In the middle of the night, the sound of something collapsing echoed through Winr's ears as he lay in bed.

　It wasn't a particularly loud noise, but it was enough to disturb his light sleep in the unfamiliar bed.

"Winnie, something's wrong!"

"Hmm... FunBeemon? What time is it now...?”

"Sorry to wake you up, but we must move! The village…!"

　His consciousness was gradually beginning to awaken, but was suddenly awakened by the high-pitched, scream-mixed voice of his partner, FunBeemon. He also remembered that this was within Cross Connectia, and that they had just fallen asleep after being entertained by a village of young vegetation Digimon.

　He quickly grabbed his glasses from his pillow, got out of bed, and ran out of the house.

“This is...”

　Winr was speechless as he saw smoking houses in the moonlight. As he was doing this, Digimon ran past him, crying and fleeing.

"What is this?"

"Winnie, look at that!"

　If you look closely in the direction they are coming from, you can see a brilliant red shining in the black of the night. The artificial light was out of place against the surrounding scenery, and Winr realised what the Digimon were running from.

“A Rogue NPC…!”

"Ah, there you are! Lady Queen! Sir Winr!”

“Floramon!”

　Floramon rushes up to Winr and the others, who are at a loss for words. Floramon must have lived in the center of the village. They must have been worried about Winr and FunBeemon, so they ran in the opposite direction to the fleeing Digimon and came to this house on the outskirts of town. Their legs were shaking violently, conveying their fear in the most eloquent way possible.

"Those strange guys I talked to you about during the day are attacking us! There are many of them, and they plan to catch us all at once!"

"No way..."

"They challenge us to battles using cards...and when that happens, the attacks from the surroundings don't reach us, and we don't know how to fight with cards, so there's nothing we can do."

"Winnie, that's..."

"Yup, the battle unfolds using D-STORAGE's debug mode."

　This was a method shared among the debugging team as a way to deal with direct attacks from Digimon controlled by rampaging NPCs within Lacuna. By forcing your opponent to join the battle, you can bring the battle to a card game. Even if you lose a card battle, the unique emblem will protect your data to a certain extent.

　This is a fairly forceful tactic against Digimon that don't even have decks, but the boss of their opponents is Unchained, special advisor to the debug team. That level of recklessness might be a piece of cake for Unchained.

"But then we can fight."

　Winr said as he reached for the D-STORAGE, before turning his attention to FunBeemon. However, his partner, who would usually respond cheerfully, just looked down and shook its head.

“That’s not enough, Winnie. There are too many opponents. We can only stop one of them in a card battle. While we're fighting, the others will defeat everyone else."

　It was an accurate and cool-headed analysis from a queen guarding her nest. At a glance, there are 10 rampaging NPCs. Only one person per battle can restrict the actions of others when requesting a battle. If they are defeated one by one, there won't be enough time to carry out rescue operations.

"But then what should we do?"

"Ensuring everyone's safety comes first. Floramon, is there anywhere outside the village where we can take refuge?"

“Ssss! To the west, there is a base that we built so that everyone can stop by when picking nuts. It's a little cramped, but we can all hide somehow!"

"Well, let's get everyone there first. Winnie!”

　Winr came back to his senses in shock at FunBeemon's sharp, scolding words. Being overcome by a sense of helplessness and losing sight of the situation makes one unfit to be a military strategist. He bit his lip and operated the device on his waist.

"FunBeemon, digivolve--"

　At the same time, FunBeemon was enveloped in countless hexagons. Eventually a pair of hands popped out from the honeycomb structure. Just as an egg hatches and an insect emerges from its chrysalis in a new form, hands take up spear and shield, and the worker bee becomes a warrior.

"--Vespamon! With my pride as a knight on the line, I will help everyone! Winnie, go ahead to the base with Floramon!"

"…understood. Be careful Vespamon."

　Winr shared a look with Floramon and nodded, then turned his back on his partner, who was holding a spear and shield, and took off running.

"Is everyone okay?"

　A simple base located a short way from the village. Floramon and the others nodded at FunBeemon's words.

"Somehow, everyone managed to escape!"

"It's all thanks to Lady Queen for helping us!"

“Amazing! Lady Queen is amaaazing!”

"That's a relief..."

　FunBeemon and Winr looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. It worked out well that the house they were sleeping in was on the outskirts of town. Vespamon also called out to any Digimon who might have been unaware of the situation and been slow to escape, and used its natural guarding techniques to guide them to safety.

"But it seemed like they had clearly come to capture Digimon. We're not far from the village, so we'll soon be found out."

"We can’t escape?"

"Oh, that's not what I meant..."

　Winr hastily shook his head, realizing that he had frightened the baby Digimon with his insensitive words.

　Then, while he was flustered and not knowing how to explain it to them so that they would understand, Floramon reached out and picked up the frightened young one, Tanemon.

"It'll be okay! We just ran away for now. I'll counterattack now!"

"Will we be able to go home?"

“Of… of course! Cause I’m strong! So everyone please wait here."

　Floramon calms the baby Digimon with a smile and then returns to Winr and FunBeemon.

"So, I'm sorry to interrupt your journey, but I would like Lady Queen and Winnie to cooperate with us. I said that earlier, but it'll be pretty tough if it's just me."

　Floramon laughed, "Tahaha", but its legs were shaking again, and even more violently than before. They're probably so scared that they'd want to run away immediately. And yet, here they are, standing in front of them.

"Why?"

　The words escaped Winr's mouth.

“Why would you do this? You yourself said that there is nothing you can do about them. As soon as Funbeemon and I arrived, they attacked. Just blame us, and leave the fighting to us."

“Winnie”

　Even though FunBeemon tried to stop him, Winr couldn't stop. No matter how insensitive it seemed. He felt he had no choice but to ask.

"There's nothing you guys can do. Why then...?”

"There’s ‘probably’ nothing we can do."

　Floramon spoke, overlapping with what Winr was saying.

"Until that ‘probably' comes true, I can't give up on the village."

"Isn't it scary? Actually, it is scary. You're trembling so much..."

"It is scary."

　Floramon stared straight back at Winr.

"But it's not those spikes that are scary. What's scary is that we'll have no place to go back to. In that case, we can fight for the same reasons."

　Before he knew it, all of the rookie form Digimon in the village, along with some of the baby Digimon, had gathered beside Floramon.

　It's impossible. Winr is about to say. Floramon, Aruraumon, Palmon, Mushroomon—there were so many of them it was hard to count them on two hands. A gathering of this many weak Digimon would accomplish nothing.

Nothing?

　His expression suddenly changed. His gaze leaves Floramon, and he wanders into space as if not looking at anyone there.

"Village Map."

"Yes?"

　Floramon cried out in surprise at Winr's sudden words.

"I want a map of the village. If you don't have a map, please tell me the layout of the village."

"Wh-what?"

"Also, I want to know what all the Digimon who are willing to fight can do."

　After saying that bluntly, Winr sat down on the spot and began muttering something to himself. FunBeemon smiled at the confused look on Floramon's face.

"Watch this. Our tactician is really cool."

　Several red lamps light up in the village shrouded in darkness. The rampaging NPCs continued their monotonous routine, searching for any Digimon that remained in the village, in a mechanical and destructive search.

"Rain of Pollen!"

"Fungus Crusher!"

　Yes, it's monotonous. So, if a Digimon unleashes a move from somewhere, it will head straight in that direction.

　It should be possible for them to take action to avoid the danger, but it seems they are aware that all of the Digimon in this village are below the champion form, and so they proceed straight ahead with almost no caution. In fact, the stimulation caused by Floramon's "Rain of Pollen" does not work on NPCs that do not have sensory organs, and Mushroomon's "Fungus Crusher" does not seem to cause any problems as long as it does not hit them directly.

　As a result, they are unaware of the true purpose, which is to distract them. The smoke from the explosion and the smoke screen from the pollen only slightly change the visibility of NPCs through their sensors, but they definitely reduce coordination with surrounding NPCs.

　Without even realizing this, the NPC chases the Digimon that has appeared before them. The ones assigned to act as decoys are Aruraumon and Palmon. The strong scent that emanates from the flowers on their heads enables them to track each other's locations even in poor visibility.

　Their role is to separate the NPCs. Then, in turn, bring the NPCs into the largest meeting hall in the village.

“It’s coming, Winnie!”

"Yep, everything's going according to plan."

　Now it is a feeding ground for the most powerful queen and military strategist.

　The NPC looked a little surprised when Winr deployed a security shield, but quickly reached for its cards.

　Winr reaches for the hood, but then stops. While he was hiding his face in a hoodie in the game world, having escaped from a home where there was nothing but unpleasant things, he felt like he had become “Winr”.

　He does not pull on his hood. There's no need to wear a hood. Now he knows exactly what he’s fighting for. And by his side is the strongest queen who can help him achieve it.

"Let's go, FunBeemon."

“Sure! Let's show them our bond!"

So there's no reason to lose.

"Thank you so much!"

　Under the purple sky of dawn, Floramon bowed its head, and then all the Digimon in the village bowed their heads at once. In response to the formal thanks, Winr shook his head bashfully.

“Don’t bother thanking me. This was only possible because of you guys."

"No, the tactician's command was brilliant! I can see why Lady Queen is so in love with him!"

"Hey, Floramon! ’in love with’ is a bit of an exaggeration!”

　Winr smirked as he watched FunBeemon embarrassedly flapping its wings twice as fast as usual.

"But are you sure you don't want me to help you fix the houses? If I use ForgeBeemon's power it will be over in no time."

“Yes, you two are in a hurry, so I can't keep you here forever. Besides, this is our village, after all."

"We've discussed our objectives. One day we may ask you to leave this place."

“We’ll wait for that time to come! If it's a place you two have prepared, it's bound to be a great place!"

　Floramon smiled.

"You did a good job."

"FunBeemon, you were really popular."

"I-It's not like I forgot about my mission!"

"I'm not worried about that."

　As the two of them walked through the forest together as usual, Winr muttered to himself.

“Sorry.”

“W-what is it?”

"What we talked about last night. I used your existence as an excuse to escape reality."

“It’s OK. There's nothing wrong with running away."

"Still, I'm sorry."

　Winr clenched his fists tightly and spoke carefully.

"After talking with Floramon and the others, I’ve been thinking. I need to face it more seriously. Maybe the reason I'm scared of home is because I actually love it. It’s not that I dislike my mother or father. I like both of them, so maybe that's why I hate it when they fight."

“Winnie...”

"I might still have a reason to battle in that house. I can’t run away thinking ‘I might’”.

"..."

　He was trembling slightly. It was a frightening experience, so at the same time it made him tremble with fear. FunBeemon believes that when those roots are the same, people become stronger and take a step towards "digivolution."

"There will surely be days when I want to run away, and days when I do run away, but once this battle to protect Liberator is over, I will face it once more. On my battlefield."

“...Sure, as you wish. Sounds good!”

　FunBeemon looked genuinely happy and nodded repeatedly.

"Ah, but I'd hate it if you didn't come to see me, you know?"

“Of course.”

"Hehehe."

"What's with that weird laugh?"

"Nothing?"

　With such light-hearted conversation, the little warriors set off to the new battlefield, leaving behind the faint sound of wings.

To be continued.