"An Archangel Digimon… is it even more gorgeous than Angewomon?"
After hearing Xiao's explanation, Kiwi couldn't help but glance at Lucy, her competitive spirit flaring.
"Of course," Xiao replied calmly, meeting Kiwi's gaze without hesitation.
"Generally speaking, Angewomon functions like a frontline soldier of the Heavenly Host. She's also the symbolic image of the angelic army itself."
"So naturally, her design emphasizes beauty and brilliance early on—to project majesty and authority."
"Alright," Kiwi snorted, loosening her grip on his collar. "I'll believe you… for now."
Xiao wasn't lying.
Tailmon was a Digimon that pursued ultimate late-stage strength.
Standing at barely eighty centimeters—only slightly larger than a normal house cat—she was one of the very few mature Digimon to retain such a petite body.
And the reason for that was simple.
Nearly eighty percent of Tailmon's power was concentrated in the Holy Ring at the tip of her tail.
That ring wasn't just an accessory—it was the core of her divinity.
To nurture it required an enormous amount of data, far more than ordinary angel-type Digimon needed. Naturally, this meant her growth rate lagged far behind others.
Yet despite her unassuming appearance, Tailmon's actual combat power was in no way inferior to Angewomon's—if anything, it was even greater.
Perhaps it was precisely because of this long process of accumulation that Tailmon became such a uniquely special existence.
…
…
Time passed quietly.
There were still at least six months before the truly dramatic events of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners would unfold.
Xiao reflected inwardly.
After more than a year in this cyberpunk world, he had effectively reached his current growth ceiling. Remaining here any longer would only be a waste of time.
He had already harvested every piece of cutting-edge technology left in the Old Net and copied it cleanly into the cyber dimension.
At this point, only one thing there still interested him—
MAX-level roaming AIs.
These entities had spent decades fighting, devouring, and evolving within the Old Net. Each one was an unfathomably powerful existence—a living database of immeasurable value.
Consuming even a single one would bring enormous benefits.
In fact, the cores of Angewomon and Tailmon themselves had been refined using an AI Xiao had previously devoured.
Another core—designed specifically to hatch the strongest antivirus entity—had been entrusted to Mr. Hands's daughter.
Yet even so, there was still one presence in the Old Net that Xiao remained wary of.
A soul AI whose strength bordered on the divine.
Alt Cunningham.
Once, she had single-handedly invaded Arasaka's network—and even dragged an orbital space station down from orbit.
That earth-shattering feat had left Xiao genuinely stunned.
In this world of data and circuitry, Alt Cunningham was nothing short of a god.
More importantly, she was the original creator of Soulkiller, and her mastery of it far surpassed even Arasaka's.
Not to mention—the Relic chip, the core artifact of Cyberpunk 2077, was also her creation.
She was, without question, a soul-level cornerstone of the entire world.
And according to hidden lore buried within the game's data…
Alt wasn't alone.
There were two other soul AIs in the Old Net with power equal to hers.
One was Rache Bartmoss, revered as the God of Hackers.
The other—
Spider Murphy, Bartmoss's partner.
Although Spider Murphy appeared only briefly in the original narrative and was treated visually like a low-tier NPC, her true strength was anything but minor.
In reality, her combat capability was scarcely inferior to Bartmoss or Alt Cunningham.
She simply lacked their flamboyant legends and world-shaking exploits.
These three had once ruled the earliest age of the Internet.
They were the three supreme hacker gods of cyberspace.
And beyond them…
There was the Blackwall.
A mysterious barrier dividing humans and AI, devouring anything that dared approach.
There was also the Night Corporation's hidden secret—the legendary Blue-Eyed Man, rumored to possess reality-defying memory-modification technology.
Under such circumstances, openly waging war against the Old Net's AIs would be reckless.
Xiao could, if he wished, destroy the Old Net and erase every roaming AI within it.
But that wasn't what he wanted.
What he sought was a complete world.
Not dominion over ruins.
So for now, he had no intention of acting.
Instead, he would continue accumulating power within the cyber dimension—waiting for the moment when the entire Old Net could be swallowed in a single strike.
When that day comes, he thought, the AIs will have nowhere left to run.
After careful consideration, Xiao decided to remain patient.
Stabilize. Accumulate. Observe.
And perhaps—watch how the drama of Edgerunners unfolded next.
He intended to save Gloria and Rebecca.
And perhaps lend the Maine crew a helping hand.
To Xiao, the original story of Edgerunners—a tale of the underclass crushed beneath the heel of capital—held little value.
It offered him nothing useful.
So he had no intention of anchoring his full consciousness here.
At most, he would leave behind a nano-level clone to observe events.
After all, the timeline had already been altered beyond recognition.
Sasha was alive.
Kiwi and Lucy had no reason to join Maine's crew.
Not only that—
They had become wealthy women in their own right.
Top-tier sports cars.
Luxury apartments.
Designer clothes.
Elite cocktail parties.
Backed by Xiao—and protected by the Mechanicus—they had ascended into Night City's upper class.
Even arrogant corporate executives now smiled and bowed before them.
With Lucy removed from the equation, how would David ever cross paths with Maine's team?
And without the dimensional chip…
Would James Norris—the military officer from the original opening—even become a cyberpsycho?
If not, then the entire story might never begin at all.
At this point, even Xiao couldn't say how the future would unfold.
But one thing was certain—
This world was no longer following the script.
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