Digimon: I really didn't want to be the Digimon Emperor!

The central hall is spacious and bright, with a huge holographic projection platform in the middle displaying the three-dimensional evolution forms of various Digimon. Different functional areas are distributed around it, including a Digimon egg display area, a Digivice testing area, a data resource purchase area, and even an arena.

Staff members in white coats and animal trainers were busy in various areas.

"This place is even more professional than I expected..." Cheng Yuan thought to himself, "It seems that beast tamers have a really high status in this world."

He looked around and saw a poster on the wall:

Requirements for Animal Trainer Qualifications in Dongguo Kingdom

1. Must be 16 years of age or older;

2. Passed the physical examination and has no history of mental illness;

3. Pay taxes on time every year;

4. Obtain the Digimon Machine and Digi-Egg, and complete the registration.

The hall was bustling with people, many of whom were senior high school students who had come this week to select digital eggs, intending to apply for the animal trainer major.

Cheng Yuan chose the direction of the Digimon Nursery, and the sensor door opened automatically, with a woman in a white uniform coming forward to greet him.

"Welcome to the Digimon Nursery, I'm Zhou Mo, a breeder." She wore a professional smile and spoke in a gentle voice, "Judging from your school uniform, you must be a student from Pengcheng No. 1 High School?"

Cheng Yuan nodded slightly, his gaze involuntarily drawn to the silver badge on her chest—a certificate of intermediate-level trainer qualification certified by the Beast Tamer Association.

Following his gaze, Zhou Mo explained knowingly, "This is a breeding facility directly under the Beast Tamer Association. Every digital egg undergoes thirty-six rigorous testing procedures, including gene sequencing and health screening." She gracefully stepped aside and gestured for him to follow her.

As you walk through the purification corridor glowing with a deep blue light, the smart glass screens on both sides continuously scroll warning messages: "According to the 'Digimon Management Law of the Eastern Kingdom,' any unofficial trading of Digivices, Digi-Eggs, or computing chips is illegal and can be punished with up to ten years in prison."

“Cheng, don’t be surprised.” Zhou Mo explained softly, “Last week, the sheriff seized a batch of smuggled substandard digital eggs. Many of the digital eggs had mutated digital core sequences, so the association has specially strengthened its legal education and publicity efforts.”

Inside the cultivation room, more than ten temperature-controlled ecological chambers are arranged in a circle, each connected to a sophisticated vital sign monitoring system. Several uniformed cultivators are recording data in front of a holographic projector, while a giant display screen on the wall updates various cultivation parameters in real time.

Each incubation chamber contains digital eggs of various shapes floating in a special solution, slowly rotating. Holographic labels on the surface of the chambers clearly indicate the breed name and price range, occasionally flashing with a faint light indicating data updates.

Cheng Yuan quickly scanned the price tags, forcing himself to remain calm, and said, "Let me take a look and learn more."

"How about I introduce you?" She gestured invitingly and led Cheng Yuan into the inner room.

"This year, the National Digital Center has provided five types of specially bred digital eggs for students in Shenzhen to choose from," Zhou Mo introduced as she walked. "They are Grain Beast, Electric Mouse Beast, Smoke Cloud Beast, Green Leaf Beast, and Floating Ball Beast."

Cheng Yuan's gaze swept over the digital eggs, silently recalling their evolutionary paths:

Pelpie can evolve into Pangolin;

Electric Mousemon can evolve into Gearmon;

Smoke Cloud Beast can evolve into Candle Beast;

Leafmon and Floatmon lead to Bugmon and Palmon, respectively.

These Digimon are quite good and functional, showing which directions the country needs for development—Sandshrewmon is for mining, Gearmon for industry, Candlemon for firepower-related industries, Bugmon for textiles, and plant-type Digimon like Palmon for agriculture…

However... the main problem is that the price is too high.

Cheng Yuan felt the bank card in his pocket and thought, "10 yuan. After buying the digital egg, I won't have any money left to buy breeding data. What will I do for the later breeding?"

“The price is marked on it, between 9 and 11,” Zhou Mo said. “In addition, we also offer a data resource package to promote growth and evolution. If you purchase it together with the digital egg, you can enjoy a 9% discount.”

"As expected..." Cheng Yuan sighed inwardly, "Being a beast tamer is really an expensive profession."

The 100,000 yuan he had was all the savings his family could muster. The money his parents gave Cheng Yuan was a gift, thus increasing his wealth value by 100,000. With the system and wealth value, he wouldn't need to spend too much money on resource purchases when training his Digimon. However, the exact conversion rate still needed to be explored.

Following the principle of saving money wherever possible, Cheng Yuan hesitated for a moment before tentatively asking, "Are there any other digital eggs?"

Zhou Mo pondered for a moment, then noticed Cheng Yuan's fingers gripping his pocket, seemingly sensing his predicament.

She lowered her voice and said, "Actually... there's another digital egg that a customer returned. It was once infected by a virus and degenerated into a digital egg, but after thorough disinfection and testing at the center, it has been confirmed to be safe. It's just that many people have concerns about it, so it hasn't been sold yet."

"Can I take a look?" Cheng Yuan's heart stirred.

Zhou Mo nodded, turned around, opened a temperature-controlled box deep inside, took out a white digital egg with blue patterns, and placed it in front of Cheng Yuan.

“It’s a Snowballmon Digi-Egg,” Zhou Mo explained. “Its evolutionary paths are diverse, including the mature forms Hairymon, Snowmanmon, and Icestonemon, all of which are ice-type. But recently, a new beast-type path has been discovered, evolving into a mature form called Gatomon, which possesses holy power. This is still under investigation…”

"What? Snowballmon?" Cheng Yuan was shocked. "Isn't that Angewomon's baby form?"

Cheng Yuan learned through the internet that, due to the real existence of the Digital World, there is no Digimon anime or game series in this world. In just over twenty years since the world merged, many aspects of the evolutionary chain of Digimon have not yet been explored and are still in a relatively early stage, without forming a complete theory.

To date, there is no record of anyone seeing an Ultimate-level Digimon, and Perfect-level Digimon are extremely rare.

It's important to understand that Digimon evolution is a network-like evolutionary chain. If there's even a slight mismatch in data or resource matching, it's very likely that it will evolve into a different chain.

In other words, if you're not careful, you might accidentally evolve into a Poopmon or a Snotmon, making the exploration of the Digimon evolution chain extremely costly.

Clearly, the world has not yet fully explored the other route for Snowballmon besides the Ice Evolution route—the Holy route.

Snowballmon → Nekomon → Puppymon → Gatomon → Angewomon! And many powerful ultimate forms that Angewomon can evolve into!

The people at the Digital Center clearly don't know Snowballmon's true potential... Angewomon, Ophaniwomon, Venusmon, and others are all top-tier fighters!

Cheng Yuanqiang suppressed his wildly beating heart and frowned, feigning hesitation: "Indeed... the southern climate is not very favorable for the breeding of ice and snow type digital beasts..."

But he knew in his heart that his special system and wealth could completely make up for the lack of regional resources and data!

Seeing his interest, Zhou Mo continued, "If you're really interested, I can help you apply for a 30% discount."

"30% off!" Cheng Yuan's pupils shrank slightly. This was like a windfall!

My fingertips unconsciously traced the cool lines on the eggshell, and childhood memories suddenly came vividly to life—

When he was eight years old, he saw Angewomon descend on television for the first time, turning the tide of battle and saving the main characters: under the bright moonlight, eight holy wings slowly unfurled, her long, golden hair fluttering in the energy storm, that beautiful and divine figure single-handedly reversing the entire battle. From that moment on, Angewomon became synonymous with his goddess, and he always treasured limited edition Angewomon cards in the lining of his backpack, and his sketchbook was filled with countless redrawn sketches.

Holding this digital egg now, it's as if he's transformed back into that boy who used to sit glued to the TV, listening to even the last syllable of the ending theme song.

Ding! Snowballmon Digimon egg detected. Notification: This Digimon's attribute tendency is light and dark. Bind?

Cheng Yuan: "???"

The iconic scene from the Digimon anime where Angewomon and LadyDevimon slap each other flashed through his mind.

“I want it,” Cheng Yuan said decisively.

Zhou Mo asked again for confirmation: "Are you sure? Its cultivation might be quite difficult..."

“It’s alright,” Cheng Yuan said with a confident smile. “I believe that anything is possible with human effort (the system).”

Chapter 3 Conversion Ratio

Cheng Yuan's finger hovered over the payment screen for a full three seconds before he finally gritted his teeth and swiped the card.

The moment the 7 yuan was transferred out, his heart was bleeding.

But what made him even more uneasy was the mysterious system notification—would 10 of his 7 wealth points be deducted as a result?

"Beep—Payment successful."

The notification that popped up on his phone screen made him breathe a sigh of relief, but to his relief, his wealth points on the system interface remained unchanged.

"I see..." Cheng Yuan stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Only income generates wealth points; consumption doesn't deduct them. So what if..."

Wealth can be very tempting.

A bold idea suddenly flashed through his mind, but before he could think about it further, the system popped up a warning:

[Ding! The wealth points must be from the host's legitimate income. Please abandon any improper thoughts.]

"Tsk, that's pretty strict." Cheng Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, at least proving that this system wasn't some evil entity.

He carefully took out his Digivice and aimed it at the digital egg that glowed with a pale blue light. The Digivice's scanning beam moved back and forth across the eggshell, and a prompt quickly appeared on the screen:

[Unbound Digi-Egg detected. Sign a partner agreement?]

Cheng Yuan took a deep breath and solemnly nodded "Yes".

At the same time, the system interface is also updated:

[Wealth Points: 100000]

Digimon: Snowballmon Digi-Egg

[Types: Beast 1, Angel 0, Fallen Angel 0, Dragon 0...]

【元素：光系1、神圣系1、暗系1、冰系1，火系0、风系0...】

[Note: Please hatch the digital egg as soon as possible so you can recharge your account]

As Zhou Mo handed the receipt to Cheng Yuan, she suddenly tapped on the counter: "If the little guy shows signs of data disorder or abnormal evolutionary tendencies..." She pointed to the digital egg floating on the Digimon screen, "come to the nursery anytime for a free test, or just call my work phone number." As she spoke, she grabbed a sticky note and quickly wrote down the number.

At the Animal Trainers Association office in the digital center, Cheng Yuan spent another 640 yuan to register for the trainee animal trainer status. When the card with his photo on it was handed to him, Cheng Yuan's heart involuntarily quickened.

Cheng Yuan, Apprentice Animal Trainee

【Pengcheng】

Cheng Yuan felt a surge of excitement. Watching the money in his mobile bank account shrink, he had only one thought: "Hurry home to hatch the digital egg, and then try adding some to it."

Back home, he built a makeshift nest for the digital egg using a blanket, and carefully placed the egg on it. The eggshell glowed with a faint blue light, as if responding to his expectations.

As Zhou Mo reminded him, the Digimon would officially hatch 2-3 hours after the agreement was signed. Cheng Yuan sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, with his Digivice on his lap, staring intently at the egg.

Time ticked by, and the room was so quiet that only the ticking of the clock could be heard. Just as Cheng Yuan's eyelids began to droop, the Digimon suddenly started vibrating wildly, almost jumping off his lap.

"It's about to hatch!"

Cheng Yuan jolted awake and saw that a thin crack had appeared on the surface of the digital egg on the bed, from which dazzling white light spilled out, illuminating the entire room.

"Snap—"

The sound of the eggshell cracking was crisp and pleasant, and the cracks spread rapidly like a spider web. Cheng Yuan held his breath, unconsciously leaning forward, his eyes stinging from the bright light, but he couldn't bear to look away.

Slowly, the eggshell shattered completely, turning into countless tiny specks of light that dissipated into the air.

"Qiuqiu~"

A round little creature peeked out from the light, its beady black eyes curiously surveying this unfamiliar world.

Its body is snow-white and fluffy, like a freshly kneaded dough, and its two round ears on its head tremble gently with its movements.

Cheng Yuan's heart was instantly melted by the cuteness.

"Snowball Beast..." he called softly, afraid of startling the little life that had just arrived in the world.

Upon hearing the sound, Snowball Beast turned around and its gaze met Cheng Yuan's.

Its black eyes sparkled, as if filled with starlight.

The next second, it chirped happily and clumsily hopped towards Cheng Yuan.

"Watch out!" Cheng Yuan quickly reached out his hands and caught the furry little guy.

The Snowball Beast's body was icy cold and incredibly soft to the touch.

It tilted its head back and stared intently at Cheng Yuan, its little nose twitching as if trying to memorize his scent.

"Please guide me in the future." Cheng Yuan smiled and held it in front of him, gently rubbing its forehead.

The Snowball Beast responded with a "chirp chirp," its ears twitching as it appeared exceptionally happy.

Looking at the little guy who could barely walk, Cheng Yuan couldn't help but smile. The Digimon in anime that can talk, run, and fight from birth are clearly artistic creations. Real-life Digimon babies, like human infants, need to grow slowly.

The next moment filled Cheng Yuan with both nervousness and anticipation.

The evolution of Digimon has been a subject of ongoing debate between the scientific community and Digimon trainers.

Scientists believe that Digimon are collections of data, and they can evolve once the numerical values ​​reach a certain level.

Animal trainers firmly believe that emotion and experience are the key factors.

Some online comments have pointed out that the amount of data in high-level Digimon has exceeded the scope that can be achieved by simply filling in data.

But Cheng Yuan, who had played Digimon games, knew very well that both were indispensable. Data was the foundation, and bonds were the catalyst. And now, the system quantified all of this, allowing him to see the specific values ​​of each attribute intuitively.

Snowball Beast

[Small-sized, no attributes]

[Childhood I]

[Skill: Diamond Star (Spits out a mouthful of seemingly harmless ice shards, powerful enough to turn a can of cola into an ice-cold cola.)]

[Description: A spherical creature covered in snow-white fur, gentle and timid in nature, it curls up into a ball and rolls away at high speed when threatened.]

Looking at the Pokédex information for Snowball on the Digivice, Cheng Yuan recalled several classic evolutionary chains for Snowball:

Snowballmon → Meowmon → Puppymon → Gatomon → Angewomon → Ophanimon (Saintdramon)