Chapter 124: The Golden Digi-Egg

"Oh? There's more?" Yi Shou stared at the last remaining faint orb of light, his face filled with disbelief. He hadn't expected there to be anything left, having assumed that the previous items were the final spoils of war.

Reaching in, Yi Shou rummaged around and pulled out a golden Digiegg. It was the kind of egg with immense potential, the sort capable of evolving into the most powerful tier of Mega-level Digimon.

Yi Shou had not expected to find it here. He had originally planned to visit Primary Village later to see if he could find one, or if that failed, grind through more dungeons until a high-quality one dropped. His last resort would have been to tame a wild Digimon.

He had obtained Digieggs from dungeons before, but unfortunately, their potential was low—mostly silver or copper grade. Besides, he had been at a lower level back then and had no need for a third Digimon, so he had simply sold them off.

But who could have guessed that after the Twelve Deva dungeon, his level would jump to twenty-three, reaching the point where he actually needed a third partner? He had been prepared to spend days grinding, hoping for a decent egg, or otherwise resigning himself to being ripped off at the auction house.

"Alright everyone, I've finished collecting my spoils. I'm off. See you around if we cross paths again." With that, Yi Shou tucked the golden Digiegg away and, carried by his Paildramon, flew off into the distance.

After a long silence, a bystander player suddenly remarked, "I think I finally understand why Yi Shou is so strong."

The others remained silent. They knew exactly why he was so powerful; killing one formidable boss after another and acquiring rare gear after rare gear—it would be strange if he weren't strong.

Rumor had it that every so often, Yi Shou would cycle out his old equipment. Yet, once that gear hit the market, it became the mainstream equipment for players of their tier, or at the very least, still highly usable. That didn't even account for the higher-tier gear he kept for himself.

Another passerby sighed, "The gap between us and him is just too vast. Even if we had Ultimate-level Digimon, it wouldn't change a thing."

Their Ultimate Digimon generally had a total combat power of only one to two thousand, with a rare few reaching just over three thousand—that was their limit.

Yi Shou’s Paildramon was already twice as strong as theirs. Even Yi Shou himself, before activating Burst Mode, could handle the weakest Ultimate-level Digimon present. If he triggered Burst Mode, none of the Digimon here could stand against him.

Ultimate-level Digimon varied in strength. A select few were so weak they couldn't even defeat a Champion-level, while others could rival Royal Knights. They were all classified as Ultimate, but to equate them based on that label alone would be pure delusion.

Ignoring the players' thoughts, Yi Shou returned to Aegio-mon City and used the teleportation array to head back to Greymon City. He made a beeline for the Witchmon’s shop; he hadn't forgotten that she was still appraising the mysterious object.

Although he had defeated DeathMeramon in just over a minute, the time spent observing beforehand and gathering the loot meant that enough time should have passed.

"Hello, your item has been appraised," the Sunflowmon said as he entered the shop, handing him a glowing orb.

"How much?" Yi Shou asked.

"One hundred gold coins," the Sunflowmon replied with a light chuckle.

"Understood." Yi Shou kept a calm, indifferent expression, though internally he was fuming. The system wouldn't cheat him; if it said the orb was worth one hundred gold, it likely was. Despite the financial sting, he paid the fee.

He was the only one who could afford this. Other players would struggle to scrape together one hundred gold, as the game's currency output was incredibly low. Aside from first-time dungeon clears, the only way to earn gold was by selling gear.

But if others already had better gear than yours, why would they buy yours? You couldn't just sell every top-tier item you found; you needed them to keep pace. But if you fell behind, your gear would become obsolete, and then nobody would want to buy it.

Only Yi Shou could ensure his strength steadily increased while maintaining a constant stream of income from his discarded gear. For everyone else, earning gold was a grueling task. In the real world, a single gold coin from "Digimon Source World" could cover several days of food and basic necessities.

After paying, Yi Shou took the orb and returned to his login space. He clicked to hatch the Digiegg. He didn't plan to use an acceleration potion; with his current strength, training a Digimon would grant him plenty of experience to reach the Rookie stage quickly. Besides, as a Digimon, experiencing every stage of life was beneficial.

With that done, he finally turned his attention to the orb. He was genuinely curious about what was inside. After a moment of hesitation, he reached his hand into the light and pulled out the contents.

As he saw what lay in his palm, his breath hitched, then deepened. He was overcome with excitement; he never imagined it would be this.