Alain knew very well that what he was seeing was definitely not his room.
Through a corner of the doorway, he saw a window at the far end of the room, its glass pane glowing with a pure white light. The delicate pink wallpaper was bathed in the window's sweet halo, and specks of white particles floated like white chocolate decorating a pastry.
In terms of layout, it had everything: a computer desk, a single bed, a vanity—clearly a bedroom.
There was no one in the room. Faint white particles danced slowly, landing on the books on the desk and splashing into sparse fragments of light.
On the desk was a computer with its screen lit up, and a book titled "The Prisoner."
Under the desk was a large pile of parts. Judging by their components, it had to be a broken computer chair.
Beside the desk, a fruit-red knitted cardigan, black stockings, and a white shirt were casually placed on the bed. Clean underwear was laid flat on the edge of the bed, waiting for its owner to wear it.
And from the bathroom came the faint, trickling sound of running water, mixed with a girl's singing that flowed through the room's air.
Alain simply pushed the door wide open before the solemn-faced girls.
They were all shocked by the sight before them.
"What's going on?" Misha stared blankly at the scene, gently touching her lips. "The game world... has appeared inside what's supposed to be our real home?"
She looked back at the hallway, which appeared dim and eerie against the night scenery.
But gazing into what was once their small home, cheerful sunlight carrying white particles seemed to sense the arrival of guests and slowly drifted toward them. Just as the little things were about to cross the threshold and dance before them, the doorway became a chasm—the particles vanished without a trace.
Alain took all of this in. He had long since forged an iron will in the game world, allowing him to think calmly.
From the fact that the white particles unique to a Mita's room couldn't enter reality, the boundary between the game and reality was obvious: this very doorway.
His gaze focused once more on the computer chair, broken into pieces.
Alain remembered that the last time he was in the game world—in the 2D Version—his own computer chair had been broken by Misha.
His eyes refocused on the chair before him; it was also in a broken state.
Could the two be related?
Alain walked into the room, heading towards the computer chair and observing it quietly from directly above.
The girls hesitated on whether to follow, but the door suddenly slammed shut, pushing them inside. It shut with a "snap."
They had no choice but to follow Alain in examining the objects in the room.
Alain picked up a part from the computer chair; it was one of the casters.
If he wasn't mistaken...
He applied a little pressure with his fingertips and easily pried the caster open, revealing the axial structure inside.
"Just as I thought..." he said to himself, finding a screw on the floor and twisting it back in.
A moment later, a fully repaired caster lay flat in his palm.
Just as he had suspected, the part that was broken on the Mita room's computer chair was identical to the damage on the computer chair in his own small home. In both cases, a caster had fallen off and was missing a screw.
This information alone was still too little to go on.
Alain checked the other parts of the chair again; all the damage was completely identical to what he remembered from the chair in his home.
This proved it—the real world had, to some extent, interconnected with this unknown version of the game world.
The degree of interconnection wasn't actually that high at first: it was limited to just this one computer chair. But somehow, it had eroded into reality.
And...
Alain turned his head to look at Misha. "Honey, I fixed the computer chair before I left, right?"
"Yes... that's right." Misha, suspecting nothing, seemed to have found a clue and was looking at a photo of a Mita.
After getting his answer, Alain's thoughts delved deeper.
Right now, he had a theory:
If he wasn't mistaken, the actual computer chair in his home, even though he had fixed it once, must now be broken again.
Because the two worlds had been "mirrored." The computer chairs had become mirrored.
So, wasn't it the same for his small home and this Mita's room?
In other words, his home had, in a sense, become a part of this Mita's room. Then the root of the problem must be within this room.
Alain took out his phone and opened the Safety Assistant panel.
On it, the icon for Intranet Firewall was flashing, and its light was particularly intense.
Right now, they were in a state similar to a "black room" or a "dreamscape." Which meant this skill could be used.
Alain pressed the Intranet Firewall button.
"Whoosh—!" Instantly, a flash of garbled code passed before the Mitas' eyes. They inadvertently glanced in Alain's direction.
Seeing the young man holding his phone, they immediately understood and breathed a small sigh of relief.
But the garbled state only lasted for a few seconds before it seemed to be defeated—The delicate pink room reappeared before their eyes, completely unharmed.
"Alain, did the Intranet Firewall not work?" Misha walked over to him, still holding a photograph.
"Right," Alain mused. "Perhaps we still need to tackle the problem starting from this version's room itself."
"We need to figure out the version number first, right?" Misha nodded, then handed him the photo.
Alain took it and looked.
The girl in the photo was cute, with a bob cut and a few hairpins clipped askew in her hair. She wore a pair of black-framed glasses and was glancing to the side, pouting as if she were sulking.
You could tell what kind of Mita she was at a glance.
"But what does this have to do with the version number?" Alain handed the photo back to Misha, confused.
The long-haired girl smiled and said, "Alain, do you remember what happened in Ugly Mita's version?"
"Mmm..."
Alain thought for a moment, and scenes of him bullying Ugly Mita quickly came to mind.
"The memory is pretty vivid." He shrugged, indicating that beyond that, he only had a vague idea.
"Well, do you remember what kind of clothes she was holding when we were changing Ugly Mita's outfit?"
"?"
Alain pondered. That... he did have some memory of.
He remembered that the clothes Ugly Mita brought out weren't Mita's default outfit—He understood something and focused his gaze on the bob-haired girl's attire in the photo.
Her knitted cardigan was slung lazily to one side, revealing a slender shoulder and a white shirt.
Alain's gaze focused on the clothes on the bed. Likewise, it was a knitted cardigan and a shirt.
And the version where Ugly Mita borrowed clothes back then was also this one!
With Misha's hint, Alain arrived at the answer.
Combining Ugly Mita's answer at the time with the flashing of the ring... those two clues.
The version they were currently in was, unsurprisingly—Version 1.0F.
___
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