AN: Spent way too much time playing Cyber Sleuth since I got in on PC, I love Digimon again. For the record, the SI look something like this, mostly because he uses a mobile device too and uses it to summon stuff. And considering the later stages of the game... yeah, the character image fits the tone.

The Reincarnator's Guide to Cyberspace (Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth SI)

Cyberspace EDEN is a wholly remarkable, perhaps the most remarkable, certainly the most successful next-gen web service ever to come out of the great telecommunications corporations of the planet Earth.

[Welcome to the digital garden of EDEN! EDEN is a virtual world (metaverse) providing several revolutionary services in a new generation of digital content. Bountiful environment, including shopping and movies. Everything from corporate transactions to political administration…]

Is it still ongoing?

"... run by Kamishiro Enterprises.]

The entire narrative being delivered across an aerial journey overlooking the entire virtual world as I slowly descended to EDEN's official entrance was a nice touch. However...

"Oh come on! The introduction in my head was way better than this corporate bullshit. Mumble mumble, grumble grumble…"

… The sheer amount of shilling for this technological wonder irritated the hell out of me to the point where I tuned the rest out.

Not that I wasn't impressed with the tech and work put into this world. I was! But I didn't think that the launch's success was well deserved.

It is hard to appreciate the wonders of a fully virtual world when I am fully aware of its origins.

Given that its Beta version was declared a success despite the fact that it kickstarted the apocalypse by accidentally corrupting a higher dimensional entity into a world-devouring eldritch monstrosity, which claimed a young child as its first victim, traumatising the four other children who dived into EDEN to the point where they forced themselves to forget the incident, and that the founding company is run by an evil, ambitious possessed woman who plans to bring about the end of the world using said monstrosity.

And I was one of the few people that knew the truth by virtue of being reincarnated into this world that went from Pokemon/Persona fusion to Shin Megami Tensei real fucking quick!

"Fuck! You're going to be the death of me! You know that?" I angrily pointed at the floor made up of blocks of data and code, then slapped my own risk in order to get control of myself.

My modified avatar walked to one corner of the plaza, the sensation of walking in this digital world was no different from that of the real world. At this ungodly hour, there was no one hanging around at EDEN's entrance. That statistic would probably stay the same for around eight years, for when my monologue as I entered into this cyberspace would actually be applicable.

I took a deep breath of the virtual air (gosh, even breathing was coded into this world...) to keep my mental state calm. My emotions are my mental state, my avatar is composed of mental data, if I let myself feel too strongly then I will be liable to agitating certain entities with empathic capabilities.

I can't let my emotions get in the way of my objectives, can't afford to make silly mistakes, especially with the world and my life in the balance.

Making the mistake of thinking that my birth wouldn't cause butterflies even if I tried to avoid the main plot would be a foolish endeavor.

If I didn't interact with the digital world then I would deprive myself of the means to defend myself, If I couldn't defend myself then I would risk being a nameless victim of an entity that can consume data, as in… they could literally eat my memories.

And when that happens, the entity and the villains aiming to use it for their own ends will have an absolute victory. Most of it is entirely reliant on plot relevant characters surviving, lots of luck (plot armor), villains not being pragmatic and the Power of Friendship… but still! Villains that know of such things can ruin all chances of survival!

Also, haha, yeah no. I wasn't just going to kill myself. If I was wholly selfless (or a coward) then I would have considered such a thing, but I was not, and I fully intended to use my reincarnator advantages to set myself up for success.

As I had been doing since I was capable of speaking in this world.

Pulling up my illegally modified Digivice (ported from my real life one), I activated several of the Account Data masking programs that would make identification difficult, then made haste to my destination.

Stepping back to the entry point, I entered the URL to where I needed to be and let the data stream carry my form across this cyberspace.

It was an empty playground filled with all sorts of odd toys, decorations and typical playground materials. A product of love that would soon be ruined by a community of hackers into becoming the sprawling underbelly of the virtual world.

Galacta Park, the origin of EDEN.

It had yet to be overwritten by countless hackers into becoming the hacker paradise known as Kowloon. After all, I was still about 8 years from canon, so the only people accessing EDEN were normal civilians, Kamishiro Enterprises employees, apocalyptic entities that feast on information, transdimensional visitors and little old me.

Granted, I wasn't very old. At this point, I was only twelve years old.

Not that it stopped me from doing typical reincarnator things like establishing myself as a genius, learning the most important skill in the world (coding and all things digital), creating "innovative" apps and programs via R&D firms owned by people my conveniently well-connected parents knew and getting a head-start in accessing the world which will be the center stage for the main plot.

There was no point in going over such things since it's pretty much expected of any self-insert.

In any case, due to my privileges, I was able to get my hands on the tools to access Eden earlier, enough time to modify my Digivice and to set up some servers to house my future companions.

"Let's get this started… Activate Digital Lifeform Radar!"

Swinging my hand to my side then thrusting it up into the air with Digivice in hand, I activated my custom program that acted as a long-range "sonar" for digital beings, then collected the data to plan out my route.

For the record, the hand motions were unnecessary. I just did it to fulfill my childhood fantasies of playing around with an actual Digivice.

… Time to put that on the list of things that I can't let the memory eating "Eaters" get from me, if only to spare myself from embarrassment.

"West eh? Let's head there then. Activate Bat-Grappling Hook!"

My Digivice transform into an odd mobile device, grappling hook hybrid with an auto-targeting system. I aimed at one of the floating land (data) masses above me, and shot the hook out. The digital tool gripped onto the edge of the piece of land and pulled my form up at a high speed!

"Woooooohoooo!"

Wahahaha! I won't be able to get this kind of fun in real life.

Wait, I'm not supposed to be enjoying myself! I'm supposed to be super serious!

I brought myself up to the floating piece of data, stood tall and said, "Hello there!"

It was a giant bipedal creature made of yellow rock, its limbs and joints bound by white strings with red eyes and a serial killer styled metal mask.

"Grr…"

"Uh… Nice Golemon…?"

"Grraaaahhh!"

"FUCK!"

I leapt off the platform just before it begun its charge then shot my grappling hook at another floating platform. I continued the process until I was far enough from the Digimon.

"Oh sure, you just had to be one of the feral ones… haa…" Did one of the Eaters get to it already? Was its data partially eaten or had it been damaged by some other means? Or was it just naturally feral?

I shot an accusatory look at my radar turned grappling hook, "You are in dire need of an upgrade to correctly identify size and mass."

And I am in need of more friends, considering that I am spending my time talking with tools and programs instead of real people.

Thankfully, Digimon count as people to me, so that will solve my friendship issues… once I actually meet a civil one.

*Boing*

I heard something bouncing around, hmm, there's something hiding behind a block of data.

It had cat ears.

"Hello, I come in peace."

"Oh!"

I heard its voice for the first time. The Digimon bounced out of its hiding place and came jumping right at me!

It was a Nyaromon!

"Hi! Hello! Howdy! Gosh, are you a human? I never seen one before! And you aren't trying to eat me, wow, that's great!"

"Hey there! Aw man! A real Digimon! Well, don't worry, it would be wholly inappropriate to eat a friend anyway."

"Friend?"

"Oh right, we start off as strangers first, then we level up to become acquaintances, then friends and hopefully partners. Wait, the hopefully bit applies all the way from acquaintance level, so I'm really mixing things up…"

Gosh, I sound like a little kid again, getting nervous, fast talking my way to hide it.

But for real though! It's a goddamn Digimon! A being that would only appear in fictional games and TV shows back in my first life of utter normality, how could I not be excited at seeing them come to life in front of me?

… Oh wait, I was kinda scared for my life the first time around. Sorry Golemon, I'm blaming you for that.

"No worries! Let's start at the friends level. Oh boy, oh boy, you're a boy right? I heard that humans had this thing called "genders", you sound like a boy, so that must make you one right?"

"I am, in fact, a boy. It's nice to meet you. I'm Hibiki Katagiri, yes, it kinda rhymes. And you are?"

"Nyaromon! I'm a Digimon! Oh, but you already knew that. How did you know that by the way?"

"Haha, you will find that I know a great many things… and yet I know nothing at all!"

"I don't get it."

"That's how I feel every day."

"Doesn't sound like a nice feeling."

"Once you get used to it, you start seeing the bright side of not knowing a lot of things… namely, every day leads to a wonderful new discovery!"

"Wow! Really?"

"Really really. Although for me…" I took out the piece of digital meat that had been coded in as human food in this world, for tasting purposes, and passed it to Nyaromon who ate it all in a matter of seconds, "Meeting you for the first time is probably one of the best things that happened to be since I was born."

In this second life, that is.

I can't say my life was filled with true happiness when I had been living in fear for the first few couple of years, threw myself into developing my skills, reputation and work with reckless abandon, faked being a dutiful child as much as I could while secretly planning how to succeed and survive in this world that was on a ticking time bomb.

Nyaromon looked at me with a concerned gaze, then jumped into my arms, started nuzzling itself into my chest and gave me words filled with surprising maturity.

"Then we will have to make lots more "best friend moments" to make up for it! It's nice to meet you Hibiki!"

"Y-yeah. You too Nyaromon."

Four years later…

In retrospect, my first Digimon Partner had been entirely on the mark with that statement.

We did end up becoming best friends, lifelong partners even… not that she had been my only one. Making my own makeshift Digifarm in preparation for having tons of friends, keeping them comfortable during my offline periods and ensuring that they could train to the best of their abilities made me a very appealing Digimon Tamer.

Other individuals were simply known as Hackers and could scarcely be called "Tamers". Right now, they had a "Digimon Capture" app (beta version) which as both Pokeballs and a way to "create" Digimon using scanned data, said Digimon would be entirely under the control of the Hacker and wouldn't be able to go against their will.

"You useless program! If you were just a bit faster then I wouldn't have gotten locked out of the network!" Like this hoodie-covered motherfucker kicking the shit out of his Wormmon, "It's all your fault. God, the boss is going to be pissed-"

"Would you stop that already?" The voice that came out of my modified avatar would probably get the Batman seal of approval, "Instead of blaming your partner you should be working together to figure out how to do better. Oh wait, are you perhaps one of those so-called "hackers" that can't hack an electronic lock themselves even if their lives depended on it?"

Even in the digital world, people's faces could still go red in anger, "Y-you…! You don't know who you're dealing with! I'm from Team Sil-"

"Team Silver? Those wannabe cyber Yakuza? I met them before, can't say I heard of you."

"Screw you! I'm gonna rip your account into shreds! Wormmon! Kill him!"

I rolled my eyes and brought out one of my partners, "Don't beat it too badly."

A cute little Tokomon manifested into the virtual world.

It looked at Wormmon, then turned around to stare at me, "Really? You brought me out for this?"

"Anything else would be overkill."

"A-are you fucking with me? You think some In-training tier Digimon can beat my Rookie tier Digimon? I'm going to have fun squishing your little marshmallow like-"

Oh no. He did not just use the M-word.

Tokomon whirled around quickly and extended its huge mouth to show its teeth, "THE FUCK DID YOU CALL ME!? Marshmallow!? Time to die bitch."

I sighed and decided to turn away from the carnage. Hearing the ping on my Digivice, I tapped the button to allow the requests from my first two partners, the two evolved Digimon manifested besides me.

"Oh my, now this I have to watch~ Murder the whiny fuck Toko!" LadyDevimon, who digivolved from a Lopmon I befriended (good thing this world carried forth the wide digivolution branches) as my second partner, was totally into watching weak hackers getting rekted beyond belief.

"While I don't condone such violence, foolish ones such as these will only repent after having their lesson beaten into their skull. Oh, Master, Popcorn please!" Nyaromon eventually settled as an Angewomon after many digivolutions, while her speaking skills were much more refined, she still maintained her energetic habits.

I took out some popcorn from my inventory, which my two Digimon quickly began to "share" (ie. steal from each other) as my overleveled, training maniac of a Digimon destroyed the hacker and his Digimon with moves from much more evolved Digimon that it learned and inherited over many digivolutions (and de-digivolutions).

"The fuck is that!? Oh god-!"

"God is here. Wonder no more! Say hello to Meteor Fall 3!"

I was current planning my escape route from the carnage. There was no way I was going to be caught for wanton destruction, of all things… there were a lot more crimes that I would be proud of getting arrested for. This was not one of them.

Tokomon had almost finished "grinding" the requirements needed to Digivolve into Lucemon (Rookie), it was only natural that it was still beyond the capability of many of the Digimons out there.

While I may not have access to Mirei's Digilab (this world's Velvet Room), I had a rudimentary set-up on a private server that could function in a similar fashion, although I wouldn't be able to see all the paths available to each Digimon, so there was a bit of trial and error to go along with my memories.

The steps to get my favorite Digimons, however, are still relatively fresh in my mind.

Lucemon was one of them, along with any Digimon that can be classified as an angel or devil.

*Ring Ring*

"Oh, there goes the alarm. Hurry up!"

Tokomon looked at me as it was gnawing the pieces off the hacker's (half-eaten) avatar for its account data, "Gotcha, hold on, I just got to the tendons."

I should have figured Tokomon would transfer its love for eating beef tendon balls to human avatars.

"Aww, how about you stay with us a bit longer? With your parents out of the way-"

"No! As much as we both want him with us, he needs to attend to maintain his cover! We should not let our selfishness dictate his choices."

"I wasn't dictating anything."

As per usual, LadyDevimon and Angewomon can't help themselves from acting as the devil and angel on my shoulder… I'm pretty sure they're mostly doing it as part of a gimmick nowadays.

Japan, somewhere in the Kanto region

I eventually managed to logout from EDEN, double-checked that I wasn't tracked and that my account data was still masked, then began putting on my uniform so that I could attend school.

Just three more years of this before I can wholly dedicate my time to the digital world and my plans…

"Hibiki-kun! Good morning!"

"Reiko-chan. You're in good spirits."

Funnily enough, I have a childhood friend in this reality, which makes it all the more worrying because she seems like the type of person to get caught up in the increasing number of cyber crimes happening as a result of EDEN.

"Hehehe, the new soundtrack was just released and since I'm working part-time there-"

Like me, Reika Tawa was a fan of anime and music, especially the music part. I was a bigger fan of the former in comparison to her.

Even so, the common interest was enough for the both of us to continue our strong friendship to this day, despite how much of an aloof asshat I was at school to the rest of the student population.

Gotta keep up my mysterious overpowered side character vibe, heh.

Wait, what was the disc she was holding?

"No way…!"

"-I got first pickings!"

Reeeeeee! The lucky girl! She held out the soundtrack for Kimetsu No Yaiba that contained the song that I had been replaying over and over!

As a part-time worker at the Tower Records (which was surprisingly not bankrupt in this reality, thanks to more digital practices and diversification), she had privileges when it came to new releases.

"Gimme!"

"Nope!"

"Ah, you accidentally wore your work uniform instead of your school one!"

"Haawaa! No way! There's no way I did it again- HAAA! Nice try!"

She dodged my attempt to swipe the disk.

"Damn. At least I tried. Haa… can you lend it to me after you're done? Or like, can I pick it up from your house after school?"

"Nope~"

"Aww…"

"But um, if you don't mind, we can listen to it together?"

Well, that was slightly different from the usual exchanges we did. We usually listen to music in our own time before getting back to each other after coming up with a proper review.

"You brought a speaker? I don't think they'll let us play music on the roof." That was the place where we usually ate lunch and listened to some tunes on the side.

"I meant that we can just share our earphones!"

Reiko seemed a bit worked up about it, guess I should blame one of my "no common sense" moments. Shame that I had to kick some of it out to make room for "munchkin" sense, in order to thrive in the cyber-world.

"Oh… that works too."

Come to think of it, Infermon looks like the type of demon that would fit in the anime we were talking about... I don't suppose I can get my Digimon pals to stage a live-action play now, can I?