"No one's around anymore."
After confirming that everyone had left, a golden fox-like Digimon stepped gracefully out from the login point.
"Chen Ze?"
Still in her golden Renamon form, Renamon appeared entirely unconcerned that any human might notice her unusual appearance, acting as though humans couldn't possibly detect her at all.
And in truth, that was exactly the case. Within this hyper-realistic public area, Renamon's keen senses were more than enough to keep her clear of any potential trouble.
"Are you still not coming out?"
Thinking about this, Renamon turned back to glance at Chen Ze, who remained stubbornly hidden at the login point, and couldn't help but reveal an amused expression.
"This is exactly why I didn't want to assume this form in the first place."
With a quiet sigh, Chen Ze finally emerged, having already transformed into his Agumon shape.
His pale-blue skin, resembling clear skies and ice, had become his signature, and the claw-wraps around his sharp claws added a fierce edge to his appearance.
At first glance, Chen Ze's variant Agumon form certainly gave off a special kind of intimidating aura.
Yet, that conclusion could only be drawn by deliberately ignoring Chen Ze's actual height.
"I really hate having to look up at people."
Helplessly raising his head to gaze at Renamon, who still towered half a body taller than him, Chen Ze sighed again in resignation.
This was the exact reason why he'd been reluctant to use his Agumon form. Even after evolving into this blue-white variant, his height remained a serious point of frustration.
Being short in the real world was bad enough—at least there, Chen Ze could console himself by saying he simply hadn't finished growing yet.
But in this virtual space, still constrained by Agumon's stature, Chen Ze's mood had sunk completely.
After all, his previously prepared Digital Avatar—the one with the black clothes, coat, and boots—had been adjusted deliberately to stand a full 1.9 meters tall.
"Why do you care so much about height?"
Barely managing to suppress the smile at the corners of her lips, Renamon genuinely couldn't understand Chen Ze's obsession with height—but she did thoroughly enjoy seeing that exasperated expression on his face.
In fact, this delightful amusement even dissipated some of the gloominess and dissatisfaction she'd felt earlier.
"Height represents a man's pride! How could I not care?!"
Deeply annoyed by Renamon's unconcerned, amused tone, Chen Ze instantly shot back his reply.
"And you—can't you pick a more normal-looking form, at least?"
It was one thing for him—after all, the Digital Avatar he'd originally prepared had malfunctioned, forcing him to reluctantly enter the EDEN public sector as a Digimon.
But what about Renamon?
Based on Chen Ze's understanding of her, she must have been just as prepared as he was before starting this infiltration.
In other words, Renamon must have created a human Digital Avatar for herself—one undoubtedly far more flawless than his—otherwise she wouldn't appear so utterly relaxed now.
Yet, even now, she hadn't made any effort to hide her "true form," instead boldly parading around EDEN's public area as Renamon.
In a public space already under strict real-name verification, two obviously non-human Avatars appearing simultaneously… even the most oblivious of users would surely cast suspicious looks their way.
"Relax. No other users have been detected around here."
Wearing a cunning, almost human-like smile, Renamon appeared utterly indifferent to their current predicament, leisurely stretching out her limbs.
"Besides, unlike you, I don't exactly have the means to prepare a 'fake' account beforehand."
As she spoke, Renamon intentionally emphasized the word "fake," her smile carrying an implicit meaning: falling for a scam once was enough embarrassment for an idiot like Chen Ze; a clever fox like herself had no intention of falling for the same trick.
"You really have to rub salt in the wound, huh."
Chen Ze rolled his eyes. Even after spending so much time with him, Renamon's "emotional intelligence" clearly hadn't improved even one bit.
"And in the end, this entire mess happened precisely because you wanted to watch me embarrass myself."
Renamon was lucky to have encountered someone as patient as himself—given her natural aloofness, occasionally dark sense of humor, and blunt honesty, anyone else might have fought with her countless times by now.
"But there's still something I don't quite get: why can Digimon pass through this public sector's identity verification?"
After their brief teasing had passed, Chen Ze finally asked the biggest question that had been nagging at his mind:
Why couldn't the Avatar he'd crafted, meticulously disguised to perfection, pass the public sector's identity verification…
Yet Digimon—obviously non-human forms—could log in directly without trouble? Wasn't that far too bizarre?
"That's simple enough… Digimon are the true masters of this place."
Feeling the atmosphere of this virtual network space—which was nearly indistinguishable from the Digital World—Renamon gave an answer that wasn't really an answer.
"Or rather, as long as it's within the network, Digimon can freely appear wherever they please."
Though Renamon hadn't explained it very clearly, Chen Ze, far from stupid, immediately grasped the crux of the matter.
"It's the Digital Core. Our DigiCores allow us to adapt to any environment."
Holding up a claw to look at it, Chen Ze couldn't help but marvel—Digimon truly were lifeforms born with extraordinary gifts.
Compared to their mind-boggling capability for evolution, simply adapting to a human-coded digital space was hardly worth mentioning.
"You're really no fun to talk to."
Seeing Chen Ze quickly reach that conclusion on his own, Renamon—who'd originally intended to tease him a bit longer—pouted slightly. Talking to someone this sharp really wasn't entertaining at all.
"The even less entertaining part is still coming up."
Clearly having overheard Renamon's muttered complaint, Chen Ze found himself once again grateful for his seemingly endless patience.
"Let me guess—the reason you didn't prepare a human Digital Avatar beforehand was because you planned to buy one directly from EDEN's black market, right?"
Though phrased as a question, Chen Ze spoke in a tone of absolute certainty.
"Looks like I guessed correctly."
Seeing Renamon's stunned expression at being exposed, Chen Ze smiled faintly. Then, waving both hands gently, he projected a virtual screen directly into his line of sight.
Immediately afterward, lines of data scrolled rapidly across the virtual panel, displaying numerous tampered data link files.
"This address here, right? The EDEN network's black market?"
After scanning the links at lightning speed, Chen Ze finally settled his gaze on a specific data link file labeled plainly as "DarkNet.UDL."
"How… How did you get those files?"
Staring at the increasingly familiar data, Renamon blinked in disbelief, unable to conceal the shock on her face.
"How did I get these files, you ask?"
Hearing her question, Chen Ze merely smiled calmly, as though discussing something trivial.
"Don't forget—at the end of the day, I'm a professional hacker. Why should you be the only one allowed to invade my privacy?"
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