Digital Hackers' Memories

However, even small things are troublesome for Agumon when he is not in a position of power, let alone the series of crises that are happening now.

"Is this what it means to be born a protagonist?"

Recalling the idea of ​​a "chosen Digimon," Agumon decisively shook his head in denial.

Even constancy cannot determine what I will do next!

Just as Agumon was secretly making up his mind to find a way to leave this world as soon as possible, a noisy and chaotic sound suddenly came from the end of the tunnel.

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"Run! They're coming again!"

"Quick, find the big guy! He can protect us!"

"There are Empire Digimon over there, run this way!"

"Here, here, there's a safe road!"

……

Accompanied by a series of screams, a whole host of filthy Digimon, including Poopmon, Snotmon, Shimonmon, Ghostmon, and Demonmon, appeared at the end of the sewer.

With the appearance of these filthy digital beasts, a huge number of guardian beasts appeared in the sewers.

As the most numerous mature creation of the Steel Empire, Guardianmon has always been one of the most cost-effective mechanical Digimon because it does not require the use of too many cutting-edge technologies and materials.

Guardian beasts are indispensable in logistics, support, transportation, maintenance, and even on the front lines.

Naturally, the Guardian Beasts' duties also include cleaning the sewers—cleaning up all sorts of messy Digimon that appear in the sewers of the Steel Empire.

Although Guardianmon's abilities aren't particularly strong, they are still a very powerful threat to filth-type Digimon like Poopmon, Numemon, Shimonmon, and Demonmon.

After all, the Filthy Digimon did not evolve normally; they were forced to evolve into their current form because they absorbed useless data.

In a sense, this evolution that loses the possibility of choice and turns itself into a meaningless pile of data garbage is actually the result of erroneous evolution and failed evolution.

Let alone compared to ordinary Champion-level Digimon, even the strongest individual among these Filth-type Digimon might not be able to defeat some normal Rookie-level Digimon, let alone Champion-level Guardianmon.

The Guardian Beasts look somewhat clumsy, but they are genuine Champion-level Digimon. With the help of the Steel Empire's various advanced programs and weapons, they can even hunt down some of the weaker Dragon-type Digimon.

Therefore, when these guardian beasts begin their daily "cleaning missions," filth-type Digimon such as Poopmon, Snotmon, Shimonmon, and Demonmon have no choice but to flee deeper into the sewers.

"The Steel Empire's forces?"

As a large group of filth-type Digimon scurried past him, Agumon finally noticed the "pursuers" behind them.

At the same time, Agumon also noticed that its size seemed to have increased a lot.

Putting aside these filthy Digimon, even compared to the Guardian Digimon that are on their way, Agumon is clearly more than a head taller.

His height of nearly three meters has already exceeded the limits of his growth period, and his massive muscles have given him terrifying strength that is no less than that of any mature adult.

"Run! Are you new here?"

Seemingly noticing Agumon's hesitation, the last of the three demonic beasts "passed" right through it.

"run?"

After a brief hesitation, Agumon, not quite understanding the situation, decided to "avoid alerting the enemy" and joined the fleeing group.

"An 'abnormal entity' has been detected in Zone C of the lower three areas. Requesting temporary support..."

Standing at three meters tall, Agumon was so conspicuous among a bunch of filthy Digimon that it was impossible for it to escape the sight of Guardianmon.

For the guardian beasts responsible for cleaning this area, their first reaction was to upload their own information to the internal network and then wait for higher-level Digimon to come and provide support.

Of course, during this process, the Guardian Beast will still perform a "cleaning procedure" to "clean up" all the Digimon it finds that contain dirt.

Like now...

boom! boom! boom!

Dozens of guardian beasts simultaneously raised their wrists and launched their built-in homing missiles.

With just one salvo of missiles, several dung-beasts that fell to the back became victims of the attack, turning into countless data fragments.

Moreover, after "cleaning up" what the steel empire considered garbage.

To prevent those data fragments from generating even more filthy code beasts, the guardian beasts opened the hatches on their backs and recycled them into a specific junkyard.

In this way, the possibility of these filthy digital beasts being reborn into the Founding Village has disappeared.

This is the Steel Empire's solution for dealing with the filthy Digimon, and it's also why these Digimon are desperately trying to escape.

"Are all the Digimon of the Steel Empire so domineering?"

Agumon dodged a missile in time and decisively turned around to retaliate with a fireball.

However, Agumon didn't attack the Guardian Beasts, but rather the ceiling above them, causing the falling rocks to block their path.

rumbling...

Caught off guard, the Guardian Beasts, which had not been equipped with professional combat programs, had to stop their pursuit and watch helplessly as the filthy digital beasts escaped from their grasp.

"Correction order: The anomalous individual is an experimental subject of the 'Rebel' molecular beast. Request higher-level fire support."

"Reposition and guide the MetalGreymon to the lower third zone, C area..."

"Report to the agent: An abnormal entity is heading towards the 'restricted area.' Should we activate the 'backup plan'?"

Chapter 18 Abnormal Individuals

The Steel Empire is a fully industrialized empire and the birthplace of all mechanical Digimon.

However, this does not mean that the Empire only has mechanical Digimon.

In fact, in the unknown underground world of the Steel Empire, there are many non-mechanical Digimon, among which the most numerous are the Filth-type Digimon.

These Digimon either came from areas that were previously occupied by the Steel Empire or were subsequently captured by the Steel Empire and brought to its territory.

However, regardless of their original forms, after entering the sewer world, these Digimon all absorbed excessive amounts of waste data and evolved into useless, filthy Digimon.

As for the origin of that discarded data?

In any case, they were either industrial waste produced by the Steel Empire or data remnants of digital entities that had failed to be modified and had died.

Although the Steel Empire regularly cleans up waste data left over from various experiments, such cleanup is not very effective due to the vast territory it rules over.

Especially in the magnificent industrial cities that exist as the "capital" of the steel empire, the data debris generated every day is simply impossible to quantify.

The only thing that is clear is that even if the Steel Empire designed a massive sewer system at the beginning of the city planning, specifically for handling all kinds of filthy data and waste.

Afterwards, tens of thousands of Guardian Beasts were arranged to clean the sewer world regularly every day, but some still managed to escape and evolve into Filth-type Digimon.

Over the years, beneath this magnificent industrial city, the number of filthy digital beasts, such as Poop Beasts, Snot Beasts, Shimon Beasts, and Demon Beasts, has grown to a point that even the Steel Empire itself is unaware of.

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"What is this place?"

When the group of filth-type Digimon were sure they had shaken off the Guardianmon's pursuit and gradually stopped, Agumon quietly followed the Demonmon that had warned him earlier.

After all, among the many filthy Digimon, only Demonmon has a slightly better image.

It's clear that if it hadn't been captured by the Steel Empire and used as experimental material, the Demon Beast would never have evolved into its current grotesque form.

Even so, after absorbing so much useless data, it still evolved into a Demonmon, rather than the inferior Poopmon or Snotmon, which shows its talent before evolution.

"We're almost at the 'forbidden zone,' so the guardian beasts won't be chasing us here for now."

Relieved, the Demon Beast turned around and examined the clearly different subspecies of Agumon.

"You're new here? You just escaped from one of the Steel Empire's laboratories?"

Although it was phrased as a question, the Fierce Beast's tone was filled with certainty.

Because over 90% of the Digimon that appear here came from this source; the only difference is how long it took them to arrive.

Just like the Demon Beast itself, it escaped from the other party's laboratory when one of its agents wasn't paying attention.

"Yes, I just escaped from the molecular beast laboratory."

Without hiding his past, Agumon narrowed his eyes, looked at the demon beast that was floating more than a meter high and barely level with him, and nodded.

"No wonder your reaction is so slow..."

As if it could see through Agumon's future, Ghostmon looked at this exceptionally powerful Rookie-level monster, but in the end, it could only sigh with regret.

No matter how powerful Agumon is now, being trapped in this sewer world is tantamount to losing its future.

Just like its predecessor before, this subspecies of Agumon will inevitably become another powerful Demon Beast in the future.

"Congratulations on escaping 'hell', only to enter another 'hell'."

Seemingly not quite understanding what the demon beast was saying, Agumon was about to say something when they heard the sound of gears turning behind them.

"Huh? The guardian beast has caught up again?"

"How is this possible? We're almost at the restricted area!"

"Why is that? Don't they never go near the restricted area?"

……

Hearing the exclamations of the Digimon around him, Agumon hadn't even shown any expression when Ghostmon "passed" through his back, staring wide-eyed at the passage he had come from.

"Damn it, it's a mechanical armored beast!"

Although it's somewhat comical for a demon beast to say "I've seen a ghost," Agumon surprisingly understands the fear in the pursuers' hearts when he sees them appearing behind him.

Compared to the Guardian Beasts, which are rudimentary in design and materials, the Mechanical Armor Beasts look significantly more advanced.

Putting everything else aside, just looking at the Digizoid that makes up their bodies, you can clearly see the difference between Machine Armor Beast and Guardian Beast.

Furthermore, what Agumon was unaware of was that, as the first cargo-carrying Digimon in the Digital World, MachineGearmon, like Motormon, could not act independently and had to rely on another being to control it.

Therefore, rather than calling Machine Armormon a Digimon, it would be more accurate to describe it as a kind of alternative enhanced armor.

"The agent... actually came in person!"

Unlike the clueless Agumon, Ghostmon, having survived the pursuit of the Steel Empire for so long, naturally knows what the appearance of MachineGearmon means.

As a Digimon still under development, the only one controlling it from inside MachineGearmon could be the true master of the Steel Empire—the Agent.

It is a life form completely different from Digimon. Although they do not have the same powerful abilities and adaptability as Digimon, they have driven the development of the Digital World with their outstanding intelligence.

For these agents who possess exceptional intelligence but are extremely fragile, in order to protect themselves from attacks by powerful Digimon, they often pilot Machine Armormon to appear before the Digimon.

"It's coming for you."

In the blink of an eye, the Fierce Demon Beast guessed why the mechanical armored beast had come here.

Aside from Agumon, this newly arrived "abnormal individual," there isn't another Digimon here that could attract the agent to come in person.

"Are you coming for me?"

Agumon was also aware of this, but he still didn't understand why he had attracted such an anomaly as "Machine Armor Beast".

"I hate this feeling of knowing nothing."

Slowly bending down and arching its back like a real Tyrannosaurus Rex, Agumon muttered something softly.

Since being drawn into this world by constancy, more and more mysteries have wrapped themselves up like a spider spinning its web.

Chapter Nineteen: The Mad Evolutionists

"Are you the 'abnormal individual' created by the molecular beast?"

His words revealed a haughty indifference, and the agent's voice came from the mechanical armored beast he was piloting.

The talent of the Molecular Beast is recognized throughout the Steel Empire, especially by the representatives of the Evolutionist faction, who have proposed granting it higher experimental privileges.

However, just as well-known as the Molecular Beast's talent is its crazy and extreme personality.

As long as it can satisfy its curiosity, the Molecular Beast doesn't care about laws or human relationships at all; some of its behaviors are even more insane than the most extreme agents.

Furthermore, the unknown virus infecting the molecular beasts made the agents quite wary, which is why the evolutionists' proposal to increase the permissions of the molecular beasts was not approved.

Even so, at times, the actions of the molecular beast still attracted the attention of interested agents.

Gennai, who realized what that unknown virus meant, was one such person, and the current evolutionary agent who is hunting down Agumon is another.

Upon receiving the notification from the Guardian Beast, the Agent immediately piloted the Machine Armor Beast to the sewer space, intending to capture the MetalGreymon before it arrived.

After all, there isn't a significant hierarchy among the agents; their authority is roughly the same for everyone.

Therefore, as long as the agent captures Agumon first, even Gennai will be unable to snatch Agumon, this "trophy," from its hands.