"Wait—!"
Seeing Piddomon turn away, Chen Ze immediately forgot any embarrassment about having been caught and hastily called out, stopping Piddomon just before he reached the entrance back to Kowloon Lv. 4.
"If I were you, I wouldn't choose to go back right now."
This time, it wasn't Chen Ze who spoke, but Renamon, who'd swiftly regained her usual composure and elegance.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Suspicious, Piddomon paused mid-flight. He sensed no ill intent from her words, only confusion at her sudden warning.
But before Piddomon could even react properly, a twisted, black-and-white tentacle abruptly shot forth from the entrance to Kowloon Lv. 4, aiming directly at his head.
BANG!
In the split second before impact, Little Piccolo appeared seemingly out of nowhere, blocking the space between the attacking Eater and Piddomon. This unexpected shield saved Piddomon from an embarrassing and sudden demise.
Immediately afterward, the Eater breached the boundary between digital spaces again—just as it had when it broke into Kowloon Lv. 4—and forcibly stretched its power into this chaotic region through some unknown intrusion method.
Crash…
Like shattered glass, the digital space touched by the Eater's tentacle disintegrated into primitive, mosaic-like fragments.
Only Little Piccolo, sharing the same origin and similar powers, remained stable. Still maintaining its spherical white shape, it barely withstood the Eater's sudden, lightning-fast assault.
"An Eater?!"
Only at that moment did Piddomon finally snap out of his daze. Without hesitation, he flashed away at near-teleportation speed, escaping the reach of the tentacle's next strike.
Fwoosh!
In the next instant, flaming feathers filled the air, descending from above like meteors toward the Eater, still not fully emerged from Kowloon Lv. 4.
—Fire Feather!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The intense impact and searing heat of Piddomon's fiery feathers ignited the monstrous tentacle, almost as if it were made of tangible flesh.
Kakaka…
Though it emitted no cries of pain, the Eater—most of its main body still trapped behind in Kowloon Lv. 4—released a disturbing mechanical grinding noise.
Seizing the opportunity, Little Piccolo swiftly "unfolded" itself. Like a massive membrane, it suddenly engulfed and devoured the Eater's residual data fragments.
Crunch!
Caught completely off-guard, the Eater had no chance to retaliate. Its tentacle, fully extended into Kowloon Lv. 5, was instantly consumed as Little Piccolo's "meal."
Kakaka…
Then, as though nourished by a potent stimulant, Little Piccolo's body abruptly expanded out of control before rapidly compressing again, repeating several times until it returned to its previous small, unassuming form.
However, having witnessed Little Piccolo's ravenous behavior and its complete immunity to the Eater's corrupting influence, Piddomon no longer dared treat it as a mere "harmless" object.
Even though Piddomon understood Little Piccolo might just be a specialized program written by Chen Ze—and despite it having just saved his life—he still decided to maintain a cautious distance from this bizarre thing.
His instincts told him Little Piccolo's core nature wasn't fundamentally different from an Eater's: both were dangerous programs prone to causing a "data disaster" at the slightest misstep.
"What the hell was that all about?"
After a brief silence, once Piddomon confirmed the terrifying Eater had genuinely been repelled, its residual data fully consumed by that creepy mechanical "eyeball," he finally drifted cautiously back toward Chen Ze and Renamon.
Still, Piddomon refused to fully let down his guard. He constantly glanced anxiously toward the entrance of Kowloon Lv. 4.
More accurately, Piddomon was keeping a wary eye on Little Piccolo—that tiny, toy-like entity—fearing it might suddenly spiral out of control.
Because that was precisely how the Eater had been created.
Had the hacker boss not implanted an uncontrollable, dangerous program into Meramon's body, that thing would never have appeared so suddenly at Snowden, let alone run wild.
Thus, in Piddomon's mind, Little Piccolo's potential threat was no less than the Eater's—its only saving grace being that it hadn't yet gone berserk.
"A typical Eater shouldn't have the ability to 'cross' between digital spaces like that, right?"
Having encountered Eaters multiple times, Piddomon had never witnessed one capable of tracking targets across entirely different spaces.
Indeed, that was one of the reasons Piddomon had swiftly withdrawn from Snowden and fled into Kowloon in the first place.
As far as he knew, an Eater normally only assimilated and corrupted the data it directly contacted.
It lacked true consciousness or self-awareness; thus, it couldn't harbor concepts like "revenge" or "pursuit."
Theoretically, without external interference, it would take a single Eater several years to completely assimilate a small digital space like Snowden.
Yet the Eater they'd just encountered was clearly an exception, seemingly defying the core programming that governed its behavior to chase them between distinct spaces.
"Well... honestly, we're not really sure either."
Picking up on Piddomon's implicit question, Chen Ze—who had assumed all Eaters naturally acted this way—began to reflect deeply.
If this particular Eater's behavior was indeed abnormal, then at what point did it start acting so differently?
Was it because of my previous attempt to control it… or is Little Piccolo somehow responsible?
Muttering silently to himself, Chen Ze glanced nervously at Renamon. Seeing she hadn't yet realized the implications, he secretly exhaled in relief.
Chen Ze hadn't forgotten his earlier complaints—calling Renamon his personal jinx and calamity.
If this Eater truly pursued them due to his own interference, Chen Ze would've practically slapped himself in the face.
"Right now, our priority is figuring out how to leave here."
Renamon, calm and composed as always—apparently oblivious to Chen Ze's inner panic—quickly began sifting through her personal database, hoping to find a suitable UDL Link.
"Ordinary Digital Spaces won't stop the Eater's pursuit."
Guessing Renamon's intention, Piddomon hesitated briefly before deciding to share a concealed UDL Link with them.
"As far as secrecy goes, you won't find a place more hidden anywhere in the EDEN network."
Chen Ze quickly opened his virtual screen, readily accepting the link invitation sent by Piddomon.
He promptly downloaded a UDL program from within—one with extremely high encryption and permission requirements:
Digimon Black Market.UDL
---
bonus chaps
100 stones -> 1 chapter
200 stones -> 2 chapters
300 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
discord.gg/wisetl
patreon.com/wisetl