Chapter 268: The Uncrowned King in the Dense Forest

Sharing the charcoal-grilled Squidmon with them were also the few other Child-level Digimon who had gone to the Fruit Forest yesterday and were treated to a meal of grilled Darkdramon meat by Broly, as well as the Digimon who had evolved into the Child level.

The Palmon with tropical flowers blooming on its head was now gnawing on a Squidmon tentacle thicker than its own body; its eating manners really could not be called pretty.

"Gluttonmon King, how should this lake be handled from now on?"

Lalamon was a bit more elegant; while eating the Squidmon tentacle, it knew to slice it and eat piece by piece. It suddenly asked Broly about the handling of the Forest Lake nearby.

"What do you mean, how to handle it?"

Broly asked back in some confusion.

"This lake used to be a place occupied by Squidmon. Now that Squidmon has been defeated by you, this place is now your territory."

Lalamon explained.

"And regarding the handling of an important freshwater resource like the lake water, does Lord Gluttonmon intend to adopt the same model as Squidmon, charging a drinking water fee?"

It asked.

Powerful Digimon occupy resource-producing places; the more important the resource, the more they can drive the Digimon that need that resource.

Often a powerful Digimon faction will occupy a large number of resource production sites, and through controlling resources, integrate and manage from top to bottom the Digimon living near the resource sites.

And weak Digimon do not have an easy time surviving in this world.

Even for a Child-level like it, at most it is just less likely to die than a Baby-level Piyomon.

Sometimes, for the sake of those Piyomon still in the Baby level, it even has to take risks to obtain various supplies.

After being fed the data of Adult-level Digimon twice, Lalamon produced the idea of clinging to a powerful backer.

And this Broly is definitely a Gluttonmon King of Adult level or higher; he is undoubtedly the best choice.

When they went to steal fruit, the other party not only did not blame them, but even treated these weak Digimon to grilled meat.

One must ask, which Digimon called Kings can be this good to weak Digimon they don't know? So, although Broly did not say he would accept them, Lalamon had already consciously considered itself a subordinate of the Gluttonmon King and considered arranging matters of the resource production site.

"Charge for drinking water? How stingy. I'm not Squidmon."

Broly directly waved his hand, giving a reply of 【Free】.

However, after thinking a bit, he added: "Water resources are very important. No fee, but they also cannot be wasted, and absolutely cannot pollute the water source. Hmm, any Digimon that wants to use water must abide by these two principles."

"Yes, Gluttonmon King."

Lalamon was very excited; this Gluttonmon King before its eyes was truly a rare benevolent king in the Digital World.

A few days later, near the Forest Lake, a group of Digimon sneaked over wanting to secretly draw water.

However, on the way to draw water, they were blocked by Lalamon and Biyomon, leading a group of Baby-level Piyomon.

"Lalamon, Biyomon, what are you doing?"

The leading Kabuterimon looked warily at the two Child-level Digimon opposite, suspecting Lalamon and Biyomon might be Squidmon's subordinates.

"We aren't drawing water. Even if you are Squidmon's subordinates, we aren't afraid of you."

Kabuterimon said with a bit of false bravado.

"We aren't Squidmon's subordinates."

Hearing this, Biyomon shook its head.

"We are the Gluttonmon King's subordinates."

Lalamon continued.

"Gluttonmon King?"

Kabuterimon and the Mochimon behind it looked blank; they were a Digimon clan from the deeper forest to the south, and obviously did not know the famous name of Broly in this forest.

"The Gluttonmon King is an existence even stronger than Adult-level Digimon."

"Perfect level?"

Kabuterimon asked in shock. Lalamon and Biyomon made eye contact; they actually didn't know what level their self-acknowledged King was either.

"In any case, the Squidmon in the lake next door is already a thing of the past. Now this Forest Lake belongs to our Gluttonmon King."

Biyomon said.

"We didn't steal your King's water."

Kabuterimon hurriedly said, spreading its arms as if blocking something.

"Yeah, yeah, we haven't stolen water yet."

A group of Mochimon crowded behind it, blocking the water buckets behind Kabuterimon.

If it were Squidmon, they could still secretly draw some water and run far away; anyway Squidmon is a Digimon that stays in the water and generally cannot stray too far from the water area.

But if it's a strange Digimon King who might be Perfect level, Kabuterimon and Mochimon instantly lost the idea of stealing water.

【Better go back to digging pits, use the groundwater seeping out to make do, and when heavy snow falls, we can just eat snow to quench our thirst.】

While Kabuterimon was thinking this, it heard Lalamon say: "You don't need to steal water. You can openly go draw water. Our King is different from Squidmon; he is willing to share the Forest Lake's freshwater with other Digimon in need."

"Eh?"

Kabuterimon and Mochimon froze, staring wide-eyed at Lalamon.

"However, you cannot waste water, and absolutely cannot pollute this lake. Can you guarantee that?"

Kabuterimon reacted immediately, slapping its chest: "We can guarantee it."

After a pause, it then told the story of how it and the Mochimon were driven out of their original village by an evil Frigimon, and came here looking for a new settlement.

"Evil Frigimon?"

Lalamon and Biyomon made eye contact, then said to Kabuterimon: "We can help you with this matter."

"Eh?"

"Our King loves dealing with evil Digimon the most. As long as what you encountered is true, he will definitely be very willing to help you once he knows."

Palmon and Biyomon, along with their respective Gazimon clans, settled near the Forest Lake.

They told every Digimon who wanted to come steal water that the Forest Lake had changed owners.

And they also spread the reputation of their Gluttony Beast King's mercy.

As long as they followed the principles of not wasting water and not polluting the water source, any Digimon could draw water from the Forest Lake.

And besides Palmon and the others, Palmon also brought her own Tanemon clan to settle near the Fruit Forest.

They likewise told the Digimon who went there, possibly because they hadn't stored enough food for winter and wanted to risk stealing fruit, about the Fruit Forest's rules.

"You can pick fruit, but watch your measure. If you cause waste, you'll be caught and eaten by the Gluttony Beast King."

Palmon would occasionally scare the Digimon who came to steal fruit.

"Also, you who picked fruit, shouldn't you show some gratitude? Hey, can you do photosynthesis? If so, help tend the Fruit Forest. Even if not, helping build houses works too."

For a mouthful of food, the Digimon who came near the Fruit Forest began building a manor full of natural ecology, centered on the Fruit Forest.

Plant-type Digimon helped tend the Fruit Forest, other types of Digimon did odd jobs; some cleaned houses, some picked fruit daily to offer to the Gluttony Beast King and his beloved Koromon, thereby gaining the right to settle here.

Wormmon brought Minomon back to their original tribe's station, accepting the Minomon of the Kunemon tribe into their own clan, and guided them to evolve in the good Vaccine direction.

"Let me tell you, if you evolve wrong and turn into evil Kunemon, you'll be caught by the Gluttony Beast King, roasted into jerky, and eaten."

Wormmon told this kind of story to the Minomon in the tribe every day. The Minomon originally belonging to the Kunemon tribe didn't doubt it, simply because those captured Kunemon had completely disappeared.

"The Gluttony Beast King's favorite food is evil Digimon. If you know the traces of such Digimon, you can come find us."

This is the common understanding of the three Digimon tribes that intruded into the Fruit Forest. They publicized this matter under the banner of Broly's Gluttony Beast title.

Because Broly often took action to solve evil Digimon persecuting good Digimon, and generously shared the resources produced by the resource lands he obtained, in just one winter's time, he smoothly became the Uncrowned King of this dense forest.

If the Digimon clans in the dense forest had conflicts, they would find this Uncrowned King of the Dense Forest to resolve them. Of course, because the Gluttony title was a bit scary to beasts, most Digimon still kept their distance from Broly this Gluttony Beast King. The ones they sought out were the Koromon by Broly's side to preside over justice.

Throughout the winter, just the conflicts between different Digimon clans, Koromon handled no less than twenty-odd cases.

This gave the originally playful, lively Koromon some of the steadiness and tough temperament of a Judgment-type Digimon.

Of course, steadiness and toughness were only for the outside. Inside, Koromon was still that cute Digimon who liked to lie in Broly's arms and act spoiled.

"Gluttony Beast King, the strawberry ice cream is ready."

The round YukimiBotamon pushed the door open and entered. It was the Digimon that originally drove away Kabuterimon and Mochimon, leaving their own village.

However, this big snowman wasn't an evil Digimon. It just did bad things because it was controlled by a Black Gear back then.

When Broly found it, caught it back to make it into frozen cuisine, and pulled out the Dark Gear, it returned to normal.

Yukidarumon was grateful to Broly, making Broly too embarrassed to eat it. It became the first Digimon caught by Broly but not eaten.

Now, Yukidarumon is the chef of this large manor. It excels at making ice cream-type frozen desserts. The ingredients for the desserts, some are contributed by other Digimon, some are refreshed from resource production sites.

The Digital World is the shadow of the Real World. Sometimes items from the Real World refresh in the Digital World.

For example, in this dense forest, there is a Convenience Store. It was originally occupied by a Garurumon. That was a Digimon with a somewhat rough personality and methods. But after encountering a Saiyan boy with even rougher methods, Garurumon became polite.

Not only did it share the Convenience Store that produces resources on a timer, now it is also a dedicated Dense Forest courier transporting Convenience Store supplies to the manor.

"This is the flour, eggs, and drinks refreshed in the Convenience Store this week. Please sign for them."

"Thanks for the hard work, Garurumon."

A Cactimon walked out of the manor, received Garurumon's supplies, and said this to it. And this is the Digimon Palmon evolved into.

Worth mentioning is that Palmon, who settled near the Forest Lake, also evolved into Cactimon while following Koromon to handle Digimon clan conflicts.

That was when Broly learned that different types of Child-level Digimon can evolve into the same Adult-level Digimon.

Digimon have obvious distinctions initially, being different Baby-level Digimon. But when evolving upward, some can reach the same destination by different paths.

And Cactimon is a conventional evolution route chosen by most tropical plant-type Digimon.

After all, not everyone can evolve to Perfect level. Adult level is generally the peak normal Digimon can reach through normal evolution.

Choosing an evolution route with decent combat power to secure a baseline is a very normal operation. And Cactimon, with its Needle Spray technique, counts as a relatively strong type among Adult-level Digimon.

"Speaking of which, Lord Koromon, why haven't you evolved yet?"

Another day of resolving conflicts. The Cactimon Palmon evolved into suddenly asked the Koromon beside her.

"I don't know."

Koromon shook her head. By the amount of data absorbed, she far exceeded other Digimon who only occasionally got free food and drink.

Yet even Palmon, who settled near the Forest Lake, had already evolved into Adult-level Cactimon, while she was still in Koromon form.

"Then if Lord Koromon wants to evolve later, do you not know what you want to evolve into?"

The Cactimon Palmon evolved into hastily changed the subject.

"I don't know, but I think staying in Koromon form forever is pretty good too."

Hearing this, the Cactimon Palmon evolved into: "..."

She only felt the Gluttony Beast King's protection of the Koromon by his side was a bit excessive. Most Digimon evolve upward to pursue power, and there are those who pay a huge price for it.

But a situation like Koromon's, because she has a doting King, can easily accumulate evolution data that normal Digimon struggle to accumulate, yet herself doesn't want to evolve, is truly a rare occurrence.

"Lord Koromon, help!"

Just as the Cactimon Palmon evolved into was preparing to persuade Koromon about the various benefits of evolving, a Nanimon with a Chuumon on its head came hopping and flying over.

And the one shouting was precisely the pink little mouse-like Digimon on top of Nanimon's head.

(Chapter End)