(~Digimon Survive~)
Cold, shivering.
When Link awoke, he found himself bound hand and foot, locked in a dimly lit, cramped room with a group of strangers of varying hair colors.
The floor trembled slightly with the sound of waves, and the damp, dark atmosphere and the smell of the sea breeze told him he was likely on the water.
A telecom scam?
But he clearly remembered playing ranked matches in his own home.
Had the authorities gone mad and started kidnapping strangers?
A throbbing pain shot through the back of his head, and Link's mind began flashing back to images. The last thing he remembered was being hit by a truck while in the bathroom of his sixth-floor apartment…
A nightmare… But one cannot dream of things one cannot connect with. This sense of reality made Link realize he might be experiencing some kind of "supernatural" phenomenon.
He quickly calmed himself and listened carefully to the conversations of the other kidnapped people around him.
"Are Team Aqua crazy?! They're openly robbing us, aren't they afraid the League will come after them?"
"Waaah, they stole my Mudkip..."
"Are we going to be sunk? No! I don't want to be fish food!"
"Save us! The legendary hero, Dolphin!"
"Stop it! Can't you give me some peace and quiet before I die?"
"Damn it, if only the power dormant in my left hand hadn't been sealed..."
Team Aqua? League?
Mudkip? Dolphin?
Familiar words flashed through Link's ears, making him realize his current situation—the passengers on the ship hijacked by Team Aqua were in the high seas of Hoenn or nearby.
He didn't know the current time or the timeline he was in, but he figured Team Aqua probably hadn't started waking up the giant fish yet.
As long as there's a chance to negotiate with them, Link still has hope of being rescued!
Just then, a melodious yet sorrowful piano and violin tune echoed in his mind.
This was followed by a mysterious mechanical voice:
[~Digimon Survive~]
[That summer, you and your classmates, Takuma Momotsuka and Minoru Hinata, attended summer camp, but in your confusion, you found yourself trapped in a sea of spider lilies and attacked by a strange creature known as the 'Beast God'.]
System? Or a hallucination?
[In dire straits, the professor sacrificed himself to give the students a chance to escape. In your panic, you fled into the fog.]
Hey, System, take a good look at what you're saying! This has absolutely nothing to do with what happened to you!
[The good times didn't last long. The mysterious creature attacked again. By chance, you picked up a somewhat familiar mysterious machine, awakening the other half of your soul.]
[ A violent impact and a flash of white light caused you to fall into a coma. When you awoke, you found yourself in another world…]
In just half a minute, Link was speechless.
He noticed that along with the system's opening remarks, a palm-sized hard object had appeared in his pocket.
Instinctively, he moved to touch the object, thinking it might be a magical tool to help him escape, but Link's breath caught in his throat.
This touch, this shape, this size, this familiar feeling… the original Digimon Machine!?
Good news: 18-year-old Link had finally become a Chosen Child.
Bad news: He had traveled to the wrong world!
Even so, Link knew this system was his last resort before resorting to negotiating with Team Aqua, so he immediately began to study it.
A moment later, he had explored all the system's functions—
[①~Starting Over: To achieve the ending where everyone survives, simulate the future with the help of the "butterfly"!]
[②~Reading: Start simulating from interrupted memories. (Grayed state)]
[③~Settings: Change settings such as difficulty, skipping dialogue, and skipping battles. (Grayed state)]
[④~Language Analysis: You can speak, listen, read, and write the language of this world without difficulty. (Activated)]
Link seemed thoughtful, as if he had just realized something.
In short, the function of this system is to allow the user, who has traveled to another world, to simulate the future and achieve the so-called "everyone survives" ending.
Although he didn't quite understand who this "everyone" referred to, Link didn't hesitate to choose the [Starting Over] option, trying to find a way to deal with Team Aqua and survive.
After a moment of distraction, the scene before him began to change.
[Upon waking up, you find yourself outside an abandoned school building. A mysterious yellow, round, fluffy creature with white fur at the end of its tail appears before you, calling itself "Pukamon".]
Hey! Which future is this simulator simulating?! I'm clearly kidnapped and on a ship now!
[You hit it off with Pukamon instantly, thinking that the "Beast God" the professor mentioned might actually be a "Digimon."]
[Half an hour later, Takuma Momotsuka, Minoru Hinata, and Aoi Shibuya also arrived outside the school building, each accompanied by a different monster, who identified themselves as Agumon, Falcomon, and Labramon.]
[They, too, had been attacked by Goremon and rescued by monsters, and now that they've reunited with you, they feel much more at ease.]
[However, they soon noticed why you'd been lingering outside the school building—the school building, originally used for summer camp, looked as dilapidated as if it had been through decades.]
[This is too strange; you've only been gone for half a day, why has the building changed so drastically?]
[Not only that, Takuma's phone and Minoru's compass are both malfunctioning, and there's suddenly no satellite signal nearby. ] [
As the sun sets, despite their unease, Labramon was injured while protecting Aoi-senpai and needed immediate medical attention at the school.]
[The school was as dilapidated as expected. The group found a brand-new first-aid kit in the infirmary and quickly bandaged Labramon.]
[Meanwhile, they heard Tominaga-senpai scream from the second floor. In a moment of panic, Hinata Minoru rushed upstairs, followed closely by Takuma and Aoi-senpai.]
[Sensing that the first-aid kit was too new and out of place in the abandoned school, you momentarily lost your focus. When you came to your senses, you found yourself alone with Pukamon.]
[Just as you were about to head upstairs to help the others, you encountered a hostile Digimon on the way.]
[I'm sorry, Digimon couldn't use its full power. You and Pukamon were killed by an air cannon.]
[Simulation ended. You received 0 coins, 0 bits, and 1 band-aid.] [
Band-Aid: Provides quick medical treatment to the recipient; a Band-Aid with a penguin pattern, someone dropped it here...]
Huh?
Killed by Digimon? Was he really that weak in the other world?
Pukamon, evolve into Renamon and save him!
In just a few minutes, Link finished the simulation.
His expression was very strange; he felt his system was unreliable.
(End of Chapter)