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

No sooner had he finished speaking than a black ball beast let out a "poof" fart, which made his candle beast roll its eyes back in disgust.

"Save your energy, let's go!" Cheng Yuan glanced at the sky; the setting sun had already dyed half the sky red.

The little dog suddenly perked up its ears: "Woof! Something's following us!"

Before the words were finished, two burning fireballs "whooshed" over everyone's heads.

"Wild Beast Hunting Team!" Li Yue's Balomon immediately unfurled its vine form, transforming into a long whip ready to strike at any moment.

"You guys go first!" Cheng Yuan handed the cub in his arms to Wen Rou. "Little Dog Beast, Candle Beast, Gear Beast, stay with me and cover our retreat!"

The first two savage beasts quickly fell to the Holy Light Orb.

But the second wave of four green-skinned dwarfs was exceptionally cunning. They hid behind trees, throwing fireballs while emitting strange "caw-caw" laughs.

"Watch this!" The Candle Beast puffed out its cheeks and spewed out a wall of blazing fire.

Unexpectedly, the fire spread along the withered vines and quickly ignited the entire shrubbery.

"Setting fire to the mountain will land you in jail for life!" Cheng Yuan gave Li Ming a thumbs up.

Thick smoke rose into the jungle like beacon fires, quickly attracting more wild men and beasts.

A rustling sound came from the bushes, and pairs of scarlet eyes gleamed in the darkness.

At first, there were only a few wild beasts spying from a distance, but soon their numbers increased to more than a dozen, and eventually they formed a three-sided encirclement.

"I knew it wouldn't end well to bring this bunch of burdens along!" Zhang Ming adjusted his crooked glasses; his candle beast was so exhausted that even its flame had turned blue. "Now look what's happened, we're all going to become the savage beast's dinner!"

"Bullshit!" Li Yue's Balmon used its vines to fling away the charging Wildmon. "If you hadn't insisted on taking those Digicores, we would have been long gone!"

Wenrou hugged the black ball beast tightly in her arms: "But...they're so small..."

"Small?" Zhang Ming kicked away the savage beast that was trying to ambush him. "When they grow up, you'll be the first one they eat!"

Cheng Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked at the green-skinned figures that were gradually approaching.

Although the puppy beast had already eliminated several wild beasts, the continuous use of Holy Light Bullets left it panting heavily, and the Holy Ring around its neck had dimmed somewhat.

Worse still, they also had to be distracted by protecting the helpless cubs and a few weak human teammates.

"If only I could transform into a Digimon like in Digimon Adventure 4..." Cheng Yuan thought, so he could fight alongside Puppymon.

"Where are Wang Lin, the beast tamer, and the flying insect beast? We've already fought like this..." a classmate muttered.

"It's not that easy. I think they're testing whether we're cut out to be professional animal trainers. If we perform well, they might recruit us into their team, so they won't show up unless we're beaten half to death."

Meanwhile, flying insects on the edge of the distant jungle were already scouting deeper into the jungle, searching for traces of the children.

At this moment, the flying insect beast's compound eyes, with their keen vision, spotted the thick smoke in the distance. It connected with Wang Lin's arc light machine and informed her of its discovery deep in the jungle.

Chapter 43 Acquaintances

"Everyone, keep formation! Little Dog Beast and I will cover the rear!" Cheng Yuan shouted, sweat streaming down his face.

A dozen or so wild beasts appeared and disappeared in the jungle, relentlessly pursuing the prey like a pack of hungry hyenas.

Wenrou, carrying three black ball beasts in her arms, ran breathlessly in the middle of the group: "Class representative... I can't run anymore..."

"Hold on a little longer!" Cheng Yuan glanced back at the approaching pursuers. The little dog beast had already fired six Holy Light Bullets in a row, and the Holy Ring around its neck had dimmed a bit.

At this critical moment, the bushes in front of them suddenly began to sway.

A familiar figure appeared in everyone's sight—the taciturn "Mo" wearing a baseball cap.

"Mo?" Cheng Yuan's eyes widened. "Why are you here all alone? No, why did you come to Savage Valley?"

Mo remained cool and silent; he had come here following the special dark aura hidden by the little dog beast.

Mo maintained his aura of keeping strangers at bay, his pale face expressionless.

He was torn between two conflicting thoughts: after entering the Savage Valley Digital Space, he didn't know where to find the Demon Beasts. He had killed batches of Savage Beasts but still couldn't find out where the Demon Beasts were. If he searched for Demon Beasts aimlessly, he didn't know how long it would take. He thought he might need something like "intelligence," so he thought of Cheng Yuan and the puppy Beast.

However, he didn't expect this duo to be so troublesome.

How foolish humans are.

These foolish humans actually provoked so many savage beasts!

Should I kill all the Savage Beasts? Then capture this group of people and use them to exchange for information about the Demon Beast?

A fireball whistled past their scalps and exploded on a tree trunk behind them.

"Mo! Watch out!" Cheng Yuan suddenly lunged forward and tackled the young man in the baseball cap to the ground.

A fireball whistled past their scalps and exploded on a tree trunk behind them.

"How dare you be so disrespectful!" Devimon was furious. He waved his hand, and the hidden Devimon immediately transformed into a black lightning bolt and shot out.

"Squeak—" The little devil's sharp cry pierced the jungle as a poisoned dark dart struck the sneaking wild beast with pinpoint accuracy.

The savage beast let out a series of screams, its body turned black, and it collapsed to the ground convulsing.

"Holy crap! One-hit kill!" Zhang Ming pushed up his crooked glasses. "That little devil beast is too powerful!"

Cheng Yuan pulled up the young man in the baseball cap and patted the leaves off him: "What are you daydreaming about? If I hadn't been quick, you'd be roasted squid by now!"

Devimon suppressed the urge to strangle the human and nodded stiffly.

Since Devimon had no other instructions from Devimon, it could only continue fighting fiercely against Wildmon. Because if it didn't perform well, Devimon would destroy itself in no time.

Of course, Mo wouldn't pity this little Devimon, since he had plenty of other Devimon under his command.

So what was shown was that Devimon fought very hard, even to the point of being somewhat reckless and willing to risk his life.

With the addition of Devimon, the pressure on the team was immediately reduced considerably.

"Bro, you've trained that little Devimon really well," Cheng Yuan said as he ran. "What brand of Data Cubes do you usually feed it?"

Devimon: "..." (Inner monologue: Give me your brain!)

Wenrou mustered her courage and leaned closer: "Um... Mo, why is your Devimon so obedient? I've heard that Digimon are usually very rebellious..."

Devimon didn't even bother to glance at them, and walked straight to the front of the group.

Seeing this, the little devil beast immediately bared its teeth and let out a few loud "ga ga ga" laughs at Wenrou, scaring the black ball beast in her arms into burrowing into her clothes.

After pulling up the young man in the baseball cap, the Digimon drove away another group of Wildmon, and Cheng Yuan once again organized everyone to devise an escape plan.

"This tamer is no ordinary person to have trained the notoriously cunning and treacherous Impmon to be so brave."

However, even with eight pairs of tamers, they still didn't have a good way to break through the large number of wild beasts because there were many Digimon babies.

Devimon felt disgusted by the sight of these Digimon risking their lives to protect humans. Why should Digimon have to sacrifice their lives to protect humans?

It subconsciously ignored the fact that humans were also protecting those Digimon babies.

Just as Devimon was considering whether to seek "intelligence" elsewhere so that he could kill these people directly and leave Puppymon and Cheng Yuan to torture them slowly, a familiar yet repulsive Digimon aura appeared once again.

It was that fast-flying flying insect beast responsible for detection.

Once, when Devimon was trying to escape, it was entangled by this flying insectmon. Finally, it used the "Soul-Stirring" disguise to shake it off.

Unexpectedly, it has reappeared now, and is rapidly approaching.

That squad! The approaching flying insect meant that the rest of the squad would be arriving soon.

Had his disguise been exposed? He decided to avoid the situation for a while.

"Woof! Kamen Rider is here!" the little dog suddenly perked up its ears and barked excitedly.

"What Kamen Rider?" Zhang Ming was completely bewildered.

The little dog inherited Cheng Yuan's habit of giving nicknames to animals.

A green figure descended from the sky, its sharp claws easily tearing apart the throats of two wild beasts—it was Wang Lin's flying insect beast!

"It's a flying insect beast! The professional beast tamer has finally made a move!" the students cheered.

The flying insect beast's compound eyes scanned the entire scene, instantly analyzing the battle situation. With a flap of its wings, several moonlight darts whistled out, pinning the five nearest savage beasts to the trees.

"Squeak squeak squeak!" Upon seeing the appearance of a mature, powerful beast, the wild beasts scattered like birds and disappeared into the jungle in the blink of an eye.

Devimon's pupils contracted sharply—it was that annoying Flymon again! Last time, it was the one that chased it so hard it had to hide in the sewers, and even got its bat wings covered in that indescribable stuff...

"Are you alright?" Wang Lin's voice came from afar as she hurried over, still getting ready. "Why did you run so far? The Digimon's signal was blocked!"

"Blocked?" Cheng Yuan was bewildered and asked in a low voice, "Didn't you, pretty lady, have been following us the whole time?"

"Who has the time or inclination to follow a bunch of newbies like you?" Wang Lin muttered under her breath, yawning.

Wenrou quickly showed off the black ball beast in her arms: "Instructor Wang, we rescued so many cubs!"

"Um..." Zhang Ming raised his hand timidly, "Do we have to hand over the spoils we picked up?"

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of digital cores fell out of his backpack with a "whoosh," glittering in the setting sun.

Wang Lin raised an eyebrow: "You guys went to raid a tribe?"

Just then, Devimon quietly took a few steps back, preparing to slip away. He didn't want to deal with that troublesome Flymon any longer.

"Mo!" Cheng Yuan noticed his movement. "Don't go! Come back to the outpost with us later!"

Devimon paused, inwardly roaring: Who wants to go with you foolish humans! I still need to find Devimon!

Flymon's compound eyes suddenly turned to Devimon, warily eyeing the unfamiliar tamer.

"Who is this?" Wang Lin also noticed the taciturn young man.

"Oh, this is Mo. I saw him outside the Digital House last Friday after school, remember? He helped us chase away that gangster." Cheng Yuan introduced him enthusiastically. "We were so grateful for his help with Devimon, otherwise we might have been done for."

Wang Lin nodded thoughtfully: "Oh? So it was you... You ventured deep into the Savage Valley alone? You've got guts."

Devimon lowered the brim of his hat: "Gathering materials..." His voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time.

Wang Lin clapped her hands to signal, "Alright, it's getting late, let's go back to the outpost. Mo, right? You come too, it's almost night, don't wander around in the woods alone."

"Your Digimon need to be treated and rested as soon as possible, and that one lying on Pangolin's back... is that Anjanmon? What happened?"

Cheng Yuan: "Sigh, it's a long story..."

"Then let's not talk about it."

Cheng Yuan: "???"

Chapter 44 Digital Gems

The metal gate of the outpost slowly closed behind them, making a heavy rumble.

Cheng Yuan let out a long sigh of relief, as if a huge burden had been lifted. Under the bright lights, he realized that his down jacket had been torn to shreds by thorns, making him look like a beggar fleeing a disaster.

“Let’s go to the medical station first.” Wang Lin pointed to the white building on the right. “The mischievous monkeys and their cubs all need treatment.”

The black ball beast in Wenrou's arms suddenly squeaked, its little paws pointing at a figure at the entrance of the medical station—the same mischievous monkey beast they had rescued earlier. It was covered in bandages, but seemed to be in good spirits, anxiously looking around.

"It actually got here before us?" Zhang Ming pushed up his crooked glasses, the lenses still covered with a few leaves.

Wang Lin's flying insect beast shook its wings: "I brought it back. By the way, you guys are really slow." Its voice sounded a bit muffled, like it was wearing a mask.

"He was barely alive just now, how come he's recovered so quickly?" the students exclaimed in surprise.

Wang Lin smiled and said, "As long as the data hasn't dissipated and the Digicore hasn't been shattered, this kind of treatment for Rookie Digimon is not a problem for modern technology. Even if only the Digicore is left, it can be replicated at a certain cost. However, because the data is lost and needs to be refilled, there is a possibility of losing a lot of memories."

She paused, then added, "By the way, its treatment costs are all on my tab, and I'll deduct them from your spoils later!"

When the mischievous monkey saw the cubs in everyone's arms, it rushed over excitedly, only to trip over its own bandages and fall.

Ignoring the pain, she frantically checked on each of the cubs, tears welling in her eyes.

"Woof! It says thank you for saving its people!" The little dog beast acted as a temporary translator.

Cheng Yuan squatted down and gently patted the mischievous monkey beast on the shoulder: "You're welcome. Be careful in the future, and don't get caught by the wild beast again."

The mischievous monkey nodded vigorously, then suddenly pulled a faintly glowing stone from its tattered animal skin pouch and placed it in Cheng Yuan's hand. The stone's surface was covered with peculiar data patterns, and it felt warm and smooth to the touch, like jade.

“This is…” Cheng Yuan looked at the stone with curiosity.

"It's a Digital Stone." Wang Lin leaned closer in surprise. "This is a real gem! Like the Attribute Cube, it can boost attribute values, and it's much purer than the man-made Digital Cube. It's a resource naturally born in the Digital World." She carefully examined the stone's texture. "Judging by its quality, it's at least a mid-level Grass/Wood type stone. It can significantly boost attributes. The Digital Cube was also made by imitating its composition, making it perfect for Floramon or Palmon."

The mischievous monkey said in broken human language, "This... green fruit, tribe... and, welcome, guest."

Upon being invited, the students started chattering excitedly, ready to form another sightseeing group in no time.

Devimon's ears twitched almost imperceptibly. A Digimon Stone? These foolish humans actually managed to find such a treasure. Too bad it's useless to them, otherwise they would have found a way to get their hands on it.