They traveled through time at the same time, but the villainous scientist

Chapter 541 Partners and Evolution

Koushiro looked at his hands with some curiosity.

He clenched his fist tightly, feeling the power from the muscle contraction.

Hearing, sight, touch... all the sensory feedback was exactly the same as the real world in his memory, clear and vivid.

He bent down, his fingertips touching the soft grass under his feet, the cool, damp sensation clearly transmitted to his brain through his nerve endings.

The air was filled with a fresh scent that blended the fragrance of earth with that of unknown flowers and plants.

This was somewhat different from what he had expected.

Based on his understanding, the essence of humanity entering the digital world should be the "digitization" of physical existence.

The final result should be similar to a fully immersive game like Sword Art Online, where sensory information is directly written into their brains by machines.

This method is different from real sensory experience, but that is not the case now.

Just as he was deep in thought, a soft rustling sound came from the bushes beside him.

A voice followed immediately, carrying a hint of excitement and eagerness.

"Ikshire, I've finally met you!"

A pink, soft-bodied-looking thing rolled out of the bushes.

Seemingly noticing Koushiro watching it, the creature's face displayed an extremely human-like expression of excitement, waving its two short "arms" and struggling to move towards Koushiro.
Koushiro was slightly taken aback, but then he realized what was happening.

This must be the partner Digimon assigned to him.

"you are?"

He crouched down, lowered his gaze, and curiously examined this wondrous life form.

"I am the Rice Cake Beast!"

The pink creature introduced itself cheerfully.

"We have always been waiting for you on this island!"

"Rice cake...?"

A subtle smile curved at the corners of Koushiro's lips; it was a genuine, heartfelt smile.

"That's really apt."

He reached out and carefully picked up the rice cake beast.

The feeling upon handling it is quite peculiar; a cool, slightly elastic sensation comes through, and the texture is firm, indeed somewhat resembling a food called "rice cake".

Mochimon tilted its head, its big eyes filled with confusion, seemingly not understanding why Koushiro was laughing.

"alright,"

Koushiro's smile faded, and he asked Mochimon,
"Can you tell me what happened? Who sent you to wait for me here? And where is this place?"

"This is Failoo Island!"

The Rice Cake Beast replied,

"As for who it is... I don't know."

From the moment we are born, a voice in our heads tells us to wait here for our partners.

is it?

Koushiro nodded thoughtfully. This answer confirmed some of his suspicions.

According to the original story, everything started with the Hikari-gaoka incident a few years ago.

Taichi and Kari unintentionally caused Agumon to undergo an unconventional evolution, demonstrating the special possibilities that exist between human children and Digimon.

This attracted the attention of some higher being in the digital world, the so-called "constancy".

In order to prepare for a possible crisis in the future, "homeostasis" selected the children who witnessed everything in the Hikari-gaoka incident and created a partner Digimon for each of them.

From this perspective, it is entirely logical that the Rice Cake Beasts were given the mission of "waiting" from the very beginning.

It seems highly unlikely that we can obtain deeper information from these nascent Digimon. Our immediate priority is to establish contact with the elderly Gennai, who holds more secrets.

To see Gennai, they must first deal with the first threat entrenched on Fairu Island—the Devil Beast.

Thinking this, Koushiro took out the divine plan that had brought him to this world from his pocket.

This palm-sized device has a warm white color and a smooth, one-piece surface without any visible interfaces or screws, and it doesn't look like it would be difficult to disassemble.

Judging from the content of the original work, the core function of this device seems to be to transform human "emotions" and "will"—spiritual energies—into the driving force for the evolution of Digimon.

This is somewhat similar to the magical girl system in Kyubey's world; both are mediums that materialize some abstract concept into power...

And what he corresponds to is knowledge...

Just as he was conducting the comparative analysis, the [Divine Plan] in his hand lit up without warning!

A soft, non-glaring light emanated from the device's screen, and at the same time, the rice cake beast in his arms emitted the same light.

The light, like warm water, completely enveloped the small body of the Rice Cake Beast.

"Hey?!"

As the light faded, the pink, round creature disappeared, replaced by an insect-type Digimon with a purple shell, six legs, and a pair of compound eyes.

It shook its head, looked at its drastically changed body, and let out a sound of astonishment.

"Oh? What's this? Have I evolved? Why?"

Upon seeing this, Koushiro's eyes lit up. Instead of panicking, he stepped forward, reached out, and touched the hard carapace on the beetle's back with great interest.

The evolution of Digimon is indeed more wondrous than imagined.

This is not just a change in form, but a change in species as well, from a mollusc to an insect.

What is the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon? Where does the energy come from? How is matter recombined?

What conditions need to be met if we want to achieve a higher level of evolution?
His brain was racing, as if sensing his intense thirst for knowledge. The [Divine Plan] in his palm shone even brighter than before! The light transformed into a stream of data, instantly enveloping the newly evolved beetle beast.

"This...you...I..."

The beetle beast only had time to utter a series of incoherent syllables before its body was stretched and reassembled again in the light. Its massive body rose from the ground, its purple carapace became even thicker and more ferocious, the giant horn on its head gleamed with a metallic luster, and its four thin wings vibrated rapidly behind it, emitting a muffled hum.

Kabuterimon!
It stared incredulously at its own giant claws, then at Koushiro, who stood before it and was barely taller than its knees.

Although it knew from the very beginning that it could gain the power of evolution after meeting a partner, it never imagined that all of this would come so quickly, so... easily.

“It’s really interesting!”

Koushiro looked up at the enormous evolved Kabuterimon, his face filled with undisguised excitement.

He raised the [Divine Plan] in his hand, and the device sensed his thoughts and directly converted them into evolutionary energy.

Emotion? No, perhaps "cognition" or "willpower" would be a more accurate description.

"I...I'm Kabuterimon! Nice to meet you, Koushiro!"

Seeing that Koushiro's face showed no fear, but rather was filled with amazement and curiosity, Kabuterimon finally breathed a sigh of relief and introduced himself again in a muffled voice.

"Yes, please give me your guidance!"

Koushiro nodded heavily.

He couldn't wait to analyze the process.

But right now, it's more important to find the other children and reunite with them.

"Kabuterimon, can you fly now? Take me up to the sky, let's find the others first."

"no problem!"

But just then, a violent tremor came from the ground not far away, as if some enormous creature was moving underground.

Immediately afterwards, accompanied by a piercing shriek, a huge crimson figure suddenly shot into the sky from the other end of the forest!
It was a giant beetle, no smaller than a monstrous beast, its entire body crimson, and the pair of ferocious mandibles on its head, resembling giant scissors, gleamed with a terrifying cold light in the sunlight.

It circled in the air once, locked onto a certain direction, and then, like a falling meteorite, plummeted towards the ground...

(End of this chapter)