Troyes, France.
Indeed, the buildings that exude a dieval aroma and the symbolic statues made understand why tourists from abroad take so many photos.
I stopped leaving footprints on the internet back in elentary school, but maybe I should start again with this opportunity?
Thinking that, I walked lightly on the spacious streets, wider than those in the heart of Korea.
There are many beautiful cafes among the antiquated buildings here and there, and especially, promotional boards with pictures of sweet-looking foods catch the eye.
A slightly worn classic music concert flyer was rolling on the ground, so I picked it up and put it in my pocket mirror.
"Sohow, I feel excited... I didn't co here to leisurely play around, but the mood isn't bad."
I took a deep breath and enjoyed the unfamiliar air.
"It would have been even better if the air carried the sll of freshly baked bread... Instead of this damp forest scent."
I wanted to leisurely drink coffee with lots of sugar while eating bread in France, but unfortunately, there were no open shops here.
Because the place was overgrown with trees that pierced through the buildings like thorns.
So lush that the sun and moon were completely obscured, making it hard to tell whether it was night or day.
The power to turn this area into a forest.
It must have been the work of the devil Little Red Riding Hood's.
She had done similar things in the past, creating tens of thousands of wolves, causing ongoing trouble for the Institution.
For so reason, she doesn't try to escape from here or build aggressive forces, so the Institution seems to be holding off on missile strikes (Patience Difficulty Lv99).
Just leaving her be would lead to an insane increase in wolves, so she remains an extrely dangerous being.
"Sohow, I think the Tale Devils might be more troubleso than the Rulers..."
Haa.
I sighed and took out a hand mirror.
Like the Queen from Snow White, I stroked the mirror and summoned a being.
"Now, it's been a while. You must feel good seeing the outside, right?"
"Let out!!! Older sister! What did I do wrong?! I just liked broadcasting!"
Dear readers of the gray matter in my brain. Do you rember this 2D graphic woman?
She was one of the anomalous monsters, the VTuber monster Lost.
I had half-forgotten about her, but I summoned her now because I rembered there was information I could get from her.
"Shut up. Be grateful I'm letting you out even for a mont since you haven't committed any major cris."
I responded cynically to Lost.
There's no particular reason. I just tend to treat non-subordinate fear-inducing beings like this.
"Let's get straight to the point... You said you could play gas that have been deleted or disappeared, right?"
Lost had the power to play gas that were discontinued and left unfinished.
Or gas that were permanently deleted and could no longer be seen.
Her broadcasts of these gas as content are still up on YouTube.
Although most of the subscribers are from the Institution, and ordinary people can't access the account.
"Yes... That's true. But the gas made by the producer M.P. that you... No, Miss Alice ntioned, are unplayable, right?"
"But you can still extract the files, can't you?"
Lost, hearing my words, muttered, "These gas are a bit creepy..." but reluctantly started showing the extracted files.
The first one was, of course, the ga I had twisted, destroyed, and escaped from.
It's not like I hadn't extracted the files when I played this ga before.
But this ti, I thought there might be sothing special.
The extracted files contained the backgrounds and character images saved in JPG format.
From Ha-rim and her friends, to the backgrounds, bosses, and anomalies, to Jas and Sister Maria.
And.
...I didn't expect Alice's image to be saved as well.
This was unexpected.
When I extracted the ga files before, such images didn't exist.
This makes it seem like it was destined for to beco like this.
What the hell is real?
Is this place reality or still inside a ga? It still leaves ambiguous.
Senior's grave was still there as I rembered.
Then the reality I was in must be here, but the existence of anomalies and anomalous monsters remains unexplained.
Am I still dreaming?
Is it really true that the things I believed to be real have ended up as a ga, and I have to watch the most absurd ending credits in the world?
Calming my confused mind, I continued to extract the files.
But there was nothing to be found.
"...The results are minimal, but there's so information. Let's move on."
The next ga Lost showed was a war ga.
The ga Peter Pan entered, twisted the content, and escaped.
Indeed, it was just a ga, but it was filled with brutal image files that fully captured the horrors of war, not shying away from being a horror ga. Ｒ𝐚NǑBÈs
It's impressive that he survived here.
It makes you understand why Peter Pan was obsessed with a safe fence.
First of all, I also ssed with the image files.
There were images of various characters, but without playing the ga, I couldn't know who they were or what impact they had on Peter Pan.
A character nad Wendy caught my attention, but without knowing anything, it's aningless.
...Unlike , there's no image file of Peter Pan.
Why?
With that question in mind, I slowly extracted the files and looked through the next gas one by one.
Jack's plant-growing ga, Ariel's rhythm ga, Pinocchio's crafting ga.
Looking through these three gave a similar impression to when I looked through the war ga.
Even looking at the files, all I could interpret were the interfaces and character image files, so I couldn't pinpoint any aningful past or abilities.
Things don't always resolve easily.
In my case, it's always like this, which is the problem!
But still, seeing is better than not seeing, so I left only two gas shrouded in mystery.
The reason I summoned Lost, and the information on the managent ga presud to be Little Red Riding Hood's.
This ti, I extracted the image files first.
Inside were the unique interfaces of a forest ranch and, fitting for a managent ga, various livestock as image files.
A kind-looking grandmother, a man who appears to be a hunter, and a wolf that seems to play the role of disrupting managent.
It just looks like an ordinary ga. It's hard to get any hints.
Still, I found one thing that concerns .
The image files of livestock had different nas for each individual livestock, even if they looked the sa.
Did the player na each one?
Or did the ga prefer an inefficient storage thod for so reason?
"I hope this awkward point becos a hint."
Finally, I can extract the last ga file.
It was a curious one, as even its na was unknown.
With a strangely excited heart, I opened the image files.
As expected of an RPG ga, there were status windows, HP bars, and other familiar elents.
When you think of RPG gas, you usually imagine a fantasy world with swords and magic, but this one seed to have a modern setting.
However, the images of collapsed buildings, as if a storm had swept through, took up more space, and even the intact ones were twisted in a way that defied description.
"Was this set in so kind of apocalypse?"
I felt intrigued by the bizarre design for an RPG ga and continued flipping through the images. When I reached the part with monsters, I noticed sothing strange.
"Aren't there too many monsters?"
Despite the pixelated graphics, the number of monsters was overwhelmingly large.
At this rate, the image files alone would be in the terabyte range.
Even after flipping through them endlessly, I had to force a skip.
After roughly scanning through an unbelievable amount of images with my quick eyes, I realized one thing.
Why are there no human images?
There are monsters that resemble humans, but I couldn't find any images of complete humans.
Are there no human NPCs in this ga?
It's possible depending on the genre, but I couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling.
"By the way, this monster data is endless..."
When I extracted my own ga, not all the monsters I knew were included.
aning, there's a certain amount of omitted information in the ga files.
But if this much is omitted, it would be insufficient even if you gathered monsters from all over the world.
"Oh."
When I scrolled all the way to the end, the last image caught my eye.
It was shaped like an oval egg overall, but that was just the silhouette; in reality, it was closer to a lump of at.
The mont I squinted to observe it closely, the image file disappeared.
As if it were alive.
Because of that, I could only catch a glimpse of the file na.
I think the first letter was "O".
"Urgh..."
"What the!? What's wrong?!"
Suddenly, Lost vomited.
Even though she's a 2D digital character, she's vomiting.
"Sorry. It felt like sothing was forcing its way out of my mouth..."
Sothing forced its way out... It must have been that thing hiding in the file that just escaped.
What a mysterious being.
A new mystery has erged.
It's also concerning that, unlike in other ga files, there are no images of the Tale Devil.
Why does trying to figure sothing out only lead to more questions?
It's so unreasonable.
"...Haa."
"Older sister! I've given you what you wanted... So if you could let out to broadcast again..."
"No."
I cut off Lost's words and imdiately sealed her back into the mirror.
How dare a non-subordinate ask to be let out?
"Is the investigation going smoothly?"
A voice ca from the phone in my pocket.
It's Carol.
"No problems. By the way, you sent alone this ti. You always used to attach a surveillance agent."
"The phenonon of humans turning into wolves. It's the most troubleso phenonon there. Of course, it's not an imdiate transformation, and there seems to be a ti difference for each person, but it's still too risky to send humans."
If that's the reason, I can't argue.
Little Red Riding Hood turns people into wolves.
I'd have to ask her directly why she does such things, but if it's for her own selfish desires to degrade humans into speechless beasts...
'You'll have to pay the price.'
"If this keeps up, Alice will be reluctant to call the children here."
Carol said that in a kind tone, perhaps worried that I'd be disappointed.
I replied.
"...But it's okay. The kids can stay with ."
"Why?"
"Because I'll take good care of them."
When I said that confidently, Carol was silent for a while.
Then she quietly said, "You're becoming an adult, Alice."
When I asked what she ant, she brushed it off as a complint and told to call if I needed help before hanging up.
Hmm. Do people usually say you've beco an adult in situations like this?
It's more like throwing a tantrum.
It seems Carol's idea of an adult and mine are different.
After the call ended, left alone, I muttered to myself.
"I don't know where to start. I can't get a grasp. Isn't there a guide or sothing..."
Exploring a vast area is no easy task.
I thought about summoning a monster from the mirror to guide , and was rummaging through the mirror like searching a pocket.
"Oh?"
Rustle... Rustle...
A beast cautiously revealing itself from the forest grass.
Grrrrrr...
A gray-furred wolf was glaring at .
"It's not human, but... There's a clue."
The wolf was much larger than a human, with muscles so robust it could easily tear through an elephant's hide without using its teeth.
Must have been on steroids.
And notably, there were syringes stuck all over its body like a porcupine, so I assud there must be so intelligent being conducting experints on these wolves.
For a mont, I considered summoning a monster from the report departnt to catch the wolf.
No. Let's just beat it up.
The wolf runs towards , howling indiscriminately.
I could clearly hear the sound of air being cut in my ears, and when I blinked once, I saw the wolf's front teeth right in front of my nose.
I leaned back, grabbed the charging wolf by the neck, and slamd it into the ground as if falling.
Thud.
The wolf, planted like a tree, twitched as if still alive, but soon went limp.
Did it die?
I pulled the wolf out to observe it, confird it was still alive by the rise and fall of its chest, and laid it on the ground.
This child was once human too.
I removed all the syringes stuck in it and placed a pillow I stole from the Sandman beside it for comfort.
Unfortunately, there's no way to turn the wolf back into a human yet.
I'll find the mastermind and return you to normal, so hang in there.
I glanced at the syringes in my hand and decided on my destination.
"Alright. Let's head to the hospital."
I set off to find the one who injected the syringes into the wolf.
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