Chapter 5: The "JH" Serum

Eventually, Beast still removed the batteries from his glasses to recharge them, and then went out to buy some food. As a Digimon, Beast didn’t need to eat, but if he didn’t, this human body he inhabited would die. So, he was forced to eat.

Speaking of meals, Beast couldn’t help but recall the time when he first appeared in this world. The room he found himself in was filthy and chaotic, with heaps of garbage piled in every corner. Snakes, insects, rats, and ants kept him company, and the window remained closed, leaving the whole room shrouded in a dim gloom.

At first, Beast truly wondered if he had arrived in hell.

Just cleaning up cost him an entire day, and it took the following two days for him to barely make up for his lack of understanding of this world’s common sense and worldview.

Although it seemed that this Royal Realm was rather impoverished, Beast still managed to scrounge up one hundred and twenty coins. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to keep him going for a while. After all, under Beast’s management, he only needed to eat once a day, and a meal cost just ten coins.

Even so, that one hundred and twenty didn’t last long!

After finishing his meal, Beast returned. Thanks to his glasses, though their usage time was short, recharging was also quick. By the time he got back, the charge was already at eighty percent.

Since there was nothing else to do, Beast picked up his glasses and once more entered the game. No matter where he had logged out before, logging in always brought him back to the login space—his own simple, sparsely furnished room.

"Phew, finally back," Beast muttered, letting out a sigh of relief as he looked around.

"But have you thought about where your Digimon is?" Now back in the game, his watch could speak again.

Beast fell silent at the question. Because he had been forced to log out when his batteries ran out, he had just left the Village of Beginnings. Moreover, he hadn’t obtained a Digi-Egg…

"Well, let’s just take things one step at a time. Maybe there’s another way to get a Digi-Egg." Shaking his head, Beast looked at the door, walked over, and opened it to step outside.

The scene beyond was bustling with people. Yet, at this stage, few had Digimon. After all, it took time to hatch a Digimon from a Digi-Egg and raise it.

“What’s this?” As soon as he stepped out, Beast noticed an exclamation mark floating above his mailbox.

[Hello, Lilymon has sent you a letter. Would you like to open it? There are items inside, and if you open it, the items will be placed in your room.] When Beast tapped the exclamation mark, a message appeared before him. Afterward, two choices floated in front of him: “Confirm” and “Cancel.”

Without hesitation, Beast chose “Confirm.”

[Beast, I’m sorry. I don’t know why you suddenly disappeared. When I tried to contact you, I found you were already offline. With no other choice, I sent you this letter. There are some things inside as a token of my thanks. –Lilymon.]

After reading the message, Beast quietly returned to his room. He found a Digi-Egg placed on the floor—a standard, low-grade one. Beside it lay a small pouch, golden letters spelling “1000” hovering above it. Next to the pouch stood a tiny vial labeled “JH.”

Beast recognized all three items at a glance. First, the Digi-Egg, which needed no explanation. Second, the pouch contained one thousand gold coins. If the lettering had been bronze, that would mean a thousand bronze coins; silver would indicate a thousand silver coins.

The Digimon Company had established a Digimon Bank, and the currency in “Digital Source World” could be exchanged for real-world money. You could exchange game money for cash, but converting cash into game money incurred a fee. The exchange rate was roughly one bronze coin to ten cents, one silver coin to one dollar, and one gold coin to a hundred dollars.

In short, money in this game was valuable, which meant the drop rates were extremely low—not like in some games where you could clear a dungeon and rake in thousands or even millions of coins.

A thousand gold coins, while not a fortune, was nothing to scoff at. In real-world terms, it was worth a hundred thousand dollars—enough for Beast to live comfortably outside and even upgrade his gaming equipment.

As for the third item, the “JH” potion, it was a special elixir. Sprinkle it on a Digi-Egg, and the creature that hatches would emerge directly as a Rookie-level Digimon, skipping the Baby and In-Training stages.

This was primarily because all Digimon in their Baby stage had no combat ability, and most in the In-Training stage weren’t much better. It was only at the Rookie stage that Digimon possessed even a hint of fighting power.

However, the “JH” potion couldn’t be found anywhere in the game—it could only be bought, at a price of one thousand gold coins per vial.

In other words, aside from the unknown value of the ordinary Digi-Egg, Lilymon had given him at least two thousand gold coins as a reward. Clearly, Lilymon was a girl from a wealthy family.

With no further hesitation, Beast followed the instructions on his watch to create a backup of his data. Then, placing one hand on the Digi-Egg, he injected the freshly copied data into it. After a moment, the egg began to shimmer with a faint rainbow light, and Beast finally withdrew his hand.

To be honest, this data was almost like a clone of Beast himself. If Beast died, the Digimon would die too. But if the Digimon died, Beast would be fine. The closer the Digimon was to Beast, the more it would benefit from his presence, but if it strayed too far, it would become a mindless puppet, standing vacant and dumb.

There was nothing to be done—after all, it wasn’t truly a part of Beast, and Beast himself knew no duplication techniques. This was all accomplished by exploiting the mechanics of this game world.

With that done, Beast poured the entire “JH” potion onto the Digi-Egg and waited quietly as time ticked by.

A short while later, with a crack, a fissure appeared on the surface of the egg.