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

Cheng Yuan tossed and turned in bed, his mind replaying the scene of signing the Snowballmon contract at the Digital Center's nursery. The system's crisp notification sound seemed to still echo in his ears:

"Ding! Snowballmon Digimon egg detected. This Digimon egg has a light/dark attribute bias. Bind...?"

Could it be that because of this dual light and dark element, the little dog beast's dark attribute has started to rise?

Little Dog Beast, are you about to awaken to darkness?

Cheng Yuan murmured to himself, his gaze falling on the sleeping puppy, Shou, beside his pillow. The little guy was curled up in a ball, emitting soft purrs.

The scene in the factory flashed before his eyes again—the little beast's sudden scream, its eerie convulsions, and its eyes that went unfocused for a moment. Cheng Yuan involuntarily gripped the corner of the blanket, all sleepiness gone.

He pulled out his phone from beside his pillow.

The moment the screen lit up, notifications of more than a dozen unread messages popped up in succession.

In the class group chat, students are enthusiastically sharing photos of their extra training or playing with their Digimon.

Cheng Yuan casually posted a photo of Xiaogoushou wearing FPV goggles: "[I spent the whole day playing with drones with Xiaogoushou today, and we've used up several batteries!]"

Kang Zhaodi: Playing with toys is a waste of time and ambition!

Zhao Lu: The little dog looks so handsome with glasses, I want to pet it...

Luo Guangning: The more I look at it, the more it resembles a pet...

……

As he continued scrolling down, a piece of news in the entertainment section caught his attention—"Digital Queen Producer Camp" premieres tomorrow.

This title seems strangely familiar.

Upon clicking through, it turned out to be an original song talent show, and among the contestants was the girl I had met in the square—Yun Yao.

In the photo, she is holding a guitar, while the Star Beast beside her is playfully striking various poses.

"So she really did go to the competition..." Cheng Yuan recalled the scene of teaching her to sing "Butter-Fly" that day, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.

He silently gave it a thumbs up and then exited the page.

The next morning, Cheng Yuan brought his energetic little dog to the Digital Center Hospital. After a series of examinations, the doctor gave a diagnosis of "everything is normal".

"This is impossible..." Cheng Yuan stared at the system interface, where it was clearly shown that the little dog beast's dark attribute had automatically increased by 50 points.

He clearly didn't add any points.

He tried to contact Xu Xin, but it showed that the other party was not in the service area.

After hesitating for a moment, he scrolled through his contact list and found the chat window for "Nurse Zhou Mo". He remembered that when he signed up for the Digimon, she had said that if the little guy had any problems with its data or showed any abnormal evolutionary tendencies, he could contact her anytime.

He paused on the screen for a few seconds, then typed: "[Evolved into a puppy beast, but exhibiting abnormal characteristics]".

The message "The other party is typing..." immediately appears at the top of the dialog box.

In less than three seconds, a reply popped up: [Photo?]

Cheng Yuan hesitated for a moment, then struck a cool pose for the camera, snapped a selfie, and sent it over.

Zhou Mo: [...]

Zhou Mo: [Not your photo, I want a photo of Little Dog Beast...]

Cheng Yuan sent an awkward emoji, then carefully took several close-up photos of the little dog. Before sending them, he adjusted the angle and took a full-body photo—in the picture, the little dog was lying on the bed in a starfish position, with little bubbles coming out of its nose, looking adorable.

Zhou Mo: [What an adorable little puppy!]

Cheng Yuan: [You asked me to send you photos just so you could see if it's cute or not?]

Zhou Mo: [What went wrong?]

Cheng Yuan typed with a wry smile: [The puppy's dark stats are skyrocketing... I wonder if this will affect its evolution.]

A new message popped up immediately: "Pengcheng Digital Evolution Research Institute, give me your name when you arrive."

"The Evolution Research Institute?" Cheng Yuan frowned and muttered, "Isn't she a nursery nurse at the Digital Center's nursery?"

He remembered that Zhou Mo's work ID clearly had the words "Pengcheng Digital Center" printed on it.

Around noon, Cheng Yuan, holding the little dog beast, stood in front of a tall, silver-gray building. The builder's signboard bore the words "Pengcheng Digital Evolution Research Institute" in gold lettering.

Through the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, one could vaguely see many staff members in white coats hurrying by.

"Woof?" The little dog shook its ears uneasily, the unfamiliar environment making it slightly uneasy.

"It's alright, little beast." Cheng Yuan gently squeezed its paw. As the automatic sensor door slowly opened, a blast of cold air rushed in.

The receptionist looked up: "Hello, do you have an appointment?"

"Zhou Mo sent me." Before the words were finished, a familiar voice came from the end of the corridor—

"Cheng Yuan! Over here!"

Zhou Mo was wearing the research institute's standard white lab coat uniform, with a "Junior Researcher" badge pinned to her left chest. Compared to when she was at the Digimon Nursery, she had a more serious demeanor.

She crouched down, her pupils focused on the holy ring around the Digimon's neck, and the moment her fingertips touched it, the holy ring rippled with a faint light.

"Interesting..." she murmured. "The purity of light and holy energy can reach this level, which is rare among Rookie Digimon."

"Of course," Cheng Yuan thought to himself, "I've spent a lot of wealth points on the Light and Holy factions."

"Sister Mo, didn't you work at the nursery before?" Cheng Yuan couldn't help but ask, "How did you suddenly become a researcher?"

Zhou Mo chuckled upon hearing this and led him through two automatic sensor doors into the laboratory.

"My main job is at the research institute. Last month, I went to the Nursery House for an exchange and learning session with the Institute of Evolution and the Digital Center. We have learning and exchange sessions from time to time."

"Your little dog-like Digimon is the Digi-egg we brought from the lab that time—although it was a breeding sample from the research institute, according to the Digimon Rights Bill, it is also qualified to become a tamer's partner."

On the central platform of the laboratory, several precision instruments were humming softly.

Zhou Mo skillfully adjusted the parameters of the testing station.

"Put the little guy on the examination table." She placed a ring that shimmered with blue light onto the little dog's sacred ring. "Don't worry, it's just a routine check-up."

The little dog nervously shrank its neck, but its attention was quickly drawn to a high-purity data cube that Zhou Mo handed it. It hugged the cube and started gnawing on it, completely unaware of the indicator lights on the surrounding instruments.

"Look here." Zhou Mo pointed to the holographic screen, which displayed the energy spectrum of the little dog beast. Golden holy energy flowed like a tide, but within the energy spectrum, there was also a dark energy; the two were distinct yet coexisted in a strange way.

"This vaccine is of the Holy type, with very high energy purity," Zhou Mo pushed up his glasses, "but it also contains dark energy."

She pulled up another set of data, "This dark energy is a bit restless, like a grumpy little black cat."

"If this dark energy is allowed to grow unchecked, it may affect its future evolution."

"Will it affect evolution? Evolve into what?"

Zhou Mo laughed and said, "It's hard to say. After all, the evolution of Digimon is still being explored, and there aren't many patterns yet. The evolution path of the Holy type Digimon with the puppy face hasn't been fully explored yet. Currently, we've only explored up to the Champion level of Gatomon, let alone the Dark type."

However, Cheng Yuan was very clear that in the original world's animation, the puppy beast did indeed have a dark evolution path.

[Puppymon → BlackGatomon → LadyDevimon.]

LadyDevimon, fair-skinned and beautiful, in a tight leather bodysuit, long legs and a slender waist... that doesn't seem so bad... No, no, no, Angewomon is my childhood dream... LadyDevimon in a tight leather bodysuit, alluring and sexy, isn't bad either... No, no, no, Angewomon in a white bodysuit isn't bad either...

Seeing Cheng Yuan's absent-minded look, Zhou Mo mistakenly thought he was worried that Dark Evolution would cause Digimon to go berserk, and gently comforted him, "Actually, Digimon that undergo Dark Evolution will not necessarily lose their minds and go berserk. Last year, a college student tamer successfully restored a Digimon to its senses."

She gently removed the monitoring ring from the puppy's neck. "I recommend that the puppy be monitored regularly. Bring it in for a check-up once a week this month, is that alright?"

Weekly testing? That seems more frequent than the regular quarantine for virus-type Digimon?

According to the Digimon Quarantine and Inspection Law of the Eastern Kingdom, Digimon of the Virus type need to undergo monthly quarantine inspections to prevent corruption and rampage.

Seeing Cheng Yuan hesitate, Zhou Mo added, "I'm preparing to conduct a study on the coexistence of sacred and dark forces. If you're willing to cooperate regularly..." She found an agreement, "The research institute can pay a monthly research stipend of six thousand yuan."

The image of Cheng Yuan fidgeting with his pockets in the nursery flashed through her mind.

"Six thousand a month?" Cheng Yuan almost bit his tongue, his fingers unconsciously clenching the little dog's paw.

The little guy barked in pain.

Cheng Yuan felt his throat tighten. The words "research allowance" on the agreement kept enlarging in front of his eyes, translating into wealth points of +6000, +6000, +6000.

"I do!"

By the time Cheng Yuan carried the little dog out of the research institute, night had completely fallen. He had a newly issued research funding card in his pocket, and the little guy in his arms was munching on Zhou Mosai's data cube.

"Have we sold ourselves?" Cheng Yuan sat on the shared bicycle and poked the puffed-up cheeks of the little dog on the basket.

I pulled out my vibrating phone, and a bank deposit notification showed: "[Pengcheng Digital Evolution Research Institute received a transfer of 6000 yuan]".

[Ding! System notification: Wealth points: 43200 (+6000)]