They say how we act online is how we really are. A space with no real confrontation or consequences where we can act however we like. The perfect place to track what our real interests are, how we really feel about certain topics, and the many information about every aspect of our life.
As technology grew along with the mass consumption of online media, our privacy was being slowly, without notice, taken from us. Not by what you'd expect, but from deep within the digital landscape, a world was being created.
Having unintentionally been collecting the entirety of Earth's information, people's personalities, traits, desires… A new world started to bloom, from the infinite 1s and 0s. Inside this digital world, creatures started to appear, and soon began flourishing with one another. Some even had real intelligence to them and started to form systems in their land. They communicated and interacted with each other. It wasn't long until their own history was being made.
But just like humanity, there will always be people who break rules. Conflict was brewing as there were some who disagreed with the rest since they could feel that their world was being corrupted.
As long as humanity could access the internet, effects from humans would leak into their world. Some were good, such as information on new machinery, social ideas, or even something basic like the feeling of joy being spread around their world after a human would laugh when scrolling to something funny in social media.
The thing is that there would also be a lot of hate and vile things that would leak into their world. The internet as we know can have an entire section of it filled with hatred from people as they spend their time on it doing nothing but waste it as the horrible individuals they secretly are deep down.
Hence, there was a side for the digital creatures who wanted to forbid humans from ever accessing the internet, and another side that disagreed, saying that coexistence is beneficial. This began the Digimon War.
….
"Personally I think the Viruses are right! We shouldn't keep affecting those poor digimons with humanity's filth!!" A girl with blue hair spoke out.
"Jeez, and you expect us to just give up on the internet entirely? How stupid can you get?" A boy with glasses replied back harshly.
The two continued arguing with each other, with a mediator in the middle needing to tell them to stop interrupting each other.
This was just another day in the debate club at school. There was a boy sitting in the back of the class sort of listening to everything unfolding. He had a boredish face while looking down at his desk, with his face leaned on his right palm.
He was writing on a piece of paper, listing down a few facts. Vaccines, Viruses, and Data. The three types of Digimon. Vaccines who want to coexist with humans, Viruses who don't, and Data who are neutral.
"Kyle! You agree with me right?" The girl with blue girl quickly turned her head to the back of the class, attempting to look for a supporter.
The boy with the bored expression, Kyle, placed down his pen and lifted his head, before saying his response. "I…"
Until all of a sudden, a loud voice was heard from outside the class. "AN EGG!! Someone in Class D got an egg!"
Immediately, the expressions of everyone nearby who heard that changed as they began running excitedly. The people in the debate club rushed out the class as well, with Kyle tiredly getting up from his chair too and walking outside. But he wasn't excited or anything. He lived a life with few moments that he couldn't already expect.
From there, he made his way over to Class D where there was a huge commotion with students pushing past each other, attempting to peek inside the class's windows.
Kyle ended up going to the bathroom first to wash off his tired and sleepy eyes. As he splashed his face with water, he looked up at the mirror and saw himself. A young man with tanned skin. His brown eyes stayed opened even as water dripped down from his forehead. He saw his black hair still had a lot of volume as it spiked upwards even after being wet. Just like always, he slides his fingers across his hair and gave himself a casual slick back to get rid of those awkward spikes. After that, he dried himself off and walked out.
When he got back to Class D, a few minutes had already pass and the commotion wasn't as big as before. He went over to a nearby student and tapped on their shoulder.
"So someone really got an egg?" he asked.
"Yup, y'know that weird kid with the rocky face? Koji I think…? Honestly got disappointed knowing it was him who got it, but thinking about it… Haha it's gonna be pretty funny seeing the Tamer look more like a digimon. Can't wait till it hatches."
Kyle wasn't at all taken back or anything hearing this. Every month or so, someone in the school gets an egg and there's a big commotion everytime. And as for the blanted shit-talking about the kid… He already knew how that kid was treated.
The crowd was quickly losing interest and were started to walk away one after another. As Kyle saw an opening, he walked through the crowd until he got to the window of Class D where he looked inside.
The kid with the rocky face. He was standing at the teacher's desk as the two were discussing something to do with the egg. Kyle have seen this guy around multiple times. I mean, it's already nearing the end of the last year of high school.
Koji Koda, one of the mutated individuals in this world. WW2 almost obliterated the entire human race, they were lucky not everyone died with only a small portion of humanity becoming mutated. Though it's unfortunate for the mutated as not only do they look different but their mutation can also be passed down to their offspring, making it even easier to be discriminated on.
As Kyle looked at Class D, he could already see multiple student whispering, and those with jealous eyes. Though he decided to leave it at that and walk away. Kyle knew Koji would most likely get even more bullied, but he was never the type to be a hero.
….
A few weeks have past since, and graduation was already in a month's time. Kyle was again in the debate club, sitting quietly in the back with people arguing in front of him. He was pretty good at ignoring people so he could pretty much do whatever he wanted back there.
This time though, he was scrolling on his phone through a list of colleges that he could apply to. His plan was to just get into a normal college and get a normal job and live his normal life until dying in a normal way.
This was until the pixels on his phone suddenly started turning black. Kyle's eyes quickly widen because of this. One by one, the pixels on his phone became pitch black until the image of an egg popped out of nowhere in the middle of the screen.
Then below the egg, an option was presented. 'Do you accept? Y/N'
Kyle's hand was shaking at this point. He had a realization hit him. An unexpected moment had occurred. Breathing through his nostrils, he closed his eyes and… swiped the phone back into his pocket.
"Fuck this…" he muttered under his breath.
The school day ended as he made his way back home. He still had the thought of the egg at the back of his mind but chose to ignore it. Opening the door to his apartment, he immediately smelled a terrible stench coming out of it.
Going into his apartment and slowly making his way to the source of the smell with his fingers pinched on his nose, he ended up in front of his uncle's room. Opening the door, his vision was met with the sight of the man hanging off the ceiling with a rope attached to his neck.
Another unexpected moment had occurred for Kyle. He frowned as he closed back the door and called the police. They soon arrived and took care of the situation.
Kyle was let go at the end of the day, as he got back to his apartment from the police station, and finally laid on his bed.
"…So who's gonna pay for my tuition now…?" Kyle wondered.
After his parents died in a car crash when he was five, his uncle took him in and he helped pay for pretty much everything until now. He wasn't rich of course. But he had no one else in his life to spend the money on but Kyle.
As Kyle closed his eyes trying to fall asleep, he opened them back and grabbed his phone. The egg was still there.
"I guess I don't have a choice now." he said before pressing 'Yes'