Andromon didn't just offer advice about evolution; instead, he directly gave them a concrete solution.
After all, for mechanical-type Digimon, evolution meant deeper modifications. Rather than desperately relying on mysticism, they obviously trusted science far more.
As the saying went:
"Flesh is weak; machines ascend."
Throw away your worthless body and chase the ultimate evolution!
To be honest, Zero himself was very tempted by this offer. Since he had the ability to evolve and devolve at will, choosing this path wouldn't even lock him down permanently.
Mechanical modification provided a stable and guaranteed way of becoming stronger—far more reliable than gambling everything on mysticism.
But Andromon also mentioned that while the factory originally possessed the capability for modifications, certain circumstances had brought nearly all the production lines to a halt. Without appropriate enhancement templates, the necessary modifications couldn't be carried out.
"So basically, we're missing a key quest item, which is why the relevant function hasn't been unlocked?"
With her gamer logic, Rina immediately reached this conclusion.
It had to be said, in a certain sense, she absolutely nailed it. But obviously—if the factory's production line had still been usable, Devimon would have already been running at full throttle, mechanically modifying his subordinates nonstop.
Mechanical modification would instantly boost their power, and being mechanized would also enhance the effectiveness of the Black Gear's control. It was practically a two-for-one deal.
But due to the lack of matching enhancement templates, Devimon had only managed to restart the one remaining functional line in the factory…
He had painstakingly gathered materials from across File Island, and just when the finished products were ready to harvest, Zero swooped in and stole the fruits of his labor.
Either way, these two prototype pieces of equipment would never be handed over to Devimon. Thus, Andromon might as well give them to Zero and Hajime, using them instead to deal with Devimon himself.
After talking so long, Zero and the others still hadn't seen what these two pieces of equipment actually looked like. Following Andromon's guidance, they now headed deep into the factory complex.
"These two items are completed products, crafted from the latest Imperial blueprints. Although they're experimental models without extensive combat data, their power is still assured."
As he spoke, Andromon led them into the depths of the factory. After passing through multiple security locks, he successfully opened the vault.
Only Andromon, as the factory's guardian, could unlock these security doors. Trying to force them open would trigger the self-destruct mechanism and annihilate the entire factory.
Therefore, Devimon couldn't truly control this factory, relying entirely on Andromon as an intermediary.
With a heavy groan, the alloy doors of the vault slowly opened, releasing a cloud of dissipating white mist. In the next moment, two pieces of equipment came clearly into view.
One of them was a weapon with a shockingly massive barrel—just the cannon alone was as tall as a two-story building. Its gleaming silver body was styled like a revolver, though anyone could see at a glance this wasn't a revolver in any normal sense.
Before Andromon could say a word, Zero subconsciously blurted out—
"The Trident Revolver?!"
Yes, he was extremely familiar with this weapon. The moment he saw it, his DigiCore even skipped a beat.
The Trident Revolver, forged entirely from Chrome Digizoid—its sheer design made it terrifying enough as a blunt-force weapon, even without firing a shot.
Not to mention its astonishing firepower, which could rival MetalGreymon's proudest attack, Giga Destroyer…
…Though limited in its depiction in the anime, according to official lore, that weapon was literally nuclear-level.
And this Trident Revolver was exactly the weapon belonging to the direct evolution of GeoGreymon—RizeGreymon.
…A Metal Empire prototype, huh? I see now. This must be a subspecies modification developed based on MetalGreymon's data; that explains everything.
The Metal Empire's development had several significant turning points. Besides the first-generation modifications represented by Andromon, which laid the foundations of the Empire, large-scale cooperative projects soon began.
Among those projects, collaborations with dragon-type Digimon were especially successful, producing several classics—such as MetalSeadramon, one of the Dark Masters, and MetalGreymon, from the original Adventure's main partner lines. All these were creations of that era.
But clearly, the Metal Empire wasn't satisfied stopping there; they pushed further upgrades onto their schedule, ultimately resulting in the item before them.
Without exaggeration, possessing this weapon would instantly push Zero's combat strength up to an Ultimate level.
Immediately afterward, everyone's eyes shifted to the second item.
It was a set of shoulder-mounted grenade launchers, equipped with a pair of jet wings. Although it couldn't sustain long-distance flight, it at least allowed for short-term aerial maneuvers and better engagement of airborne targets.
This set of equipment looked even more familiar, obviously something stripped straight from MetalGarurumon's Mega-level arsenal.
However, for MetalGarurumon itself, this was merely "support equipment." Its real devastating attacks were the missiles fired from its chest and the Absolute Zero breath unleashed using its own inherent power.
These grenade launchers usually served as support fire in coordination with its chest missiles in the original story, while the jet wings enabled aerial maneuverability.
Being auxiliary equipment, it couldn't provide genuine Mega-level power. But going toe-to-toe with an Ultimate-level opponent? More than enough.
These two sets of equipment, from a certain point of view, seemed suspiciously custom-made for Zero and Hajime—making one seriously doubt whether the screenwriter had done it intentionally.
But thinking carefully about it, it probably was intentional. After all, the Metal Empire's ultimate research culminated in Machinedramon. Prior to that, their projects were precisely mechanical Ultimate and Mega-level Digimon like RizeGreymon and MetalGarurumon.
Considering the timing, these prototype items appearing now was perfectly reasonable.
As for why these weapons weren't given directly to the Chosen Children… probably because their evolution routes had been clearly mapped out in advance. Artificially pushing them ahead wouldn't have worked.
And besides, the Chosen Children themselves were critical test subjects for the research project "Direct Impact of Human Emotions on Digimon Evolution." To ensure the observational results were authentic and reliable, external interference naturally had to be avoided.
In fact, to guarantee reliability completely, there should've been control groups too—and judging by Adventure 02, the Chosen Children indeed numbered more than eight.
Anyway, as for these two items right now, Zero and Hajime naturally wouldn't hesitate to accept them gratefully. With these weapons in hand, they had another powerful card to play against Devimon.
But now, a rather practical issue arose…
"…Uh, how exactly are we supposed to carry these things around?!"