The Digivice hanging at Rina's waist vibrated sharply, and in that instant, both Zero and Rina snapped to attention.
…Great. Fantastic. Trouble just had to come knocking again!
"This weird situation—is it related to Digimon?"
Zero was certain Digimon possessed the ability to erode networks. But ordinarily, Digimon in the Digital World couldn't affect the Real World—unless the two worlds had begun overlapping to some degree.
Like in Tamers and Savers—there were arcs where, due to world-overlap, Digimon "strayed" into the Real World and caused all kinds of disasters.
Including movies, similar events weren't rare at all.
But for something like this to happen the moment Zero returned to the Real World, it was hard not to suspect there might be some sort of connection.
But right now, the problem was—if this really was a Digimon's doing, how were they supposed to deal with it?
Rina lifted the Digivice, noticing the screen flashing faintly. Following the direction of that glow, she arrived at a powered-off arcade machine tucked in a corner.
It seemed to be shut down for repairs due to some malfunction. No one was nearby.
Rina pointed the Digivice at the machine's dark screen, and at once, a new option popped up.
Rina read it aloud…
"…Login Jump? What does that even mean?"
Fortunately, the Digivice came with built‑in instructions. After skimming them, Rina's eyes immediately lit up.
"Zero-kun, we've got a way… It says here we can use this Login Jump function to send a computerized body into the network."
"Computerized body?"
Zero froze only for a second before understanding. As Digimon, he and Hajime counted as "computerized-bodies." Even though coming to the Real World gave them tangible, movable forms, they were still, at their core, data.
But Rina was different. In the Digital World she had been half‑computer-form at best, but here in the Real World she was undeniably flesh and blood.
And this so-called "network world" wasn't the Digital World—it was a space formed by humanity's own internet.
In a way, it could be seen as a "buffer zone" between the Real World and the Digital World.
If that was the case, then the only ones capable of using Login Jump would be Zero and Hajime. Rina herself couldn't enter a data space this way.
Zero instantly remembered the movie Our War Game.
This situation felt eerily similar.
"Let me go," Zero said without a moment's hesitation. Hajime, beside him, immediately added:
"I'm coming too, I—"
But before she could finish, Zero cut her off.
"…Hajime, you still haven't fully recovered, right? It's better if you leave this to me. Don't worry—I'll definitely solve the problem~"
Spouting a magnificent death flag, Zero looked completely confident.
Hajime seemed like she wanted to argue, but eventually she swallowed her words and gave a small nod.
"…Then, Zero-kun, you have to be careful."
"Heh, relax. Rina—please!"
Rina nodded. With everyone's attention focused on the glitching machines across the arcade, she quietly aimed the Digivice at Zero…
"…Then—Login Jump!"
In that instant, the Digivice flashed, and Zero's body dissolved into a stream of glittering zeroes and ones, sucked straight into the Digivice.
The data then flowed through it as a transfer point, surging entirely into the arcade machine.
...
The sensation was indescribably strange. Zero couldn't articulate it—his body felt suddenly as light as a feather, followed by a strong sense of vertigo, like his whole existence was tumbling weightlessly.
…Of course, this was just metaphor. As a Koromon, Zero didn't exactly have a "head" or "feet." It was purely instinctive sensation.
When his vision cleared again, what unfolded before him was a massive cubic space formed from countless intersecting grid-lines.
The inside looked empty, yet data streams like glowing cables wove in and out from all directions.
Zero experimentally nudged one with his body—and immediately, rapid flashes of game screens flicked across his mind.
No doubt about it.
This bizarre space was the network-space of the arcade…
And in the distance were passageways blocked by shimmering digital barriers—encrypted connections linking to the nationwide arcade network.
The peculiar sight made Zero click his tongue in awe.
The Digital World might be made of data, but its geography often resembled the Real World.
But this space—this finally felt like an actual "network world."
After that initial moment of wonder, Zero immediately began searching for the "culprit."
He didn't need to look long.
He spotted them almost at once—
…Scores—no, almost hundreds—of jellyfish-like Digimon with a single huge eye.
Zero recognized them at a glance—
…Kuramon.
Baby-level Virus Digimon with extremely high evolution potential, just like Koromon. Practically any Devil-type could evolve from Kuramon.
And in the middle of that swarm, surrounded like some thin, ghost-like figure with an oversized mouth—
…Tsumemon, a Virus Rookie Digimon, the evolution of Kuramon.
Right now, that Tsumemon had its enormous jaws wide open, voraciously chomping down on a data stream. Its feeding was so crude that chunks of data scattered everywhere, and those fragments were being snatched up by the surrounding Kuramon.
"…They're devouring data from the human network?"
For Digimon, a human-created network world was literal "paradise."
In an age where the internet had become ubiquitous, the speed of information flow was nothing short of explosive.
Every moment, every second, billions of data packets raced through cyberspace.
And for Digimon who grew stronger by consuming data, this massive feast—free, effortless, uncontested—was like mice falling into a rice vat.
Among the Kuramon, many who had gulped down the loose fragments were already evolving into Tsumemon.
Baby-level evolution to Baby II didn't require much data, but for so many to advance at once—it showed just how happily they were gorging themselves.
Zero, on the other hand, felt his liver burn with fury.
"…Those are players' hard-earned save files—valuable data! You little shits—spit them all back out!!!"
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