Digital Hackers' Memories

Chen Ze was not surprised by the changes in the Invader, because he had already guessed that the thing was probably like a Digimon, a kind of data life form that had fallen from the Digital World to this place.

The only thing that Chen Ze found a little strange was that the orange light seemed to be similar to the Light of Innocence and the Light of Courage that he had encountered before, both belonging to a branch of the "Light of Evolution".

"As long as it's data-driven, then things are easy."

Looking at the Invader that had transformed into human form, Chen Ze no longer felt the tension he had felt before.

"Demon Fox Beast!"

Upon hearing the shout, the fox demon, who had a tacit understanding with Chen Ze, decisively increased the intensity of its attack, as if it had never said before that it "must not let the invaders turn into human form".

Through that brief encounter, the fox demon discovered that although the invader had transformed into human form, its power had not increased; in fact, it had been weakened.

This is not normal, since so-called "evolution" generally involves going from weak to strong, and it is rare for someone to become weaker after evolving.

This peculiar situation inevitably reminds Renamon of "useless evolution" paths like Numemon, Megamon, and Demonmon, which, although mature, are inferior to their growth stages in every aspect.

In other words, Chen Ze seemed to have seen through the nature of the Invaders and weakened their power in some way.

boom! boom! boom!

In contrast, the current Invader, lacking its own will, is unaware of its own "DEBUFF" and continues to engage in fierce combat with Renamon.

This is both the Invader's strength and its weakness.

For an eroder born merely as a "tool," it doesn't need much thinking ability; its original purpose in being born is to erode and assimilate existing structures and forces.

The so-called attacks and evolutions are merely abilities added on top of this, and have no meaning whatsoever for the invader itself.

It is precisely because of this characteristic that it cannot, like a real Digimon, identify data that is beneficial to its own evolution and thus carry out some kind of orderly selection mechanism.

Just like the torrent attacks Chen Ze just launched, the invaders accepted them all, regardless of whether they contained junk data or not.

In this way, while the Corruptor reduces the time required for its own transformation, it also prevents it from truly gaining effective benefits from that junk data.

For data life forms, simply increasing their size does not make them stronger.

Even with the assistance of program code similar to "Light of Evolution," the data that has been barely given logic cannot provide much of a boost to the combat power of the invaders.

The true combat power of the Infiltrators, apart from their special assimilation ability, is at most the sum of the Flame Beast and a few human data avatars.

While this level of combat power is somewhat troublesome for a mature-stage Renamon that she had previously defeated, it does not pose a real threat to her.

On the contrary, after understanding Chen Ze's intentions, the fox demon realized that the outcome of this battle was already predetermined.

What I need to do is to limit and weaken the power and scope of the invaders while protecting myself as much as possible.

The fox spirit neither approved nor disapproved of this "good-natured" approach, but as long as it didn't jeopardize her own safety, she wouldn't mind carrying out Chen Ze's current idea.

In fact, according to the original nature of the fox spirit, she had already considered retreating after discovering the danger of the invaders.

The reason they continued to stay and fight was purely to "deal with" Chen Ze.

............................................................................................................

"Sure enough, this is its core code."

Just as the fox beast was gradually weakening and restricting the invaders' range of activity, Chen Ze, who had already found the opponent's "weakness," was not idle either.

If the previous relentless data deluge was to verify his hypothesis, then after the Infiltrator transformed into human form, Chen Ze was now certain of victory.

What he needs to do next is simply to expand his combat strength and maximize the spoils of victory in this battle.

"Is this the 'program' used to control the invaders?"

After glancing at the data downloaded from the hacker boss, Chen Ze simply shook his head in disappointment.

"What a rudimentary control program."

With such a rudimentary program, even if the hacker leader were still here, he would absolutely not be able to control the current invaders.

Therefore, after a brief moment of thought, Chen Ze decisively abandoned the control program written by the hacker boss and instead began to decipher the most original Infiltrator code.

It was a complex code that normal humans could not understand or decipher. It seemed that no matter what kind of data it was, it could be transformed into organized and logical useful data under the influence of this code.

Theoretically speaking, even the most brilliant hacker cannot recompile this code. They can only, like a master hacker, create a "shell" around this code to restrict and control its operation.

Unfortunately, in Chen Ze's view, the end result of this approach is that after successfully assimilating and eroding the "shell", the invaders fall into a state of complete berserk behavior.

Chen Ze naturally wouldn't resort to such a superficial solution, because he had a better one.

"I never expected that the 'Innocence Code' that I accidentally obtained from Mimi could be used not only to evolve baby Digimon, but also in this area."

After muttering a slight sigh, Chen Ze extracted a portion of the "Light of Innocence" code from his digital core and wrote it into the core program of this invader.

Yes, Chen Ze did not intend to eliminate the Infiltrators, but rather to use his hacking skills to hack into their core and turn them into his own "external device".

Judging from the capabilities the Infiltrators have demonstrated so far, if this plan succeeds, the Infiltrators' role will be much more than just acting as a "hard drive".

In particular, the code that constitutes the Infiltrator itself seems to possess the ability to evolve infinitely, just like a Digimon, so its value cannot be described as merely an "external device".

Chen Ze felt that if he could truly decipher this code and combine it with the Pure Code he had accidentally obtained, then reaching maturity in his Agumon form shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The only thing to be careful about is that the code extracted from the invaders should not be like pure code, giving it some inexplicable evolutionary tendency.

Based on the characteristics exhibited by the Invaders themselves, Chen Ze felt that this possibility was unlikely.

More than worrying about the strange evolutionary tendency, Chen Ze was concerned that the code, which indiscriminately absorbs and assimilates other data, might cause his avatar to evolve into a "waste" like a poop beast or a snot beast.

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PS: There were some issues with the product launch today, and the tech department is usually the one taking the blame.

PS2: Although the first subscription is less than 300, I will still add an extra chapter considering today's mistake.

PS3: By the way, does this count as breaking the first-day subscription record on Bookke? The first-day subscription for 10,000 subscriptions hasn't even reached 300...

Chapter Twenty-Five: Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, Retreat is the Best Option

clack clack...

Just as the humanoid invader was once again "teasing" by the fox demon and endured a torrent of attacks, it suddenly stopped without warning.

"Success?"

Once again, it quietly retreated, sensing something amiss as the fox-like beast watched the invader from afar, a sense of unease rising within it.

boom!

The next moment, another massive torrent of data descended from the sky, slamming heavily onto the humanoid invader.

Furthermore, Chen Ze's attack this time was no longer the kind of illogical and meaningless garbage data, but a complete program with specifications comparable to the Infiltrator.

This is a special program that Chen Ze temporarily wrote by using the original code of the Infiltrator, incorporating pure data and some of his own ideas.

This program has a similar essence and logic chain to the Invaders, but it has gained a certain degree of controllability due to the code added by Chen Ze.

More importantly, because it originated from the same source as the Invader, this special program is not deconstructed like other data, but is directly integrated into its program.

It's like planting a Trojan horse in a computer.

The special program written by Chen Ze did not change the nature of the Infiltrator, but rather added permissions that could be controlled by external programs to the Infiltrator's original architecture.

However, it was precisely because of this that Chen Ze's invasion seemed to activate some latent ability of the Invader, causing its original "human form" to begin to twist uncontrollably.

clack clack...

The single eye at the heart of the eroder could be seen opening and closing intermittently.

Those tentacles with mechanical features seemed to be resisting Chen Ze's control, suddenly twitching and twisting erratically, giving off a nauseating feeling that was indescribable.

Without any logic whatsoever, those wildly twisting tentacles are like a combination of machinery and biology, attempting to reject the influence of external programs on themselves by shattering human values.

It was an indescribable terror, and also an irregular beauty that humans could neither understand nor touch.

"This thing actually has a defense mechanism?"

Startled, Chen Ze gaped open, realizing that the unexpected turn of events seemed to be spiraling out of control.

"But it doesn't matter, I'm just comparing computing power, right? I don't believe you can beat me!"

So, after signaling the fox beast to move away from the invader's attack range, Chen Ze decided to launch a final attack on this "self-defense program" that was clearly not naturally generated.

chi chi chi...

First, Chen Ze's rented servers crashed and stopped operating because they couldn't handle the intense data conflicts.

After all, those servers were just rented. Chen Ze initially only used them as stepping stones and did not expect to use them for this scale of intrusion and counter-intrusion campaign.

After the lack of a springboard buffer, the second overload was the computer that stored its own data.

laugh!

Although Chen Ze had modified the computer to server level, it still couldn't handle the data exchange between the Invaders and Chen Ze, and crashed.

Fortunately, Chen Ze is no longer just a simple human hacker.

Even without the help of an external computer, he, possessing a digital core, can still maintain his presence in the EDEN network, unlike other hackers who would be disconnected.

However, as a result, the Digicore, which is the foundation of Digimon's existence, had to face the counterattack of the Invaders, causing Chen Ze's data avatar to uncontrollably display blurry "garbled code".

The most direct manifestation of this "garbled code" is that Chen Ze's "Matrix" persona, complete with a black trench coat, black leather pants, and black sunglasses, begins to collapse.

"That's a Digimon?"

In the distance, the hackers who were still watching seemed to have spotted a small blue and white dinosaur.

However, in the next instant, the blue and white dinosaur image disappeared again and then returned to Chen Ze's original "Matrix" appearance.

"This is absolutely something that humans could not have made."

Seeing the fox demon that had appeared behind him at some point, looking like it was ready to run away with him at any moment, Chen Ze could only explain in a low voice.

"I have eyes of my own."

Upon hearing this, the fox demon, while remaining vigilant, didn't forget to roll her eyes at Chen Ze—she's getting more and more sarcastic these days.

............................................................................................................

At the same time, in the depths of the internet, inaccessible to ordinary people, lies another dimension that stands in opposition to reality.

clack clack...

It seemed that some unknown entity had also noticed Chen Ze's rewriting and intrusion into the Corruptor program, and then it sent its own will to that completely different other side.

He has no self, nor any clear goal; His existence is solely for the purpose of devouring everything he can reach.

Data and matter are meaningless to Him.

As data that overflows from higher dimensions, its sole purpose is to assimilate everything in lower dimensions, like a drop of ink into a water tank.

Click...

And so, the eroder's one eye, which had been half-open, suddenly widened.

A "will" far beyond Chen Ze's and Renamon's comprehension instantly enveloped the entire digital space and stared at them through that semi-mechanical single eye.

"go!"

Instinctively activating the pre-prepared UDL link, the fox beast grabbed Chen Ze by the collar, intending to take him away from this data space.

However, to the fox demon's utter surprise, that wide-open single eye seemed to be "the gaze of death".

clack clack...

That thing merely rolled its eyes slightly, and it froze all the data in the space, forcibly trapping everyone, including the hackers around it, inside.

"I knew things wouldn't be that simple."

With a rare, snarling grin, the fox-like beast arched its back like a true wild animal, its eyes now filled with fear, the curiosity and elegance they once held completely replaced by terror.

But no matter how terrified she was, Renamon had no intention of giving up the fight or surrendering.

"Do not impulse!"

Even now, Chen Ze, who was also caught off guard by this unexpected situation, remained calm and quickly made a decision.

"We can go!"

In an instant, Chen Ze, whose digital core was operating at high speed, revealed his Agumon (subspecies) form, with the veins on his face bulging like tree roots.

tumultuous!

A blazing white fireball condensed in Agumon's mouth, then erupted out, mixed with chaotic information.

—Overload impact!

Possessing both data and physical attributes, this unique "special fireball" belonging to Chen Ze instantly traversed a distance of more than ten meters, directly hitting the invader not far away.