Alain leaned against the wardrobe door, listening intently. Confirming there was no sign of Misha for the moment, he took out the piece he had acquired earlier in Sleepy Mita's room.
Placing the piece from Misha's office and his own piece on the wooden table, Alain carefully compared them.
The broken edges of the two pieces fit together perfectly.
"It seems these are pieces of a picture."
After putting the two pieces together, Alain simply found some glue and stuck them together.
The broken picture, now partially assembled, revealed half of a young girl's face. The rest was all blank space.
From just half a face, there wasn't much to go on. But Alain could clearly make out a hint of indigo blue in one corner of the picture fragment.
Based on his deduction, the subject of the drawing was likely a Mita.
A dark silhouette couldn't help but appear in Alain's mind. Not the Mita in the suit, but the Ghostly Mita he had met after leaving Version 1.15.
He had, after all, promised Ghostly Mita that he would help her find her "character texture".
So, could it be...
Alain's gaze fell on the two joined pieces. Combined, they made up less than 40% of the whole picture.
When all the pieces were assembled, could the complete picture be Ghostly Mita's character texture?
"This explanation feels a bit forced."
However, the reason for the pieces appearing here was even more far-fetched.
He recalled Ghostly Mita's own room, which had fallen into some kind of upside-down state under the influence of the dream.
The dream, the dream... it had to be an extension of Sleepy Mita herself.
But Version 1.1 showed no signs of any abnormality...
" "
...
Wait a minute.
Sleepy Mita's state allowed her to freely manipulate dreams, with authority so great it could even affect reality.
Alain and the others in reality had initially guessed it was the influence of the virus—the Consciousness Entity.
If it really was the virus, then Sleepy Mita had already been possessed by it. What was unclear was whether she was a willing host or not.
And the virus's goal... as an old adversary, Alain knew it well: seize version authority.
That meant Version 1.15, Alain's base of operations. No... it wasn't just a base; it was the birthplace of the Mitas.
And the Mitas themselves were the owners of their version's authority.
If the Consciousness Entity really had possessed Sleepy Mita, then... it would have seized ownership of the version in the instant of possession.
It wouldn't even need to corrupt it. It would make the Mita—the virus.
And the worst-case scenario... was that Sleepy Mita willingly allowed the virus to possess her. That would be tantamount to placing Alain and Sleepy Mita on opposing sides.
Making a Mita his enemy...
"Tch."
Then, the anomaly in Ghostly Mita's version made sense.
After the Consciousness Entity gained complete ownership of Version 1.1, it began to further corrupt the other versions.
And the first to be affected was Ghostly Mita's room. This would also explain the reason for the anomaly there.
But before Ghostly Mita's version...
He still needed to get three more pieces to assemble the complete picture of Ghostly Mita's character texture.
In other words: there were five pieces in total. He now had two, and was still missing three.
"This is a heavy task."
But he still had no leads on the puzzle pieces or Sleepy Mita's location.
The only information he had was that "the Mitas all longed for a player."
"I should get out of here first."
Alain put the puzzle away and took the opportunity to check his Safety Guard panel.
"?"
The progress bar, which was originally at 50%, had now jumped directly to 65%.
Thinking about it, this was a dream created by the Consciousness Entity, and the Misha in this dream was also a product of the virus.
So, the fact that the progress bar went up after he "bullied" Misha earlier now made sense.
Alain walked to the door and opened it a crack. There was no one outside. He finally let out a sigh of relief.
Alain set a temporary goal: first, he would try to find Millie and Miluo, who were scattered somewhere in Mita City, check on their condition, and at the same time, try to get some information about Sleepy Mita from them.
Following the map on the wall and avoiding a few Mita employees, Alain successfully reached the entrance of City Hall.
Thankfully, there were no hitches along the way.
Alain sighed in relief and looked at the iron gate outside. It was deserted. Safe!
But just then, the sound of helicopter propellers came from behind him.
He turned to see that the helicopter that had picked him up earlier was now flying over the city center.
The rumbling sound gradually faded away, disappearing among the city's skyscrapers.
"What... what's going on?"
Alain thought the helicopter was there to catch him, but it just ignored him. What a stroke of luck...
"Attention all citizens, a player has appeared in Mita City..."
"...?" The sound of the broadcast echoed from afar, so much so that even Alain, standing at the entrance to City Hall, could hear it.
"As a 'criminal suspect,' we hope to mobilize all Mitas to find him..."
"What about my opinion?"
Alain thought he had misheard. Just a moment ago, he had almost become Miss Misha's personal plaything, and now he was a wanted criminal?
"This is the player's current location."
Current location?
Then Alain saw the content playing on a billboard outside City Hall suddenly change.
It changed to a top-down view, showing an image of a young man skulking around.
"..."
Alain guessed what was happening and looked up.
There was a security camera aimed directly at him.
"Crap..."
The corner of his mouth twitched as he turned his gaze back to the windowsill of Misha's office.
Sure enough, a long-haired girl was there, rapidly shaking and nodding her head at him, looking full of guilt.
Then, he felt a tremor under his feet, like a small earthquake.
"..."
He first looked behind him. From the direction of the City Hall building, a Mita in a suit was running toward him.
"Ahh! Player!"
"Get him!"
"Before we hand him over to the Mayor, let's get our fill of dates!"
Dozens of Mitas were running toward him. In the past, this would have been a blissful event...
"Gotta run..."
Ignoring the terror in his heart and the weakness in his legs, he vaulted over the gate, intending to run toward the city.
But he saw clouds of dust being kicked up on the main road.
"Look, we found him!"
"The intel was right!"
The first few Mitas in the group pointed at him.
A quick glance revealed their numbers were over a hundred...
______
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