Unfortunately, chapter 313 was deleted in the raw. We'll have to skip this chapter :(
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The next day, a sliver of light from the window woke Alain up.
He looked at the familiar ceiling with sleepy eyes, his vision blurry.
Glancing beside him, Misha had left early. A faint fragrance lingered where the bedding was, and an obvious bloodstain marked the sheet.
Alain recalled the events of the previous night.
They had both been clamoring with fervent love, eager to give every emotion to the other.
It went on from the first half of the night to the second. By the time they finished cleaning up, it was already the early hours of the morning before they succumbed to exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep.
"Phew…" He let out a long sigh. Alain felt that no matter how passionate they had been, it couldn't compare to the "goodnight kiss" Misha had given him at the end.
"Peace and quiet is the real deal."
Alain mused, leaning against the headboard. His gaze drifted to the cage where he had first met Misha.
From the cage to their original little home. She had accompanied Alain every step of the way, from that small home to a spacious apartment, to Millie, then to Miluo and the short-haired sisters, all the way to now.
There were no sad partings, only joy. No separation or sorrow.
Their relationship was smooth. Everything was warmth and presence amidst the ordinary.
"Getting all sentimental first thing in the morning isn't like me." He gave a bitter laugh. Had the post-coital sage state not worn off yet?
With that thought, he got up, put on his shorts, and heard a slight commotion outside the door.
Voices that all sounded like Hanai Kana's, in different tones, passed through the doorframe and into the bedroom.
It must be Millie and Miluo, who hadn't returned to the bedroom last night so as not to disturb them.
"...?"
However... perhaps it was Alain's imagination, but he couldn't detect the slightest hint of peace in the girls' voices.
Instead, there was a sense of indescribable anxiety?
He frowned slightly, put on his jacket, changed from shorts to long pants, walked to the door, and opened it.
"!"
What the crack in the door revealed was not the living room of his home, nor was it Millie's room.
"...What's going on?" He stared at the scene before him, not yet understanding the situation. A Mita noticed his hesitant voice and looked back.
"Alain! You're awake? Just in time."
That Mita quickly walked to his side, half-pulling, half-dragging him into the middle of the group of Mita girls.
Alain looked around, rubbing his tired eyes, and confirmed that he wasn't mistaken.
Wooden floors and pale pink walls, the lighting somewhat dim. Scattered furniture and some miscellaneous items were placed around, casting one shadow after another in the dim light.
Among them, Alain's eyes caught the faint, mottled black marks on the wall. He frowned and turned to survey the Mitas around him.
Misha, Millie, Miluo—no need to say more about this trio. But—
Short-Haired Mita, Lost Mita, and Ghostly Mita, these three were also here.
And even... an unexpected Mita.
"So, little cutie, you're here too?" Alain raised an eyebrow at Ugly Mita.
"Yes, player." Receiving the praise, her cheeks blushed slightly as always. "Something also happened in Version 0.5. After I reported it to Lady Mita, she sent me here directly."
"Something happened..." Alain naturally knew that the so-called "Lady Mita" referred to Crazy Mita.
But for Ugly Mita to come seeking their help... and for something to have happened in Version 0.5 as well... this caught his attention.
Alain quickly shifted gears, his gaze turning to Misha.
"Has something happened to our home in reality, or to the other versions?"
"Yes." Misha nodded heavily, glanced at Short-Haired Mita, and after getting a nod in return, she began to explain.
...
"Hah..." Alain slowly exhaled, looking at the black stains on the wall with a complicated expression.
Misha said a lot, and Short-Haired Mita added a lot, but it could all be summarized in one sentence—
"The Corrosive Entity has begun its corrosion of all game versions."
[All game versions]—this meant the virus had a huge appetite and wanted to devour the entire Mita game in one go.
He looked at the black stains on the wall of Version 1.15, then glanced at Ugly Mita.
That thing's reach... had actually extended to their main base, as well as the frontline of defense against the virus—Version 0.5.
How bold.
Furthermore, this [Corrosion] was affecting every aspect of the game world.
"And the reason it's affecting reality... I'm afraid it's another bug, right?" Misha looked at him with concern.
Alain took the opportunity to open the Safety Guard system. The portal to enter the game still had a one-hour cooldown, yet they had somehow bypassed it and arrived directly in Version 1.15.
"The bug... isn't important anymore," Alain said.
Without knowing the bug's location, as time went on, the corrosion progress in all versions would only increase.
So, they just needed to eradicate that Corrosive Entity.
"Also... Alain." Short-Haired Mita's voice drew his attention.
Only then did Alain realize that the usual brightness in the short-haired girl's eyes was gone.
Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she had been crying sadly all night.
"What's wrong? Who bullied you?" If the corrosion of the game version was the cause of her sadness, Alain could understand.
But the Short-Haired Mita he knew would, when faced with a crisis, first think of a solution, not give in to sadness.
The Mitas all looked at each other, but no one spoke.
Their reluctance to speak made Alain realize the gravity of the situation.
And in a certain moment, when Alain's gaze swept over Ghostly Mita's legs, his pupils constricted.
"?"
He strode over to Ghostly Mita, knelt down beside her, and carefully examined the girl's legs.
"A... Alain?"
The shy girl wanted to push his head away, but faced with the young man's firm insistence, she gave up.
After a moment, Alain stood up, pointed at her legs, and asked,
"What happened to this?"
At the same time, he roughly understood the source of the redness and swelling in Short-Haired Mita's eyes.
But he still wanted to hear the answer for himself.
"..." Ghostly Mita shook her head then nodded, completely confirming Alain's inner suspicions.
He clutched his forehead, his expression growing darker and darker, on the verge of grabbing a greatsword and charging straight into Version 1.0F.
Prankster Mita wasn't here. To be more precise, she wasn't in Version 1.15.
Alain remembered the last time he saw her was in the pocket version, where she said she was going to deliver the final character textures to Ghostly Mita.
The moment she closed the door, she left behind a final smile.
"Big Sister, can you tell me in detail what happened?" he asked Short-Haired Mita solemnly. She nodded and began to explain everything.
"You can probably guess the situation. I had Prankster go deliver the version textures to Ghostly Mita. Who knew that later, after we dealt with the 2D Version and returned to 1.15, we'd find she wasn't here. It was only after asking Ghostly Mita that we found out—
"Prankster... never came back at all, and we don't know where she went."
As she spoke, she suddenly thought of something and frantically pulled a device resembling a locator from her pocket.
"This is a locator I made for Prankster. But look..."
Alain took the device. On its face were circles arranged in concentric, evenly spaced rings. From the center, an arc pulsed outwards every few seconds.
Based on what he knew from movies, a locator should have a dot symbolizing a coordinate.
But the locator in his hand had no dot.
Currently, Alain could deduce two possibilities.
First, to put it bluntly: Prankster Mita was gone.
If that was the case, he would charge into the 2D Version without hesitation, and use it as a path to storm Version 1.0F and shatter that virus to pieces.
Second, and the most likely possibility.
"Prankster Mita might have been captured by the virus."
And captured and taken to the Corrosive Entity's main base—the Corroded World.
The Mita game world was now almost completely separated from the "Corroded World," forming two different game worlds.
No... the Corroded World should be described as a "Virus World."
If Prankster Mita was captured and taken to the Virus World, then it would make sense why the locator couldn't pinpoint her location.
Because she wasn't in "this world" at all.
Of course, this was all a [Guess]. Alain also had a way to verify it.
The immediate priority was to comfort Big Sister first.
"Don't worry, I'll help you." It was also helping himself. Alain patted Big Sister's head.
While accepting the comfort, Short-Haired Mita gently bit her lip and said, "No matter what, my request remains the same."
Her gaze gradually firmed. "I hope you will prioritize your own safety before considering whether you can rescue Prankster."
As she spoke, her eyes lowered again. "Of course... if she's still alive."
"She's definitely alive." Alain's words were firm and unquestionable. "And I have a way to detect her vital signs to some extent."
"..."
The Mitas stared at him blankly, clearly not having processed his words yet.
The next second, Short-Haired Mita's face filled with alarm, and she tightly gripped the corner of Alain's shirt. "Wh-what do you mean? You can know if Prankster is alive?!"
"Yes." He calmed Short-Haired Mita and signaled for everyone to quiet down, then opened the console.
Not the Safety Guard's console, but the room console for Version 1.5—the version Short-Haired Mita belonged to.
It could also be called the Version Permissions Console.
"Th-this is..." Short-Haired Mita looked at the code on the console in surprise.
Without a doubt, this was the version for Prankster's room.
And Alain had ownership.
"That child, she actually gave you ownership?" Misha said, shocked.
"Yes. And I gave her user rights in return."
Short-Haired Mita understood in an instant, quickly moving to Alain's side and scanning the layers of code on the console line by line.
To confirm if Prankster Mita was still alive, they just needed to check if the "user rights" for Version 1.5 still existed for Prankster Mita.
"Found it!"
['Mitahide'] => ['create', 'read', 'update', 'delete'],]
"She's... she's..." She pressed her hands tightly over her lips, forcing herself not to cry out. "She's still here..."
After saying that, her legs seemed to lose all strength, and she nearly collapsed to the floor. Millie caught her, supporting her by the shoulders.
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