Chapter 56: Taiji Yagami

Yagami Taiji chattered on incessantly, “Bro, are you trying to change professions and become a chef?”

In truth, Beast was indeed here to change his profession to chef. When the player side jobs were released earlier, Beast had also considered becoming a chef; after all, he had little interest in anything else. But being a chef wasn’t as simple as just wanting it. Just as in the real world, where a chef needs a qualification certificate—of course, small eateries might not require one, but any establishment of repute generally does—the game world also required tasks to be completed to become a chef.

However, the tasks weren’t difficult or tedious, since this was only a player side job. If it were too hard from the start, wouldn’t that just drive players away? Take Beast’s current task, for example: all he needed to do was descend into the city’s sewers, find the Snot Beasts, eliminate them, and collect their mucus—about five samples would suffice.

But the tasks were assigned at random. The next person who wanted to become a chef might only be required to gather a few Wild Veggie Beast vines. In any case, Beast had already accepted this task; unless he gave up on becoming a chef, he had no choice but to press on.

Fortunately, Beast had a Dragon Beast by his side. Though its combat power was nowhere near his own, it was more than enough to handle a few Snot Beasts.

Beast cast a glance at Yagami Taiji beside him and said, “If you follow me any further, once we enter a combat zone, don’t blame me for wiping out your account.”

Death meant an account was wiped—this rule hadn’t been updated by the developers. So, except for a few exceptions, once you died, your account was truly unusable. Even for those exceptions, as far as Beast knew, at most you could die twice.

Presumably, this was a measure by the developers to make players cherish their accounts more. As for player protection, hadn’t the developers already introduced other forms of evolution? Moreover, from Beast’s experience, there seemed to be equipment in the game that could grant players invulnerability. With such gear, there would be no fear of account deletion.

As for “combat zones,” as Beast mentioned, these generally referred to areas outside the city. That is, once you stepped beyond the city gates, you entered a combat zone. In such areas, players could attack each other. But, as in other games, killing a player would flag you as a “red name.”

Additionally, certain leveling zones within the city, or areas inhabited by minor monsters—such as the sewers Beast was heading for—were also considered combat zones. If Yagami Taiji really insisted on following him there, Beast wouldn’t hesitate to send him packing.

Could Yagami Taiji possibly turn the tables on him? With that slow-witted Tyranno Beast at his side, what chance did he have? Even if that Tyranno Beast was a fully maxed-out Champion-level Digimon, Beast still had the power to prevail.

Compared to wild Champion-level Digimon, player-owned Digimon were somewhat weaker. Still, for two Digimon of equal level—whether wild or player-owned—the difference wasn’t significant. Unless there was a glaring weakness or the fight went on for hundreds of rounds, a decisive outcome was unlikely.

However, a player’s Digimon had one major weakness: the player themselves. Unless the player possessed especially powerful protective items, or could fuse with their Digimon, or transform into a Digimon themselves, they remained the greatest vulnerability.

Any Digimon with even modest attack power—anything above Rookie level—could easily wipe out a player’s account. Simply put, compared to Digimon, humans were still much weaker.

“You…” Yagami Taiji opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, said nothing. His steps faltered, and he no longer followed.

On the other side, freed from Yagami Taiji’s incessant chatter, Beast felt much more at ease. Soon, he found an entrance to the sewers.

Since the sewers were also a leveling area, though few cared to come here, certain tasks inevitably required interaction with this place. To hunt monsters in the sewers, one had to crawl in through the entrance.

Due to the enormous size of some Digimon, the sewer entrances were built quite large and situated in remote locations.

Once Beast entered the sewers, he realized this was no ordinary sewer—it was more like an underground palace. He strongly suspected the passage they’d just traversed was actually a portal.

In the vastness of the sewers, Beast and the Dragon Beast walked slowly, but found no sign of Snot Beasts. The area was simply too large to expect to run into them right away.

Just then, a Snot Beast suddenly emerged from the fetid river in the center of the sewer and hurled something at them—its signature attack.

The Snot Beast: a virus-type, soft-bodied, Champion-level Digimon; its special move was “Dung Toss.” It had a slug-like body, preferred damp and dark environments, and possessed neither combat power nor intelligence.

From his years of experience battling as a Digimon, Beast had sensed the creature’s presence the moment it surfaced. Had it been another kind of Digimon, he would have attacked immediately. But this was a Snot Beast…

“Dragon Beast, attack.” As soon as the Snot Beast launched its projectile, Dragon Beast, following Beast’s command, opened its jaws and unleashed a burst of flames that matched the deep red of its own hide.

The Snot Beast, powerless and merely a minor monster, had little health and was annihilated in a single strike. Perhaps due to a task bonus, a sample of Snot Beast mucus was left behind on the spot.

Dragon Beast had no way to collect the mucus, so Beast gathered it himself before continuing on his way.