Chapter Seventy-Six: The Advent

Time in the Digital World was dull and cheap, and in the blink of an eye, eight hundred years had passed since the last appearance of the portal. Yet such a long stretch meant less than a year in the real world. Just as Feng Xue was about to give up waiting and try his luck in another region through the pillar of light, the long-awaited portal finally appeared before him again. However, this time, the portal was a rectangular window, much like a television screen. Through it, he could clearly see a room from the real world, distinctly Japanese in style, yet he found himself unable to cross the threshold. Perhaps, he thought, some other requirement had yet to be fulfilled.

As Feng Xue reached out to touch the portal, he was startled to find himself transported into a subspace.

This was neither the real world nor the Digital World, but a blank, featureless room. Or rather, not truly blank, for a considerable number of Digimon had gathered there.

All these Digimon were focused in one direction, as if hoping to climb out of the room’s sole window.

“Let me evolve…”

“Let me grow stronger…”

Countless voices spilled from the mouths of the Digimon, as though they were certain the child slumped on the other side of the window could grant them evolution.

“One truly powerful Digimon is all I need!” With a shout from the pineapple-haired girl who had collapsed to the floor, a beam of light shot out from the table, scanning the entire room.

Feng Xue could not help but grimace at the sensation of the scan. His instincts told him it was analyzing his data.

Suddenly, a beam of light focused on him, and in that instant, he felt a mysterious connection form between himself and the child beyond the window.

“That beam of light, was it searching for a Digimon that matches her requirements?” Before he could ponder further, countless dangerous gazes from other Digimon fell upon him.

“Holy Bow Demon!” he heard one Digimon call out, and in an instant, nearly all the Digimon present understood the meaning behind the title. (Among Digimon, communication transcended spoken language—there were deeper exchanges of data, or else how could a village of Tokomon tell which one was being called when they all shared the same name?) Almost immediately, the crowd parted on either side as though paying homage to an emperor, leaving Feng Xue a clear path. Only a single Kyubimon appeared reluctant but, after some internal struggle, eventually stepped aside as well.

Power reigns supreme—this was the law by which Digimon lived.

By now, Feng Xue fully understood which scene he had stumbled into. With an imposing gait, he strode toward the window. With every step, his aura of power grew, quelling even the last whispers of unrest among the Digimon.

But just as all the Digimon yielded, the window suddenly vanished. In a blink, Feng Xue found himself standing once more on the barren land of the Misty Phantom Zone. The abrupt change jarred him, a surge of fury welling up within him before he could even grasp what had happened.

Yet before this sense of having been toyed with could erupt, a pale blue pillar of light—utterly unlike the usual digital world’s transmission—swept over him. When he regained his senses, he was standing before a kneeling girl.

The scene felt strangely familiar to Feng Xue, and without thinking, he spoke: “Servant Impmon, summoned in answer to your call. Tell me, are you my tamer?”

“Servant?” the girl—Ruki Makino—repeated with a puzzled expression.

Only then did Feng Xue realize he had made a joke no one else would understand. He coughed awkwardly and said, “Sorry, wrong script. The truly powerful Digimon you seek—that’s me!”

Yet, in truth, whether in the original story or now, the Digimon that appeared before Ruki was not the strongest in that room. Besides the weaklings like Keramon and Penmon, there were also Champion-level Digimon such as Mummymon and Grizzlymon—opponents even Feng Xue would hesitate to face, for they ranked at least mid-tier among Champions.

Most astonishing of all, on the three light screens in the original, the upper left corner displayed none other than the final boss of the first series—Apocalymon! That was the being who treated the Dark Masters as minions, requiring the combined efforts of two Mega-level protagonists, six Champions, and a burst of heroic resolve just to seal away—a true super-boss!

Given Feng Xue’s earlier deduction about the scan, the answer became clear: it was not simply searching for power, but for potential or the proportion of special factors within.

Potential needed no explanation. Impmon’s Mega form was heavily demonic, while Kyubimon’s Mega forms included several God-Man types (AncientSphinxmon and Sakuyamon), and both Demon Lord and God-Man types stood at the pinnacle of the Digital World.

Excluding sudden mutation types—not the “Mutation” species, but those unique first-of-their-kind Digimon created by chance, like Lucemon in the fourth series, who, as the first angel, could crush all comers but later became just another Chibimon with diminished power—if any Digimon could take on a hundred foes or transcend levels with overwhelming strength, it would be the God-Man or Demon Lord types.

A Champion-level God-Man type would be ridiculed if it couldn’t defeat an Ultimate, and even if it took down a Mega, no one would find it surprising. Such is the terror of the God-Man type.

But Feng Xue had another theory: the other Digimon’s internal factor levels were simply too low.

Upon entering the real world, stacked data would dissipate, causing a drastic drop in strength. Thus, the Digimon best able to retain their power on par with their Digital World selves would, in effect, be the so-called “strongest Digimon.”

Of course, all this was mere speculation on Feng Xue’s part. He was not Yggdrasil, nor the Digital World itself—such mysteries were not his to unravel. For now, his focus should be on the tamer before him, who held the Arc Device and could provide him with all manner of card-based support.