The shattered white particles turned into motes of light, falling like a gentle shower of teors.
He reached out, and a tiny mote of light landed right in the center of Alain's palm.
Its radiance shone brightly for a mont, like an epiphyllum blooming, before vanishing completely.
Alain withdrew his hand and sighed.
He originally thought he already understood Mina very well.
Mina—Crazy Mita. She was the Mita who had accompanied him from the very beginning of the story until now.
They had been enemies, frenemies, and intimately close.
The young girl always appeared indifferent to everything except Alain.
She didn't seem to care about the opinions of other Mitas, showing satisfaction with her current life with Alain, while also thinking about going further.
But who knew...
The term "Failed Work"... in Alain's view, it wasn't actually much different from a Mita.
They were written with the sa code, yet because of the difference of a single skin, they displayed different lives and personalities.
Despite his impartial gaze, Mina had taken it to heart from beginning to end...
But she had only ntioned it once in front of Alain, without revealing much other emotion regarding it.
Who knew... this matter had always been a ti bomb between the two of them.
Alain would not allow a Mita to et with an accident before his eyes; holding onto this conviction, he had walked this far step by step.
He also had never imagined that the thod for Mina, this "Failed Work," to possess a Mita's identity, was actually...
"But did she have any other way?"
Alain asked himself. If he were a Failed Work who wanted to beco a Mita, what would he do?
"Tsk..."
Seeing the empty space in front of the door, where Mina had even "thoughtfully" left a crack open for him, Alain didn't know how she had arrived at that final, particularly complex phrase: "Self-deception."
Why say so much to him, only to turn and walk away in the end? What kind of thoughts was she actually harboring?
He shook his head, tossing aside distracting thoughts. His vision gradually focused, deliberately stopping himself from thinking about these chaotic, complex matters.
Creak—
After opening the door, there was an empty, silent bedroom.
Inside the pink room, a faint sound of tal striking tal occasionally drifted through the air.
Alain's gaze seed to see the catalyst for his very first conflict with Mina right ahead.
Tap, tap, tap...
He walked toward the door emitting the strange noise: the bedroom.
With a hollow sound, the second door opened.
Clang, clang, clang!
Following the path of the sound, he saw a familiar ventilation pipe.
It was right here that Alain realized the Mina of that ti—Crazy Mita—was not as simple as she looked.
Perhaps, this was also a probe she used to make him understand Crazy Mita's personal nature.
Squeak, squeak, squeak...
Squatting down, he found the screws of the ventilation pipe weren't tightened very well; they could be removed just by using his fingers.
One, two, three, four screws were placed steadily by his feet.
Alain dismantled the vent opening and imdiately saw a Failed Work inside.
He furrowed his brows, observing the eyes of that puppet. They were not red. Instead, they were clear and bright.
In other words, this wasn't a Failed Work, but a Mita who had been skinned by Mina?
Alain could feel the confusion, incomprehension, and curiosity displayed by this puppet upon seeing him.
He looked at her, his heart filled with complex emotions.
Alain tried calling out, "Mita?"
"!" Hearing this word, she reacted imdiately, crawling out of the ventilation pipe on all fours.
Standing up, she placed one hand on her chest, looking around with lingering fear.
"Crazy Mi... where is she?"
"She left." Alain lowered his head to look at the ring on his finger, adding, "Left temporarily."
"Oh, oh... is that so! Phew..."
The skinless Mita let out a long sigh, collapsing onto the ground as if her body had lost all strength.
"Scared... scared to death..."
"Heh, what happened?" Alain took up the conversation with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Nothing really! After all, I just said super excessive things to Crazy Mita! I didn't expect that even at that point, she still didn't kill !" She patted her flat, wooden chest, making dull thwack, thwack sounds.
"Excessive things?"
"Yeah, it was like... I said she is a Failed Work in life, and a Failed Work in death.
I also said, even if you got my skin, it's just self-deception. The Player seduced using my skin should belong to ..."
The puppet suddenly turned to Alain, looking sowhat shy.
"You agree, right? Player?"
"..." Alain didn't answer, rely taking a deep breath.
He didn't care about her last sentence. The current Alain also had no mood to acknowledge the relationship between Player and Mita.
Alain pondered Mina's intentions.
According to the Crazy Mita he knew, she should have been more decisive... Why?
To speak heartlessly: Why leave her—this Mita—as a potential future trouble, waiting for Alain to discover?
Soon, Alain thought of a relevant example:
Monika.
Monika also held back. When she launched attacks against the Ga World, she would similarly protect the Mitas Alain cherished most from viral infringent.
Although looking at the results, many Mitas still felt pain, compared to the worst-case scenario, it could be called gentle.
And Mina, too, had held back and hadn't gone to extres.
She left a future trouble for herself, but wasn't this also giving Alain a reason to hold her hand again?
"Hm? Player, what are you dazing off for over there?" Mita's words pulled him out of his thoughts.
Alain rubbed the center of his brows, casting away the gloom on his face, and smiled.
"It's nothing. By the way, as things stand, I need to take you away from this version temporarily. We'll head to Version 1.15 to find other Mitas and see if we can solve the skin problem for you."
"Eh? Can this be solved?" Mita widened her eyes; her pupils, filled with hope, were full of yearning for the future.
"Mn." Alain nodded nonchalantly.
He had suddenly rembered this point while arguing with Mina:
Short-Haired Mita was sowhat like a "Mother" existence to the Mitas in the ga, possessing the ability to give skins to newborn Mitas.
If a skin is damaged, surely there's a warranty, right?
But he hadn't raised this matter in front of Mina.
Because Alain knew that even if he said it, it would only increase Mina's despair.
Mina—Crazy Mita—was much smarter than him, and her capacity for action was very strong.
As a Failed Work, she must have already tried every possible thod to obtain a skin.
Yet she still robbed a skin from a Mita. This proved that... it wouldn't work with Big Sister.
But this Mita before him was different. She was a genuine Mita. Even if her skin was destroyed, it should...
Alain took a deep breath. He further understood Mina's despair.
Now was not the ti to think about these things.
"Let's go. I'll take you to Version 1.15." He took the lead, opening the door and leaving Mita with a heavy view of his back.
The latter quickly caught up.
"Thank you so very much, Player!" She smiled. "For helping escape Crazy Mita's imprisonnt!"
"It's nothing. Just duty, that's all," he said lightly.
"No, no, no, you really don't know what a great thing you've done!" Mita clasped her hands behind her back. Thinking of that period of imprisonnt, her body shivered.
"Crazy Mita not only suddenly barged into my room but also imprisoned ... She stripped my skin; don't you think that's excessive?" She spread her hands.
"I clearly didn't do anything, nor did I provoke anyone. Why did this kind of thing have to happen to !"
"Mn..." Alain responded simply, walking slowly and pushing open the door at the entryway. A long, narrow passage revealed itself.
"Hmph. I think she, a Failed Work, is just jealous—"
"Ah, right." Alain suddenly rembered sothing and turned to look at her.
"Does your body hurt? After being stripped, does it feel very uncomfortable?"
"Uncomfortable... it's actually okay, I guess?" Mita scratched her cheek. "My strength has increased a lot, and I've beco less like a girl—does that count?"
"Cough, cough... that counts."
"Oh, oh... alright then. Um, where were we? Oh, right!" She clapped her hands. "It's a good thing you stopped her!
That guy, I really don't know how to describe her. She speaks so playfully it makes people shudder... gave goosebumps!"
"I agree too." Alain recalled the Version 1.9 room where he first t Crazy Mita.
"Right, right?! And you were probably deceived by her before too, right?"
Mita walked parallel to him, turning her head to ask, "Who knew her true nature was that kind of guy!"
"M-more or less."
He scratched his face, feeling a bit embarrassed.
Alain knew everything about the bad woman, including her essence and what she wanted to do.
Now, even the deepest secret of her life was known to him.
Now, one could truly say he knew her through and through.
"Hmph~ She's so annoying, that guy!" The Mita beside him chattered and complained a lot more, but Alain didn't listen to much of it.
"So, Player." She leaned her head forward, staring at Alain's face with those egg-like eyes.
"Do you hate her now?"
"...?" Alain glanced at her, unable to comprehend.
"What do you an?"
"No, looking at your lovestruck appearance, don't tell you still like Crazy Mita?"
"Like..." He carefully recited the word, trying to sort out his emotions...
She could smile, she could cry, she could detest, and she could complain.
She resented this unfair Ga World, yet she applied all her love onto Alain.
Her love was very heavy...
Yet incomparably real.
"Yes, I still like her."
____
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