Digimon: I really didn't want to be the Digimon Emperor!

The central hall is spacious and bright, with a huge holographic projection stage in the middle displaying the three-dimensional evolution forms of various Digimon. Different functional areas are distributed around it, including a DigiDev display area, a Digivice debugging area, a data resource purchase area, and even an arena.

Staff members in white coats and animal trainers were busy in various areas.

"This place is even more professional than I expected..." Cheng Yuan muttered to himself, "It seems that beast tamers have a really high status in this world."

He looked around and saw a poster on the wall:

Requirements for Animal Trainer Qualification at Tokyo University

1. Must be 16 years of age or older;

2. Passed the physical examination and has no history of mental illness;

3. Pay taxes on time every year;

4. Obtain the Dinobot and DigiDevice, and complete the registration.

The lobby was packed with people, many of whom were high school seniors who had come this week to select digital eggs, planning to apply for the animal trainer major.

Cheng Yuan chose the direction of the Digimon Nursery, and the sensor door opened automatically, with a woman in a white uniform coming forward to greet him.

"Welcome to the Digimon Nursery, I'm breeder Zhou Mo." She wore a professional smile, her voice as gentle as a spring breeze. "Judging from your school uniform, you must be a student from Pengcheng No. 1 High School?"

Cheng Yuan nodded slightly, his gaze involuntarily drawn to the silver badge on her chest—a certificate of intermediate trainer qualification certified by the Beast Tamer Association.

Following his gaze, Zhou Mo explained knowingly, "This is a breeding institution directly under the Beast Tamer Association. Every digital egg undergoes thirty-six rigorous testing procedures, including genetic sequencing and health screening." She gracefully stepped aside and made a "please" gesture, "Please follow me."

As you walk through the purified corridor that glows with a deep blue light, the smart glass screens on both sides continuously display warning messages: "According to the Tokyo Digimon Management Law, any unofficial transaction of Digimon, DigiEggs, or computing chips is illegal and can be punished with up to ten years in prison."

“Cheng, don’t be surprised.” Zhou Mo explained softly, “Last week, the sheriff seized a batch of smuggled substandard digital eggs. Many of the digital eggs had mutated core sequences, so the association has stepped up its public legal education efforts.”

Inside the incubation room, more than ten constant-temperature ecological chambers are arranged in a circle, each connected to a sophisticated vital sign monitoring system. Several uniformed incubators are recording data in front of a holographic projector, while a giant display screen on the wall updates various incubation parameters in real time.

Each incubation chamber contains digital eggs of various shapes floating and slowly rotating in a special solution. Holographic labels on the surface of the chambers clearly indicate the breed name and price range, and occasionally flash with the light of data updates.

Cheng Yuan quickly scanned the price tags, trying to appear calm, and said, "Let me take a look and get to know them first."

"How about I introduce you?" She gestured invitingly and led Cheng Yuan into the inner room.

"This year, the National Digital Center has provided five types of specially bred digital eggs for students in Pengcheng to choose from," Zhou Mo introduced as they walked. "They are Grainmon, Electric Mousemon, Smoke Cloudmon, Green Leafmon, and Float Ballmon."

Cheng Yuan's gaze swept over these digital eggs, silently recalling their evolutionary paths:

The Pellet Beast can evolve into the Pangolin Beast;

Electric Mousemon can evolve into Gearmon;

The Smoke Cloud Beast can evolve into the Candle Beast;

Leafmon and Floatmon lead to Bugmon and Baloomon respectively.

These Digimon are quite good and functional, showing which directions the country needs for development—Pangolin represents mining, Gearmon represents industry, Candlemon represents firepower-related industries, Insectmon represents textiles, and plant-type Digimon like Baloomon represent agriculture…

But... the main problem is that it's too expensive.

Cheng Yuan touched the bank card in his pocket, thinking, "10 yuan. After buying the digital eggs, I won't have any money left to buy breeding data. What will I do for the later breeding?"

“The price is marked on it, between 9 and 11,” Zhou Mo said. “In addition, we also offer a data resource package to promote growth and evolution. If you purchase it together with the digital egg, you can enjoy a 9% discount.”

"As expected..." Cheng Yuan sighed inwardly, "Being a beast tamer is really an expensive profession."

The 100,000 yuan on hand was all the savings the family could muster. The money Cheng Yuan received from his parents was a gift, thus increasing his wealth value by 100,000. With both the system and wealth value, he wouldn't need to spend too much money on resource purchases when raising digital beasts. However, the specific conversion rate still needed to be explored.

Following the principle of saving money wherever possible, Cheng Yuan hesitated for a moment before tentatively asking, "Are there any other digital eggs?"

Zhou Mo pondered for a moment, then noticed Cheng Yuan's fingers gripping his pocket, seemingly sensing his predicament.

She lowered her voice and said, "Actually... there's another digital egg that a customer returned. It was infected by a virus and degenerated into a digital egg, but after thorough disinfection and testing at the center, it has been confirmed to be safe. It's just that many people have concerns about it, so it hasn't been sold yet."

"Can I take a look?" Cheng Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

Zhou Mo nodded, turned around, opened a temperature-controlled incubator deep inside, took out a white digital egg with blue patterns, and placed it in front of Cheng Yuan.

“It’s a Digi-Egg of Snowballmon,” Zhou Mo explained. “Its evolutionary paths are diverse, including the mature forms of Hairymon, Snowmanmon, and Icestonemon, all of which are ice-type. But recently, a new beast-type path has been discovered, evolving into a mature form called Gatomon, which possesses divine power. This is still under investigation…”

"What? Snowballmon?" Cheng Yuan's heart skipped a beat. "Isn't that Angewomon's baby form?"

Cheng Yuan learned through the internet that, due to the real existence of the Digital World, there is no Digimon anime or game series in this world. In the short span of more than 20 years since the world merged, many aspects of the evolutionary chain of Digimon have not yet been explored and are still in a relatively rudimentary stage, without forming a complete theory.

To date, there is no record of anyone seeing an Ultimate-level Digimon, and Perfect-level Digimon are extremely rare.

It's important to understand that Digimon evolution follows a network-like evolutionary chain. If there's even a slight mismatch in data or resource matching, they could very well evolve onto a different chain.

In other words, if you're not careful, you might accidentally evolve into a poopmon or a snotmon. The exploration cost of the Digimon evolution chain is extremely high.

Clearly, the world has not yet fully discovered the other path of Snowballmon besides the Ice Evolution route—the Divine Path.

Snowballmon → Meowmon → Puppymon → Gatomon → Angewomon! And the various powerful ultimate forms that Angewomon evolves into!

The people at the Digital Center clearly don't know Snowballmon's true potential... Angewomon, Holy Angewomon, Venusmon, and others are all top-tier fighters!

Cheng Yuanqiang suppressed his wildly beating heart and frowned, feigning hesitation: "Indeed... the southern climate is not very favorable for breeding Ice-type Digimon..."

But he knew in his heart that his special system and wealth could completely make up for the lack of regional resources and data!

Seeing that he was interested, Zhou Mo continued, "If you are really interested, I can help you apply for a 30% discount."

"30% off!" Cheng Yuan's pupils constricted slightly. This was simply a windfall!

My fingertips unconsciously traced the cool lines on the eggshell, and childhood memories suddenly came vividly to life—

When he was eight years old, he saw Angewomon descend on television for the first time, turning the tide and saving the main characters: under the bright moonlight, eight holy wings slowly unfurled, her long golden hair fluttered in the energy storm, and that beautiful and divine figure single-handedly reversed the entire battle. From that moment on, Angewomon became the epitome of his goddess. He always treasured limited edition Angewomon cards in the pocket of his backpack, and his sketchbook was filled with countless redrawn sketches.

Holding this digital egg now, it's as if he's become that boy again, glued to the TV, wanting to hear even the last syllable of the ending theme song.

Ding! Snowballmon Digimon Egg detected. Notification: This Digimon's type preference is Light/Dark. Bind?

Cheng Yuan: "???"

The famous scene from the Digimon anime where Angewomon and LadyDevimon slap each other flashed through his mind.

“I want it,” Cheng Yuan said decisively.

Zhou Mo confirmed again: "Are you sure? Its cultivation might be quite difficult..."

“It’s okay,” Cheng Yuan said with a confident smile. “I believe that things can be accomplished by human effort (the system).”

Chapter 3 Conversion Ratio

Cheng Yuan's finger hovered over the payment screen for a full three seconds before he finally gritted his teeth and swiped the card.

The moment he transferred 7 yuan, his heart was bleeding.

But what made him even more uneasy was the mysterious system notification—would 10 of his 7 wealth points be deducted as a result?

"Beep—Payment successful."

The notification that popped up on his phone screen relieved him, but thankfully, his wealth value on the system interface remained unchanged.

"I see..." Cheng Yuan stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Only income generates wealth points; expenses don't deduct them. So what if..."

Wealth can move people's hearts.

A bold idea suddenly flashed through his mind, but before he could think about it further, the system popped up a warning:

[Ding! The wealth points must be from the host's legitimate income. Please abandon any unhealthy thoughts.]

"Tch, it's pretty strict." Cheng Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, at least proving that this system wasn't some evil entity.

He carefully took out his Digimon and aimed it at the digital egg that was glowing with a pale blue light. The Digimon's scanning beam moved back and forth across the eggshell, and a prompt quickly appeared on the screen:

[Unbound digital egg detected. Have you signed a partnership agreement?]

Cheng Yuan took a deep breath and solemnly nodded "Yes".

At the same time, the system interface is also updated:

Wealth Value: 100000

Digimon: Snowballmon DigiDapole

[Types: Beast 1, Angel 0, Fallen Angel 0, Dragon 0...]

【元素：光系1、神聖系1、暗系1、冰系1，火系0、風系0...】

[Note: Please hatch the digital egg as soon as possible to recharge.]

As Zhou Mo handed the receipt to Cheng Yuan, she suddenly tapped on the counter: "If the little guy shows any data inconsistencies or abnormal evolutionary tendencies..." She pointed to the digital egg floating on the Dinobot screen, "come to the nursery anytime for a free test, or just call my work phone number." As she spoke, she grabbed a sticky note and quickly wrote down the number.

At the Animal Trainer Association office in the digital center, Cheng Yuan spent another 640 yuan to register as a trainee animal trainer. When the card with his photo on it was handed to him, Cheng Yuan's heart started racing.

Cheng Yuan, Trainee Animal Trainee

Pengcheng

Cheng Yuan felt a surge of excitement as he watched the money in his mobile bank account steadily dwindle. Now, he had only one thought: "Hurry home to hatch the DigiEgg, and then try adding some points to it."

Back home, he built a simple nest for the Digimon egg with a blanket, and carefully placed the Digimon egg on it. The eggshell glowed with a faint blue light, as if responding to his expectations.

According to Zhou Mo's reminder, the Digimon will officially hatch 2-3 hours after the agreement is signed. Cheng Yuan sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, with Digimon on his lap, staring intently at the egg.

Time ticked by, and the room was so quiet that only the ticking of the clock could be heard. Just as Cheng Yuan's eyelids began to droop, the Ryujin suddenly started vibrating wildly, almost jumping off his lap.

"It's about to hatch!"

Cheng Yuan snapped awake and saw that a thin crack had appeared on the surface of the Digimon Egg on the bed, and a dazzling white light was spilling out of the crack, illuminating the entire room.

"Snap—"

The sound of the eggshell cracking was crisp and melodious, and the cracks spread rapidly like a spider web. Cheng Yuan held his breath and unconsciously leaned forward, his eyes stinging from the bright light, but he couldn't bear to look away.

Slowly, the eggshell shattered completely, turning into countless tiny specks of light that dissipated into the air.

"Qiuqiu~"

A round little creature peeked out from the light, its beady black eyes curiously surveying this unfamiliar world.

Its body is snow-white and fluffy, like a freshly kneaded dough, and its two round ears on its head tremble slightly with its movements.

Cheng Yuan's heart was instantly melted by the cuteness.

"Snowballmon..." he called softly, afraid of frightening the little life that had just arrived in the world.

Upon hearing the sound, Snowball Beast turned around and its gaze met Cheng Yuan's.

Its black eyes sparkled, as if filled with starlight.

The next second, it chirped happily and clumsily hopped toward Cheng Yuan.

"Watch out!" Cheng Yuan quickly reached out and caught the furry little guy.

Snowball's body was cool to the touch and incredibly soft.

It tilted its head back and stared intently at Cheng Yuan, its little nose twitching as if trying to memorize his scent.

"Please guide me in the future." Cheng Yuan smiled and held it in front of him, gently rubbing its forehead.

Snowball responded with a "chirp," its ears twitching, showing its great joy.

Looking at the little guy who could barely walk, Cheng Yuan couldn't help but smile. The Digimon in the anime, born able to talk, run, and fight, are clearly artistic creations. Real-life Digimon babies, like human infants, need to grow slowly.

The next moment filled Cheng Yuan with both nervousness and anticipation.

The evolution of Digimon has been a subject of ongoing debate among scientists and trainers.

Scientists believe that Digimon are collections of data, and they can evolve once the numerical values ​​reach a certain level.

Animal trainers firmly believe that emotion and experience are the key.

Some online comments have pointed out that the amount of data in high-level Digimon has exceeded what can be achieved by simply filling in data.

But Cheng Yuan, who has played Digimon games, knows very well that both are indispensable. Data is the foundation, and bonds are the catalyst. And now, the system quantifies all of this, allowing him to intuitively see the specific numerical value of each attribute.

Snowball Beast

[Small-sized, no attributes]

[Childhood I]

[Skill: Diamond Star (Spits out a mouthful of seemingly harmless ice shards, powerful enough to turn a can of cola into ice-cold cola.)]

[Description: A spherical creature covered in snow-white fur. It is gentle and timid, and when faced with danger, it will curl up into a ball and roll away at high speed.]

Looking at the Snowballmon's encyclopedia entry on the Digivice, Cheng Yuan recalled several classic evolutionary paths for Snowballmon:

Snowballmon → Meowmon → Puppymon → Gatomon → Angewomon → Ophanimon (Holydramon)