 They meet Akemi Suedou, who identifies the creature behind the Digital Shift as an Eater, a mass of corrupted data that consumes users' mental data while they are logged onto EDEN, meaning that they are also responsible for EDEN Syndrome and Aiba's current half-digital state.Further encounters with Eaters signify that it has links to a "white boy ghost" that keeps appearing around it, and that by "eating" data it can evolve into different forms.Arata is discouraged after he witnesses many acquaintances become victims of EDEN Syndrome, but learns the truth about Aiba's condition and resolves to do whatever he can to save them.