NABC Chapter 432 432: Hospital
Chapter 432 432: Hospital
Hospital, outside the operating room.
"How is the situation?" Alain placed his coat on the iron bench, greeted Miluo, Millie, and the others sitting opposite him, then sat down beside Misha and asked.
After sending the Version 0.98 Mita to Version 1.15 and entrusting her to Big Sister's care, Alain had rushed non-stop to the hospital, which currently held the utmost urgency.
Core Mita's condition at the time was extremely poor; she could barely speak, let alone provide other information.
Therefore, if he wanted to understand the situation, he would have to wait for Core Mita to wake up.
"As you can see," Misha glanced at the operating room where the red light was still on, her expression clouded with worry. "The situation isn't too bad."
"Not too bad?" He looked at Misha's expression; it didn't look like a "nothing happened" kind of look.
"Tell me in detail."
"...Mn." The long-haired young girl looked at the hospital corridor filled with people coming and going, her ears filled with the conversations of doctors and the crying of patients' families...
"At first, after accepting Core Mita from you, we immediately called a taxi and headed to the hospital.
"Although I have many questions about why Core Mita could appear in reality, since she is a Mita, I still checked her physical condition first.
"The situation was very bad, almost to the point where survival was unlikely. Alain, you said Core Mita spoke to you, right?
"I'm afraid that, translated into human or Mita terms, that was equivalent to coughing up pieces of internal organs while delivering one's last words."
Alain listened and nodded silently.
Core Mita's eyes at that time, as well as the weak tone that resonated directly in his mind, all illustrated the problem.
Core Mita was weak. Weak enough that she had almost passed away.
Misha continued, "To use gaming terminology, assuming Core Mita has 100 Health Points, then by the time I took over, she probably only had 1 HP left...
"But precisely because of this, what puzzles me is..."
The young girl looked up, gazing at the scarlet light of the operating room.
"Why is the repair method not carried out inside the game, but in reality? This obviously does not conform to common sense."
Alain did not deny it. When Core Mita proposed going to a real-world hospital, Alain also had a hundred questions.
But there was no time to ask back then.
"Did the doctors at the time have any reaction?" he asked.
Misha looked at him solemnly. "No reaction.
"The entire process, including registration, consultation, and being sent into the operating room, proceeded completely normally.
"Those doctors showed not the slightest surprise upon seeing Core Mita, acting as if she were just an ordinary patient.
"Alain, you understand what this means, right?"
He certainly knew. Or rather, as early as the events at the mansion, and even during the Failed Work's attack in reality, he had been mentally prepared.
"Cognitive Modification."
Once again.
In the past Failed Work incident, Misha had been attacked by a Failed Work in the shopping mall.
The two sides fought back and forth, practically dismantling the entire mall.
Misha expressed her apologies to Alain regarding compensation afterward, and Alain accepted it calmly. He didn't say much about it later.
Misha's life was more important than any property.
But Alain never received that bill.
After the Misha incident, Alain fell into a chase battle with a Failed Work.
He carried an electric saw and intercepted the Failed Work on the street.
That was a street packed with crowds at night!
Yet the next day, not only was there no news report, but he didn't even receive any messages from the police.
In the end, he randomly found a passerby—an elderly sanitation worker.
Alain held the Failed Work's arm and asked what kind of trash it was. Who knew that the old man wouldn't know how to classify it either.
But was the problem "how to classify it"? The problem was—that was the arm of a life-sized puppet! It looked suspicious no matter how you looked at it.
Yet not only did that old man not show a shred of surprise, but he also remained completely composed.
All of this created a connection with the events that happened to Alain in the Yalin Villa No. 6 residence.
Alain had opened the window then, revealing a scene like a bug:
The window glass and the outside of the window presented different scenes. It was as if a programmer had piled up a mountain of shitty code and was too lazy to fix it, so they simply pasted a window that couldn't be opened to fudge it.
Or perhaps, the programmer didn't realize there was a bug there at all, and it was a hint Monika wanted to point out to Alain after discovering it.
The so-called "Your reality".
Finally, there is no need to mention why Electronic Life forms like Mitas and viruses can appear in reality.
In short, to summarize it in one sentence—
"There is a problem with reality," Misha said.
"Based on my guess, Core Mita entering the hospital is actually a bit like restoring recovery in a game.
"Repair can restore Health Points to one hundred percent, but it requires time to 'load'—to load the data. And this so-called time—is the surgery.
"So Alain, do you have any key information on your end?"
Alain nodded and told Misha everything he had obtained inside the mansion, leaving out no details.
The young girl nodded her head. "So that's how it is."
She fell into deep thought. Alain did not disturb her; his eyes aimlessly looked at the ceiling, recalling the events he had experienced one after another.
The bizarre nature of reality was too strange no matter how one thought about it.
The illusions in [The Forgotten Jigsaw Puzzle] were even linked to reality.
"Alain, do you think there is a possibility?" Not long after, Misha seemed to have thought of something and stared at him calmly.
Alain nodded, signaling for her to continue.
The young girl bit her lip, observing Alain's expression. Seeing his peaceful appearance, ready for anything...
She spoke, "Perhaps, we never left the Game World at all."
Misha followed the natural light, looking at the greenery outside the window. "This so-called reality is actually not the reality you know; it is merely a [Game] named Reality.
"The air breathed in this place is definitely not composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and the like, but code; the trees are not composed of roots and leaves, but modeling;
"People follow the same logic, Alain. What flows inside your body might not be blood, but code.
"We are still situated within a Game World right now—do you think that's possible?"
Her eyes were as gentle as always, looking like a pool of tranquil water in the light passing through the window glass.
But the words she spoke pierced his eardrums like sharp swords.
A Game World... Yes, perhaps they had never walked out of the Game World.
If it were a game—or rather, a world constructed of code, then it would make sense.
Why could Mita come to reality? Why could he freely shuttle between "Game and Reality"? Why could things from inside the game come to reality?
And... why did the Security System have such massive authority—able to give the Mitas a legal identity in the real world.
If they were truly in reality, giving Mitas an identity wouldn't necessarily be hard to do, but it would require certain [Connections].
After all, for Mitas to appear out of nowhere as foreigners and be inserted with identities would even escalate to international disputes; it was obviously unrealistic.
But if reality were also a game, then it made sense.
Change the code, and Mitas can become part of reality.
Because, isn't reality—just a game?
"Currently, we can only reach such a conclusion. There is another crucially important question, Alain. You must know."
Misha's words floated over; clearly light and airy, yet they were deafening.
"It is very normal for Mitas to shuttle through the Game World. Because the so-called reality is a game.
"Then, what about you? Alain, you...
"Why are you here?"
Her face leaned in closer to Alain.
He could smell the body fragrance and scent of hair on the young girl. But the words she spoke made Alain shudder without being cold.
Misha slowly uttered a string of nouns:
"Brain in a Vat."
Boom!!!
It was as if a clap of thunder resonating through the sky struck beside his ear.
But Misha quickly changed her tone and smiled. "These are just my guesses. The current possibility is still very small."
"...Mn." Alain understood. With Misha's empathy, plus the seriousness of a leader...
The two superimposed on each other caused Misha to tell Alain the worst possibilities, thereby allowing him to make full psychological preparations.
The young girl's gentleness was consistent, moving Alain somewhat.
At the same time, he had no choice but to weigh this possibility in his heart.
"Aside from this, did Core Mita say anything else to you?" he asked.
"Mn, she did." The young girl tapped her lip with her fingertip, pondered for two seconds, and spoke slowly.
"Aside from telling you to hurry to the Core, she said time is running short or something. Additionally, she mentioned something you might care about very much."
Misha observed the young man's expression and read it out word by word,
"Cartridge.
"She said the noun [Cartridge]. She also said...
"If you want to understand matters related to the Cartridge, then go to the Core immediately. There, you will find the answers you want to know."
Misha smiled as she spoke. "Of course, it's not that rushed. You can also wait for Core Mita to wake up and tell you slowly. You only just came back, didn't you?"
"No," Alain denied. "Since Core Mita said so, there must be a certain reason."
Listen to people's advice and you'll get a full meal—he still understood this principle.
But what puzzled him was—
"Aren't there a lot of viruses at the Core? How am I supposed to get there? Or... launch an all-out attack directly?"
"An all-out attack... sounds a bit awkward~" The young girl smiled. "But she did mention this matter. Alain, you should have that item Monika sent you, right?
"Core Mita said, as long as you have that thing, you can enter and exit the Core safe and sound, thereby remaining unaffected by the electronic viruses."
"Hm? The one Monika sent me?" Alain thought for two seconds, thinking of the attachment in that email.
Monika.chr.
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