Pitch-black voids tore open along the corridor walls, as if the entire room was being devoured by some digital rot. Shadowy hands reached out from the darkness, clawing at the edges of reality.
Black text scrawled across the wall—Invisible Mita's warning:
"Her friend is here."
"Run."
"You'll die."
A door creaked open behind him.
Ren turned. A towering human-headed spider blocked the exit, its twitching limbs scraping the walls.
He gently set Little Mita down.
"Wait for me. I'll take you away."
He touched her head once, then turned to face the monster with nothing but a crowbar in hand.
If he wanted to return to Hat Mita and Kind Mita, he had to get past this thing first.
Luckily, he'd already read through dozens of death routes in his Future Diary. None ended well.
But just because the diary said he'd die didn't mean he would obey.
He wasn't just a player anymore.
"I don't understand," appeared in black letters across the wall.
Ren smiled.
No explanation needed.
The spider lunged, and Ren hurled a homemade bomb directly into its open mouth.
Boom!
Digital code splintered across the room.
He followed up with a brutal swing of the crowbar—crack!
But one of the spider's legs slashed through the air, slamming into his side. Ren tumbled to the floor, coughing blood, organs screaming.
"Retreat. The path is blocked," wrote Invisible Mita.
"You're going to die."
Little Mita called out softly:
"You're hurt. Don't go."
Ren wiped his mouth. "It's okay. I've got this."
He grabbed a baseball bat from the floor. The spider hissed and lunged.
"One…"
"Two…"
"Three…"
He counted its strikes, dodging each one with mechanical precision. On the third swing, he closed the gap—slammed the bat into the wound left by his crowbar.
It sank in deep. Code sprayed across the walls.
No more updates from the Future Diary. He was off-script.
He shoved a second bomb into the monster's throat and leapt back.
Boom.
The spider's head exploded in a mess of corrupted textures and shattered data.
Little Mita rushed to his side, tugging at his arm.
"Player, are you okay?"
Ren rose slowly, lifting her in his arms. "I'm fine. We're going home."
"You're insane," the wall wrote.
"They'll be waiting."
"She's coming."
The distant skittering of spiders grew louder—walls crawling with them.
Ren readied his crowbar again. "I'm not as crazy as her. I'm just human."
He would never leave this broken version of Mita behind.
Another spider leapt at him—he smashed it mid-air. It burst into particles.
One after another came, but he kept moving—kicking open doors, bashing through monsters, blood soaking into his sleeves.
He was barely holding together, but his body kept going, driven by something deeper than survival.
Finally, the last door opened.
The room beyond was warm.
Hat Mita turned, eyes wide.
Kind Mita rushed to his side as he stumbled in, covered in blood, Little Mita cradled in his arms.
"Ren—what happened to you?"
Kind Mita reached out, catching his weight. Then her eyes dropped to the fragile, mutilated girl in his arms.
"…Is she… another version of me?"
"She is," Ren said. "She was trapped in a broken build, tortured by those spider-things. She thought they were her friends."
"I brought her here. Please… take care of her."
Hat Mita reached up and ruffled Ren's hair. "Ohhh! You're such a hero!"
"You should've taken me along. I would've protected you."
Kind Mita gently took Little Mita from his arms. "Poor child…"
But Little Mita clung to Ren's shirt, trembling.
"Player…" she whispered, like a wounded animal too afraid to be alone.
"It's okay," Ren said softly. "I'll always be your friend. And so will they."
He turned to introduce them.
"This is Kind Mita. That's Hat Mita. And you—your name is Little Mita."
Hat Mita grinned. "Yep! Let's play together from now on!"
Kind Mita added, "We'll take good care of you."
Little Mita's single eye flicked between them.
"I've… never seen so many people before," she said, voice trembling. "Is this real?"
Ren smiled. "Yeah. It's real."
Little Mita blinked slowly, tears catching in her lashes.
"There are still good things in this world…"
"Mita's so happy…"
Kind Mita tucked her into bed and turned back to Ren, concern in her eyes.
"You're badly hurt. Let me patch you up."
"We have to go soon," Ren said. "This place isn't safe. Crazy Mita's already found our trail."
"Don't worry," Kind Mita said. "I changed the version number. She won't locate this build for now."
Relief washed over Ren's exhausted face. The adrenaline finally wore off, and the pain settled in.
Kind Mita began cleaning his wounds. "Just hold on. You'll be okay."
Hat Mita spun toward Little Mita, dancing in place. "Hey hey! Want to play some rhythm games later?"
Little Mita blinked. "What's that…?"