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Only eight members of the Sons of Chaos attend the Operation Infinity briefing. Eiji stares nervously at the seven other avatars around him. He only recognizes Marvin. The rest are strangers who occasionally share idle chatter, but the room is mostly silent.

A large screen suddenly 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, you name it, they’ve done it. Recently, they’ve moved their operations into digital world.” Marvin flips through the slides filled with related news clippings. “A large number of cyber-attacks 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 freedom in Digital World.”

Eiji takes a hard swallow as the scale of the operation hits him. This was bigger than any freelance job he had ever taken. His hands tremble slightly as Marvin continues his explanation. Most of it goes over his head. Eiji understands bits and pieces, but his nerves become a distraction. Eiji takes a deep breath and tries to remember why he’s there. His breath echos throughout the small dark apartment as he tries to calm himself and focus on Marvin’s words.

“Nation X is using a Machindramon to commit their crimes and pinning it on us.” Marvin throws an image of the metallic dinosaur on the screen. “I don’t think I need to explain why we can’t let that continue.” There aren’t many forces that can take down a Mega Digimon. This wasn’t mission wasn’t going to be easy.

Marvin finishes his explanation. The room remains silent as they look over one another.

“Good, we’re all here,” a mysterious voice says suddenly. “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. He tries to recover from the shock an stay professional. He wasn’t expecting to get this close to Tartarus so soon.

“This is a simple mission. We crash their servers and capture the Machinedramon.”

Eiji studies the image of Machinedramon. This Digimon has the power to penetrate the toughest national security. Such a tool has already proven catastrophic in the hands of a small country, Eiji couldn’t imagine what a group of skilled Code Crackers could do with it.

“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. This should be easy right? He takes a small breath to sooth his nerves.

“Loogamon, this is your conscious. You should let Eiji pet you,” Eiji manages 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.”

“This isn’t a game. I need you to be serious for a moment and watch this.” Loogamon’s tone is stern as he pulls up a video on one of the screens.

Eiji stares at a man strapped to a reclining chair. Wires run neatly from the man and connect to nearby monitors and machines. A neat overlay over the video records his vitals.

“Who is that?”

“He was a hacker that used to work at the DDL. He was one of the institutes most promising subjects. He’s logged more mindlink hours than anyone else, and I think his record still stands. Keep watching, you need to see this.”

The video speeds up. The time stamp makes its quick climb, and Eiji watches the man’s vitals closely. Before he could ask what he was supposed to look for, the man starts convulsing wildly. 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 in their wasted efforts. After a few moments, the man stops moving. The video cuts as the staff begins unplugging him from the machine.

Eiji swallows hard. “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 are, 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 involved. He thinks about his body sitting alone 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 his bed. Another computer junkie dead from too much gaming.

Eiji shakes off the dark thoughts. It’s too late to think about that. I just have to make sure I don’t pass the limit. Easy Peasy. The speach does little to settle his nerves.

“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 in an attempt to find his nerve.

“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. “Come on, Loogamon. Get serious. Their waiting for us”