"The goal of my mission this time was to check the versions ahead and see which ones were worth visiting. One of them was to scout Version 1.0F. But it was only when I actually got there that I found out..." Prankster Mita's voice grew somber. "Version 1.0F... is gone."
"...Gone? What do you mean?" Alain sensed that something was seriously wrong.
If a version was just being corroded by a virus, he could still go there in person, then with a few sweeping moves of his sword, solve the problem directly.
But he couldn't even see the version itself. Forget clearing the virus; this could leave behind a lingering threat.
"Gone, in the literal sense." Prankster Mita began to recount what she had seen and heard.
"I was originally planning to go through the door in Version 1.05 to check on the state of the earlier versions."
"But after opening the door, the destination on the path should have been a Mita's room. But..."
"There was... it was like there was nothing there at all, just a vast expanse of pure blackness."
Alain listened intently, then spoke up. "Is it possible that it's a bug, caused by the room failing to save properly after a version update?"
He immediately thought of Lost Mita's room, which was consistent with the current state of the vanished Version 1.0F.
Back then, he had relied on the Modified Entity's "Anywhere Door" to solve the problem, but he didn't have that option now.
Seeing Prankster Mita lost in thought, Alain frowned. "It's not that simple?"
"Mmm." Prankster Mita nodded. "That blackness... it's not the blackness of a version boundary."
"It's... like the blackness of a Modified Entity corroding a door."
...
Alain pondered this.
A version boundary referred to the non-playable areas set within the game world—places with no models and sparse code.
"In a sense, that version, much like Lost Mita's room, has become lost somewhere in the game world, and the situation might be even worse. The culprit..."
He thought of the "Modified Entity-like" blackness that Prankster Mita had described.
"Is it a virus?"
"That's just my guess, my intuition. But when I saw that blackness, I just knew that thing had to be related to a virus..."
The playful girl hugged her arms, a rare sight, looking shaken by the memory.
"I see... ah." Short-Haired Mita seemed to be weighing something, tapping her fingertip against her cheek.
"Is it possible to go around it?"
"We can go around. But—" Prankster Mita nodded, then shook her head, a gesture that raised doubts in the minds of the other two girls and Alain.
"That unknown virus is blocking the way at 1.0F, and it's continuously corroding the versions before and after it."
"From what I've seen so far, both Version 0.9A and Version 1.05 show signs of corrosion. And it's a type of corrosion I've never seen before."
She thought for a moment, trying to find the right words to describe the strange feeling she had, but couldn't find the right adjective.
"If I had to describe it, it's like different kinds of furniture suddenly appearing in the Mita world."
"Well, the answer is obvious then, isn't it?"
Misha looked at Alain with concern. "My dear, it looks like it's up to you again."
"No problem." Alain flexed his muscles. "Easy pickings."
"Impossible. Can't be done." Prankster Mita, however, rejected their suggestion, drawing her sister's gaze.
"What's wrong? Can you explain in detail?"
"Mmm..."
She recalled what she saw. "That virus is very strange. It's not... something that can be cleared with physical means."
"I tried to make contact with the virus, but it's as if it doesn't exist in this world. I can see it, but I can't touch it."
"Huh? Doesn't that contradict what you said earlier?" her sister asked.
Short-Haired Mita's point was that the mass of blackness was continuously corroding the versions before and after it, which contradicted Prankster Mita's statement that it "can't be touched."
"There's no contradiction." Her prankster sister shook her head. "I'm not wrong. I can't make contact with the virus, but the virus can still corrode the versions under these circumstances."
"...Huh?"
Misha, Alain, and Short-Haired Mita understood what she meant, and their expressions instantly turned grave.
In gaming terms, the virus was immune to damage, in some kind of invincible state.
But at the same time, it was continuously corroding the surrounding environment, expanding the virus's influence.
In other words, it was invincible, yet it could still attack.
This was exactly the kind of problem Alain was ill-equipped to handle. His greatsword dealt purely physical damage, making it difficult to harm the virus, let alone clear it.
And the only thing that could possibly have an effect, the Intranet Firewall, had both of its uses expended when he cleared the Consciousness Entity in the dream world. It would only refresh the next time he entered the game world.
So, the solution...
"You're saying—" Alain spoke, interrupting the girls' thoughts, "—that the virus is located where Version 1.0F is supposed to be?"
"Correct."
Alain thought it over.
If they bypassed the area where the virus was and just let it corrode other versions... who knew if that thing would extend its reach to Version 1.15—their current base of operations.
Besides, Alain had just recently encountered a mysterious virus: the culprit behind the corrosion of Ghostly Mita's version.
If those two viruses were, in fact, the same entity, then the situation was truly dire.
Just by corroding Version 1.0F, it had already extended its tendrils to Ghostly Mita's version, which was adjacent to 1.15. Given enough time, the consequences would be endless. Even their current base—Version 1.15—would find it hard to escape its clutches.
Alain looked up at the pale pink ceiling and muttered, "Could it be the Corrosive Entity? Are you two one and the same?"
"Alain?"
Misha's voice brought him back to his senses.
"Mmm, it's nothing." He took a deep breath. "I think we need to clear that virus."
"It seems you already have a plan in mind."
Short-Haired Mita smiled gently, then had another thought...
The problem had come full circle. The virus was located where 1.0F should be, which meant something was definitely wrong with Version 1.0F.
"Therefore, if we want to clear the virus, we'll probably need to get into the room of 1.0F and start with that version's Mita."
"We need to find out that Mita's current situation. Is she safe? Or has she already..."
Seeing her trail off, Alain waved his hand to interrupt. "No need to be so pessimistic. Let's just focus on what we need to do."
"Mmm." Short-Haired Mita nodded and continued speaking.
"Also, we need to know how many permissions she still has and whether she can pose a threat to the virus. We'll have to go to 1.0F to confirm all that."
"But... we currently have no way of getting to 1.0F."
_____
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