Chapter 1313: NO. 217: There's Excrement Ahead

NO. 217: There's excrement ahead.

When combining the keywords 'network' and 'monster,' most Federation citizens first think of Digimon.

This is the usual conclusion for those more familiar with the network than monsters; conversely, those more familiar with monsters than the network are more likely to think of the 'Ultraman' IP.

Monsters whose battlefield is entirely the data world are their main selling point; no one can ignore their existence when combining 'network' and 'monster,' but there is also a tokusatsu work that interprets this combination of tags.

That is the stage where the void monster Geliza first appears in the Ultraman IP:

Ultraman X

Although not set in a data world, both the protagonist and the defense force's technology, backed by alien tech, rely on data as a medium, and the work pioneered the concept of 'datafied life energy.'

Thanks to this concept,

The bodiless Ultraman X can flow toward Earth's network as data, and the story begins there.

Also thanks to this concept,

The defense force was able to design 'virtual monsters.'

Living data‑monsters hibernate via electronic cards that must be read by a specific device to release them, yet they can also standby in the network world and even communicate simply through translators.

Frankly, this technology is all thanks to that Vanton alien in the defense force; the race's name comes from a homophone of 'rice bucket,' and true to its name, it's a rather gluttonous extraterrestrial species.

Yet, despite their gluttony, they are consistently gentle and friendly, often appearing as technicians or intelligence officers.

Aomo couldn't say whether the Vanton alien named Geerman brought out his hometown's technology, borrowed research data from other cosmic friends, or simply gained his findings from studying the seal object known as the spark doll.

But with the Holy Terra Federation's technology, it is indeed possible to achieve a high‑fidelity recreation of it.

After all, the defense force's tech tree in Ultraman X was merely being propped up by the Vanton aliens.

The Terra Federation's tech tree, however, is incredibly overpowered.

It hardly has anything of its own.

As a civilization whose original path was source energy, the Holy Terra Federation's source‑energy tree is lush and varied, covering every specialty; in contrast, the achievements of the tech route… are almost entirely credited to various transmigrants and extraterrestrials from outside this universe.

Although these technologies oppose and influence each other during their introduction, also blending together, they are later picked up by locals with poor source‑energy aptitude or simply craving newer tech routes, gradually digesting into a form where tracing origins is unnecessary.

Yet the history of that hundred‑schools contention is still very objectively and completely recorded in many works of historiography.

Under these circumstances, the relatively indigenous technology turns out to be rather modern theory.

—Those reconstructions that apply source‑energy thinking to tech products are mostly cooked up by scions of the demonic, immortal, god‑and‑demon sects, and often are merely prototypes cobbled together by university students scratching their heads over their final projects.

You can see from these works how shaky their final projects were back then.

The result of everyone dabbling in magitech is a baseline plagiarism rate of 40%; if not careful, it will spike explosively, but that's a tangent.

Setting aside chatter, monster‑fighting games already existed on the market, so making virtual monsters wasn't without precedent.

Just the game that Aomo and Qian often play already features a virtual‑monster mecha linked to the Ultraman X IP—its looks and strength are first‑rate, the electronic Aileiwang, and it has survived three major version updates without being retired.

But that's only in the game.

Although creating a deep‑immersion game requires building a dataset that simulates everything as closely as possible, each monster's data volume is no less than the collection of blueprints for building a real, movable giant robot—but the reason we compare it to a giant robot's design is that it truly is just the shell.

It's a hollow shell, a skin, given motion‑and‑action influence by the code written into the game framework, which sustains the feedback of the control interface.

It has no life, no wondrous abilities, cannot be given vitality by data‑conversion means, and finds it hard to stay active in the network world outside the game framework.

It is worlds apart from the super‑large data packets with EXE files belonging to people like Morisen Lindun and Yalikexis Kailifu.

Yet Sai Luo and Beiersita claimed to have seen the genuine electronic Gomora data packet, and Sai Luo even faced the opponent's super‑vibration wave head‑on.

In response, Aomo's reaction was to temporarily contact the Xiangyu siblings.

Xiangyu Yamei and Xiangyu Tuohai are mentioned together because their norm is that only one is in the mortal world while the other lingers somewhere in a digital corner, often out of contact.

Their boss, Muhai Xingzi, is usually stationed at the real‑world storefront, and if she's missing, it's likely due to some global‑scale crisis.

—The circle of digital monster tamers is like that; a slight disturbance can become a world crisis.

Although the digital world is divided into several layers and constantly proliferates through endless exploration,

but it's undeniable that leaving those matters unattended will indeed affect reality, eventually becoming a crisis for all worlds.

However, considering the numbers of Terra Federation cyber‑hackers, monster‑tamer agencies, and the government‑installed net‑watch checkpoints, it's still quite hard for things to become that severe.

It carries a hard‑earned sense of achievement: 'If only we had taken even one right step, we wouldn't be in this mess.'

Precisely because such a miracle is hard to come by, Muhai Xingzi has never lost contact in Aomo's impression.

He simply doesn't want to get in touch, so the first step in opening the contact list is always to search for those two siblings' surname.

Then, after the brother's phone call goes through, he asks whether they can offer some technical support; after waiting ten minutes, he can receive from in front of the screen a remarkably petite, silvery‑colored little hand extending a metal object.

「……」

At the moment he saw that little hand, Aomo's usually calm gaze flickered; with a speed so fast it almost left an afterimage, he caught the metal object while pushing the little hand back onto the screen.

"Thank you." He said softly, then turned off the screen without waiting for a reply.

He then immediately passed the metal object to the Belsta beast beside the sofa.

"Will you wear it?"

The ring‑shaped metal piece, whose form lies between a headband and a miner's lamp frame, has a glowing structure in its center very similar to a miner's lamp; although the design looks rustic and crude, Belsta's objection is not about this.

"Don't bring it near me!"

As the Belsta beast shouted loudly, its whole body seated on the sofa leaned sideways to the opposite direction.

Always a spunky, capable, battle‑ready blonde‑purple‑faced lady, she now bore no dignity whatsoever, her voice on the verge of cracking.

"That's the hand of a platinum snot beast!!"

"You're mistaken." Aomo said without changing expression, trying to salvage his brother's image, lost in the pursuit of strength, while there was still a chance.

He added, "But wait a moment…"

He turned away, then, with lightning speed, wiped the spot where that little hand had grasped with a tissue, immediately followed by a brief flame‑wipe, finishing in two seconds.

"All right, there was just a slight problem earlier."

"Liar! You're definitely wiping your hand in secret!"

"Wrong, you see I dare to directly touch here," he demonstrated by pinching the spot that little hand had just touched, "So will you wear it? Do you need my assistance?"

"Just like the former Aomo could extract image files from his own memory, this device designed for interrogating Digital Monsters, which can directly read the memory images of Digital Monsters, is also standard equipment for those Tamers."

"At the same time, part of it also circulates within the Digital World itself, being bought and sold by some Digital Monsters for various reasons."

"But Aomo isn't sure whether this kind of Belphamon Beast, which used to be more wild, has any experience using such devices."

"All that is known is that the anticipated reaction—'the other party might react to this'—did not occur."

"No way!" she declared righteously, yet she still couldn't forget that brief moment she had seen earlier.

"Are you sure you're not a Platinum Snot Beast? Swear on it!"

"……"

"Why are you silent!!"

"Can I guarantee it?"

"You! Must! Swear!"