"Please, take a look around you!"
On the screen, Mita clapped her hands, her smile as bright and warm as a spring morning. She gazed at Alain, waiting.
"What's this supposed to mean? Some kind of twisted joke from the game devs...?" he muttered.
As the words left his lips, a soft pink glow, utterly out of place in his dim, familiar room, caught his eye.
He blinked. He'd been playing the game at night. Now, it was…daylight? A bright, cheerful daylight that had no business being here.
Alain pushed himself back from the computer. The monitor and keyboard, once a stark, masculine black, were now a shocking, bubblegum pink.
He stood, slowly taking in the room. It was awash in the same rosy hue. Sunlight streamed through a window he didn't remember having, scattering dust motes that danced like tiny, glowing fairies around him.
"What is going on?"
The air was thick with a sweet, almost cloyingly feminine fragrance. One sniff, and a strange, pleasant feeling washed over him. He felt a blush creep up his neck. Another sniff.
"Huh? Wait a second..."
He frowned, his gaze drawn to a series of photos plastered on the wall. Each one depicted a cute, chibi-style girl with vibrant blue hair, striking a series of playful poses.
This couldn't be a prank. The thought flitted through his mind and was immediately dismissed. He knew that girl. The room's layout, the girl in the pictures… it all perfectly matched Mita, the heroine of the game he'd been playing. A prank of this scale would be ludicrously expensive, and for what?
"...Did I somehow get pulled into Mita's world?"
The idea, preposterous as it seemed, was the only explanation that made any sense. He'd transmigrated before, after all. After a few minutes of bewildered wandering around the unfamiliar, pink-drenched room, he managed to accept the bizarre reality.
He now found himself standing before a table cluttered with strange, unidentifiable instruments, his eyes returning to the photographs. "But...why is she in her short-haired form? And her skin...? I do prefer the short hair, though..."
Tzz—
The screen in front of Alain erupted in a chaotic jumble of garbled code, then snapped back to normal. A familiar dialogue box popped up.
[Current Version: 1.5, locating correct virus location]
"The Security Guard?" Alain stared, dumbfounded.
The bright room instantly destabilized. Code flickered, data streams snaked across the walls, the pink fading in and out. With a whoosh, the brightness vanished, plunging the room into near darkness. Only a faint sliver of light from the window allowed him to make out the shapes of nearby objects.
[Unknown interference detected…]
"Unknown interference? Is this dark room the interference?"
The moment the question left his lips, the dim light was extinguished completely. He was enveloped in a suffocating, absolute blackness.
Then, with the buzz of a faulty connection, as if someone had flipped a switch, the bright pink room reappeared, exactly as it had been when he first arrived.
[Interference cleared, reached correct version: 1.9]
Alain was utterly lost. The room was unchanged, still eerily empty.
His gaze drifted back to the photos. He suddenly realized something was different. The short-haired Mita in the pictures had been replaced by the familiar version with low pigtails.
But something else caught his attention: a small icon in the lower right corner of his vision. It resembled a blue sphere encircled by two smaller satellites. Without consciously willing it, his focus shifted to the icon, and a semi-transparent panel materialized before him.
[You have received a newbie gift: one progress bar-free use of "Security Shield"]
"?"
He didn't understand. Shaking his head, he dismissed the pop-up and focused on the panel itself.
It appeared to be made of some kind of reflective glass, faintly showing his own bewildered expression. Most of the text was in characters he couldn't decipher. At the bottom, a progress bar stretched across the panel. At the 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% marks, small icons, resembling skills, were displayed, each accompanied by a short, clinical description.
He skimmed them quickly, grasping the basic concept: complete the progress bar to unlock these abilities. The skill available at 25% was [Security Shield]; at 50%, [Virus Scan]; at 75%, [Cleanup Acceleration]; and at 100%, [Mission Return].
He didn't bother examining the other skills for now, instead reaching out and tapping the newly acquired [Security Shield].
[Security Shield: Block one instance of in-game damage]
So, a lifeline? But a lifeline for what? This was still, ostensibly, a dating sim. What kind of damage could he possibly encounter? Scalding himself in the shower?
His attention was drawn to the final skill, [Mission Return]. A frown creased his forehead. He'd assumed he was trapped here. So, there was a way back.
His current confusion centered around the progress bar's objective. The Security Guard's panel provided an explanation. It was remarkably straightforward: defeat viruses.
But that didn't make sense. The Security Guard usually referred to "scanning and eliminating" viruses. Why the sudden shift to the comparatively gentle term "defeat"...?
"This is all so bizarre, dragging me into a place like this," he muttered.
Despite his supposed adaptability, the three rapid-fire scene changes had left him reeling.
"And I can't even find the target—"
He was about to take another look at the Security Guard panel when he noticed something in the reflection. It wasn't just his face.
Behind him, silently and without his knowledge, a familiar girl had appeared.
He struggled to find the words to describe her expression.
Mita's beautiful face was the same, her dark blue low pigtails hanging perfectly in place. She wore a red knit sweater. But the usual gentle sweetness was gone. Her lips were stretched into a wide, crescent-moon grin, like a mischievous imp plotting a prank. She was reaching for him. She even unconsciously gnawed on her thumb with her sharp canines, a gesture that was the complete opposite of the "ladylike" image he held of her.
It was...like the "eating hand.jpg" meme, if he had to put a name to it.
This was the gentle Mita? He felt a strange mixture of apprehension and confusion. Were there more surprises waiting? He felt he should say something.
But after the Security Guard's appearance, the jarring shifts in reality, and the fact that he'd somehow transmigrated again, he felt a strange sense of calm. Anything seemed possible now. Besides, a little mischief was...kind of cute, wasn't it?
He turned.
The instant their eyes met, the impish grin vanished from Mita's face. She was instantly transformed back into the charming, adorable girl he remembered.
Clasping her hands shyly, she spoke in her usual, soft tone:
"Hello. Alain, we've finally met!"
_____
Hey there! I'm Wallnut-chan! 🌸 I'm translating this fanfic and restoring some +18 scenes that were cut from the original work—since explicit content isn't allowed in China. I went through everything carefully and reinserted the scenes while staying true to the story! Hope you enjoy it!
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I put a lot of love into these translations and plan to add even more over time! Let's aim for the top of the site! Who knows... maybe I'll go crazy and drop even more chapters! 🚀🔥