Regarding the fact that my best friend is a magical girl

Outside the door was a long corridor, with various cables, pipes and LED indicator lights on the walls that were not clearly defined. Although the walls looked like soil, the surface was quite smooth.

Where exactly is this place?

The huge, empty building evokes a sense of fear in people.

When was I ever feeling this way?

Is anyone there?

Even if it's an enemy, even if it's not human, I want to find something else that's still moving beside me to interact with. However, things didn't go as planned. At the other end of the narrow corridor, there was still a spacious and empty room. Compared to the new room with capsules that I had just arrived in, this room was so empty that there was nothing there except for some dim ambient lights.

Fortunately, there is another exit from this room.

Perhaps if I keep going, I'll find some answers...

As if driven by a deep-seated fear, I quickened my pace. The fragments of consciousness speaking of reality and virtuality, combined with the current environment, generated an indescribable fear.

Am I in reality right now?

What are these cables on the wall for?

What is this huge building?

I started running.

The thought that the answer might lie ahead drove me to run at full speed.

It was still a long, narrow passage leading to the next room, but if you moved forward as light, you could pass through in an instant.

"This is……"

It was still a large hall, but with huge stone doors.

It shares similar colors with the surrounding stone pillars, walls, and floor, and its shape is completely consistent with the gate of the Dark Seal. Countless cables and pipes that fill the entire space are connecting to the space behind the gate through the gaps on the side of the gate.

What exactly are these pipes and cables...?

Is that door the exit?

Or is it the entrance to another room?

In any case, opening that door will reveal the answer, but the air here is thick with darkness, an unbearable and harsh environment for a heart made entirely of light…

"Tsk, the unstable contact between light and darkness can easily get out of control and cause trouble."

"Since you know that, get back to sleep!!"

The sudden sound and attack, a violent flying kick from behind—if I had a spine, that kick would have left me paralyzed from the neck down.

Even though they are enemies, being able to talk means that something can be found out...

"what?"

A black rabbit.

Or rather, a bunny girl in a tight-fitting outfit.

"……Who are you?"

"Are you going to ask the same question again, knowing the answer already? Fine, it would be a bit pretentious to say it's the same person now... I am Michelle's mother, but even if I tell you this, you'll forget about it soon enough."

She said...again?

I've been here more than once.

Every time I come, I'm sent back to that capsule to "sleep" and then my memory is erased.

According to the fragments of consciousness, a "virtual" coma is the best chance to wake up in "reality," and conversely, to return to the new "virtual" world, one must sleep in "reality"...

Is that hibernation pod my bed in "reality"?

So, are there other people sleeping there besides me?

Where is Michelle?

What about Seruno?

What about everyone else in the world?

There's so much information to process, and this black rabbit is watching me like a hawk; I can't fully grasp the current situation...

But clearly, if they want to continue investigating this matter, they can't let her send them to sleep.

She vanished from my sight, and the attack followed.

She is using the power of the Morning Star Crystal.

The increased mobility brought by the time acceleration clearly exceeded my reaction speed. Utilizing the crystallized defense and all-angle lasers for a counterattack is the optimal strategy.

But obviously, I would have thought the same way before.

That guy has a trump card against me, but I don't know what it is...

But whether it's "reality" or "virtual", there's always one thing in common.

I must leave the insurance.

Chapter 410 Encapsulated Memories

When I woke up again, I was lying on a soft yet unfamiliar large bed, still wearing my combat uniform, but covered with a blanket on top of the temperature-regulating uniform.

"woke up?"

Miss Terra was sitting on the sofa by the bed, sighing.

"Next time, let's not force our way in."

"Hmm, where is this?" I asked.

I have a headache; it feels like my head has been hit with a blunt object.

Because I was having trouble breathing, I put away the helmet from my combat uniform and took a long-awaited breath of fresh air.

“Michelle has prepared a private room for you in the Moon Palace, free from any dark pollution. She also told you to go back as soon as you wake up. Anyone can come to this place, but you are not allowed…”

I interrupted her.

"Wait, Michelle? Where is she?"

"Uh, she didn't come to see you..."

Terra's words were somewhat evasive.

"Then I have to go see her. Don't forget why I came here in the first place."

Little did he know that instead of teaching Michelle a lesson, he collapsed first.

Thank goodness that girl wasn't planning on killing me yet...

Terra sighed, "You really don't learn your lesson."

"We've come this far, how could we give up so easily? You know why I came here, and you know how important Seruno is to me."

"You two shouldn't have direct contact. Let me ask her for you."

"That works too..." The imbalance between light and darkness is troublesome. Without Seruno's support, the radiance I possess is far from enough to contend with the darkness of the Great Will.

"Then I'll be right back."

Terra got up and left the bedroom, giving me a chance to look around.

The room wasn't large, but it was decorated as lavishly as the palace in the Moon Palace, with luxurious wool carpets on the floor and a huge half-length portrait of Michelle hanging on the wall.

This girl is really narcissistic, isn't she?

From the balcony window, you can also see the sand table bay located beneath the moon.

Azure seas and silver sands, gentle waves lapping the shore—though it's a fictional landscape, it's still quite unique and no less beautiful than Naboo Island…

Hmm, fiction?

I feel like I've forgotten something very important, and this isn't the first time I've felt this way.

Close your eyes and try to search for those lost memories...

As a result, we actually found some clues.

"what is this?"

Deep within the heart of light, in the space that holds my consciousness, lies a letter. The envelope contains neither words nor language…

It is, rather, a "memory" that is encapsulated.

I know what this is; it's something I left behind, but I don't remember when I left it.

My consciousness opened the envelope, and the memory fragments recorded inside flooded into my mind.

"These are..."

"Reality" and "Virtual": the truth of two worlds;

Empty buildings and a huge stone gate sealing something;

And the experience of fighting against another version of yourself...

Will you lose your memory if you are sent back to the virtual world from the 'reality' world?

Knowing this, I left this letter before being sent back.

No, to be precise, he deliberately lost to the Black Rabbit in order to send the letter back.

"virtual?"

I looked out at the view from the balcony again, but no matter how I looked, I couldn't see anything unreal. The weak AI in the helmet couldn't analyze it either...

If all of this is a hoax, then the reason I fell into a coma is obviously not an imbalance of light and darkness, but rather Michelle's direct interference with me.

She doesn't want me to see her, but why?

I can't understand Michelle's thoughts, or as Aldebaran said, is it really Seruno or a mysterious third party behind the scenes?

Everything depends on opening that door.

Terra said she was going to talk to Michelle, but Michelle most likely won't come to see me. If this is really just a fictional world, then it doesn't matter whether she comes to see me or not. In the end, I still need to go behind that stone door to find out what's going on after I "wake up"...

Hmm, I finally see a solution to the problem.