Author's Notes:

I just wanted to point out several things before I begin this story, so please read this as it may help with understanding how the story will proceed.

1. This is the very first story that I've uploaded online, so the development of the story may not be smooth.

2. This story is intended to be part of a series that I plan to write in the future. Although this act/arc prominently features Digimon and the Digital World, future acts/arcs will be completely unrelated to Digimon.

3. As a side note (and somewhat of a spoiler), there are a few concepts in this story similar to the ones in Digimon Tri, but I came up with the idea before Digimon Tri came out.

4. This story is heavily influenced by Digimon Adventure and somewhat by Digimon Adventure 02 and a bit by Digimon Savers.

5. There are NO fictional characters from the original Digimon franchise (No Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Daisuke, Ken, Takato, Ruki etc).

6. Any Digimon appearing in the story is not meant to have any relation to the original Digimon that appear in any of the anime series

(for example, any Agumon appearing in this story is not meant to represent any Agumon in any of the anime series).

7. This story is actually the 2nd act/arc of my intended series, so I will give a brief summary of what happens in the 1st act/arc (I didn't actually write the 1st act/arc yet, but I know how it will turn out).

Prologue:

Tyson Baek, a young male adult, has just gone into winter vacation after he finished his fourth semester of college. Completely dissatisfied with his life, he is suddenly transported one night to a strange place called Limbo, a space that isn't governed by the natural laws of the universe. There, he meets a man named Flint, a manifestation of an imaginary figure from his childhood, who explains that he has been selected to travel worlds of different dimensions for uncertain reasons. In order to survive his future journeys, Flint trains Tyson for 1 year before Tyson is sent to his first world as a prelude in order to gain some experience before the real journey begins.

I blinked and took a look around my surroundings. At first, I thought I was in a forest of some sort when I saw some trees and bushes, but I realized quickly that the vegetation around me were arranged in an orderly manner. The grass around me was cut evenly and not a single bit of overgrown vegetation could be seen. What was more, as I started walking forward, I could see what appeared to be benches, pavement and metal posts aligned on the sides of the pavement. Finally, I saw the inhabitants of this world. They were human.

I breathed out in relief. I wasn't stranded in some crazy mysterious world like Flint had warned me about. It seemed like I was in a world very similar to mine. Perhaps it was exactly like mine. Upon closer look, the objects that I had presumed to be benches were in fact, benches and the metal posts on the pavements were really streetlights. There were people walking about, some chatting to each other while others were sitting on the grass, having a picnic of sorts. Some people were walking their dogs and others were playing with footballs. From what was going around me, I determined that I was in a park. I shook my head, somewhat embarrassed at myself.

'Benches…Of course they're benches, what else could they be you idiot. And metal posts? Come on, it's not like you've never seen streetlights before! Or did spending a mere one year in Limbo make you forget about your world completely?'

Berating myself silently, I walked on, unsure of where to go or what to do. Flint had told me that finding out what I was supposed to do would probably take some time. I just had to keep looking for whatever clues I could find and rely on luck. I decided to leave the park and take a look around the city, if I was in a city, to see exactly what kind of world I was in.

I looked around in wonder as I waited in front of a stoplight with other people, amazed at the close resemblance this world had with mine.

'Honestly, if I didn't know any better, I would've thought that I came back home,' I thought as I crossed the road when the light turned green. I walked past a few buildings before I stopped. I was staring at a sign attached to the shop I stood in front of. The sign was written in Japanese.

I sighed as I closed my eyes and lowered my head. This was not going to be easy.

'Great…I'm in Japan. Why couldn't I be in some place where people spoke English? Well, at least this confirms one thing. Japan exists in this world,' I thought gloomily as I started to walk again. At least I had recognized that the sign was in Japanese. If I hadn't taken a semester of Japanese in college, I might've even confused the Kanji and Hiragana for Chinese.

I walked a couple more blocks before I decided to sit down on a bench that was on the sidewalk. A lady looking to be in her mid-thirties was reading a newspaper at the other end of the bench. I gazed up at the tall buildings in front of me. Just how was I supposed to find out my role in this world? I glanced at the newspaper the lady was reading and was about to turn my gaze away when something caught my eye. The numbers 1999, 4, and 18 had caught my attention. I leaned forward to make sure that I had seen correctly and sure enough, the Kanji for year, month and day were beside the respective numbers. I jumped in surprise and quickly leaned back when the lady put down the newspaper and looked at me with an odd expression.

"Gomennasai!" I apologized quickly using what little knowledge of Japanese I had and left the bench hastily. When I had walked far away from the bench, I slowed my pace as I sighed to myself again. I was in a different time period in a foreign country.

'Duh! Why didn't I realize it sooner? People around me aren't using smartphones. In fact, I bet not one person in this city uses a smartphone. Some of them even seem to be using portable CD players. Seriously, am I this dull as to not notice these details around me?' I criticized myself harshly as I walked on.

'Calm down. This is the first time I've been in a different world, let alone a different time period. Of course I'm bound to miss things. It's not like I've been travelling between worlds my whole life. Now, let's think. Where can I go? Who should I go to for help? Is there anyone who can understand English?'

As I listed the possible things I could do to help determine my next move, I couldn't help but notice that some shops I had been passing by were closed. I stood in front of a closed shop and looked at the sign that hung on the door. I couldn't understand it, but the Kanji for Sunday stuck out to me.

'Wait, Sunday? Let me guess…Today's a Sunday, so it's a rest day for this shop. Which also means that some other places will be taking the day off as well. That also explains why I saw a lot of people at this time of the day at the park. Huh…Hold on. My possibilities of finding help just got way closer to zero. If I'm to find someone who can act as a translator for me, they're mostly going to take the day off today. Oh my gosh…What am I supposed to do now?' I sighed for the third time and covered my face with my hand.

After a brief moment, I made my way back to where I first found myself; the public park. I sat down on a bench and idly observed the scenery before me. People chatting, kids kicking balls, dogs barking…It was an average day for any average person.

'And here I am, wondering what I'm supposed to do. Why am I really here? This place doesn't look like it's going to blow up any time soon. Maybe a political group is secretly planning a coup d'etat? Or a terrorist group is planning to blow up a national landmark? Maybe even World War Three? Or…' I let my imagination run wild as I slowly began to doze off.

I woke up with a start and looked around quickly, momentarily forgetting where I was. I soon remembered that I was in the public park and realized that I had been drooling while I was sleeping. As I wiped the spit from my chin in disgust, I noticed that there were barely any people in the park. The day was slowly ending as the light from the sun began to fade.

I sighed.

'Where am I going to sleep tonight? In a motel? I don't even have money! Maybe I could sleep on the bench tonight if no one minds…'

My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten for the whole day. I sighed again. Nothing seemed to work out. Something glinted in the distance. I sat up straight and squinted my eyes to see where it came from. The glint seemed to come from a bed of flowers not far from where I sat. I approached the flower bed, curious and at the same time, wondering why I would be curious at all.

'Well, who knows. This might turn out to be the clue I've been looking for all day, whatever that clue is,' I thought sarcastically as I bent down in front of the flowers.

I looked closely at the glinting object and gasped. The object was a flower, but it wasn't an ordinary flower. It seemed…pixelated, as if looking at an image of a flower at a very low resolution on a computer screen. What was more, the pixels were moving around, as though alive.

I looked around me. No one was around the vicinity.

'Should I go tell someone about this? Maybe this isn't a strange phenomenon in this world. After all, I can't assume everything here is exactly like my world. Besides, what if this…whatever this is disappears when I go look for someone? This could actually be the clue I've been looking for, maybe my only clue!'

I glanced anxiously at the pixelated flower. The pixels continued to move in a strangely organic manner, as if beckoning to me. I didn't know why, but for some reason, I knew that touching the flower would change something. It might put me in danger, but I would never know unless I took a risk.

I bit my lower lip and made a judgment call.

'It's now or never. Let's just get this over with and kill the suspense already.'

I slowly breathed out and reached out to the pixelated flower with my trembling arm. As soon as I touched it, or rather, passed through it, I felt myself being sucked toward it and everything went black.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on my back. I slowly sat up and checked myself. I didn't seem to be injured anywhere. I took a look around.

'Trees and bushes…I'm still in the park, huh…Wait, this isn't the park,' I thought as I got up and surveyed my surroundings. 'These trees are different from the ones in the park. They seem…wild. Plus, all the greenery around here is way denser than the shrubbery in the park. It's practically a jungle here! Just where am I?'

As I tried to get my thoughts in order, I heard shouts and explosions from a far distance. I instinctively crouched low and hid behind a tree. The noise was coming closer and I could hear the rustle of bushes not far from where I was hiding. I took a peek from behind the tree and saw a cloud of purple smoke lingering in the air. Suddenly, something shot out of the bushes.

I pushed myself back against the tree with my heart pounding quickly as the thing, or creature or whatever it was, ran past me. As it ran, I saw a quick glimpse of it. It seemed to have six limbs and was running on two. It appeared to have a horn or something on what it looked like to be its head and a yellowish tail protruded from its posterior.

Not long after the creature ran past me, the bushes rustled again and more creatures ran past me. These creatures looked like overgrown purple mushrooms with arms and legs. There were four of them and they seemed to be chasing after the horned creature.

Without thinking too much, I ran after them.

'Just what the heck am I doing? Aaagh, no time to think, let's just act first then ask questions later,' I thought as I held my breath while passing through a cloud of purple smoke. I realized then where the smoke and explosions were coming from. The mushrooms ahead of me were throwing bombs, or what seemed to be bombs, at the horned creature, resulting in the stagnant clouds of smoke. Somehow, it didn't seem to be a good idea to inhale the smoke.

'Where are they procuring the bombs from anyway? Do they have pockets or something?' I thought to myself ludicrously.

I saw a clearing in the opening and immediately got behind a tree, catching my breath as I peeked from behind to see what was going on. The mushrooms had surrounded the creature which was sitting down, clutching one of its limbs, presumably its leg. From a distance, I could vaguely see that the creature actually had a yellow body covered in what seemed to be a pelt of white fur with blue stripes. There was also a blue oval shape on its front, presumably its abdomen.

I supposed the creature had hurt its leg from the way it held it. The mushrooms were holding bombs in their hands, apparently prepared to bombard the poor creature. What happened next completely caught me off guard and almost made me gasp. They spoke. Or at least, I think they were speaking. The mushrooms were saying something in what seemed to be a mocking tone, presumably belittling the injured creature.

As I listened, sudden realization dawned on me that they were speaking a human language. It was a language that I didn't understand, but recognized. They were speaking in Japanese. As this sunk into my head, another thing hit me. These creatures looked extremely familiar to something from my world. As I peeked from behind the tree, I remembered what they resembled. They looked exactly like Digimon.