The first rays of morning sunlight spilled across the young man's face, pulling him from sleep. His mind, still hazy with drowsiness, slowly began to clear.
"Ah..."
He yawned, a long, lazy stretch accompanying it, as the memories of yesterday flooded back.
After he and Misha had left the rooftop... well, things had unfolded precisely as Alain had anticipated.
On their way back, they'd found themselves drawn, almost without a word, back to Crystal Flower Park. Unsurprisingly, the view from ground level couldn't compare to the breathtaking panorama they'd witnessed from above.
But something had shifted. Their initial arrival at the garden had been marked by easy companionship. This time, with their relationship having taken a tentative step forward, a quiet awareness hung between them.
They held hands the entire time, a silent connection, but barely spoke. Every time their eyes met, Misha would blush, her gaze flitting away.
Even now, recalling it...
It's too innocent.
"Sizzle—"
The aroma of something frying drifted in from the living room. Misha, clearly learning from past experience, had risen even earlier than Alain.
And he, at this moment, felt a distinct reluctance to leave the warmth of the bed...
"Forget it, priorities."
Alain had no intention of going to school today. His plan was to return to Misha's world, to continue chipping away at that progress bar.
And the first order of business? Finding that bad woman.
He had a strategy.
He cast his mind back to the time he'd been alone with Crazy Mita, when she'd tried to drug him, to turn him into a cassette, only to be foiled by the vigilant security guard.
Afterward, Alain had descended into the basement, encountering the then-kind Misha – the Misha he knew now.
She'd told him about Crazy Mita's cassette machine. And that machine...
...could see the player's field of vision. He just wasn't sure if it could control the player.
This meant a crucial information gap existed between Alain and his adversary.
His first step was to test whether he could manipulate the cassette machine's view. He opened the security guard panel on his phone.
There, nestled in the system panel, was a small, almost crudely drawn icon. It sat at the very bottom right corner of the [Security Protection] icon.
Alain tapped it. A box appeared, framed by a series of control buttons. At its center was a black screen.
The screen's aspect ratio matched that of the cassette machine.
He'd already grasped the basic operating procedure from the security guard's explanation.
In essence, he needed to visualize the scene he wanted the cassette machine to display, then input keywords. The security guard would then automatically refine it, creating the illusion of an in-game scene.
This meant that Crazy Mita's cassette machine would show precisely what Alain wanted it to show.
And his plan was to deliberately reveal his location, right from the start, to lure Crazy Mita.
Crazy Mita... the name felt jarring. It didn't suit his strangely endearing bad woman.
He wouldn't activate the plan immediately, but about a minute before entering the game.
Any sooner, and he risked Crazy Mita realizing he was controlling the cassette machine.
"Right, second order of business."
Alain set down his phone and opened the bedside table drawer. Inside, nestled quietly, was a bag of candy, and...
Panties.
A girl's panties.
The bad woman's panties, to be precise.
He couldn't resist picking them up, holding them to the light. The pure white fabric, illuminated by the morning sun, seemed almost angelic, holy and bright.
Should I... smell them?
"No, Alain. This is combat equipment. You can't afford to get distracted by... those kinds of thoughts!"
He forcefully suppressed the strange stirring within him. He had to remember that this... weapon... was arguably his trump card against Crazy Mita.
It had been over a day since he'd last exited the game. He figured the bad woman had likely discovered her missing undergarment by now.
But Alain felt no guilt. He'd left an IOU.
At worst, he could compensate her with a pair of his own next time. Boxers were superior to briefs, so the bad woman would actually be coming out ahead.
"But... Crazy Mita's panties?"
Crazy Mita, Crazy Mi... honey?
Would the panties... be sweet?
Alain was starting to realize that being constantly bullied by "honey" had warped his perception, leading to some rather unusual thoughts about these panties.
"Honey" was a surprisingly pleasant nickname. It rolled off the tongue. The English word was... honey? He might try calling her that in the game.
Besides, his current focus shouldn't be on this, but on the candy.
Alain picked up his phone, accessed the 720 Cloud Storage function, and retrieved the bag of candy.
The cloud storage interface was stark and simple: a dozen boxes, and two buttons labeled [Upload] and [Download].
There were three sections in total.
Most of the boxes were dark, but one was illuminated, indicating it was currently available for use.
Alain placed the candy on his phone and tapped "Upload."
[Review complete, meets requirements]
Alain blinked. The candy on his phone vanished. A pure black window suddenly popped up on the screen.
It appeared to be the code the candy had been converted into. The first line of the black window read: [Candy].
Then, rows of letters and symbols began to cascade down, forming line after line of code.
After a few seconds, the code stopped generating, and the insertion cursor blinked steadily, indicating completion.
[Upload successful]
"That's it?"
Alain was a little bewildered. He glanced at the "Upload" button; it hadn't dimmed. On a whim, he grabbed a nearby pen and tried again.
[Review failed, upload failed]
"Figures."
He thought for a moment, his gaze landing on his wardrobe.
"..."
A moment later, a slightly embarrassed Alain sat back on the bed, the security guard's window popping up again.
[Review successful, meets requirements]
Alain stared at the boxers laid out on his phone. The security guard's review mechanism was truly bizarre.
The only stated requirement for cloud storage was that items had to be related to defeating the virus.
But by what twisted logic did candy and underwear fall into the same category?
How could underwear possibly defeat a virus? By... having sex with "honey"?!
Damn it, security guard.
[Upload failed]
Even worse. It wouldn't even let him voice his frustration. You better hope you don't turn into a woman. He grumbled internally.
Of course, Alain knew the underlying reason, and he hadn't held out much hope anyway.
He checked the cloud storage function. The small pop-up window in the lower right corner confirmed his suspicion: his current item bar only had one slot available. Therefore, he couldn't store anything else.
"Whatever, a bag of candy is enough."
Alain wasn't overly concerned. He'd known the outcome from the start; this was just a test. He'd likely unlock more item slots later.
His peripheral vision caught the "angel" on his left – Crazy Mita's panties.
"..."
He placed the "angel" on his phone and clicked "Upload" again.
This was purely out of idle curiosity. After all... wasn't it often the case?
Serious attempts often fail, while unintentional ones stumble into success.
Of course, Alain didn't really believe that. He was in the real world.
[Review successful, meets requirements]
Such ridiculous things simply didn't happen. Impossible, utterly impossible.
[Upload successful]
"?"
____
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