Knights of the Digital World

It feels like the lightsaber's basic attack lacks presence, so a special name is chosen to make the basic attack seem more imposing.

A certain Mr. Afu, who is full of witty remarks and wishes to remain anonymous, gave it a like.

Anyway, after all that rambling, the point is this: Wild Wolf Beast is a melee fighter whose strength lies entirely in his sword.

Therefore, even though he had gained a relative advantage through long-range shooting, making Yongmeng look somewhat disheveled, the Wolf Beast didn't intend to continue kiting like this. He knew his energy couldn't sustain a kiting tactic for long, especially since his light orbs and enhanced light orb skills weren't enough to finish the battle decisively. So, instead of wasting energy here, he'd rather go up and use his lightsaber to make a couple of cuts. This way, he would conserve energy and utilize his strengths. Right now, the light orbs were just for cover and incidentally caused some trouble for Yongmeng.

Emu also understood Wolfmon's thoughts. Having watched so many episodes of Infinite Zone, he genuinely didn't recall Wolfmon possessing the Light Sphere skill. In his memory, Wolfmon was always wielding two lightsabers, hacking and slashing. If the Light Sphere was so useful, why bother with all that trouble? Clearly, the Light Sphere was only good for support; to truly decide a victory, Wolfmon would have to resort to close-quarters combat!

Having seen through everything, Emu relaxed, constantly deflecting or dodging the Wild Wolf Beast's orbs of light. At the same time, she silently approached the Wild Wolf Beast. Emu's movements were very stealthy; she only moved slightly each time she dodged, seemingly still struggling to keep up with the orbs. The fact that she was getting closer to the Wild Wolf Beast was entirely due to the beast's own actions.

Finally, seeing that it was only five or six meters away from Emu, the Wild Wolf Beast launched its last ball of light. Wielding its swords with both hands, it lunged at Emu like a hungry wolf pouncing on a sheep. A shimmering white light emanated from its twin swords—the Wild Wolf Beast's signature technique, Victory of Light!

But Emu remained completely calm, bracing himself against the ball of light. He gripped the Gashan Destroyer with both hands and swung it upwards, blocking the Wolf Beast's twin swords. However, the combined force of the Wolf Beast's accumulated skill power, its attacking physical strength, and the gravity falling from a height still forced Emu to his knees, nearly causing him to drop his weapons.

He had underestimated the Wild Wolf Beast. In Yongmeng's plan, he intended to use this sweeping motion to deflect the Wild Wolf Beast's twin swords, leaving it wide open and creating an opportunity for attack. However, without the muscle-enhancing buff, he was completely at a disadvantage against the Wild Wolf Beast's charged attack, even at a disadvantage in the process. He had instantly put himself in a dangerous situation.

Without a second thought, the wolf-like beast kicked Emu in the chest the moment its foot touched the ground. Emu had no time to react; he was sent flying, rolling several times on the ground.

"Sigh, what goes around comes around. Now, even if I wanted to add another buff, you wouldn't agree, would you?" Yongmeng sighed as she got up from the ground.

This was a friendly sparring match, aimed at familiarizing themselves with each other's abilities, so there was no need for any finishing blows. Previously, when Emu saw the Wild Wolf Beast lying on the ground unable to get up, he didn't rush up and deliver a sword strike, directly causing the Wild Wolf Beast to degenerate. Now, the Wild Wolf Beast just silently watched Emu get up, without wielding its lightsaber to unleash a Light Victory.

However, it's unlikely that Emu will get a buff. The first time, he was caught off guard and tricked. The second time, for Emu to have so much fun on his own means that Wild Wolf Beast is brainless. This is, after all, a sparring match, not a demonstration of combat skills. The battle is still close to real combat, just not as fierce.

"Your ability is amazing. I can feel that I'm almost at my limit. You're probably close too. Let's settle this with our final move!" The usually taciturn Wild Wolf Beast spoke at length, gesturing towards Emu.

"Oh, you're right. Let's go then!" Emu agreed with Wolfmon. He had recently transformed and fought Salubimon. He hadn't had much rest, and this sparring match with Wolfmon was indeed taking its toll.

Emu took out his Extraordinary Action X Spinning Gadget and inserted it into Gashan Destroyer. Streams of energy flowed across the sword. Emu raised it high above his head, aiming it at the Wild Wolf Beast.

Meanwhile, the wolf beast was also gathering its strength, and the light from its two lightsabers became increasingly dazzling.

"kiighty critical fish!"

"Victor of Light!"

The two energies collided, unleashing a burst of intense light. At the same time, the game realm transformed into a stream of data and slowly dissipated.

"Who's winning?"

"Kouji, isn't he? The scenes that Emu transformed into are all gone."

"That's also possible that Emu won and then took it away on his own!"

"I hope it doesn't end in a lose-lose situation."

The children, who had been silently watching Emu and Kouji spar, finally couldn't help but start discussing it. The power of the final blow looked rather terrifying, making the children worried.

"Hahaha, no win or loss, right? The energy was all neutralized, and Kouji and I were too weak to turn back. Oh dear, that was dangerous. We were standing right on either side of the pit. If we had been a little off course, Kouji and I would have fallen in." In the slowly dissipating smoke, Emu and Kouji supported each other as they walked back. They were indeed exhausted; without this mutual support, they couldn't even walk such a short distance.

No one noticed that the blue light swirled in Emu's hand, and an image of a wolf-like beast flashed by.

Chapter Thirteen, The Target: The Forest's Final Stop!

The children quickly stepped forward to help the two of them and let them rest by the mountainside.

The children were still very curious about their new companion, Kouji, and kept asking him about his recent evolution. Kouji seemed to have never seen anything like it before, his face flushed slightly, and he managed to answer the children's questions with difficulty.

Meanwhile, Yongmeng closed his eyes and pretended to be dead. In his mind, however, he was communicating with the system fragment: "System, what was that prompt just now? Give it to me again."

"I am not the system, I am just a fragment of the system." The system fragment was very persistent in some inexplicable place. "Congratulations, host, you have obtained the 'Ten Warriors' (Fragment) Transformation Cartridge."

"So what's with this 'transfer cartridge' thing? And why does it have the word 'damaged' on it?"

"Through the battle with Wildmon, the host has successfully obtained relatively accurate data on Wildmon. Analysis reveals that this data is part of the data of Wildmon, the 'Soldier of Light' from the legendary 'Ten Warriors' of the Digital World, automatically generating the role-playing game 'Ten Warriors'. It is necessary to collect data from all ten warriors and rival Digimon. Data sources include, but are not limited to: defeating and absorbing data, reading data from battles, and free sharing. The host is encouraged to explore the specific methods on their own."

"The Salubimon Gacha has been detected and can be categorized into the 'Ten Warriors' Gacha. It has already been integrated and can also be used independently by the host at will."

"The 'Ten Warriors' cartridge is not yet complete. It can be used by force, but there are great risks involved. It is not recommended that the host use this cartridge."

"Risk? What risk? Going berserk?" Yongmeng asked.

"The incomplete cartridge has a 70% chance of causing a significant drop in the host's Rider Gauge HP, a 15% chance of causing the host to deactivate their transformation, a 10% chance of causing the host to die instantly, and a 5% chance of functioning normally. For the sake of the host's life, it is not recommended that the host use this cartridge," the system fragment emphasized.

"That's outrageous?! It's practically saying you'll die if you use it..." Emu hadn't expected this "Ten Warriors" cartridge to be so dangerous. He recalled that in Ex-Aid, when Kara first died, it was because Emu gave him a faulty cartridge. Inserting it caused his Knight Gauge to plummet, leaving him on the verge of death, allowing Emu to easily finish him off.

This "Ten Warriors" cartridge looks a lot like this problematic cartridge.

To be fair, Cheche is a smart, calm, and rational person, but why did she so easily trust Xiajiao and use the cassette tape given to her, giving away her life so readily... It can only be said that the screenwriter forcibly lowered Cheche's intelligence in order to make her exit from the story.

With random thoughts swirling in his mind, Emu asked again, "If the risks of this cartridge are so outrageous, what about its abilities?"

"The 'Ten Warriors' cartridge is a role-playing game. Therefore, after using the 'Ten Warriors' cartridge, the host can freely play as the characters contained in the cartridge and acquire their abilities. Only one character's ability can be used at a time, but you can switch between them freely," the system fragment explained.

"This ability is ridiculous! Does this mean that if I follow along until the end, I can create my own Susanoo Beast?" Emu was shocked by the power of this gacha.

Within the Infinite Zone universe, Lucemon is arguably the strongest. Although technically only a Champion-level Digimon, he can easily defeat all the Ultimate-level Digimon in the Digital World. Even the ancient Ten Warriors, all incredibly powerful Ultimate-level Digimon, could only seal him away after a ten-on-one battle.

Susanoomon is a "super-ultimate" Digimon awakened by the combined warrior spirits of the ten warriors. When it appeared, it was officially recognized as the "strongest ultimate Digimon in history." It's a ruthless creature that easily defeated Lucemon's Fallen Mode, Satan Mode, and Larva Mode.

While this is inseparable from Lucemon's miraculous ability to evolve and weaken itself, it is enough to prove Susanoomon's power.

And this powerful being, once his "Ten Warriors" Gacha is completed, Emu can go up on his own!

No need for Fighter's Soul or Ten-in-One. Just press the button on the cartridge. That's how powerful it is.

However, this was merely Emu's fantasy. In reality, the "Ten Warriors" cartridge was a huge money pit. He fought a full battle with Wild Beast, and after removing the ambiguous and unreliable data, the Wild Beast character was only constructed to be 5% accurate. And this was only one of the Ten Warriors!

The Ten Warriors only represent a large portion of the cartridge. Villains like Cherubimon, the Royal Knights, and Lucemon also require data! Only when all the data for both heroes and villains is collected can it be considered a complete game, and only then can the cartridge be considered whole and risk-free.

But by then, the villains will have been defeated, so what's the point of having this cartridge...?

It's like a carrot in front of a donkey—visible but unattainable.

Emu put the "Ten Warriors" cartridge aside, no longer dwelling on it. After resting for a while, he had recovered considerably and opened his eyes, saying, "Takuya, it's your turn now. Although no one will be sparring with you, you still need to master the transformation. Now, show everyone."

Upon hearing Emu's words, Takuya froze. The other children also fell silent, turning their gazes to Takuya.

"Well... I... well..." Takuya was a little nervous. He really didn't have any memories of his evolution, and he had no idea what to do! Plus, everyone was looking at him with such expectation, he couldn't handle it!

While Takuya was still considering whether to make up an excuse to decline, Yuki was already looking at him excitedly and shouted, "Go for it, Takuya-nii! You can do it! Vulcan Beast is super cool!"

Looking into Yuuki's bright eyes, Takuya thought of his younger brother and swallowed back the words of refusal that were about to come out of his mouth. He forced a smile and said, "Hahaha, yes, that's right. I can definitely do it! Just watch, Yuuki!"

"Eh, Takuya is a brother complex after all?" Emu watched as Takuya forced himself to agree for Yuuki's sake and realized that he had discovered a new attribute of Takuya.

Takuya walked a little further away, and under everyone's gaze, he raised his Digivice, pressed buttons haphazardly, and shouted, "Evolve!"

Nothing happened on the field.

"Ahem, that doesn't count. Let's try again." Takuya coughed awkwardly, switched to a different OST, and started randomly pressing buttons again, shouting, "Evolve!"

Nothing happened on the field.

The atmosphere immediately became awkward.

"What the hell! Evolve for me!" Takuya was furious and shook the Digimon around.

"Takuya, that's not how it works. The key to evolution is the warrior's spirit! Think back to how you felt when you evolved for the first time. You evolved to protect others, not just for the sake of evolving!" Emu couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up to point it out.

"To protect others..." Takuya calmed down, pondering Emu's words repeatedly, his memory returning to the moment he first encountered the Fighter's Soul.

At that time, only Emu was fighting Salapimon, and he could only watch from the sidelines, worried. He was afraid something would happen to Emu, afraid something would happen to Yuuki and the others. He wanted to protect them, he wanted to do his part! He wanted to burn brightly!

At that moment, Takuya's Digivice lit up. He pressed a button lightly, and a data stream enveloped him, with only his voice audible: "Soul—Evolve! Vulcan!"

A ball of flame burst through the data stream, with the Fire God Beast standing tall within it, surrounded by scattered sparks, looking exceptionally cool!

"Takuya-nii, you did it!" Yuki exclaimed first.

"Is this... the power of Vulcan?" Vulcan nodded to Tomohisa, indicating that it had heard him, then looked at its hands, clenching them occasionally. This was the first time it had transformed into Vulcan while fully conscious.

However, before Takuya could experience the power of the Fire God Beast any further, a stream of data enveloped him, causing him to revert to human form.

"What happened? How could it be so fast?" Takuya was a little confused. He hadn't even done anything yet, how could he have turned back? That was way too short-lived.

"It must be because the last battle didn't last long, and Takuya, you just mastered evolution, so the consumption was too great, which is why it didn't last long. Once you're more proficient, you can freely evolve and regress, and the duration will be longer," Emu once again reasonably "deduced."

“That makes sense. So, Emu, where do we go next?” Takuya was a magnanimous person, and after hearing what Emu said, he accepted it.

“Next… next we’re going to the forest’s final stop. But that’s a line from Angewomon.” Emu thought to himself, but shook his head on the surface: “I don’t know either. But Kouji has a map, so I think we should have one too.”

Just as Emu finished speaking, all the children's Digimon lit up, and Ophanimon once again made her presence known: "Everyone, please proceed to the Forest Terminus." After saying that, Ophanimon immediately went offline.

He's practically just a tool.

With the clever assistance of the "tools," the children once again looked at Yongmeng with admiration. It was probably like how Zhang Fei looked at Zhuge Liang.

Emu's lips twitched. He was indeed someone with a prophetic ability, but after saving Kouichi, that ability began its countdown. He could still offer foresight now, but when the plot spiraled out of control, he wouldn't be reliable anymore.

However, he couldn't say these things out loud, so he could only close his eyes and pretend to rest, while secretly planning and being on guard.

In the Digital World, strength ultimately reigns supreme. His priority is to quickly familiarize the children with the Fighter's Spirit and increase their power; whether they possess foresight or not is secondary. The information he has is already sufficient to give them the upper hand.

Meanwhile, Bogomon had already found information about the Forest Terminus in his All-Knowing Book: "The Forest Terminus is a very large station in the Forest Kingdom. There's a railway outside leading to the Forest Terminus; we just need to follow the railway!"

“Alright! Let’s go there then! Maybe there are other warrior souls there!” Takuya decided. The children had no other objections.

"Alright, let's go! Destination: the forest's final stop!"

Chapter Fourteen, Mutation! The Dark Beast Appears!

Although their goal has been set, the children cannot set off immediately. Emu, Kouji, and Takuya are all currently in a weakened state, unable to transform or evolve. Traveling in this condition would be too dangerous if anything happened.

Of course, the children wouldn't consider these things. Think about the original story; the children basically just recklessly charged in. When they encountered an enemy, they would use their Soul Evolution to attack. If they could defeat the enemy, that was it; if not, they would regress and run away, only to try again next time... They never thought about developing any new abilities; they relied entirely on battles to gradually unlock and improve their skills.

Like in the original story, KaiserGreymon and MagnaGarurumon were initially overwhelmed by the Royal Knights, SwordGreymon and Dynasmon. However, after being beaten repeatedly and becoming familiar with their new forms, they quickly became able to fight the Royal Knights on equal terms. In the end, they even defeated the Royal Knights in a direct confrontation. But in terms of form and ability, the children's two main combatants hadn't actually undergone a qualitative change at this point. The reason for such a disparity in their performance was still due to the children's own understanding and mastery of their new forms.

It can be said that if children regularly practiced their abilities and sparred with each other instead of only transforming at crucial moments, having only a superficial understanding of their Digimon abilities, or even being unaware that their Fighter Soul possessed self-awareness, the battles in the original work wouldn't have been so arduous.

After all, the Ten Warriors' ceiling is set; they're definitely top-tier ultimate forms. The problem is, even the strongest ultimate form can't withstand you only using your minimum potential for damage output.

Therefore, Yongmeng, having acquired the prophetic ability, wouldn't continue the original story's formula of getting stronger through taking beatings. Wouldn't it be better to become stronger and fight back? What strange hobby is it to insist on getting beaten up?

Now, Takuya has basically mastered the essentials of evolution. Unlike in the original story, where he still had to rely on luck. As for Kouji, he went toe-to-toe with Emu without having a Wildmon to fight for him, and his mastery of his Digimon form is even deeper than Takuya's.

Even so, during her breaks, Emu frantically instilled the concept of "cultivation" in them, nagging them to transform more and spar more.

"Alright, alright, Emu, we got it. Let's hurry up and get going, look, it's already dusk," Takuya said helplessly.

When they rested, they didn't stay in the dark underground labyrinth, but rested on the grass outside the Flame Terminal. They could see the sky of the Digital World just by looking up.

"...It's already dusk, why not leave tomorrow?" Emu asked, voicing the question that had been bothering her.

When I first read the original novel, I was puzzled. It was getting dark, and they were traveling all night. What kind of spirit of hard work and perseverance did these children have?

"Huh? But isn't this telling us to hurry up? It's not good to dawdle..." Takuya held up his Digivice, looking completely innocent.