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"Well? Beat it!"
The two slink away while he prepares his demonstration for you. Using a joystick, he moves some kind of vessel around and fires pellets at swarming aliens. The simple pixel-art projections fall apart, adding to his score with each kill. You groan and roll your eyes. For a moment, you were hoping it would have some relevance to Digimon. But there was zero chance of them entrusting this duty to civilians, and you feel foolish for trying to be open-minded.
"See that? We're protecting district F2 right now. That's right, the one that took a nasty hit from some dirty punks a while ago. By destroying all these viruses that are cropping up, we make sure none-"
"F2, was that the one with the big junk tower that spewed into the sky?" You ask, suddenly alert.
"That's the one! After the incident... I've sorta taken it on myself to protect that district, actually. All my virus busting is centered around there. Hm! I'd like to see those hackers get past me. Here- check out my high score. And I've heard rumors, you know." He whispers.
"Rumors of?"
"There's some underground group responsible for it. I heard the City is trying hard to take them down. But they couldn't do it without folks like me destroying their Viral attacks whenever they show up. And you could do it too, if you joined us!"
<span class="mu-s">"Oh, he thinks he's real special."</span> Phascomon sneers.
"You must be so proud of yourself for keeping the peace." You say dryly. "Have you ever met a hacker before?"
"Well... No! But I know what districts they congregate in. I bet they're up to no good... But I'll keep the peace from in here, where they can't send their Digimon after me."
"Oh, you know about them using Digimon too?"
"They must, right? How else could they have taken down a Digimon? The big flying one that crashed."
You recall that a Cargodramon was taken down around here, allegedly by Wind. This guy seems to know just a little bit. He's still enough of a tool to think he's ACTUALLY helping by playing this game.
"So, when you fight viruses, are they the same as Digimon?"
"Yep! That's the other term for it. You gotta look out for them, y'know! We're supposed to call it in if we ever see one. Interacting with them is something only hackers do, and they'd love nothing more than to sneak into our base and attack us here!"
"Can your virus busting tools work out here?"
"Well... No. We can only do it from our consoles. But these vaccine programs are valuable, so of course we wouldn't be allowed to use them freely. We're defenders of the City, but there are still rules, y'know? How about it? Here, take the joystick, lemme show you how to fight Digimon."
You let out a harsh laugh.
"I think I'm good. I know a hell of a lot more than you anyway."
"What's that supposed to mean? Hey!"
You walk off without further comment.
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