Chapter 2: The Higher Realm

Unlike previous games, in this Digital Source World, there is no concept of gifting. Currently, there are only three ways to obtain a Digimon: choose a Digimon egg from the Village of Beginnings, capture a wild Digimon, or defeat the boss guarding a dungeon.

However, for someone like Beast, apart from picking an egg at the Village of Beginnings, none of the other options are possible right now. This is the essential path for all beginners. After all, if you aren’t willing to nurture a Digimon from its egg, can you truly call yourself a fan?

The main reason, of course, is that everyone starts without a Digimon. Without one, it’s impossible to defeat other Digimon, let alone capture them.

[By silently reciting “Open Menu” in your mind, the menu interface will appear before you.] Just after the system voice greeted him at the start of the game, it added this instruction.

[Open Menu!] Beast recited inwardly, and a menu panel materialized before him.

The menu was still simple at this stage, displaying only the character’s basic stats—health at ten, for instance. Beneath the character, there was a slot indicating the number of Digimon; currently, only one slot was unlocked. This suggested that a player could eventually carry multiple Digimon.

But, even with one unlocked slot, Beast still didn’t have a Digimon. So, for now, this feature was of little use. To the left of the Digimon slot, there was also a small icon.

It was the icon for the Village of Beginnings. Clicking it would instantly teleport the player there, but the arrival point would be random. With luck, you might land near a cluster of Digimon eggs; if not, you could spend a long time searching for one.

This was the only opportunity for a free teleport to the Village of Beginnings. Next time, you’d have to pay. If you refused to pay but still wanted to enter, you’d have to find the village’s location within the game world.

“Click the Village of Beginnings icon and go find a Digimon egg,” an excited voice suddenly sounded from his watch.

“Wait a minute, I have a question. Zero Beast’s data—is it in this world?” Beast’s gaze fell on his watch.

“Yes, to be precise, Zero Beast’s data is right here in this game,” the watch replied without hesitation.

In truth, Beast had already guessed as much. According to Ancient Melody Beast, Diamond was supposed to bring him to the world where Zero Beast’s data was located. But since he’d always been in the human world and the watch hadn’t appeared, he’d been uncertain until now.

Hearing the watch’s confirmation, Beast said no more and clicked the Village of Beginnings icon. Instantly, the icon floated off the menu panel before him, dropped to the ground, and transformed into a magic circle.

He had to admit, the game’s special effects in this aspect were quite impressive. Beast had expected to vanish with a “whoosh” and appear in the village, but the experience was more elaborate.

He stepped into the magic circle, and as a faint white light rippled outward, his figure disappeared from the room. When he reappeared, he was standing on a grassland.

This was the Village of Beginnings.

Unfortunately, his location seemed rather remote. There wasn’t a single Digimon egg in sight—no other players, either. And this was the launch period of Digital Source World, when player numbers were at their peak.

[There are three types of Digimon eggs in the Village of Beginnings. The first type has extremely low potential: while they can hatch into Digimon, they cannot reach the Mega level. The second type has moderate potential: they can hatch Digimon and reach Mega, but not the strongest Megas. The third type boasts very high potential: the Digimon hatched can evolve directly to the Mega level and even reach the pinnacle of Mega forms.] As soon as Beast entered the village, a panel appeared before him, displaying images of gold, silver, and bronze Digimon eggs, each accompanied by an explanation.

Reading this, Beast couldn’t help but sneer. In the true Digital World, there were no gold, silver, or bronze eggs. Just as ShineGreymon could evolve straight into Apollomon, so too could VolcanoBeast. For Digimon, evolution is never a straight line.

“We need to find a Digimon egg first, then inject your data into it. That way, it becomes your vessel, and you can manifest in this Digital World,” the voice from the watch instructed.

“I understand.” Responding, Beast began walking forward, asking the watch, “Earlier, you mentioned this is a high-tier world. What does that mean?”

“A high-tier world is actually…” As the watch explained, Beast gradually grasped the situation.

NEO, Chronomon, Apocalymon, and Ancient Melody Beast all resided in what was known as the Digital Origin World—the source of all digital worlds, a realm even older than the ancient era.

Long ago, to seal Chronomon, NEO, Apocalymon, and Ancient Melody Beast shattered the Digital Origin World. Some fragments were gathered by NEO and the others, forming the place where Chronomon was imprisoned—the place Beast had previously visited.

The remainder of the Digital Origin World, after some time, coalesced into a new world: the origin of the ancient digital civilization. Later, when that civilization collapsed, what was once a unified continent split into countless fragments, scattering and forming the multiverse of digital worlds.

Among these fragments, some were much larger and denser than others. These generated enough gravitational pull to attract and merge with more fragments, creating a positive feedback loop and growing ever larger.

Generally, any world with more than one-thousandth the area and mass of the ancient digital civilization’s continent is considered a high-tier world. The rules in such worlds are far more refined.