Chapter 53: He Is the Primordial Beast

“Did you not come out earlier?” The beast’s gaze shifted over, not only noticing the presence of the watch, but also sensing something amiss. His arm seemed thinner than before.

[Could it be…] The beast appeared to realize something, glancing in another direction. He discovered that this body of his was much leaner, entirely unlike the plump form he had possessed in the King’s Realm.

“No need to look. You’ve already fused with your Digimon. Right now, you are both a player and a Digimon, and more specifically, a Digimon at the mature stage. For you, this is your state as a mature Digimon. Of course, it may differ somewhat from your previous mature form,” came a weak voice from the watch.

“You…” The beast was about to ask more, but the watch interrupted again, its tone even weaker: “Enough, my time is limited. Soon I’ll enter a period of dormancy. Let me first tell you what you wanted to know.”

As the watch explained, the beast gradually learned some of the truth. Long ago, before he had encountered Neo, Apocalypsemon, or AncientMelomon, the three of them had already been observing ZeroBeast and the beast himself.

ZeroBeast was a mysterious existence, and the beast was equally extraordinary—especially since they originated from the same source. Thus, Neo used his power to select this particular future out of countless possibilities. Only in this timeline could they possibly fuse.

Yes, fusion—the fusion of the beast and ZeroBeast. Although the beast had known early on that their union might break through the limits of the ninth tier and reach the realm of the tenth tier, a level only Neo and his peers could attain, knowing was one thing; he lacked any real concept of it.

It was like someone telling you that if you pursue a certain girl, you two will marry, have children, and enter a life of happiness. You know it, you seek her out, but before marriage and children, though you anticipate happiness, you cannot truly feel it.

But the beast’s ignorance did not mean Neo and his companions were unaware. In the future Neo foresaw, the beast and ZeroBeast successfully fused and evolved into a new Digimon. That Digimon possessed incredible combat strength, truly a tenth-tier Digimon—OriginBeast.

Digimon data is composed of “zero” and “one.” This data forms the foundation, the origin, the essence of all Digimon. Whether weak as a mere Digi-Egg or mighty like Neo himself, or even the Digital World itself, everything is rooted in “zero” and “one.”

Even unique beings like the Imperial Demon or the Corruptor—no matter how special—still rely on data as their foundation. Anything that exists in the Digital World, at its core, is data, is “zero” and “one.”

A tenth-tier Digimon may not necessarily be strong in combat, but it is the embodiment of a concept. Just as the Dark Chronomon embodies the concept of time and space; as long as time and space exist, it will never die.

Neo embodies the concept of the future, and as the future never arrives, Neo remains invincible. Of course, among Digimon of equal rank, it is possible to defeat Neo. After all, while the future cannot be destroyed, it can be changed.

Apocalypsemon embodies the concept of stagnation, while AncientMelomon represents evolution. As for OriginBeast, it is the incarnation of the concept of data. As long as data persists, it cannot be destroyed.

Concepts are equal; none is inherently superior to another. Thus, OriginBeast is only on par with Neo and the others. Whether there exists a tier above the tenth, an eleventh tier, even Neo does not know. Perhaps there is, perhaps not.

According to the watch, it was originally created by Neo and his peers to guide the fusion and evolution of the beast’s and ZeroBeast’s data. Unfortunately, OriginBeast’s existence is much like theirs—not something that can be produced simply by guidance. In the end, the watch was only a half-finished product.

It could barely guide the beast and ZeroBeast’s data to merge into the mature form of OriginBeast. But to reach the perfect or ultimate forms, the watch was insufficient. Its current weakened state was due to the last time it facilitated the emergence of the mature OriginBeast.

What does OriginBeast signify? It is on the same level as Neo and his counterparts. Even as a mature form, even if it appeared for mere seconds, even if it only destroyed a single Zombie Tyrannomon—the sheer volume of its data instantly overwhelmed all servers and mainframes of the Digimon Corporation.

Thus, it was not unreasonable for the corporation to suspect a hacker attack. Servers and mainframes don’t just crash for no reason. Surely it couldn’t be simply because their staff worked three hundred sixty-five days a year and their “mindset exploded,” could it?

Still, Digimon Corporation is no small enterprise. Despite its humble name, its strength is formidable. In just a few days, they upgraded to even more powerful servers and mainframes.

According to the watch’s calculations, this new hardware could allow OriginBeast to remain for a full minute—though only as a mature Digimon. If the perfect form appeared, the game would likely need to suspend operations for several days.

Before falling silent, the watch warned the beast: he didn’t know how many fragments of ZeroBeast’s data existed at present, but before the final fusion—meaning that each temporary fusion, like before, where a single fragment was used to evolve into OriginBeast—each fragment could only be used once.

If used too many times, ZeroBeast’s data might be consumed or devoured by the beast’s data. Either way, the outcome would be grim. At this point, the beast possessed only one fragment of ZeroBeast’s data, and it had already been used, which meant he could not transform into OriginBeast again for some time.

Unless he could find more of ZeroBeast’s data, the appearance of OriginBeast would be exceedingly rare. As the watch finished speaking, its aura faded further—clearly, it would not last much longer.