Digimon Liberator - Episode 01

Chapter #01 of Digimon Liberator
=Characters=
=Summary=
A green, bird-like Digimon flew downwards in LACUNA, separating various sights: a blond woman in banchou clothes looking forward alongside a Digitamamon and a Metal Etemon while a Sparrowmon flew over them, a back shot of a yellow, mouse-like Digimon on a shoe, a man with a card in hand and a Magnamon facing off against an NPC with a Leomon, a person with glasses and a War Greymon alongside a man with goggles looking at two cards, and a woman with long, purple hair. 
Kazama Shoto, Kinosaki Arisa, and Junkmon were in the Emerald Coast, Invasive Forest City, alongside other players such as a man with a bandage on his nose, a woman that looked like Makino Ruki, and a woman with a Phascomon. Arisa tried to explain to Shoto that he had to press a button on his D-Storage's holographic panel to summon his Digimon. After he did it, the D-Storage summoned Shoto's registered Partner Digimon from its library, Muchomon, who criticized Shoto for always taking too long to summon it, and Shoto apologized to it as they high-fived each other. Arisa pointed out Shoto just couldn't get the hang of Digimon Liberator, even though he had been playing it for three months already and he had no issues with his phone. As he hugged Muchomon, Shoto answered that Arisa had said she'd help him, which annoyed her for a moment but then she got bashful as she did promise that, and Shoto and Muchomon high-fived and greeted each other again. Arisa then told Shoto they should warm-up now that he summoned his Digimon, and Shoto and Muchomon agreed.
Shoto and Arisa activated Friendly Battle Mode, which made their D-Storages glow, and then the Memory Gauge and Security Shields appeared. Drawing five cards from their decks, Shoto and Arisa declared "Digital Gate, Open", starting their battle. Shoto played his Partner Digimon, Muchomon, lowering the Memory Gauge from 3 to 0, then had Muchomon attack one of Arisa's shields. The shield Muchomon broke was BT11-100 Megalo Spark, activating its Effect, which in turn activated its effect. An Airdramon appeared then used , lowering Muchomon's DP by 8000. As this meant Muchomon's DP fell to 0, Muchomon was deleted. Shoto played another Muchomon, which ended his turn as the Memory Gauge fell from 0 to -3. Arisa took her turn, starting it by moving her Partner Digimon, Junkmon, from the Raising Area to the Battle Area. She then paid 2 Memory (3 > 1) to evolve Junkmon into Tobucatmon. Tobucatmon winked at Shoto as he tried to remember its effect, , making it so it can't be deleted in battles against a Security Digimon. Arisa exclaimed there was only thing to do with a Digimon with and ordered Tobucatmon to perform a Security Attack. Tobucatmon answered by performing , shooting beams from its eyes against Shoto's Security Shield and checking one Security. Said Security was a Parrotmon. A Security Battle was then triggered, but Tobucatmon won it due to its . Arisa and Tobucatmon celebrated, which annoyed Shoto. 
In later turns, Shoto evolved an unknown Digimon into a Cockatrimon but it was immediately defeated by Arisa's Ex-Tyranomon, itself also evolved from an unseen Digimon. Shoto then looked up in fear as Arisa evolved a Shin Monzaemon, which attacked the terrified Shoto and finished the game in Arisa's favour. Arisa and Junkmon high-fived each other happily as Shoto complained and Muchomon suffered. While the latter got over it quickly, Shoto pointed out he just couldn't win no matter how many times he tried as he got overwhelmed by Liberator battles, despite knowing the rules didn't change from the normal card game. Arisa spun her D-Storage over her finger as she wondered why that happened, considering Shoto was much better than her in card expertise otherwise, and said he needed to get rid of his low self-esteem and tendency to give up. Shoto whined he had been playing for three months and was used to the excitement of the battles but felt terrible that he couldn't show his true abilities. However, he was distracted as he saw something passing by. Arisa snapped him out of it, and Shoto explained that something small had just passed by them, though Arisa hadn't seen anything. Shoto thought it must've been his imagination, but then an explosion happened close to them. Shoto jumped in front of Arisa to defend her, which got him kicked in the face and knocked to the ground by a yellow, mouse-like Digimon on a shoe, who then jumped into Arisa's arms. Arisa was confused about this, as Digimon should only exist with cards and she didn't know there were wild Digimon in the game. As Shoto tried to recover from the kick, a beautiful woman with long, purple hair passed by him, which stunned him. He tried to ask her something, but Arisa told him to look out as an NPC with a red glow appeared from a broken wall, alongside a Blucomon. With a glow from its hand, the NPC initiated an Encounter, causing Shoto's D-Storage to glow red as well and start up on its own. The Encounter became a Situation Battle between Shoto and the NPC Freezing Knight, who shot a red beam into the sky that caused a battlefield to form, trapping Shoto with it. NPC Freezing Knight declared the opening of the Digital Gate, as Shoto panicked as he didn't initiate the battle and could not leave the battlefield, wondering if it was a bug. 
The unknown Digimon introduced itself as Shoemon and asked for help, explaining that it was being chased. Shoto was shocked because Shoemon talked and he had never seen a Digimon like it before, while Arisa wondered if it was some sort of event. Shoto's shock only increased as he looked at the cards in his hand and realized they were blank. The shock turned to fear as he realized he could not win or even fight with those.
An explanation of Situation Battles then started, showing the difference between Normal Type NPCs and Battle Type NPCs such as NPC Freezing Knight, with Situation Battles being incorporated into some of the latter. In them, the player faced challenges such as the opponent starting with their Digimon already being on the battlefield or being given unusual decks or cards, as a test to overcome a situation designed at the start of a battle. 
NPC Freezing Knight took the first turn with his Partner Digimon, Blucomon, starting on the field as per the Situation Battle rules. Arisa pointed out that Situation Battle NPCs should not be in that area, but it didn't matter as the battle had already started and Blucomon performed a Security Attack on Shoto thanks to the Situational Ability , releasing its from its mouth. Arisa complained it was unfair how they already lost a Security Shield on the first turn. However, Shoemon called out to them to be careful as its turn wasn't over and it used it to evolve Blucomon into Paledramon, lowering its Memory to -2 and thus finally ending its turn. Shoto was frozen in fear at NPC Freezing Knight's mercilessness and how he couldn't do anything with his worthless blank cards. He attempted to surrender but was interrupted by the sudden appearance from the sky from a green, bird-like Digimon who challenged the NPC to pick on someone its own size and proclaimed this was its island and it made the rules there. It introduced itself as Pteromon and decided to help Shoto as that was what it did. Pteromon's appearance caused two of Shoto's cards to appear, those being and his newly-obtained: ST18-05 Muchomon and ST18-04 Pteromon.
=External Links=
*Episode 01 on Digimon Card Game official website:
**Japanese
**English
*Episode 01 on GlobalComix:
**English
*Episode 01 on WebToon:
**Part 1 English
**Part 2 English
**Part 3 English
**Part 4 English
=Additional Information=
Category:Digimon Liberator chapters