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

The moment Cheng Yuan stepped out of the outpost, the blinding spotlights made him squint.

A team of association staff members in dark blue uniforms had been waiting for a long time. Holding various testing equipment, they surrounded the group with serious expressions.

"Captain Xu!" The head staff member handed over a communicator. "The Pengcheng branch has reported to the association headquarters. A big shot will be coming to deal with the complete crisis."

Xu Xin nodded, turned to the students and said, "You all go back and rest first. There's nothing else for you to do." He paused, then looked at Cheng Yuan with a meaningful gaze, "You all did a good job this time."

The students dispersed in twos and threes, all exhausted and too tired to even make plans to have a meal together.

Cheng Yuan was still not at ease, because his little dog beast might have been infected by Devimon's Dark Gear.

During the battle at Green Fruit Mountain, the dark gear that appeared on Devimon's chest and eventually exploded perfectly matched the terrifying creation from the anime in his memory—

That's the evil tool used in the anime to manipulate powerful Digimon like Andromon and Leomon!

This evil artifact, along with Mo Xian transforming into a demon beast, came to the real world.

"Two weeks..." Cheng Yuan muttered to himself. From the moment the little dog beast first showed abnormalities, the Dark Gear had been lurking in the real world for a full two weeks.

How many Digimon will be infected by the Dark Gear?

Where has the escaped Mo hidden now?

Most importantly—what to do with the gears inside the puppy's body?

These problems coiled around his heart like venomous snakes.

"Brother Xu," Cheng Yuan stepped forward, carefully choosing his words, "I suspect the Dark Gear might spread like a virus. It can infect Digimon, making them irritable and out of control..." He carefully avoided mentioning the fact that Puppymon might be infected, "All infected Digimon could become new sources of infection."

Cheng Yuan did not mention that his little dog beast was also suspected of being infected by the Dark Gear. Now that he knew it was infected by the Dark Gear, removing it would not be difficult.

Xu Xin frowned: "Okay, I'll let the association keep an eye on it."

Not far away, the Golden Horned Beast and the Silver Horned Beast were being guided onto a specially made heavy truck. Cheng Yuan noticed that at the end of the group was a Shaman Beast controlled by a special restraint device—presumably Xu Xin's mission target.

As the bus doors closed, Cheng Yuan looked out the window and saw that the streets of Shenzhen were already filled with quarantine personnel and armed police. The entire city seemed like a net that was gradually tightening, but would the demon beast be caught so easily?

In the shadows of the city, undercurrents are surging.

Deep within the black market, a businessman wearing a gas mask was roughly kicking an iron cage. "Why are all these goods so limp?" he complained into his communicator. "Even with suppressants, they shouldn't be like this..." Inside the cage, black oil seeping from the joints of the Digimon gleamed eerily in the dim light.

In the underground arena, the cheers of the audience nearly lifted the roof off. In the center of the iron cage, the serrated beast, covered in wounds, with gear-shaped lumps protruding from its fur, suddenly unleashed a fierce attack with its eyes turning bloodshot, carrying an aura of dark energy that drove the surrounding audience even more frenzied.

At the stray Digimon shelter, caretaker Old Zhang hummed a tune as he changed the oil on a sick Gearmon. He was completely unaware that, in the shadows beneath the workbench, a few drops of black, oily liquid were dripping from the metal casing...

When Cheng Yuan got off the bus, it was already night, but she still managed to get through to Zhou Mo on the phone.

"Sister Mo, I think I know why the little dog beast's dark attribute has surged." Cheng Yuan dialed Zhou Mo's number as soon as he got out of the car, his voice a little tense.

"Come to the lab and tell them I'm still working overtime," Zhou Mo said, her voice tinged with exhaustion.

After hanging up the phone, Cheng Yuan casually hailed a taxi.

"Master, is it convenient to go to the Evolution Research Institute on Jinbu Road?" Cheng Yuan asked as he got into the car carrying the little dog.

"Is it convenient? There's a public restroom right ahead; you don't need to go all the way to Jinbu Road," the driver kindly offered.

Cheng Yuan: "???"

"He meant going to Jinbu Road on the way..." the little dog asked.

"Oh...oh, on the way!" The driver suddenly realized and sped off.

In just half an hour, we arrived at the Institute of Evolution.

The Institute of Evolution was brightly lit.

As soon as Cheng Yuan entered, he bumped into three researchers who were in a hurry.

"Hurry, hurry, the shaman beast sample has arrived!"

"I heard the mission team made an amazing discovery in Savage Valley, which coincides with our hypothesis on the transformation of cubs. We'll conduct a verification experiment later. If it holds true, then our research funding for the second half of the year is secured!"

Just then, the three of them saw Cheng Yuan walking towards them... Why does he look so familiar?

"I'm busy." Cheng Yuan greeted him subconsciously, his hands behind his back.

"Yes, sir." The three men straightened their backs as if by reflex.

Cheng Yuan: "???" (Leader?)

The three people: "???" (Leader??)

Both sides gave an awkward smile.

Cheng Yuan said, "It's good to be busy, it's good to be busy... The research institute can't do without you pillars of strength."

The three of them were stunned for a moment, and Cheng Yuan and the little dog had already walked far away and entered Zhou Mo's laboratory.

"It's him?"

"Not that one...?"

"It's him!"

In the lab, Zhou Mo sported two heavy dark circles under her eyes, looking like a panda who had stayed up all night. This appearance inexplicably reminded Cheng Yuan of a guy who always had dark circles under his eyes.

"Sister Mo, here's the situation..." Cheng Yuan explained the whole story about Dark Gear.

"I see!" Zhou Mo slammed her hand on the table and stood up abruptly, almost knocking over her coffee cup. "Then everything makes sense. Do you know how I got these dark circles under my eyes? Last night we received a task from the association to create a device to detect some kind of special dark energy. I think it must be this dark gear... We were just worried about not having a sample. You've really come to our rescue just in time."

Cheng Yuan and Zhou Mo discussed a plan, intending to use the advanced testing equipment here to force out the Dark Gear with the sacred energy within the puppy's body.

"Are you ready?" Zhou Mo adjusted the parameters of the energy monitor.

Cheng Yuan nodded and gently stroked the little dog's head: "Bear with it, it'll be over soon."

The little dog nodded, instantly activating the energy within the Holy Ring to maximize its output.

With the hum of the instruments, divine energy surged into its body like a tide, gradually pushing back the black mist in its wake. On the monitoring screen, a gear-shaped shadow was struggling and writhing on the back of the little dog beast.

"Give it your all!" Zhou Mo shouted, her eyes glued to the screen. "It'll be out soon!"

Cheng Yuan could feel the little dog in his arms trembling in pain.

While Zhou Mo was fiddling with the equipment, he poured all his remaining wealth points into the Holy attribute.

[Holy 5260 (+550), Light (4650), Dark (4200), Ice (10)]

Suddenly, a beam of black light shot out from the back of the little dog beast—the Dark Gear burst forth from its body!

"Bang!"

The gears slammed against the inner wall of the specially made sealed box, producing a piercing metallic scraping sound, and Zhou Mo's face lit up with ecstatic joy.

"Perfect!" She spun around excitedly. "Not only did we solve the problem, but we also obtained a precious sample! And a treatment plan—to suppress and eliminate the Dark Gears with divine energy."

Overjoyed, Zhou Mo upgraded Cheng Yuan's research stipend to 8000 yuan per month.

Another unexpected windfall made Cheng Yuan very happy.

On his way home, Cheng Yuan felt as if the heavy burden on his shoulders had finally been lifted.

With all the troubles over and the Dark Gear problem of the puppymon resolved, Devimon will naturally have Xu Xin and the bigwigs of the association to worry about.

Back home, Cheng's parents assumed their son had simply gone on a three-day trip with his teachers and classmates, completely unaware of his sensational experience in the digital world.

After eating a bowl of noodles cooked by his mother and feeding the little dog the data cubes, Cheng Yuan and the dog fell asleep immediately without even having a dream.

He was awakened in the early morning by jarring text messages and system notifications—

Brief News: [Mobile Banking: 285000 credited to account, balance 861110]

[Ding! System notification: Wealth points: 313800 (+285000)]

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains onto the bed, where the little dog was sprawled out, snoring loudly. Cheng Yuan stared at his phone screen for a full ten seconds before suddenly leaping up with a somersault.

"I'm rich!!!"

However, at that moment, he received a call from Zhao Lu.

Zhao Lu's voice on the phone was full of hesitation: "Cheng Yuan, could you... lend me some money?"