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

Cheng Yuan's finger hovered over the payment screen for a full three seconds before he finally gritted his teeth and swiped the card.

The moment the 7 yuan was transferred out, his heart was bleeding.

But what made him even more uneasy was the mysterious system notification—would 10 of his 7 wealth points be deducted as a result?

"Beep—Payment successful."

The notification that popped up on his phone screen relieved him, but thankfully, his wealth points on the system interface remained unchanged.

"I see..." Cheng Yuan stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Only income generates wealth points; expenses don't deduct them. So what if..."

Wealth can be very tempting.

A bold idea suddenly flashed through his mind, but before he could think about it further, the system popped up a warning:

[Ding! The wealth points must be from the host's legitimate income. Please abandon any improper thoughts.]

"Tsk, it's pretty strict." Cheng Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, at least proving that this system wasn't some evil entity.

He carefully took out his Digivice and aimed it at the pale blue-glowing digital egg. The Digivice's scanning beam moved back and forth across the eggshell, and a prompt quickly appeared on the screen:

[Unbound Digi-Egg detected. Sign a partner agreement?]

Cheng Yuan took a deep breath and solemnly nodded "Yes".

At the same time, the system interface is also updated:

[Wealth Points: 100000]

Digimon: Snowballmon Digi-Egg

[Types: Beast 1, Angel 0, Fallen Angel 0, Dragon 0...]

【元素：光系1、神圣系1、暗系1、冰系1，火系0、风系0...】

[Note: Please hatch the digital egg as soon as possible so you can recharge your account]

As Zhou Mo handed the receipt to Cheng Yuan, she suddenly tapped on the counter: "If the little guy shows signs of data disorder or abnormal evolutionary tendencies..." She pointed to the Digimon egg floating on the Digimon screen, "come to the nursery anytime for a free test, or just call my work phone number." As she spoke, she grabbed a sticky note and quickly wrote down the number.

At the Animal Trainers Association office in the digital center, Cheng Yuan spent another 640 yuan to register for the trainee animal trainer status. When the card with his photo on it was handed to him, Cheng Yuan's heart involuntarily quickened.

Cheng Yuan, Apprentice Animal Trainee

【Pengcheng】

Cheng Yuan felt a surge of excitement. Watching the money in his mobile bank account steadily shrink, he had only one thought: "Hurry home to hatch the digital egg, and then try adding some to it."

Back home, he built a makeshift nest for the digital egg using a blanket, and carefully placed the egg on it. The eggshell glowed with a faint blue light, as if responding to his expectations.

As Zhou Mo reminded him, the Digimon would officially hatch 2-3 hours after the agreement was signed. Cheng Yuan sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, with his Digivice on his lap, staring intently at the egg.

Time ticked by, and the room was so quiet that only the ticking of the clock could be heard. Just as Cheng Yuan's eyelids began to droop, the Digimon suddenly started vibrating wildly, almost jumping off his lap.

"It's ready to hatch!"

Cheng Yuan jolted awake and saw that a thin crack had appeared on the surface of the digital egg on the bed, from which dazzling white light spilled out, illuminating the entire room.

"Click—"

The sound of the eggshell cracking was crisp and pleasant, and the cracks spread rapidly like a spider web. Cheng Yuan held his breath, unconsciously leaning forward, his eyes stinging from the bright light, but he couldn't bear to look away.

Slowly, the eggshell shattered completely, turning into countless tiny specks of light that dissipated into the air.

"Qiuqiu~"

A round little creature peeked out from the light, its beady black eyes curiously surveying this unfamiliar world.

Its body is snow-white and fluffy, like a freshly kneaded dough, and its two round ears on its head tremble gently with its movements.

Cheng Yuan's heart was instantly melted by the cuteness.

"Snowball Beast..." he called softly, afraid of startling the little life that had just arrived in the world.

Upon hearing the sound, Snowball Beast turned around and its gaze met Cheng Yuan's.

Its black eyes sparkled, as if filled with starlight.

The next second, it chirped happily and clumsily hopped towards Cheng Yuan.

"Watch out!" Cheng Yuan quickly reached out his hands and caught the furry little guy.

The Snowball Beast's body was icy cold and incredibly soft to the touch.

It tilted its head back and stared intently at Cheng Yuan, its little nose twitching as if trying to memorize his scent.

"Please guide me in the future." Cheng Yuan smiled and held it in front of him, gently rubbing its forehead.

Snowball responded with a "chirp chirp," its ears twitching, looking exceptionally happy.

Looking at the little guy who could barely walk, Cheng Yuan couldn't help but smile. The Digimon in anime that can talk, run, and fight from birth are clearly artistic creations. Real-life Digimon babies, like human infants, need to grow slowly.

The next moment filled Cheng Yuan with both nervousness and anticipation.

The evolution of Digimon has been a subject of ongoing debate between the scientific community and Digimon trainers.

Scientists believe that Digimon are collections of data, and they can evolve once the numerical values ​​reach a certain level.

Animal trainers firmly believe that emotion and experience are the key factors.

Some online comments have pointed out that the amount of data in high-level Digimon has exceeded the scope that can be achieved by simply filling in data.

But Cheng Yuan, who had played Digimon games, knew very well that both were indispensable. Data was the foundation, and bonds were the catalyst. And now, the system quantified all of this, allowing him to see the specific values ​​of each attribute intuitively.

Snowball Beast

[Small-sized, no attributes]

[Childhood I]

[Skill: Diamond Star (Spits out a mouthful of seemingly harmless ice shards, powerful enough to turn a can of cola into an ice-cold cola.)]

[Description: A spherical creature covered in snow-white fur, gentle and timid in nature, it curls up into a ball and rolls away at high speed when threatened.]

Looking at the Pokédex information for Snowball on the Digivice, Cheng Yuan recalled several classic evolutionary chains for Snowball:

Snowballmon → Meowmon → Puppymon → Gatomon → Angewomon → Ophanimon (Saintdramon)

Snowballmon → Coldmon → SnowAgumon → Mammothmon → SkullMammothmon

Snowballmon → Coldmon → Penguinmon → Snowmanmon → Polar Bearmon → Ice Queenmon

Without a doubt, Cheng Yuan chose the route with Angewomon.

Therefore, allocating points to the Ice and Snow element is a no-go.

"Let me check the conversion ratio..." Cheng Yuan stared at the system interface and began to try adding points.

Cheng Yuan stared at the few lines of small print in his line of sight and began to silently recite the addition.

Wealth: 99900 (-100)

Digimon: Snowballmon

[Element: Light 2 (+1)]

"100 wealth points can be exchanged for 1 elemental value, a ratio of 100:1, which is reasonable." Cheng Yuan nodded.

But when he tried to add points to the form attribute, his expression suddenly changed.

[Attribute point allocation failed. Insufficient system permissions. Attribute point allocation for race/form failed. Only elemental attributes can be allocated.]

Surprisingly, the permissions for adding attribute points for form and element are different. Currently, it is not possible to add attribute points to the racial form; only the form attribute values ​​can be seen.

Is it because racial attributes are deeply bound to the digital core's genetic code, thus requiring higher privileges?

In that case, it seems unlikely that Snowballmon will be able to rapidly acquire Angel-type attribute data to accelerate its evolution into Angewomon.

However, being able to add elemental attribute values ​​is already quite good. This is equivalent to having an additional path of adding wealth points in addition to purchasing data with "cash," which can accelerate the growth of Digimon.

"Maybe directly absorbing the attribute data would be more cost-effective?" With a try-it-out mentality, he logged into the "Sacred Relics" store and spent 100 yuan to buy a Sacred Data Pack, which contained 10G of Sacred Data.

After the data packet was downloaded to the Digivice, Cheng Yuan clicked the "Release" button. A semi-transparent data cube appeared in the air, its surface covered with patterns of "0" and "1". When Snowball saw the data cube, its eyes lit up, and it pounced on it with a "chirp," hugging the cube and starting to suck on it like it was sucking on gel.

Cheng Yuan couldn't help but smile as he watched it eat with great relish.

But to his surprise, the Snowball Beast stopped after taking a few breaths, pushed the data cube toward him, and its bright black eyes were full of anticipation.

"You mean...you want to share with me?" Cheng Yuan was stunned. This little guy, who was only recently born, already knew how to share.

"Thank you, but this was specially prepared for you, so I can't eat it." Cheng Yuan gently stroked its head, a warm feeling welling up in his heart.

Snowball Beast nodded as if it understood, then continued to bury itself in the data blocks.

After the Snowball Beast finished eating, Cheng Yuan couldn't wait to check the changes in its attributes:

Digimon: Snowballmon

[Elements: Holy 1.6]

The sacred data package purchased for 100 yuan only increased the Snowball Beast's attribute value by 0.6. Even excluding the effects of absorption efficiency and impurities in the data package, and even if calculated at a ratio of 1, the conversion ratio still reached 100:1, which is basically the same as the system's addition of points to elemental attributes.

However, data packets contain impurities, and Digimon have limited absorption efficiency and food intake. Therefore, with the same wealth and money, the conversion rate and efficiency of recharging attributes are much higher than that of purchasing data resources.

He slumped onto the bed, watching the little Snowballmon bouncing around, and suddenly realized a cruel reality: the amount of money needed to raise a powerful Digimon would probably be astronomical.

This isn't a Digimon, it's a money-devouring monster!

"Looks like I need to find a way to make money..." Cheng Yuan rubbed his temples. "Not only do I have to support myself, but I also have to support this little guy."

The snowball seemed to sense its master's troubles, and hopped over to Cheng Yuan's legs, rubbing its fluffy head against his hand.

Thinking about this, Cheng Yuan fell into deep thought. It seemed that he needed to make more money. If he wanted to evolve the Snowball Beast into a mature form as soon as possible and become a professional beast tamer, the easiest way at present was to use wealth points to convert attributes.

Even without mentioning the system, to get into the Beast Tamer University and become a powerful Beast Tamer, one must spend countless funds to purchase data resources.

In other words, everything revolves around money.

Indeed, becoming a beast tamer and raising Digimon are both money-devouring beasts.