"Are you still angry?"
Ten minutes later, Renamon carefully asked as she leisurely followed behind Chen Ze.
"I'm not angry!"
Perhaps he'd spent too long crossing between worlds, or maybe it was this body's influence…
Chen Ze realized he was gradually growing accustomed to being treated like a child—his behavior now even beginning to resemble one.
If this were his previous self, he certainly wouldn't have shown such obvious emotions, acting exactly like a child throwing a tantrum.
"But you're clearly angry, aren't you?"
Utterly incapable of understanding why Chen Ze refused to admit the truth, Renamon bluntly exposed his lie without hesitation.
"Ugh, forget it."
Sighing helplessly, Chen Ze quickly realized there was absolutely no point in arguing with such a pure, genuine fool.
Rather than dwelling on this, his priority now was figuring out exactly what had happened—why he'd "crossed over" once again.
From what he'd observed in the past ten minutes, Chen Ze confirmed that he'd indeed traveled again, this time appearing in late-20th-century Japan.
After all, in his own era, there certainly weren't so many shops around. Instead, automated, unmanned stores dominated the streets.
Particularly in Japan, where EDEN technology had become widespread, the EDEN terminals scattered everywhere were the hallmark of that era.
"You really have no clue what's going on right now?"
"This truly has nothing to do with me."
Renamon shook her head firmly, equally bewildered by the current situation. She was certain she'd done nothing beyond loading him with Agumon's data.
"Nothing to do with you… Then what is that?"
Not expecting useful information from Renamon anyway, Chen Ze was about to say something else when he suddenly froze, mouth gaping in astonishment.
"..."
Following Chen Ze's gaze, Renamon also turned—and instantly, a look of surprise crossed her face.
"The Digital World?"
Under the pitch-black night sky, the silent stars suddenly displayed countless digital reflections composed entirely of zeros and ones…
Then, without warning, a brilliant stream of colors silently swept across the horizon, projecting directly from the illusory digital space into reality itself.
It was a stream seemingly composed purely of information—a clear sign that data was transforming from virtual to physical.
Especially for Renamon, a native inhabitant of the Digital World, her eyes widened at this sight, as though attempting to discern the very essence of this mysterious data.
"The Digital World…?"
Repeating Renamon's words subconsciously, Chen Ze suddenly seemed to recall something crucial. Without hesitation, he dashed toward the direction where the data was "falling."
Hikarigaoka, combined with reflections from the Digital World…
Chen Ze immediately thought of the Digimon Adventure movie he'd watched in his previous life—Birth of Koromon.
If he wanted to understand exactly what was happening, or return to his own world, this could be his only lead.
Is this the world of the first Digimon Adventure? The world of the 'Chosen Children'?
At the end of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st, computer and information technologies underwent rapid development, marking humanity's first steps into an unprecedented digital era.
Accelerating information technology, intelligent electronic devices, global networks…
Virtually every aspect of future 21st-century living was foreshadowed during this pivotal time.
Yet few knew that rapid technological progress brought not only convenience but also gave birth to a completely unknown parallel world.
A world composed entirely of electronics and information, whose growth relied on humanity's reality—but ultimately would surpass the physical world itself.
The inhabitants of that world called themselves "Digimon," and the place they lived in was known as the "Digital World."
In theory, the real world and the Digital World were two fundamentally distinct realms, differing vastly in everything from basic lifeforms to physical laws, sharing almost no commonalities.
Yet from a practical standpoint, these vastly different worlds had one crucial point of intersection—cyberspace.
Precisely because the real world developed internet technology, the Digital World was born and evolved, inevitably leading to an eventual "collision" between these worlds.
Yet no one anticipated how much earlier than expected this "collision" would occur.
In 1995, near Hikarigaoka in Tokyo's Nerima Ward, the unknown Digital World and reality collided for the very first time, completely unnoticed by humanity.
First, two mysterious "outsiders" suddenly appeared in this world. Then, overflowing data from the Digital World traveled through the internet, reconstructing and manifesting itself physically for the first time in reality.
This initially intangible data stream underwent some kind of quantum transformation, reconstructing protein-like structures in the material world, finally appearing in its earliest form—as a Digi-Egg.
"Egg?"
And the entire process of this Digi-Egg's emergence from nothingness into existence was witnessed by a little girl not yet three years old.
Or, more precisely, it was this girl's unconscious guidance that allowed a data stream—otherwise destined to vanish—to traverse the internet, truly manifesting in the human world.
"Egg!"
Standing in front of the family's study room computer, the little girl named Kari tilted her head upwards, clumsily calling out.
Where she stared, a stream of data composed entirely of zeros and ones struggled to break through the boundary of cyberspace, gradually manifesting physically into reality.
"Kari?"
Hearing the little girl's shout, a boy just a few years older soon appeared at the study room doorway, rubbing sleepily at his eyes.
Then, he too witnessed the entire scene as the Digi-Egg slowly emerged from the computer screen.
His eyes widened, curiosity mingling with fear.
Unlike the naïve little girl, the boy had some basic understanding of the world—enough to know computers weren't supposed to "give birth" to eggs.
Yet the egg clearly emerged from the computer, undeniably shaking his still-forming worldview.
"Big brother?"
Hearing a sound behind her, Kari first glanced back at her older brother, then returned her gaze to the Digi-Egg now slipping out of the screen. Instinctively, she opened her arms.
Plop!
In the next moment, the large Digi-Egg—the first ever to appear physically in the human world—landed firmly into Kari's embrace.