Liang Xing's Script

Outside the village, at the cave where Goblinmon had once lived.

"Leave Hagurumon here to assist you. Your task is to put pressure on them.

They'll still be here for one more day tomorrow. Prepare yourself and figure out how to make a lasting impression."

"Can I kill them?"

Digimon could not yet be considered true Artificial Intelligence, but Liang Xing had prepared sufficiently thorough underlying logic, so Impmon's intelligence was actually quite high.

Still, because it was not true Artificial Intelligence, Impmon's words and actions followed discernible patterns.

It had a violent temperament, and what it cared about most was naturally whether it could slaughter to its heart's content.

Leaving Hagurumon behind was, in essence, Liang Xing's way of expanding the foundation for chaos.

Even with its scope restricted, Impmon understood how Hagurumon could assist it.

Since it was an order from the highest authority, Impmon could only adapt.

Fortunately, Liang Xing was not overly biased.

"If possible, I don't object to you killing them, but I hope you can give them a few chances."

Liang Xing tried to treat Digimon and players equally, but he had to admit that humans always favored humans more.

"Oh~ So I have to hold back?" Impmon waved its club around wildly, its tone far from friendly.

"I don't mind if you kill them, but I'd rather you help them grow."

"Hmph—I don't understand what you mean! Are we killing them or not?!" Impmon slammed its club against the rock wall and asked irritably.

"Follow your instincts. The winner rules."

You could not expect Impmon, which followed its programming, to adapt on the fly. Liang Xing's final words effectively laid down the guidelines for Impmon's next actions.

"Use Black Gears to control Rookie Digimon and put pressure on them. I permit you to enter and leave the Digital World freely."

"I'll defeat them! I'll rule Qidian Village!"

Liang Xing granted Impmon the authority to freely enter and leave the Digital World.

And Hagurumon would provide Black Gears for it to acquire helpers.

As long as it worked hard enough, Qi Tian and the others would never lack opponents.

Liang Xing had not required Impmon to lose to Qi Tian and the others.

He favored humanity and did his best to provide them with an environment in which to grow.

But if they still could not defeat their first true enemy in such an environment—

Then Liang Xing would not favor them too much.

No one said a story had to end with justice winning.

Impmon could defeat Qi Tian and the others, then wait for someone else to strike back. That was not an unsuitable script either.

After seeing justice always triumph, perhaps it would have its own flavor to occasionally let darkness obscure the light.

Liang Xing provided the stage. The outcome was something the participants had to fight for themselves.

"Good luck~" Liang Xing had finished giving his instructions. What happened next would depend on Qi Tian and the others' actions.

In any case, Liang Xing had done his best to provide an environment for the human side to grow. Whether they could seize the opportunity was their own matter.

Liang Xing did not care, nor did he want to.

Both sides were dear to him, so Liang Xing could not make his favoritism too obvious.

He watched as Impmon began searching for suitable thugs, while Qian Lai and A Lie's team were still busy scrambling for dinner.

Danger was closing in, yet they remained completely unaware.

Liang Xing had already been biased enough. He would be embarrassed to remind them again himself.

So he would leave it to fate.

Whether they could stop the coming attack, Liang Xing would wait and see.

Meanwhile, Qian Lai had a headache.

Logically speaking, with enough stored food, Qian Lai's team should have been able to devote their first day entirely to resisting outside enemies.

It was a perfect chance to catch up in points, and Qian Lai did not want to waste it at all.

But after gathering intelligence and preparing to head out to clear out Goblinmon, he unexpectedly discovered that his backpack was gone.

"Where's my backpack?"

Qian Lai remembered clearly that after repairing the fence, he had set his backpack beside it.

Now that he had come back to look for it, it was gone. Where had his backpack gone?

"Goblinmon carried it off." The camera crew lied with straight faces.

But if Goblinmon truly existed, then since they could not catch Qian Lai, was it really so shocking for them to steal his backpack?

"Weren't they projections?" Qian Lai pushed at the gap in the fence. The sensation of his hand passing through empty space told him there truly was no obstacle there.

"Is that what you think?" The camera crew did not answer directly, merely returned the question.

Qian Lai himself began to wonder whether he had been too presumptuous.

Normally, he could understand Holographic Projection covering and replacing terrain.

But could Digimon, which were supposedly projections, truly destroy objects that existed in reality? Did that make sense?

Qian Lai did not know what the props department had been doing behind the scenes. He only knew that the fence destroyed by the Digimon had really been destroyed!

Coupled with the fact that the Holographic Projection showed no signs of clipping, while things destroyed by the Digimon were genuinely destroyed, Qian Lai could not help wondering whether his assumptions were really correct.

As the saying went, three men make a tiger.

Qian Lai had personally experienced the virtual overturning reality. He truly found it hard to distinguish the boundary between illusion and reality.

And Liang Xing wanted the world to be unable to distinguish the boundary between the Digital World and reality. Only then could everyone's sense of immersion truly be enhanced.

The facts proved that this method was particularly effective.

Whether it was A Lie's livestream viewers or the youngsters actually participating in the competition.

Real and fake, fake and real.

The Digital World Liang Xing promoted could no longer be viewed by the livestream audience as nothing more than an illusion.

Meanwhile, Qian Lai stood beside the fence in a daze.

"Uncle Qian, we found ingredients!"

Liu Jie had not let the self-heating hot pot blind him. He led his companions to successfully find the ingredients Liang Xing had prepared for them.

Compared with the rooms near the Digital Egg house, the rooms near the fence clearly stored far more ingredients.

Just as A Lie had guessed, Qian Lai truly could not cook, but Su Xiu on their team knew a little.

A first-year middle school girl should not have needed to cook, but Su Xiu had once acted in a television drama related to cooking, so she had indeed come into contact with such knowledge.

Because she had never actually practiced, Su Xiu's cooking skills were particularly ordinary.

But the problem was that Qian Lai and the others all trusted Su Xiu, and she really did master cooking during the program.

"Time to eat! Time to eat!"

Compared with A Lie's team's difficult struggle for survival, Qian Lai's team was clearly living much more comfortably.

After eating, Qian Lai could not sit still.

He began wondering whether he could retrieve his backpack.

At that very time, Impmon was searching for suitable Rookie Digimon.

Qian Lai and the others found the cave where Goblinmon had once lived, and they really did recover the backpack.

But finding the backpack was not the end.

The Rookie Digimon Impmon had found had been controlled by Black Gears, and Qian Lai and the others had walked right into the trap.

They did not actually know Impmon existed, and thought that only the two Goblinmon blocking the cave remained.

Qian Lai believed that a dangerous environment could stimulate their emotions and, in turn, affect the evolution of their Digital Monsters.

Three against two—how could they possibly lose?

But in reality, Qian Lai entered the cave alone to investigate while the others remained at the entrance on guard.

He retrieved his backpack, but he also came face-to-face with the Rookie Digimon affected by the Black Gears.

Battle was about to erupt!

Thanks to Shuhuang Zenmeban Zhihao Zijixie for the monthly vote! Thank you for the support!