As the boot progress bar continued to cycle, the screen immediately went black. Moments later, under the gaze of the two, a blue interface appeared.
On the interface, there was a white box for input, and above the box were two large characters: [PASSWORD].
"A boot password?" Mila voiced out, glancing at Alain. "Do you know it?"
"I don't know." Alain shook his head. Ever since entering this mansion, it was either physical locks or, now, passwords.
It really filled him with the urge to complain.
Alain looked at the white password input box, thought it over again and again... then tapped the keyboard, entering a string of eight zeros.
Then he clicked confirm—
[Password Error]
"As expected, it's not that easy to deal with," Alain smiled bitterly, turning his gaze to the computer tower beside him.
Something like a password was actually unexpectedly easy to handle: just reinstalling the system would do. But reinstalling the system meant taking this tower home...
What if there was a bomb or something? If this tower went Boom!, it would blow his large flat into pieces...
"How is that possible?" Alain couldn't help but smile at his own thoughts.
But reinstalling the system targeted the computer's entire C Drive. After a reinstall, the files in the C Drive would all be gone. If the important information in the computer was placed in the C Drive, wouldn't that be all for nothing?
During his contemplation, unable to come up with any clear solution, he simply listed "taking the tower back" as his objective.
"Wait until we finish exploring the mansion, then we'll take the computer home."
"I picked it up, so I thought nobody wanted it... is that it?" Mila's inadvertent remark made Alain want to bully her.
"Your mouth has been getting more and more deserving of a beating lately." Alain's kind smile made her shoulders feel a chill.
He casually took out his mobile phone, tapped open the WeChat chat with his own avatar, and then sent a die emote.
"If Mazu agrees to let me take the computer away, the number will be 4 or above. If she doesn't agree, it's 3 or below."
The die stopped. A "6".
Alain turned his head. "Look, Mazu agreed."
"..." Mila's mouth twitched. "Fine, fine, take it if you want. Let's look at what other things are in the room first."
"Mn." Alain's gaze swept past the computer and focused on a photo on the wall.
He walked over and stood beneath the photo.
The content of the photo was not a group photo of Alain and Yang Wanhua, or any other figures, but a picture of a Windows system window interface.
"A computer system interface?" Alain quickly took down the photo and examined it in his hands.
But to his disappointment, the content of the photo was merely a blank window, without anything related to numbers. His gaze focused on the computer desktop outside the window in the picture; likewise, there was no content related to numbers.
" truly disappointing." He opened the glass frame of the photo, attempting to disassemble the photo from it, but the photo seemed stuck to the frame...
"No good, I can't take it apart." Alain brought the photo over to the computer desk as well.
Since it was in the same secret room as the password-locked tower, it must inevitable have its use.
Alain planned to take it home and explore it together with the tower.
He turned his head and asked, "How about it? Did you find anything?"
After cracking a few small jokes with him, Mila had also begun exploring other areas of the secret room. The young girl shook her head and pointed to the wall.
"No good. The only things in this secret room that could be called useful are just that tower and that inexplicable photo. Oh, right, and the light switch."
"Alright then." Alain took one last look at the secret room, as well as the tower and photo quietly placed within it...
Subsequently, accompanied by Mila, he temporarily left the secret room.
Urged by the dusk, Alain and Mila planned to save time this round and split up.
Alain would explore the first floor of the mansion, while Mila entered the second floor of the mansion. Of course, due to safety issues, Alain gave Mila strict orders: if there was danger, she must run back immediately.
"Okay, okay, you're just like an old nanny." Mila waved her hand in disgust.
"Hmm? Do you have a mom?" He felt strange.
"...Tch, I don't." For some reason, Mila felt like she had been cursed with very dirty words.
Although she didn't quite understand, she still gave Alain a kick that was neither light nor heavy, then went clack, clack, clack up the wooden steps.
"Remember, safety first!" The old nanny reminded Mila.
"I know already!" Mila's voice drifted over.
Alain looked at the empty surroundings; without Mila, he momentarily felt a bit bored. While checking the remaining rooms on the first floor, he began to organize his current pending items.
First, he predicted the next objective would be to head to Version 0.98 to check the situation there; there was nothing more to say about that.
Secondly, his line of sight had to focus on the mansion here.
Alain thought of that basement with no lock hole. Before leaving the basement, he and Mila had attempted to feel around the walls near the iron door, or anywhere possibly related.
But the iron door showed absolutely no movement.
Therefore, Alain guessed: perhaps the mechanism to open the basement iron door is located elsewhere in the mansion? At the very least, Alain had to search the first floor strictly.
To actually have a Failed Works responsible for guarding it... he was now increasingly curious about exactly what was behind the iron door.
Was it a virus? Or something related to Alain? Or... Yang Wanhua's hiding place?
Clues to these would only be known the moment the "Schrödinger's Iron Door" resolved its superposition state.
Then, there were the tower and the photo. Alain had a feeling that there was some kind of correlation between the two. After all, being in the same room, it couldn't be without purpose.
Finally, there was the "Prison Room" that he still hadn't found yet. It must be on the first floor; it was only a matter of time before Alain found it.
Creak—
He opened who knows which number door it was, checking the interior. After seeing nothing unexpected, he leisurely closed it.
In short, the photo and the tower—these two things definitely had to be taken home. He also wanted to try if he could crack that computer's password without touching the C Drive.
Click!
Alain stopped his steps.
This should be the last room on the first floor. Located behind the corner of the corridor, the only room door.
Alain took a deep breath, lamenting that it was finally almost over.
Afterward, his gaze landed on the densely packed, seemingly familiar lock holes on the door. Just like the lock on the main gate, it was composed of many electronic locks and combination locks. The only difference was that there was no embedded lock.
This saved quite a bit of trouble for the current Alain.
Estimating from the position, the location of this door should coincide with the back door on the other side of the mansion. This signified that this door and the mansion's back door led to the same room.
As for what kind of room it was, Alain had an idea:
The "Cage" where Yang Wanhua had once imprisoned him.
At this moment, the clack, clack, clack sound of footsteps drifted from far to near, coming from the top of the stairs. After the light creak, creak of the wooden stairs, a figure emerged from the corner.
In the orange-yellow light of the dusk penetrating the window glass, dust particles originating from her floated about.
The hoodie the young girl wore was covered in some dust; she patted the clothing with disgust.
"No good, the second floor doesn't seem like anyone lived there at all; there's nothing there." Mila spread her hands.
"Alright, thank you for your hard work." Alain patted her head, but his restless hand was swatted away by Mila.
"So, this is the only one left?" After Mila saw the densely packed lock holes, she knew what Alain planned to do.
"Sorry to trouble you."
He moved a few steps away, leaning against the wall, to admire Mila's upcoming feat.
"I'm telling you! After we get home, hurry up and buy me 'Stellar Blade' as my labor fee!"
Shing—
She drew the katana. The silver-white blade edge shone with a bright golden light in the afterglow of the setting sun.
Alain watched her assume a stance and laughed, "Pick another one, why don't you? If you want to play any game, just tell me directly, so that doesn't count as a demand."
"Hmph~" The young girl hmphed softly and charmingly. The katana traced the trajectory of a crescent moon, slashing onto the first mechanical lock.
Wham!
The mechanical lock fell in response.
"At least you know how to talk!"
Bang!
The second lock, the third lock, the fourth lock...
"Wah, I'm super tired!!!"
Moments later. Mila slumped onto the chair beside her, letting the katana droop down. Her handy weapon had served as a lock-picking tool for several hours in a row; it was already scratched and the edge was rolled.
Alain looked at her with heartache, but the young girl urged him at this moment, "Alright, what are you looking at me for? Why aren't you looking at the room quickly?"
Mila adjusted her glasses and laughed lightly, "This room is the objective of your trip, right?"
"...Indeed." He accepted Mila's goodwill, standing before the room without any confusion, looking at the door handle close at hand.
To find this room, he went from reality to the dreamscape, and back to reality. He experienced many things along the way...
Added to the help of Mila, Miffy, and others, only then could he stand before this door. This was absolutely not his effort alone, but the effort of everyone.
Alain had already mustered enough determination, no matter what the situation behind the door was like.
Whether it was dripping with fresh blood, rotting corpses, or a complete mess, he could accept it all.
"Go on! Do your best, harem protagonist!" Mila's cheering drifted from behind, becoming Alain's booster.
His hand climbed onto the door handle and pulled downward—
Click! He exerted a light force. As the remaining locks fell one by one with a crackling sound, Alain pushed the door open inward.
He first opened a corner of the door. Entering his eyes was a window. That window constructed from Rupert's Tears.
Just as he expected, behind the door was the cage that had once imprisoned him.
He attempted to listen for human voices...
Quiet. No one.
Alain opened the door a bit further, already able to see the mottled traces on the ground. Those were signs of the wooden floor shattering under the pounding of some hard object.
Alain knew that was his own doing. The him of that time, utilizing a greatsword, had used every extreme method to get out.
Creak—
Alain simply opened the door completely before his eyes, letting Mila see the result of their joint efforts as well.
"Uh..." The young girl gazed into the interior of the room, slightly surprised.
"It really is... a total mess."
____
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