The Reincarnator's Guide to Cyberspace 2 (Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth SI)

"That's the correct answer! As expected of Katagiri-san." The teacher must hate my classmates if he wanted to get the requisite class questions over and done with by calling me, of all people, up to the front.

Damn, I hate chalkboards so much.

These things should never be used outside the digital world and anime. The sensation of chalk and other rough substances on my hand ranked as one of the top things I disliked, just under the irritable noise that a balloon makes when it's rubbed against something.

It's a petty reason to dislike being called upon to solve some questions on the classroom board, but it's a valid one all the same.

As I walked back to my desk, I see Reiko sprawled over, brazenly using Math class as her catch-up sleep time.

This girl… if its anyone that needs remedial sleep sessions, it would be me!

My childhood friend was seated to my right. I sat down, reached for my bag and took out a little piece of advanced tech that I built off the data from a few Digimon metal parts, the noise canceler!

I quietly reached over with my hand and poked her soft cheeks while holding up the thumbdrive sized item, as I had leaned into the designated radius (her personal space) discreetly, I was able to hear her cute yawn as she stirred from her slumber.

"Streeeetch… yaaaaawn… Zzzzz…Ah! What!? Who?"

"Shh. You're in class."

I swiftly hid the item back. It helps that I am seated at the Protagonist seat in the classroom, and that no one behind me actually gave a shit about the class, and had been daydreaming about something else, hence, they didn't see me do what I just did.

Gotta love "innovative" tech developed with the help of Digimon! Story where Human and Digimon collaboration is a superior evolutionary path, when?!

In any how! This nifty gadget allows the user to block out noise in a small radius up-to the size of your bed. Why not buy one for your family? Psyche! I'm not selling.

That would be disrespectful (as I can't pay then royalties) to all the Digimon with all sorts of armor tech parts attached to them, which I analyzed and derived various technologies from. It's kind of bullshit how no one tried to learn something useful out of the weapons and parts that made up Digimon like MachineDramon.

Then again, said Digimon was likely to kill anyone they could if you weren't its tamer, and most protagonists were kids, not reincarnator munchkins like me.

Once Reiko regained her awareness, she looked around only to realize she managed to get away with it.

"S-sorry Hibiki-kun. I didn't mean to fall asleep like that."

I wouldn't say it's the first time I covered for her with my "super genius" ways, it wasn't a common occurrence, but it happened sometimes and I so happened to have a useful tool to help her out.

"Rather than me, you should be apologizing to your future self. How are you going to sit the exams if you skipped out on stuff?" I whispered back with a grin on my face.

"Kuh… you'll help me out later right?"

She was relieved when I nodded, both of us continued to pay attention to class… is what I would like to say, but honestly, I wasn't really bothering with class. Getting a restart in life allowed me to use my formative years to cram as much advanced learning as I could, after that, it was smooth sailing all the way until I started hitting roadblocks in my technology-related skills.

*chime*

"Moshi mosh, moshi mosh~" A familiar voice rang in my ear after the chime, it was Angewomon, who was using the tiny wireless ear appliance I modified in order to speak to me from the network she was residing in.

Discreetly tapping my Digivice under my desk, I used the part of the technology used to connect with EDEN along with the call function in order to respond to my partner with my thoughts, "Hello to you too. What's up?"

I could see her in front of me due to visual data being transmitted to my mind, the buxom angel Digimon blocked out whatever the teacher was doing on the front of the class, not that I was complaining.

Her large, heaving chest was a sight for sore eyes, such as mine.

"Nothing much." She went ahead and "sat" on the side of my table, which thankfully displayed her right leg, which was uncovered by the white cloth she considered "clothes", "I just wanted to talk, it's been awhile since we spent time alone."

"So it has. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel left out."

She crossed her arms (under her breasts… damn hormones) and pouted, keeping the side of her face towards me, "It's alright, I understand that time is a limited resource and you're doing your best, I don't begrudge you for it…"

Her somewhat reasonable demeanor was completely shattered when she got off my desk and began transmitting the sensation of physical feedback by touching me, specifically, by pressing her chest against my back and childishly began to bonk my head repeatedly with her fists.

"...is what I really want to say but honestly, geez, why did you have to go level grinding with so many Digimon without me! E-even if I don't get much benefit from it, a little isn't nothing, and we would have spent more time together…"

Angewomon was generally reserved and more reactive with other Digimon around, such cases were more pronounced whenever LadyDevimon tries to encourage me to do something of the Stupid Evil alignment, in which case my first Partner Digimon would go from gentle friend to righteous moral police in two seconds flat.

But when it was just the two of us, she wouldn't hesitate to show me her childish side. I guess she still yearned for the days in which we enacted the "romantic" (her description) notion of Tamer and Partner as it was in other dimensions that I told her about (a few other key partner digimons were told about too, but Angewomon always had priority) across EDEN.

Then we met Lopmon (LadyDevimon), Renamon (Sakuyamon), Tokomon (Wannabe Lucemon), Lunamon (Sistermon Ciel) and a lot of other Digimon that hopped onto my level grinding train.

And surprisingly, they stayed even without some Digimon Capture program propagated by Akemi Suedou, who had just begun rolling it out to all sorts of groups. Digimon would only become real public knowledge in a couple of years, right now, only certain groups of hackers were aware of Digimon.

I shuffled in my seat awkwardly, careful not to let Reiko suspect that something was up, "We really haven't. Sorry, I really wanted to get MirageGaogamon to Burst Mode. He was bugging me about not being able to stay in the form long enough to acclimatize to its power, and caved in to do it my way. You know how he is."

"Stubborn, prideful, wants to rely on himself… and on your end, you just like it when someone rejects your help and comes running back to you later, don't you? I didn't realize you had graduated to such perversity!"

"Oh my, what would have given you that idea?"

My thoughts betrayed me, unfortunately, my emotions and tone couldn't be hidden through this particular method of communication.

"Your favorite EXP buddies checked your search history. Despite affirming my choice to avoid any Virus Digivolutions, your interest in "Corruption" tags tell a different story."

EXP Buddies? Is she talking about "The Three Platinum Kings"? My three loyal PlatinumNumemon who lives a life of luxury on a private Digi-Island when they're not with me on my trips? Who spent countless hours entertaining themselves with popular media instead of doing something more productive?

It's treason then.

This is betrayal of the highest order! How could they provide my search history to other Digimon? That's an invasion of my privacy!

… Wait, I'm a hacker. I had that coming. Nevermind.

"2-D is different from 3-D, whatever you see on the doujin doesn't apply to the digital world!" I screamed in my head in a defensive manner, already awaiting the disappointed look on her face.

Only to get the reaction I expected for the wrong reasons.

Angewomon looked disappointed in me, in a cheeky way, "For shame! Weren't you the one that said works of fiction are meant to be brought into reality and the realm of cyberspace, for the purpose of expanding one's horizons? Tut tut, not only are you indulging in sin, you are also being a hypocrite."

Making a tiny hand gesture that said "hold up" in a way that no one should be able to notice, I responded with a rushed tone in my mind, "Wait wait wait, most activities in the "Corruption" tagged doujins involve a lot of sin that will be much greater if I actually enacted it!"

"All sins can be forgiven regardless if you earnestly repent. But only one option makes you less of a hypocrite. S-so if you keep reading doujins involving corrupting angels then you should at least be honest about it!"

My head slammed right into the desk, and I ended up having to reassure the teacher, Reiko and my classmates that I was alright.

"... I knew it. LadyDevimon put you up to this, didn't she?"

Angewomon smiled and waved her hand with a horizontal gesture, "Sort of. She story-boarded it after we discussed your hobbies. I really did come here to catch-up with you, but then I remembered that I had the chance to mess with you… and well… I sent a gif image to everyone."

Oh yay, now all of them saw me banging my head on the desk as a gif image, my Digimon friends are gonna spam my DigiLine with an emote made out of that image, won't they?

My angel continued on in a more serious and soft manner, "Honestly, you have no trouble talking to me about the end of the world, your reincarnation, your dreams and goals… but you couldn't tell me about the things you liked?"

I thought about it for awhile, remembering my own reflections on the topic, "Haa… I didn't want you to think I was disgusting or that I had bad intentions for you, well, I was really scared that you would actually leave me over that - ow!"

I barely bit back the loud exclamation that threatened to escape my lips, but thankfully, was only screamed out loud through our mental-digital connection.

"Hibiki, you fool! Stupid master! As if I would ever leave you just for being imperfect, yes, I do get the urge to give you a holy slap filled with love whenever you do something sinful, but you don't see me doing that do you? I may not approve, but I will not think badly of you for simply being a… healthy young male with diverse tastes ensuring one's sexual desires are given a proper output."

"There is something really strange about a woman of angelic beauty telling me this but I hear strange things than what you've said from the evening news…. Thanks Angewomon, that takes a lot off my mind, really."

"I'm glad that I managed to ease some of your worries, Hibiki. Guess there's just another 998 issues to go through-"

"-I don't have that many problems. In any case,I just think about a lot of things. The world is kinda at stake here."

"That's your bread and butter excuse."

"Doesn't make it less true… and back on topic, as in, back to catching up. Where were we? Oh right, I wanted to ask why you had to go through so much trouble to get my search history? I mean, sure, I was kinda hiding a few things… but one doesn't expect everyone to blurt out every single detail about themselves."

"I know that. But I wanted to know you even more, and you wouldn't tell me about what you did before bed!"

"Why did you want to know that?"

"Because I want to know everything about you. I want to learn more about you, day by day. It's hard to do that when you're so busy with everything and everyone else."

I couldn't very well fight against her when she had the First Digimon Partner card, along with the fact that I did consider her the most important partner I had made for a pretty compelling argument from her end. As a result, I agreed to answer her questions more truthfully and to share more details, instead of simply dodging certain questions now.

"So… do you want to see me suspended in the air by rope, half-naked?"

"Are you kidding me? Why are you even asking that? Of course I would."

My angel screamed something and hung up right after that.

… What? She wanted me to be honest, right?

Eventually, it was finally lunchtime, so me and Reika went up to the unoccupied roof to eat our homemade lunch. While Reika's bento was cooked by her mother, mine were leftovers from my dinner last night, as I lived alone and had to cook for myself.

The extra effort was well worth the decreased scrutiny of my parents.

Overall time savings aside, we tended to share each others food as we listened to music together.

"Open wide, rich and unagi incoming!" I flew the rice and eel "plane" into her mouth using my masterful chopsticks skill that will not allow a single grain of rice to escape!

"Aaaaah! Mmn! Yummy! Wait, what was that about Unagi? How much did your meal cost!?" Reika was shocked at the slightly more expensive ingredients.

I'm filthy rich on both the legal and illegal side of my affairs. Enjoying the little luxuries in life was a must, especially before either a) the Eaters show up and end life as I knew it, or b) the cosmic retcon screws over my financial position by making it as if the humans never met Digimon.

"Nothing for you to worry about. Say, mind if I hit repeat Reika-chan?"

"I do mind. I have some songs I want you to give your opinion on too. A new anime opening was just released!"

"Oh, for what?"

"The top selling manga of all of Japanese history's anime adaptation of course. Well, this is like, their 16th Opening."

"Wait what? This is a long running Shounen manga, isn't it?"

"Yeah! Wanna guess which one?"

There was only one answer to such a question.

"One Piece."

"You're right! Eh, wait, you're kinda wrong, you got the words mixed up. It's One Fleece, actually."

...

…..

…. What?

"... What?"

Reiko sighed as if she was talking to a normie, "One Fleece, the one about a young boy called Fluffy wanting to become the King of the Shepherds."

Of all names for a fictional counterpart… I honestly don't know what to say, except-

"-I want to renounce my Japanese citizenship now."

"Hah?"

"It seems to me," says Hibiki the Sane (me), "that any civilization that had so far lost its head as to establish such a setting as the premier example of Japanese cultural media success, is no longer a civilization in which I could abide and stay sane in."

We got into a "minor" fandom war regarding the topic but we settled our issues before lunch ended. After school, there were some usual try-hard wannabe hanger-ons that attempted to invite me to "hang-out", quite obviously an attempt to mooch on the money I "earned".

Later on, our school's rich and popular kids said something to the effect of "Reika's middle class, we upper class, she's a gold digger", to which I replied with "Go fuck yourselves."

All in all, typical school shenanigans that I didn't really give a crap about.

It would be a different matter if they were blunt, honest people with good hearts that just wanted to become my friends for the sake of it, even if it were for superficial reasons, it would still be better than getting along with typical Japanese fakey teens.

Not that I wasn't one myself considering my double-life, but it wasn't as if I change my moral compass and values from whenever I go back and forth between the real world and EDEN, I simply omitted details that nobody bothered to ask or dig deeper into.

In any case, I went home and went through my usual routines to ensure I could login to EDEN safely. To connect to EDEN, the user will require a Digivice and will have to be located at home, or access it through through "EDEN Spots", private connection booths in the Real World, kinda like Cyber Cafes.

For crime prevention reasons, it is mandatory for EDEN avatars to look exactly like its Real World user, not that I ever followed those rules outside my own EDEN-like DigiFarm and Labs.

"Hello There! I'm heading out to do some Digivolution testing, who wants to come?"

A lot of my Digimon pals wanted to come, in the end, I had to make them draw lots for the position in the small party of nine Ultimate or Mega level Digimon else they would devolve into an all-out war.

Angewomon, LadyDevimon, Minervamon, Sakuyamon, Rosemon, Kuzuhamon, Lotusmon, Sistermon Ciel, Sistermon Noir… wait…

"Wait a second, this is definitely rigged somehow!"

My complaints were left unheard, Tokomon wiped its puffy pink paws off me, Gallantmon had no clue on what was going on, PrinceMamemon had a suspicious smile on his face… no wait, that's just his normal smile.

I look towards the many large dragon and beast type Digimons in my farm, yeah, none of them look like they could pull off such levels of cheating.

Before I could pursue the matter further, I was dragged out into EDEN by the "Waifumons" and into the Kowloon area. The inevitable development of the area as a sort-of graveyard for data and hacker tourism was somewhat unfortunate. Nowadays, it was difficult to scour the area around her without being spotted.

I managed to get in several hours of testing at a secret area of Kowloon that I carved out for myself, so far the results were as expected.

Digivolving the "anime" way by using the Digivice and various high-density data items/artifacts I found across EDEN over the years allowed them to scale their power up to a stronger form without reverting to "Level 1" power the way my DigiLab method did.

Strangely enough, they seem to also accumulate percentages of excess stats points from "leveling up" a lot and digivolving (de-digivolving) like in the Dusk and Dawn game. It could be possible that my lab set-up had accidentally enabled such a miracle.

The ABI cap of 200 clearly didn't exist, but it still mattered for certain digivolutions and it seemed to be linked to the max additional stats my Digimon can gain from the digivolving (and de-digivolving) process.

All-in-all, shortcutting the Digivolution process in the flashy (cool) way didn't really improve their long-term potential, it only made them better at maintaining their stronger form before reverting back to their normal (or a weaker form). On the other hand, such a technique was incredibly useful if and when I could not rely on my DigiLab, which was the case in this reality.

I bet Mirei wouldn't have such issues as she dealt with different dimensions, but in my case, I had to go back to my private server in order to do anything. And it is significantly more difficult to do so out "in the field".

Eventually, I decided to call it a night and made my way out of Kowloon, only for some hackers to stand in my way.

"Wait, you are the one they call the "Tonberry Hacker", aren't you?" A white haired boy asked me out of the blue.

He had a bunch of mob hackers behind him, with only one standout, being that of a young girl with double-bun tied brown hair.

My guess is the ones with more unique appearances were the ones with better hacker skills.

"I have heard of the title before. I believe it is referring to me, although I can't figure out why people call me that." I responded through my modified voice.

"Ya brown robe and obviously faked stubby figure avatar's a damn giveaway!" The brown-haired girl helpfully got straight to the point.

"Thank you for the feedback, that was most helpful. And…?" I turned to the white-haired boy, who looked like the leader, "What can I do for you? I have no qualms with you, but if you attempt to get in my way, then I will have to ask you to move politely… before, well, you know the drill."

"Quite so. I am Yuugo of Zaxons, your reputation of hacking the assets of criminal organizations through EDEN's connections and distri-" Oh god, he's listing accomplishments now, and even worse, it's all the embarrassing Vigilante / Robin Hood esque acts that I got up to in the early days where security wasn't as tight as it now was, "-you have great pride in your skill as a Hacker, but you can do more as a group and-"

Oh now I remember! This is Yuuko in the avatar provided by Rie that looked like her brother, who is in the core of the Eaters, and happened to be subconsciously controlled by Rie, who is also Crusadermon in secret.

Yeah, no. Not touching that as far as I could throw it, in EDEN at least.

I wouldn't mind speaking to Yuuko in the real world, after removing the "wiretap" in her Digivice, that is. In any case, I definitely don't want to talk to her in EDEN, where she could be controlled by Rie.

"I refuse. I have no intentions of joining any group, nor do I intend to make one of my own. I have… other business to attend to."

"You…! How dare you disrespect Yuugo like that?!" The brown-haired girl, Fei Wong (Miss "nothing is going on between us"), the one who is absolutely loyal to Yuuko clearly took offense at my actions.

"Yuugo" didn't seem like he took offense, but the rest of his followers followed Fei's lead and heaped some insults and threats upon me. It seemed that they were at their nascent stage, and Yuugo seemed to need to prove himself to the other hackers, as he reluctantly "demanded" to battle me with their Digimon.

Sensing his attentions, I decided to be nice and help him out a bit… without giving away too much that is.

Guess I should start things easy by going with Sistermon Ciel.