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"You actually talked the Response Team captain into backing down. Kid's got a silver tongue."
Inside Sideswipe, Ethan sat in the driver's seat while Jake praised him from shotgun.
After Ethan's speech about Digimon and childhood, the captain hadn't brought up the child-card issue again.
Ethan had then explained how he'd gotten into the Rift, and the captain had adjusted his plans accordingly — deciding to regroup first rather than push forward.
Officer Hayes's position on the periphery was relatively safe, but the Rift's difficulty had spiked. Tier 3 monsters could show up anywhere now. Whether it was the Response Team or the police, their priority was protecting civilians.
The smartest move was to consolidate forces and reassess.
After giving the Response Team a direction, Ethan parted ways with them. Sideswipe remembered every turn they'd taken — being a car had its perks.
Right now, they were heading back to where the students had been. Ethan's Scrap Yard and Big Big Wolf were still there; he needed to recall his cards before regrouping with anyone else.
The distance was short. Within minutes, the four of them arrived.
From a distance, they could see Stitch peeling bark off a tree out of sheer boredom.
Ethan got out and did a headcount. Everyone was accounted for.
But the college students were gone.
"Where'd they go?" Ethan asked.
"They said their summons could fly fast enough, so they went to find their own friends."
"Then why didn't they leave with Blurr earlier? Would've saved us the trip."
"They said they forgot."
"...Alright then."
Ethan had forgotten too, honestly. He'd been too focused on helping to think about logistics.
Lily and Sophie spotted Pikachu and went over to pet him. Jake wandered to the edge of the Scrap Yard to watch Big Big Wolf work.
"Uncle Wolfie." He'd picked up the nickname from Ethan.
He knew Ethan's cards were special, so he followed his lead on how to address them.
"What's up?" Big Big Wolf stopped tinkering and looked over.
"Are all these things inventions?" Jake pointed to a pile of objects at the edge that looked like pure junk.
"That's right!" Big Big Wolf's eyes lit up. He rushed over. "Let me give you the full tour."
"These — Magnetic Shoes. Put them on and you stick to any metal surface."
"This — the Shadow Blade. Fires concentrated energy slashes."
"And this is my Flying Potion. Drink it, and you'll have the ability to fly for a short time."
"Wait, Uncle Wolfie," Jake interrupted. "Did you make that potion... here? In the junkyard?"
"Yeah, is there a problem?"
"It's a junkyard. Is it even sanitary?"
"Sigh — you can't judge an invention by the cleanliness of its laboratory!" Big Big Wolf launched into a rambling defense about how the greatest scientists worked in the most unconventional conditions, and how judging a potion by its brewing environment was a sign of limited thinking, and—
Jake's eyes glazed over within ten seconds.
"Uncle Wolfie." Ethan walked over after Big Big Wolf had exhausted most of his monologue. "Have you made anything useful?"
Big Big Wolf immediately prepared to showcase his collection again.
"Uncle Wolfie — the monsters we're fighting are Tier 3 minimum. Most of this stuff won't scratch them."
Two seconds of silence.
Big Big Wolf rummaged through the pile and pulled something out. "This — Invisibility Potion."
Ethan shook his head. "Those monsters have sensing abilities. And our goal is to break the Rift, not hide from it."
Big Big Wolf pulled out another device — the fuel launcher that had burned down the forest during training.
"Too many civilians. We'd cause collateral damage."
Another invention. Rejected. Another. Rejected.
After the fifth rejection, Big Big Wolf's patience snapped. "Just tell me what kind of invention you want, and I'll build it!"
"Is there something that can one-shot everything? Sky, earth, air — all of it?"
Big Big Wolf stared at him for two seconds. "Do I look like a genie to you?"
"Don't you?"
Big Big Wolf stamped his foot. "As the number one inventor of the Green Pastures, I'm telling you — no such thing exists!"
"Fine, fine." Ethan felt a flicker of regret but moved on. "Then build another mech like the one from before. Just make it tougher this time — don't let it fall apart from a couple of hits."
"Now you're talking." Big Big Wolf agreed immediately and headed back to work.
Ethan chatted with his other summons for a while, then recalled everyone except Pikachu and Big Big Wolf. Break time — keeping them all out was pointless and burned energy.
He still had Naruto on hand for emergencies.
Jake had the backpack, and the girls had already eaten. Now it was time to plan.
"So what do we do now?" Jake asked. He was always the one to open discussions — the social glue between the two sides.
Without him, Ethan would've had almost no contact with Sophie and Lily. Even now that they were all friends, if Jake wasn't around, the chances of casual conversation plummeted.
"That's probably up to Ethan," Lily said.
All three of them turned to look at him.
Their combined strength was decent by college standards. Against Ethan? It was nothing. They'd watched 2,100 Psionic worth of summons get demolished by one Naruto.
Their entire worldview had cracked that day.
"I want to fight the BOSS," Ethan said after a moment. "But I probably can't win. Not yet."
At the current difficulty, Tier 3 monsters were all Epic-grade. MetalGreymon was only slightly stronger than a single one. They'd needed MagnaAngemon's Heaven's Gate to actually eliminate them — and even then, seven of the ten from earlier had been sealed, not killed. Only three left actual loot.
Without the Response Team providing support damage, MetalGreymon and MagnaAngemon couldn't have handled it alone.
To push further, he needed Mega-level evolution.
But he couldn't produce a Tier 3 Digivice. Every attempt had failed.
As he thought about it, something clicked.
If a normal Tier 3 card base couldn't handle the Digivice... what about a special one?
Ethan opened his System inventory and looked at the Special Card Base he'd received from the monthly rankings.
It might be worth a try.
Plz Throw Powerstones