Digimon Adventure Chapter 3 : Escape of the Desert

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Chapter 3; Escape from the Desert ① Server Continent

Tonami Town was a port city, but there were no boats floating in its waters. Instead, there were a number of ships buried into the land with their bows pointing towards the sky. These vertical ships were called buildings in this town.

All that was left now was to wait for their guests to arrive — and yet, not a glimpse of the the children could be seen anywhere.

“That is so odd.”[15]

“Could they have taken a shortcut somewhere?”

Giving an aggravated monkey-like screech, “Ukiiii!”, Etemon stomped into his trailer.

The inside of the trailer was like a large karaoke room. A mirrorball hung from the ceiling, while the room was decorated with a sofa that lined three of the walls in a U-shape facing a thirty-inch television screen. There was a table in the empty space the sofa made, littered with drinks and snacks. And, of course, there was a microphone.

There were also computers that acted as communications equipment. Sitting in front of them and glaring at the screens was a single Gazimon, a Digimon whose face looked like a mean, feral cat.

The Gazimon on communications duty looked up as Etemon sat heavily on the sofa and said, “Etemon-sama. I’ve just received a communications message from Tailmon-sama.”

What Etemon meant by ‘lower rank’ was that he was an Perfect Level while Tailmon was Adult Level, not that they were of different status in the organization. That was only one of many reasons why Etemon resented her.

Etemon snorted. “Reinforcements? The cheek she has, to make fun of me. Tell her no.”

For the both of them to know that and yet for that little witch to still take the time to ask him that silly question meant that she was making fun of him and no mistake.

“N—Not yet, sir,” the Gazimon said with painful reluctance as he kept glancing furtively at Etemon’s face. “Not while the children are still above water and therefore outside our network.”

At that moment, the sound that notified that they had received an e-mail rang from the computer. Gazimon opened it to read its contents and exclaimed, “Etemon-sama! We’ve found where the children are!” He said this in a gallant voice so that he would appear a capable subordinate in Etemon’s eyes.

Rising up from his seat, Etemon jumped over the table to peer into the monitor behind Gazimon.

“Kiiii, when did they get over there?!”

Etemon nodded to himself as he listened to this, but immediately afterwards said, “…And under whose orders?”

“I don’t remember making an order like that, at the very least.”

“Well, I’ll praise you for today. Now, it’s time to leave at once, everyone. Just watch, children. I’ll bring over to you the welcome party that you didn’t get to see here.”

At first, they didn’t realize that it was a night raid.

After the “stars” had fallen over the land, sparks roared through them with an ominous electric buzzing sound. Apparently the lines connecting the constellations together had a high-tension current running through them. Its destructive power matched that of a natural volcanic eruption or tsunami, and it reduced the Koromon village to ash in the blink of an eye.

After Taichi and the others had hurriedly constructed a raft that would take them off File Island into the ocean, they were met the next day with the appearance of a whirlpool and the attack of a large whale Digimon named Whamon… who then had swallowed them into his giant mouth.

From there they had gone towards the Koromon village that Whamon had told them about, except there had been no Koromon in sight. Instead, the village was full of Pagumon who were the same Baby Levels. The children had gladly received the Pagumon’s warm reception, washing themselves clean of the salt that clung to their hair and the stinky sweat of their bodies and diving into the feast that had been provided for them. Just when they were earnestly thinking about settling into a peaceful sleep, Takeru had cried out, “Tokomon is gone!”

Taichi and the others saw what was happening from behind the waterfall, but the suddenness of the overwhelming catastrophe left them standing there in a daze. Their brains couldn’t process at first what had just happened.

“Are you still alive, children?” the monkey asked coyly. “What you just saw was my Dark Spirits. It’s my welcoming gift to you~”

“I—It’s Etemon!” the Koromon wailed, drawing each other close and trembling as fear contorted their faces.

“He is! He’s a Perfect Level,” one of the Koromon answered.

Tentomon answered Taichi’s question this time. “Perfect Level is the level that an Adult evolves into. The Adult Level is, for instance, when I’m Kabuterimon and when Gabumon becomes Garurumon.”

“Let’s keep staying out of sight,” Jou said. “If he doesn’t find us, he might think we’ve died and leave.”

“Oh, it’s too late to run, honey-pies,” the large holographic image of Etemon in the night sky said with a wide grin. “I already know where you are. Just hang on a minute, I’ll be right there.”

“Ahhh, ahhhh.”

“It’s the superstar, Etemon-sama!”

“Now, come at me or surrender, whichever you please. The end will be the same either way — you’re all going to die here!”

“If surrendering leads to the same result, then we’ve just gotta fight!” Taichi said arrogantly. He was apparently intent on winning.

Sora decided to believe in Taichi.

“Piyomon, evolve! Birdramon!”

“Tentomon, evolve! Kabuterimon!”

“Palmon, evolve! Togemon!”

“Love Serenade!”

“I—I don’t know how, but…”

The evolved Digimon degenerated back to their Child Levels.

“What happened to you guys?!”

“Damn it!”

The stone hit Etemon right on the crown of his head.

“Now, guys! Everyone into the cave!”

But Taichi didn’t run.

When Sora realized he wasn’t with them and looked back, Taichi was still on the other side of the waterfall.

Judging from his words, it sounded like he was still throwing rocks.

Whether he heard Sora’s voice or noticed for himself that Taichi wasn’t there, Yamato also came running back.

Etemon was grinding his teeth as he drew closer to Taichi.

“Look out, Taichi!”

“Taichi!”

Sora couldn’t tell what was going on, but because Jou, Koushiro, Mimi, and Takeru had gone further ahead, they had seen how it had occurred up close. The four had reached a dead end in the tunnel, coming upon an enormous rock blocking their path, when suddenly that rock illuminated light and disappeared.

That glittering something flew past Sora’s eyes and through the waterfall to the outside. As it swooshed over Taichi’s shoulder, it made a beeline for Etemon’s stomach at full force, who couldn’t change direction in mid-air. The thing knocked him back and then flew neatly into Taichi’s open palm from the recoil. Just like how the Digivice had flown towards Taichi at the campgrounds.

His eyes wide, Taichi looked at the thing his hand was holding. It was the “Crest” that Gennai had shown them in the 3D hologram on File Island.

Seeing this, Yamato grabbed Taichi’s hand and pulled, shouting, “Let’s get out of here!”

The rising and falling of sand dunes could be seen stretching endlessly into the distance. The arid land greedily soaked up light from the sun, giving off a heat haze. The children felt like the insides of their shoes could melt off. Their dripping sweat left soak marks on the backs of their clothes, and sand grains in the wind flew into the corners of their eyes, tearing them up.

After parting with the Koromon at the oasis (the Koromon were apparently going to build their new village there), Taichi and the others continued on west. According to a map that Gennai had sent them, if they kept going in a straight line west, they should be able to come upon a large lake called Temp Lake. They didn’t necessarily have anything to do at that lake, but considering that Etemon was after them, staying in the barren desert with no place to hide was the bigger danger.

The voices of everyone behind Taichi as he walked ahead of them floated into his ears.

“Until we reach a place where Etemon can’t follow us.”

Everyone’s feeling discouraged, Taichi thought. I have to cheer them up somehow.

And proudly, he raised the Crest that he had gotten at Koromon Village for everyone to see.

But the other children only stared at it darkly. Some eyes were filled half with doubt about whether or not that Crest would help them beat Etemon, others reflected envy and jealousy that Taichi was the only one who had it, while even more were filled with discouragement upon knowing that without a Crest of their own, they were only pulling everyone else down…

As if speaking for everyone, Yamato blurted out,

Taichi’s lip twisted with annoyance.

He grinned widely at his partner.

That uncertainty seemed to irritate Taichi, because he took on the scolding tone he used when lecturing his juniors in the soccer club.

“…Okay.”

“We’re counting on you.”

Agumon looked at them in bewilderment, but Taichi thought that everyone understood and looked satisfied.

“I see,” Taichi said, nodding leisurely. “But still, that energy thing… since he’s gonna be evolving to Perfect, he’s gotta have even more energy than before, right?”
A sly grin spread across his face.

At that moment, Koushiro had no idea of the meaning behind Taichi’s smile. But later on, when he found out why, he regretted what he’d said.

“Do your best to eat! Everyone gave you all of their food because they’re looking forward to you evolving! Right, guys?” Taichi said loudly, looking for the others’ agreement.

Taichi kept patting Agumon on the back to help make the food go down faster.

Suddenly, the sound of an organ rang out in the air.

“Noooo!”

“I finally found you, children.”

“Don’t worry, honey. The truth is, I’d love to be there myself to deal with you guys directly, but unfortunately I’m in a faraway place right now. Superstars are just so very busy, you know. But thank goodness that you sweeties came here so I didn’t have to waste time looking for you. That coliseum is where I hold my yearly concert, with the seats always packed, of course.”

Etemon continued. “Let me introduce to you a special guest who’ll be taking my place. Who do you think it is?”

“It’s a Digimon you know very well~”
The seat platform directly underneath the aurora vision screen split in the middle, sliding apart with a loud grinding of gears. And then, from the darkness that came out of that wide mouth was, to everyone’s surprise, a Greymon.

The two Greymon wrestled with each other on the field. The enemy Greymon could be easily told apart by the black cables it was dragging around. The cables were connected back to the dark hole that he had stepped out of from the audience seats, and it was probably through them that someone was controlling him, either directly or through remote control.

“Greymon!”

“You’ve gotta evolve!” Taichi cried out, raising his Crest high so that his Greymon could see it. “If you evolve to Perfect Level, you’ll be able to win! Evolve!”

“It’s impossible, Taichi-san!”

But Taichi didn’t even bother to acknowledge their words.

As he spoke, Taichi clenched his Crest tightly and shook it up and down. Still, the Crest showed no change.

Graaaaaaaah!

Lowering his head and upper portion of his body, the enemy Greymon charged with the intent to hit him with the horn on his nose.

Grroooooooaaaah!

“You, too, Gabumon,” Yamato said.

But——

“Other people’s business?”

“It’s not ‘other people’s business.’ Greymon is in trouble!”

“He won’t!” Sora said, pointing an accusing finger at the Crest that Taichi was gripping. Her eyes glowered with hate. She thought it was the Crest’s fault that Taichi was acting strangely, and she was right.

He jumped down from the audience seats onto the field and ran at full speed towards the Greymon.

The children looked on, baffled at what Taichi was starting up now, but Koushiro recognized at once what he was trying to do. He had even said it himself, hadn’t he? — the two conditions for making their partners evolve. The first was that a large amount of energy was needed. The second was when their partner was in terrible danger.

“Taichi-san is planning to make Greymon evolve by putting his own self in danger. Tentomon, please go save Taichi-san!”

What’s more—

“Gabumon, evolve! Garurumon!”
—and all three Digimon chased after Taichi.

As he watched the monitor screen within his large trailer, Etemon controlled his own Greymon with a remote control.
Rather than as if he was playing a video game, he looked more like he was choosing a song for karaoke. His commands were a string of numbers that he now sent, ordering his Greymon to change his target from the other Greymon to Taichi.

Feeling the earth trembling up his legs as the enemy Greymon came charging towards him, Taichi froze. All of his instincts were screaming at him to run, but Taichi stubbornly pushed them down.

One of them was the feeling of making Greymon evolve to Perfect Level.

Taichi squeezed his eyes shut. He was prepared for the possibility that he might die.

Grrrrrrrrrr…

Why can’t I evolve? All of the conditions should be met.

I really want to evolve.

Unlike the usual white light they had always seen with evolutions, he glowed like a cheap neon light.

And then, when that light pulled back, there stood — Having lost his regal shape, the glossy skin that spoke of dignity, and even the eyeballs that showed his pity for the weak, there stood a violent-looking carnivorous dinosaur Digimon changed into a bare skeleton.

SkullGreymon bellowed. Graaaagagagagagogogroooo!

Taichi, whose eyes had been shut, opened them upon hearing that voice.

With the blue sky hazy with yellow sand behind him, SkullGreymon moved around so that the scrape of his bones gave an almost belligerent sound as he tested the performance of his newly gained body.

SkullGreymon sprang upon his escaping prey, leaning forward to the fullest extent his position would allow to crush him with the palm of one hand.

The enemy Greymon’s bones, flesh, and final cries of agony merged into a bloody meatball pulp.

Graaguugugugruu…

Both the enemy Greymon’s remains and the aurora vision screen disintegrated within the flash.

“G–Greymon?” Taichi blinked rapidly, raising an uncertain voice to SkullGreymon. He didn’t know whether or not his voice reached him, but SkullGreymon looked down at Taichi with his hollow eyes.

Since Greymon’s form disappeared and SkullGreymon appeared in his place, that would normally be the logical conclusion. But as he looked at SkullGreymon, Taichi felt that he couldn’t accept this form. He just couldn’t. He hadn’t felt this way before when Koromon had evolved into Agumon and Agumon into Greymon.

It was neither confirmation or a denial.

Raising his head like a snake and slowly swiveling it around, SkullGreymon looked to see if there were any new enemies he could be entertained with.

Garurumon had jumped down to save Taichi, but upon the unexpected arrival of SkullGreymon, he had stood back to watch how the situation would turn out along with Birdramon and Kabuterimon in the skies.

“R–Run, Garurumon!”

SkullGreymon chased after Garurumon, his footfalls causing the earth to shake.

“Mega Blaster!”

Unfortunately, their assumption was accurate and SkullGreymon’s body didn’t even flinch when their attacks hit him. Instead, he made a lazy swipe at Birdramon and Kabuterimon with the back of his hand, from which they crashed into the walls and the ground, returning back to their Child Levels.

SkullGreymon let out an unhappy growl and looked around, searching for his lost prey.

But before he could, SkullGreymon spotted him.

Boom! The entire southern part of the coliseum disintegrated instantly.

Yamato’s face was ghastly pale. And then Takeru pulled his brother’s hand.

Rubble that had resulted from the explosion clattered around him as Gabumon rose from within it, his wounded body shaking as he tried to sit up. His wounds were of some concern, but it was a miracle that he had barely escaped from dying in that explosion.

Escaping through the space in the wall that he had broken down, SkullGreymon jumped out of the coliseum. The children and the rest of the Digimon were still inside the coliseum, but from their pathetic trembling, SkullGreymon could see that they were not his enemies and lost interest in them.

It sounded like a pleased cry of victory. Rather than the triumph of having brought down his kill, it was more like the joy of being able to freely unleash all of his savagery.
SkullGreymon ran through the desert at an immense speed, raising up a cloud of dust behind him. All Taichi and the others could do was watch SkullGreymon rampage from a distance…

“I’m sorry, Taichi…” Koromon apologized disheartedly, his eyes downcast.

      In the end, SkullGreymon’s wild rampage caused him to eat up so much energy that he degenerated all the way down to Koromon. It was possible that he’d run out of so much energy that he didn’t even have enough to stay in his Agumon form.

“It was all my fault. I’m sorry,” Taichi apologized, first to Koromon and then to everyone else. “I really am sorry.”

If they had blamed him, if they had shunned him and made him go on his knees and beg for their forgiveness, he might have been able to pour out his feelings of regret along with his tears. But because he was unable to do that now, those feelings piled on top of each other like a poison inside his body and slowly ate away at the inside of Taichi’s heart.

And like a disease, Taichi’s depressing reserve spread to the other children, until all of them felt as if their hearts were filled with dark clouds and a downpour of rain where summer would never arrive.

“Hey, Koushiro-kun.”

“Would you be able to get in touch with Gennai-san? There’s a lot I want to talk with him about… not just on evolution, but also what we should do from now on.”

That surprised her. Sora had been certain that he would tell her it couldn’t be done. “If it’s not impossible, does that mean you can do it?”

“How?”

“Black cables?”

Everyone, including Sora, had seen the black cables connected to the enemy Greymon at the coliseum, but after SkullGreymon’s frenzy, Koushiro revealed that he had gone to where the enemy Greymon had first appeared in order to investigate how it had been set up. There, Koushiro discovered that ahead of the ripped black cables was another black cable attached to a modular jack buried underneath the stone floor.

“Those black cables are probably laid all throughout Server Continent like a meshnet, creating the network. The modular jack was of the same standard as my laptop, so it may not be impossible for me to use my computer to break into the network.”

“I couldn’t, not after what had happened to Taichi-san. Even if I did, I believe that it would only raise even more trouble.”

“It’s the same network that Etemon uses. If we break into it without anyone noticing us, there wouldn’t be a problem, but if we do get spotted, we’re doomed.”

“Is there a way to keep us from being noticed?”

After that, Koushiro talked enthusiastically about access logs and proxies, but Sora couldn’t understand any of it. What she thought Koushiro was trying to say, in the end, was that it was possible to hack into Etemon’s network without him noticing, but if it failed, Koushiro couldn’t take responsibility.

But Koushiro (or at least, it appeared that way to Sora) seemed confident. So in that case—

She knew that she had no right to be making the decision, but they had to break out of this stifling and cramped situation somehow.

“…Very well. I’ll try it,” Koushiro consented. “But I don’t think we should get our hopes up. I’m used to not finding him.”
He smiled at Sora in an attempt of playfulness in order to set her at ease.

Folding himself within the small bottom of the empty well, Koushiro tapped continuously on his laptop keyboard. From above the well, Sora looked down at him as he worked with a worried frown on her face.

Making a sweeping glance of the system, Koushiro grew astonished as he saw that the network Etemon had built up was well maintained. It wasn’t just connected throughout Server Continent, but in places outside the continent borders as well (there were other continents besides Server Continent around). Perhaps the network had existed there in the first place and Etemon was just using it for his convenience.

Just as a caution, Koushiro rewrote the access logs and deleted all traces of his presence there, when he received an e-mail from a Digimon who knew of Gennai’s whereabouts.

It was from the Andromon they had met in Factorial Town on File Island.

Of course, since Koushiro himself didn’t have an e-mail address in this world, he had to make one. He logged into a random server on the system and illegally created an inbox for himself.

“I’ve informed Gennai of this. The reason why he hasn’t contacted you until now was because Etemon was blocking him, but thanks to you, the network has jammed and he can contact you directly,” his e-mail wrote.

Just when Koushiro climbed out of the well, Takeru came to get him and Sora. Gennai had arrived through holographic imaging to give them a message.

Andromon had said in his e-mail “thanks to you, the network has jammed”. All Koushiro had done was hack into the network, not do anything that he could surmise would freeze it and shut it down. Or was it because he’d set up that new inbox that it caused some sort of blurp in the system?

By the time Koushiro and the other two got there, they could hear Taichi in the middle of hounding down on Gennai. Koushiro only got to hear the last part of his words, but it was,

The holographic Gennai held his hands together behind his back and answered lightly, “So you’ve evolved. Hmm. The thing is, there are many possible paths of evolution. None of them are a true or wrong path, but the reason why you didn’t achieve the evolution you wanted is because you are still inexperienced.”

“That’s right. Your Digimon evolve in reflection of your personal growth.”

“I’ll send you a trainer. His name is—-”

“…mon… isten to what he sa…”

“Ah,” Koushiro said. He had wanted to ask a million questions like, how the Digital World first came about, or how the evolution mechanism worked, and also, what was the reason for why the network had gone crazy, but he hadn’t had the chance.

“Yes, he did.”

“If we’re lucky,” Jou whispered.
None of them appeared at all that expectant. It seemed that they still had some misgivings about trusting Gennai.

“MAINTENANCE COMPLETE.”

Nanomon had noticed Koushiro’s illegal access. However, instead of shutting him down, he had stopped the security system and cut off Etemon from the network. Of course, he didn’t intend to report any of what had happened to Etemon. It wasn’t like he even had an obligation to.
He decided to let alone the inbox that Koushiro had made illegally in the network. Gennai’s last words interested him, and it was possible that he could use this information in some way.

Controlled by black cables, the one-eyed dragon warrior, Cyclomon, swooped down on them. Grabbing a scrapped Sedan with his right hand, which was of an abnormally larger size than his left, he threw it at the children.

“Meteor Wing!” Birdramon unleashed a hot wind of fire from the skies.

They were at a car junkyard that stood out all by itself in the middle of the desert. That might make it sound like it was small, but it was actually about as wide as Tokyo dome, and a few hundred, maybe even thousands, of decommissioned cars lay stacked on top of one another.

“Hyper Heat!”

“Hot, hot, hot, hot!” The attack hit Kabuterimon, who had been circling around in the air searching for Cyclomon. Losing his balance, Kabuterimon fell to the ground.

Running lightly on top of the mountain of cars so none of them fell over, Garurumon spat blue-white flames at Cyclomon’s head.

The attack hit, but the enemy jabbed blindly out with his right hand as he fell, hitting Garurumon in the stomach. Garurumon also flew back.

When he looked at Taichi, all Taichi would do was look on in chagrin as he clenched his hands into fists. Unable to take out his impatience on anything, Agumon distracted himself by stamping his feet.

If Agumon evolved to SkullGreymon again — that worry was consuming Taichi so much that his self-confidence had died completely. Before all of this, Taichi had thought that everyone besides him was dragging him down… but now he was the one doing the dragging.

Although they somehow managed to take down Cyclomon, all of the Digimon who had fought were pitifully covered in wounds from the enemy’s attacks. Taichi didn’t join in the fight to the very end, and he couldn’t meet any of their gazes.

Jou said, “It’s okay. You’ve saved us from a lot of dangers up to now. Let’s just go like this for the time being.”

Sora wanted in her heart to let Taichi have some peace like Yamato and the others were doing, but if Taichi didn’t have at least one person around to scold him and shake him up, he would never get back on his feet. And the only person who fit that job description was the other member of their two-top formation in the soccer club — her. So thinking this, she took up the role albeit not that enthusiastically.

Sora approached next to Taichi, who had sat apart from everyone else wearing a gloomy expression. The sunset made a red shadow cast over his face, seeming to emphasize his sorrow.

Even as she spoke, Sora felt like she was spouting cliché lines out of a typical YA movie.

“Sorry. Just leave me alone.”

“I’m not—”

“Just don’t bother with me.”

Without another word, Taichi sluggishly stood up and went somewhere. As she watched Taichi’s sagged back getting smaller from view, Sora felt a pang of regret. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything after all.

Koushiro was also sitting apart from everyone else, but his reason for it was different from Taichi’s — He wanted to secretly experiment with accessing the network again.

The wiser thing to do would have been to keep away from accessing the network for a longer period of time, but now that he had his own inbox, he couldn’t help wondering excessively if someone (like Andromon or Gennai) had sent e-mail to him.

“Okay.”

“All right then, time to log-in.”

“Thank goodness. It doesn’t look like we were noticed.”

“I wonder who it’s from.”
The sender of the e-mail came from someone named “Nanomon.”

The sand in front of them flowed like a muddy stream. It was quicksand.

“It’s like a belt conveyor,” Takeru said excitedly as he carried Tokomon in his arms.

“We should be able to see the pyramid any moment now,” Koushiro said from his seat at the front of the raft. He was staring down the path they were taking, on the lookout. “That’s where Nanomon should be.”
This was what had been written in Nanomon’s e-mail:

To the Chosen Children. I have heard much about you from the old man Gennai. If you walk in a straight line west from where you are now, you will come to the River of Sand. Please follow it to reach the pyramid where I can be found.
PS: I have also one Crest in my possession.

Koushiro had immediately gone to Sora to discuss the contents of the e-mail with her. Sora had advised him to tell the others that Nanomon had reached Koushiro through his computer much like how Gennai had sent them the map, while omitting the part about how this had been achieved only by accessing the enemy’s network.

With that, their conference on whether or not they should go to Nanomon began.

Even Yamato, who she thought would disagree, joined after Taichi gave his vote. Takeru and Mimi followed in his steps.

In the end, none of them were against and they didn’t even need to count the majority to know that they were going to see Nanomon.

“Taichi’s showing some motivation at last. I just couldn’t shoot that down,” Yamato replied with a whisper. It appeared that even Yamato wanted Taichi to return to his old self.

“I see it!”

The reason why her sentence ended in a question was because the shape of the pyramid was upside-down from the pyramids that Mimi knew.

Although they had been certain that the pyramid would be made up of piled-on stones or bricks, it was made up of large colored tiles instead. Even its tiny passageways had tiles, and the clouds of sand that had come blowing in from above piled across them like a fur carpet. Seeing no footprints, it appeared that no one had come here for a very long time.

“I assume that is meant to guide us. Nanomon should be at the end of this light,” Koushiro explained to everyone.

“Is this the place?”

The steel door had a brass handle that both Taichi and Yamato tried to turn together, but it was so solid that it didn’t move an inch.

      Koushiro wondered if perhaps there was a hidden switch somewhere, but nothing like that came up in their search.

The children wracked their brains, but the answer appeared simple to the Digimon.

Agumon exchanged looks with the other Digimon, and all of them unleashed their attacks on it as one. They couldn’t break it down at the first stroke, of course, but after their fifth try, the steel door melted like candy in the sun, creating a large hole.

“It’s a program,” Koushiro said immediately, because it was similar to what he had already seen inside of a large battery at Factorial Town.

“It isn’t. These, the letters themselves, they create their own energy. In the beginning was the Word, as it’s said.”

“By the way, where is Nanomon?” Taichi asked impatiently.

Only something that appeared to be a robot had been dropped carelessly in the middle of the room. A crack ran through its glass covered head, with one of its two lights broken. From the broken one peered out a lightbulb that looked like an eye bloodshot from lack of sleep, made up of a bundle of coral pink cable cords that made it look similar to an actual flesh-and-blood eye. No matter how one looked at it, it was rubbish.

They decided to wait for a while, but found it was also a waste of time.

The moment he logged onto his inbox, Koushiro thought both “Yes” and “Oh no” at the same time. That was because he’d realized that he was supposed to be keeping the network a secret from everyone.

Without pause, Koushiro sent an e-mail to Nanomon’s mailing address.
WE’VE

Chapter end