Digital Hackers' Memories

"Such excellent material, Molecular Beast is indeed a genius!"

Although there was no explicit look in his eyes, Agumon still sensed a deep chill in the agent's words.

This guy... is just like the molecular beast.

If I fall into its hands, my fate will probably be even more miserable than if I fell into the hands of the molecular beast.

"Is there not a single normal person in the Steel Empire?"

Having prepared himself mentally, Agumon had no intention of surrendering easily; his limbs and muscles were already taut and ready to strike.

"You guys go first! That guy's coming for me!"

Before the words were even finished, Agumon, which was nearly three meters tall, suddenly charged forward, and the ground beneath its feet exploded in response.

—Mach charge!

Although it did not actually break the sound barrier, the large Agumon produced a sound that was in no way inferior to a "sonic boom".

"Foolish resistance!"

Seeing this, the agent decisively activated the mechanical armor beast's built-in combat program, and its two arms shot out like giant pythons.

—Spinning Smash!

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"It's Agumon, who just likes to play the hero."

Without much hesitation, the filth-type Digimon turned and left the place that was about to become a battlefield. Only Ghostmon glanced at Agumon one last time.

"Don't die here, newbie."

Just like before, the last-placed Demon Beast urged the lagging Digimon on as they drifted deeper into the sewers.

As for that peculiar Agumon?

Regardless of whether the other party didn't want to involve others or simply wanted to repay the reminder, the Fierce Beast didn't intend to pursue the matter further.

In this dark underworld, any Digimon that possesses a surplus of kindness, regardless of its reason, is worthy of respect.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Each claw strike produced a metallic clang, and every collision was a brute-force showdown.

If we say that Agumon, after being enhanced by the Dragon Factor, possesses a typical Dragonmon body, it is a Digimon that maximizes its brute strength.

So the mechanical armored beast is a genuine mechanical armor, and every attack it makes is more powerful than flesh and blood, and it is immune to any injury or damage.

This is the advantage of fully mechanized Digimon; as long as the power furnace and Digicore within their bodies can hold up, every attack they launch will be a full-force strike.

In comparison, Agumon, which is still made of flesh and blood, is at a significant disadvantage.

Not only do they need to consider their own physical condition and injuries, but they also need to pay close attention to the unusual physical structure of the mechanical armored beast in order to prevent themselves from being caught off guard.

Putting everything else aside, those retractable steel arms alone have appeared in unexpected attack positions more than once.

If Agumon hadn't inherited Whiteflamemon's extraordinary battle instincts, that alone would have forced him to be injured and captured.

boom! boom! boom!

Fortunately, Agumon is not a typical Rookie-level monster. Having experience fighting against Ultimate-level monsters and even Emperormon, it quickly adapted to this somewhat strange attack rhythm.

"Fighting solely based on programming is far too rigid."

Suddenly raising its voice, Agumon, believing it had figured out the "weakness" of the machine armor beast, decisively crouched down, using a feint to deceive the opponent's battle sequence.

Tear!

The next moment, Agumon, its claws gleaming with sharp light, lashed out and tore through the Digizoid-forged shell of Machine Armormon.

—Sharp claws!

This wasn't the first time Agumon had used its Sharp Claws, but after being enhanced by the Dragon Factor, the Dragon Claws displayed an unprecedented level of power.

In particular, the pale white claws that absorbed a massive amount of dragon factor gave Agumon a "killer" attribute that surpassed that of ordinary dragon-type Digimon.

Even the high-strength digital alloy shell could not withstand the tearing of these sharp claws.

"what?"

I never imagined that a mere Rookie Digimon could tear apart Digi-Alloy, which even Perfect Digimon couldn't destroy.

The agent inside the mechanical armored beast was stunned for a moment, then immediately released its hands and prepared to jump out of the cockpit through the back door.

This is the agent's instinctive reaction after experiencing so many crises—as long as the main body can escape, a mere mechanical armored beast is not worth keeping.

In general, the combat program built into the mechanical armored beast can also help the agent buy enough time to escape.

tumultuous!

However, before the agent could realize its idea, a pale fireball had already gathered in Agumon's gaping maw and was about to smash into the cockpit of Machine Armormon.

—Overloaded flame!

Faced with this threat of death, the agent had no choice but to take a desperate gamble and activate the dangerous weapon designed to burn the Digicores of the Machine Armor Beasts—the Flash Cannon!

sizzle...

Accompanied by a sound like electricity, powerful arcs of electricity began to converge on the red crystal on the chest of the mechanical armor.

During this process, the "linear lens" installed inside the mecha armor beast continuously refracts and amplifies these electric arcs, eventually converging them onto the red crystal on its chest.

Boom!

In an instant, the surging red light and the blazing white flames collided.

The massive impact shattered the red crystal of the mechanical armored beast, and the surrounding air instantly filled with a burnt, disintegrated smell.

Chapter Twenty: Four Thousand Years Ago

As the flames gradually died down, the dust slowly settled...

The machine armored beast has completely lost its ability to move due to the overload of the digital core.

Despite being in a sorry state, Agumon still maintained a considerable level of fighting power, and it can be said that he achieved a complete victory in this battle.

However, Agumon was not pleased by this; instead, he was quite surprised and astonished.

"Humanity?"

Through the cracked hatch of the mechanical armored beast, Agumon saw a familiar humanoid figure—a human.

Or more precisely, it is a data life form similar to a "data avatar," a life form that is similar to humans but completely different.

"Agent?"

Suddenly, a word that the Demon Beast had mentioned before flashed through Agumon's mind. Agumon had assumed that the "agent" the other party was referring to was MachineGearmon.

However, judging from the current situation, the "agent" mentioned by the Demon Beast clearly refers to this humanoid life form hidden inside the mechanical armor beast.

In the original Digital World, the only humanoid life forms that can appear in the Digital World besides the Chosen Children are a mysterious being who calls himself "Gennai".

In a sense, the mysterious being who stole eight Digi-Eggs from the Dark Masters and hid them on File Island was the beginning of the entire adventure in the original world.

The eight Digimon that Gennai took away were specially bred Digimon with the potential to become "saviors," and were also the destined partners of the chosen children.

"Is it one of Xuannei's kind?"

It was only then that Agumon realized a question he had been ignoring all along—what era is this?

Previously, Agumon had been speculating that this world might be the original Digital World, but he hadn't thought about which era of the original Digital World he was currently in.

According to the original world's worldview, the flow of time in the Digital World and the Human World is not equal until the Chosen Children defeat the final boss.

One minute in the human world is equivalent to one day in the digital world.

One day in the human world is equivalent to four years in the digital world.

Three years passed between the Hikari-gaoka incident and the summoning of the Chosen Children, which translates to 4,320 years in the Digital World.

All things considered, Agumon will not be back in his own world for more than three months from Hikari Hill.

In other words, if the time flow rates of the two human worlds are equal, then Agumon is currently living in an era that is four thousand years before the appearance of the Chosen Children.

What does four thousand years mean?

It's important to understand that humanity has only been in the information age for a few thousand years, transitioning from a slave society to the modern era.

Therefore, even if there were data life forms that were completely different from Digimon in the Digital World four thousand years ago, Agumon would not find it strange.

"But... I remember that agents aren't permanent subordinates?"

Now, Agumon is quite certain that he was summoned by Homeostasis.

"Or is it that only Xuan Nei, or a portion of the agents, are permanent subordinates?"

"Or perhaps something happened during this period that caused the agent to become a permanent 'pawn'?"

Even with countless questions in his mind, Agumon no longer had time to find the answers to them one by one.

Because the guardian beasts have discovered the "unexpected" situation here, they have begun to flock here in large numbers.

The most urgent thing for Agumon to do is to leave this place and escape the swarming Guardian Beasts.

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The depths of the sewer world, also known as the "forbidden zone" by the filthy code beasts.

At this moment, all the previously fleeing filth-type Digimon have arrived at this place, along with filth-type Digimon from other areas.

Here, we must introduce the regionalization of this magnificent industrial city.

Unlike typical city layouts with first, second, and third ring roads, the Iron Empire's cities are divided into districts.

Just like cutting a cake, apart from the very center ring which is the core of the entire city, the other areas present an irregular fan-shaped pattern.

Each area is managed by an agent, and the architectural structure of each area varies slightly depending on the agent's expertise and research focus.

The divisions such as Zone C (three zones) and Zone E (five zones) are all derived from this.

The sewer world, in contrast, naturally inherited this division method, and the so-called "restricted area" actually refers to the core area at the very center of the city.

As the core area of ​​the entire sewer system, this place is not simply a dumping ground for industrial waste, but rather more like a prison or a place of exile.

Every Digimon that has been banished and thrown here is a failed product of some kind of prototype experiment, and is considered an "uncontrollable factor" by the Steel Empire.

Unlike those failed modifications that were directly destroyed, the Digimon thrown into the "forbidden zone" were not failed modifications, but rather "finished products" with some kind of defect.

For the steel empire, these "finished products" only have certain flaws, but they still have great research value.

Furthermore, not all defective Digimon are weak, so over time, this place gradually became a region where all kinds of defective Digimon gathered.

Later, for some unknown reason, the Steel Empire gradually accepted the existence of the "forbidden zone".

As long as a Digimon manages to escape to the "forbidden zone," whether it's a powerful but flawed Digimon or a filth-type Digimon like Poopmon, the Guardianmons will no longer pursue it.

This raises a new question: Does a Digimon escaping to a "restricted area" mean it's safe?

The answer is naturally no.

Otherwise, this place wouldn't be called a "restricted area" instead of a "safe zone".

For the inherently weak Filthy Digimon, even without the pursuit of Guardian Digimon, the presence of those defective Digimon living in the "Forbidden Zone" itself signifies "danger."

For example, the Digimon that the Demon Beasts are about to encounter.

"Mud Beast..."

With its eyes fixed on the Digimon not far away, Demonmon's expression suddenly darkened.

Although it knew the dangers of the "forbidden zone" long ago, it never expected that it would encounter the most dreaded flawed Digimon—Mudmon—as soon as it arrived.

Chapter Twenty-One: Failed Mechanization

The Mud Beast is an immortal, mature form whose muscles rot and fall off, yet it barely sustains its life through various mechanized structures within its body.

The data that makes up the body has begun to collapse...

The brain has also lost its intelligence due to inhumane mechanization, and can only act on instinct...

But it still refused to die, and instead tried to use its mechanical structure and its own healing ability to devour the data of other Digimon to evolve again.

This is the failed product of the Steel Empire's attempt to develop mechanically modified Digimon—Mudmon.

Mudmon's predecessors are usually those powerful Champion-level Digimon.

In order to further enhance these powerful Digimon, the Steel Empire often implants "Chrono Digizoid" with biological properties into them, allowing them to undergo mechanized modification surgery to become their complete form.