Digital Hackers' Memories

Unfortunately, since returning to the real world, Chen Ze has been hesitant to log into that data format due to certain concerns, which led to everything that is happening now.

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PS: Why do I find that it's fine when I don't update, but as soon as I update, my favorites drop (despair.JPG)?

Chapter Thirteen: Cyber ​​Detective

"If you want to see that 'Agumon form,' just say so! It's not like I won't let you see it."

Chen Ze glanced at his still-reconstructing data avatar with a wry smile, knowing he had been ripped off by that unscrupulous merchant and the demon fox beast.

Let's leave that unscrupulous merchant aside for now; I'll definitely settle accounts with him when I get back!

It was supposed to be a real account from Japan, but I can't even log in to public areas. It's obviously just a fake account that looks very convincing.

As for the fox beast?

Based on Chen Ze's understanding of her, although she always appeared calm and elegant, deep down she harbored a little fox full of curiosity.

More importantly, the fox spirit, though filled with curiosity, rarely reveals its true intentions, let alone asks for help.

In Chen Ze's memory, the only time the fox spirit made a request was when he was buying the EDEN debugging device and asked him to bring a camera and a CPU along.

If we had to categorize the fox spirits by "type," she would be the type who never asks for help but is extremely proactive.

This led to Chen Ze knowing that the fox demon was curious about his new form, but he never expected that the other party's curiosity would be this strong.

“I’m not just here to see your subspecies form.”

In fact, even the fox spirit itself couldn't explain its own feelings, which led it to deliberately not remind Chen Ze that its data avatar couldn't pass through the "identity recognition system" in the EDEN public area.

The only thing Renamon was clear about was that, aside from its curiosity about the subspecies Agumon, it was more concerned about the fact that the other party had not "used" that data.

That was clearly a "gift" that she had given him, but he kept refusing to use it, which made the fox demon very frustrated and dissatisfied.

Especially after Chen Ze denied having an "online romance" with her, the fox spirit felt a sense of schadenfreude, as if it were a pleasure to see him make a fool of himself.

"It sounded so real, I almost believed it."

Unaware of the fox spirit's little scheme, Chen Ze simply continued to play the role of the "complainer."

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Just as Chen Ze and the fox spirit were exchanging barbs, another two login users, a man and a woman, appeared in another corner of the public area.

However, their data reconstruction speed was much faster than Chen Ze's; in the blink of an eye, it descended from the sky and became a complete data avatar.

"what?"

After their official arrival, the man and woman obviously noticed the unusual behavior of Chen Ze and the fox demon.

The girl with pink hair, in particular, made no attempt to hide her curiosity, staring in astonishment at the two who had yet to appear.

"Are they hackers?"

Without any apparent reason, the pink-haired girl made this judgment.

"It must be a hacker."

Seeing this, the boy next to him nodded affirmatively, agreeing with what the other person said.

Although the boy wasn't a professional hacker, his recent strange experiences enabled him to recognize a real hacker in a crowd at a glance.

Without a doubt, the two users who were regrouping were hackers, and it is highly likely that their own data accounts were attacked, causing them to transform into hackers with bugs.

This is not unusual in the hacker community; after all, those strange guys are a group of people who like to attack each other and fight amongst themselves.

"I don't have a good impression of these guys; they're just a bunch of parasites living in the online world."

After receiving the boy's affirmative answer, the pink-haired girl couldn't help but show a look of disgust.

Unlike the steady boys, the girls are innocent and uninhibited, expressing their emotions directly through their actions.

"And Agumon and Gabumon, they must have been captured by these guys too."

When Agumon and Gabumon were mentioned, a worried expression immediately appeared on the girl's face.

Although the two strange Digimon were only encountered by chance, the girl had already considered them her friends after spending some time with them.

"We will find them."

Standing silently behind the girl, the boy spoke in a tone that was hard to tell whether it was comforting or reassuring.

"Yes, we will definitely find them."

Pumping her fist to cheer herself up, the naturally cheerful girl quickly recovered from her sadness and loudly expressed her thoughts.

"Then I'm going to give those despicable hackers a good beating and show them that my friends are not to be trifled with."

With a helpless smile, the boy didn't display the same righteous indignation as Nokia.

Compared to the two Digimon that seemed to be very good at escaping and hiding, the boy was more worried about what his boss had been doing lately.

"Before we came out, Sister Xingzi seemed to be behaving somewhat strangely."

Upon hearing this, the somewhat oblivious Nokia widened her eyes and then turned to look at the boy with a blank expression.

"Is Sister Xingzi behaving strangely?"

Since she wasn't very familiar with the boy's boss, who called himself "the strongest detective in Nakano," Nokia didn't find anything unusual about his behavior.

On the contrary, in Noccia's eyes, the other party's demeanor today was still so capable and calm, not at all like someone with something on their mind.

Even though she hadn't noticed anything unusual, Nokia still firmly believed in the boy's judgment—his performance during this period had completely won her over.

It's no wonder that the girl, Kyoko Kuroi, known as "Nakano's strongest detective," made an exception and let her join her agency as a "cyber detective" specializing in cyber cases, given the boy's keen insight and intuition.

"Is it related to that mysterious digital lab you mentioned before?"

The boy neither nodded nor shook his head; he simply grinned.

Although he hadn't been a cyber detective for very long, the boy had already noticed something unusual that couldn't be hidden.

Whether it's the mysterious woman in the digital lab or the boss's occasional, almost split-personality-like soliloquy, both foreshadow an unknown crisis approaching.

Even they... gave me a strange sense of crisis.

As he thought of this, the boy unconsciously glanced at Chen Ze and the fox demon beast, who were being "protected" by the public sphere.

The boy's intuition told him that these two unknown hackers were not as simple as he thought, and that they might be the fuse that ignited everything.

"I think you're overthinking it, Takumi!"

"Sister Xingzi doesn't need us to worry. We're already lucky if she doesn't worry about us."

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PS: Both main characters of the game have made an appearance!

Chapter Fourteen: Height is a Man's Dignity

There's no one outside anymore.

After confirming that everyone outside had left, a golden fox spirit walked out of the landing point with elegant steps.

"Chen Ze?"

Still in that golden fox form, the fox beast seemed completely unconcerned about being noticed by humans, as if those humans were utterly incapable of noticing its abnormality.

And indeed, in this public area that was so close to reality, the fox spirit's keen senses were enough to help her avoid any potential dangers.

"Aren't you coming out yet?"

Thinking of this, the fox beast suddenly turned around and glanced at Chen Ze, who was still lingering at the landing point, and couldn't help but reveal a hint of suppressed laughter.

"That's why I don't want to become like this."

With a soft sigh, Chen Ze, now in Agumon form, gradually emerged from the landing point.

His pale blue skin, resembling snow and the blue sky, is his signature feature, while the claw sheaths wrapped around his sharp claws add to his fierce appearance.

Judging from appearance alone, the subspecies of Agumon that Chen Ze transformed into did indeed have a unique sense of ferocity.

However, this conclusion can only be reached by ignoring Chen Ze's actual height.

"I hate this upward-looking perspective."

Looking up at the fox demon beast that was still half a head taller than him, Chen Ze sighed helplessly.

This is why he is unwilling to use Agumon form. Even after evolving again into a subspecies with blue and white skin, his height is still a major weakness for Chen Ze.

Being short in the real world is one thing, but at least Chen Ze can comfort himself that he hasn't fully developed yet.

However, in this virtual world, his height was still limited by Agumon's height, which frustrated Chen Ze.

It's worth noting that the previous virtual avatar, dressed in black, black pants, and a black coat, was a full 1.9 meters tall, a result of Chen Ze's deliberate adjustments.

Why are you so concerned about your height?

Suppressing a smile, the fox demon couldn't understand Chen Ze's obsession with height, but it thoroughly enjoyed the other's tearful expression.

This pleasant feeling even dispelled some of the previous frustration and dissatisfaction of the fox beast.

"Height is a matter of male dignity, how could he not care?!"

Dissatisfied with the fox demon's tone of enjoying the spectacle, Chen Ze immediately retorted.

"And you, can't you at least try to look a little more normal?"

It's one thing for me to be alone, but since the data avatar I prepared beforehand has caused some trouble, I have no choice but to appear in the public area of ​​EDEN in the form of a "Digimon".

But what about the fox spirit?

Based on Chen Ze's understanding of her, he was certain that she had made thorough preparations for this intrusion, just like he had.

In other words, Renamon must have prepared a data avatar in human form, and it must be more perfect than the one it prepared itself, otherwise it wouldn't have acted so relaxed and carefree.

As a result, the other party still has no intention of hiding its "true form". Instead, it has swaggered into the public area of ​​EDEN in the form of Renamon.

In this public space where real-name authentication has been implemented, the simultaneous appearance of two non-human data avatars would probably draw surprised glances from even the most oblivious person.

"Calm down, this isn't because any other users were detected."

With a sly, almost human-like smile on his face, the fox-like beast seemed completely unaware of their current predicament, and instead let out a slightly lazy sigh.

"Besides, I'm not like you. I don't have the means to prepare a 'fake' account."

When saying this, the fox demon deliberately emphasized the word "fake" while smiling.

The subtext of her words was quite clear: when it comes to things like being cheated or taken advantage of, it's enough that you, the idiot, are the only one to fall for it. This "smart" fox has no intention of falling for it even once.

"If you don't open the pot, don't lift it."

Rolling his eyes, Chen Ze realized that even though the fox demon had been with him for so long, its "emotional intelligence" hadn't improved at all.

"In the end, isn't this all because you wanted to see me make a fool of myself?"

It was fortunate that the fox spirit encountered her, who was easygoing; otherwise, with her natural, aloof, and somewhat cunning personality, she would have likely fallen out with anyone else countless times.

"However, there's still one thing I don't understand: why are 'Digimon' able to pass the identity verification in this public area?"

After a brief exchange of banter, Chen Ze finally asked the question that had been nagging at him the most.

Why can't my perfectly disguised avatar pass the identity verification here?

It's unbelievable that a clearly non-human form like "Digimon" can log in here directly.

"That's because... the Digimon are the true masters of this place."

Feeling the presence of this cyberspace, which is now infinitely close to the Digital World, Renamon gave a response that wasn't really an answer.

"Or rather, as long as it's in the online world, Digimon can appear anywhere without restraint."

Although the fox spirit's explanation wasn't very clear, Chen Ze, who wasn't stupid, immediately grasped the key point.

"It's the digital core; the digital core allows us to adapt to any environment."

Looking at his own claws, Chen Ze couldn't help but sigh that Digimon were truly a gifted form of life.

Compared to the earth-shattering "evolution," merely adapting to a digital space with rules and programs written by humans is indeed not a big deal.

"Chatting with you is really boring."

Seeing this, the fox demon, who had originally intended to keep things a secret, couldn't help but curl its lip. There was really no point in interacting with someone transformed from such a clever person.

"The most boring part is yet to come!"

Having clearly heard the fox demon's mutterings, Chen Ze couldn't help but admire his own good temper once again.