Just as Chen Ze had suspected, Renamon hadn't simply been idling away inside the computer space this past month.
To counter their hypothetical opponent, Mirei Mikagura, Renamon had spent this month tirelessly gathering all sorts of data related to the EDEN network from every corner of the internet.
She'd even employed some rather questionable methods, acquiring secret links within EDEN's digital world.
After all, no matter how advanced EDEN's network was, it was still fundamentally a part of the larger internet—it remained connected, in some way, to traditional cyberspace.
Netizens outside Japan might not be able to directly log in as digital avatars, but that didn't mean they were completely ignorant of EDEN's existence.
In truth, aside from the secure and hyper-realistic digital spaces, there were zones within EDEN—areas caught somewhere between traditional and virtual networks—that allowed external users to enter even without using Digital Avatars.
These network spaces, already embryonic forms of full-fledged digital worlds, typically served as private chatrooms or forums.
Such spaces didn't enforce real-name registration or realistic avatars—users could freely come and go with cartoonish, casual appearances.
While these private chatrooms couldn't match EDEN's public areas in security, they were far safer than those "free zones" which required fully personalized Digital Avatars.
Even if they suffered hacker intrusions, users wouldn't lose too much and wouldn't completely expose their personal accounts.
Taking advantage of her unique abilities as a Digimon, Renamon had spent the past month tirelessly invading a large number of such chatrooms and forums, gathering abundant data.
The only surprise for Renamon was that afterward, none of these chatrooms or forums bothered to trace her. Instead, they collectively decided to pin all the blame squarely onto Chen Ze.
Or more precisely, the hacking community quickly recognized the distinctively "animated golden fox" and linked her appearance to the previous uproar on the dark web.
—The chuunibyou hacker "Pale War God" had resurfaced, and this time he'd even leaked hackers' addresses directly to the cyber police.
—That idiot clearly couldn't stay hidden for long, and his comeback had immediately caused a massive disturbance.
—That guy had apparently become some beast-girl maniac now, using the "golden fox" avatar to attack countless EDEN-linked forums and chatrooms.
In just one short month, these rumors spread rapidly through the global hacker community, making Chen Ze unwittingly famous—despite never seeking that kind of attention.
Though Chen Ze would never have wanted to gain notoriety this way, Renamon's actions were undeniably connected to him, forcing him to silently carry the blame.
...
Ten minutes later, inside a certain secret, small-scale digital space.
Like every other hacker who quietly arrived here, Chen Ze and Renamon appeared soundlessly in a corner of this hidden market.
"Are Japanese hackers always this... colorful?"
After leaving EDEN's public area, Chen Ze had once again donned his "Matrix" outfit—black clothes, black pants, black trench coat, black sunglasses.
Compared to the strict verification system of the public area, the identity verification here was essentially nonexistent.
Chen Ze suspected that even if he'd entered as Agumon, nobody would've given him a second glance.
Because in these short ten minutes alone, Chen Ze had already seen far too many bizarre hacker avatars.
Compared to them, a small dinosaur-shaped creature was strange, but hardly exaggerated—there were plenty of hackers even weirder than that.
"Are all hackers as 'chuunibyou' as you?"
Quietly surveying their surroundings, Renamon noticed that compared to hackers who styled themselves as visual kei punks, cyberpunks, or half-robotic beings, Chen Ze's all-black outfit seemed positively mundane.
"How can you call this chuunibyou?"
Long accustomed to Renamon's increasingly sharp tongue, Chen Ze just shrugged.
"You should call it a man's romantic spirit."
Just like players who loved customizing characters in games, hackers who could freely modify their own data would never pass up the chance to DIY their own "skins."
Never mind elsewhere—Japan was famed for being the breeding ground of chuunibyou culture. It'd be stranger if there weren't so many oddball hackers running around.
As long as they didn't mess with their real Digital Avatars, these bizarre avatars could just be considered disposable.
"Besides, if you're calling me chuunibyou, then your current appearance isn't much better to outsiders."
Eyeing Renamon, who was still in Digimon form, Chen Ze habitually fired back.
For Chen Ze and Renamon, such mutual teasing and sarcastic banter had long since become daily routine—they'd grown completely accustomed to this kind of dialogue.
"My appearance is chuunibyou?"
Shaking her head ambiguously, Renamon decided not to argue further, instead pointing gently toward the central area of this digital space.
"If we want to obtain proper personal accounts, we'll have to head over there."
Following the direction Renamon indicated, Chen Ze saw what appeared to be a large marketplace—hackers from all across Japan, sporting wildly varying avatars, casually entering and leaving.
But unlike EDEN's public area, the various entrances leading into this central zone weren't "login points." Instead, they were constructed like actual sewer pipes, branching in all directions.
Only by passing through those pipe-like passages could visitors truly enter the core of this space.
"The creator of this space definitely had questionable taste."
Even if it was populated by hackers lurking in the shadows, deliberately designing the entrances as sewer pipes left Chen Ze momentarily at a loss for words regarding this space's original architect.
"I find the creator's taste rather amusing."
Arching an eyebrow slightly, Renamon casually stepped forward—right now, she was especially curious about what else she might encounter in a black market already overflowing with chuunibyou hackers.
"We're just here to buy personal accounts this time. You'd better not stir up any more trouble."
After interacting for so long, Chen Ze finally had a decent understanding of Renamon's character—this fox was practically a walking disaster magnet.
Generally speaking, any event that piqued Renamon's curiosity tended to be closely followed by calamity.
Their previous experience in Hikarigaoka, along with everything else they'd faced afterward, was ample proof of that.
Chen Ze truly didn't want to encounter any more inexplicable events thanks to Renamon's excessive curiosity.
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