"Kamishiro recently got entangled in an economic dispute case. Yuuko's father had to deal with that mess, so a lot of Kamishiro's projects got delayed. But now that the case has been resolved, they're rushing to finalize all those projects."
And since Yuuko's the young heiress of Kamishiro Group, naturally she'll have to accompany her father worldwide as his assistant to negotiate all these project deals.
Just sorting everything out could take at least half a year. During that time, Yuuko will inevitably be busy attending various complicated social events, unable to free herself.
But for Kamishiro, exploring the Digital World remains a "top priority." Although this particular project has had someone assigned for the past decade, naturally, it's still under that person's management.
And that person responsible for the project… Zero had actually met him before. It was Akemi Suedou, one of the heads of Kamishiro's Information Technology division.
Aside from Kamishiro, there's the Aether Foundation. Chairwoman Lusamine is deeply fascinated with the Digital World, but after that incident half a month ago, Lillie suddenly insisted on traveling alone to clear her mind.
Unable to deny her daughter's wish, Lusamine arranged a vacation for her… Lillie's currently resting on a private resort island somewhere down south, so she won't return anytime soon.
"Uh…"
Zero immediately recalled the bag Lillie had been carrying, which clearly held a major secret!
Obviously, Lillie had hidden this secret from everyone, and upon meeting Zero, she probably realized her secret might be exposed.
He didn't know what she'd been thinking or why she'd chosen to travel alone. Maybe she wasn't yet prepared to reveal her secret, or perhaps there were other considerations…
Speaking of which, even though Lillie was the misplaced heroine from a different franchise, somehow her storyline was subtly aligning with her experience from the other side.
In her own story, after stumbling upon a certain secret, Lillie had also secretly run away with an important creature, traveling to a remote island.
In game terms, it was as if the main storyline hadn't yet reached the point where these events could be triggered. Clearly, both Yuuko and Lillie had nothing to do with the current main plot… at least not yet.
The key main storyline at hand was still clearly the Adventure-era plot. By now, the early storyline had become nearly unrecognizable due to Zero's interference, though the basic structure hadn't changed significantly.
Following the consecutive defeats of Devimon, Etemon, and Myotismon, the commanders of the hidden Dark Army were finally about to reveal themselves.
At this point, both the Real World and Digital World groups had exchanged experiences completely, and the next issue became what to do from here.
The Dark Masters were already testing the Spiral Mountain Program, preparing for their invasion of the human world. According to the original plotline, the Dark Masters' full-scale attack wouldn't be far off.
In other words, Zero's group didn't have much time left to prepare, and before the full-scale invasion, the Dark Army would make an initial incursion.
Not just destroying data in cyberspace, but truly materializing in the real world and exposing the existence of Digimon to the public.
"Oh, speaking of that…"
Rina immediately took out her laptop and quickly logged into a website.
Zero glanced at it—it was a forum for occult enthusiasts who loved discussing supernatural events.
Things like the Loch Ness Monster, UFO sightings, crop circles, and so forth…
Naturally, most had already been debunked as hoaxes designed purely to make money. Zero himself had once been deeply fascinated by these mysteries, but he'd felt a sense of loss after seeing the debunking reports.
This world was indeed full of mysterious and extraordinary things, but obviously, most people never got close enough to see any.
And there was that classic joke…
…As camera equipment improved and smartphones became widespread, the frequency of supernatural sightings sharply decreased~
These forums often had enthusiasts sharing various findings—mostly blurry images that made you want to shout, Were these pixels captured by a landline phone?
But right now, pinned at the top of the forum, there was one photo far clearer than any typical hoax…
…A giant, vividly red stag beetle hidden among the clouds!
The beetle's shape was clearly discernible, definitely not something fabricated by some forced editing. Zero immediately jumped up the moment he saw it:
"A Kuwagamon?!"
Yes, this was precisely the insect-type Digimon that Zero had seen more than once.
Rina had encountered Kuwagamon in the Digital World too, so she immediately recognized the clearly gigantic Kuwagamon in the photo.
There was no mistake—it matched all the features exactly, aside from being several times larger than the typical specimen.
But under that photo's comments, besides genuine curiosity and amazement, most of the replies were full of mockery and sarcasm.
The reason was simple: the photo… was way too clear!
Usually, these supernatural pictures were fuzzy at best, revealing only a rough outline.
But being too clear made people suspicious, wondering if it was Photoshopped. The replies sarcastically said things like, "Everyone knows photos can't be edited, so this must be real."
Others accused the original poster of desperately trying to go viral, saying if such an obviously recognizable monster existed, why were there no news reports about it?
"Um… This one's definitely genuine, no doubt about it. But the problem is, where did that Kuwagamon go afterward?"
Rina shrugged. "No clue. The person who took the picture swore up and down it was real. Kamishiro even investigated the location he gave, but nobody nearby had any similar sightings. However…"
"However?"
"…I did, in fact, discover a Kuwagamon afterward in the cyberspace of a nearby city's net café."
"…"
And that Kuwagamon was subsequently sent back to the Village of Beginnings by Hajime. If that Kuwagamon was indeed the one photographed, that meant…
"…Under certain circumstances, Digimon in cyberspace momentarily manifested in the Real World and then returned?"
This was a fairly reasonable assumption. Evidently, Digimon currently couldn't fully break the wall between cyberspace and reality, only briefly appearing under certain conditions.
But this was already an ominous sign. Soon enough, Digimon would likely break through completely and reach the Real World.
And when that happened, it would certainly become a disaster.
Modern weapons might be effective against Champion-level Digimon, but Ultimate-level Digimon and above, even if defeated, would still unleash devastating counterattacks.
Moreover, Digimon could hide in networks by digitizing themselves, instantly traveling across the globe via network transmission. Humanity's firewalls were utterly powerless against Digimon infiltration.
In theory, Digimon could appear anywhere with network coverage at any time. Such high mobility… was essentially impossible to defend against.
Furthermore, how could modern human society possibly function without networks and electronic devices? Modern weapon systems weren't simple firecrackers ignited by matches; their complex operating systems themselves were their greatest weaknesses.
In Our War Game!, one single Kuramon's intrusion threw an entire country into chaos. After evolving into Diaboromon, it even hijacked two U.S. nuclear missiles. If not for Omegamon stepping in last-minute, Japan would've experienced a nuclear explosion for the second time.
Throughout that incident, the state machinery had been utterly helpless. With networks compromised and electronics disabled, were soldiers supposed to intercept the nukes bare-handed?
Clearly, if Digimon truly intended to invade the human world, the disparity in power was immense. Every Digimon was essentially a trained combatant; even Rookie-level Digimon were incredibly lethal weapons. Ordinary humans were far too weak against them.
Therefore, there was only one thing left to do now…
"…At the very least, we can't allow the Dark Masters to transfer the entire Dark Army into reality. If that happens, it's game over. A few Champion-level Digimon might be manageable, but tens of thousands appearing simultaneously? Forget about it."
Thus, the current priority was strengthening the barrier between cyberspace and reality, keeping the Dark Army's forces from manifesting in the Real World.
Honestly, even dealing with tens of thousands of Digimon invading cyberspace was already headache-inducing. Merely losing complete control of the network would be catastrophic enough for humanity.
But it would still be slightly better than having them all invade reality. Only slightly—but it had to be done step-by-step.
First, reinforce the Reality Barrier, then construct a second wall between cyberspace and the Digital World, using both layers to halt the Dark Army's invasion.
The Dark Army's invasion tool was the Spiral Mountain Program, so to counteract it, they needed a defensive "Wall" of similar scale.
The Dark Army had paid an astronomical price to create the Spiral Mountain Program. Building a countering "Wall" would also consume similarly astounding resources.
"The only good news is… we do have a trump card capable of affecting the Spiral Mountain Program. And for that… we have to thank the dearly departed Datamon~"