Kakaka…
As Chen Ze activated his self-written "Artificial DigiCore" program, an oddly familiar mechanical sound abruptly echoed from within his body, startling Renamon into immediately standing upright.
"Have you lost your mind?!"
Renamon recognized that sound clearly—this was precisely the noise made when the Eater had "torn open" Meramon's body.
It was immediately after that mechanical grinding noise that Meramon became sustenance for the Eater, providing the initial data template for its birth and transformation.
"I'm different from those half-baked hackers; I'm only doing this because I'm confident."
After spending so much time with Renamon, Chen Ze naturally sensed the worry beneath her words.
But he didn't pay it much mind. He dared attempt this precisely because he had absolute confidence—he wasn't reckless enough to gamble with his own life, even if it was just a digital avatar.
Kakaka…
Just as Chen Ze expected, the entity "born" from his avatar wasn't as violent as a real Eater.
Though Chen Ze could feel Agumon's data being absorbed and broken down, this absorption didn't compromise his own stability. Instead, it seemed to purify the excess, messy data.
Evolution was never smooth sailing. Even among identical Digimon, there was a clear hierarchy in strength.
This touched upon the problem of redundant data: generally speaking, the purer and more structurally complete a Digital Core was, the stronger its evolved form became—a nearly immutable truth in the Digital World.
That was why powerful Digimon like Renamon were so selective—they absorbed only data they needed, and had the right to be that choosy.
"Urk!"
After a moment, sensing that the entity inside him had finished forming, Chen Ze decisively opened his mouth and spat it out.
Kakaka…
Accompanied by that familiar mechanical sound, a round white object began floating silently in midair.
From its appearance alone, it resembled a specially-crafted spherical object.
Its surface, similar to polished stainless steel, was smooth enough to reflect one's face. Thin, inconspicuous lines crisscrossed every inch of the sphere, dividing it into an irregular grid-like pattern.
"Is this… an Eater?"
Renamon squinted warily at the unfamiliar white sphere, clearly picking up traces of an Eater's essence from its mechanical structure.
And indeed, that was exactly the case—this white sphere was constructed using Eater data, though Chen Ze had mixed in some custom-written code of his own.
Moreover, since this white sphere was composed of Chen Ze's own data, its safety and controllability vastly exceeded those of a typical Eater.
"Well, if you want to call it an Eater, you're not exactly wrong."
After retching a few more times, Chen Ze slowly recovered and weakly responded.
"An egg-shaped Eater?"
Renamon glanced dubiously at Chen Ze, then promptly activated her venomous tongue.
"Who do you think you are—King Piccolo? Using such a revolting way to 'birth' an Eater."
Now it was Chen Ze's turn to freeze mid-gag. But upon reflection, the scene of him spitting out a white sphere did indeed bear a resemblance to that Dragon Ball scene featuring King Piccolo.
Wait, that's not the main point here.
Chen Ze abruptly raised his head, interrupting Renamon just as she seemed ready to spew more venom.
"How do you even know Dragon Ball? Wasn't that anime from last century?"
In Chen Ze's memories, until the appearance of the EDEN network, this world's historical trajectory matched his previous life's Earth exactly—including classic manga such as Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece.
Precisely because of this, when he first reincarnated here, Chen Ze initially mistook this world as simply Earth's "near-future."
"Does that matter?"
Raising an eyebrow slightly, Renamon replied calmly:
"As far as I'm concerned, as long as the data exists on the network, finding it isn't difficult at all."
"On the other hand, first it's The Matrix, now it's Dragon Ball—you really are the 'old fossil' your parents always complained about."
Listening to Renamon's barrage of sarcastic remarks, Chen Ze belatedly realized he'd once again overlooked the fact that Renamon wasn't human.
Perhaps to humans, data on the network had a sense of "memory," replaced continuously by new things as time passed.
But to Digimon, data had no distinction between old or new; it was simply a question of whether they needed it or not, whether it existed or didn't exist.
"Forget it. You'd better explain clearly what this thing actually is."
After their brief exchange, Renamon—realizing the conversation had drifted way off-track—quickly regained her focus and pointed at the floating white sphere, pressing further:
"It seems different from the Eaters we've encountered before?"
Aside from the lack of uncontrollable rampaging, Renamon's strongest impression of the white sphere was that it seemed to have lost the Eater's terrifying ability to assimilate and corrupt all data around it.
"Well, isn't that obvious?"
With a casual wave of Chen Ze's claw, the white sphere quietly suspended in midair suddenly began to rotate.
Kakaka…
As the sphere spun, the irregular "cracks" resembling network lines on its surface started unfolding and rearranging themselves.
In the blink of an eye, a huge fissure split open the previously smooth sphere, revealing a mechanical, cyberpunk-esque eyeball glaring outward.
It closely resembled the Eater's cold, emotionless eye, yet this one exhibited clear emotional fluctuations.
Kakaka…
Perhaps it was adjusting to the newborn world, or simply uncomfortable with its current perspective…
The white sphere's electronic eye continuously rotated, scanning every bit of surrounding information at lightning speed, converting it into genuinely visual imagery.
The white sphere could clearly see Agumon waving its claws…
Chen Ze, through his Agumon avatar, could also clearly see the white sphere's constantly shifting pupil…
This experience of having two distinct viewpoints simultaneously, akin to controlling a clone, momentarily overloaded Chen Ze's brain.
"Ugh… this feels weird."
Evidently struggling with this "shared perspective" setup, Chen Ze quickly decided to partition a separate virtual screen to project the sphere's vision.
"To distinguish it from an actual Eater, I'm calling this an 'Eater (Modified Form)'."
"Of course, you can also call it 'Magic Eye,' or even 'Little Piccolo' if you'd like."
---
A/N: Originally meant to be Erika's exclusive Eater, now it's the protagonist's personal cheat instead!
T/N: heres what Little Piccolo looks like! also it was originally called Bit Eater in canon, but since Chen Ze called it that ill stick with it
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