One hour later, after "secretly" deleting and replacing the convenience store's surveillance footage, Chen Ze and Renamon made their way back to the neighborhood where they'd fought Angemon.
"There really is a camera…"
Hidden carefully behind a utility pole, Chen Ze—who barely reached half of Renamon's height—cautiously peeked out, immediately spotting a slowly rotating surveillance camera.
Clearly, the devastation of the street and the earlier battle against Angemon had both been recorded into some official database.
The only saving grace was that the Japanese police hadn't yet discovered anything unusual here.
In other words, as long as Chen Ze deleted that surveillance footage before the authorities reviewed it, the existence of Digimon and the Digital World wouldn't be exposed.
As for how this neighborhood had become so damaged—well, they could guess whatever they liked!
"This…will be tough."
Unlike the convenience store computer from earlier, this time Chen Ze needed to infiltrate the Japanese police's central surveillance database.
The difficulty and danger far surpassed anything he'd done previously.
Yet precisely because of this dangerous atmosphere, Chen Ze felt his blood stir—just like when he'd watched Renamon battle Angemon earlier.
Only this time, the battleground was his own hacker specialty, rather than combat between Digimon.
Fortunately, it was still 1995. Surveillance cameras weren't widespread yet, and most belonged to the government. As long as he infiltrated the police surveillance center, he could erase all the footage in one go.
Had this been the 21st century, where private cameras and electronic eyes were everywhere, deleting footage from the police database alone wouldn't have been enough. He'd have had to hunt down and erase countless private recordings, too.
"It is rather challenging."
Renamon nodded slightly, acknowledging the difficulty. Although not an actual hacker, she wasn't ignorant.
Even a completely ordinary person would recognize the massive gap between hacking a single computer and infiltrating police databases.
"So, why don't we try another way this time?"
Confidence filled Renamon's voice—she had clearly gotten inspiration from Chen Ze's earlier hacking attempts.
"Another way?"
Now it was Chen Ze's turn to blink in confusion.
After realizing Renamon wasn't the "genius hacker" he'd imagined, Chen Ze had already stopped expecting any technical miracles from her.
Yet her confident tone now shattered his assumption—could she actually know hacking methods?
"It's true that I don't understand the hacking techniques of your human world."
Sensing Chen Ze's confusion, Renamon promptly clarified, avoiding any misunderstanding.
"But I'm still a Digimon—I was born with the ability to infiltrate networks."
In the digital-focused worlds of data and networks, Digimon naturally possessed the ability to invade various programs and security systems.
Virus-type Digimon especially found joy in wreaking havoc within networks.
Though Renamon herself wasn't virus-type, she still possessed similar capabilities.
Upon suddenly arriving in the human world, she'd initially believed she'd lost those powers, which was why she hadn't shown much of her "unusual" abilities before now.
Yet watching Chen Ze hack the vending machine had sparked a realization: perhaps the boundary separating the human world and the Digital World wasn't as rigid as she'd assumed.
Especially when Chen Ze had later used Agumon's pitifully small residual data to become a living computer and infiltrate another system.
If the former had merely hinted at possibilities, the latter had confirmed her suspicions outright.
Perhaps in this physical, materialized world, Digimon possessed more than just brute physical strength.
"What exactly are you planning?"
Chen Ze warily shot Renamon a glance. He knew perfectly well she lacked normal human common sense, and feared she might come up with yet another wild idea.
"Reversing digitization—cracking the pseudo-protein program."
Almost as if by instinct, Renamon called her manifestation in the human world "digitization," and the process of reconstructing her body the "pseudo-protein program."
Since pure data could simulate a physical protein structure and manifest Digimon forms in the human world…
It stood to reason that a digitized Digimon could also reverse this process, dissolving their pseudo-protein form back into data, thus entering the network itself.
"You can actually manage something like that?"
Instantly understanding Renamon's intent, Chen Ze couldn't help but voice his skepticism.
"Have you already forgotten the data stream from before—and Angemon?"
Angemon's mysterious appearances aside, that Digi-Egg leaking from the Digital World had genuinely managed the transition between physical and data forms entirely on its own strength.
Renamon wasn't stupid. To evolve into her current Rookie-level form already demonstrated her inherent talent and potential.
If even an unhatched Digi-Egg could instinctively complete that transition, someone as gifted and intelligent as Renamon should naturally replicate the same feat.
"Let's go!"
Thinking it through, Renamon's normally calm expression gave way to an excited smile—a rare sight. She relished the thrill of unraveling mysteries and feeling herself grow stronger.
"Wait—!"
Sensing something wrong, Chen Ze tried speaking up, only to find himself abruptly picked up by Renamon.
The next moment, a gentle light surged from their bodies. The stable protein structures composing their forms instantly unraveled back into pure data.
Immediately afterward, Chen Ze felt himself "flying."
"Waaaahh—!"
Only at this moment did Chen Ze truly grasp the difference between himself and Renamon.
Or, more accurately, the difference between a program named "Agumon.SMS" and "Renamon.SMS."
Both were artificial intelligence programs called Digimon. Both were at the Rookie stage…
Yet the difference between Agumon and Renamon was like comparing a teacup to a bronze pot—not only incomparable in capacity but entirely different levels of quality.
This confirmed Chen Ze's previous suspicions—his current body really was pieced together by Renamon from scattered fragments of an Agumon's program.
So I couldn't previously transform into electronic signals to hack because my current Digital Core is incomplete?
If Chen Ze truly possessed a complete Digital Core, perhaps he wouldn't have needed Renamon's assistance, easily reversing his digitization himself.