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

This evil artifact, along with Mo Xian transforming into a demon beast, came to the real world.

"Two weeks..." Cheng Yuan muttered to himself. From the moment the little dog beast first showed abnormalities, the Dark Gear had been lurking in the real world for a full two weeks.

How many Digimon will be infected by the Dark Gear?

Where has the escaped Mo hidden now?

Most importantly—what to do with the gears inside the puppy's body?

These problems coiled around his heart like venomous snakes.

“Brother Xu,” Cheng Yuan stepped forward, carefully choosing his words, “I suspect the Dark Gear might spread like a virus. It can infect Digimon, making them irritable and out of control…” He carefully avoided mentioning the fact that Puppymon might be infected, “All infected Digimon could become new sources of infection.”

Cheng Yuan did not mention that his little dog beast was also suspected of being infected by the Dark Gear. Now that he knew it was infected by the Dark Gear, removing it would not be difficult.

Xu Xin frowned: "Okay, I'll let the association keep an eye on it."

Not far away, the Golden Horned Beast and the Silver Horned Beast were being guided onto a specially made heavy truck. Cheng Yuan noticed that at the end of the group was a Shaman Beast controlled by a special restraint device—presumably Xu Xin's mission target.

As the bus doors closed, Cheng Yuan looked out the window and saw that the streets of Shenzhen were already filled with quarantine personnel and armed police. The entire city seemed like a net that was gradually tightening, but would the demon beast be caught so easily?

In the shadows of the city, undercurrents are surging.

Deep within the black market, a businessman wearing a gas mask was roughly kicking an iron cage. "Why are all these goods so limp?" he complained into his communicator. "Even with suppressants, they shouldn't be like this..." Inside the cage, black oil seeping from the joints of the Digimon gleamed eerily in the dim light.

In the underground arena, the cheers of the audience nearly lifted the roof off. In the center of the iron cage, the serrated beast, covered in wounds, with gear-shaped lumps protruding from its fur, suddenly launched a fierce attack with its eyes turning bloodshot, carrying an aura of dark energy that drove the surrounding audience even more frenzied.

At the stray Digimon shelter, caretaker Old Zhang hummed a tune as he changed the oil on a sick Gearmon. He was completely unaware that, in the shadows beneath the workbench, a few drops of black, oily liquid were dripping from the metal casing...

When Cheng Yuan got off the bus, it was already night, but she still managed to get through to Zhou Mo on the phone.

"Sister Mo, I think I know why the little dog beast's dark attribute has surged." Cheng Yuan dialed Zhou Mo's number as soon as he got out of the car, his voice a little tense.

"Come to the lab and tell them I'm still working overtime," Zhou Mo said, her voice tinged with exhaustion.

After hanging up the phone, Cheng Yuan casually hailed a taxi.

"Master, is it convenient to go to the Evolution Research Institute on Jinbu Road?" Cheng Yuan asked as he got into the car carrying the little dog beast.

"It's convenient? There's a public restroom right ahead, no need to go all the way to Jinbu Road," the driver kindly said.

Cheng Yuan: "???"

"He meant going to Jinbu Road on the way..." the little dog asked.

"Oh...oh, on the way!" The driver suddenly realized and sped off.

In just half an hour, we arrived at the Institute of Evolution.

The Institute of Evolution was brightly lit.

As soon as Cheng Yuan entered, he bumped into three researchers who were in a hurry.

"Hurry, hurry, the shaman beast sample has arrived!"

"I heard the mission team made an amazing discovery in Savage Valley, which coincides with our hypothesis on the transformation of cubs. We'll conduct a verification experiment later. If it holds true, then the research funding for the second half of the year will be secured!"

Just then, the three of them saw Cheng Yuan walking towards them... Why does he look so familiar?

"I'm busy." Cheng Yuan greeted him subconsciously, his hands behind his back.

"Yes, sir." The three men straightened their backs as if by reflex.

Cheng Yuan: "???" (Leader?)

The three people: "???" (Leader??)

Both sides gave an awkward smile.

Cheng Yuan said, "It's good to be busy, it's good to be busy... The research institute can't do without you pillars of strength."

The three of them were stunned for a moment, and Cheng Yuan and the little dog had already walked far away and entered Zhou Mo's laboratory.

"It's him?"

"Not that...?"

"It's him!"

In the lab, Zhou Mo sported two heavy dark circles under her eyes, looking like a panda who had stayed up all night. This appearance inexplicably reminded Cheng Yuan of a guy who always had dark circles under his eyes.

"Sister Mo, here's the situation..." Cheng Yuan explained the whole story about Dark Gear.

"So that's how it is!" Zhou Mo slammed her hand on the table and stood up abruptly, almost knocking over her coffee cup. "Then everything makes sense. Do you know how I got these dark circles under my eyes? Last night we received a task from the association to create a device to detect a certain kind of dark energy. I think it must be this dark gear... We were just worried about not having a sample. You've really come to our rescue just in time."

Cheng Yuan and Zhou Mo discussed a plan, intending to use the advanced testing equipment here to force out the Dark Gear with the sacred energy within the puppy beast.

"Are you ready?" Zhou Mo adjusted the parameters of the energy monitor.

Cheng Yuan nodded and gently stroked the little dog's head: "Bear with it, it'll be over soon."

The little dog nodded, instantly activating the energy within the Holy Ring to maximize its output.

With the hum of the instruments, divine energy surged into its body like a tide, gradually pushing back the black mist in its wake. On the monitoring screen, a gear-shaped shadow was struggling and writhing on the back of the little dog beast.

"Give it your all!" Zhou Mo shouted, her eyes glued to the screen. "It'll be out soon!"

Cheng Yuan could feel the little dog in his arms trembling in pain.

While Zhou Mo was fiddling with the equipment, he poured all his remaining wealth points into the Holy attribute.

[Holy 5260 (+550), Light (4650), Dark (4200), Ice (10)]

Suddenly, a beam of black light shot out from the back of the little dog beast—the Dark Gear burst forth from its body!

"boom!"

The gears slammed against the inner wall of the specially made sealed box, producing a piercing metallic scraping sound, and Zhou Mo's face lit up with ecstatic joy.

"Perfect!" She spun around excitedly. "Not only did we solve the problem, but we also obtained a precious sample! And a treatment plan—to suppress and eliminate the Dark Gears with divine energy."

Overjoyed, Zhou Mo upgraded Cheng Yuan's research stipend to 8000 yuan per month.

This was another unexpected windfall, and Cheng Yuan was overjoyed.

On his way home, Cheng Yuan felt as if the heavy burden on his shoulders had finally been lifted.

With all the troubles over and the Dark Gear problem of the puppymon resolved, Devimon will naturally have Xu Xin and the bigwigs of the association to worry about.

Back home, Cheng's parents assumed their son had simply gone on a three-day trip with his teachers and classmates, completely unaware of his sensational experience in the digital world.

After eating a bowl of noodles cooked by his mother and feeding the little dog beast its fill of data cubes, Cheng Yuan and the beast fell asleep immediately, without even having a dream.

He was awakened early in the morning by the jarring sound of text messages and system notifications—

SMS: [Mobile Banking: 285000 credited to account, balance 861110]

[Ding! System notification: Wealth points: 313800 (+285000)]

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains onto the bed, where the little dog was sprawled out, snoring loudly. Cheng Yuan stared at his phone screen for a full ten seconds before suddenly leaping up with a somersault.

"I'm rich!!!"

However, at that moment, he received a call from Zhao Lu.

Zhao Lu's voice on the phone was full of hesitation: "Cheng Yuan, could you... lend me some money?"

Chapter 63 Antibody X

Cheng Yuan sat up straight with a start.

Zhao Lu asked him for money? Could it be a telecom scam? But then he thought, given Zhao Lu's personality, she would never ask unless absolutely necessary.

“No problem, how much?” Cheng Yuan asked readily.

"Let's talk when we meet," Zhao Lu said, her voice barely audible.

Steam filled the rice noodle roll shop on Saturday morning. Cheng Yuan was pouring soy sauce over the rice noodle rolls when Zhao Lu rushed in, panting, her ponytail all messed up.

"I'll pay you interest!" she said hurriedly as soon as she sat down. "I can pay you back when my dad gets back!"

Cheng Yuan noticed that her fingers were twisted together, and her knuckles were white. As a top student with excellent grades and conduct, she was somewhat proud, but if it weren't for the interest, she would feel even more uneasy.

"No problem. What's wrong with Uncle Zhao?" Cheng Yuan tried to start a conversation to help her relax.

"He is a professional animal trainer who goes on missions every now and then."

"You're really busy."

"Yes, but this time, he's been in the dark area for over a month and hasn't come back yet. I can't contact him, otherwise I wouldn't need to borrow money from you."

"The dark area?" Cheng Yuan's heart tightened. Wasn't that the most dangerous place Xu Xin had mentioned?

The Dark Zone is the greatest threat to human survival, and Zhao Lu's father is likely carrying out a dangerous guarding mission there.

"How much do you need?" Cheng Yuan asked directly.

“28.” Zhao Lu’s voice was almost inaudible.

"Pfft—" Cheng Yuan almost spat out his soy milk.

So you know I received a payment notification text message, right? You didn't actually fall for a telecom scam, did you?

Zhao Lu should have also received the same payment text message. This was the money that Xu Xin's team deposited into their account after they finished processing the harvest in Savage Valley.

"What do you need so much money for?" Cheng Yuan asked calmly.

Zhao Lu took out her phone and opened a picture: "Look at this."

On the screen is a crystal-clear spherical crystal with red digital codes flashing inside, forming a striking "X" shape.

X Antibody!

Cheng Yuan's pupils contracted sharply, and he almost cried out in surprise.

This was a legendary enhancement artifact in the Digimon series of the previous life!

The crystal-clear sphere before him, even the red data codes flowing inside, were exactly the same as the game illustrations he remembered.

Zhao Lu really got lucky.

The concept from the anime in his previous life immediately came to mind: the X-Antibody could resonate with the Digicore, allowing Digimon to gain a new "X-Form" while maintaining their original growth stage. This was not a simple accumulation of data, but a reconstruction and sublimation of the essence of the Digicore.

Cheng Yuan suddenly remembered a joke he'd made with Zhao Lu—that she'd let her Gear Beast evolve into a "three-in-one Gear Beast." Little did he know, his words would come true; the X-antibody was the key to achieving this special evolution.

Even more coincidentally, it appeared in front of Zhao Lu by sheer chance.

But on the surface, he merely raised an eyebrow: "This is...?"

“This is called X-Crystal,” Zhao Lu explained. “It comes from the Dark Zone. It was put up for sale last night at a temporary shop in the Digital Center. There was only one…”

She told Cheng Yuan that, according to her father, Digimon in the virus-filled fog of the Dark Area must "absorb" this substance before they can move around, otherwise they will be infected by a kind of chronic virus. While using it can provide some boost to combat power, its primary purpose in the Dark Area is to prevent infection.

“I need to get in line before the doors open,” Zhao Lu said, biting her lip, her fingers unconsciously twisting together. “This will help me prepare for the college entrance exam.”

She admitted that very few people knew this information, and she wouldn't have known it if her father hadn't been a professional animal trainer. The reason she was willing to share it with Cheng Yuan was because the puppy beast was strong enough—it no longer needed these external forces.

Cheng Yuan was stunned—"Smoking?"

He mentally ranted, "The X-antibody is supposed to fuse directly with the digital core, okay?"

A startling thought crossed his mind: Could it be that in this world, people's understanding of the X antibody is still at such a rudimentary stage? Have they not even mastered the correct way to use it?

It seems there are more X antibody resources in the dark area.

On the surface, Cheng Yuan simply nodded calmly: "I can lend you the money, and I'll waive the interest, but I have one condition!"

Zhao Lu looked up warily: "What are the conditions?"

"You need to write an essay praising me, such as 'My Class Representative Desk Mate,' which must be no less than 800 words, and must be sincere, touching, and heartfelt. Then submit it to the school bulletin board."

"..."

Zhao Lu's expression was as if she had swallowed a fly whole: "...I'd rather pay interest."

"I suppose writing an essay is such a simple thing, it shouldn't be difficult for you, right?"

After all, your book, "My Sheriff Dad," is on the honor wall. I just wanted to experience what it feels like to be on the wall; I thought that would definitely change my parents' impression of me as a poor student.

Zhao Lu's ears turned slightly red: "...Deal."

He asked for Zhao Lu's bank account number and transferred the money directly via mobile phone.

Cheng Yuan: "Okay, let's go, hurry up and grab it, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"Wait, let me get a taxi."