‘ll be rewriting the novel to fix some of the awkwardness of the translation. My version comes out the Monday after the official release, but make sure you always check out the original. If you’ve been enjoying this project, make sure you like, comment, follow, and share this with your friends.
Eiji barges into Ryusenji’s lab in a huff. “Professor! Professor Ryusenji”
The professor looks up from his work nonchalantly. People suddenly barging into his lab was no novelty. “Good morning, Eiji.” It was already afternoon, but the professor often loses all sense of time when he’s at work.
“Good morning” Eiji responds with a quick bow, remembering his manners. “What’s with this Digimon?!? It’s not moving.” Eiji rushes to the professor’s side to show him the small blue pixelated wolf on his Digimon Linker. Loogamon naps soundly.
Ryusenji pulls Eiji’s arm close and examines the sleeping Digimon. A smile forms on the professor’s face. “He’s just having a little nap. You’re doing a great job Eiji, he’s a healthy happy boy. I can’t wait to see what he evolves into. If you can get him to his ultimate form, we’ll give you a nice… incentive.”
“An incentive? Like more money?”
Ryusenji nods his head. “You’ll get a very generous payout. I’m curious to see the type of Digimon Loogamon turns into. You guys will probably look super cool together!” The professor can’t hide his excitement as he starts theorizing about all the possibilities.
“I’ll do my best” Eiji replies. He was beginning to warm up to the eccentric old man. “Oh. Did you see yesterday’s training report? I sent it to your email.”
“Oh?!” the professor responds as he opens up his email client. “I get hundreds of emails a day. I hardly ever open them. I don’t have the time to look through every single…here it is in your own little folder. I keep all your emails separate so they don’t get lost”
Eiji hugs himself and gives the professor a warm smile. “That makes me feel important”
“You’re a very important business partner of mine, Eiji”
The professor sounded sincere, and Eiji was slowly learning to trust him. Eiji felt strange having someone so important put so much worth onto him, but he was determined to make him proud. Here in this lab, Eiji wasn’t just another Code Cracker punk, he was a partner of the world renowned scientist, Professor Ryusenji. This made Eiji feel good.
Ryusenji plays that video from Eiji’s report.
Loogamon sits in front of four bowls of food, but eats from one of them. Three Tyrannomon wait patiently across from the small wolf as it devours the food. Ryusenji’s face inches towards the monitor as he observes the behavior.
“Loogamon is already stronger than three Tyrannomon.” Eiji explains to an unmoving professor.
“Interesting…” Ryusenji’s eyes remain glued to the screen. “Loogamon seems to have become the alpha. See how the Tyrannomon are behaving? It’s like they respect him as their leader. This is truly fascinating. Putting them in the same cage has created this…dynamic…”His voice trails as he continues his observations. His face is full of excitement.
“That must be why they don’t bother him, even when he eats their food. He even tried eating this guy,” Eiji says, pointing to one of the Tyrannomon.
“Oh?! That’s interesting”
“Loogamon eats so much food though.” Eiji begins to complain.
“That’s normal.”
Eiji pulls up another report. “Here’s the data for a benchmark I conducted. Loogamon is showing an above-average growth score”
“Interesting.” the professor strokes his chin as he reads over the data.
“Oh!” Eiji blurts out suddenly. He points to the jeweled mask on its forehead “What’s this thing on Loogamon’s forehead?” Eiji pauses the video and zooms in so that the face plate is fully visible. “That jewel even glows sometimes.”
Ryusenji moves closely so that his forehead is almost touching the screen “I am not sure, but that’s very perceptive of you Eiji.” The professor then turns to Eiji “How do you like Loogamon? Have you been using it for anything exciting?”
“I’ve been having trouble evaluating its performance as an AI tool”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not that the command tools don’t work, it’s more like Loogamon won’t do what I tell it. It won’t work or walk either. It is a very stubborn dog”
“So you don’t think you can raise it?” Ryusenji asks
Eiji panics. “No! I mean yes. I didn’t mean it like that. Raising it is my job and I take all my jobs seriously. I was just pointing out how…different it is from other Digimon I’ve raised.”
Ryusnji smiles back at the frantic Eiji “Try summoning Loogamon’s hologram.”
Eiji scrolls through his Digimon Linker before choosing the command. Loogamon appears in the room, sound asleep. It is about the size of an adult husky with soft-looking grey-blue fur. As it wakes, he blinks indifferent red eyes at the two men looking down at it. It wakes slowly, throwing slow indifferent blinks at the two men who now crowd him. It lets out a loud yawn.
“Fascinating!” Rysenji suddenly shouts as he continues looking over the data “Look at these numbers!” The professor points excitedly at the evaluation report on the screen.
Eiji attempts to understand the information. “DS value…? I’m not sure what that means,” Eiji admits reluctantly.
“It’s an indicator I designed to calculate the compatibility between a Digimon and its partner. In other words, you and Loogamon are extremely compatible!” Rysenji doesn’t hide his excitement.
“Seriously?!” Eiji looks down at Loogamon who has since gone back to napping on the floor.
“I knew I chose the right person for the job,” the professor claps.
“So…Does that mean that Loogamon can evolve right away?”
“I can’t say for sure”
“Why not?”
“The DS value doesn’t measure potential, only the user’s compatibility with a Digimon.”
“So it is possible to train,” Eiji whispers to himself. He had only ever used Tyrannomon, and a few other Digimon common in the code cracker circles. The more common the Digimon, the easier it was to train. Loogamon was unique, and would require more work to train.
“Where have you been getting your Digimon up until now? GriMM?”
“Yeah. Since it’s illegal in Japan, I have to get them from other countries. There are no borders in the Digital World.”
Ryusenji almost chuckles, “Do you know who you’re quoting?”
Eiji shakes his head no. It was a meme everyone repeated. “Do you?”
Ryusenji shrugs his shoulder as an involuntary smile escapes him. “What do you do again Eiji,” the professor asks, changing the subject.
“I’m a Code Cracker”
“Then you are familiar with the famous code cracking team?”
Illustration illustration: PLEX
