Then just grab this group and use them to exchange for information about the Demon Beast?

A fireball grazed their scalps and exploded on a tree trunk behind them.

"Mo! Watch out!" Cheng Yuan suddenly lunged forward and tackled the young man in the baseball cap to the ground.

A fireball grazed their scalps and exploded on a tree trunk behind them.

"How dare you be so disrespectful!" The demon beast was furious. With a wave of his hand, the little demon beast hidden in the shadows instantly transformed into a black lightning bolt and shot out.

"Squeak—" The little demon beast's sharp cry pierced the jungle as a poisoned dark dart struck the sneaking savage beast with pinpoint accuracy.

The savage beast let out a series of screams, its body turning black as it collapsed to the ground, convulsing.

"Holy crap! Instant kill!" Zhang Ming pushed up his crooked glasses. "This little monster is too powerful!"

Cheng Yuan pulled up the young man in the baseball cap and patted the leaves off him: "What are you daydreaming about? If I hadn't been quick, you'd be roasted squid by now!"

The demon beast suppressed the urge to strangle the human and nodded stiffly.

Since the little monster had no other instructions from the monster, it could only continue to fight the savage beast with all its might. Because if it didn't perform well, the monster would kill itself in no time.

Of course, Mo wouldn't pity this little monster, since he had plenty of other little monsters under his command.

So what was shown was that the little monster fought very hard, even to the point of being reckless and willing to risk its life.

With the addition of the little monster, the team's pressure was immediately reduced.

"Brother, you've trained your little monster really well," Cheng Yuan said as he ran. "What brand of Data Cubes do you usually feed it?"

The monster: "......" (Inner monologue: I'll feed you your brain!)

Wen Rou mustered her courage and approached, "Um... Mo, why is your little Digimon so obedient? I've heard that Digimon are usually very rebellious..."

The monster didn't even bother to glance at them, and walked straight to the front of the line.

Seeing this, the little monster immediately bared its teeth and cackled wildly at Wenrou, scaring the black ball beast in her arms into burrowing into her clothes.

After pulling up the young man in the baseball cap, the Digimon drove away another group of Savage Beasts, and Cheng Yuan once again organized everyone to devise an escape plan.

"This beast tamer is no ordinary person; he has managed to train a notoriously cunning and treacherous little monster to be so brave."

However, even with eight pairs of trainers, they still didn't have a good way to break through the large number of Digimon, because there were many Digimon cubs.

Devilmon found the sight of Digimon risking their lives to protect humans disgusting. Why should Digimon have to sacrifice their lives to protect humans?

It subconsciously ignores the fact that humans are also protecting those Digimon cubs.

Just as Devilmon was considering whether to seek "information" elsewhere so that he could kill these people directly and leave Puppymon and Cheng Yuan to be tortured slowly, a familiar yet repulsive Digimon aura appeared once again.

It was that fast-flying flying insect-beast responsible for detection.

Once, when the demon beast was running away, it was relentlessly entangled by this flying insect beast. In the end, it used the [Soul Binding] disguise to finally shake it off.

Unexpectedly, it has reappeared now, and is rapidly approaching.

That squad! The approaching flying insect meant that the rest of the squad would be arriving soon.

Had his disguise been exposed? He decided to avoid the situation for a while.

"Woof! Kamen Rider is here!" The little dog suddenly perked up its ears and barked excitedly.

"What Kamen Rider?" Zhang Ming was completely bewildered.

The little dog inherited Cheng Yuan's habit of naming things after flowers.

A green figure descended from the sky, its sharp claws easily tearing apart the throats of two wild beasts—it was Wang Lin's flying insect beast!

"It's a flying insect beast! The professional beast tamer has finally made his move!" The students cheered.

The flying beast's compound eyes scanned the entire area, instantly analyzing the battle situation. With a flap of its wings, several moonlight darts shot out, pinning the five nearest savage beasts to the trees.

"Squeak squeak squeak!" Upon seeing the appearance of a mature, powerful beast, the wild beasts scattered like birds and beasts, disappearing into the jungle in the blink of an eye.

The demon beast's pupils contracted sharply—it was that annoying flying insect beast again! Last time, it was the one that chased it so hard it had to hide in the sewers, and its bat wings were covered in that indescribable substance...

"Are you alright?" Wang Lin's voice came from afar as she hurried over while getting ready. "Why did you run so far? The Digimon's signal was blocked!"

"Blocked?" Cheng Yuan was bewildered and asked in a low voice, "Didn't you, pretty lady, follow us the whole time?"

"Who has the leisure to follow a bunch of newbies like you?" Wang Lin muttered under her breath, yawning.

Wenrou quickly showed off the black ball beast in her arms: "Instructor Wang, we rescued so many cubs!"

"Um..." Zhang Ming raised his hand timidly, "Do we still have to hand over the spoils we picked up?"

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of digital cores fell out of his backpack with a "whoosh," glittering in the setting sun.

Wang Lin raised an eyebrow: "You guys went to raid a tribe?"

Just then, the demon beast quietly took a few steps back, preparing to slip away. He didn't want to deal with that troublesome flying insect beast any longer.

"Mo!" Cheng Yuan noticed his movement. "Don't go! Come back to the outpost with us later!"

The demon beast paused, roaring inwardly: Who wants to go with you foolish humans! I still have to find the demon beast!

The flying insect's compound eyes suddenly turned towards the demon beast, warily eyeing the unfamiliar tamer.

"Who is this?" Wang Lin also noticed the taciturn young man.

“Oh, this is Mo. I saw him outside the Digital House after school last Friday, remember? The one who helped us chase away the Black Society.” Cheng Yuan introduced him enthusiastically. “We were so grateful for his little monster just now, otherwise we might have been done for.”

Wang Lin nodded thoughtfully: "Oh? So it was you... venturing deep into the Savage Valley alone? You've got guts."

The demon beast lowered its hat brim: "Gathering materials..." Its voice was hoarse, as if it hadn't spoken in a long time.

Wang Lin clapped her hands to dismiss him, saying, "Alright, it's getting late, let's go back to the outpost. Mo, right? You should come too, it's almost night, don't wander around the woods alone."

"Your Digimon need treatment and rest as soon as possible, and that one lying on Pangolin's back... is that a Mammoth? What happened?"

Cheng Yuan: "Sigh, it's a long story..."

"Then let's not talk about it."

Cheng Yuan: "???"

Chapter 44 Digital Gem

The metal gates of the outpost slammed shut with a heavy, booming sound.

Cheng Yuan let out a long sigh of relief, as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Under the bright lights, he realized that his down jacket was torn to shreds by thorns, making him look like a beggar fleeing a disaster.

“Let’s go to the medical station first.” Wang Lin pointed to the white building on the right. “The monstrous monkeys and their cubs all need treatment.”

The black ball beast in Wenrou's arms suddenly squeaked, its little paws pointing at a figure at the entrance of the medical station—the same mischievous monkey beast they had rescued earlier. It was covered in bandages, but seemed to be in good spirits, anxiously looking around.

"It actually got here before us?" Zhang Ming pushed up his crooked glasses, the lenses still covered with a few leaves.

Wang Lin's flying insect shook its wings: "I brought it back. By the way, you guys are really slow." Its voice sounded muffled, as if it were wearing a mask.

"He was barely alive just now, how did he recover so quickly?" the students exclaimed in surprise.

Wang Lin smiled and said, "As long as the data hasn't dissipated and the digital core hasn't been destroyed, this kind of treatment for growing Digimon isn't a problem for modern technology. Even if only the digital core is left, it can be replicated at a certain cost. However, because the data loss requires refilling, there's a possibility of losing a lot of memories."

She paused for a moment, then added, "By the way, its treatment costs are all on my tab, and I'll deduct them from your spoils later!"

The mischievous monkey saw the stinky worm scratching and stomping, and rushed over, only to trip over its own bandages and fall over.

Ignoring the pain, she frantically checked on each of the cubs, tears welling in her eyes.

"Woof! It says thank you for saving its people!" The little dog acted as a makeshift translator.

Cheng Yuan squatted down and gently patted the mischievous monkey beast on the shoulder: "No need to thank me. Be careful in the future, and don't get caught by the savage beast again."

The mischievous monkey nodded vigorously, then suddenly pulled a faintly glowing stone from its tattered animal skin pouch and placed it in Cheng Yuan's hand. The stone's surface was covered with peculiar data patterns, and it felt warm and smooth to the touch, like jade.

“This is…” Cheng Yuan looked at the stone with curiosity.

"It's a Digital Stone." Wang Lin exclaimed in surprise as she approached. "This is a real gem! Like the Attribute Cube, it can boost attribute values, and it's much purer than the man-made Data Cube. It's a resource naturally born from the digital world." She carefully examined the stone's texture. "Judging by its quality, it's at least a mid-level Grass/Wood type stone. It can significantly boost attributes. The Data Cube was also made by imitating its composition, making it perfect for Floramon or Palmon."

The mischievous monkey said in broken human language, “This… green fruit, tribe… and, welcome, visit.”

Upon being invited, the students started chattering excitedly, and within minutes they were ready to form another sightseeing group.

The demon beast's ears twitched almost imperceptibly. A Digimon? These foolish humans actually managed to find such a treasure. Too bad it's useless to them, otherwise they would have found a way to get their hands on it.