A sense of weightlessness enveloped him, his vision submerged in a sea of pure white light. It was a world of white, with only the soft, delicate touch of Misha's hand in his left feeling real.
The white light gradually dissipated from top to bottom, like pouring water. The soft pink decor, the slowly drifting pure white particles, and the rapid patter of footsteps that followed one after another all indicated they had returned to Mita's world.
The last time he and Milly had left the game world was in Lost Mita's room. As expected, they had arrived back at the same place.
When the white light had faded halfway, Alain saw the half-open bedroom door. Two small heads were poking out, watching him and Misha with bright eyes.
The girl beside him squeezed his hand. "My dear, is that the little Lei you like so much?"
As usual, Alain took the blame for being interested in "Little Lei."
"Alain!" Upon hearing his voice, the adorable girl rushed out of the room, running towards him excitedly.
Lost Mita also strolled out leisurely, waving gently at the two of them.
"Alain, Misha. It's been a long time!"
"Yes, it's been a long time," they said in unison.
It wasn't until this moment that Alain realized just how rare and precious this happy scene before his eyes was.
It was proof that everything he had been doing all along was right.
The Mitas were safe, and he had pulled them out from a sea of suffering.
And in the future, he would continue to do so.
As these thoughts crossed his mind, the white light had mostly faded, and he could now reach out to Mi Luo. He slowly raised his hand, wanting to scoop the girl into his arms and give her a familiar, intimate lift, just as he always did.
But the instant his large hand was about to touch her small one, Alain's vision glitched violently.
Garbled code, static, meaningless characters, and blocks of color instantly scrambled everything in his sight.
In the last moment before his vision failed, he could clearly see Mi Luo's smile, frozen on her face but shattered into irregular, floating blocks, and Lost Mita, her entire body covered in static, slowly approaching.
The bright, soft pink room flickered on and off as if it had short-circuited, the crackle of electricity occasionally breaking the silence.
Fortunately, the gentle voice beside him, though filled with shock and panic, was still there.
"...I'm here. Don't worry," Alain said reassuringly, tightening his grip on her hand.
Although he didn't know what was happening, he knew he absolutely could not panic. Alain forced himself to calm down quickly and observe his surroundings.
The room gradually broke apart into puzzle-like squares. They flipped over, and the bright light was gone.
The decor was still the same soft pink, but the brightness had plunged to the dimness of night. The room was littered with purplish-red squares, models exposed by missing textures. Although the wallpaper was still pink, Alain could clearly see an interweaving of dark magenta and deep gray. The fanlight on the ceiling emitted a malfunctioning, strobe-like light, and on the walls, commands like "DELETE" were sloppily scrawled in code symbols.
[Error!]
The Safety Guard was as useless as ever. Other than this pop-up, there was no other response.
[You have been moved.]
Even more useless. At this point, Alain held no illusions. He had to rely on himself. He quickly opened the Safety Guard panel, selected the Cloud Storage, and began downloading the chainsaw. While it wasn't as good as a greatsword, it was at least some guarantee of survival. The 5kb/s speed, however, was still abysmal; it would probably take another ten minutes.
As the light from the teleportation completely vanished, the ring on his finger suddenly vibrated.
Alain raised his hand to look. The version number on it had changed...
[0.5]
"My... my dear..." Misha also understood what this meant.
Version 0.5. It was Ugly Mita's version. From the looks of it, Alain and Misha had been teleporting from the real world into Lost Mita's room. Judging by how much the teleportation light had faded, they had been at least 75% of the way through, with maybe five seconds left to completion.
That's when the anomaly occurred.
It was highly likely that Ugly Mita had hijacked them while they were still in a state of transit, diverting them to her room instead.
Alain looked around. The world of version 0.5 was still covered in missing purple and black texture squares, and the gloomy lighting was unfittingly creepy for a romance game. They were in the living room, but Ugly Mita didn't seem to be around.
A good opportunity... If that powerful and confirmed hostile Mita were present, they would be in mortal danger.
At this point... the best plan was to get out of here first. Everything else could wait.
"My dear, let's see if we can leave first."
"M-mm."
One after the other, they arrived at the front door in the entryway.
Alain looked at the ring on his finger and placed his hand on the door. With a creak, he successfully pulled it open.
He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to push the door open to leave when Misha pulled on the corner of his shirt.
"Wait, my dear. Something's strange!"
Alain looked closely and only then did he notice that what seeped through the crack of the door was a murky darkness.
"What's going on?"
He pushed the door fully open. Sure enough, a bottomless darkness, like a deep ocean, filled the entire doorframe. And the door that should have been in his hand seemed to have lost its gravity, like a small boat being gradually submerged by the sea, drifting further and further away from him before disappearing into the endless dark.
"The ring... it's not working?"
In disbelief, a moment passed, and as if nothing had happened, the door reappeared in its frame.
"Misha, can you adjust the ring? Maybe there's something wrong with it."
"Okay." With her agreement, Alain also tried to take off the ring to inspect it carefully.
But when he touched his left hand, his middle finger was completely bare. There was nothing there.
That shouldn't be right. Ever since Misha had put the ring on him in the basement, he had never taken it off. What's more... he had just checked it a few seconds ago.
He looked down. The ring was gone.
Alain felt a headache coming on. The ring, which was even more reliable than the Safety Guard, was gone...
"My dear." Misha's voice was especially reassuring.
"Yeah, go on."
"At this point, we can't get stuck on this door anymore." She looked around. "Ugly Mita's authority is very high, higher than the ring's. So, the door won't help us."
"Understood. So what we can do now is explore our surroundings first?"
"Yes."
Alain took one last look at the door. At the bottom of the frame was a faint, dark stain.
Then, the two of them turned their gazes to the bedroom door, looked at each other, and nodded.
They walked slowly, trying not to make a sound.
Alain gestured for Misha to stay behind him, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
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