"W-What is happening?!" The girls gazed at the entire Core, which seed to be engulfed in an earthquake centered around that rift in the corner.
The pale blue light of the mbrane struck Alain's face. His pupils reflected that bright red progress bar:
[99.96%]
According to the ti conversion, every 0.01% is equivalent to ten minutes of ti. That ant the remaining ti was only forty minutes.
Alain looked back at everyone around him. "Can you guys try to clear the Cartridge Player's progress bar?"
"I'll do it," Misha volunteered.
"Okay." After nodding in agreent, Alain fixed his gaze on the crumbling blue mbrane.
Core Mita said, "The viruses in the Core have all been cleaned up. Once this blue mbrane is shattered, the defensive asures will not regenerate."
"Alright." He gripped the greatsword tightly, took a deep breath—and then swung the greatsword violently!
Crash—
With a resounding noise, the blue mbrane shattered in response.
Misha walked quickly into the Master Brain, her fingers going clack, clack, clack as she controlled the keyboard.
But after a short ten seconds—
"It won't work, Alain! The Master Brain's progress bar... there's no way to clear it!"
"..." Alain stroked his chin in thought, glancing at the Master Brain's progress bar.
He imdiately asked Short-Haired Mita, "How is the evacuation of the Mitas in the Ga World going?"
"Everyone has already evacuated to Mita City." Big Sister cast him a reassuring look.
"That's good." Alain breathed a sigh of relief.
He had originally intended to save the Ga World directly, but who would have thought... Mita City, originally a backup plan acting as "Noah's Ark," would instead beco the key.
Alain looked back at the group. "Now, you all leave imdiately and go to Mita City to take shelter."
"..." The girls looked at each other. Intelligent as they were, they heard the underlying aning in Alain's words.
Cool Mita raised her hand. "You... want to stay in the Ga World?"
"Yes." Alain nodded. "Besides you guys, there is still one more person in this world..."
His eyes flickered as he thought of a figure carrying an electric saw.
"She is waiting for ."
Hearing this, the girls exchanged glances, each wearing a smile full of confidence.
"Scared to death! I thought you couldn't think things through!" Millie patted his shoulder with exaggerated seriousness. "By the way, I heard Cra... Mina honed her gaming skills quite well for your sake. I've gotten tired of beating Miluo recently, and I want to find an ally with a different style."
"Hey!" Miluo puffed up her cheeks, then looked at Alain. "Hmph! Sister Misha has been pushing her luck recently, so Lord Knight, hurry up and bring Sister Mina back to keep her in check!"
"Miluo, is it that you don't have enough howork?" Misha's smiling face made Miluo shiver.
The long-haired maiden walked slowly to Alain and took his hand.
"Although I'm a little jealous... Mina is very important to you, right?"
"Yes." Alain responded heavily. "Very important. Extrely important."
"Then, go do it boldly." She smiled beautifully. "But Alain, you must rember. Since you are doing it, do it well, and do it safely."
Misha gave a soft chu, leaving a kiss on the corner of Alain's mouth.
"I will be waiting for your return in the marital ho in the City."
"..." Looking at his beloved, Alain felt his heart suddenly beat faster.
He smiled. "Definitely."
Afterward, he opened a portal, allowing everyone to head to reality safe and sound.
Watching the girls leave his side one by one, Alain lowered his gaze and looked toward the Master Brain's progress bar.
Their ti for pleasantries hadn't been long; the progress bar hadn't risen in the slightest for the ti being.
Alain cast a solemn gaze toward the entrance of the Core. As he took a step, he secretly pondered where exactly Mina would have gone.
Click—
The first door he opened was Version 1.9.
"Alain, I'm giving you all the permissions for Version 1.9 so you can search more efficiently."
Through the headset, Misha was still watching all of this. Even if she wasn't by his side, she was still Alain's support.
"Thank you." Undoubtedly, this was help exactly when he needed it.
Alain closed his eyes, using the newly acquired Version 1.9 permissions to check every detail within the room. From corners to secret chambers, and even partitions, everything entered Alain's field of vision.
The next mont, he left the room without hesitation.
"Not here."
Click— The door closed.
Version 0.98.
Not here.
Version 0.5—
Not here.
"My love, how is the progress bar?" Alain leaned against the doorfra, feeling slightly exhausted, continuing to think about Mina's possible whereabouts as he asked the headset.
[99.97%]. "You still have half an hour."
"Okay." Alain took a heavy breath.
Things having reached this point, there was only one last place—one that Alain felt was very likely where Mina was hiding.
Click—
Alain opened the door before him. What ca into view was a long, narrow passage. There were still a few Failed Works remaining where they were, doing unknown things.
"What are you guys doing?" Looking at their seemingly repulsive appearances, Alain didn't feel a shred of fear and walked over quickly. "Don't you know the Ga World is about to collapse? Why are you still staying here?"
"..."
The criticism in his words actually made the Failed Works, who usually inflicted fear, shrink their necks.
But one of them still walked out and stood in front of Alain.
It opened its mouth, its sharp teeth seemingly bearing a vicious grimace at Alain. But Alain read a different aning from it.
"Do you... have sothing you want to tell ?"
The Failed Works nodded.
"Wait a mont..." Alain's eyes widened slightly, seemingly thinking of sothing. "Don't tell , you all stayed here just to wait for , to tell this matter?"
"..." It hesitated for a while, but still nodded.
The next mont, it fell into an embrace.
"Thank you, you really helped a lot."
Clack, clack—
In his arms, it nodded stiffly. It pointed in a direction.
Monts later, Alain was sprinting along the path of the Version, watching the pink long passage fly past his shoulders.
Just now, through pointing and writing, the Failed Works had told him Mina's location. After using a portal to send the cute little guys away, Alain rushed non-stop to the location the Failed Works had reminded him of.
Version 1.15.
Skrrrt—
His soles rubbed against the ground as he perford a "Tom-style" braking motion. Following his peripheral vision, he stared at that object on the ground.
It was... a fragnt of a dark blue dress hem.
Alain grasped the fragnt. While moving, he held it in his hand to observe. The scent emanating from the dress fragnt was very familiar... he had been with it for a long ti.
It was precisely... Mina's.
Plap!
Mid-journey, Alain stepped on sothing unknown under his foot. He slowed his pace slightly and picked it up to look...
It was a clump of detached dark blue hair.
His complexion beca increasingly pale. He could already imagine what kind of painful price Mina had paid during the battle in the Core to buy him ti...
Tap!
Before long, Alain's steps stopped in front of a door.
"Misha, progress bar."
"99.97%... But I have a premonition that it's about to change soon."
"Okay."
Nodding gently, Alain looked at a certain item that had fallen in front of the door. He picked up the object; it was a bag of candy.
The pink packaging had a language that wasn't Chinese written on it. The packaging bag already bore slight wrinkles; obviously, it had been kept for a long ti.
Alain squeezed the package. Amidst the crinkling sound, the candy inside... was almost full.
In an instant, the corners of his lips cracked into a smile that was indistinguishable between heartache and joy.
"Truly... an idiot. If this weren't the Ga World, it probably would have expired long ago, right?"
This item was the first gift he had bought for Crazy Mita to soothe her petty emotions when he left the Ga World for the first ti.
Unexpectedly... she had actually kept it until now.
He applied light force; the candy wrapper burst out with more wrinkles and a rriiip sound. Putting the precious candy into his pocket, Alain looked with a solemn gaze at the door close at hand.
Every ti, entering a door was a mont that tested his ability to accept things. This ti was no different.
Behind the door lay a new world.
Click.
Opening the door, the doorfra was revealed, and a brownish-yellow wooden floor was the first thing to catch his eye. Subsequently, it opened completely.
When he saw the things inside the room, Alain's eyes startled.
Obscure lighting cast a flickering, gauzy veil, applying a mysterious and eerie filter to the Failed Works arranged neatly in the room.
Yes... this was a room for storing Failed Works—or perhaps it couldn't even be counted as a room. It could only be called a [Warehouse].
Surrounding the Warehouse were small rooms one after another, each with a combination lock on the door. And in the encirclent of the rooms, dozens of Failed Works stood blankly in stiff postures, just like dolls.
Their blood-red eyes drooped weakly, displaying the sa despair...
Alain dialed the headset. "Help look for Big Sister."
Before long, Short-Haired Mita's voice ca through, "What's wrong?"
Alain asked about the Failed Works he was seeing.
Big Sister's reply: "Those Failed Works are forms that stayed in the darkness for a long ti and gradually lost their consciousness.
"You can also understand it another way... They were utterly desperate. Having even a shred of consciousness would be torture for them. So..."
Short-Haired Mita did not continue with the rest of her words.
But Alain knew exactly what the sentence she didn't say was.
"They killed their own consciousness. That way, they wouldn't have to suffer anymore."
Alain felt lancholy and hesitation. At the sa ti, he also understood what Mina wanted to tell him...
"Are you just going to leave alone... to die here?"
His eyes lowered, but it was absolutely not a sign of wanting to give up. Quite the opposite—he simply felt waves of heartache for this maiden.
This also further solidified... Alain's determination to rescue her.
At the sa ti he took the first step out, a light breeze scraped past his ear.
Clang!
A piercing sound embedded itself deeply into the wall behind his head. Alain turned back to check, only to discover a small knife had already stabbed into the wall.
"Don't... co over."
And from the Warehouse, such an echo resounded.
____
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