After understanding the current status of the Unknown Port and the [Wired Transmission], the group discussed it for a while but ultimately remained clueless.
Just then, it was time for Miluo's tutoring session, so Misha took the girl out the door.
Seeing that the discussion had ended, 2D Mita returned to the Safety Assistant. She continued to flip through Alain's doujinshi repository and photo albums with great relish.
"It's fine if you look at them yourself, just don't let Misha see," Alain said, the corners of his mouth twitching as he watched her open a Pure Love doujinshi to admire.
"Aiyaya, relax, relax. I'm very busy right now, you can scram first." Saying this, 2D Mita proceeded to close the Safety Assistant panel on her own accord.
Alain held his forehead, pondering whether letting 2D Mita inside the Assistant was actually a mistake.
Perhaps downloading a "Little Bird Wallpaper" someday and letting 2D taste the punishment of being entangled by an "Adware Tentacle Monster" wouldn't be bad either.
These rambling thoughts quickly skimmed past Alain's mind.
His thoughts couldn't help but drift back to the Safety Assistant itself.
What everyone had been discussing was the Unknown Port. But in reality, there was still a "Core Port" that they had consistently ignored.
The Core Port simply existed, but it had never received any information... this point struck Alain as quite strange.
He had learned before: the Core Port's receiving location is at the Core, meaning it is truly governed by the Game World.
In all likelihood, it is a friendly force.
Misha had previously speculated: could the Safety Assistant have been stripped from the antivirus program within the Core...?
This point was far-fetched, but surprisingly quite possible. There was just no fact to corroborate it.
The Safety Assistant and the Core's antivirus program had no relationship other than the two connection points of "Antivirus" and "Core Port."
Too many questions, too little information; it made Alain's skull ache a bit.
He felt that he was still more suited to going slash-slash-slash on the front lines.
When that time comes, he could just empty his mind, leave his body to Millie and the gamepad to control, while he thought about what excuse to use to get naughty with Misha next time.
Wouldn't that be beautiful?
"I really want to beat it." Alain narrowed his eyes and lay flat on the sofa. However, a young girl's voice came from beside him,
"Beat what?"
"..." He opened his eyes and looked towards the sound, finding Mila's unkind gaze.
"Hey, Mila! The game isn't finished yet~" From the game room, Millie's voice drifted over.
Mila responded, "I have words for Alain!"
"Oh, oh, I'm coming too!"
After the thump-thump-thump of hurried footsteps, his good buddy sat down next to Alain holding the gamepad.
"Snuggle~" Millie affectionately wrapped her arms around his, leaning into him.
"Snuggle." Alain also kissed the young girl's cheek.
Mila watched, extremely astonished. "W-What is going on with you two?"
"Hmm? Did you not know?" Alain asked strangely. "She is my girlfriend."
"Hah?! Girlfriend? What does that mean?" Mila glanced at Millie, realizing her cheeks were flushed red and she wasn't denying it.
Millie also made a hush gesture at Mila. "Don't tell my best friend... I mean Misha, just yet. I haven't mentally prepared myself."
"..."
Mila held her forehead, feeling that everything was a chaotic mess.
She changed the subject. "Alright, what were you thinking about just now? You can tell us; maybe we can offer some suggestions."
"Yeah, Bro!" Millie gave Alain's thigh a solid slap. "There's strength in numbers!"
Alain had almost forgotten; his girlfriend's brain was personally certified by Misha as being sharp.
As for Mila...
"...Don't look at me with eyes meant for an idiot," Mila glared.
Alain shook his head; his thoughts had been discovered.
He recounted the information he had just learned to the two young girls.
"Mn... [Wired], is it? Indeed," Millie took out the gamepad.
"Just speaking of gamepads, Bluetooth reaction speed isn't as fast as a connection cable. Moreover, sometimes when there are many signal sources, it's unstable."
"That is exactly where the problem lies." Alain was distressed. Noticing that the two young girls couldn't think of anything either, he didn't mind.
"Perhaps we are acting with undue haste right now?"
"No, no, no, Good Brother." Millie shook her head. "Just because we don't know, doesn't mean others don't know, right?"
The young girl tilted her cap slightly downward. "Just like how I'm not good at planning, so I usually let Misha help. Since we don't know about the connection cable..."
She smiled mysteriously. "Can we get someone else to tell us the answer?"
"...Someone else?" Alain vaguely grasped something.
Millie's smile, full of profound meaning, flickered in the bottom of his eyes.
She slowly spat out a name,
"Monika."
"!"
Alain understood what she wanted to say. If our side doesn't know, then the enemy's side might be able to yield some clues.
He thought about it again... Monika indeed had some kind of dissent towards her superior, who was suspected to be Yang Wanhua; her allegiance was wavering.
Yang Wanhua seemed to lack trust in her as well, causing Monika to be unable to say much usually, as she lacked sufficient authority.
But precisely because her authority wasn't enough, and she hadn't made up her mind to cooperate with Alain yet, presumably no answer could be obtained from her either.
He sighed slightly; the clue was broken again.
Furthermore, Alain currently had no means to communicate with Monika.
The only place they could interact was perhaps the Game World, and he would have to go deep into the virus's lair to see her...
"If I had known earlier, back in Version 1.0F, I would have gotten a contact method from Monika."
His casual remark caught the attention of the two young girls beside him.
Millie thought for a moment and spoke up,
"A communication method... you should have one here, right?"
"I don't." Alain shook his head.
"Hmm? That's strange..." The cap-wearing girl lifted the brim of her hat. "Didn't I hear Misha say last time that you received a strange file via email from Monika, who was disguised as a real estate agent? I think it was called... monika.chr?"
"Correct. But that file, I don't know what to do with it either." Alain sighed.
Leaving aside that 12-digit password.
He didn't intend to open `monika.chr` rashly.
However, he had learned about the nature of `.chr` files from 2D Mita.
If opened, they could be viewed using a computer's Notepad or audio software.
Reportedly, in genomics, `.chr` files are typically used to save chromosome sequences or genome annotation information... content that Alain's university major had absolutely not covered.
Back when Monika sent him this file via email, there was no message urging him to open it.
When they met again last time in Version 1.0F, she hadn't mentioned this matter at all.
"..."
Alain's face went slightly blank, and in the instant his pupils froze—a massive shockwave hit him.
Sitting beside him, Millie saw that Alain understood and smiled gently. "You realized it?"
Alain turned his head to look at her and nodded. "Yeah... I realized it."
A communication method—he had one! He actually had one!
Who sent that email with the `monika.chr` attachment? Monika!
Alain remembered that although the email was sent anonymously, and even the subject line was just a single "1"...
The email's reply function could still be used!
Which meant Alain could attempt to communicate with her by replying to the letter.
"Good Brother, you are truly amazing!" Alain hugged her tightly, pulling her into his embrace, and took a fierce inhale against her small cherry lips.
"Mmph... Mmmph!" Millie complained.
Mila covered her face, watching these two wordlessly through the gaps in her fingers, wondering why the situation had developed into this state...
"Pfft-hah! You Bad Brother, you actually forced a kiss on me again!" Millie bit him once before Alain let it go.
"It's nothing, Millie. You're still as sweet as ever."
Alain raised his eyebrows at her, provoking a blush from the young girl.
"What are you suddenly saying?"
"Alright, alright, your boyfriend is going to start working." Alain didn't stop to rest; he unlocked his phone and opened his email.
Mila sat curiously on his right hand side, watching Alain scroll through emails filled with notifications from Steam, Epic, Kagura Games, Hikari Field, and DLsite...
"I can tell, you must be a god in the 2D realm," Mila commented.
Steam didn't need mentioning. Epic was because they gave away games lavishly. Kagura Games was for applying R18 patches, and Hikari Field had a high frequency of discounts, plus you could enter drawings after buying games.
And DLsite could practically be called a world-class encyclopedia of galgames. From the extremely mainstream official Chinese uncensored Bishoujo Mangekyo to the more niche Dead End, everything was included. You could even settle payments directly with RMB...
Of course, DLsite calculated prices by converting Yen to RMB, so the prices were on the high side. But the discount margins were also very high.
"You only just realized?" Alain almost clicked on a DLsite notification out of habit.
At the same time, he lamented that Kagura's games were still of such varying quality...
No, right now he should focus on serious business.
Soon, Alain found that email with the `monika.chr` attachment in the corner of his inbox.
He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and clicked the email open.
A read-email interface, largely blank, appeared before the eyes of Alain and the others.
The sender, unsurprisingly, was still anonymous. The subject was a single "1", with the attachment `monika.chr`. The content of the email was unwritten; it was all blank.
Everything was just as Alain had checked last time, with no changes. Alain hadn't replied, and Monika hadn't sent anything again.
He looked at the small triangle to the right of the sender's name, feeling a little nervous for a moment, as if he had returned to the awkwardness of sending a message to a girl for the first time in middle school...
No, Monika shouldn't be treated as a woman.
Alain nodded and clicked that small triangle. A pop-up window jumped out.
His gaze focused on those two short words: [Reply].
The reply icon hadn't turned gray, which meant it was usable.
So far, no unexpected situations had occurred.
"Aiya, you're too dilly-dallying, let me do it!"
Millie excitedly snatched the phone, quickly tapped [Reply].
Then, she rapidly typed in Pinyin... and clicked [Send].
[Are you free tonight?]
___
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