After parting ways with Ruki, night had fallen. Bai Yu found a small, seemingly clean hotel, planning to make do for a night and then search for a more affordable, permanent residence tomorrow.
The hotel room was small, with a subtle scent of disinfectant mixed with a hint of dampness in the air. Bai Yu casually tossed his room card onto the bedside table and fell heavily backward, sinking into the soft mattress.
He took out the Lynxmon Digimental to play with it, feeling the cool metal and the ferocious Lynxmon relief on its surface.
Although he had defeated Renamon, Bai Yu knew clearly that his current strength was still very weak.
The system's strength evaluation system, like a cold ruler, constantly reminded him.
D-rank strength.
This ranking roughly corresponded to the Child stage of Digimon. Below that was E-rank, the Baby stage, with almost no combat power to speak of.
Above that were C-rank Adult stage, B-rank Perfect stage, A-rank Ultimate stage, and the S-rank, representing top-tier combat power, usually the cream of the crop among Ultimate Digimon, or even stronger existences.
In reality, the Digimon evolution stages were just a general framework and did not completely equate to strength.
Just like that Lynxmon, as an Armor Digimon, most average ones should reach C-rank, yet the one Bai Yu encountered was only D-rank according to the system's evaluation, which was undoubtedly a poor performance.
Conversely, there were also strong Armor Digimon, such as Magnamon among the Royal Knights, whose strength was definitely S-rank.
Even more so, there were BUG-like existences such as Lucemon, who, despite being only a Child Digimon, possessed terrifying S-rank strength.
In contrast, some Ultimate Digimon, like MarinAngemon, although an Ultimate Digimon, their true combat power might not even reach C-rank, but if we were to talk about support abilities, that would be another story.
The Digimon's level did not completely represent strength; Bai Yu was well aware of this from the beginning, and it was also the complexity of this world's power system.
The system Bai Yu obtained, with the full name 【Knight Tool System】, had relatively pure functions.
The system would provide Bai Yu with various blank Kamen Rider tools. These blank tools themselves possessed no power; Bai Yu needed to personally kill Digimon and then use these blank tools to absorb their data to convert them into usable Rider tools, just like the Lynxmon Digimental in his hand.
As mentioned before, Bai Yu had already gathered and understood some information about this world.
This world was not simply the world of Digimon Tamers, but a fusion world.
According to the scattered information Bai Yu found online, the "unforgettable summer" remembered by countless people had passed exactly two years ago.
And just one year ago, a live broadcast that could not be cut off appeared online, the content of which was a thrilling Digimon battle.
Bai Yu knew that it was the first battle where WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon combined to form Omnimon, which was the plot of "Our War Game."
Calculating this, only one year remained until the "three-year promise" when the Digimon Adventure 02 Chosen Children would appear.
And according to the Digimon Tamers timeline, this year should be the year when the main story of the third generation takes place; thus, the story of the second generation would occur after the third generation.
Additionally, Akiyama Ryo, who was known as the "legendary Tamer," had been reported missing for ten months according to news reports. Bai Yu was well aware of this; Akiyama Ryo should currently be traveling in the vast Digital World.
Although these events were somewhat controlled and did not spread on a large scale, ever since the 【Odaiba Incident】, also known as the Vamdemon incident, Digimon had entered human sight, and children with Digimon partners had sporadically appeared around the world.
The reason they were not called Chosen Children was because these children did not have the power of Crests; it was a result of Homeostasis casting a wide net.
Additionally, six months after the 【Odaiba Incident】, the Digimon Card Game was designed, but the source of the Digimon information within it was unknown.
After that, in just three short months, the Digimon Card Game became completely popular, and various tournaments were held consecutively.
One month later, around this time, the first Tamer appeared. It was said that this Tamer was a fan of the Digimon Card Game and, one day, obtained a d-ark digivice through a Digimon card.
Later, several others also obtained d-ark digivices.
Around that time, wild Digimon occasionally materialized in the real world. These Digimon did not come directly from the Digital World to the real world; the 'gate' between the two worlds was currently closed and could not be easily opened, not even by the Chosen Children using their digivices.
These Digimon converted themselves into data and entered the special space of cyberspace.
Because cyberspace is a space that can connect the Digital World and the real world, Digimon, after becoming data and entering this space, then materialize in the real world.
This is also why 'Digital Fields' appeared, because they came through cyberspace.
It's unknown whether it was due to their Digimon partners or some other reason, but Tamers often hunted those materialized wild Digimon, gaining strength by killing them to acquire data.
And because the d-ark digivice could utilize the power of cards, these people were categorized and given the title of Tamer.
After a night's rest, although the hotel bed was not the most comfortable, it was enough for Bai Yu to recover his energy.
The next morning, after a quick wash, Bai Yu checked out of the hotel and began his house-hunting journey.
Although he had "extracted" a sum of cash from Ruki, he couldn't spend it recklessly.
Bai Yu did not intend to rent an expensive apartment; his goal was to find a house with relatively cheap rent.
Moreover, to save on an agency fee, Bai Yu decided to do it himself, searching through the streets and alleys.
Bai Yu moved through the slightly old streets, his gaze carefully sweeping over every corner that might have rental information posted.
It was either incredibly good luck, but Bai Yu had only been wandering for half a day when he actually found a seemingly suitable rental listing on a street-side bulletin board.
It was a handwritten notice, the handwriting a bit messy, but the key information was clear.
Bai Yu didn't hesitate. He immediately pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed the number left on the notice. As for whether the other party was a scammer, Bai Yu wasn't worried at all.
If some short-sighted fellow dared to try and scam him, Bai Yu wouldn't mind turning that house into a real ruin overnight.
The phone rang a few times and was quickly answered. A young male voice, with a hint of clarity, came from the other end of the line.
"Hello."
Bai Yu concisely stated his purpose: "Hello, I saw the rental information on the bulletin board and would like to rent a house."
The person on the other end of the phone, hearing that Bai Yu was looking to rent, immediately became much more enthusiastic.
"Oh! Looking to rent, are you? May I ask which bulletin board you saw it on?"
Bai Yu reported the name of the street where the bulletin board was located.
The other party seemed very familiar with the area and immediately said: "Okay, okay, just wait there for a moment, I'll be right over!"