"Tut, tut, tut... The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable." This was a message Alain had heard many times in the past ten minu
"Tut, tut, tut... The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable."
This was a message Alain had heard many times in the past ten minutes or so. Based on his understanding of Misha, he had already hinted about the "important call" when he was at home. Plus, it was unlikely Misha would ignore his calls.
Alain frowned. From the current situation, she was either busy with something and couldn't get away, or... she was in danger?
"How could that be... The security around the university town should be quite good..." But just then, Misha called back.
Alain let out a sigh of relief. How could she be in danger? There wasn't that much danger in the real world. He answered the phone. And what startled him was the breathless panting on the other end of the line.
"Dar-darling, sorry... Something unexpected came up. I didn't get to the phone in time ." Inside the supermarket, the girl wiped the sweat from her forehead, temporarily putting down the bent baseball bat in her hand, leaning against the wall, and panting with effort.
Misha's sleeve showed several sharp scratches, and a section of the long sleeve had been torn, turning it into a short sleeve. Fortunately, the clothes covering her body were unharmed, so there was no embarrassing wardrobe malfunction.
But her full chest rose and fell with her heavy breathing, and strands of hair stuck to her cheeks due to sweat. And around the girl was a mess of shelves, scattered merchandise, and two broken baseball bats. Surrounding passersby stared in astonishment at the wreckage, just short of exclaiming, "This is practically a superman."
"What happened? Give me a rough idea ." Amidst his brief surprise, Alain quickly composed himself, switching to his game-world state.
There was no time for a confession now; the plan would have to be temporarily put on hold. Thinking this, he quickly walked down the steps, his footsteps echoing "da da da." He put the phone on speaker. "Are you hurt?" This was Alain's first concern.
"Don't worry, just a few minor injuries. But... I did break a lot of merchandise. I'm sorry... " On the other end of the phone, the girl looked at the few scratches on her forearm. This was from when she had knocked over a shelf to pin down the puppet, and the glass merchandise had caused a splash injury. She took a few shallow breaths and also quickly started moving.
"Don't worry, I'll pay for it." He asked for the address, moved out of the building, and saw the crystal flower in the center of the park, calculating the distance to Misha. "Where are you hurt?" Alain asked with heartache, a flame of anger igniting in his heart.
"There are a few scratches on my forearm..." The girl's voice on the phone was still clear and confident, but only Alain could hear the trace of fragility. He suppressed his reason, barely managing not to be overwhelmed by anger.
"Forget it, you go home first. On the way, tell me about... that puppet ." Alain already had some answers in his heart; now he was just confirming whether the answers were correct.
As Misha recounted, the time, place, characters, and process of the event gradually became clear. At that time, Misha was shopping in the merchandise area when she was attacked by the Failure. Fortunately, she happened to have a handy weapon at that time—a baseball bat. After bending two baseball bats and using a third, she finally managed to repel the puppet.
"I think that thing is the Failure you mentioned ." Misha recalled what Alain had said about his game world experiences when he returned to reality. A body full of black spots, and the appearance of a puppet. Recalling the three bent baseball bats. The defense and strength of that thing made the girl's heart pound.
And on the other side, Alain, who was on his way, looked at the shopping mall he had visited with Millie, panting a little.
From Misha's words, he could tell that without the damage buff from the Cleanup Acceleration greatsword, the Failure was not easy to deal with. Fortunately, Misha still possessed the power from the game world. "Speaking of which, why does the Failure exist in the real world? This was what puzzled Alain. That was clearly something from the game world... "
Speaking of the game world. He vaguely remembered the last night in reality, when he was fighting with Pocket Mita. The "Mita" game... window.
"Could it be..." By now, he also had to go home to check the computer, and Millie's situation.
"By the way, darling ." Misha seemed to be running too; she should have thought of the same thing he had. "Can we buy a baseball bat for our house ?"
The running girl looked at the brand-new baseball bat in her hand. The one she had bent just now had been casually tossed back to its original place, and she had taken another one. Sure enough... she still needed a baseball bat to feel safe!
"Of course, I'll get you as many as you want. You can even have mine..." A small joke greatly eased Alain's tension. He and Misha temporarily set their next goal: go home and regroup, then check the computer's situation.
"I'm already home!" The girl familiarly opened the door to their small home, and what greeted her eyes was a vast expanse of darkness.
"Help me check the computer ." Alain on the other end of the phone looked around; he was currently not far from home.
"The computer screen is black..." Before he left, he hadn't turned off the computer. Even if it was damaged, hadn't the Security Guard said that his computer and phone couldn't be damaged?
"Ah, it wasn't turned off, the screen just went dark. I've turned it back on now."
"Okay ." The sound of a door closing and a computer fan came from the phone; Misha should have placed her phone on the computer case. "Wait a minute... Millie isn't home?"
"No, didn't she go out with you?"
"Yes, but..." If Millie were coming home, she should have been home within half an hour. He had been calling Misha for over ten minutes, and recounting the information had taken another ten minutes; the time should have been enough.
Alain said half of the sentence, but his footsteps suddenly stopped.
"Speaking of which, how did the Failure find Misha so accurately in a sea of people? By exhaustive search, looking in one place after another? Unlikely... " He and his good bro had only been out for a short two hours. The Failure had found Misha in the mall in at most two hours. "By the way, it was very likely eroded by a virus like the Tamperer."
Alain remembered the monster breeding house in the game world; the small spiders parasitized by the Parasite had a tendency to prioritize attacking Mitas.
The Failure had a method for searching for Mitas. And its aggressiveness towards Mitas was extremely high. Assuming this, it could be guessed why Misha in the supermarket had suffered an attack. And the Failure was temporarily repelled by Misha. Then the other Mita in the real world—
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