Zheng Fan's past

Zheng Fan and Leomon finally understood what was going on: they still reeked horribly. Although they had washed themselves in the sewers, they had merely grown used to the smell down there. Outside, their stench could still carry for miles. Once they learned the reason, Zheng Fan and Leomon practically scrubbed off a layer of skin.

Zheng Fan and Leomon said nothing about Black King Sukamon in the sewers. For one thing, they had no idea what Black King Sukamon represented. For another, most Digimon had no habit of boasting about their victories. Everyone knew that Ogremon's huge bone club had been taken from SkullGreymon, for instance, but Ogremon never mentioned it. Though, in truth, that huge bone club had little to do with Ogremon personally.

Digimon evolution began with a choice made by the heart, after which the Digicore began to transform. A powerful evolution a Digimon devised for themselves could also gain the recognition of the Digimon world and become an option for other Digimon when they evolved. The first Ogremon in ancient times could, for convenience, be called Ancient Ogremon. Ancient Ogremon had hunted down a SkullGreymon, fashioned the bones into a weapon, and fused it into his own Digicore. The Digimon world recognized this evolution. Thus, any Digimon who later evolved into Ogremon could inherit all of Ancient Ogremon's abilities, including the Corpse Dragon Club Ancient Ogremon had fused into his Digicore.

Toy Town really was a place devoted entirely to fun, with all kinds of amusement rides. The larger ones included an enormous Ferris Wheel and a Roller Coaster, things that, even on Earth, could only be found at large amusement parks. There were several medium-sized rides, such as Pirate Ships and Carousels, while little single-seat cars lay scattered everywhere. Of course, Andromon had sent people to build all of these. There was no need to ask-Andromon must have obtained the information from the human world. After all, this was the Digimon world. Things that required nothing more than labor in the human world posed absolutely no difficulty here. Though Zheng Fan came from Earth, he was a complete country bumpkin in front of these machines.

In Buzhou, Zheng Fan was a Sword Cultivator who supposedly roamed the world with a sword, but he had never actually roamed the world. On Earth, he was merely a teenager who had just finished his college entrance exams. Where would he have found so much time to go out and have fun? His previous ignorance came partly from his lack of experience and partly from never having tried any of these things.

Zheng Fan's parents had been one of Buzhou's strongest couples, but who in this world could truly be invincible? Once, they encountered a Beast King Procession, and both lost their lives. Zheng Fan had not been particularly sad. He believed his parents had returned to the cycle of reincarnation, but he insisted on going to the battlefield to observe mourning for them. And so, at seven years old, Zheng Fan began doing logistical work on the battlefield. Of course, what could a seven- or eight-year-old child understand? His elders only wanted to bring him to his senses, since he was so stubborn. Yet somehow, Zheng Fan stuck with it. At seven or eight, he merely helped carry things and deliver messages. Back then, he understood nothing and only thought the adults were terribly weak, unable to bear even someone's death. When he reached ten or so, Zheng Fan began helping handle corpses, both those of Fierce Beasts and those of Buzhou's people. Seeing one familiar person after another close their eyes, never to make another sound, Zheng Fan finally realized that death was not as simple as returning to the cycle of reincarnation, as his instructors had said.

By twelve, Zheng Fan's cultivation had actually reached the Master Realm. The highest honor among Buzhou's younger generation was to be counted among the Ten Emperors. Yet when Zheng Fan was twelve, there were not even enough people to fill their ranks.

Buzhou was one big family, full of warmth. But every big family had its inhumane household rules, and these were a hundred times harsher than even the Buzhou Blood Oath.

Buzhou's rules did not demand that everyone defend a base to the death. Once defeated, everyone was to evacuate, but the person with the highest cultivation and the person with the highest status had to cover the retreat. The reasoning was simple: the strongest had a chance to escape, and the highest-ranking had a chance to negotiate. Everyone knew that negotiation was a joke, yet that very joke had won a unanimous vote when the rule was put to a ballot. How many bases could let seven- or eight-year-old children handle logistics? Naturally, this was a base far behind the front lines. Zheng Fan's Master Realm cultivation had actually made him its strongest member. And so Zheng Fan, who had the highest cultivation, and Xiaoxiao, who had the highest status, stayed behind to cover the retreat.

Only when Xiaoxiao died did Zheng Fan truly understand that fearing death did not mean fearing his own death, but fearing the tears his loved ones would shed after he died.

For a very long time, Zheng Fan's eyes held no trace of life. Many people saw it and worried desperately, until Buzhou's people on Earth later introduced China's Nine Grand Leaders to the elders. The elders decided to reopen the passage between Buzhou and Earth, and Zheng Fan and the others were among the first candidates.

Everyone had the right to choose their own life. That was Buzhou's ancestral teaching. The elders' approach was to endlessly exaggerate the danger of Fierce Beasts and endlessly downplay the impact of death. Every year, young people full of passion would become fresh reinforcements for the battlefield. Of course, Buzhou's education could hardly be called exaggeration or downplaying. If the Fierce Beasts broke through the battlefield, Earth would surely run with rivers of blood, and after death, people really did simply return to the cycle of reincarnation.

Compared with those young people who entered the battlefield brimming with courage, Zheng Fan was held in even higher regard by the elders. If he could not recover from this blow, many people would be heartbroken. So, although Zheng Fan was not among the first selected, they still sent him to China.

He was only fourteen at the time. Although fourteen-year-olds in Buzhou were capable of controlling their power, sending Zheng Fan to Earth in that state was an extremely difficult decision. With the martial power Buzhou possessed, what would happen if something provoked him and he lost control? A young man's hot blood, in a place as fragile as Earth.

Everyone imagined life on Earth would be easy and happy, but Zheng Fan actually had a terrible time. The elder's way of keeping him in check was to tell him that Xiaoxiao had a degree from Harvard University. If Zheng Fan wanted to go there, he had better study hard. And Zheng Fan really did recover. Yet while he could describe fifteen ways to deal with a Fighting Pig, he could not calculate how much Xiaoming selling vegetables added to the country's GDP. Those days were even harder than life on the battlefield. Mathematics was not like language studies: even if he branded the entire textbook into his mind, what he did not understand remained incomprehensible. Between life and death lay great terror, and it was while studying that Zheng Fan suddenly broke through to the Emperor Realm.

Thus, even on Earth, Zheng Fan had never really enjoyed himself. Although he did not have to fight there, he still had to devote every ounce of his strength to studying if he wanted to attend Harvard University. In his classmates' eyes, Zheng Fan was a foolish boy with poor aptitude who worked very hard.

Only in Toy Town did Zheng Fan finally live the life a sixteen-year-old should have lived. He put aside the battlefield, put aside becoming stronger, put aside the college entrance exams. None of it mattered anymore.

Really, wasn't the ultimate purpose of growing stronger to have a good time?

Night fell again, and Zheng Fan and Leomon sat there telling stories to the Digimon.

"Do you know what kinds of powerful Digimon there are?" Zheng Fan asked. "No," the In-Training and Rookie Digimon replied. Just as people on Earth yearned to be sword immortals or superheroes, Digimon also yearned to become powerful Digimon.

"Starting from Champion, Digimon can be divided into ten categories. They are the Nature Spirits, representing free Digimon; the Deep Savers, made up of Digimon living in the sea; the Nightmare Soldiers, made up of Virus-type Digimon; the Wind Guardians, made up of Digimon who fly freely through the sky; the Metal Empire, made up of Digimon who have undergone mechanical modification; the Virus Busters, made up of Vaccine-type Digimon; the Jungle Troopers, made up of Digimon living in forests; Dragon's Roar, made up entirely of dragon Digimon; and the Dark Area, made up of Digimon with dark attributes. There's also the Unknown Domain, which we've never discovered but which must exist."

"These ten categories aren't separate from one another. For example, if a dragon Digimon undergoes mechanical modification, that dragon Digimon belongs to both Dragon's Roar and the Metal Empire. If he can also fly freely, then he's a member of the Wind Guardians too." Zheng Fan explained in great detail, and most Champion Digimon did not even know these things. This information came from the Metal Empire. Although it was not confidential, the Metal Empire's people worked on the principle that if you did not ask, they would not volunteer anything. As a result, Zheng Fan's information became an exclusive scoop.

The Digimon listened with rapt attention, raising all kinds of questions from time to time. Sometimes even Monzaemon had questions. Monzaemon certainly loved playing, but as a parent, he wanted even more to see the children grow up and amount to something.

If matters concerning evolution had to be kept away from In-Training and Rookie Digimon, it would take forever for these little ones to work out the meaning of evolution and growing stronger on their own. Zheng Fan was not like Leomon. To leave File Island, Leomon had protected the Biyomon village for so long, yet had only seen a few Biyomon evolve into Biyomon or Hawkmon. Zheng Fan did not believe there could be so few flying Digimon. After all, the Wind Guardians were a category in their own right.

Only by awakening In-Training and Rookie Digimon's longing to fly would they have a better chance of evolving toward the Wind Guardians.

That was Zheng Fan's real purpose in telling stories. Did that count as having ulterior motives?

After three days of wild fun in Toy Town, Zheng Fan had also claimed the top score on the huge Game Consoles built by the Factory, which none of Toy Town's Digimon could operate. After all, the original designs belonged to humans. While Koromon could still play games using his two ears, Unimon could only watch. Playing games was a desire too. Once the In-Training Digimon discovered the advantage Rookie Digimon had in playing games, they would long to evolve.

Although Andromon said Monzaemon lacked intelligence, Andromon only looked down on everyone because he stood atop the Metal Empire's enormous database. His intelligence was perfectly adequate for analyzing information, but not for analyzing Digimon. This was one of the basic traits of the Metal Empire's Digimon. Though Monzaemon did not have the Metal Empire's vast database behind him, his reactions were exceptionally quick by comparison. For instance, when Monzaemon smelled the stench and knew the two had come out of the sewers, he immediately knew something had happened down there. And now, for another example, Monzaemon knew that Zheng Fan and Leomon intended to leave.