"Oh my god! It actually absorbed my attack program!"
Kiwi exclaimed inwardly, a sense of danger she had never felt before surging in her heart.
Realizing the situation was already beyond her control, she decisively withdrew from cyberspace, returned to the real world, and reported the strange encounter to Xiao.
"Didn't you use the antivirus software I gave you?"
Xiao asked, his voice carrying obvious confusion and reproach.
Kiwi's face turned pale as paper. Trembling, she replied,
"I'm sorry… that virus was too strange. I tried many methods, but none of them worked. What's worse, it can actually devour my attack programs and use them to grow stronger. It really scared me…"
She had never encountered something like this before. It was intelligent and cunning, almost as if it were alive. In her panic, she had completely forgotten about the antivirus program Xiao had given her earlier.
"I asked you to go in as a cleaner," Xiao said. "I didn't ask you to show off. Once you enter, activate the antivirus program immediately."
Xiao reluctantly gave the order again and pointed out Kiwi's mistake.
Hearing this, Kiwi forced herself to calm down. She took a deep breath and re-entered cyberspace.
She carefully activated the antivirus software Xiao had provided.
In the next instant, a dazzling white light bloomed, condensing into a digital egg covered in flowing data lines.
"An egg?"
Before Kiwi could figure out what was happening, the digital egg forcibly broke through her ICE defenses and absorbed all the attack programs she had created. Each program was recoded, broken down, and devoured by the egg.
When everything settled, the egg transformed into a white, snowball-like Digimon, with two round ears on top.
The Digimon ran around Kiwi before throwing themselves into her arms, revealing cute, bean-shaped faces. Although they were adorable, the sight was undeniably strange.
"Puff, puff~"
The snowball Digimon chirped happily as they surrounded her.
A faint sense of joy rose in Kiwi's heart. She could clearly feel something flowing from her body into the Digimon, and the snowball's eyes gradually became sharper and more alert.
"What is this… are you telling me to raise an electronic pet?"
Kiwi rubbed her temples as her neural processor worked at full capacity, trying to analyze the Digimon in front of her. However, its existence was clearly beyond her current understanding and could not be analyzed at all.
"Forget it. Get to work."
Kiwi pointed toward the cluster of dark data codes in the distance.
Those were walking five-hundred-euro rewards.
"Pfft!"
The snowball Digimon let out a sharp cry. Its eyes flared as it twisted through the air and rushed toward the dark data mass.
Its small mouth suddenly opened wide and bit into the dark virus.
The opening was even larger than the data mass itself. When Kiwi saw the lamprey-like sharp teeth inside, her scalp went numb.
Before the dark data could react, half of it was bitten off. It writhed violently, letting out a shrill cry.
Another bite followed.
The dark virus shattered into fragments.
Above the remains of the corrupted data, a stream of bright, light-blue code rose into the air. The snowball Digimon immediately absorbed it with obvious delight.
A brilliant white light enveloped the Digimon as a dense data network wrapped tightly around its body.
It began to evolve.
When the light faded, the Digimon had transformed into a large yellow-orange creature that resembled a cat. It had no legs, only a long tail, and was about the size of a pillow.
The creature leapt into Kiwi's arms, looked at her with its large, cute eyes, and gently tapped her forehead with its long tail as a cyber greeting.
"Kiwi, hello. My name is Meowmon. From now on, in the cyber dimension, I will protect you."
"Protect me? I'm your father!"
Kiwi shouted back instinctively.
In response, Meowmon bit her fiercely, causing her to be forcibly ejected from cyberspace.
"Damn it! What kind of thing did Xiao give me? Why does it bite people?!"
Kiwi jumped up from the ice pool. The pain from Meowmon biting her digital body had been directly transmitted to her real body. It was completely unreasonable.
"Digimon are products formed from the fusion of data, humanity, and energy,"
Xiao said with a laugh. "They're quite interesting."
"This is ridiculous," Kiwi said. "It has its own thoughts. It doesn't need me at all."
Kiwi was even more confused. Digimon clearly possessed extremely high intelligence. Calling them digital lifeforms would not be an exaggeration. With beings like this, her involvement seemed unnecessary.
"The birth of Digimon requires human consciousness to incubate them, at least in the early stages," Xiao explained. "I haven't found a way to absorb humanity directly from the outside world yet, so I can only rely on hackers entering the cyber dimension."
Meowmon was a Holy Digimon created by Xiao using the Mechanicum's belief in him. Within its body were traces of divinity belonging to the God of All Machines.
Not only did it possess absolute control over darkness and viruses, but once it matured, it would become Xiao's angel, responsible for carrying out his will.
However, Holy Digimon faced a problem during their growth.
Most of the thoughts within the cyber dimension were dark in nature.
To prevent his angel from being corrupted, Xiao needed to find a single human consciousness for it to absorb.
That was why Kiwi had been chosen.
Among hackers, her outlook on life was considered relatively normal.
She was neither cruel nor kind. Calm in her actions, responsible in her conduct.
Even if she died, she would never regret the choices she had made.
A refined egoist.
In truth, those who could join Maine's team and become key figures often had their flaws—but their values were fundamentally sound.
As Kiwi pondered Xiao's words, frantic pop-up messages suddenly flooded her vision.
Through their connection, Meowmon directly invaded her system.
"Kiwi, Kiwi! Come back quickly! It's time to work! Work!"
The urging voice echoed in her mind, like a cat calling out after being abandoned.
"So annoying… Wait a moment. I'm going to smoke."
"Oh. Hurry up, then."
Meowmon immediately stopped urging her and waited quietly.
Kiwi lit a cigarette and placed it into her respirator. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, trying to calm the turmoil in her heart.
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