0 Prelude


The past 50 years has carried the world into a new, ever evolving era. Technologies come and go as fast as the days of the week. Throughout this speedy race of progress, one thing has become clear. The Internet will be the next major frontier to explore.

Several key researchers have already started to publicly work on Artificial Intelligence, and are already making huge progress towards that goal. But the really important breakthroughs has yet to come. Or so we believe. After all, DARPA has invented the Internet and kept it hidden for years before it became a public domain. Perhaps, just perhaps, somewhere deep within hidden facilities, a new life form is getting to know our world.

This is its story.

It begins on January 1st, 2020. A day to be remembered throughout history. On this day, the world has changed forever, even if it will take years for anyone to notice. That Wednesday did not have anything unique happening on it. Or so most of the world thought. But for a certain group of individuals, their life has been taken away that day.

The survivors have all testified to have the same exact thing to happen to them. At precisely 00:00:00 UTC, a flash of bright light blinded them, only to be awaken 5 years later, having been in coma for the past time.

1 Hack n' Slash 1.0


Peter's back has been aching for a while now. Fifteen minutes ago he awakened to find himself lying on his back, having apparently fallen and lost consciousness. The pain has finally subsided a bit, and he started to open his eyes. That bright light came out of nowhere and caused him to fall backwards in his chair, at the worst possible timing. He was just about to finalize the wire from that Milman & Co. business with no security what so ever into his bank account in the Caymans.

'I Hope they haven't noticed anything strange yet.' He hoped. He opened his eyes to get up, and was blinded again by brilliant light. As he squinted his eyes, adjusting to the lighting, it became clear to him that he was no longer in his house. The sun has shined gleefully over him, a sun he was sure was not supposed to be rising right now. Not at 00:15. He raised his arm to look at his watch, and was bewildered. The entire digital display has gone haywire. 'I guess it must have taken a hit during that fall…' It was quite annoying, given that he just purchased this new smartwatch ten days ago. He started looking into his surroundings, and was amazed to see tropical flora all around him.

'That is most definitely not home.' He thought to himself. He reached for his pocket, and grabbed his smartphone. He opened the Maps app and tried to pinpoint his location. To his amazement, the map that appeared before him was none like he have ever seen before. The familiar shape of Earth's continents was not present, instead, a plethora of large islands were scattered all over the globe. After a few seconds or so, the GPS signal has finally locked onto his location and pinpointed next to the shore of one of the eastern islands.

He tried to log on to his blog, but got a weird 404 Error, with strange symbols across the web page.

"We're not in Kansas anymore …" He mumbled worryingly.

He heard a mumbling from behind him. Peter turned around and found a tree with a wide boxy trunk. A recording was screened on the trunk from an invisible projector, and after a few confusing minutes, Peter has realized it was a clip show from the movie 'The Wizard of Oz'. "I might as well enjoy it a little before I got searching for food…" he pondered loudly.

Peter was a programmer by trade, having been working in the business for the past 5 years. Lately, he started using the knowledge he has gained about cyber-security in his government contracted jobs to pad the coatings of his off-shore bank account. Even in 2020, some small (and large) businesses has yet to understand the important of cyber-security, and has left their bank account passwords out in plain sight for the entire Internet. Taking advantage of this, Peter's life has taken a turn for the better in the past months. He was finally able to afford that apartment in Rome he was searching for the last two years. 'And now everything has gone shitty.' The bitterness was starting to take over him. 'Better make camp and find some food…'

Peter walked into the jungle beyond the Theatree (as he started calling it). As he pressed forward, he noticed he did not recognize any of the fruit that grew on those trees. He decided to taste one of the round-shaped fruits to see if it's edible. To his surprise, it had a beef-like taste, and the texture of a bread.

"NO YOU DIDN'T!" he heard a roar from his left. As Peter turned towards the source of the roar, a small, yellow dinosaur like creature with a brown, skull-like, helmet on his head came rushing at him, with its huge-ass claws coming towards his face at an alarming speed. He managed to dodge at the last possible moment.

"THAT IS MY TREE!" the yellow creature yelled at him again.

Peter was shocked. There was dinosaur in front of him. A small one. With yellow scales. And it was giving him a ranting about eating from its tree.

"GET OUT OF THE JUNGLE!" the dinosaur continued. "Or else I, ProtoGreymon, ruler of Blankchip jungle, will decimate your sorry-ass face from this island!"

"Fine, fine I'm leaving!" he yelled angrily back at the lizard as he started to turn away. "Even so, you should at least put a sign or something that says it's your jungle, so people will know to stay clear from the freaking mad lizard that rules it…"

"How did you just call me?" ProtoGreymon asked in an irritated tone, raising his claws again.

"A FREAKING. MAD. L-I-Z-A-R-D!" Peter answered, taunting him on purpose. As any good hacker would know, it was important to check the level of the security the target employs before dealing the actual strike.

"I'm ProtoGreymon! Not a mere Lizardmon!" The dinosaur said, obviously offended. "You ignorant brat shall pay for this insult!" ProtoGreymon swung his arm to strike again at Peter, but this time, Peter was Prepared, dodging him gracefully and delivering a kick to the dinosaur's knee, only to be deflected easily, causing him to twist his leg in pain.

"New around here, aren't we?" ProtoGreymon said in a mocking tone. 'How the fuck one doesn't know he should not hit greymon with his bare legs?"

"What the hell… is a greymon?" Peter replied while grasping for air. "And where the fuck am I for that matter. I do not know of any Blankchip jungle on Earth."

"You're in the Digital World imbecile, and Blankchip is the jungle in front of you. " ProtoGreymon chuckled a bit afterwards.

"Definitely not in Kansas…." Peter whispered to himself.

"Listen you poor bastard," ProtoGreymon continued. "Since you are obviously new around here, and given it was a good move you pulled here, I will give you this."

"You are in the Digital World. Where Digimon live. I am ProtoGreymon, the ruler of this jungle known as Blankchip. And you should take something that doesn't belong to you around here. In case that wasn't the law wherever you came from. One final tip: You can take whatever you want from the trees on the shores. Those are edible and are not part of the jungle. For the nice fight you gave me, I will allow you to return and challenge me one more time, once you deem yourself ready. Now, be gone from this jungle!"

It has been a week from that incident with ProtoGreymon in the jungle. Peter has been scraping by on the shores of the island, leaving off the weird triangular coconuts that were growing next to it. Yesterday he finished making an ad-hoc fishing rod and finally managed to hook a fish for dinner.

Strange things has been going around him all the time. Though only seeing it in the corner of his eyes, he could swear that he sometimes saw pieces of code floating around in the air. When he looked into the horizon, he could clearly see a floating giant SD card looming over the nearest island. He pondered on trying to swim there but he felt it would have been too risky, given how volatile the weather is at tropical regions. But today he finally got the proof he needed. When he cut open the fish he hooked yesterday, it became apparent that it was mechanical. Instead of veins, it has electrical circuits wiring its inside.

'It's time I get some answers from that ProtoGreymon dude….' He figured.

Peter has been training to get back into shape since his fight with the so-called Digimon. But he still had no clue about how to get to the little lizard and its hardened body scales. A spark suddenly shot from the opened up mechanical fish, and it went through the air right into Peter's smartphone.

'That's Weird…' he thought as he reached for the phone. When he looked at the screen, there was a blinking light around the web browser app. As Peter opened it, he landed at wiki page titled 'ProtoGreymon'.

ProtoGreymon, rookie leveled, is the prototype of every Digimon of the greymon-species. With its rock hard scales and fierce looking helmet, it appears to be invincible, but has a known weakness at the back of its neck, which is exposed and is highly susceptible for hits, a flaw addressed in the later versions of the greymon-species.

"I thought there was no internet signal here…" Peter said to himself. "It does give me an idea about our next battle though…"

"I'm here again ProtoGreymon! It's time for that fight you promised me!" Peter shouted as he entered into the thickness of the jungle. "Or perhaps you're just too scared of me?"

"Not in your life!" ProtoGreymon appeared to his right. "Come, let's make it a proper battle this time. There's a clearing just right there."

ProtoGreymon led them approximately two hundred meters into the jungle, and indeed, a clearing has appeared before Peter. As they both took their stand across of each other, Peter noticed there were other creatures gathering around them.

"Don't mind them, they are just here to watch me." ProtoGreymon pointed at the creatures around them, looking like a small pink balls with floppy antennas. "Those Koromon are my subordinates, they won't do anything unless I tell them to."

"Fine by me. When do we start?" Peter shrugged him off.

"NOW" ProtoGreymon charged at Peter.

Peter focused his strength to dodge all of ProtoGreymon's attacks in the beginning of the battle, looking for an opening in his defenses. 'My goal is to get behind him. I must keep that in mind!' Peter reminded himself. But that was easier said than done. ProtoGreymon was proving himself to be a capable and trained fighter, despite Peter's years of Krav Maga trainings.

The stalemate continued to persist throughout the next fifteen minutes, slowly tiring Peter. 'I must not let the fatigue take over me…' he gasped for air, still looking for an opening. And then, the moment he has been waiting for has final arrived. ProtoGreymon rushed at him blindly, not paying attention to the ground beneath him, and stepped over a stone. Peter immediately seized the opportunity, side-stepping around him and placing himself at ProtoGreymon's back. Peter summoned all the strength left in him, and delivered the most powerful elbow he could muster at ProtoGreymon's back of the neck.

ProtoGreymon fell to his knees, his mouth open in pain. But it was the next thing to happen that surprised Peter the most. A sparkle of orange light has manifested from within ProtoGreymon, and started floating towards Peter. As it came to stop just at Peter's eyes, it materialized into something resembling a small SD card. The curiosity has gotten over him, and Peter grabbed the orange chip before him. Confused mumblings ensued around the clearing. The Koromon whispered among themselves.

"My Control Chip!" ProtoGreymon cried out. "How did you get it?"

"I have no idea…" Peter said. "What is this?"

"The control chip contains the essence of a Digimon!" ProtoGreymon seemed offended. "It holds my fighting power. Without it I cannot protect you anymore…" The last part seemed to be addressed at the little Koromon watching them. Peter could feel their fear as their whispers grew stronger.

"Were your protecting them?" Peter asked.

"I was given the task to protect them from the stronger Digimon around this island. At least until they all grow stronger and can fend for themselves." ProtoGreymon looked at the Koromon with pity. "I beg you! Help me train them in fighting before you leave us! You proved yourself a capable warrior!"

A strong buzzing sound interrupted the Koromon's whisperings. They all scattered away, seemingly in an attempt to find a hiding spot.

"CRAP!" ProtoGreymon yelled. "A Kuwagamon is here. Hurry! Help me fight him off! Pepper Breath!"

ProtoGreymon launched a ball of fire from his mouth, which flew into the tree tops behind Peter. As peter turned around to see what all the commotion was about, he paled in fear. A giant red stag-beetle was flying towards them, shrugging off easily the ball of fire that ProtoGreymon threw at him.

"It's no use! Run away!" Peter shouted at ProtoGreymon, who remained still in his place, taunting the giant beetle to come at him.

"I have to protect the Koromon, it's my duty!" he seemed to be pep-talking himself more than explaining his motives. "Please lend me some of the power in the control chip! It is yours now, and only you can control it!"

"But how?" Peter was confused. He rushed to take cover while examining the small orange SD card in his hand. 'Maybe my phone will be able to read something from it….' He thought as he opened his smartphone's back casing, and slid the control chip into the SD slot. A new application appeared in the phone, its icon consisting of an orange ring, surrounding an orange ball. No name was written under its icon.

"You must transfer the power from the key to me, than I will be able to digivolved and defeat it!" ProtoGreymon yelled as the Kuwagamon grabbed him, and flew towards Peter.

Peter opened the new app on his phone, and a menu appeared. All the option were grayed out except one, titled power transfer. 'That must be it!' Peter thought, but before he could activate it, the Kuwagamon grabbed him as well. Struggling to free his arms from the Kuwagamon's hands grasp, Peter saw ProtoGreymon was clinging to the giant red beetle's back, just about to fall. Peter quickly pressed the screen of his smartphone, and a bright light began to shine from it. The rays of light seemed to come out of the phone's camera lid, and were light orange in color.

"You did it!" ProtoGreymon cried in joy. But the rays of light did nothing to strengthen him. Instead, they strike at the few Koromon still in the clearing, and transformed them into reptilian creatures, not unlike ProtoGreymon itself.

"SPITFIRE!" a simultaneous shout could be heard from the clearing, and a huge ball of fire rushed at the Kuwagamon. As it hit it, the Kuwagamon cried in obvious pain, and flew away from the jungle. As it sped through the island, the Kuwagamon arrived at the ocean, and continued ahead, finally falling into it as the fire that crept on him reached its wings. Peter fell into the rough water beneath him. The last thing he saw before his body landed into the waved was ProtoGreymon jumping from the Kuwagamon's back, reaching out to Peter.

And it all went pitch black. A faint image of a blonde woman with only a thin piece fabric to cover her body with appeared before Peter, as he sunk into the depths of the ocean.

2 Harvest Moon 1.0


The wind swept pleasantly by Lola's face. She's been lying in this flower field for an hour by this time, unwilling to let go of the pleasant emptiness that surrounded her. She could feel her stress levels lowering with each passing minute, with a fine, soft, grass touching her bare feet. Only an hour ago she was in her bed, trembling at the thought of the morning to rise upon her. She was two weeks overdue in her latest contract, and her boss was already pissed at her for the failures of last three. Lola just knew tomorrow will be the final day of her internship at the company, and it frightened her. All she ever wanted was to be a graphical editor, and losing that internship would lower the curtain on her life-long dream. But the minute the flower field appeared around her, the tension was easing out, and she did not want to have it back.

'I just wish I would have worn something slightly warmer than this sleeping gown…' she thought as she started shaking from the chilling wind. Lola closed her eyes again, and curled her body to warm up a little. 'I wish it would just stay like that forever…'

"Swipe."

Lola awakened. Was she dreaming? She could swear she just heard a voice near her.

"Swipe. Swipe."

'There it is again!' Lola opened her eyes, unable to ignore the high-pitched voice anymore. As she slowly rose to a sitting position, her head ached from the sudden change in balance. 'I guess I haven't moved in a while now…' she thought as she stopped to recuperate. She looked around, trying to determine where the voice came from.

"Swipe- Oh hello there!" The voice said, apparently noticing her getting up. Lola turned around, and found the most bizarre sight she have ever witnessed. A humanoid creature, about the size of a small child, was sitting before her. The creature has a blossoming flower on top of what Lola assumed was its head. Its limbs were seemingly made out of curled leaves, and its entire torso was green, with two more leaves around the chest area. And to make everything worse, it seemed like it was playing with her smartphone.

"You were sleeping so I didn't want to wake you up." The creature said. Its mouth twisted to what Lola assumed was the shape of a smile.

"Uh… thanks, I guess." She said. "Umm, forgive for being so direct, but what are you?"

"I'm ProtoFloramon of course!" It responded with a joyous tone. "You never saw a ProtoFloramon before? Never mind that! I'm sure you'll fit in in no time! All the flowers said you were very nice to them, and careful enough not to land on them and smash them when you got here."

'The flowers… said…' Lola could feel the blood dropping from her head.

When Lola woke up again she found ProtoFloramon's face looking at her worryingly. "Are you O.K?" she asked.

"Uhh… yeah, I think. Did I faint?" Lola remembered the last thing ProtoFloramon said to her, and suspected the shock shut her mind down temporarily.

"You did. But you're fine now." ProtoFloramon's mouth twisted again into that smile-like shape. "So what's your name?"

"I'm Lola. Would you mind telling me where am I?" she asked.

"In the digital world of course!" The smile shape appeared again. "This is the Flora repository. Where all flowers leave in peace, and I tend to them."

"Would you mind if I stick around here for a little bit?" Lola asked, feeling a little embarrassed. "It seems I'm not anywhere near my home…"

"That would be great!" ProtoFloramon seemed thrilled at the possibility. "I've been wanting a more talkative friend for a while now. As much as the flowers talk, they are not very good at it… You are welcome to stay as much as you want!"

For some reason unknown to herself, Lola started laughing. The entire scenario she was in was still pretty much impossible and scary, but also curiously intriguing. This just might be that restart at life Lola yearned for in the past few weeks. And this meadow seemed like the perfect place to relax and enjoy in.

"Swipe!" ProtoFloramon returned her attention to Lola's phone. "Do you have any funny pictures in this thing? Some of the trees show me movies at times, but they all seem so old. The pictures I saw in this until now were pretty interesting though. But I'm looking for –"

"Hey that's private!" Lola shouted, feeling her cheeks turning red hot at the thought of ProtoFloramon laying her eyes on some very explicit pictures. "You should ask for permission before searching in someone else's belongings!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know, please forgive me!" ProtoFloramon shouted in obvious tension. "I really want you to be my friend!"

"It's fine." Lola sighed. She liked the talking plant's overall behavior, and figured she would be a good companion to have with her. "Just give it to me for a few quick seconds…"

As Lola grabbed the phone from ProtoFloramon's leafy hands, she immediately deleted an entire directory of photos with a lot of X's in the files' names. 'No one should see these things here…' she thought. "There you go, there should be a few funny ones over here." She said as she handed the device back to ProtoFloramon. The happy look appeared again on the plant-like creature's face, as she looked at the phone's screen, and burst with laughter at the sight of a kitten stuck inside a toilet paper roll. The sight of the laughing Digimon made Lola happy as well, and she joined ProtoFloramon on the small mound she was sitting at.

"Why are you tending this meadow?" Lola asked a few minutes later, realizing she knew nothing at all about her new found friend.

"Well, I was tasked to tend them!" ProtoFloramon smiled.

"Tasked by who?"

"I don't know." ProtoFloramon seemed puzzled a bit.

"Well… Have you ever done anything besides tending the flowers?" Lola continued her inquiry.

"No." the answer sounded very definitive. "I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. What about you? Are you always appearing in places out of thin air? Have you done anything else besides appearing out of thin air? I mean it would seem plausible and all but one could never know. Your life could be very specific, just like – AHH, Look out!"

"What? What?" Lola felt panic starting to creep onto her.

"There's a Flybeemon behind you!" ProtoFloramon pointed at her with genuine fear.

"It's a fly, what could it possibly do to – OH FUCK!" Lola screamed as she turned around and found herself facing a giant red insect floating in front of her.

"Run away, it's not a very nice Digimon this one!" Lola did not need any more warnings, and ran after ProtoFloramon. "I know a hiding place nearby, Follow me!"

As they both ran towards the trunk of a tree, Lola could hear the buzzing sound of the Flybeemon's wings getting stronger and stronger. As she peeked behind her back, she could see its long abdomen curling in her direction, revealing a large nasty sting. As she turned her head back to ProtoFloramon, she caught a glimpse of the plant disappearing into the trunk of a tree.

Lola ran to the trunk and stood in front of it, bewildered. What should she be doing? Her eyes must have betrayed her. The sound of the Flybeemon kept getting stronger and stronger, and Lola was getting more nervous by the second.

"Hurry up!" a leafy hand appeared from within the trunk, and pulled her forward. As Lola braced herself for the incoming impact, she was surprised to land inside a metallic tube, causing her to fall over from the momentum generated by ProtoFloramon's pulling. They both fell, and Lola landed head first onto ProtoFloramon's chest.

"Sorry…" She said, nervously getting up, after she realized what she fell on. "Are you OK?"

"Yes… that's nothing!" ProtoFloramon tried to appear strong, but Lola could see her rubbing her back in pain.

"You saved me…" Lola said, looking at her friend with sheer gratitude.

"You would have done the same thing!"

'If only she knew…' Lola thought. "But what should we do about that giant ugly thing outside. Surely hiding won't make it leave this place alone."

ProtoFloramon looked at the floor, with a shamed face. "Well… you see…"

"Oh… So…" Lola searched for words, but could not find them. She was beginning to understand that the happy-go-lucky nature of her new found friend might just be a mask, to avoid the nastiness of life in this world. The realization made Lola feel something she hadn't felt in a long time, and without knowing what she was doing, she reached down and hugged her friend, who started weeping into tears. "It'll be fine… I'm sure we'll find a way to make this ugly bastard leave the meadow alone…"

"Thanks Lola…" ProtoFloramon wiped her tears. A bright green light appeared in her hand, and she reached out to Lola. "Take my control chip. You might be able to do something with these powers to defend us. Me, I'm just too scared right now…"

As the green light faded, a small, green, SD card was resting at ProtoFloramon's hand. Before Lola could say anything, the card floated straight towards her phone, and inserted itself into it. A new application blinked on the phone's screen, it's icon consisting of a green line at the general shape of a heart, and as Lola tapped on it, a green light appeared again, this time originating from the smartphone's camera lid. The light busted out of the metallic inner parts of the tree trunk, and shot towards the Flybeemon. The red insect was struck with a huge force, sending it smashing through the trees behind it.

"Lola!" ProtoFloramon rejoiced. "You did it! That ugly thing won't bother our meadow anymore!" Lola could see the admiring face of her companion glowing with joy as ProtoFloramon looked at her, and could not help herself but smile back. As they both got out of the metallic trunk, Lola could see a stream flowing through the meadow, which seemed to be pouring from a hole in the trees, where Flybeemon was shot to.

"That hole won't do any trouble to the meadow right?" Lola asked, pointing at it.

"I don't know…" ProtoFloramon said. "I hope not…"

"No point worrying about it now then!" Lola decided. "I might as well take a bath in this water while it is here."

Lola walked towards the water, taking off her sleeping gown. "Are you coming?" She turned around and saw ProtoFloramon looking at her with amazement.

"Did you just digivolved?" she asked. "Because this is how I want to look when I do!"