Digital Hackers' Memories

"I'll show you right now why no other hacker group dares to track me!"

Before he finished speaking, the wings on the back of FlameAngemon had already changed.

In an instant, the pure white that originally symbolized "angels" on the feathers gradually faded away, replaced by a crimson light that burned like flames.

"Leomon, take this!"

Just as Angelmon's wings transformed into "wings of fire".

The blazing flames, mediated by the feathers, began to burn and then shot out like arrows, covering the entire area within several meters of the lion beast.

In this situation, not only Leomon itself, but even Keisuke behind it would be unable to escape this wide-range fire feather attack.

—Flame Feather!

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

"These... are practically two walking humanoid weapons."

Staring in disbelief at the battle between Angelmon and Leomon, Chen Ze couldn't help but swallow hard.

Although these two are not fully evolved parrot beasts, their imposing presence is in no way inferior to that of a parrot beast.

If Chen Ze hadn't personally experienced the battle between Parrotmon and Greymon, he probably wouldn't just be swallowing his saliva like that right now.

"They are all nearing the limits of maturity and are very formidable opponents."

Let alone Chen Ze, who has only experienced two or three battles, even the battle-hardened Renamon has to admire the strength of these two Digimon.

Renamon was almost certain that as long as they could maintain this belief after the war, evolving into their perfect form was only a matter of time.

"The outcome is already decided."

Just then, the fox spirit, who had already foreseen the outcome, suddenly shook its head regretfully.

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Ze immediately looked up at the sky full of fire feathers, then at the lion beast that was still slashing and wielding its sword under the fire feathers, seemingly unable to understand why the fox beast would make such a judgment.

In Chen Ze's eyes, while the fire feathers that rained down like meteors from Angelmon were indeed fierce, Leomon's performance didn't seem like it was going to lose.

In fact, Leomon wouldn't have had to fight so passively if it weren't for protecting Keisuke behind him.

Given the speed the opponent has shown so far, constantly moving around is the most suitable fighting style.

Unfortunately, Angelmon doesn't play by the rules and only wants to attack Keisuke, which has led to the current stalemate.

If Chen Ze were Guiyou, he wouldn't be standing there dumbfounded, putting his partner in a passive position.

On the contrary, Chen Ze not only wouldn't let his partner fall into a passive situation, but he also had a million ways to provide Leomon with the necessary support and seal off any possible escape route for Angelmon.

Wait, escape?

Thinking about this, Chen Ze suddenly understood what the fox demon meant by what she had just said.

"AngeAngemon wasn't trying to attack Leomon's partner at all!"

"It's looking for an opportunity to extricate itself!"

After figuring this out, Chen Ze turned his attention to Angelmon and found that the other party was indeed intentionally or unintentionally moving away from the battlefield.

"Damn it! Angelmon has broken through my seal!"

Now that things have come to this, not only Chen Ze and Renamon have realized FlameAngemon's purpose, but even Erika, who is assisting Keisuke on the other end of the network, has also discovered this in time.

"It's planning to escape!"

Hearing Erika's scream from beside him, Keisuke was taken aback at first, then a look of sudden realization appeared on his face.

"Leomon, don't worry about me, that guy is trying to escape!"

Unfortunately, Keisuke's reminder came a little too late.

Because Angelmon had unknowingly flown very high, so high that even if Leomon used its Overlord Blade again, it would not be able to reach the sky where he was.

"Goodbye, you two stubborn fools."

After successfully escaping, Angelmon had no intention of lingering in the fight. He left behind a remark that was unclear whether it was sarcastic or helpless, and then quickly turned and headed towards the more dangerous fifth floor of Kowloon.

"Chase!"

Looking at the dangerous fifth level, Keisuke gritted his teeth and commanded his Leomon to follow closely behind.

Chapter Thirty: Artificial Digital Core

"Then what should we do now?"

They exchanged a glance, both Chen Ze and Renamon looking at Angelmon and the others who had already ventured into the fifth level of Kowloon, and the same question popped into their minds at the same time.

As one of the most chaotic areas in EDEN's cyberspace, the dangers posed by Kowloon are not hard to imagine.

In reality, Kowloon has always been a mysterious place for ordinary people, and even for hackers. Without certain skills and expertise, it is impossible to find the true entrance to this area.

Especially the area beyond the fourth level of Kowloon is considered a "forbidden zone" by the vast majority of hackers; it's the kind of place where once you enter, there's very little chance of leaving safely.

Although Youkomon and Chen Ze had only been in the EDEN network for less than a day, they had already learned about these essential common sense facts through some relevant information.

It is said that in the area beyond the fourth floor of Kowloon, powerful "virus programs" with AI intelligence are the true rulers, and human hackers are utterly helpless against them.

Of course, Chen Ze and Renamon now know that those "virus programs with AI" probably refer to Digimon.

Compared to true data lifeforms—Digimon—ordinary hackers are indeed no match for them, and this rumor is not entirely untrue.

Should we continue pursuing this?

Although Chen Ze had implanted a Trojan horse in the Angelmon beforehand, he only wanted to obtain some basic information about it and had no intention of tracking its movements.

If it weren't for the Invader's sudden rampage, Chen Ze and the Fox Beast would probably still be in Nordens, continuing to enjoy and divide their spoils.

Even though they were forced to temporarily switch to Kowloon, Chen Ze and Renamon never expected to encounter a battle between Angelmon and Leomon.

After all, Chen Ze had only randomly selected a UDL link at the last moment and hadn't even noticed that it was the data link he had stolen from the young hacker.

The reason things have developed to this point is nothing but coincidence.

Even after jumping to Kowloon, it was only because the commotion caused by the appearance of Angelmon was so great that Chen Ze and Renamon were able to follow the clues and pay attention to the entire course of the battle.

"It's better to go back."

Seeing the fox spirit who had forgotten its past pain and was eager to try again, Chen Ze chose to reject its idea before it could speak.

"The third rule of hacker survival."

"Excessive curiosity kills not only cats, but also hackers who don't know how to control themselves."

Staring blankly at Chen Ze's serious face, the fox demon seemed to open its mouth as if to say something, but for a moment it couldn't find the right words.

"You lied to me."

After a long silence, the fox demon seemed to remember something and spoke again.

“This wasn’t one of the ‘hacker survival rules’ you mentioned before, I remember it very clearly.”

Hearing the fox beast's weak rebuttal, Chen Ze just rolled his eyes in annoyance—he was practically ready to point his finger at the beast and say, "Don't be reckless, focus on developing your strength."

"This is one I just added, specifically for you."

Chen Ze knew that no matter how aloof the fox spirit appeared on the surface, her innate curiosity always drove her to try new things and take risks.

Chen Ze could tolerate the usual pranks he'd played on him, but the two of them had just escaped from the invaders, and he didn't want the fox demon beast to cause any more trouble.

"Moreover, we have an even more important matter to deal with now."

His tone unusually low, Chen Ze spread out his Agumon claws and then sighed rather helplessly.

"My servers and computers crashed while I was dealing with the invaders."

"So instead of worrying about the outcome of the battle between FlameAngemon and Leomon, we should be thinking about how to get back now."

At this moment, the reason Chen Ze can still remain in the EDEN network is purely because he exists as "Agumon," not as a hacker from abroad.

With both the computer and the server out of service, Chen Ze is now trapped in this man-made virtual network, just like the other Digimon.

Thinking of this, Chen Ze felt extremely annoyed that he had acted impulsively and forgotten such an important matter.

Not only did they use the server's computing power to fight the invaders, they also used their own computers, which directly resulted in them being trapped in the EDEN cyberspace.

To leave the EDEN network, which is independent of the internet, Chen Ze must use a foreign server as a transit point and then jump to the region where his physical body is located.

Based on my experience with the Mitsuaki incident, my physical body should currently be in a state of "coma," and it shouldn't be long before anyone notices anything amiss.

"We now need a computer that can pass both the EDEN network and the Great Firewall for authentication..."

"Only in this way can we leave here."

If he weren't trapped in the online world, Chen Ze wouldn't have to worry about such problems at all.

Unfortunately, Chen Ze, who was in the EDEN network world, did not have software such as VNP or VPS available, so he had to first hack into a hacker computer with similar software installed before he could leave.

Speaking of this, we have to mention Chen Ze's current digital core.

Due to certain concerns, although Agumon's digital core possessed capabilities comparable to a mainframe computer, Chen Ze did not install any external programs on it to prevent problems such as "overload programs".

In a sense, this is one of the reasons why Chen Ze is currently trapped in the EDEN network.

"Wait, I think I have a way to solve our current predicament."

A flash of inspiration struck Chen Ze, and he suddenly came up with a way to perfectly resolve his current predicament.

If you're worried about problems with your own digital core, why not just use an "external computer" that doesn't have your own digital core?

In theory, it is simply unrealistic to build a "hardware device" that is as real as a computer in a virtual network.

However, since digital cores are real, why can't we create a similar system?

It just so happens that Chen Ze had a similar idea after obtaining a part of the Invaders, and now he is just realizing that idea.

"any solution?"

Seeing Chen Ze deftly open the virtual screen, the fox demon beside him also curiously squatted down, seemingly intending to go closer to see what the other was planning to do.

"If you're worried about your own digital core malfunctioning, why not just create an artificial one?"

Using the data of the Invaders (original species) as the core, and imitating the architecture of the Digital Core, then adding Pure Data and Invader (humanoid) related code...

Chen Ze quickly used his hacking knowledge to temporarily construct a prototype of an "artificial digital core" and loaded it onto his own digital core as a "plugin".

Compared to electronic programs with unknown functions and unclear effects, "artificial digital core programs" derived from digital cores can be perfectly compatible and run.

"This solves my own safety problem and allows me to accumulate experience to continue improving the 'evolution program,' which is the best of both worlds."

Chapter Thirty-One: The Infiltrator - Modified Form

clack clack...

As Chen Ze began running the "artificial digital core" program he had written, a familiar mechanical sound suddenly came from his body, startling the fox demon beast so much that it immediately stood up straight.

"Are you going to die?!"

The fox beast heard it very clearly; it was the sound of the invader "dissecting" the flame beast's body.

It was after this mechanical-like sound that the Flame Beast became the "food" for the Corruptor to burst forth, providing the initial data template for its birth and transformation.

“I’m not like those mediocre hackers; I only do things when I’m confident.”

Having spent so much time with the fox spirit, Chen Ze could naturally hear the worry in its voice.

However, he didn't care about these things, because Chen Ze must have been confident in doing so. He had no intention of joking about his own life—even if it was just an avatar.

clack clack...

Just as Chen Ze had imagined, the thing "born" from his avatar was not as violent as the Corruptor.

Although Chen Ze could sense that Agumon's data was being absorbed and deconstructed, this absorption did not affect its own stability. On the contrary, it seemed to be purifying the excess and messy data.

Evolution is never a smooth process, and even among the same type of Digimon, there are obvious differences in strength.

This involves the issue of data redundancy, because the purer and more structurally complete the digital core, the more powerful its evolved form will be. This is almost an unchanging truth in the digital world.

This is why powerful Digimon like Renamon are so "picky"—they only absorb the data they need, and they have the right to be "picky."

"vomit!"

A moment later, when Chen Ze realized that the thing inside his body seemed to have taken shape, he decisively opened his mouth and spat it out.

clack clack...

Accompanied by a familiar mechanical sound, a round, white object floated into the air.