Digital Hackers' Memories

Just like playing any other game, anyone can play when things are going well. The key is how to keep your mindset from collapsing when things are going badly, and then make all sorts of comeback plays.

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I feel like I'm drifting further and further away from the concept of 'humanity'.

Chen Ze calmly watched the combined warships on the screen that were closing in on him, but his heart was surprisingly calm.

This was not a power granted to Chen Ze by the digital core, but rather a confidence and composure that arose spontaneously within him after experiencing various battles.

Compared to the life-or-death battles and clashes of beliefs between the Digimon, this level of gaming experience couldn't affect Chen Ze's emotions at all.

However, while such "calmness" has its advantages, it also inevitably has its disadvantages.

The most obvious point is that Chen Ze, who is considered a "god-level player" by other players, has a hard time getting a good gaming experience from this game.

Chen Ze doesn't deny that there are people in this world who enjoy bullying weaker opponents, but having experienced real battles, he clearly doesn't belong to that type.

Chen Ze preferred a battle of equal strength to one that was too uneventful to cause any significant disturbance.

"This match is now over."

Amidst the incredulous gazes of the other onlookers, a confident, almost arrogant murmur emanated from Chen Ze's voice for the first time.

Then, just as Chen Ze had "predicted," the duel began to move into its final stage.

boom! boom! boom!

As the explosions flashed across the starry sky, the first to be wiped out were the players who had made contact with Chen Ze's territory.

They had long been forced into an alliance, yet they still could not stop the calm, large-scale fleet from launching a full-scale attack against them.

In terms of sheer numbers, Chen Ze's fleet size doesn't actually have a significant advantage. Even if he keeps mass-producing troops, he certainly can't match the total number of troops produced by other alliance players.

This has nothing to do with resources or technology; it's purely the game's population cap that limits the size and number of Chen Ze's fleet.

The problem is that Chen Ze launched a full-scale attack on other players immediately after the population reached its limit.

Although the other players had more warships than Chen Ze, they were clearly no match for him in a one-on-one situation.

Even with timely support from other players, they couldn't hold out for long under Chen Ze's masterful command and offensive.

Therefore, as the war progressed to its final moments, the other players were no longer thinking about how to win the game, but rather how to survive a few more minutes under Chen Ze's control.

From the initial ten minutes, to the next eight minutes, then to five minutes...

In this exciting and crazy match, the player who lasted the shortest time from the start of the battle to their defeat only lasted less than three minutes.

Of course, this doesn't mean that Chen Ze gets stronger as the game progresses.

Limited by population and resource caps, Chen Ze's fleet size is actually weakening little by little, even with subsequent additions.

What truly allowed Chen Ze to end the battles faster and faster was that the other players had lost their morale.

To put it another way, the other players' mentality has collapsed, and collapsed to the point of being completely broken.

From the moment they stopped thinking about winning the game, the players' mentality underwent a subtle change, and their commands and operations became less aggressive.

On one side are the combined fleets with little offensive capability, and on the other side are madmen who dare to start a war with only a few small warships at the beginning...

The outcome of this game is predictable.

Therefore, for the next half hour or so, the warships under Chen Ze's command were simply carrying out a one-sided massacre.

In the words of the players in the waiting area, the match entered garbage time from the moment AGU announced the end of the game.

Attack, pursuit, sweep...

Attack again, pursue again, sweep again...

Similar scenes played out repeatedly over the course of half an hour. The onlookers went from initial astonishment to numbness, perfectly demonstrating what "human adaptability" means.

Chapter Eight: The Somewhat Regretful Fox Beast

When Chen Ze logged out of the game, it was already noon.

After taking off his specially made EDEN goggles, Chen Ze's first action was to touch his already empty stomach.

After a morning of intense mental activity, Chen Ze felt that his physical exertion was not much greater than that of engaging in strenuous exercise.

"It's a huge blunder that the Kamishiro Group didn't develop products like 'nutrient capsules'."

It's worth noting that in various science fiction works, "nutrient pods" are a standard feature of various virtual devices.

Here, Chen Ze didn't know how to criticize the Kamishiro Group's serious "unbalanced" tendency.

They've developed cutting-edge technologies like mental data digitization and simulation of the five senses, yet they haven't even created a "nutrient capsule" to provide nutrition for humans.

However, upon closer reflection, Chen Ze could understand the actions of the Shindai Group.

Given their demonstrated level of technology, it's not that they couldn't create a "nutrient capsule," but rather that relevant departments should warn them against developing it, or at the very least, prevent it from becoming a widely available civilian product.

After all, Japan's birth rate and declining birth rate were already very serious problems as early as the beginning of the 21st century.

If another "nutrient capsule" were created that could keep people addicted to the internet around the clock, Japan, and even all of humanity, would face extinction within a generation or two.

Of course, the deeper reason is probably also related to the rapid development of the Kamishiro Group.

Once the virtual network becomes a reality, it also means that conducting various military technology training exercises in EDEN will become a reality as well.

However, it is clearly impossible for other countries outside of Japan to allow a large number of professional soldiers proficient in various military skills to emerge on Japanese soil, as that would be completely contrary to the interests of other countries.

In this context, EDEN, which suddenly appeared eight years ago, was already an accident, and naturally, all parties would not allow this accident to continue to grow stronger.

"Thinking about it this way, this game called 'Stars' seems quite subtle."

Despite being a real-time strategy game, Stellaris is surprisingly "realistic" in many ways.

This realism does not refer to the fidelity of the weapons, but rather to the degree of realism in the application of tactics and strategies, as well as the various battle damage situations.

Chen Ze had no doubt that this professional player of the game "Stellaris" could quickly become the best commander on the front lines with just a slight change in mindset.

Perhaps fewer than one in a hundred professional gamers can adapt to this change and command real soldiers as if they were data, but for Japan, whose military strength has been crippled since World War II, such military talent is extremely rare.

"Indeed, anything that rises to the national level creates endless room for imagination."

Having stopped his increasingly divergent thoughts, Chen Ze realized he was no longer interested in getting involved in this game between nations, nor did he want to know what the hidden meaning was behind this "constellation."

As long as the two biggest "rogue states" on Earth still possess the most advanced unmanned combat systems, the slight ripples brought about by the virtual network will not cause any significant disturbance.

If EDEN Network dares to step out of its own territory even half a step, the sovereign states led by the two "rogue states" will dare to forcibly divide and acquire it under the pretext of "threatening national security".

Anyway, this kind of thing has happened before, especially in the United States, where they are quite adept at it.

"Has the money arrived already?"

Just as Chen Ze was about to go to the kitchen to get something to eat, his phone suddenly received a notification that money had been deposited into his electronic account.

It's obvious that this prize money must have been awarded by the organizers of this "All-Star Competition".

Along with the prize money, there was also a rather private invitation link, which seemed to be a message from the organizers wanting to recruit Chen Ze to become a member of their team.

"Well……"

Looking down at the information above, Chen Ze had to admit that the conditions offered by the organizers were indeed very generous.

From the salary after signing the contract to the prize money for each competition, and even the remuneration for accepting individual advertising endorsements, the organizer has provided very clear terms.

In theory, as long as Chen Ze agrees, it would be easy for him to enter the elite class with an annual salary of tens of millions.

"It is indeed very tempting, in every respect..."

Chen Ze never disliked money, but he was very self-aware.

Putting aside the shady dealings behind the game "StarCraft," the sheer amount of effort and time required to become a professional player is beyond Chen Ze's means.

Chen Ze's family isn't exactly short of money, and he's only participating in this competition for the prize money, so there's no way he'd give up his future career as a hacker for it.

Rather than becoming part of the so-called "elite class," Chen Ze, having already met his basic needs, wanted to do things he truly wanted to do.

"A youth without recklessness is a wasted youth; perhaps I'll regret my choices later..."

"But right now I just want to do what I want to do."

Chen Ze casually deleted the message, shook his head slightly, and then turned and walked towards the kitchen.

"I hope the fox beast didn't forget to cook my lunch when it went to school this morning, because I have to go out this afternoon."

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"Ah!"

The fox spirit X, who was in class at school, was unaware of Chen Ze's complaints behind her back. She simply sneezed and then turned to look at her deskmate with a rather annoyed expression.

"Boss! Is there anything you need me to do?"

Noticing Rei-Foxmon X's gaze, Yuichi, who had already become Rei-Foxmon X's underling, immediately asked very solicitously.

Since the two previous fights, Yuichi has come to almost worship Chen Ze's fighting prowess.

If you tell the fox spirit X to go east, he will absolutely not dare to go west; if you tell him to stand during class, he will absolutely not dare to sit down even if the teacher comes.

"It's nothing, is there no political class today?"

With a frustrated sigh, the curiosity that had been piqued by Chen Ze that morning had completely vanished after several Japanese and English classes.

"Boss, we don't have political classes here."

Seemingly accustomed to being a transfer student named "Chen Ze," Yuichi showed no surprise whatsoever regarding the question from the fox spirit X.

"Political science seems to be a subject unique to your area, didn't you notice?"

Upon hearing this, the fox spirit X couldn't help but sigh again, deeply regretting his "recklessness" that morning.

Did Chen Ze already know this all along?

Chapter Nine: The Man Who Fights Digimon Hand-to-Hand

Outside a dilapidated building near the dock in Tokyo Bay.

A large group of burly men in black were scattered around guarding several of the only exits, leaving only the entrance unblocked.

Faintly, the crowd could still hear heavy breathing coming from inside the building through that exit, as well as the occasional sounds of flesh colliding with wooden planks and steel.

"Is this... still human?"

Standing on a container not far away, Makiko Date stared in disbelief at Keitaro Naka and the Wind Disaster Beast fighting each other.

Makiko Date had already fully grasped the power of materialized Digimon through the cases of the past few days.

Let alone adult-level Digimon, even some Rookie-level Digimon that excel in combat possess fighting prowess that surpasses that of a normal adult male.

As a subspecies of Ogremon, Gaaramon, with its tiger-skin and leopard-patterned fur and wielding a bone nail club, is a powerful Digimon known as the "Crimson Demon," and is considered top-tier even among Champion-level Digimon.

However, this powerful Champion-level Digimon was fighting with Taro Nakai in the most primitive and wild way.

Bang!Bang!Bang!

The sounds of fists striking flesh echoed continuously between the two, and the intense battle was in no way inferior to the world's top boxing matches.

As for the Windstorm Beast's bone nail club?

It was disarmed by Taro Nakai from the very beginning, and the Wind Disaster Beast, engrossed in battle, had no intention of picking up the big stick again.

"Is this all you've got?!"

With a low growl, the Wind Beast took a punch from Taro Nakai head-on and retaliated in the same way without hesitation.

"I should be the one saying that, you brute force bastard!"

Forcibly twisting his neck, Taro Nakai grabbed the Wind Disaster Beast's arm and executed a standard over-the-shoulder throw.

boom!

This time, the sound was no longer of flesh colliding with flesh, but of the wind monster crashing against the concrete floor.

Even the Wind Calamity Beast, which possesses superhuman physical abilities, was momentarily stunned after taking this over-the-shoulder throw.

What baffled the Wind Disaster Beast even more was that it immediately executed a perfect "armic cross" on the fallen Nakai Taro, firmly locking its body in place.

Such advanced skills in using one's own body are rare in the wild and primitive digital world.

Perhaps after Windstorm Beast evolves into a certain battle-ready Ultimate form, it will gain corresponding combat instincts and skills, but right now it is indeed being tightly restrained by Taro Nakai using human fighting methods.

Even with superior physical abilities, the Wind Calamity Beast has no chance of breaking free when its arms and neck are restrained.

After all, as the saying goes, "the arm can't twist the thigh," let alone the current situation where the Wind Disaster Beast is being completely overwhelmed by Taro Nakai.

In this situation, if Windstormmon wants to break free from Taro Nakai's control, it either needs to have the size of Greymon or its power.