Chapter 1768: NO.383：The answer lies on the surface of the riddle

NO. 383：The answer lies on the surface of the riddle.

To be honest, everyone who knows something about the story of the digital IP knows that although the barrier between the digital world and the human world is very solid, breaking through it is actually quite common.

Every installment's ending must have one.

For those with a somewhat unique worldview, Digimon refresh across the entire human world like grinding monsters in a game, also providing positive and negative feedback for a bunch of kid players' childhood.

However, in the Holy Terra Federation, this aspect is still strictly managed.

Tamers' and Net Detectives' Digimon partners must undergo simple registration; the barrier between the digital and human worlds also has routine monitoring installations, and there are specialized net police to handle illegal Digimon crossings, and when necessary they also coordinate with local police.

But obviously, this is the general case.

When the local police are already overwhelmed and the specially established net police's lower-level branches are equally swamped, the aforementioned response departments are all in name only.

Likewise in name only is the barrier between the digital world and the human internet—it often gets blasted in intense battles (usually clashes of Ultimate levels), thereby revealing a path to the tertiary, and even secondary, networks.

That's quite a problem.

Once a powerful Digimon steps onto the secondary network, it mainly acts to reign supreme and roam freely; with an idea, it can go to the primary network.

Breaking through the boundary between data and matter allows one to descend into the real world.

Then it blows up.

Whether it's fighting in the cyber world, ruthlessly pressuring servers, blowing through all traffic before heading to the human world to continue blowing up; or from the start rushing to the human world battlefield, using the ultra‑quick method of directly destroying the server room to blow up, the result is always a direct paralysis of an intercity network.

Even if it's just one week, the economic loss is basically calculated in tens of billions as the base unit, and in some economically specialized cities a few more units can be added—it's undoubtedly a major crime—but the above also applies only under normal circumstances.

And under normal circumstances, the current state of the Terra Federation's urban districts does not have the kind of neurotic locality that Constant City has.

Big explosions happen every few days, and new vicious crime news pops up every few days, yet it is also a major export‑oriented port city, famous for its relatively lax trade regulations, becoming the favorite of countless scheming extraterrestrials and time‑traveling merchants.

Its existence is like a powerful heart beating, nourished by toxic blood, relying entirely on strong infrastructure, good economic development, and fast population flow to support the city's basic operations.

Occasionally it also suffers a backlash from the toxic blood, taking a heavy hit, but it always recovers very stubbornly and quickly; overall, it resembles the rare 'back‑to‑the‑wall' style among Federation cities.

From time to time, it must undergo a struggle in a state of blazing fury.

Whether pathological or not, it has indeed become a relatively mature urban operating system, whose main theme is high risk, high reward.

Taking in people from the gray zones, then harvesting them when necessary, while also bearing the risk of backlash—in the Federal districts where public order is good and law enforcement strong, those criminals have little choice.

Those without ambition can simply find some semi‑closed places like exotic or demonic realms and cautiously get by.

Those with ideas can only choose between Constant City and Heaven Gate City.

Although both sides are cracking down on lawbreakers with high intensity, many criminals still believe they can profit from that murky water.

The result is that they have achieved the Federation's only two 'mudflowers'.

Despite extremely high crime rates, they remain prosperous; despite considerable danger, they do not hinder large influxes of outsiders into these super‑sized port cities.

Heaven Gate City, thanks to its 'otherworldly technology' boost, is essentially a high‑end upgraded version of Constant City in terms of urban development, technological advancement, economic growth, and even crime‑rate suppression.

Heaven Gate City can even develop a tourism industry on par with the best, whereas Constant City only gains a bit of tourism when it secures hosting rights for events like the Chrysanthemum Prize, the Queen Elizabeth Cup, the Short Distance Championship, or the Terra Prize (Spring).

Not secured?

If not secured, just honestly rely on other industries to steadily accumulate.

Then wait for a sudden backlash, and begin to struggle.

Then slowly recover.

Constant City has endured nearly a thousand years of such extreme, deformed urban development without truly collapsing, evidently because there is something.

Of course, Little Aomo, recalling memories, has good reason to suspect that the Heart of Terra hasn't been idle.

That Tie Tuozi probably likes using the City of Sin as an observation experiment; even if Heaven Gate City serves as a superior substitute, the experiment still advocates diversity.

The biggest difference between Constant City and Heaven Gate City undoubtedly lies in the ratio of positive to negative forces.

If Heaven Gate City's ratio of enforcers to criminals is 8:2, then Constant City's is 7:3.

Don't think it's just a one‑percent change.

When that one‑percent change blankets the city's entire public‑security issue, the subjective gap between local residents and officials can become large.

In fact, upon hearing the Witch Beast say that her battle with those Digimon could shut down Constant City's network for a week, Little Aomo immediately realized that this unusually long duration hinted at a possibility the Witch Beast had not noticed.

Adding insult to injury.

A week‑long network shutdown is almost impossible in modern society—a super‑heavy blow.

Even if limited to a single city, it's already exaggerated; anyone with a bit of common sense wouldn't think it's merely the result of a clash between Ultimate‑level Digimon.

You say everyone together pits craters, each datum fully released incarnates as a tens‑of‑meters‑tall giant physique that goes wild smashing everything, flattening a small town is still possible—provided the town lacks many public facilities and corporate buildings, and few barrier‑deployment generators are activated.

But to say you'd cut that town's network for a week is to somewhat underestimate the Federation's infrastructure capability.

Thus, when one also considers Constant City's situation, a conclusion naturally pops up.

Either it's catching up with others causing trouble, adding insult to injury,

or it's becoming the target others chase, a bunch of guys seize the chance to expand chaos, beginning a week‑long tug‑of‑war.

Anyway, regardless of which, it doesn't prevent Belphmon X from being largely caught up in the great turmoil at the time, unaware.

Furthermore, considering the Witch Beast's account, after they returned to the digital world, that legal responsibility obviously can't catch up with them—just as Ultraman X and Greeza fought all the way to Earth, causing massive destruction, yet no one said Ultraman X ought to fulfill any legal obligation.

Accountability should instead fall on those human organizations that took advantage of the chaos.

So he would say we should consider whether there are exposed vulnerabilities and remedial measures.

Accountability is still possible, just not very likely.

But remediation is also simple—nothing more than helping handle some world‑crisis‑level issues that could cover Constant City's network security.

Such an opportunity—isn't it available right now?

He turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the gloomy woods, looking toward the beach where the hotel is located.

There, he awaits another dialogue between humans and Digimon.

(End of chapter)