Digital Hackers' Memories

Due to Chen Ze's hacking skills at the time, coupled with the extensive use of unknown code from the Corruptor and the Light of Innocence, although the white digital core acquired a sufficient amount of data, its form could never be stabilized at the complete stage.

In this situation, unless Chen Ze recompiles the white digital core and fully masters its power, he certainly cannot use it for combat at the complete level in the short term.

"Well……"

After much deliberation, Chen Ze, with a strong sense of crisis, finally focused all his attention on the black digital core.

Although this digital core was a man-made digital core temporarily created to fight against Apocalymon.

However, the code it uses is the most advanced and complete of the three artificial digital cores, and is almost indistinguishable from naturally evolved digital cores.

The reason why the Black Digicore does not have a specific Digimon form now is not only due to its inherent defects, but also because Chen Ze wants to improve it into a new version of the artificial Digicore.

It can be said that, compared to the other digital cores, the black digital core, with its complete form and advanced code, is the digital core whose combat power is currently the fastest to take shape for Chen Ze.

By simply modifying a portion of the code and acquiring enough data, Chen Ze was able to evolve a new identity—a complete form, or even an ultimate form—using the Black Digital Core.

Back then, the white Digicore, symbolizing the white flame beast, allowed Chen Ze to successfully acquire the fighting instincts of the white flame beast and even the Asuramon.

The green digital core, symbolizing the Mechdramon, allowed Chen Ze to perfect his evolution code, truly giving him the power to evolve freely.

Therefore, Chen Ze is now looking forward to seeing what new power this black digital core will bring him when it is fully formed.

Even if the new Digimon form doesn't reach the strength he envisioned, the improvement of the black Digicore can still explore a new evolutionary path, feeding back into MetalGreymon's Digicore and paving the way for its evolution into an Ultimate form.

"The problem now is, where can I find the right data for this little Bick?"

Given Chen Ze's expectations for the future of this black digital core, simply splitting the data impurities of MetalGreymon to create a substitute for its growth and maturity stages would undoubtedly be a shameful waste.

Therefore, in order for the black digital core to take shape quickly, it must absorb a massive amount of external data that aligns with its future evolutionary path, just like the green digital core, in order to potentially give birth to a true complete form or ultimate form.

"The essence of this digital core leans towards darkness, and the data that matches its nature must also have similar characteristics."

"If we have time, we should go to the lower levels of EDEN in the next few days to see if we can get some data on demons or evil gods."

Having determined the direction of evolution for the Black Digicore deep in his heart, Chen Ze began to ponder the Dark Digimon that appeared in the EDEN Network.

Of course, Chen Ze is not the kind of person who would stop at nothing to hunt down other Digimon in order to evolve himself.

He was thinking of the Digimon hidden in the lower levels of EDEN, who had died or perished for various reasons.

Because those Digimon that died in EDEN cannot reintegrate into the Digital World's cycle through a special reincarnation system, just like they did in the Digital World.

Therefore, Digimon that die in the EDEN Network usually form a unique domain space, assimilating everything that enters it.

There is only a one in a billion chance that the residual data that constitutes the alienated data space will detach from the "original entity" and then, with the help of some data that conforms to its own properties, converge and recombine to give birth to a new digital egg.

In fact, the vast majority of the new generation of Digimon that have grown up in the EDEN domain today were born in this way.

What Chen Ze is now eyeing are those mutated domain spaces.

As long as he finds a heterogenized data space that matches the properties of the Black Digital Core, Chen Ze is confident that he can use that data to recompile and evolve a new identity.

"That kind of data should be easy to find, right?"

Looking thoughtfully at the black digital core, Chen Ze didn't think for too long before he quickly began to compile and reorganize the code structure within it.

Through his investigation over the past few days, Chen Ze has discovered a fact.

That is, in this sea of ​​miracles forged by the subconscious, since the digital core is no longer limited by "hardware", Chen Ze's thinking speed and reaction speed are hundreds of times faster than in the real world.

In addition, Chen Ze's brain has gradually evolved to a genius level, so his calculation speed in this space is actually the speed of four digital cores plus his own brain working at full capacity.

After learning the truth, Chen Ze would try to write and modify the core code of several artificial digital cores every time he was hypnotized by digital waves, in order to further improve his artificial digital core technology.

Modifying the code for the black digital core was the task he assigned to himself today.

Search, delete, modify, recompile...

Under Chen Ze's high-speed operation, the core code that would normally take months or years to perfect was being modified at a visible speed.

The most outward manifestation of this modification is that the surface of the black digital core is no longer as black as a black hole, but rather the faint reflection of a living being appears.

Humans, Digimon, Invaders...

Everything Chen Ze used to write this digital core appeared on its surface in the most crude and primitive way, just waiting for him to acquire enough data to evolve into a new form.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Dark Nobleman

Just as Chen Ze's consciousness was completely immersed in his subconscious, a conversation targeting him was heard from a ward next to his.

"Is it my imagination?"

With the help of a specially made wheelchair, the paralyzed Keisuke slowly walked out of his room and looked toward the special treatment room where Chen Ze was.

"I feel like I've seen that person somewhere before?"

As a patient with ALS, whose only function is his brain, Keisuke has always been very confident in his memory.

Since his limbs and even other organs require specialized equipment to function, the only thing Keisuke can use and exercise is his brain.

Therefore, although Keisuke is not as good as the legendary "hyperthymesia" patients, his memory is definitely at the level of a prodigy who can remember everything he sees, compared to ordinary people.

Keisuke was quite certain that he had never met Chen Ze.

However, that sense of familiarity was not fake; Keisuke would never feel familiar with a complete stranger.

You must have seen his avatar on the EDEN network, right?

A deep, hoarse voice suddenly rang in Keisuke's ear, but he merely squinted his eyes, unsurprised.

"Maybe? Perhaps what I find familiar isn't his face, but rather his back."

In the EDEN network, appearance, shape, and even gender can no longer be used to identify a person; the only thing that is not easily changed is a person's walking posture and gait.

Especially among hacker communities that commonly use fake avatars, it is quite normal for a person to have two or three backup avatars.

Therefore, as the top intelligence and Digimon dealer in the hacker world, Keisuke had already developed the special ability to identify people by their footsteps and backs during the eight years that the EDEN network was open.

Who do you think he is?

After a brief silence, that deep, hoarse voice rang out again outside Keisuke's room.

"Patamon..."

Keisuke didn't directly reveal who Chen Ze was, but upon hearing the words "Patamon," his deep, hoarse voice instantly fell silent.

The next moment, a powerful digital wave, accompanied by the sound of electric currents surging, formed a demon-like figure behind Keisuke.

"Is that it?"

After the digital waves disappeared and the electromagnetic shielding of the corridor's surveillance cameras was eliminated, the demonic figure finally appeared clearly behind Keisuke.

It was a humanoid demon, as elegant as a noble young master.

He wore a sharp suit jacket over a trench coat tanned from the fur of an unknown wild beast, and a hood that resembled both a wolf and a dragon...

If it weren't for the pair of demonic bat wings on its back that revealed its identity, it would be impossible to tell from its appearance whether it was a human or a Digimon.

This is the Ultimate form of the creature called "Astarmon".

He is also the son of the Dark Area who inherited the name of "Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons" and commands the army of demonic Digimon.

"Is he the white flame beast disguised as a human?"

Keisuke nodded hesitantly, then shook his head decisively as if he had realized something.

"No, more accurately, they should be humans disguised as Digimon."

"How can this be?"

Although Keisuke's statement sounded unbelievable, Astarmon couldn't help but lower his voice in the face of this undeniable fact.

"How is this impossible?"

"If Digimon can disguise themselves as or even parasitize humans, then why can't humans disguise themselves as Digimon?"

As he said this, Keisuke's memories flashed back and forth, from his birth to his childhood, until finally settling on that day several months ago.

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

Keisuke comes from a middle-class family in Tokyo, Japan. His parents are still alive, he has a sister and a house, and in every way he can be considered a winner in life.

Unfortunately, after he entered high school, he inexplicably developed ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), and as he grew older, his body gradually became paralyzed.

First comes weakness in the limbs, then organ damage, and finally respiratory failure...

If it weren't for the highly advanced modern medical technology, with artificial organs and various assistive devices, Keisuke would never have been able to hold on until now.

Even so, the disheartened Keisuke was merely "alive".

The parents' hard work, the sister's worries, and the gossip among relatives and friends...

Qi Jiechen had considered giving up his life more than once, abandoning this life that was merely existing.

He was only brought back to life when Keisuke's sister brought him the first-generation EDEN device from the Kamishiro Group.

In that virtual world, there was no disease, no gossip, only the vibrant pulse of life. Keisuke had never been so grateful to his parents and sister for not giving up on him.

Therefore, Keisuke, who has rediscovered hope for life, begins to delve into the virtual network EDEN, and in the process, gradually becomes a hacker whom ordinary people keep at a distance.

But Keisuke didn't care about any of that. All he knew was that EDEN had given him renewed hope for living, and that this identity of his had allowed him to experience the feeling of being alive.

Unlike most people, Keisuke did not hide the fact that he had become a hacker from his family.

Moreover, Keisuke used his hacking skills to supplement his family income and even earned enough to cover his medical expenses and maintain his life.

The twins Patamon and Familiarmon were Digimon that Keisuke accidentally discovered while exploring an unknown network domain.

Unfortunately, these two Digimon brothers with very different personalities eventually separated because of their personalities.

The gloomy silence kept the monster by Keisuke's side, and in order to better compensate for the hacker's shortcomings, it evolved into the powerful Ice Demonmon.

As for the innocent and cheerful Patamon, it chose to leave its brothers and partners, and then embarked on an adventure alone with its curiosity about the world, naturally evolving into Angelmon.

Until one day several months ago, the long-absent FlameAngemon returned to Keisuke's side with a special pair of partners, which became the fuse for everything.

In that battle that exposed and destroyed the entire Digimon Black Market, Enbrelmon was killed, Renamon degenerated, and only the peculiar Agumon evolved into Whiteflamemon, defeating the humanoid invader.

Since that day, Keisuke has come to understand a fact—EDEN is not a world created by Kamishiro Corporation, and Digimon are not simply program code.

If we have to put it into perspective, the Kamishiro Group was at best the discoverer of that data world; the Digimon were the true original life forms of that world.

*******************************

PS: I actually planted this foreshadowing of Astaroth for a long time.

Keisuke's character was initially written as "a noble young man who maintains his composure even in darkness".

Of course, this foreshadowing is mainly to introduce the protagonist's "dark type" Digimon form - the Knight in the Dark (or something like that).

This section was originally planned to be written in the next volume, but ending the daily life story early is fine too.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Survival is Victory

"I couldn't find any information about 'it' in the hospital's database."

Having long been used to Keisuke's absent-mindedness, Astaromon frowned and searched the Central Hospital's server for a long time, but still couldn't find any useful information.

Given Astaroth's hacking skills, he didn't think he would be able to find any data stored on the server.

In other words, the figure that Keisuke found so familiar never used real personal information from the beginning, which is why even Astarmon couldn't find any relevant data about it.

"That's normal, after all, this is the central hospital of the Kamishiro Group."

Keisuke snapped out of his reverie and realized that his tendency to daydream was a serious problem. But he couldn't help it because his mind was the only part of him that still belonged to him. If he didn't think or reminisce, what difference would there be between him and a vegetable?

"You probably won't be able to find information about 'it', or even the doctor who treats 'it'."

His voice was unusually confident. Although Keisuke wasn't from a top-tier wealthy family, he knew some secrets that ordinary people didn't.

Throughout history, in any era, the wealthier a family, company, or even government department is, the more likely it is to have some secret information that it dares not reveal to the outside world.

In this situation, some highly confidential hospitals are needed to cover it up for them.

Without a doubt, Kamishiro Central Hospital is a top-tier hospital built by the Kamishiro Group, and naturally it harbors many unspeakable secrets, especially regarding the EDEN network.

Putting aside everything else, the "EDEN syndrome" disease alone contains too many unknown secrets.

All the information is just rumors on the internet. The Central Hospital, which is mainly responsible for treating this disease, rarely discloses any information related to the condition.

Having witnessed the Invaders firsthand, Keisuke couldn't believe that these top doctors and researchers were unaware of their existence; it was more likely that someone in the know was deliberately concealing the relevant information.

In comparison, a human who is suspected of being disguised as a Digimon is still within Keisuke's acceptable range.

"Sure enough, not."

After searching the entire server again, Astaroth nodded in approval of Keisuke's idea.