Infinite Chimera Creation

"This thing could be a powerful boss, an exit from the ruins, or even a special room."

"The BOSS may have magic runes on its body. Leaving the ruins will expand our search area. Special rooms may contain the mission information we need. In any case, it will help us break the current deadlock of knowing nothing."

After saying that, Shiroe lowered her hand from her glasses.

"Therefore, I suggested that we enter the tunnel on the east side."

When Shiroe's voice disappeared, the entire underground hall fell silent.

In the midst of a fierce battle where the monsters practically filled the field of vision, the fact that he still had the stamina to remember the direction and number of the smaller monsters that were fleeing was simply too astonishing. So much so that everyone could only smile wryly and not know what to do next.

Several seconds later, a round of enthusiastic applause broke out, led by Naotsugu.

"Wow! Ah Cheng really is a great guide! It's decided, let's go to the east passage, let's go!"

With a cheer, Kanami, the leader of the tea party, rushed into the east passage first. Seeing this, the others exchanged helpless smiles and followed suit.

Even for magic-based classes, the agility and stamina at levels 40 or 50 are unmatched by young Digimon. As the group ran, they frequently saw Digimon resting in corners due to exhaustion, which made them even more convinced that this passage was the correct path.

At first, the group would clear away any Digimon they encountered along the roadside, but after a few attempts, they gave up on this time-wasting activity and focused on moving forward, allowing some Digimon to survive by chance.

Finally, after running for about three minutes, the group reached the end of the passage, which was also the exit of the ruins.

"Huh? What a disappointment. Shouldn't there be a magnificent landscape outside the ruins? It's just an ordinary forest."

Looking at the scenery outside the ruins, Kanami complained unhappily. The others didn't say anything, but they were all somewhat disappointed.

Just as Shiroi suppressed her disappointment and was about to observe and consider where to start the mission, a series of footsteps suddenly came from not far away, and then several children with Digimon entered their line of sight.

"Wow, this map has humanoid NPCs too! I thought it only had Digimon."

Chapter 48 Inquiry and Team

Shiroe and the others treated the Chosen Children as NPCs, and the children, in turn, treated them as some kind of Digimon they had never seen before.

If Shiroe and the others were all human characters, the children might have thought they had encountered another group of chosen ones.

However, since there were also characters from the Wolf Fang Clan and Fox Tail Clan who were clearly not human at the tea party, it was natural for the children to mistake Shiroe and the others for humanoid Digimon like Wizardmon.

As soon as the two sides met, the tea party was about to approach them to try and learn some useful information from these NPCs when A-He, who seemed aloof but was actually gentle, spoke to them first.

"No matter who you are or how you got to the island, you'd better get into the ruins now, it's very dangerous on the island."

Even though his words were meant to be caring, they always came out with a sense of indifference. Perhaps that's just A-He's personality.

The tea party participants weren't angry at Ahe's attitude; they had encountered quite a few eccentric NPCs when doing quests before.

Some of the NPC uncles are portrayed as drunkards, even throwing wine jugs at adventurers doing quests and swearing at them. Compared to them, A-He, who is still a child but speaks like a little adult, is already quite cute.

Sensing something from Awa's words, Shiroe took two steps forward to the front of the group and asked in a deep voice.

"Could you tell me what danger you're referring to? Perhaps we're here to solve this danger."

Reaching out to stop A-He from answering Cheng Hui, the young Yuan Yuan took the initiative to look Cheng Hui in the eye and asked her the question back.

"You're not Digimon, are you?"

Unlike the other children who misunderstood Shiroe and the others' identities, the young Yuan Yuan was more than 180% certain that the people in front of him were not Digimon.

When Digimon first meet the Chosen Children, they generally have only three reactions.

One type is like Groudon, who is brainless and attacks without saying a word;

The second type is that they are surprised by the existence of humans, a species they have never seen before, and are curious about their existence, just like the baby Digimon they saw in the Digimon Village before.

The third type is those who know of the existence of the Chosen Children, just like villagers/villains in old-school RPGs who, regardless of their names, simply refer to them as the Chosen Children (Heroes).

However, Shiroe and his companions' attitudes clearly did not belong to any of these three categories. Although there was surprise and curiosity in their eyes, it was not the curiosity of seeing humans for the first time, but rather a sense of strangeness at the presence of humans here.

Slightly taken aback by the young Yuan Yuan's strange question, which was similar to "You guys aren't monsters, are you?", Shiroe replied in a slightly odd tone.

"Yes, we are not Digimon, we are adventurers."

"Adventurer" is how NPCs address players in the game, and players naturally refer to themselves as adventurers when introducing themselves to NPCs.

Upon hearing that Shiro Megumi had admitted she wasn't a Digimon, the children behind the young Yuan Yuan immediately began whispering in surprise.

These chosen children are no longer completely ignorant of the Digital World. They have seen Gennai, the old man who secretly maintains peace in the Digital World, Fairymon, who can create barriers, and Myotismon, who descended upon the human world and evolved into a powerful Ultimate form, just as the human disaster prophesied.

However, even after seeing so many things, they had never heard of adventurers existing in the Digital World.

The word "adventurer" alone was not enough for young Yuan Yuan to understand who the other party was, but he still had some guesses in his mind.

Nodding, and in return, the young Yuan Yuan answered the other party's previous question.

"The danger on this island comes from a group of outsiders who prey on us and the other Digimon on the island. We are fighting against them."

Upon hearing this, Shirohime nodded thoughtfully.

The answer given by young Yuan Yuan was not particularly novel; as a veteran gamer, he had seen similar scenarios of "monsters hunting villagers" countless times.

However, what bothered Shiroe was that the young Yuan Yuan placed "we" and "Digimon" on the same level.

"I see, I understand now. By the way, what is your relationship with Digimon?"

As she asked this question, Shiroe turned her gaze to another boy standing behind young Yuan Yuan.

Compared to the cold-faced, unapproachable young Yuan Yuan, this boy was clearly the oldest among the group of children, and he was trying his best to act like a proper elder. However, his eyes and some subconscious little movements told Cheng Hui that he was suppressing his fear.

A timid person who wants to be brave will experience a sense of validation when others pay attention to them or ask them questions. This can make them excited and cause them to speak without thinking.

As expected, Asuke, who was everyone's senior but whose limelight was stolen by Taiichi, Yamato, and young Yuan Yuan, became excited when he found that Shiroe had asked him instead of young Yuan Yuan and Yamato.

He clenched his fists, as if this gesture would make him appear braver and more convincing.

"Of course! They're friends! All the Digimon on the island are our friends!"

Although the other children weren't as excited as Azhu, their expressions clearly showed that they agreed with what Azhu said.

This is troublesome.

With a sigh of helplessness, Shiroe's expression remained unchanged as she asked as many questions as possible about the outsiders.

These children treated the Digimon as friends, and when they first met them, they told them to hide back in the underground ruins. This shows that the Digimon in the underground ruins were "friends" protected by these children.

But just now, they had killed most of those Digimon. If they had killed them all, it would have been fine; they could have simply shifted the blame onto the outsiders. However, in order not to delay their journey, they had let quite a few escaped along the way.

In such an unfamiliar map, it was rare to encounter a few NPCs who clearly knew a lot of useful information. Cheng Hui did not want to part ways with them so soon, or even break off relations directly.

Fortunately, Cheng Hui is not alone; he has a team behind him, and this team is full of smart people.

Finally, after Cheng Hui asked a few more questions and dragged it out for a while, his private voice message finally rang.

[Alright, Cheng, KR and the others have cleared out the surviving Digimon in the passage with their summoned beasts. The NPCs can now enter the ruins. Judging from their expressions, they're getting a little impatient.]

A cold glint flashed across her glasses, and Shiroe nodded almost imperceptibly.

[Tell KR not to recall his summoned beast. Have it move 200 meters ahead of us, in sync with us. Quite a few Digimon have already escaped into other passages; there's no guarantee they won't change course and head this way. Have KR's summoned beast be on high alert, killing any Digimon that try to approach us to avoid unnecessary exposure.]

OK!

Yes, having a reliable team behind her always effectively avoids a lot of unnecessary trouble. Unconsciously, Cheng Hui's sense of belonging to the tea party grew even stronger.

Chapter Forty-Nine: Death

It must be said that the fact that Digimon disappear as data after they die, leaving neither a corpse nor bloodstains, provides great convenience for everyone at the tea party.

When the children rushed to the underground hall with great anxiety and found that there were no Digimon left, they had no way of knowing whether the missing Digimon had died or gone somewhere else for some reason, because Digimon do not leave behind corpses.

Furthermore, because they were still young, most of the children were unwilling to accept the death of their friends. Before Shiroe and the others could comfort them, they had already convinced themselves that the Digimon had simply gone to hide somewhere else.

Only the young Yuan Yuan seemed to have doubts about the tea party attendees who had clearly just emerged from the ruins. His gaze toward Cheng Hui and the others grew even colder, but he cautiously refrained from saying anything.

Young Yuan Yuan's suspicious nature and composure made Cheng Hui frown inwardly. He disregarded the fact that asking for information at this time would offend people and continued to ask about various things. He had to get as much information as possible before things were exposed.

Although the children were very upset because their friend's fate was unknown, they were kind-hearted after all. When faced with Cheng Hui's questions, they mustered their spirits and explained to him one by one.

[Shiroe, did you hear that? My summoned beast was killed, and something is coming this way.]

Just as Shiroe was about to ask about some information about the Dark Four Heavenly Kings, KR's whisper forced him to stop. Without his prompting, everyone at the tea party seemed unchanged, but they were all ready for battle.

Once the thing coming this way shows itself, they will choose to kill it or, depending on its identity, the children around it.

Amid the wary atmosphere of the tea party attendees, about a minute later, a series of noisy footsteps came from the announcement in front of them.

Upon hearing the footsteps, Shiro breathed a sigh of relief and secretly signaled to her companions not to harm the children.

Although the footsteps were noisy, they were not panicked, unlike those of Digimon that had just been slaughtered.

Moreover, there was a very obvious metallic sound in those footsteps, so the person coming was probably either wearing metal armor or had a body made of metal.

Neither of these two things can be possessed by escaped Digimon. Of all the Digimon that the group had killed, only Andromon, which had already been killed, had a metal-structured body.

The tea party members relaxed, but the children became tense, noticing the distinctly metallic footsteps.

Clearly, these were the same intruders who had severely injured Agumon before.

Young Yuan Yuan raised a hand, signaling his companions to stop, and then waited in the hall.

Compared to narrow passages, the main hall is more suitable for Ultimate-level Digimon with wide-range, high-damage skills to fight.

Without keeping them waiting long, about a minute later, the owner of the footsteps appeared at the entrance of the passage. Before they could even see the layout of the hall in front of them, a series of deadly attacks were slapped in the face.

"Heavenly Purple Light!"

"The Holy Fist!"

"Floral Cannon!"

"Lightning strike!"

With voices that were either deep or clear, they shouted the names of their moves and unleashed powerful attacks.

Even a typical Ultimate-level Digimon would likely be severely injured or even die if hit by so many powerful attacks.

However, standing at the very front of the Accelerators' line was the Green King, who possessed the strongest defense in the Accelerator World. Relying on his divine shield, he withstood all the attacks without sustaining much injury.

Enemies are especially hostile when they meet. For children, justice is important, saving the world is important, but their companions are even more important.

These people, these despicable people, treated them like prey, severely injured Agumon, and made the usually strong Taichi weep with sorrow.

To make Taiichi, the brave one who always rushes to the front lines and wants to shoulder all dangers for everyone, cry is absolutely unforgivable!

Hatred and anger transformed into boundless power. The orc Garuru roared first, turning into a blue afterimage, sweeping past the clumsy Green King, and grabbing the Blue King's left shoulder behind him.