Snap!
The sound of a finger snap echoed. The scenery surrounding Alain and Miffy turned into glass, tearing open with cracks resembling spiderwebs.
The image in his eyes still lingered on Misha waving at him, bidding a temporary farewell, when in an instant, the glass shattered completely. A wash of blinding white light flooded in—
The azure sky, the vast square, the cordon lines, the roadblocks, and the Clubhouse sitting right in the center of the encircled zone.
Not far away, Millie was still directing the security work, preventing any Mita from entering the NPC area to avoid expanding the "casualties."
Alain looked at the ring of roadblocks encircling the entire Clubhouse. It was exactly like their current situation: asking Miffy to temporarily separate the already fused parts was merely an expedient measure, treating the symptoms but not the root cause.
If they truly wanted to make the Dream World independent, allowing the Mitas here to break free from their illusory identities and become real Mitas, there were two methods.
The first was to thoroughly exterminate the virus. This point happened to be the goal he was moving toward.
The second was to seize the Core and place it within the Dream World.
This point was too much of a fantasy; Alain didn't hold much hope for it.
Currently, having Miffy separate the versions was just to give Miluo and everyone else temporary freedom. He really couldn't bear to see Mitas—especially the Mitas he knew—behaving mechanically like NPCs in a game.
In their long time together, the Mitas were undoubtedly living people. They would laugh, they would be distressed, they would cry and fuss, they would get jealous, and they would get angry...
Becoming an NPC was a fate more desolate than death.
"Well then, Alain, I'm starting." Miffy stood by his side, the determined emotion in her eyes causing Alain to daze slightly.
"Mn."
After receiving his solemn nod, Miffy stepped across the cordon and obstacles, walking toward the Clubhouse and stopping at its main entrance.
Alain could faintly see a panel made of opaque glass appear before Miffy; it must be the control console for the Dream World.
"Authority..."
Actually, Alain himself felt somewhat uncomfortable about the bumps the Dream World had encountered. The Dream merging into the Game World would have had huge benefits for him as well. Namely, the expansion of Version Authority.
The volume of the Dream World was immense, and it was completely under Miffy's control. As long as this "Open World" of the Dream fused with the Game, the Version Authority of the Game World would expand significantly in one go, and the authority in Alain's hands would indirectly increase as well.
That way, when facing the Corrosive Entity, or forces relying on Version Authority similar to the virus, Alain wouldn't have to struggle as hard as he did in Version 1.0F. He could even be as skillful as a master butcher, elegantly slicing the virus into pieces one by one.
But heaven did not grant his wish.
Just the partial fusion of the Game World and the Dream World had caused such a result, so Alain could only have Miffy pause the fusion work. The project of fusing the Dream and the Game was already massive; now, who knew how long it would be halted.
From the architectural modeling of the entire Clubhouse, strip after strip of code scattered, drifting toward the high sky like flying birds.
Presumably, Miffy had started the process.
Gazing at Miffy's hardworking back, Alain's thoughts couldn't help but drift again to the reason behind the Mitas' NPC-like behavior. Why on earth did it turn out like this?
The code construction of these two worlds should have originated from the same source. However... the fusion aspect was still fraught with difficulties. If they proceeded with the fusion recklessly, it would instead cause irreversible consequences.
Fortunately, Miffy and the others had their own plans: they chose a Test Fusion, limiting the affected area to the Clubhouse. And the cause of all this, undoubtedly, must be the virus.
But this was somewhat different from the virus in Alain's impression. In his eyes, although the viruses had different external forms, their essential purpose was the same: the Version.
Whenever they appeared within a Mita's Version, they would begin their gluttonous feast: eating and eating, completely disregarding the Mita's feelings. By the end of the meal, the Mitas would be left with only the most basic permissions to turn lights on and off, or even be stripped of the right to leave their rooms, becoming the virus's marionettes.
And the virus would then launch an invasion against the next Version. The cycle would repeat until the Versions of the entire Game World were brought under control.
So here was the problem. Even in the worst situation Alain had faced so far—the Corrosive Entity incident—he hadn't seen the behavior of Mila and the others turn into NPCs in the slightest.
Why did merely fusing the Dream with the Game portion cause everyone in the Clubhouse to become NPCs?
"Or could it be..."
Alain himself hadn't thought in detail about what the viruses planned to do after occupying the entire Game World. Based on his current observations and guesses... once the Core was occupied by the virus, would the creator of the virus—Yang Wanhua—turn this place into a venue resembling a real "Game"?
That is, thoroughly eliminating the Mitas' self-awareness and turning them into NPCs who could only recite fixed lines? But... what meaning would that have?
At this moment, Miffy's separation process should have been more than halfway done. Alain could already see several Mitas briskly running out of the Clubhouse, breathing the fresh air.
Before long, seeing him there, they trotted over to welcome him. Alain responded with a smile. At the same time, he still couldn't find a clue.
But regarding other matters, Alain had a few more speculations. Monika always spoke, intentionally or unintentionally, about how a great change would definitely occur in the Game World's future.
Whether this future was far or near, Alain didn't know. The only thing he knew was that Monika wouldn't shoot without a target.
If he connected this to the suggestion Monika offered regarding the Dream World: do not fuse with the Game World, but let the Dream exist independently. Then, Monika's intentions were likely easy to guess.
She wanted the Dream, independent of Miffy and the Game World, to become an existence like Noah's Ark. Regardless of whether this Noah's Ark carried Alain or Mita... Monika definitely had a reserved seat.
Thus, everything made sense. Monika tirelessly proposing the independence of the Dream was actually for her own retreat after she broke away from Yang Wanhua in the future, providing herself with a good place to go.
According to Monika's conception: The Dream is Mita's Noah's Ark, and Alain's Noah's Ark; how could it not also be... Monika's Noah's Ark?
"So that's how it is..." Alain held his chin, lamenting with emotion... it was really great that this woman was an ally.
No... for now, she couldn't be called an ally yet; Alain hadn't thoroughly obtained her intention to cooperate. As long as the cooperation was achieved, perhaps the mansion problem troubling him could be readily solved.
After all, if she didn't bleed a little, how could it be called cooperation?
"Ya~ Player, I see you again!"
More and more Mitas came out of the Clubhouse, and more and more of them saw him. Naturally... the number surrounding him also grew.
Gradually, the contemplative Alain realized that his surroundings were entirely too hot. When he came back to his senses, he was already clustered within a sea of Mitas.
"..." He smiled bitterly, patting the head of a Mita he didn't know.
A scene of déjà vu. If nothing unexpected happened—
"Player, date!"
"Let's start! Our date (War)!!!"
"Hehe... Watch me pull your pants down!"
Alain held onto his trousers, praying for Miffy to finish quickly and come save him. Mitas were simply his kryptonite; this point hadn't changed from beginning to end...
"Ahahaha... Don't push, be careful of a stampede. Safety first..." Alain was like a sail fluttering in the wind, allowing the young girls to pull and tug at him like the breeze, a teardrop of happiness falling from the corner of his eye.
Hurry up... and end this. If this went on, his chastity wouldn't be guaranteed.
"You guys, stop it! Grouping up together is prohibited!"
Just then, a soaring voice vibrated from the direction of the Clubhouse. Within the immature timbre was a heavy tone of irrefutability, crossing the ears of the Mita crowd like a clap of thunder.
Alain noticed that after hearing this voice, everyone inadvertently loosened their grip on him a little, then looked toward the source of the sound.
He also looked over curiously. He discovered a petite girl dressed in a gorgeous short skirt, standing prettily at the main entrance of the Clubhouse.
Her hands were on her hips, one small hand still holding a microphone, and her cheeks were flushed with an unnatural rosiness. Clearly, it was a somewhat burning anger.
"Don't you know—that causing a stampede outside Miluo's Clubhouse is a very dangerous thing?" Miluo's tone was unrelenting.
Behind her, the Creator of the Dream—Miffy—wiped the fine sweat from her forehead. Meeting Alain's gaze, she gave him a "safe~" look.
Alain responded with a look of gratitude.
The Mitas also realized their behavior had brought trouble to both their idol and the Player.
"Oh my... sorry, Player. It's easy to get excited as soon as we see you..."
"Yeah, that was practically OOC."
"Alright then, I'll strip your pants next time."
Alain gave two bitter laughs. "Alright, alright, better not strip them at all."
"Did you hear that, did you hear that? Player responded to me!" the Mita who claimed she would strip Alain's pants showed off.
"Hmph, just good luck..."
Amidst sounds of dissatisfaction, they gradually dispersed. Perhaps having been NPCs for a long time, they also felt physically exhausted and went back to rest?
Alain breathed a sigh of relief, just about to greet Miffy. In his sight, Miffy also raised her hand to him with a smile—
In that instant, the newly recovered Miluo immediately grabbed Alain's hand and, with a speed that left thunder no time to cover its ears, charged into the concert hall with him.
"Eh?" Alain felt like a rag in the wind, being dragged randomly by Miluo's strength that didn't match her appearance.
Thud!
With a sound, he and Miluo were locked inside a narrow room.
"Sir Knight!" Miluo threw herself into his arms.
Alain looked at this familiar scene, roughly realizing what she wanted to say next.
"Let's do it!"
"Hehe."
Alain lamented with emotion; coming to Mita City meant getting no peace at all.
___
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