A month had passed in the blink of an eye since the Hikarigaoka Incident.
For Chen Ze, who had returned to his original world, everything felt like nothing more than a dream. He had awakened once again in his teenage body, as though none of it had ever happened.
Agumon, YukimiBotamon, Botamon—even the fleeting appearance of that blue Agumon variant—all seemed now like figments of a fantastical dream.
Yet deep down, Chen Ze knew with absolute certainty that it was no illusion. It had been a genuine journey to another world.
During that otherworldly adventure, he had participated in one of the Digital World's major incidents—the Hikarigaoka Incident—but his role had been more akin to an observer, a supporting character on the sidelines.
Besides himself, the only other participant whose identity remained a mystery was Renamon.
Even now, Chen Ze still had no idea how exactly he'd returned to this world. Perhaps only that enigmatic Renamon truly knew.
In fact, Chen Ze had good reason to suspect that he'd been dragged into the incident largely because of Renamon.
"What are you thinking about?"
Just as Chen Ze was lost in thought, a clear and melodious voice, tinged faintly with elegance, came through his headset—a voice audible only to him.
"I'm thinking about what else I should buy."
Expertly typing in a URL that appeared almost like random gibberish, Chen Ze jumped across several intermediate servers before finally arriving at a webpage dominated by black and blood-red hues.
This specialized dark web was dedicated exclusively to selling software and tools hackers needed. Typically, gaining entry required complicated methods to bypass the outermost firewalls.
Chen Ze had previously bought his EDEN virtual goggles through this very channel.
Honestly, if it weren't for the inability to obtain high-end equipment through regular channels, he wouldn't bother purchasing anything here.
It was simply too troublesome, and the markup was always severe.
If not for Chen Ze's own status as a high-level hacker, with personal expertise in network security, he wouldn't even have touched the dark web.
"What a bunch of boring people."
Chen Ze glanced briefly at the overflow of data on his screen. Clearly, someone was scanning his current IP, attempting to track down his real identity and address.
This was exactly what the so-called "dark web" was—a lawless, shadowy realm hidden beneath the surface of the ordinary internet.
Stealing personal information, hijacking accounts and passwords, directly charging other people's credit cards—
Such unscrupulous activities were commonplace among the hackers who prowled this space.
Indeed, this was why Chen Ze disliked shopping on the dark web. Without the surveillance of state-level power, transactions here relied entirely on the seller's personal integrity.
Fortunately, the dark web site Chen Ze currently accessed was comparatively reputable, with decent scale and service. Problems rarely arose here.
Still, some self-proclaimed elite hackers occasionally exploited vulnerabilities to intercept and sell traders' personal data.
This was why Chen Ze never used his regular accounts and passwords on unfamiliar sites. Instead, he relied on specialized software to temporarily generate login credentials.
This time was no exception. Even if the hacker managed to intercept Chen Ze's current password, it would be impossible to use it to deduce his commonly used credentials.
What bothered Chen Ze a little was that this hacker seemed to actually know his stuff, even attempting to reverse-track Chen Ze's real IP through the server jumps he'd used.
"Seems I've been gone too long—someone forgot the name of the War God."
...
"The Pale War God?"
Across the world, a greasy-looking, middle-aged man sat before his computer screen, his face abruptly changing as he recognized the ID he had just acquired.
While the title "Pale War God" was undeniably chuuni, in certain circles it carried a reputation no less formidable than a legitimate cyber-police force.
In fact, on some hacker-infested dark webs, this moniker caused more headaches than professional law enforcement.
Because its user never concealed their username, any moderately skilled hacker could easily obtain it.
Yet beyond that single username, no one had ever successfully cracked further—passwords, emails, or other personal details remained unbreachable.
In other words, on a dark web where anonymity reigned supreme, this person openly using the same username repeatedly was clearly supremely confident in their abilities.
"Hasn't this guy been gone for a long time? Why is he back again?"
Quickly hammering at his keyboard, the greasy man immediately deleted all data from the expensive server he'd paid dearly for.
Unsurprisingly, a giant pop-up window appeared on his desktop the very next moment.
[I will find you! It doesn't matter if you've deleted all your logs.]
The man's lips curled into a slightly savage grin. Looking at the provocative message, he had no doubts about the Pale War God's technical prowess.
He just thought this chuuni brat was too arrogant—arrogant enough to openly provoke another elite hacker. He intended to teach the kid just how vast the world really was.
"Find me? Let's see if you have the skills!"
Hesitating only briefly, the greasy man decisively activated another computer at his side, planning to flood the dark web with massive amounts of junk data, thereby completely severing the other hacker's trail.
However, before this idea fully formed in his mind, yet another enormous pop-up window appeared on his screen.
And this time, it displayed a dynamic, cartoonish golden fox.
"How is this possible?!"
The man's eyes widened sharply. While many hackers could infiltrate or restore server data, doing both simultaneously and in such a short span was extraordinarily rare.
"Why wouldn't it be possible?"
As if conversing with him in real-time, the golden fox suddenly broke into cartoonish laughter.
"Who the hell are you?"
At this point, the greasy man abandoned his plan of attacking the dark web, instead hurriedly analyzing the source of this dynamic video, hoping to pinpoint the other's physical location.
"Sorry, but before you find me, you'll probably need to make a trip down to the police station yourself."
As the golden fox's words fell, the greasy man's computer interface automatically redirected to the homepage of the local cyber-police.
"N-No!"
Watching helplessly as his real-world address appeared as an image on the website's homepage, the greasy man let out a despairing cry.
"You damned chuuni, fox-girl-loving freak! I'll never forgive you!"
As someone who dared stir trouble on the dark web, the man's image might have been terrible, but his skill was indisputable.
Thus, once news of this incident spread, the chaos it would stir among hacker circles was inevitable.