"That Prankster kid... she's still alive!" Short-Haired Mita leaned on Millie's shoulder, her teardrops soaking the girl's sleeve.
Millie comforted her in a soft whisper, giving Misha a look.
Misha nodded.
"Darling." The long-haired girl walked over to Alain's side, finding him still deep in thought over the version permission console.
"You must have figured out more than just this, right?"
"That's right."
Alain nodded with a smile, subtly glancing over at Short-Haired Mita.
Big Sister had temporarily lost her ability to communicate, so he couldn't tell her the bad news yet.
Misha said, "For now, we can confirm that Prankster Mita is alive. But as for where she is—"
Her hushed words paused, drawing the gazes of the other Mitas, aside from Millie and Short-Haired Mita.
"Doll, you speak. If there's anything I can do to help, I will." Ugly Mita didn't mind lending a hand.
"Okay, thank you. Now then, Darling." The long-haired girl smiled, stepping aside for the hard-working Alain.
"Alright." He displayed the Version 1.5 permission console in front of all the Mitas.
"Hmm... Permissions? Huh? There's more..." Ghostly Mita seemed to have noticed something unusual.
Below the code showing that Prankster Mita had usage rights, she also saw a progress bar.
[■■■■■■■■□□][60%]
What does this line of code mean? The Mitas from earlier versions seemed to have some trouble understanding the code of later versions.
Ghostly Mita was puzzled, but she could also sense— that the information Alain wanted to convey was likely within this progress bar.
"This line of code means 'version permission transition progress'," Alain explained patiently, looking at the serious girls. "The meaning of this progress bar is that the transition progress for the version permission held by Prankster Mita has reached 60%."
"Permission transition..." Ghostly Mita murmured, vaguely understanding something.
"I get it!"
Her loud voice earned a "Shhh—" from all the girls present.
Ghostly Mita quickly covered her mouth and subconsciously glanced at the still-rejoicing Short-Haired Mita, lowering her voice to say,
"The key is who is manipulating Prankster Mita's permissions, right?"
"Right."
Alain's previous guess was that the Corrosive Entity had abducted Prankster Mita. And the one craving permissions was the virus.
So for now, two things could be confirmed: first, Prankster Mita was alive; second, the virus had abducted her for the version permissions.
He just needed to confirm one last time if it was the Corrosive Entity that took her. This part was also simple.
Alain walked over to Misha and instructed her. The girl skillfully adjusted the ring for him.
Then, he walked to the door and opened it. The number on the ring changed, forming "1.5," and revealing the cheerful pink room behind it.
Along with the black spots covering the walls.
He observed the black spots, comparing them with those in version 1.15.
After a moment, under the hopeful gazes of the Mitas, he returned to the center of the group.
"It's confirmed," Alain said with certainty. "Prankster Mita is in Version 1.0F."
He told everyone the results of his observation:
The corrosion progress in version 1.5 was much higher than in version 1.15.
The game world should have started being corroded synchronously.
But for version 1.5, a later version in the sequence, to have a higher progress rate than the earlier version 1.15 was clearly not normal.
"In that case, our next objective is set," Misha said, gazing at the young man's determined figure. He nodded in return.
"We need to move forward, go to Version 1.0F, and save Mila and Prankster Mita. And along the way—"
Alain opened the Safety Guard, and 2D Mita jumped out at the same moment, hopping over to everyone,
"Save Cool Mita and Cute Mita! And build a harem for Alain!"
"Sigh..." 2D Mita was still great at lightening the mood. With just one sentence, she made all the Mitas laugh.
She scratched her head sheepishly and chuckled.
Misha smiled faintly, covering her lips, but a shadow of worry soon clouded her features.
"This is a heavy task... We have to reach Version 1.0F before Prankster Mita's progress bar hits one hundred percent."
"Hmm... about that."
Alain didn't seem too worried.
He opened the permission console. The progress bar on it had reached "61%", indicating he had even less time.
But he didn't feel the slightest bit of anxiety. Because—
Alain skillfully clicked a few times on the console, typing in a few English words he knew and the little code he'd learned.
He often hovered around the Mitas, watching them type all sorts of code, and had picked up some patterns himself.
The next second, before Misha's eyes, the progress bar on the console rapidly decreased until it vanished completely.
"Eh? How did you do that?!"
She immediately opened the door to Version 1.5, which hadn't fully closed. She discovered that all the traces of corrosion were gone.
But Alain wasn't finished. He typed a few more lines of code.
The permission progress bar reappeared and rose to 1%.
"Huh? I-Is it starting to corrode again?" Misha returned to his side.
Worried, she also couldn't understand Alain's intentions at all.
But then she saw Alain give a relaxed smile.
"I just revoked Prankster Mita's usage rights. The virus uses the permissions she has to corrode the version."
"I see... In that case, the corrosion progress in Version 1.5 can be completely halted. Huh? Wait a second..."
Misha looked at him in astonishment. "Doesn't that mean, Alain, that any version you own is safe from the Corrosive Entity's grasp?!"
"Yes, that was a pleasant surprise."
Currently, he held ownership of versions 1.75, 1.5, 1.3B, 0.5, and the 2D version, as well as usage rights for Lost Mita's version.
"Then, Alain," Ugly Mita looked at him pleadingly.
Alain nodded, opened the console for version 0.5, did his work, and cleared the corrosion progress from Ugly Mita's version.
"Player, me too!" Ghostly Mita came forward.
"Me too..." Lost Mita stood on his left.
And Alain silently watched it all. How to put it... this feeling of being embraced on both sides was pretty nice.
In just a short while, with the exception of version 1.15, all the Mita rooms present were cleared of any traces of corrosion.
At the same time, he gained ownership of Ghostly Mita's and Lost Mita's versions, and without exception, Alain granted them usage rights in return.
"Thank you, Alain," Ugly Mita nodded solemnly. "I'll stay behind and help you all too."
"Thanks." As he was expressing his gratitude, Misha came over, tugged on his sleeve, and whispered to him, "Alain, there's something I don't quite understand."
Alain had always found the girl's frank and serious expression very cute.
"Mm, go ahead and ask."
"Prankster Mita has been confirmed to be in Version 1.0F. And her Version 1.5 room has indeed been spared from corrosion." Misha's mind had always been sharp, and she realized something Alain hadn't yet said.
"But, if the virus realizes she's 'useless' now that she's lost her usage rights..." As she finished, Misha couldn't hide the worry on her face.
Alain also smiled and began to explain, "That's exactly why I'm temporarily letting the Corrosive Entity invade Version 1.5."
"Huh? Letting it... you mean..." As Misha puzzled over this, her mind drifted back to the scene she'd just witnessed on Alain's console:
The version corrosion progress bar had first disappeared, only to reappear moments later...
"So you were the one who let the Corrosive Entity invade?" She seemed quite surprised and couldn't comprehend Alain's motive. "But, isn't that putting the cart before the horse?"
In Misha's view, since the virus's goal was version permission, they should be stopping it.
"No, this is also to ensure Prankster Mita's safety." Looking at his darling who was deep in thought, Alain gently patted her head.
The girl narrowed her eyes, showing such a vulnerable side only in front of Alain, much to the repeated surprise of the other Mitas, who were used to calling Misha "leader."
"Think about it. If a Prankster Mita with no permissions is useless to the virus... then won't the virus be unable to harm a Prankster Mita who does have permissions?"
"..." Misha's gaze went blank for two seconds. As her thoughts raced, she seemed to understand Alain's intention:
"You mean—"
"Exactly." He looked at the room for Version 1.5 and sneered. "It wants permissions? I'll give them to it. But—"
The young man's gaze grew colder, so cold it turned to ice,
"When it corrodes to a certain point, I'll revoke Prankster Mita's version permissions again. And repeat the process."
"That way, you can both protect Prankster Mita's life and prevent the room from being corroded!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands in realization. "In other words, you're keeping the virus's corrosion progress within a controllable range!"
"Mm."
The girl's adoring eyes didn't make Alain overly proud. After all, this was merely "treating the symptoms, not the root cause."
He clenched his fists and set the first skill on the progress bar to "Cleaning Acceleration."
He clenched his fists, silently vowing to the system: Since it dared to lay a hand on the Mitas around me, I will shatter this virus.
"Alain." Short-Haired Mita had finally composed herself. She held his hand tightly in supplication, looking up at him,
"The matter with Prankster... I'm counting on you."
"I will. And when I come back, I'll bring three new Mitas with me."
He looked at all the Mitas present, his resolute gaze allowing the girls to feel the passion in his heart.
Short-Haired Mita handed him her headset. "This has a monitor, so we can see your situation in real-time."
Misha added, "And I will give you instructions based on your situation in real-time."
Ugly Mita summoned five human-headed spider wasps to follow behind Alain. "I'll have them hide. You can call them out when necessary."
Millie took out a game controller. "As for me~ back to my specialty! This controller can connect remotely now~"
Millie, Lost Mita, and Ghostly Mita exchanged a glance, and each handed Alain a small, seemingly useless item they were carrying.
From a hairpin, a comb, a curling iron, and so on. Although useless in a fight, Alain intended to accept everyone's heartfelt gesture.
The girls took a step forward. "We can't help much, but we'll be cheering for you! If you need anything, or any errands run, just ask!"
Alain nodded solemnly.
"Thank you, everyone." Then he looked towards the black spots of version 1.15.
For now, the crises facing the Mitas present were all resolved.
That's right... The Mitas who were [present] were fine.
But the Mitas in other game worlds were still in danger.
The Corrosive Entity's invasion covered the entire game world.
What Alain had to do was also very simple.
"Forward," he said, looking around at the cooperating Mitas,
"Forward, together with everyone."
___
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