"Little Piccolo? Your taste is as bad as ever."
Looking at Chen Ze's face filled with a malicious grin, Renamon could only mutter these words.
She'd casually compared Chen Ze's actions to Piccolo spitting out an egg, never expecting he'd seriously name the modified Eater "Little Piccolo."
This kind of half-joking, half-retaliatory behavior—other than childish, Renamon couldn't find any other word to describe it.
But despite her grumbling, after brief observation, Renamon had indeed noticed this "Little Piccolo" was fundamentally different from the previous Eaters they'd encountered, and thus her inner wariness eased a little.
"What can this thing even do?"
Having reached this point, Renamon hadn't forgotten Chen Ze's earlier statement.
Chen Ze originally intended to use Eater data to produce an "Artificial DigiCore."
In a certain sense, this newly-born Little Piccolo could truly be considered an artificially created Digimon.
Perhaps Chen Ze, who'd never visited the Digital World, didn't fully understand the implications of his actions, but as a native inhabitant of the Digital World, Renamon was crystal clear about them.
In the Digital World, a powerful force known as the "Metal Empire" had once existed. One of their core technologies was precisely this kind of "Artificial DigiCore."
Without enduring lengthy Digivolution or training, this powerful empire could directly manufacture strong Digimon at the Champion or even Ultimate level through mass-producing Artificial DigiCores.
Rumor had it that even the empire's strongest leader had been born this way—a Mega-level Digimon created entirely through artificial means.
Only after this formidable empire mysteriously collapsed did these artificially created mechanical and cyborg Digimon gradually become accepted by King Drasil, officially renamed as belonging to the "Metal Empire" family.
Since then, Digivolution lines exclusive to the Metal Empire merged into the common Digivolution paths available to ordinary Digimon.
If you asked just how powerful the Metal Empire was at its peak…
This could still be glimpsed today from modern Digimon evolved to Ultimate, which more or less retained mechanical or bio-engineered structures and traces of artificial modification.
Even at the Mega stage, a considerable number of Digimon retained mechanical components.
Although Renamon didn't expect Chen Ze to replicate Metal Empire-level Artificial DigiCores, she remained curious about the potential of this "Artificial DigiCore" created with modified Eater data.
"Uh… scouting ahead, maybe?"
Chen Ze, on the other hand, was momentarily stumped by Renamon's question.
After all, his original goal in creating Little Piccolo was simply to have an external "computer" or virtual machine, capable of running experiments too risky to perform on his own body.
For example, testing the experimental-stage "Digivolution Program" or compatibility tests between various system softwares.
As for other, bolder ideas?
Though Chen Ze had some basic concepts, he was still far from actually realizing them.
"Only scouting ahead, for now?"
Hearing this, Renamon immediately revealed a disappointed expression.
Compared to Metal Empire technology, capable of instantly creating Champion-level Digimon or higher, Little Piccolo—still at the mere scouting stage—fell vastly short of what she'd imagined an "Artificial DigiCore" to be.
"Be content already! Being able to scout ahead is good enough."
Speechlessly eyeing Renamon, who clearly lacked understanding of the complexity involved, Chen Ze didn't bother explaining the immense effort and technique required to create Little Piccolo. Instead, he pulled up a virtual screen and granted Renamon partial permissions to control it.
"How does it feel?"
Expertly receiving the access rights from Chen Ze, Renamon, being a Digimon herself, didn't need a separate screen and quickly adjusted to the dual-perspective "clone mode."
"Hmm…"
Little Piccolo's eyeball swiveled randomly, and Renamon, through its perspective, could clearly see her "real body" showing a face of surprise.
"This feeling of seeing myself from outside is quite fascinating."
Renamon was being honest—this experience of observing herself from a "second-person" viewpoint was extremely novel.
With her rich battle experience, Renamon could already imagine the significant advantage of overseeing the battlefield through Little Piccolo's viewpoint.
"Can Little Piccolo be mass-produced?"
After a short period of adaptation, Renamon again posed a question that made Chen Ze's head ache.
"What do you think?"
Chen Ze rolled his eyes irritably, increasingly feeling as if Renamon treated him like Doraemon's dimensional pocket.
"Creating just this one Little Piccolo consumed most of my available data already."
Though Chen Ze wasn't a genuine Digimon, in terms of "needing sufficient data to digivolve," he wasn't fundamentally different from other Digimon.
"What a pity."
Prompted by Chen Ze's reminder, Renamon immediately realized the problem.
Compared to making another "useless" avatar like Little Piccolo, accumulating sufficient data for Digivolution to the next stage was clearly the correct choice for any Digimon.
Perhaps the true use of Little Piccolo at this stage was just to absorb miscellaneous data Chen Ze couldn't directly use himself, avoiding the kind of waste commonly seen among other Digimon.
"So our next mission is to find a jump program that can get us out of EDEN?"
Although phrased as a question, Renamon's tone left no room for doubt.
Now equipped with Little Piccolo, this external "computer" she could freely mess around with, all they needed next was a reliable VPN or VPS-type program that would allow them to leave the virtual network at will.
Compared to hacking into another hacker's computer, finding such software online was infinitely easier—and far safer, without risking detection.
"Yeah, we should now—"
Just as Chen Ze opened his mouth to say something, a sudden explosion erupted from behind them.
BOOM!
Immediately afterward, a familiar tentacle appeared out of thin air, instantly corroding and assimilating all the data it touched.
"An Eater?!"
With the black-and-white tentacle's rapid movements, everything around them disintegrated into mosaic-like distortion.
And behind it, the "human-shaped" form appeared ready at any moment to break through the Digital Space barrier and directly descend upon Kowloon Lv. 4.
"How did it track us down?!"
Without time to consider further, Renamon and Chen Ze, acting with perfect synchronization, bolted into a run.
"Well, guess we have no choice but to go forward now—you're really my own personal calamity!"
Staring helplessly at the entrance to Kowloon Lv. 5, now just within arm's reach, Chen Ze couldn't decide whether to lament his own terrible luck or complain about Renamon's extraordinary capacity as a "bringer of bad luck."
Ever since teaming up with her, not a single thing had gone smoothly.
---
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl
Okay, real talk: I am extremely hungry for money, so I'm raising membership prices soon.
BUT.
If you're already subscribed before the change, your current price stays the same as long as you remain subscribed.
So for example:
Person A is already subscribed at $7/month
Price later goes up to $14/month
Person A still pays $7/month if they stay subscribed
Meanwhile:
Person B was not subscribed before the change
After the price becomes $14/month
Person B has to pay $14/month
So yes, prices are going up, but existing members get to keep their current rate if they stay in.
Which means:
If you want the cheaper price, join before the change. Otherwise, if you subscribe later, you'll be paying the new higher amount.
Price changes happen on Monday 16th, North America time.
last day of ads