Digital Hackers' Memories

In his previous investigations, Keisuke had roughly figured out the mysterious man's methods.

If Guiyou can really get the whereabouts of the masked man K from Chen Ze, he is more than 90% confident that the mysterious man will never be able to escape from him again.

"No, these are all just your guesses, aren't they?"

A faint smile crept onto his lips as Keisuke gently patted Erika's head, making a promise in an almost vow-like tone.

"My job today is to stay with you, not to track down my stolen accounts."

Yes, with Chitose in a coma and Ryuji missing, Keisuke absolutely cannot leave Erika unattended and go off alone to investigate that mysterious masked man.

“I’m different from my older brother and Qian Sui. I will stay with you until they ‘come back’.”

Chapter Thirty-Four: Erika's Genius Syndrome

Inside the elevator leading to the fifth floor of Kamishiro Central Hospital.

"Keisuke Amasawa? Erika Mishima?"

Standing alone in the elevator, Chen Ze recalled the two people he had just met, Guiyou and Erika.

Needless to say, Keisuke had witnessed the battle between Leomon and Angelmon when Chen Ze first hacked into the EDEN network.

Adding to the rumors circulating at school, Chen Ze had a general understanding of his character and personality.

Although he is not as good as Aiba Takumi, who is known as the "cyber detective assistant", Keisuke's gentleness and kindness are still evident.

In a typical RPG or visual novel game, these two would definitely be considered typical protagonists.

As for Erika Mishima?

Since there wasn't much information circulating about him, Chen Ze only knew that the other party was known by busybodies as "Butterfly's Secret Treasure" and was a beloved figure within the Butterfly Organization.

However, although there wasn't much information from the outside world, Chen Ze's understanding of Erika went beyond that.

"Keiyu, are you accompanying Erika to the doctor's?"

Thinking back to the girl in her pajamas, Chen Ze had a rough idea of ​​what was going on.

While the Kamishiro Group's central hospital does provide routine medical care, it focuses more on treating the various illnesses caused by the EDEN network.

The third floor of the Central Hospital, in particular, is dedicated to the treatment and care of patients with "EDEN syndrome".

In other words, those who come to the Central Hospital so late at night, apart from emergency patients, are probably only those with various special diseases related to EDEN.

Coincidentally, according to the information Chen Ze had previously learned, in addition to his own special case, there was another special case at the Central Hospital that matched Erica's characteristics in every way.

A genius girl suffering from both hyperthymesia and savant syndrome?

Hyperthymesia, as the name suggests, is an extremely rare medical anomaly, belonging to the branch of non-selective memory, clinically manifested as the brain possessing an automatic memory system.

Patients with hyperthymesia do not have the ability to forget. They usually use the left frontal lobe (usually used for language processing) and the occipital lobe at the back of the brain (usually used for storing visual memories) to store long-term memories. They can remember their personal experiences clearly, down to every single detail.

From major life experiences to trivial matters...

People with hyperthymesia can record every detail of their lives and never forget it, which leads to obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, germaphobia, and hysteria, causing them constant suffering.

However, if Erika simply had hyperthymesia, she might suffer a little more in her daily life, but she wouldn't need to come to the hospital for treatment so often, let alone to Kamishiro Central Hospital, a hospital that specializes in treating EDEN-related cases.

Because in addition to hyperthymesia, Erika also suffers from an even rarer cognitive disorder—savant syndrome.

Savant syndrome, also known as "genius disease" in popular parlance, generally refers to a special condition in which, after damage to one part of the human brain, the remaining parts actively stimulate and tap into the potential of other parts in order to survive better.

The patient typically exhibits remarkable associative and computational abilities in areas such as music, painting, and mathematics.

Of course, this also brings cognitive impairments such as intellectual disability, low emotional intelligence, and social isolation, making them, in a sense, "genius idiots".

Erica, who suffers from both diseases, is both fortunate and unfortunate.

Fortunately, the two diseases did not affect Erika's daily cognition; on the contrary, they interacted to allow her to live like a normal person.

Unfortunately, the various associations and computational details generated during savant syndrome episodes are meticulously recorded by hyperthymesia.

The direct consequence of this is that Erika's already damaged brain is simply unable to handle such a massive amount of memory data, and she has to periodically delete some unimportant memories.

Even so, as the years go by and her memories accumulate, Erika's daily life becomes increasingly difficult.

According to Chen Ze's understanding, when Erica is forced to lie in a special machine 24 hours a day to constantly delete newly generated memories, her qualification to "be born as a human being" will also disappear.

Because whether it's resetting newly generated memories or deleting past memories, Erika will no longer be "Erika," but a person in a vegetative state forever fixed at a certain stage of her life.

"That kind of life is truly tragic."

Chen Ze sighed silently, feeling sympathy for Erica's plight, but that was all he felt.

......................................................................................................

A moment later, on the fifth floor of the Central Hospital.

When Chen Ze walked through the special wards and arrived at the door of the special treatment room at the end of the fifth floor, the doctor in charge of his physical examination had been waiting there for a long time.

"Ze-jun, you seem to be a little late today."

The doctor, named "Yamazaki," greeted Chen Ze with a smile, his expression as carefree and relaxed as if he were an old friend.

"Yes, something unexpected happened at home today, and I just ran into an acquaintance downstairs, so I was a little delayed."

Unlike his initial reserve, after spending a few days with this doctor, Chen Ze gradually got used to him, even though he seemed a bit unconventional.

Regardless, this is a highly skilled physician whom Suedo Akemi could call a "genius".

If it weren't for the other party's sake, given Yamazaki's lazy personality, he would never have given Chen Ze the most basic physical examination.

"An acquaintance? Ze Jun has acquaintances in this hospital?"

Yamazaki blinked slightly in surprise, making no attempt to hide his astonishment.

After all, although Yamazaki was Chen Ze's attending physician and was responsible for Chen Ze's daily physical examinations, it was actually Suedo Akemi who was in charge of developing his treatment plan.

Yamazaki knew little about Chen Ze's illness or his interpersonal relationships.

The only thing Yamazaki was certain of was that there must be some secret between Chen Ze and Suedo Akemi, and even the personal information he had registered at the hospital might be fake.

In this situation, it's no wonder Yamazaki was so surprised when Chen Ze said he had met an acquaintance at the Central Hospital.

"Well, I wouldn't call him an acquaintance, I just know him personally."

Not intending to say much to Dr. Yamazaki, Chen Ze skillfully took off his coat and then crawled into the cylindrical device in the center of the room, which resembled an MRI scanner.

"Let's start monitoring! I feel my condition is more stable today than yesterday."

Chapter Thirty-Five: Re-entering the Sea of ​​Subconsciousness

"Is it stable now?"

Yamazaki thoughtfully touched his chin, but instead of pressing for more information, he directly activated the medical equipment that was clearly expensive.

The next second, invisible digital waves emanated from the instrument and quickly swept across Chen Ze's body.

Under the penetration of this digital wave, Chen Ze's various physical indicators appeared as data on the control panel in front of Yamazaki.

Compared to a conventional physical examination, this special instrument can comprehensively and thoroughly examine a person's various physical indicators through this special digital wave.

In other words, once this medical device becomes widely available, people will no longer need those cumbersome testing procedures; a single machine will be able to detect all diseases in the body.

"No matter how many times I see such a 'medical' marvel, I still think it's too exaggerated."

The idea that a single device could detect all known diseases seemed utterly impossible to Yamazaki, whose profession was "physician".

It's important to understand that the human body is constantly changing, and countless unknown diseases emerge every day. It's impossible to use a single device to detect all diseases, or even all known diseases.

At the very least, before Akemi Suedo showed him the machine, Yamazaki didn't believe that such a device existed in the world.

"Unfortunately, this device seems to be only applicable to a specific group of people."

Looking up at Chen Ze, who was lying in the center of the instrument undergoing examination, Yamazaki, after a brief moment of thought, began to record the various data indicators on the control panel.

Yamazaki had no idea what these data indicators meant, because this machine was a prototype secretly manufactured by the Kamishiro Group, and the various data built in it could probably only be understood by the developers.

However, as a professional physician, although Shan Qi could not understand the various data of the machine, he was able to see the abnormal fluctuations in Chen Ze's physical condition through his exploration over the past few days.

The boy in front of him seemed to be undergoing some kind of unknown mutation, like a superman who had restarted his "evolutionary journey".

In that case, it's no wonder that Suedo Akemi deliberately asked me to examine the other person's body.

The reason why Suedo Akemi took a liking to him, besides his superb medical skills, was probably mainly because of his ability to keep secrets.

"What good stuff is that guy, Suedo Akemi, still hiding?"

As Yamazaki whispered, he consciously controlled his increasingly strong curiosity.

As a top-notch doctor, Yamazaki occasionally does some side jobs in addition to his regular hospital income.

For example, they might perform various tests and treatments on unknown individuals, thereby earning extra revenue beyond the normal fees.

In comparison, compared to gangsters who need plastic surgery to change their faces, or wealthy people who need to have their kidneys or hearts harvested, a mysterious teenager is clearly much safer.

Yamazaki's years of experience as an "underground doctor" taught him never to be curious about things his clients don't want him to tell him, or the consequences would usually be dire.

Even if the boy in front of him was a cyborg created by the Kamishiro Group, it had nothing to do with him.

Yamazaki's sole purpose in accepting this mission was to get paid to do the job and then witness the cutting-edge medical technology of the Kamishiro Group.

......................................................................................................

When Chen Ze opened his eyes again, his consciousness had been hypnotized by digital waves and he was sinking into a deeper level of subconsciousness.

This wasn't the first time Chen Ze had delved so deeply into his subconscious.

Putting aside the treatment over the past few days, even before the physical changes occurred, Chen Ze had once ventured into his subconscious under the guidance of constancy.

However, compared to its vast yet rudimentary state back then, Chen Ze's subconscious sea has undergone earth-shattering changes.

First, there's Chen Ze, like a sea of ​​subconsciousness composed of countless fragments of memory.

Chen Ze's subconscious mind originally contained all his memories from birth to the present, and these memories would occasionally be reflected on this vast ocean.

But now, this vast ocean is being whipped up by gusts of wind, making it impossible to see the fragments of memory hidden within.

This is due to the transformation of Chen Ze's body and brain, which in turn led to the upgrading and evolution of his subconscious—those storm vortexes are proof that Chen Ze's brain and subconscious are being expanded.

Secondly, there's Chen Ze's current image.

Under normal circumstances, Chen Ze's consciousness changes along with his physical body.

Chen Ze appears in the form of a Digimon; his consciousness is shaped into the form of a Digimon by the Digicore.

Chen Ze, who appears in human form, naturally has a consciousness that is also purely human.

But at this moment, although he was in his own physical body, his consciousness was floating in the sea of ​​subconsciousness in the form of a Digimon.

Above this chaotic ocean, MetalGreymon, Ashuramon, Armordramon, and a Digicore as black as night floated in mid-air.

Just as if he were divided into four and possessed four clones at the same time, Chen Ze was able to observe everything happening in his subconscious sea from four different perspectives.

"Can the abilities of the Little Piccolos also be used subconsciously?"

Having already experienced fighting by splitting Piccolo, Chen Ze was not bothered by this perspective of being divided into four and quickly adapted to this peculiar clone form.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Ze saw the situation of the four Digimon, or rather the four Digicores, from these four different perspectives.

Due to the previous battle with SwordGreymon, MetalGreymon's Digicore, although it appears to have recovered, is actually not yet in a state where it can fight again.

The same applies to the Digicore of Armordramon. It was attacked by Arkadimon, which targeted the essence of data. Unless Chen Ze reprogrammed and completed the Digicore, it would not be able to reappear for some time.

Although Ashuramon's Digicore was not severely damaged, since Chen Ze had not truly mastered its power, the form of this Digicore kept switching between Ashuramon and White Flamemon, making it unstable.

Only the dark, black digital core, which was as beautiful as a black hole, became Chen Ze's only relatively stable digital core, while the other digital cores had more or less encountered problems.

Unfortunately, this stability serves no purpose whatsoever.

When Chen Ze created this artificial digital core, he only used it as a disposable tool and did not give it a complete evolutionary form.

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Black Digital Core

"If we encounter SwordEmperormon or Arkadimon again, it will be terrible."

With a helpless sigh, Chen Ze realized that he had indeed become increasingly reckless lately, just as the fox spirit X had said.

In just a few days, his two most powerful Digimon forms lost their fighting ability one after another. This exaggeratedly rapid loss of power broke any previous record Chen Ze had ever achieved.

Especially the Digicore of MetalGreymon, which has gradually merged with his body. Without figuring out how its damage would affect him, even though MetalGreymon doesn't look like it has any problems on the surface, Chen Ze didn't dare to force it into battle.

"If we encounter other Digimon during this period, we will have to rely on the other two Piccolo."

Thinking of this, Chen Ze's gaze began to focus on the white digital core and the black digital core.

The white digital core is the "Artificial Digital Core Version 1.0" originally written by Chen Ze.