"You see the situation clearly too, right?" Miffy crossed her arms, watching quietly as Alain walked back step by step.
Alain nodded, glancing back at the Mitas immersed in the concert.
The manic electronic bass roared through the entire Clubhouse, causing their cheers to drown within it.
The roar of the music seemed to be granting them joy, but little did they know... this was also a hook binding all the Mitas in the Clubhouse.
The entire Clubhouse...
Alain realized something was wrong. If this situation—resembling NPCs—was like an infectious disease spreading to the entire Mita City...
Then the situation would be catastrophic, practically earth-shattering.
"Has this situation occurred anywhere else besides the Clubhouse?"
"Fortunately, no." Miffy shook her head, addressing Alain's unfounded worries. "I told you before, didn't I? Everyone and I attempted a 'Test Fusion' of a portion of the Dream City with Mita."
She turned her head to gaze at the noise inside the Clubhouse. The spotlights on stage and the fluorescent lights below overlapped layer upon layer, forming a vast, blurry ocean of light.
"And the location for the Test Fusion was only the Clubhouse. This is a small mercy amidst the misfortune."
"That's good then..." Alain breathed a sigh of relief. If this situation weren't an isolated case in the entire Mita City... the workload for later processing would be enormous.
Since the Clubhouse was the only example, Alain wouldn't need to wage a major war if he wanted to deal with it.
He looked back at Miluo, who was singing tirelessly on stage.
This child... even just being a happy-go-lucky idol in a dream, she still gets dragged into this kind of problem...
Alain understood that the Mitas of the dream possessed self-awareness. In other words, they were real Mitas, not merely products fabricated by Miffy.
Alain couldn't bear to see the Mitas behaving like NPCs; they were supposed to be living people.
And to deal with all of this, he still had to start from the source.
Alain mustered his determination to resolve everything and turned back to think.
According to what Miffy said, the cause of all this stemmed from the Test Fusion of Mita and the Dream World.
And the location of the Test Fusion started first with the Clubhouse in the Dream World. As a result, it created the scene before his eyes.
No... just a single Test Fusion; the amount of information was still too little.
Alain asked Miffy, "Apart from this, do you know any other information? For example, difficulties regarding the Test Fusion? Or if any errors occurred?"
The girl nodded. "The code of the Game World and the code of the Dream City look like they were written by the same programmer."
"If we relied solely on this condition, then the fusion aspect should have gone very smoothly. However, a problem still occurred.
It was precisely because of the strange phenomenon here at the Clubhouse that the Test Fusion was forced to terminate after only a small portion had been carried out."
Alain rubbed his chin in thought. This was likely the reason why the scope of influence was limited only to the Clubhouse.
"What about other than that?"
Miffy continued, "Later, when we tried to investigate the cause, we discovered the situation:
The codes of Mita and the Dream seemed harmonious. In reality, for some reason, the Game World was subtly rejecting the Dream, rather than merging with it.
And the resulting situation is as you see." The girl raised her hand toward the clamor inside the Clubhouse.
"They turned into bugs resembling NPCs, tirelessly..."
"I understand." Alain looked around the entire Clubhouse, his gaze sinking into it.
In the end, the problem was still the "Test Fusion," and nothing else.
It was precisely because of the Test Fusion between the Dream and the Game World that the Mitas were caused to behave like NPCs.
But if they wanted the Dream to become a part of Mita, the Test Fusion was a step that had to be taken.
Damn it... they couldn't just stop here, could they?
His gaze turned to the main entrance. Through the sunlight outside the heavy doors, he could see the police officer Mitas performing their duties in the square.
Among them, Millie noticed his gaze and raised her small hand to wave a greeting.
Her high spirits made Alain unable to resist smiling slightly, while at the same time... a sudden pang of pain gripped his heart.
The Mitas in the dream were all very kind. They were like living people in reality, vibrant lives.
And everyone like this was merely confined to the dream, rather than the true Game World...
Naturally, Alain didn't want to give up either, so he asked Miffy,
"If we wanted to troubleshoot the cause, roughly how much workload would be required?"
"Hmm..." Miffy pondered for a while and said,
"At least a month. Since it is known that the Dream World absolutely has no problems, we need to troubleshoot the code of the Game World line by line until we find the cause of the Mitas' NPC-ification."
One month...
To be honest, there wasn't enough time. After all, for Alain, the Dream City was primarily a spiritual sustenance and a back garden.
Why not just leave it like this for now?
But leaving this matter here... Alain felt as if there was a breath stuck in his chest that couldn't come out, suffocating him.
Miffy also realized Alain's hesitation and smiled lightly.
"Alright now, let's go back to the City Hall to rest for a bit first, shall we?"
"...Mn." Alain did not deny her.
Standing here blindly wouldn't help find a solution to the problem.
It would be better to find a quiet place and discuss it at length. At the very least, he could talk to Misha and brainstorm together.
Snap!
The sound of a finger snap shattered the space.
When Alain opened his eyes, he found he had already arrived at the office in the City Hall.
"You guys are back?" Misha hadn't gone with them just now; instead, she had been waiting here obediently.
Miffy, who had only walked a few steps, sighed wearily.
"Sigh... I'm exhausted."
As she spoke, her gaze squeezed onto the contemplative Alain.
He seemed to still be thinking about the Clubhouse...
A Player focused on his work feels pretty nice too.
Miffy thought this, tightening her super-short shorts as a slight blush surfaced on her face.
Ever since that time with Alain, they hadn't had any intimate contact.
Let alone negative distance, they hadn't even had zero distance.
Miffy could feel that she... wanted it a little.
She took a deep breath, patted her cheeks, and was just about to walk toward Alain—
"Darling, come have some pastries?" Her mid-stride pace was interrupted once again by Misha.
The corner of her mouth twitched. This time she couldn't quite tolerate it and slandered secretly in her heart,
"She is clearly a mother-like character, yet how can she keep snatching the man away from 'Mom'?"
"???" The Miss Mayor turned her head in confusion, discovering Miffy staring straight at her.
The long-haired girl did not show weakness.
"If You are 'Mom', then shouldn't you support your daughter's romance? After all..."
She hugged Alain's arm.
"He is your daughter's boyfriend."
Alain smelled the scent of a Shuraba.
And the source of this Shuraba aura was precisely Misha, who was hugging his arm, and Miffy, who was radiating an unkind gaze from not far away.
___
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