Genai

Neither Zheng Fan nor Mastermon interrupted Izzy Izumi's analysis. They simply calculated silently using the data he provided. Because the data was imprecise, their calculations differed by a minute or two, but the final result still fell short.

"Zheng Fan, could we try luring the Digimon into terrain that works in our favor and taking them out slowly?" Izzy was still calculating furiously, but the others could no longer keep up. Sora Takenouchi offered everyone a new suggestion.

"No," Mastermon said, the first to reject Sora's proposal.

"Why not? I've done the calculations. In our current situation, this is the best approach." Izzy pointed his cursor at a basin near Infinite Mountain. "With Zheng Fan and Mastermon here, none of those Champion Digimon could escape unless they could fly."

"From what I can see, Lost Satanmon is preparing to digivolve further. As things stand, any Digimon that dies on File Island will become energy for his digivolution," Mastermon said. He had not known this at first, but after discussing Divine Spirit's abilities with Zheng Fan, he had realized it was indeed possible. The energy from a few Champion Digimon might not be enough to let an Ultimate Digimon digivolve again, but if they killed them all, there was no telling.

After hearing Mastermon's explanation, Izzy, Joe Kido, and Sora returned to analyzing the information. Tai had nowhere to channel all his energy, so he threw himself into training. Mimi Tachikawa sat nearby, watching him perform all sorts of inhuman movements. At first, she screamed, but eventually she grew numb to it. Matt played the harmonica for his little brother.

"Tai, your foot." Bored, Zheng Fan watched Tai's movements for a moment and offered a reminder. At the sound of his voice, Tai's smooth movements became confused, though he did not lose his balance. His raised right foot shifted through several angles. Then, seeing Zheng Fan's distinctly displeased expression, Tai steeled himself and stomped down. The ground cracked and creaked, and a web of fractures spread outward from his right foot.

"Young people these days really are quite impressive." An aged voice rose from the cracks. It sounded truly old. Elderlymon was elderly too, but his voice still carried plenty of strength.

The stranger's voice startled everyone. The three at the computer, however, only glanced up before returning to their work.

Mastermon cleared away the broken stones, revealing something shaped like a flying saucer. When everyone gathered around it, a beam of light shot out and projected the image of an old man. "Hello, everyone. I'm Genai."

"Are you human or a Digimon?" Zheng Fan asked. His hands were busy as well, secretly applying force in an attempt to open the saucer and investigate.

"Don't overthink it. I'm a contingency left behind before the darkness invasion. With your current strength, you can't affect me." Though no one knew where Genai's real body was, he could actually sense Zheng Fan's little tricks. His words left Zheng Fan embarrassed.

"If you're a Digimon from that era, then who am I, where do I live, and what have I done?" Mastermon demanded.

"Haha, isn't this Mastermon? I didn't expect you to have digivolved again. Well, I don't know where you live now, but you used to guard the summit of Infinite Mountain. As for what you've done, you had a hand in making the Digivices these children are holding." Genai answered casually, without the slightest hesitation.

Having received the answers he wanted, Mastermon nodded to Zheng Fan to indicate that Genai was on their side. Zheng Fan stopped his covert attempts.

"You seem even more powerful than Mastermon. Do you know what situation we're in right now?" Tai asked.

"Of course I do. Bearer of Courage, please call the bearer of Knowledge over," Genai said.

"Bearer of Courage? Bearer of Knowledge? Are you talking about me?" Tai had no idea who the bearer of Knowledge was, or why he himself was the bearer of Courage.

"The bearer of Knowledge? Is that Izzy?" Mastermon thought for a moment, then raised a hand and pulled over the three whose discussion was on the verge of becoming an argument.

"We sought out eight qualities that could save the Digimon World. Your courage, for example. That's why we call you the bearer of Courage," Genai explained to Tai.

"Is that so?" Tai was puzzled, but Mimi spoke up. "Sir, that's really rude of you. We all have names. I'm Mimi Tachikawa. You can call me Mimi, and he's Tai."

Genai's image flickered rapidly before he replied, "Understood. Thank you, young Mimi."

Izzy already understood what had happened. He stepped forward and asked, "Hello, Mr. Genai. I'm Izzy. Can you help us get up Infinite Mountain?"

The elderly Genai nodded and flicked a finger. A cord burst out of the ground, startling Izzy into thinking the battle with Super Numemon was happening all over again. But a closer look revealed that it was simply a data cable. Without needing any prompting, Izzy deftly plugged it into his computer.

"I've sent you a file. Once activated, it will reboot all purely mechanical Metal Empire Digimon and force cyborg Digimon to run self-diagnostics. Digimon with no intelligence or low intelligence will need five to ten minutes to correct their errors, but highly intelligent Digimon can recover within thirty seconds. Be sure to keep that in mind." By the time Genai finished speaking, the file had finished transferring.

"Goodbye, then. I'll be waiting for news of your victory." Genai's image flickered and vanished. The saucer-shaped base turned dull gray.

"Izzy, what unit is this? I've never learned it." Tai had already started operating the computer. Hearing his question, Izzy took a look. The file Genai had sent was actually over a hundred E. Fortunately, Master Lu-mon had modified Izzy's computer; otherwise, it could not have held even a tiny fraction of it.

"Izzy, what unit is this E?" Seeing Izzy staring blankly, Tai asked again.

"A really big unit. Three units above G." Without paying further attention to Tai's question, Izzy hurried to check his computer.

"Mastermon, Zheng Fan, we now have two options. One is to go up from here. The other depends on how intelligent Andromon is. If he has low intelligence, we can take this route." Izzy was radiant with excitement as he explained.

"Leomon and I have both been to the Factory. If this is the original Andromon, he definitely has self-awareness. If it's Andromon No. 2, he's still at the low-intelligence stage." Zheng Fan was not making an idle guess. The original Andromon had fought countless battles and managed the Factory for untold years before developing self-awareness. By comparison, Andromon No. 2 was not only a sheltered hothouse flower, but a rush job as well. Even possessing low intelligence was already a miracle.

"Heehee, hahaha, hehe." In a place that looked unsafe by any measure, a Digimon wandered about. Suddenly, Leomon tripped over a protruding rock. Yet he continued grinning foolishly, walking along as he laughed and suffering several more mishaps in succession. The most outrageous was when a Rookie Sleepmon stepped right over his head-right over it.

"Look at his left foot. Andromon's left foot was badly injured, and its metal layer was completely destroyed beyond repair." As expected of Mastermon, he knew every Digimon on File Island inside out.

"The metal covering his whole body is intact. It's Andromon No. 2!" Tai shouted happily after checking. This meant they could save a great deal of time.

Following Izzy's arrangements, the group reached the foot of the mountain with a few scares but no real danger. As they continued forward, unrest broke out among the patrol squads. In particular, more than ten patrol squads centered around Andromon No. 2 began converging on their position.

Just as the patrol squads were about to reach them, Izzy clicked his computer. In an instant, every Guardromon and Andromon No. 2 stopped moving. Any Numemon, Elecmon, or Fistmon in the patrol squads was also left half-incapacitated. At the edge of File Island, the entire Factory district crashed as well, all from that single click.

The technological power of the Digimon World truly was remarkable. A program of over a hundred E could be activated with a simple click of the mouse.

Although the patrol squads promptly abandoned those teammates and continued searching, without their main radar units, only two squads successfully picked up the group's trail. Whether that success was good fortune or tragedy for those poor Digimon was another question.

Soon, everyone reached the mountainside, where there were no patrol squads. Zheng Fan, who had stayed on guard the entire way, only relaxed once they arrived there. He could sense the spiritual imprints left by Digimon worshipping Infinite Mountain, beginning halfway up the mountain. He also understood why Lost Satanmon had not stationed patrol squads above that point.

Farther up, near the summit, countless Black Gears fluttered through the air. Had those Black Gears been white, they probably would have enchanted countless young girls.

At the sight of the Black Gears, everyone could only remain cautiously on guard. Here, Zheng Fan and Mastermon disagreed.

According to Zheng Fan's analysis, the runic power of these Black Gears was extremely unstable. Though they lacked the power to control Digimon, they would make excellent bombs, so it was best to leave them alone if possible. Mastermon, however, was certain these Black Gears were reserve energy Lost Satanmon had prepared for himself, and believed they should clear them away now.

"Mastermon, if you insist on acting ahead of time and disrupting our plan, I'll have no choice but to leave the group and wait for an opportunity to strike," Zheng Fan said.

"Zheng Fan, you're only human. You have no idea what the data energy making up these Black Gears means to a Digimon. Why don't you take the children farther up the mountain while I stay here?"

"Oh, stop arguing, you two! Lost Satanmon put all these Black Gears here precisely to make us fight among ourselves!" Mimi said anxiously, stamping her feet. Zheng Fan and Mastermon looked back. The children were holding their Digimon, seemingly without any fighting spirit at all.

Zheng Fan gave Mastermon an apologetic look, cupped his hands in salute, and took the initiative. "Mastermon, we'll help you clear away these Black Gears first."