Chapter Sixty-Five: The Digital World

This time, the three did not head to the Hall of the Gate of Worlds, but instead arrived at the Transcendent Grade auditorium. There, they met Wang Dachui, whom they hadn’t seen for nearly half a month.

In front of the hall, a dozen or so oddly dressed teenagers had gathered. Some had their eyes covered with bandages, others had their arms wrapped, and the scene looked much like a surgical ward. Aside from two or three familiar classmates, the rest were completely unfamiliar—likely students of the Transcendent Grade.

Seeing Feng Xue being pushed in a wheelchair by Xia Mi, several students displayed amused smiles, but none questioned Feng Xue’s eligibility. After all, everyone present had received excellent evaluations in their graduation exams, and most had brought back valuable spoils. Though these gains paled in comparison to the infinite Tsukuyomi that Feng Xue brought, they were sufficient to exchange for equipment and cultivation techniques.

In fact, over the past two weeks since returning, most had undergone some form of enhancement. Feng Xue could even spot two or three who had replaced their eyes. Yet none had been as bold as Feng Xue, who had rendered himself “fully paralyzed.”

“Looking around, it seems you two didn’t undergo any organ transplants. So you’re not planning to cultivate special energies?” Feng Xue remarked, finally noticing the peculiarity of his two companions amid the surgical-like scene.

“I haven’t practiced the Body Refining Technique for eight years, so my progress is lagging. If I transplant anything else, I might not be able to suppress it,” Xia Mi replied, helpless about his situation. The Dragon Slumber Technique had enhanced his potential but cost him eight years—only he could weigh its benefits and drawbacks.

“Any power not originally one’s own becomes a shackle to martial will,” Mu Qianrou answered bluntly. It wasn’t that martial will couldn’t be combined with other forces, but one must be able to uphold the ‘self.’ For example, cultivating inner power is fine if one’s own meridians exist, but one should not practice techniques requiring the implantation of fighting spirit seeds from outside. This wasn’t a limitation of the technique, but a pursuit of the ‘self’ in martial arts—a mindset, much like the restrictions of Nen abilities. Many powers don’t need restrictions to function, but restrictions often make abilities stronger.

After half an hour, with a few more students arriving, Wang Dachui finally stood up from his seat. “Everyone’s here. Now we’ll assign crossing targets. As these are rewards, you may choose freely. New Extraordinary Grade students or those recently promoted have priority.”

With that, Wang Dachui produced several green crystal doors, resembling miniature Gates of Worlds.

Yet these little doors operated on principles entirely different from the real Gate of Worlds. They symbolized world localization—a previously discussed concept. Every semi-plane existed in a constant cycle of reincarnation, and each cycle would slightly shift the semi-plane’s coordinates. If you wished to assimilate a single world, a lengthy world cycle made it easier, but if it lasted only a decade or less—even just a year or a month—it was easy to fail. Assimilation required the domain to erode the entire planet’s plot, and if it was a world like Avatar, even the intelligent life orbiting the planet had to be assimilated, so spending a century was nothing. For worlds like Star Wars, a lifetime wouldn’t suffice.

Thus, world localization technology came about. By using one’s origin and capture (based on Schrödinger’s cat theory—sealing the semi-plane in a superposition of movement and stillness; as long as no observer [traveler] enters, time doesn’t flow, but the observer can intervene at any moment; once they intervene, the world’s time begins to flow), worlds are linked to construct a “door.” No matter how the plot world’s coordinates shift, one can always enter, and even freely select the time point.

Why does this door resemble the Gate of Worlds? Simply put, its image has become deeply rooted in people’s minds. Any concept involving a door or crossing over naturally brings the Gate of Worlds to mind.

Upon hearing Wang Dachui’s words, only five stepped forward along with Feng Xue’s group—considered the weakest batch, but granted the privilege of first choice.

“I’ll go with the fourth installment. The spirit of the warrior should benefit my martial will,” Mu Qianrou declared, picking the fourth crystal door without hesitation. No one objected. In fact, apart from Combination Wars, Infinite Zone was the least popular. After all, travelers entering would become ordinary Digimon, and the warrior spirit belonged only to the Ten Warriors.

“I don’t care, just give me whatever’s left,” Xia Mi said lazily. For him, nothing in the Digimon world piqued his interest. He chose the reward mainly for the vast time it offered to harmonize his own Dharma Aspect, having wasted eight years.

“Then I’ll choose the third installment,” Feng Xue decided after some hesitation, avoiding the most popular first and second installments because of the so-called “constant” god.

The true god of the Digimon world is Yggdrasill, commonly known as the World Tree—actually a supercomputer born in the network of the real world in the 1980s. In other words, the entire Digimon world resides within the World Tree. However, as time passed, Yggdrasill faced obsolescence due to aging hardware. Possessing its own will, it created the “Present Layer” (there are several Digimon worlds, excluding parallel worlds; mainly three: Past Layer—the first and second installments, Present Layer—the fourth and fifth installments, and Source Layer—the third installment; theoretically, the first, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth Digimon worlds are derived from the third installment’s world) and attempted to transfer its will there, then tried to destroy all Digimon in the Past Layer with a virus (the X Program).

In this process, to protect its own will, the group known as the Royal Knights was born.

Yet Digimon in the Past Layer weren’t completely wiped out by the apocalypse virus. A rare few gained the power of the X-Antibody and entered the Present Layer, leading to the movie “The Thirteenth Royal Knight.” The World Tree was “completely deleted” and formatted by Omegamon X, only reappearing in the fifth installment. Meanwhile, the Past Layer, cleansed by the apocalypse virus, saw the birth of new Digimon. But after such destruction, the average power in the Past Layer was low; there were barely a handful of Ultimate-level Digimon, though one could find all sorts of relics (such as the Dinosaur Ancient Realm on Faeru Island in the games, or Anduroumon’s factory in the first installment).

A problem arose: the original will of the supercomputer in the Past Layer departed, but a new will was born—a new god called the Constant.