While Aiba is hanging out in a chatroom, a hacker infiltrates it and leaves a message telling the members within to log into Cyberspace EDEN, a popular physical-interaction cyberspace network, to receive a "wonderful present". Although most of the room members declare it to be too suspicious to involve in, Aiba, along with users "Akkiino" and "Blue Box" decide to look into it. Aiba meets them the next day as arranged in Coulomb, a hacker-infested area of EDEN, where they introduce themselves as Nokia Shiramine and Arata Sanada; shortly after, the three of them are given the "Digimon Capture" by the unknown hacker and locked into Coulomb. While searching for an exit, Aiba runs into a hacker named Yugo, the leader of hacker team ZAXON who resembles a rumored "white boy ghost" said to have been sighted around EDEN, who teaches them how to use their Digimon Capture and reveals that Arata is in fact a skilled hacker. Shortly afterwards, Aiba, Nokia, and Arata run into a mysterious creature that attacks them, and although Arata manages to hack open a way out for them, the creature grabs onto Aiba's leg and corrupts their logout process. Aiba emerges in the real world as a half-digitized entity and is rescued by a detective named Kyouko Kuremi, who specializes in cyber crimes and offers to take them into her service as her assistant. Aiba manifests an ability called Connect Jump, which allows them to travel into and through networks.