"Those…are encrypted messages?"
Eyes wide with disbelief, Chen Ze couldn't decipher the unknown symbols flashing before him, but he instinctively understood their meaning: they were streams of data flowing along telephone lines and cable networks.
Maybe from corporate servers, maybe from household computers…
No matter their origin or destination, right now they were all converging toward data centers through the internet—the World Wide Web.
"My eyes became…'screens'?"
Only now did Chen Ze realize exactly what had just happened.
"Or more precisely, I've become a living computer?!"
Just as Chen Ze described it himself, right now he was practically the most advanced computer imaginable, capable of constantly receiving and capturing the scattered torrent of data within the network.
And maybe it was just Chen Ze's imagination, but he even felt he could absorb and digest these chaotic streams of data—like eating food—and extract beneficial information from them.
"If you want to describe it in human terms, you're not exactly wrong."
As life forms born from the Digital World, Digimon naturally embodied data and information.
Without exceptional data-processing capabilities, Digimon would have perished immediately after birth due to incompatibility with their environment, never evolving into their current immense scale.
Even the Digital Core derived from this evolution possessed computational power comparable to large-scale supercomputers.
Survival, hunting, absorption, evolution…
One might even say it was precisely because of the Digital Core's exceptional information-processing capacity that the Digital World was able to develop its current miraculous ecosystem.
"But compared to human-world computers, the Digital Core is much more powerful and versatile."
At this point, Renamon seemed to realize that Chen Ze's current state was somewhat different from ordinary Digimon, prompting her to elaborate further.
"Your current form, for instance, is maintained entirely by your Digital Core."
"If you absorb enough beneficial data in the future, your Digital Core will further optimize itself, transforming your current structure and granting you even stronger abilities."
"We Digimon usually call this mutation process 'Digivolution'. Its opposite is called 'De-Digivolution'."
Chen Ze nodded in understanding. He already knew about Digimon's concept of "Digivolution," but now he had a much clearer grasp of its essence.
...
Ji Jia was a nighttime cashier at a 24-hour convenience store—and, unusually, a female nighttime cashier at that.
Unlike most cashiers, however, Ji Jia's reason for working at this store had more to do with the "high-end computer" placed behind the counter.
Besides her part-time cashier job, Ji Jia was actually a top student majoring in computer science at the University of Tokyo, and there were many situations where she needed access to a computer.
Unfortunately, despite the store owner's undeniable wealth, his understanding of computers barely surpassed the average person's, leaving Ji Jia deeply disappointed when she tried to familiarize herself with the equipment.
She was almost certain her boss had been tricked into buying this overpriced "high-end computer" without realizing its true value.
"Should I find a chance to mention this to that guy?"
Though she didn't particularly enjoy the store owner's leering gaze, Ji Jia understood he was harmless enough—his lewdness was habitual rather than malicious.
On the contrary, as a student from the University of Tokyo, she'd encountered plenty of so-called "elite" people; someone as openly lascivious as her boss was actually quite rare.
Whirr—!
Just as Ji Jia idly performed her cashier duties, a faint yet unmistakable sound of the computer starting up reached her ears.
Any ordinary cashier might've ignored this slight noise.
But Ji Jia had interacted with this computer long enough to become extremely sensitive to such sounds, making her certain she hadn't misheard.
"Eh?"
Casting a suspicious glance at the seemingly idle computer, Ji Jia was certain the sound was coming from inside the machine.
Yet she distinctly remembered leaving the computer in standby mode. Why had it suddenly activated by itself?
Her feminine intuition prompted Ji Jia to sit down beside the computer and switch on the suddenly "abnormal" device.
In the next instant, the University of Tokyo honors student, who'd never encountered a "hacking intrusion" before, stared wide-eyed with mouth agape.
Because as soon as she switched on the computer, the screen began running on its own, completely outside her control.
Countless streams of dazzling data flashed rapidly across the monitor, as if someone were rapidly scrolling through its contents at incredible speed.
Who is controlling this computer?
This was Ji Jia's singular thought at that moment.
Almost instinctively dismissing the possibility of supernatural activity, Ji Jia immediately considered the situation from the angle of "remote control."
After ruling out all other possibilities, Ji Jia finally arrived at a group of individuals existing on the fringes of orthodox computer science, yet possessing exceptional skills—hackers!
"Someone's hacking into this computer!"
Never imagining she'd have a chance to confront this mysterious group firsthand, Ji Jia made no effort to conceal her excitement. She instantly placed her hands on the keyboard, eager to defeat this unknown hacker using her own knowledge.
"So, this is a hacker?"
Taking quick action, Ji Jia leveraged her home-field advantage and rapidly reclaimed administrative control of the computer, forcefully terminating the intruder's browsing session.
Ji Jia didn't know what data the intruder sought, but with administrator privileges on her side, she could forcibly halt any unauthorized access.
Moreover, to prevent future intrusions, she quickly changed the current password to something far more complex.
No longer just a simple numeric combination, but an intricate sequence of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and even obscure punctuation symbols.
In theory, unless the intruder somehow knew exactly what she was thinking while setting the password, they would have no chance of quickly regaining control.
"123456… that perverted boss of mine sure was bold, setting such an idiotic password. Isn't he worried people could guess it just by trying randomly?"
As Ji Jia predicted, after she reset the computer to standby mode, the unknown hacker couldn't reactivate the machine using the previously cracked password.
But… was this really the end?