Chapter 75: The Call of the Real World (Part Two)

Feng Xue felt a strange sense of déjà vu. Cautiously, he did not follow the mysterious urge, but instead grabbed a small imp beast and threw it through the door. To his astonishment, the creature actually entered the real world—though, to him, the real world appeared as if in slow motion, like a film played frame by frame. Still, he was certain it was indeed the real world of the Digimon universe.

At that moment, Feng Xue finally recalled the scene: the two children on the screen were none other than Ai and Zhen, the Tamer duo from the original story. Of course, they had never truly fulfilled their responsibilities as Tamers.

"Could it be that I've transmigrated into the original story as that little imp beast?" Feng Xue wondered. Suddenly, he spotted not far away a genuine imp beast—not one like himself, whose features had been reduced to just a "QQ face" on his head and belly, but the real three-headed, red-scarfed, red-gloved imp beast.

He immediately launched into the Flying Sickle Kick (though he had already developed the skill [High-Speed Movement], he insisted on manually executing it to hone his technique, reserving skill-based abilities for critical combat moments), vanishing from his spot in an instant.

The imp beast, drawn by the light gate, was about to step through when it noticed the portal had fulfilled its purpose and disappeared. Disappointment was clear on its face as it bounced away from the scene.

It was no joke—this place was the legendary hunting ground of the "Holy Bow Demon." To enter recklessly was to court certain death; lingering was out of the question!

Feng Xue was unaware that he had earned the moniker "Holy Bow Demon" among the local Digimon, but he understood the process at last. Whether for the plot or for some other reason, at the appointed time, a space-time door would appear near every imp beast, and each would receive a subtle urge to enter the real world. However, once a Digimon became the companion of the two children, the gate would close.

By now, Feng Xue realized he had altered the storyline.

"The imp beast has become an imp demon beast. But following narrative inertia, the Leomon will still die. I wonder if he'll fall to Lilithmon, a mutated Vampiromon, or perhaps even Grandracmon," Feng Xue pondered quietly, aware that he could not focus solely on the Digimon world.

His martial skills had stagnated for a century, with combat experience limited by only fighting mature-stage opponents. Now, Ai and Zhen appeared to have reached the right age, meaning at most a year—or a thousand years in the Digimon world—the plot would begin, and the God of Evolution, Ancient Garurumon, would be sent to the real world. At that point, the Digimon world would face the threat of Digimon Death God.

He had no desire to remain and confront Digimon Death God in the Digimon world. For a realm constructed of data, a being like Digimon Death God—whose core was a formatting program—possessed the power to annihilate any Digimon lacking world authority. Without reaching the ultimate stage, fighting such a foe meant certain instant death. Moreover, judging from the original story, the Four Holy Beasts here, much like in Digimon prehistory, harbored malice toward humanoid Digimon. (In prehistory, as portrayed in the fourth series, Lucemon halted the war between humanoid and beast-type Digimon, while the third series established the Four Holy Beasts as entities seeking independence from humans, creating their own gods, since in the Digimon world, everything that appears is considered created.)

For the sake of his martial prowess, Feng Xue had to remain staunchly aligned with the humanoid faction, meaning he was likely to be used as cannon fodder. (In the original, during the Burst Evolution episode, aside from the already ultimate-stage Grandpa and Grandma Digimon, there were pitifully few humanoid Digimon. It seemed the Four Holy Beasts had manipulated things so only beast-type Digimon experienced the Light of Evolution and ascended to the ultimate stage, or forced all Digimon toward beast forms.)

Thus, to evolve and gain more power, to experience the origin ahead of time, he could only seek opportunities in the real world.

He had waited in the Mist Phantom Zone for three hundred years, which should be over two months in the real world, but he still found no chance to enter it.

"What am I supposed to do? The original never explained how Leomon and those 'Wild Number Ones' reached the real world!" As time slipped by, Feng Xue grew increasingly agitated. He had thought that a millennium would temper his character, but in retrospect, the simple, placid Digimon world had preserved his temperament and experience at their original state. (This was actually the result of intentional guidance by the Academy of Transmigrators. After all, if a young man ventured into the Digimon world and returned as an aged soul worn down by millions of years, where would his drive and potential remain? It was precisely the simplicity of the Digimon world that reassured the Academy to let their seeds hone themselves there. Of course, whether they secretly used any mental interference was unknown.)

Day by day, Feng Xue wore down his inner restlessness through constant battle. Now, his prey had evolved from Hell Impmon to powerful Triceramon, Nightmon, and even occasionally Ice Devimon—near the top of the mature stage.

Yet Feng Xue's irritation only grew. Watching the demon-type Digimon endlessly harm each other, he longed to tell them their world was on the verge of destruction by Digimon Death God.

Of course, he could never actually say it. Even if some Digimon believed him, given the Nightmare Legion's typical attitude, they'd surely reply: "Digimon Death God? What the heck is that? If the world is to be destroyed, I'll do it myself!" Or: "At last, we've found an organization! Let's compete with Digimon Death God, see who destroys the world first!"

Believe me, these absurd virus types would absolutely say this!

So Feng Xue turned his agitation into violence, ruthlessly crushing the weak. For two centuries, all Digimon below mature stage in the Mist Phantom Zone lived in terror under the rule of the "Holy Bow Demon," and his name spread far and wide among low-level Digimon as those occasionally transported by light beams carried tales to other regions. (Digimon do not spread information by speaking, but act as radiation sources; simply by contact or observation, one receives certain data from the other. In the original, the Arc Machine could not provide information on Emperor Digimon at first, but did so later—because as Digimon came in contact with Emperor Digimon, they acquired information about other Emperor Digimon.)