I know this post is late, but these are getting harder to translate because the effort isn’t there. The story is fine, but it needs a lot more love. Make sure to check out the official release. If you’ve been enjoying this project, make sure you like, comment, subscribe, and share this with your friends. See you next week!
Only eight members of the Sons of Chaos meet in Marvin’s secret room for Operation Infinity. Eiji stares nervously at the seven other avatars who stand in the room with him. He only recognizes Marvin from the group. The strangers share some idle chatter, but the coms remain mostly silent.
Suddenly, a large screen flashes above them and fills with maps, pictures, and charts.
“Our Target is the Nation of X,” Marvin begins. His voice is more stern and serious than it was the day before. “They are a small nation with an almost negligible GDP, but they are one of the world’s biggest sponsors of terrorism. Bombings, kidnappings, genocide, they’ve done it all. Recently, they’ve moved their operations into digital world.” Marvin flips through the slides, showing different newspaper headlines supporting his claims. “A large number of cyber-attacks now originate Nation X. Their latest exploit? The digital exchange where they made off with billions of dollars in crypto…”
“That was them?” Eiji involuntarily blurts out, interrupting Marvin’s flow.
Marvin nods. “Yep, it is state sponsored Digimon crime, and it has to stop. Attacks like these will destabilize the market, but more importantly, it goes against the fundamental beliefs we were built on. Nation X threatens the freedom of the Digital World.”
Eiji takes a hard swallow. This was bigger than any freelance job he had ever taken.
Marvin continues his explanation, but most of it goes over his head. Eiji understands bits and pieces, but the weight of the assignment becomes a distraction. Eiji takes a deep breath and tries to remember why he’s there. His breath echoes off the walls of his small flat. Eiji collects himself and tries to focus on Marvin’s words.
“Nation X is using the Mega Digimon Machindramon to commit their crimes and pinning it on us.” Marvin throws an image of the metallic dinosaur on the screen. It is a massive machine, designed for destruction. “I don’t think I need to explain why we can’t let that continue.”
Marvin’s words remind Eiji why he is there. This was a selfish mission, one only designed as retaliation over something trivial. The Sons of Chaos were nothing more than a gang, no different than the terrorist nation they were going against. Even if they believed their goals to be more noble. Marvin finishes his explanation and the room grows silent with a nervous energy.
“Good, we’re all here,” says a voice from an unknown source. “Since there are some fresh faces, allow me to introduce myself. I am Tartarus, and I’ll personally be running this operation.”
“Tartarus is here?!” Eiji thinks to himself, trying to hold himself together. Trying to remember his mission.
“The mission is simple. We crash their servers and capture the Machinedramon.”
Eiji studies the image of the Machinedramon. This was a powerful Digimon with the ability to penetrate national security. Such a powerful tool in the hands of even the tiniest nation could prove catastrophic. He can’t imagine what it could do in the hands of a capable group of hackers.
“It’s time we show this dictator his place,” Tartarus continues. “This is a fight for the freedom of the network.”
“For the freedom of the network!” Marvin echoes enthusiastically.
“For the Freedom of the network!” The others repeat loudly.
“No team of code crackers are as unified or powerful as the Sons of Chaos. Soon the world will see that we are a force to be reckoned with. They will see that we are a team that can topple nations!” Tartarus continues charismatically. His voice commanded respect, and those who gathered around him were ready to give it.
One by one, the SOC higher-ups start bringing out their Digimon. Most of them were Cyborg types. Eiji mutes his mic and looks down at his Digimon Linker. “This is it Loogamon. You Ready?” Eiji takes a deep breath as he looks down at his pixel art companion, “Here we go!”
Marvin’s room empties as one by one the members blink out of existence. Eiji scrolls through the options on his linker, stopping on the mindlink option. There was no going back now. Eiji is overwhelmed by a warm dizzying sensation that was growing more familiar.
They were now mindlinked. In the void of Loogamon’s Digicore, Eiji’s heart races. He goes over the mission directives in his head, repeating them like a mantra to calm himself.
“Disable the servers, steal the Machinedramon” Eiji repeats to himself. Mindlink should make this easy.
“Loogamon, this is your conscious. You should let Eiji pet you,” Eiji says in a playfully spooky voice.
“Shut up!” Loogamon retorts smugly. “Get serious Eiji.”
“I’m just trying to lighten up the mood. This can be our pregame ritual.” Eiji says, each word finding a more confident purchase.
“Pregame?”
“It’s something we do to pump ourselves up. Something to do before a big mission like this for good luck.”
“Don’t be weird. I need you to be serious for a moment. I need to show you something important.” Loogamon’s tone gets stern as he pulls up a video on one of the virtual monitors.
Eiji stares at a man strapped to a reclining chair. Wires run neatly from the man, connecting him to computers and sensors around him.
“Who is that?”
“He was a hacker that used to work at the DDL. One of the institutes most promising subjects in fact. He’s logged more mindlinked hours than anyone else, and I think his record still stands. Keep watching, you need to see this.”
The video speeds up. Eiji watches as the numbers skip around quickly. He examines the vitals and wonders what Digimon he is linked to. Before he could ask, the man starts convulsing wildly as if he were being electrocuted. The man fights against the restraints holding him to the chair, but they keep him from falling to the ground. The medical staff rushes to the man. Eiji watches as their silent screams carry useless instructions. He watches as they attempt to hold the man down, but it is all wasted effort. A few moments later, the man is motionless. The video cuts as the staff begins unplugging him from the machine.
Eiji takes a large gulp of air before asking, “What happened?”
“Their Digimon ran into trouble. We believe the encounter overloaded the mindlink.”
“Overloaded? How?”
“There are limits to mindlink. Those limits depend on the skill of the code cracker, their compatibility with their partner Digimon, and the level of their Digimon. The higher the disparity between these factors is, the shorter the window becomes. If you go above this limit, your consciousness becomes melded to the Digital World. You’ll become trapped here.”
“What do you mean by melded?”
“I don’t have an answer for that. Worst case, your consciousness is destroyed. Best case, you’ll float aimlessly through the vast networks, forever lost in the endless stream of data.
A shiver runs down Eiji’s spine. The answer disturbs him. The cold reality of the assignment hits him like a bullet train. He tries to find his nerve again.
“So what happens to the body?” Eiji asks, knowing the answer.
“It becomes an empty husk.”
For the first time since he took the assignment, Eiji thinks about the stakes. He thinks about his body sitting in his tiny apartment. How long would it take for someone to find his body? His rent was set up for automatic payments. It would be a few months before his account drained. Would his neighbors complain about the smell? Eiji imagines his corps, rotting away on the small mat. He would become another lonely computer junkie, dead from unknown causes.
Eiji shakes off the dark thoughts. “It’s too late to think about that,” he thinks to himself. “I just have to make sure I don’t pass the limit. Easy Peasy.”
“For your safety, I’ve set another limit to make sure you return to the real world,” Loogamon replies as if reading his mind.
“Aw! You do care!” Eiji teases as he tries to find his nerve again.
“Can’t risk having you melded to my Digicore,” Loogamon says snidely. “I can’t spend the rest of my life with your voice in my head. I’d rather be deleted.”
Eiji lets out a nervous laugh. It was the first time Loogamon joked with him so casually.
“Come on, Loogamon. Get serious. Their waiting for us”