> Digimon Legend-Arms
>  by The saiyan brony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Ch.1 Enter the Digital World
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are they still behind us!?” The child under my right arm called out, as I ran as fast as my legs could move while carrying three twelve-year-olds in each arm and one on my back.

“They're gaining on us!” The child under my left who was facing the opposite direction shouted as they had a clearer view of the creatures changing us.

“We’re gonna be monster food!” The child piggybacking on my back shouted in my ear making me wince.

I rounded as many corners as I could to try and shake our chasers, my heart was tense with fear inside this forsaken ghost town, for every corner could have other monsters waiting to chase the three of us. I could feel my legs begin to ache and my lungs straining as I ran; I was holding almost the equivalent of my body weight in both arms and on my back. To make matters worse I couldn’t think of a good way to get away from our pursuers. It was only a matter of time before I would be able to run any longer, my chest was beginning to ache more and I was barely able to keep my speed at that of a steady jog. I could hear the two monsters chasing us gaining closer, their voices shouting as they drew nearer.

I hadn’t paid any attention as I rounded the next corner into an alleyway, only to find it to be a dead end. The alleyway was long and narrow, with the back end of a building at the end. There was a ledge to climb onto, but it was much too tall for me to grab onto, not that I had the strength to do so. I was quick to try and backtrack and try another route, but froze stiff. At the entrance to the alleyway, I could see two ominous shadows being cast on the ground, at any second they’ll be able to look down the alleyway and find us trapped like rats.

My heart raced and I couldn’t think of anything to do, I didn’t have the energy to run full speed while holding onto three kids, even if I did by the time I crossed the threshold the monsters would be in striking range. I surveyed the walls around the alley thinking maybe one of them would be brittle enough to crash through. But no luck as the buildings making up the alley were made of stone and not wood or plaster. I had no options and to make matters worse the three girls I’m trying to protect are now sobbing in fear, as if they knew what was gonna happen next.

Another glance at the alleyway entrance and I could see we only had a minute left before they would look down this way. There was no choice left available to me. “Hey you three.” I addressed the girls promoting them to look up at me. I pointed at the ledge above us. “I’m gonna give you a boost up there and once you are on top, you’ll make a brake for the safe zone alright?”

The girls bore worried looks on their faces and quickly shook their heads. “We can leave you behind.” The girl with bright red hair spoke up, tears building up in her eyes.

“Yeah, if you stay behind, they’ll get you next.” The girl with short violet hair now looked like he was on the verge of crying, along with her friends.



“There’s got to be a way to get out of here.” Lastly, the little girl with light pink and light purple swirly hair sobbed her eyes filled with tears.

There wasn’t enough time to argue, so I quickly moved my hands under the girl with the red hair and pink bow armpits and gently tossed her onto the ledge. Not sparing a second thought I mustered up what little strength I had left to do the same for the other two and watched as they stood on the ledge. All three were now looking down at me and tried to reach out their hands as if offering to pull me up. I smiled and shook my head, I knew there was no way they’d be able to pull me up, let alone not get dragged down for trying.

“Get moving you three, I’ll try and buy you as much time as I can so get going!” I shouted in a commanding tone, like a parent scolding their children. The tone of my voice got the desired effects as kids jolted slightly and knew there was no point in arguing. I watched as they turned away and walked out of sight, hopefully on a path that will take them to safety.

I stood alone in the alleyway now, knowing at any second my life will be stolen away by the monsters close approaching. I could let out a sigh of acceptance as I tried to keep my composure. “At least I can say I went out doing something heroic.” No sooner did my words escape my lips I heard a large stomping sound right behind me.

Turning my head to look over my shoulder, I could see clear as day that the two monsters were now blocking my means of escape, and slowly began to march their way in closer. Ready to make a kill. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion, as if my brain was giving me time to process a chance to escape. But even with all the time in the world I couldn’t see any real way out of this. Instead, I took this extended time to think on one question. “How did we end up in all this?”



But I already knew the answer, because it all happened only nine days ago.

(9 days ago)



It was a normal average day, the sun was shining, the sky was a clear blue and there was a nice warm breeze, a perfect summer day. Of course, I wasn’t actually outside to enjoy it as I was sitting in my room enjoying a can of soda as I watched the countdown on my computer. The countdown was for the new Digimon Online game, and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to login like every other Digimon fan out there.

The game was announced one year ago, and to say that I was hyped for it would bea grave understatement. It’s the year 203, almost eight years since the release of the last Digimon game which some people weren’t too impressed with. And the technology we had now compared to back then is unreal. VR games and holographic technology became so much more advanced, as well as other game tech. And because of that this new game seemed to have everyone more pumped than any other. The game advertises that it will be like a fusion between Digimon World and Cyber Sleuth, a real Digimon RPG where tamers can meet and battle online. The game offered so many things, raid battle, items and weapons for the tamer to use to help their Digimon. To top it off there was a main story quest that whoever can beat it would claim a reward as number one tamer in the game.

During that year of waiting, we also found out more information on the game. Such as you get to choose only one Digimon partner to join you on your journey and that was all. And if your Digimon dies it will turn back into a Digiegg and you’ll have to start over from scratch, but there was also another warning for the gamers. If the player's avatar is killed, then it is game over entirely.

A lot of us thought this meant that our account would no longer be able to continue the game, and that if we wanted to play again, we would need to make another account, given that the game was free to play and all.

This had definitely inspired a lot of hardcore gamers to sign up for the game, but that was just the start. As mentioned before, you were only allowed to choose one Digimon per player, however, there was an exception to this rule. There were going to be Digimon tournaments held all across the globe and if you won in one of these tournaments, you’d be granted one additional slot for another Digimon.

These tournaments were all Digimon based, from video games to trivia and finally the TCG. I had participated in four tournaments and lost the first three, but at the TCG tournament I got lucky and won! I was rewarded with a code that I was told to hold on to till the day the game officially opened. Which was only ten minutes away from being active.

I had made all the preparations for this day, I got two weeks off from work, I made sure to stock up my fridge with drinks, meals and snacks, and also energy drinks. I was ready to go hardcore gamer these next two weeks.



I looked down at my phone to see the chat room where so many people are hyped about the game release.

Party Girl7: Ohmygosh ohmygosh it’s almost time!



Speed Demon43: Ah ya aiming for the 1# player, you losers are gonna get smoked!

Bookworm99: I hear the lore is expansive and they have extended knowledge on every digimon!

I was hyped just reading how many people were excited for the game alone.

Soon the time had arrived, and the screen changed to show the official Digimon Online menu. I started by clicking the start button and then I logged in with the account I set up a week ago. Players were allowed to create a login and email that they would use to sign into the game, those who did during that specific day would receive a login bonus. After logging in, the most difficult part of any game stood in my way, choosing a username.

This was the one thing that always stumped me the most anytime I played any game. I was honestly overthinking it, most people would just enter their names and get over with it. I on the other hand always had to feel the need to be flashy. I wanted to choose a name that would let me stand out, a name people will remember when I climb the ranks and become number one. “Ugh why can’t I just think of a damn name!?” I shouted while ruffling my hair with anger and frustration.

Before I would name myself after historical heroes, but people tend to do that as well lately. It would have been lazy of me to name myself after one of the digi-destined from the show, I can already see half of the players doing that. While thinking about the perfect name to choose my eyes became focused on an object hanging on my wall. It was a Japanese katana, a gift my uncle sent me when he went to Japan three years ago. It wasn’t just your average katana; it was one forged by the legendary black smith Nagasone Okisaton, a real Kotetsu katana. It was a rare find, and I was happy when my uncle got it for me. And that’s when it hit me.

Without missing a beat, I quickly typed in the username I wanted, and without fail it worked. “Kotetsu, my username will now be Kotetsu.”

Once I was done with my name it was on to the real important decision, choosing a Digimon. The screen showed an empty slot with a plus in it, which meant I needed to choose one Digimon. However, at the bottom left of the screen I saw a box that read “Tournament Code”, I already knew what that was for. I clicked on the box and typed in the code I won and watched as a new box appeared.

[Congratulations on winning one of our worldwide tournaments!! You have been granted the benefit of an additional Digimon slot!]

The screen then flashed back to the previous screen where I saw a second box next to the first one.

Thus began my search for my two Digimon partners, which was actually the easiest choice mostly because I’ve had my choices ever since the game was announced. Someone who lacks imagination would have chosen the obvious pick of Gabumon and Agumon, or Veemon and Wormmon. Those being the basic choice for anyone who wanted to do DNA Digivolution. The two I would choose are the same Digimon in my deck that helped me win the tournament that got me to this point.

I started looking through the list and noticed that all the Digimon listed were all Rookies, but there were some that weren’t on the list, such as Lucemon, which made sense given it didn’t have any evolutions besides its Mega form. It took me a while to find the two Rookies I wanted but when I did, I was then moved onto the next screen.


[Are you ready to begin your digital journey?]



I was surprised by this since I had expected that I would have designed my avatar, but I didn’t really think too much about it. “Maybe once the game starts, I’ll be allowed to customize my avatar.” Without any reason to wait I clicked the yes button and waited as a loading screen popped up.

I waited a good minute before the whole room went pitch black, and I found myself screaming in rage. “Dammit what the Hell!?” I looked around and only saw bitch black darkness. “Why did the power go off?! I know I made sure to pay the electricity bill!”

I leaned back into my chair and sighed, now I would have to go to the breakers and fix the power. As I stood up to go and fix the power a thought occurred to me that caused a chill to run down my spine. “I had the window open, and the blinds were also open….and it's still the middle of the day……so how can it be pitch black?”

I turned around to try and look out my window and only saw black, not a thing was around me. I felt my blood run cold as I tried to reach my hand forward to grab my cell phone, hoping if I turned on the flashlight, I’d be able to see. But when I reached for my desk which I knew was directly in front of me, my hand touched nothing, just swooped through the air. I backed up in shock and then noticed that my chair was now gone too! “What’s happening now?!”

I looked around trying to see anything beyond inky darkness, but there was nothing at all and I felt myself beginning to panic. That is until a sudden light flashed around the corner of my eye. I turned to see a floating message box with something written on it.



[Good luck on your digital adventure Kotetsu]



When I tried to reach for the message box it quickly vanished and then a swirling green vortex appeared, it was massive and bright, I then found myself being sucked in. I tried to plant my feet into the ground to resist but I couldn’t get any footing whatsoever. In the blink of an eye my body was sucked into the green vortex. I could feel my body moving violently from side to side, up and down as the sound of wind rushing past me filled my ears. I was beginning to feel nauseous and closed my eyes waiting for it all to stop. Then suddenly…

WHAM!!!

I coughed hard as I felt my body slam into solid earth and wheezed as the wind was knocked right out of me. I gasped and tried to steady my breathing before opening my eyes. I saw that I was surrounded by groups of legs and looked up to see that I wasn’t the only one around. There were people looking around and talking among each other, some of which were panicking others were just dazed and confused. As I sat up, I rubbed my shoulder since I had landed on it first and felt very sore, the same could be said for the side of my head which made it feel like the world was spinning slightly.

“Hey you alright man?” I turned my head to see a guy standing next to me with his hand out. I took hold of his hand and felt myself being lifted back onto my feet; albeit while still a little wobbly. “You’re the fifth person to suddenly crash down hard like that, anything broken?”

I shook my head as I dusted my body of dirt and grass, while groaning slightly from the pain. “Nah I’m fine I think.” I stretched my body feeling slight pops go off in my back. Now that the initial shock and pain started to pass, I saw that the man who helped me up was actually someone close to my age. He stood around the same height as me at around 5 '11 and had dark blue hair and light eyes, and light-yellow skin. He wore a pair of jeans and a black jacket with a lighting bolt over a shield on the arm sleeves. “Sorry for the trouble, my name is Kotetsu.” I paused for a moment, as I realized I addressed myself as my username first rather than my real name.

The blue haired man in front of me chuckled slightly as he patted my shoulder. “It’s cool, I did the same thing a minute ago myself. I called myself by my username first before saying my real name, my username is Flash Striker, but you can just call me Flash for short.”

Flash and I spoke for a bit as we tried to figure out what had happened to us as well as the crowd of people around us. His story was exactly like my own in that he had just logged into the game before things went pitch black, and suddenly swallowed up by a green vortex. Then ending up here with other people who he talked to and got the same experience. “It would seem that everyone’s story has a few things in common with one another. That they all were trying to log in to the Digimon Online game. As well as these.” Flash held up his wrist to show me he was wearing a bracelet.

Upon further examination I saw that it was the Digimon Vital Bracelet he was wearing. His was light blue. I took a glance around and saw that everyone around us was also wearing one of these, however almost everyone had but a single Vital Bracelet. “Seems like I’m the only one around here with two of them.”

Flash shook his head and pointed towards someone in the crowd. I followed his finger and saw a teenager problem late teen, with two of his own one green the other blue. At this I quickly looked down at my own wrist to see that he was indeed correct. I had a red and black one on my wrists. “Long shot, but did you end up winning one of the Digimon Tournaments?” He asked curiously.

I nodded and figured that might be the same reason the other guy has two. “I actually, I won one of the tcg tournaments, earning myself the additional Digimon slot.”

From there Flash and I walked off to the side, watching as more and more people started popping out of thin air. He pointed out a few people that he knew from his school and one girl who he saw made him blush, my guess was a crush.

Apparently, Flash was here about fifteen minutes before I arrived. Nothing seemed to change in terms of patterns as more and more people showed up before me. The once small crowd of people was turning into a sea of people. There were people from all over the globe, individuals of different race, religion, culture and ethnicity. From kids to grown adults people kept spawning over and over and every one of them was either completely dumbfounded, or terrified. Children crying for their parents, adults trying to establish order and figure out who was in charge or call the local law enforcement.

Another thing to take notice of was that we were all in some kind of open field surrounded by dense forest, we couldn’t see anything past the rather tall trees. Speaking of the environment there was something ominous about it that made me feel uneasy. The foliage reminded me of jungle vegetation like the kind seen in the amazon or islands, but some looked like they were emitting blocks of date. Glowing floating squares coming from some of the plants, heck some of the trees looked like they were made of data.

“Hey Kotetsu, check this out.” I was snapped from my thoughts as Flash started to fiddle with his bracelet, clicking the buttons on the side. “There are Digieggs in here.” I saw on his little monitor an egg blue stripes, on the orange bracelet. “Got any on your’s?” I was about to check my own when.



DING DONG DING

A musical chime began to ring across the field despite there being no visible speakers around. The now ocean of people began to quiet down as what I guessed was intended, though there were still people murmuring as they waited.

“Greetings all you human players!” A raspy voice suddenly spoke out from nowhere bringing everyone to a dead silence. “I hope this day finds you well, hopefully you all can see me from down there.” Most of the crowd began to turn their heads trying to find the person the voice belonged to, while myself and Hiro started to look up as it was clear by the last sentence that the person speaking was looking down at us.

Yet despite this clue, I couldn’t see anyone or anything that would grant a person a high vantage point to look at us. There wasn’t a helicopter, plane nor a drone and no buildings either, I had figured it must be via hidden camera that we are being watched.

“Clearly none of you humans can seem me *sigh* very well I’ll lower myself just so you can bask in my presence.” Those of us who were still looking up saw something gliding down, when it got closer a lot of us were shocked at what we were seeing. A round body like a ball with big golden cat like eyes, flapping grayish blue wings and with two clawed feet sticking out from underneath. To anyone else this creature would be unrecognizable, but to hardcore Digimon fans we all knew what it was, DemiDevimon. “There, can you humans seem more clear now?” The little…. I can’t believe I’m seeing this, the little Digimon asked as he fluttered lower and lower down.

People began to speak much more loudly as they stared up at the Digimon, almost every person here recognizing him as well as the bad reputation that goes with it. “Well now that I have your attention it’s about time, I perform my duties.” The little bat Digimon moved a wing to cover his mouth as he cleared his throat. “Congratulations you lucky players for logging in to the Digimon Online game, now that all 1,000,000 players are here and accounted for, I can begin telling you about your role here. Let’s start by-“



“What the fuck is this bullshit!?” A voice shouted from the crowd cutting off DemiDevimon. A heavy-set man stood out from the crowd, probably around his forties. The man had unkempt hair, was wearing only sweatpants, a t-shirt and sandals. The man looked like he lacked any hygiene skills at all, as his clothing had stains and sweat marks, and must have reeked as most of the people around him moved away covering their noses. “Who the fuck do you think you are dragging us all out here huh you little rat with wings!?” The man shouted spitting as he shouted which made people move away from him further. “Stop wasting all our time and send us back, we aren’t interested in your little prank of a game!”

There were a few moments of silence, as the crowd looked from DemiDevimon to the gross man before finally the Digimon spoke. “Seems to me we have an unhappy participant.” The little bat Digimon floated down closer and extended one of his wings in one direction as if to point for the man. “Then please walk straight that way to quit the game.” DemiDevimon spoke with an almost polite tone and a friendly smile as he pointed in a random direction.”

The man grunted and walked past the Digimon, but not before pushing it by its face away. “Bout time you little rodent.” He snorted as he began to march off while DemiDevimon quickly adjusted himself in midair.

Something was wrong about all this, the look that DemiDevimon had on his face as he spoke to the man seemed too pleased. I quickly ran to catch up with the man before he could walk away too far. “Hey wait, maybe you shouldn’t go wandering off, who knows what’s out there!” I called out.

The man kept walking while flipping me a middle finger as he continued. “Stop being such a pussy, this is just some stupid game show or whatever, I didn’t sign up to get dragged out to the middle of nowhere, so fuck off!”

Soon the man was reaching the edge of the forest and the feeling of unease grew more and more. I was about to chase after him when I thought I saw something moving along the tree line. “Don’t bother wasting your breath kid.” I turned to see that DemiDevimon was now floating right next to me. “He’s already made his choice, and now you will all get a glimpse of the danger that awaits you here.” No longer was he smiling sweetly, rather he had a cruel and sinister look in his eyes as he smiled ear to ear.

I quickly turn to look back at the tree line to see something making the top of the trees shake. In a total surprise and shock, I watched as a large dinosaur stepped out from behind the trees right in front of the man. Upon further inspection I saw that it had green spikes and red skin and a white underbelly, it looked almost like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Then the name of the Digimon hit me, Tyrannomon.



The T-Rex Digimon let out a terrifying roar which made some of the crowd members shriek in fear. However, the man who was trying to leave didn’t seem phased at all. “Oooh no what a scary Hologram, I’m shaking in my sweatpants. Tch as if!” The overweight man turned to look back at DemiDevimon with a look of annoyance and frustration. “It’s just a stupid hologram you little shit heads, why are you letting these guys sca-” Suddenly the Tyrannomon swung its head forward knocking the man onto the ground hard both shutting him up and putting a look of fear on his face. “What the hell holograms can’t actually hit you!?” The man tried to stand back up only for the Tyrannomon to lower its jaws down and bite down around the man’s torso before slowly lifting him off the ground.

Everyone fell deathly silent as we all listened to the man’s howls of pain, his arms flailing around as he tried to punch the Tyrannomon’s head trying desperately to get it to let go but to no avail. The dinosaur digimon wasn’t even biting down all the way, yet we could see a slow trickle of blood dripping down from the man’s body. “Agh please save me, I'm begging you!!” Tears began to drip down the man’s face as held out his hands to all of us across the field. “I’m sorry I swear I’ll listen!”

Even as the man is begging for mercy, DemiDevimon could only turn his back and laugh. “Too late for apologizing human, besides you’ll make the perfect example for the rest of the players. Tyrannomon be a good Digimon and shows the rest of our participants the fate of what losing here will be like.” With a click of DemiDevimon’s talon-like claws, the Tyrannomon lifted its head high and in a swift flex of its jaw, bite the man in to.

Everyone watched in stunned horror as the man’s upper body and legs fell to the ground, his screams and pleads for mercy silenced. The silence was shattered as high pitch screams roared from the crowd and took multiple sets away from the traumatizing sight they just bore witness to.

After a few seconds, the man’s remains began to suddenly turn into bits of data that was absorbed by the Tyrannomon. Then suddenly the Tyrannomon body began to shine and grow. Before it was thirty feet tall, but soon it grew to three times that height, and its once red skin began to change into hard metal, the Tyrannomon was Digivolving.

When then the shining glow had finally subsided, no longer did a red Tyrannomon stand where the man was once consumed, instead with an even more menacing presence a MetalTyrannomon now towered.



“Well now, it seems like we went from 1,000,000 players to only 999,999, oh well it can’t be helped.” DemiDevimon shrugged while shaking his head, which was practically his whole body. “I was going to go into great details about rules and things you will all need to know, but thanks to fatso I’m afraid we wasted too much time.” The little bat Digimon gave another click of his talons and almost immediately several more Tyrannomons appeared from the trees at the far end of the forest. “So let’s cut to the fun part then shall we?”

Using one of his leathery wings, DemiDevimon pointed behind the sea of people. “About a mile that way is the first safe zone your group will be calling home for a while. It’s a large city accurately named Safe Zone City. You’ll know when you’re in the safe zone after you pass the white outline that defines the perimeter of the city itself.” DemiDevimon flapped his wings and flew over towards the MetalTyrannomon before landing on its snout. “I will give you all five minutes to run as fast as you can to the safe zone. The moment the time is up all the Tyrannomons you see here will start to chase you down, and well I think you all get the big picture.” He said with a mischievous smile as he used a wing to rub the Digimon he was sitting on. “But don’t worry I’m giving you all a handicap by not letting this guy here chase ya, or letting the others use any special attacks, can’t have you all dying on day one, right?”

With a flick of his wing a large digital clock appeared with five minutes set on it. “I’ll explain the rest of what you’ll need to know once everyone’s made it into the city.” With another click of his talons the timer had started.

With every second that passed the timer made a quick beep sound, a few of these had passed before the crowd began screaming again, and the sound of multiple feet thundering off filled the field. I hadn’t bothered to turn and run because I was in too much shock to fully register what’s been happening. The day was meant to be a day for Digimon fans to enjoy a new game, but now it suddenly became some kind of death game?

I was stuck in my own head until a raspy voice snapped me back to reality. “Hey not that I care whether you live or die, but it’s no fun unless you start running.” DemiDevimon was now hovering right in front of my face with a bored expression. He pointed towards the timer, and I saw that two-hole minutes had passed. “If you don’t get a move on your digi-chow.”

I tried to turn and run but instead fumbled onto the ground, I barely got up before tripping over my own feet again, the shock of it all had my brain panicking. I raised my arm up and made a fist with my hands, before slamming it down to strike my left leg. The pain snapped me out of my confusion, and I pushed off the ground and bolted for the tree line at the opposite end of the field, where the direction of the safe zone was.

I wasn’t sure how many seconds passed, I was just focused on running at top speed straight to safety, at least that was what I was trying to do. The path was full of dense trees that were clustered together, some forming natural walls that many couldn’t squeeze past unless you were thinner than a twig. This meant I had to try and run around the trees and try not to lose track of the direction of the safe zone, however this wasn’t the only problem that this forest had to throw at us.

Along the path were deep pits that if you weren’t paying attention to where you were running, you’d easily fall right into, and could possibly sprain a leg. Then there were long thick vines that would dangle from between trees almost like trip wires, something that could easily tangle up a person.

This forest was a natural maze, with traps and dead ends made to either waste your time or throw off your sense of direction. Because of this I had managed to catch up with the tail end of the crowd of people who ran just before myself, but most of the people I saw were those that society would deem less than athletic. I tried to help as many as I could, from untangling them from vines they got themselves caught in, to those needing help out of the pit traps. Everyone seemed willing to help one another out until.

Suddenly an alarm went off in the far distances, soon followed by monstrous roars from some other world. The roars made my chest vibrate like I was standing next to a lion at a zoo. If striking fear into the hearts of the people was the intended goal, then it definitely had the desired effects. People that I could see were starting to panic much more frantically, from running with reckless abandon to shoving people out of their way in the hopes to get further ahead. The man whom I had just pulled out of one of the pitfall traps suddenly pushed me in before running. “I’m sorry but I need to live!” He shouted as he moved away.

Just as I was about to try and climb out of the hole, the ground beneath my feet began to tremble. Looking up I barely got a brief glimpse of a red tail passing over the hole, before it moved away. A few seconds later I hear a roar and the sound of a man screaming.


When I managed to climb to the rim of the pit trap, I was horrified by what I saw. The man who had shoved into the pit now was limp and dead in the jaws of a Tyrannomon, the sound of bones crunching and blood spattering on the floor filled the air, before he turned into data that was absorbed into the Digimon.

I was on the verge of throwing up, but held my hand over my mouth. Slowly and as quietly as I could, I crawled away keeping low beneath the ferns and bushes. However, due to all the commotion and trying to focus on not upchucking my lunch, I had lost track of the direction that would lead to the safe zone. Once I found a spot to hide in I tried to remember the direction I was facing when I saw the Tyrannomon chase after the man. When I finally remembered I began to run, darting between trees and constantly checking to make sure I wasn’t going to run into any of the Digimon out here.

As I made my way through the forest I could hear screams echoing from all around, men, women and even children soon followed by massive roars from monsters from some other world. It was enough to shake me to my core, I felt my heart racing and my mind asking a million questions a second. Was all this really happening? Could this all be just a bad dream, did I fall asleep at my desk waiting for the game to start?

I was on the verge of a mental break when I heard what sounded like sobbing, and someone shushing. Looking to my right I saw Fash and a little girl huddling inside a hollow tree. The little girl couldn’t be any older than fourteen, she had pale purple skin and blond hair.

She was sobbing uncontrollably while Flash was doing his best to keep her quiet while they hid. Getting down on my belly, I army crawled to the nearest bush around the tree. “Psst psst, Flash.” I whispered carefully, poking my face out from the bush.

Flash spotted me and looked instantly relieved but made a shushing motion with finger to his lips. He began to point a finger off to his left. When I turned to see what he was pointing too, I saw a brake in the tree with bright sunlight shining through. If I squint hard enough I could just make out some building-like structures beyond the tree. That had to have been the city DemiDevimon was talking about. It was so close, just one quick sprint and we’d be home free. I was about to get ready to run for it when a thought had occurred to me. If the safe zone was that close, then why are Flash and this little girl hiding in this tree.
When I asked him, he pointed back to the safe zone and told me to follow the tree lines to the right. Looking back I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until I saw slight movement, a thick muscular tail twitching ever so slightly, it was the tail of a Tyrannomon. “He’s camping?” I asked in a soft whisper.

“Yeah, he’s already snagged three people.” Flash then gestured to the kid that was clinging onto him for dear life. “I found her huddled in here, she’s too scared to move. We haven’t seen anyone else up till you showed up, I think we are the last people who haven’t made it in yet.”

I glanced around and figured he was right, I hadn’t heard anymore screams or roars, nor could I see anything behind us. This was a major issue. We knew for a fact that Tyrannomon wasn’t going to move an inch unless some unfortunate soul dared to get his attention. Meaning that one of us would need to play bait.

I wasn’t sure what compelled me to do what I did, but I scooped up a handful of rocks that were on the ground and carefully stood up. Throughout my life I had one major flaw, something that often got me in trouble more times than I’d like to admit. And that was, if I ever saw a person in need I’d always go out of my way to help them. From giving my lunch money to a homeless man on the streets and skipping a meal, to dumb shit like trying to stop bullies who were bigger and stronger than me from picking on kids in high school. “As soon as that thing starts chasing me, pick her up and run as fast as you can.” I didn’t give Flash any chance to argue as I quickly ran to the left and moved along the rim of the trees.

My plan was simple and hopefully would work. First, I would run to a safe enough distance where I can still see the Digimon, then I would walk out into the open and get its attention, goading it to try and chase me. Once it's far away enough from the spot where Flash was hiding, he and the girl would run into the safe zone, and I would do the same. That was the plan at least, I could only hope that it would work.

Once I was far enough from the Digimon and had put some distance between us, I carefully walked out into the open. When I came out from the forest, I was able to get a better view of the city that everyone was running to. It looked like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie, the buildings were old, with windows shattered, moss and foliage covering every building. Some of the skyscrapers were either half gone from the top, or leaning on another ready to fall like a tree.

I was able to see the outline of what I imagined to be where you would need to cross to be safe within the barrier. From within the barrier I could see people shouting and gesturing with their hands for me to run to them. Some looked panicked and frightened for my sake. But there were others further back watching with honest to god smiles on their faces, as if they were entertained by all this madness. These would be the people I dare not meet anytime soon.

And standing across the way I could see the Tyrannomon who had just caught sight of me. The dinosaur Digimon cocked its head to one side as if perplexed that I would openly step into its line of sight. I half expected it to charge me and try and chase me, yet despite being out in the open it made the littlest effort to move. It just kept staring at me unmoving and less than interested.

Could it tell I was too far away from it to catch? That the moment it charged, I would just as easily run into the safe zone? If so, then this Digimon was much more intelligent than I had originally imagined. This meant altercations would need to be made to the plan.

First I began to move away from the safe zone, waving my arms in the air to try and hold its attention. “Hey dino brain over here!” I shouted with a light taunt hoping it was smart enough to know when it was being mocked. While its gaze did follow me it still made no effort to move from where it was standing. Did it know about Flash and the girl?

I moved onto my next idea. I began to slowly walk closer thinking that maybe if I was closer within striking distance it would charge at me. Where I was once five yards away, I carefully moved to have us 3 yards away. I stopped moving and waved my arms again. “Come on, what wrong can’t your little pea size brain tell an easy meal when it's standing right in front of you?”

While my taunting did get an angered snarl from the Digimon it still remained firmly planted to its spot. This only made things worse as I still had no idea if there were anymore Tyrannomon out there, besides this one here. Being this exposed made it hard for me to remain calm, especially since this only left me with one last option.

I picked one of the little pebbles in my hand, and quickly threw it towards the Digimon. However it hadn’t reached him and barely rolled up to his clawed toes. The Tyrannomon glanced down at the little pebble before looking up at me as if he was thinking, am I serious.

I’ll admit I was rather embarrassed by my less than stellar throw. “That was a warning shot asshole, the next one is going straight into your eye!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I grabbed another pebble, this one was much larger than the last, around the size of a fifty-cent coin. I reeled my arm back, before swinging it around, and making sure to give my wrist a good flick before letting go.

The pebble flew out of my hands cutting across the field, and to my surprise and horror the pebble actually flew high and far enough to hit the beast right in the eyeball. It reared its head roaring in pain and frustration, as it swung its head side to side most likely trying to get the pebble out.

“Oh shit I actually got him in the eye.” I felt a cold shiver run up my spine as it opened its eyes, and shot me a look that could definitely kill. One eye was bloodshot red from where the pebble had hit it, and it snarled before sprinting forward. “Well I got his attention, what the hell was step two again?”

Turning quickly on my heels, I bolted in the opposite direction as fast as possible. In my panic state I kept running forward rather than right towards the safe zone. My only chance to shake the Digimon off my tail was to try and out maneuver him through the forest.

I could practically feel the beast’s hot breath on the back of my neck, as I barely ducked through two trees and immediately heard the sound of tree branches snapping as the Tyrannomon crashed against them.

I dared to take a glance back to see the mad Digimon trying to shove his way through the trees, and that he got his head stuck between two of them. I also caught a glimpse of Flash carrying the little girl in his arms right into the safe zone. Knowing the two were safe meant that it was now my turn to get myself to safety.

Ahead I saw thick vines webbed between many trees and thought that it would make for the perfect trap. As I began to run towards them one of the trees crashed down next to me, followed by an ear ringing roar that told me the Tyrannomon was now free. I weaved my way through the trees in front of me, as I could hear the Digimon snapping its jaws right behind me. Sprinting with all my might I closed the distance between me and the vines where I could see a small gap between some near the base of one tree.

Quickly diving one more time, I slipped through the hole and rolled forward, and looked back in time to see the Tyrannomon’s jaw moving in on me. I closed my eyes thinking the vines hadn’t caught him and that this was the end. I heard a loud chomp followed by a heavy thud and opened my eyes to see the vines had wrapped around his lower body, causing it to trip and fall over. Not wanting to press my luck any further than I already had, I ran around the large body back to the safe zone.

Sprinting out of the forest, I moved as fast as my legs could move. I saw Flash waiting near the edge of the circle that outlines the safe zone, he was shouting and waving his hands wildly. The moment I got close enough he darted forward and grabbed me by the arm and yanked me in. I was sure why he was so panicked until I heard what sounded like a large object crashing into a wall. Looking back I saw that the Tyrannomon that was chasing me was but two feet away from me now.

As I was gasping in air trying to catch my breath, I watched as it tried to ram its way forward only to constantly crash into the invisible barrier, which made ripples in the shield like a stone tossed into water. I had no idea that the Digimon was that close behind me, but I was grateful to Flash for pulling me in at the last second when he did.

As Flash lifted me onto my feet and gave me a few pats on the back he smiled happily. “You know you either a suicidal dumbass, or a brave ass hero for that stunt.”

I couldn’t help but let out a weak chuckle as I could feel my legs burning and pulsing from all the running I did. “Can’t I be both.” I joked as I began to look around and saw that Flash was by himself. “What happened to the kid?” He pointed a little way behind him, where I could see an older woman with light gray skin, and blonde hair hugging the little girl, both of whom were crying tears of joy. The sight of it alone made everything I went through worth it in the end.

“Well well looks like that’s everyone.” Everyone quickly turned to see the owner of the raspy voice, DemiDevimon. “We went from 1,000,000 players to 999,845 in less than 10 minutes of the game, to weed out the weak as they say.” Everyone was shocked to hear that over one hundred and fifty-five people had died in that small amount of time. “Now then, before I leave you all to survive on your own, I should explain a few things, as this is a part of my job.”

The little bat Digimon quickly brought up a holographic projection of a planet, one that didn’t look anything like earth. “Now then, your goal is very simple. You and your Digimon partners will venture out into the world to level up and fight your way to beat the game. You will need to discover the hints and clues that will tell you how to do so.” DemiDevimon moved a webbed wing to point to a specific spot on the map that looked to be in the center of a large land mass. “You are all currently here, the clues and answers you’ll need are scattered across the whole planet.”

While this information would prove to be useful, it also didn’t help ease anyone’s worries. I could hear the crowd of people murmuring among themselves as they listened. “Since I’m feeling in a generous mood, I’ll tell you where the closest clue is located for your group.” A red arrow that marked our location slowly moved north of the map and stopped about nine inches, pointing to what looked like a rocky mountain area. “The first clue will be found here, it may look close on the map, but let me assure you it is quite far away from here.”

He flapped his wings and flew high as he continued to speak. “Now then for those of you mourning the loss of those idiots who got themselves killed, cheer up because I got some news for you.” Everyone became silent as the little devil spoke. “You see those who were killed, aren’t actually dead per say. Only their avatars died, their souls are still very much around just trapped in a sort of limbo. The only way you can lose is if every human in the game dies. When the last player dies, then you will become officially dead. However, should one of you, and I highly doubt it will happen, win the game then you will all be sent back to your world, including those who’s avatars were killed.”

No one said a word, we all just allowed those words to settle for a moment as we were told the fate of our lives depends on us winning this game. This should inspire hope to make some of us feel more motivated, but one look around all the grim faces told me that it had the opposite effect. “Well then I think my job here is done for now, if you need more information feel free to ask around the town, there are Digimon living here in this city as well. But don’t worry, they aren’t like those feral Digimon out there.”

DemiDevimon started to fly higher and higher, almost looking like a spec in the blue sky. “I wish you humans the best of luck, you’re all going to need it hehe.” And just like that he was gone, and the game had officially begun.


 

(Present day early afternoon.)



Nine days. It’s been nine whole fucking days since this all started. Nine days and no one has managed to call out their Digimon partners, but this was just one of many problems we were forced to deal with.



The first issue that was the main stem of all problems here was money. The currency used in this digital world is known as bits, and without bits you couldn’t do anything, you couldn’t buy equipment or even food.

There were a few ways to earn money here, some simple, others not so much. The most common way to earn bits was to take a quest from the quest center, located at the heart of the city. At the quest center, quests were posted daily and there were no shortage of them either. Some quests required a variety of things to do, some easy, others too risky to try.

The easiest ones were those that had you delivering items from one place to another, or trading one item for another, a fetch quest basically. While these were the easiest to do they didn’t pay much, just enough to buy you a single meal around here.

Next were scavenger quests. These kinds of jobs required players to venture out of the safe zone in order to find items necessary to complete the quest. From picking mushrooms, to gathering herbs the jobs tend to have us leave the safety of the city. These jobs however did pay well enough to keep a single person fed for a whole day.

The final set were personal quests. These were sometimes requested by the Digimon who live in the city with us, and they can range from easy fetch quests, to elimination quests, where we would need to defeat a certain Digimon to collect an item they would drop. Of which there was no guarantee they would drop the necessary item needed, meaning you would need to keep searching further out to find what you need. These quests tend to pay a lot of bits, but without the proper gear or lack of a Digimon partner no one is crazy enough to take them.

One of the safest ways to earn money was to get a job working for some of the Digimon vendors. Sometimes they’ll hire us humans part time to help set up the shop, and sell products, and be paid a fair amount of money, enough to get you a days’ worth of food at best.

Another way to earn money without having to take a quest job, was to defeat a Digimon and collect the money they would give. However, as already mentioned before, without a Digimon partner there is no way of killing another Digimon, that is unless you have some equipment. This was another issue with not having money, buying equipment.

Before getting sucked into the game, we were told that in this game our avatars would be able to equip weapons that would let us fight side by side with our Digimon partners, like the game Palworld. In most RPG games you’d at least get a starting weapon to use till you could save up and buy a stronger one. Yet when this whole thing started no one was given such items.

The cost for a single basic low level sword cost well over 1500 bits. To put that into perspective, the cheapest food item available for players to buy is a piece of meat that is about as large as a double hamburger, which costs 50 bits on its own. When the game officially started each player had been given only 300 bits. That was worth six pieces of meat all together, which could only keep you fed for three days, that’s if a person only ate twice a day. But we were on day nine of this game from hell, and some people were starving. The people who were starving weren’t the adult and teenager who logged in, the ones who were suffering the most were the children players.



After we had entered the safe zone and left to our own devices, we had begun to take a census to see what the majority of people we had all together, we divided the number into three separate categories. Full grown adults, young adults and finally children, and the percentages that each group took up.

10% was made up of full-grown adults, these were people who logged into the game to play with their kids so they wouldn’t be on their own at the start and offer support till they could make new friends to play with them in their places. Mostly 30- to 40-year-olds.

60% of the majority of players were made up of young adults like me. These were people who were either hardcore gamers, streamers, or fans of the anime growing up. The number of these plays most likely doubled given that the game was advertised as an RPG game. People in this age bracket were those from 17-year-olds to 27-year-olds players.

30% was taken by the children players, and here is where the major issues started. This percentage was made of kids who never worked a day in their lives, or even been away from their parents for so long. The age group most of these kids fell under were 10-year olds to at best 14-year olds.

After we took in the numbers, all of the grown adults figured it would be best to establish some kind of order. They knew immediately that if something wasn’t done soon they would have to deal with a bunch of panicking children on their hands, and this wasn’t even addressing the food issue.

Because the kids weren’t brave enough or had the necessary skills to go out of the safe zone to forage for items needed to complete quests, it was only a matter of time before they would starve to death. Many of the adults considered taking responsibility for a group of children to try and feed, but this posed multiple problems in their plan.

The main issue being that there were more kids than adults by a large margin. There was also the fact that some adults logged in with their own children and needed to worry about them more than others. For a time people were really close to giving up on any kind of hope.

That is until one person came up with an idea that would prove to help keep people from starving to death.

A group of people who were athletically fit enough, and skilled enough to venture out of the safe zone and collect the items needed for someone else to complete their quest in exchange for a small percentage of the reward. These people would be known as quest runners.

The quest runners were made up of like minded people, who understood that they would need to step up to help those in need. Some of these people were actually in lines of work that helped people, such as firefighters, police officers or people trained in the military. While I wasn’t either of those three, I myself am a member of this proud and noble group of people.

Which brings me to where I am as of right now this afternoon. Sitting in front of the quest center waiting for someone to come and ask me for help with a quest.

I usually come out here in the mornings to wait for a possible job that someone may want my help with, and should no one come to ask for one I would instead take a quest all on my own.

“Any requests yet man?” I turned my head to see my good friend Flash strolling over. I smiled and waved to him as he took a seat next to me on the bench. “I’d figure you have a line of people wanting to ask you for help by now.”

I shrugged as I adjusted myself to be in a more comfortable position. “Must be one of those slow days, or that we helped enough people to keep them from starving for one afternoon.”

Before I could say anything else I heard a low rumble coming from right next to me, and saw that Flash had his head turned away. “Speaking of people starving, did you bother to even eat anything this morning?” When he did bother to look my way to answer, and his stomach gave another growl I knew my answer already. “You gave up all your food to the shelter again, didn’t you?”

When the quest runners formed, and the adults decided to watch over the kids, we scoped out one of the empty buildings to use as a place to house the children. Since every building was usable and not just some piece of decoration for show, people decided to take refuge in the ones that were stable enough to use. We found one that looked like a stadium used in football, that had a large dome over it. We decided to name it the children’s shelter, this is where members of the quest runners sometimes donate any spare money or food. The big softy next to me has a bad habit of practically donating almost everything he has to that place, including the food he was meant to eat for himself.

I couldn’t help but sigh as I opened my item box and pulled out two Cheerful Apples. A strange fruit was found in this game. As the name implies, they look and taste like apples, but they had a smiley face on them, not drawn on mind you, they just came like that.



I handed one to Flash as I bit into my own and hummed with joy at the taste. He tried to refuse, but I was quick to shove it into his hands. “You sure man? Shouldn’t you keep this for when you get hungry again?” He asked as he stared at the apple.

“A runner should always keep their strength up, for if they find themselves outside of the safe zone, and are too weak to move, then they are as good as done for when a Digimon attacks.” I said with a smile as I bit into my apple.

He rolled his eyes and took a bite out his apple, and sighed with a blissful expression. “Really gonna use my own words against me huh?” He chuckled before taking another bite.

“Well of course, after all those were the words you said when you formed the quest runners.”

Yep, it was Flash who came up with the idea for the quest runners, and who formed the first group during day 4, when people were worrying about food. While the group is seen as an optional job with no actual hierarchy, every one of the runners considers Flash to be the leader.

As I took another bite of my apple, a wave of joy surged throughout my body. This was due to the fruit itself. Cheerful Apples are from the game Digimon World: Next Order, and whenever you eat one, you are struck with a wave of pure bliss that can make the grumpiest of people smile in delight.

“Did you find these while you were doing a quest?” Flashed asked as he finished his apple rather quickly, probably due to how hungry he was.

I nodded and finished my own before leaning back. “Yeah, I found them about half a mile northeast from the safe zone, lucky me, right?”

Outside of the safe zone we are often tasked to find items like herbs and mushrooms ect, but when I’m out there I try to collect more than the items required by the quest. While this didn’t give me any special bonuses, it did make it easier on my funds since I could eat anything I found out there.

“Yeah, and again I really appreciate you sharing one with me, I’ll try and pay you back when I can.” I waved the idea off and told him not to worry about it. “Oh, hey how close are you to reaching your goal?”

I smiled as I held up five fingers. “500 more bits to go and then I can finally buy them.” Because I tend to forage for my own food anytime I leave the safe zone, I’ve been able to save up my money for something I knew I was gonna need for when I’m out there.

“I still can’t believe that Zudomon actually gave you a discount, I haven’t heard him doing something like that for anyone else.” Flash seemed a bit salty as he looked away, arms crossed, but I knew he was messing with me.

In the city there were Digimon living here as DemiDevimon said, almost everyone here had expected them to be NPCs, Non-Playable Characters. However, we couldn’t have been more wrong about that. The Digimon here have personalities, wants and desires, dreams they wish to make come true. You can hold a conversation with them, and they’ll remember it later on. They’ll ask questions about your day and offer advice.

Of the Digimon who lived here was a Zudomon, who ran a blacksmith shop. From swords and spears, to armor, he had it all. When I wasn’t working or foraging, I spent most of my time checking out his shop and admiring all the different weapons he had.

Back on earth some guys might be gun or car freaks, but I had a more refined taste in weapons from the ones you’d see in fantasy movies. These were the rare few moments where I was allowed to forget about the horrors of this world and actually have fun.

At first, he found my constant visits without purchasing items rather annoying the first three days. But when I asked about the way he made weapons and the kind of materials he used to make them, he seemed to open up.

One time he let me come into the back of the shop where his forge was, and I got to watch as he made a sword right before my eyes. I was so entranced by the whole thing I hadn’t realized I went nearly the whole day just watching in awed silence.

Zudomon had asked me what my fascination with weapons was? I told him that while modern day weapons like guns are easy to mass produce, and require little effort to use, they lacked that certain flare. They didn’t require patience or passion to create, that if there was no heart or soul put into the weapon, then it was just a hunk of metal.

At this the Digimon laughed and gave me a hard pat on the back that sent me falling to the ground. He said he was genuinely impressed with my words and asked to have a look at my stats.

Humans in the game all have stats, some different then others. These were based on the humans themselves, an example being if someone was a weightlifter they would have better strength stats, or if someone was a pro at track and field their stamina and speed would be better.

As for myself, I was on the track and field team back in high school and when I wasn’t gaming or working, I had fun doing parkour with some friends. Because of this my stamina and speed were at the moment my best stats.

When I showed Zudomon my stats he recommended that I consider saving up for a short sword, and a buckler shield. He said that they were lighter than a normal long sword and shield, which wouldn’t hinder my speed and mobility, especially should I find myself in a cramped space. He then offered me a deal, that I could buy a short sword and buckler for 2000 bits. Originally each item cost 1500 bits, so I was being offered a great deal.

Back in the present, I hadn’t gotten one client to come up to me, thus I decided to go on ahead to grab my own quests. “Alright man, I’m gonna go see about grabbing a job or two.” I tell Flash as I hop off the bench, and figure if he was gonna stay here, then I wouldn’t have to worry about someone missing out on help from a quest runner. He waved me goodbye as I walked into the building.

The inside of the building reminded me a bit of a hotel lobby, in that there are walls with different kinds of quests on them, and a checkout stand near the back. The quests are categorized by different ranks, with F being the lowest, and S being the highest. Everyone so far has stuck to F rank missions, since these were the easiest ones, we could do without a Digimon partner.

Players were allowed to take a maximum of three quests at a time, some of which had time limits and others didn’t. To get a new quest, you’d either have to drop one quest that you already have, or complete one. As of now I had one quest already taken, to gather 10 Digistalks, when completed I could be paid 50 bits.

As I looked through the quests, I saw two that piqued my interest. One that required you to gather 5 Conductor Lemons for 100 bits, and another need to collect 3 Orange Banana for 125 bits. All together that would add up to 275 bits!

I immediately grabbed the two quest and took them to the front desk, which was being runed by an Angemon. This was a Digimon I was familiar with since my childhood as he was a Digimon from the first season. He stood almost eight feet tall and had six large white wings, and wore a helmet with a cross on it that covered his eyes. He greeted me and asked if I was there to take on another quest, complete or drop a quest. I showed him the two I was taking and he nodded before asking me to extend my Digivices out, aka one of my vital bracelets. The vital bracelets could keep track of the progress we were making on our quest and among other things.

With everything now settled I left the building and headed out to try and complete the quests I had.

I’ve been out here for well over three hours now, and managed to collect the Digistalks needed for the first quest. I found 2 Conductor Lemons, and 1 Orange Banana, however I only found them within the first two hours of being out here. I found the items within half a mile of the safe zone, but for the last hour I couldn’t find much of anything.

A common rule around here is that items when picked will eventually reset after 24 hours, this meant it was first come first served. This often became a problem as it would spark fights between people who weren’t part of the quest runners, claiming that we were taking all the easy items for ourselves, when they knew full well why we were doing this job.

If someone had already picked the item that was meant to be in one spot normally, then they would need to wait 24 hours for it to spawn again. This meant that I would need to travel further away from the safe zone to find the required items.

By now I already knew that the first two miles from the safe zone were safe and didn’t have any Digimon roaming around, thankfully after the first day all the Tyrannomon had left the area and no one has seen them since. Something I wrote down in my notes as I explored further out.

Because it was late in the afternoon all the morning quest runners had already picked the first two miles clean, making any items I found a rare find. It didn’t also help that certain items had ranks as well from easy to find, to finding one out of sheer dumb luck. But thankfully certain items were easy to find depending on the item themselves.

This world was completely whacked, sometimes things seemed like what you would see back on earth, but other times you’d see a tree twisted into a knot, or purple bushes with flecks of data coming off them. Yet there were some places to find certain items, some of which I had written down. Example being that Conductor Lemons grew near power plants, or power lines. Orange Bananas were often found in trees with orange leaves, which were really easy to spot.

But as I said before, the first two miles had been picked almost clean with me getting the scraps. I could head back and try my luck in the early morning, but I wanted to try and forage for dinner and breakfast too, and I’ve yet to go further past three miles.

I decided to take my chance and keep moving on my head, my notepad and pen in hand ready to run and document whatever I found. I knew for a fact that there was a small abandoned town some five miles away from the safe zone. I knew this because some of the quest runners walked up the stairs to one of the highest skyscrapers in the city and could see the town from their vantage point. Yet no one has dared explore the town given the distance it was from the town, nor what Digimon lurked near it.

I figured if ever there was a time to find out, now would be the best possible time.

Twenty minutes later, I could see the small town past a break in the tree line, and it looked like a modern little town out in the suburbs. Some of the buildings, while intact, were overgrown with moss and vines, and others were half destroyed. My eyes caught sight of a fuse box, and I looked down to see that to my luck there was a lemon there. I glanced around to make sure nothing was near, before sneaking my way close, making sure to duck behind a tree at the slightest sound. When I was close enough, I grabbed the lemon and slipped it into my item box.

The item box was a marvel and made things a lot more convenient for players, you could store up to 30 different items inside and never worry about food expiring while inside. I could carry 90 Digistalks and 40 Orange Bananas and it wouldn’t be a problem, because so long as it was a different item it would count as using one space of your 30 slots.

I started to circle the town careful not to get too excited, and risk drawing any attention to myself. Then when I heard what sounded like someone shushing, I quickly ducked in some bushes and parted some of the leaves to see who made the shushing sound. To my surprise I saw three guys around their early 20s walking into the town. And they weren’t alone as I saw three little girls with them.

I was shocked enough to see people out this far, but to see three kids was an even bigger surprise. How were they out here? Did they know the other players?

I strained my ears to try and hear what they were saying. As I slowly began to follow them inside the town, I could catch what they were saying. “You’re sure that runner came to this place Score?” A tall man with light tan skin, and brown hairs practically covering his eyes, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt asked as he was checking every corner to make sure they weren’t walking into danger.

Score, a short round man wore a black jacket, and blue sweatpants nodded. Like his friend he had hair covering his eyes, but he had bluish gray skin, and his hair was black “Sure did Hoop. Dumb-Bell and, I saw him talking with the leader of the runners before going in and getting a job.”

“Why the hell are we tailing a runner anyway? Couldn’t we wait till tomorrow to try and get some jobs done.” The third man asked, he had Reddish brownish gray skin, and light gray hair that didn’t cover his eyes. He wore a red plaid shirt and black jeans.

“Because Dumb-Bell, runners don’t usually go out this late unless they are exploring, and I heard them talking about there being a town here, which as we can all see is true.” The one known as Hoop said as he continued to peer around every corner before moving onward. “And if we let him go first and look around, and aren't chased by any Digimon, then we can start looking for stuff for us to sell back at the city.”
“But what if he’s already dead? Don’t you think some Digimon got him by now?” Dumb-Bell asked as he looked back, causing me to quickly duck out of sight. “I mean for all we know he could have gotten jumped and pulled away.”

After waiting a few seconds, I peeked my head out and watched two of the men walk into one of the empty houses, while Hoops, who I’m assuming is the leader, stayed outside with the three girls.

The girls looked like they were close to preteen age. One had light yellow skin and red hair and was wearing a white T-shirt with an apple on it under some jean overalls. The second was a girl in jean shorts and a sweatshirt, she had light orange skin and magenta hair. Finally, there was one with light gray skin and her hair was grayish mulberry with pale, light grayish rose streaks.

“You promise we get some items too if we help keep an eye out, right?” The girl with the magenta hair asked.

Hoops looked down at her and rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, you play your part and well give you girls some stuff to take back with you.” He didn’t sound pleased to be sharing whatever they found.

This made the little girls happy, each of them throwing their fists in the air with excitement before, each of them turned away to keep a lookout for danger.


This raised some questions in my mind. Who were these kids? Why weren’t they back at the shelter? More importantly, why would they risk coming out this far for item?

After a couple of minutes the two men came out with arm full of item, some of which were the ones I needed. I felt a surge of jealousy, as I watched them stuff the items into their inventories before moving on.

While I wanted to try and move away and try and score some items for myself, there was some nagging feeling in the back of my head. I’ve yet to see a single Digimon around this little town, and while this would be seen as a blessing it felt more like a trap.

To the east about the same distance from the safe zone, we discovered a riverbed that was patrolled by Gekomon and Betamon, both of which had water attributes. In the opposite direction we also found a rock quarry where we saw Digimon such as Gotsumon, their environment matched them perfectly.

So if the Digimon tend to match their environments, then what kind of Digimon would be found in a town? Just thinking about it made my mind race at a hundred miles a second. Looking around I figured it had to be a rookie Digimon like the others, and that it would probably be bipedal form wise.
“Boss I found the jackpot!” I heard someone shout snapping me out of my thoughts and saw that I had let them out of my sights.

I followed the sound of the voice who shouted and rounded a corner to see the group entering a cul-de-sac. And near the end of it under a streetlamp was a pile of meats, fruits and other food items, it was the motherload. As well as a big red flag.

When Score was walking towards the pile of food, it only now occurred to me why we hadn’t seen any Digimon thus far. I tried to warn them but I was already too late. In a split second a rope had wrapped around Score’s ankle and quickly yanked him into the air and hung him upside down.

A moment later all the doors of the houses that made up the cul-de-sac swung open, and it was now that we saw what Digimon called this place home. Standing at around 5ft each, with dark green skin and red mohawks, they wore light brown sleeveless jackets and loincloths, and each was brandishing a wood club with metal bolts sticking out at the end. Their yellow eyes and two protruding fans from their lower jaw told me exactly who they were, it was a horde of Goblimon. The group had just walked into a trap.

The realization came too late, as several of the goblin like Digimon rushed out of the houses, and made their way to their first victim, the one who fell for their trap first. Within seconds Score was swarmed by three Goblimon, and he screamed as they began to beat at his body with their clubs. He shouted for help, for anyone to save him as the Digimons beat his body like a pinata. Every strike they made could be heard, hard thuds and cracks, each time they brought down their clubs blood had begun to build up on them. Eventually Score’s scream ceased when one club came down and an audible crack sound echoed out.

No one was allowed to moron as the other Digimon quickly moved in on the remaining humans. One Goblimon summoned a fireball into its hand and threw it towards Hoop, when the man saw the fireball, he grabbed the closest body and shoved it in front of him. Dumb-Bell shouted in alarm before suddenly being set on fire, as the ball collided with him. He fell to the ground rolling and screaming in pure agony, before two Goblimon jump towards him, clubs raised and began to beat the life out of him.

Hoop’s depravity hadn’t stopped there, when he saw that more of the goblin Digimon were quickly closing in, he forced the three girls onto the ground before running away like a coward.

I hadn’t really realized that my body had suddenly moved on its own accord, as I darted forward and quickly grabbed the kids and placed each of them under each arm and one onto my back, and just as fast ran away. “Hold on tight you three.” I commanded as I ran down one street, hoping to out run the Digimon.

(Present time)

Now back in the here and now, I blinked and saw the two Goblimon now slowly approaching me. They bore twisted smiles as they tap the end of their wood clubs on the palm of their free hand, clearly amused that I was trapped like a rat now.

“To think this would be the way I would die. At the hands of Digimons, the very creatures I admired for so long.” I found myself chuckling slightly at the irony. The thing I loved so much would end up being the death of me. I shocked myself at how easily I could find humor in this grim moment. I closed my eyes and waited for the end.

‘Press both buttons on your vital bracelets at the same time, and recite these words. Digimon Awaken.’ A female voice that sounded almost angelic echoed in the back of my mind.

My eyes opened and as if on instinct my hands moved on their own. I quickly pressed both sets of buttons on each vital bracelet, and held them out as I spoke. “Digimon Awaken!”

The monitors on the vital bracelets shined, casting blinding lights that made both the Goblimon and myself shielded our eyes. The blinding light was slowly subsiding and when I opened my eyes to see what had happened I was utterly shocked. Standing before me were two new Digimon, ones that I knew all too well.

On my right was a dragon like Digimon with gold armor and a white cape, and at the end of its head was a large blade with a number 20 on the side.

Opposite of him on my left was a Digimon also dressed in armor that looked like it was made from a tank, only his was a military green. The second Digimon wore round buckler shields on his arms and on his head, the last had a number 01 on top.

The name of these two came to me almost instantly, as these were the two Digimon that I chose for my partners. “Zubamon and Ludomon?” I asked out loud.

The two Digimon turned to look at me and nodded their heads, then quickly turn to face the two Goblimon as they quickly charged forward. One of which summons a fireball in its palm before throwing it straight at me. I was about to try and move out of the way, when Ludomon Jumped up and smacked the ball of fire away with one of his shields. Both Goblimon and I were caught by surprise, before Zubamon quickly charged in.

“Twenty Dive!” The little rookie shouted before he began to slice up one of the Goblimon. It all happened so fast, just a blur of blades cutting the evil Digimon making it howl in pain. The second Goblimon raised his club over his head ready to aid his comrade by attacking Zubamon.

However, Ludomon was quick to respond as he dashed forward holding one of his buckler shields out. “Shield Bash!” He called out, as he slammed himself into the Goblimon’s face with his shield, knocking him back a few feet.

I heard another howl of pain and watched as the first Digimon glowed before shattering into glass like data, which was absorbed into both Ludomon and Zubamon. Then suddenly two windows opened in front of me.



Zubamon


HP 300 +20 MP 200+20

STR 300+30 STA 190

WIS 100 SPD 150


Ludomon


HP 300 +20 MP 200+20

STR 300 STA 190+20

WIS 100 SPD 150


Items Acquired

BIT 30

Recovery Disk


It took me a moment to understand what I was looking at, it was a status menu of my Digimon, and judging by the +20 near some of them, I can only imagine that it represented their stats growing. Not only that but I got some money and an item too. I wanted to bask in the glory of it all when the second Goblimon managed to recover from Ludomon’s attack.

The Goblimon was fuming and foaming at the mouth with rage, he let out a roar and pounded his chest like some made gorilla. “Geez he sounds pissed.” I joked before seeing three more of the evil Digimon suddenly appear. Most likely that roar the first one did was a call to the others to rally together. I was now worried yet again, I feared that my two Digimon alone couldn’t handle them all.

Ludomon and Zubamon looked at one another and nodded. Suddenly their bodies began to glow, and I watched as their forms began to morph.

Zubamon’s body began to shrink like the blade on its nose slowly grew longer. His tail straightened out forming a grip while his legs curved to form a guard around the handle, like a cutlass.

Ludomon’s body slowly compressed in on itself, the helmet like shield it had on its head became the base, and the two smaller shields on its arms moved to either side of the first. The toe claws that were on its feet shifted to the front of the shield, and looked incredibly sharp with the tail acting as the strap.

I was in shock and awe by their transformation before suddenly the short sword and buckler flew at me. The buckler latched onto my left arm, while the short sword flew right into my right hand resting comfortably in my palm. The moment I felt my grip tight on the two weapons I felt a surge of strength that I hadn’t possessed mere moments ago.

“Can you hear us boss?” A voice echoed in my head making me jolt for a second. “It's me, Zubamon.” I glanced down to see that the eyes on the blade glowed for a moment. “Don’t worry we got your back, just trust in us and we’ll get out of here no sweat.” Zubamon’s voice sounded confident, like he was sure things had just taken a turn in our favor.

“Heads up!” A second voice called out in my head, and I looked up to see that one of the Goblimon had jumped into the air, clubbed, gripped in both hands and raised over its head ready to strike down on me.

I had let my guard down for a split second and was afraid I was about to pay for it with my life. When suddenly the buckler on my arm began to move my limb on its one. The shield moved in the way to block the attack as it came down, but I still felt the vibration as the wood club slammed against the metal shield. I nearly fell back from the impact but strengthened my stance and pushed back. The push made the Goblimon hover in the air as it had lost its momentum. “Hurry use Zubamon and slash him!” The second voice called out.

Immediately I swung my arm forward and slashed the Goblimon down the middle, and watched as it quickly shattered into data. Like before the data was absorbed into my Digimon, and their stats had increased like before, followed by money and another item earned.

“That was too close for comfort sir, please be more careful.” The second voice said in a more formal tone than Zubamon. “But not to worry, for I as your humble shield will block as many attacks as possible, that is a Ludomon promise.” Now I knew that the second voice belonged to Ludomon.

I turned my sights on the other Goblimon, and found a rather surprising sight. Before they bore proud and confident looks, but now there was hesitation and dare I sound cocky also a hint of fear. “What’s got them spoked?” I wondered aloud.

“It's because they can sense the power shift.” Zubamon spoke again in my mind, sending a shiver up my spine, an odd feeling I’m not quite sure I’ll get used to anytime soon. “When you equipped us, our stats combined made us stronger than when we were alone.”

“Not to mention we had just got done dispatching one of their comrades, forcing them to think twice about if they want to continue the fight.” Ludomon added as we saw the three Goblimon hesitate to approach, taking on a triangle formation as they moved in. “Oh, sir this is a perfect set up!” Ludomon’s voice sounded excited as I felt the shield in my hand begin to rise making my arm move into position, and then a name came to mind as well as an image.


My legs got into a sprinting stance and my center of gravity adjusted. “Ludo Bash!” Pushing off my back leg I darted forward. What I hadn’t expected was the enhanced speed that I moved as the distance between me and the goblin Digimon was shortened in the blink of an eye. My shield slammed into the face of the first Goblimon, the impact was so strong it sent him flying into the two behind him, like a bowling ball hitting pins. The impact alone was strong enough to send the three flying backward out of the alleyway.

“Hurry boss chase after them and attack!” Zubamon’s voice shouted in my head, and I darted after my opponents. It was now that I noticed again the change in my speed. It felt so natural for my body, but my mind could barely process the speed I was moving at. So much so that I hadn’t noticed that I had caught up to the three Goblimon before they had a chance to land on the ground. “Now boss it’s time for my move!”

As Zubamon’s voice called out in my head, just like with Ludomon’s move an image of an attack came into mind and how to execute it. Without hesitation I moved right into the middle of the three evil Digimon, I spread my legs apart and moved the arm holding my sword across my chest. Pushing off one leg and spinning on the tip of the other I swung my blade in a perfect circle. “Zuba Slash!” In a single swift slash, my blade sliced through each of their bodies.

When the Goblimon’s bodies hit the ground they shattered into glass like data, and a window appeared as it did before.





Zubamon

HP 320 +60 MP 220+60

STR 330+90 STA 190

WIS 100 SPD 150


Ludomon


HP 320 +60 MP 220+60

STR 300 STA 210+60

WIS 100 SPD 150


Items Acquired

BIT 90


Recovery Disk

Recovery Disk


After the battle was over, I couldn’t help but feel a wave of calm wash over me, so much so that my grip on my weapons loosened and I fell to the ground exhausted. I stared at the blue sky like this was the first time I ever saw it. I would have stared at the sky for who knows how long, had I not felt a tug on my shirt. Craning my head up I saw the two Digimon looking at me with worried expressions. I smiled and slowly sat up to show that I was fine and well.

Now that the threat of death was no longer looming over me, I was finally able to truly look at my digimon partners. “I don’t think I got the chance to properly introduce myself, so let’s try this again. Hi, my name is Kotetsu, and it’s an honor to meet you both.” I held my hand out to shake theirs.

Both Digimon smiled and moved one of their hands on top of mine. “We are happy to meet you, let’s work together and become the strongest.” Both said in unison.

After everything settled down, I went ahead and messaged Flash using the friend's communication line. It was basically like a cell phone system you can use with people you had friended, of course if someone knew your gamer tag, they could send a call request. When I called Flash, I told him about everything that happened, how there were three girls I needed him to meet up with as they made their way to the safe zone, as well as how to summon Digimon from the vital bracelets.

He was no doubt shocked by the overwhelming information I had to dump on him, but he understood the situation right away, no questions asked.

Before I left to go catch up with him and the kids, I decided to make use of the now vacant cul-de-sac and collect the bait the Goblimon used on Hoop and his cronies. It was a really good haul, and the remaining quest items I needed were here. One thing I did think about after collecting the loot was whether or not that Hoop guy got killed or not. I didn’t see it happen like with his lackies, so I wasn’t sure if he escaped after using the kids as sacrifices. I told Flash about him, and he told me when we get back to the city, we can inform the adult running the children’s shelter. Either way, if I do see that guy again, I swear I’ll punch his teeth in for what he did.


With all the loot collected, both me and my partner Digimons made our way back to Safe Zone City. And for the first time since entering this digital world, I could finally see a silver lining in the dark storm clouds ahead.









Digimon featured in chapter and roles

DemiDevimon  Game Assistant 


RedTyranomon (feral)



MetalTyrannomon (Feral)



Zudomon the Black Smith



Goblimon (feral)



Zubamon & Ludomon (Kotetsu's partner Digimons)

 

Zubamon (short sword form)




Ludomon (buckler shield mode)