[CONTINUE + 3] Week 1 || Act: mingle

[foundationmods]

Monday comes onto the snowy town once more, though it still looks as if it's 'night' as ever.

Then again, you are underground. That's just to be expected, considering no natural light can get down here in the first place. The Monsters around you are just as friendly as ever, despite this being your fourth 'time' trying this monday.

There doesn't seem to be many Monsters here...or at least, you think there was more before? Huh.

Well, whatever.

You still have a mission - And with three trials under your belt, you're now a little closer to figuring things out.

...How much longer will this repeat?

FUN VALUE: 7
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Comments

[improbablenotimpossible]

I'm assuming that you're not entirely sure on your theories just yet?

[dereban]

Not in the slightest.

[improbablenotimpossible]

There's still much we don't know - for example, what is their end goal exactly? Finding the right SOUL is likely just a means.

[a beat]

...like a plot coupon or upgrade perhaps.

[dereban]

It makes me wonder if the colors don't actually matter in this case...

I was thinking that maybe there was some sort of deeper meaning to it, but - I'm not so sure anymore.

[improbablenotimpossible]

It's hard to say, but it does seem having someone thrown into the core is necessary.

[dereban]

You mean like... it's an "action that's set in stone"?

[improbablenotimpossible]

Something that is required to proceed.

[dereban]

Do you think that there's a possibility that 'the action of throwing someone into the core' equals 'what is necessary to reset'?

[improbablenotimpossible]

If resetting is the goal.

[dereban]

It's also possible that it's not necessarily the 'goal', but rather... how do I put it?

A means to an end... maybe?

Like in a video game, you'd either reload from your last save point in order to redo something because you messed up somehow. Like you missed an item, or chose the wrong option...

[...

And then, a sudden realization-]

...we shouldn't do any more of those missions...

[improbablenotimpossible]

Unlocking areas is a common way to advance in a game...

ah, I see you're suggesting we're helping them along by completing them.

[dereban]

Also don't you think that the fact we found the keycard to the lab in a cake, along with a 'letter' that can be added into the UI is too convenient?

It feels like it might have been... planted.

[sageking]

And yet, last time a reset occurred without anyone being 'thrown' into the core.

I believe that action is simply a required condition to help this creature 'clear' the 'game'.

[dereban]

There's still "the action of attempting to throw someone there"...

I don't know if it's a 'game clear' in that way, though - the really strange part of it all is that last message before the reset -

No, the "reload".

[improbablenotimpossible]

Yes - there would be a difference between reloading a save, doing a soft reset, and a hard reset...

[dereban]

The thing that doesn't make sense to me though is that... we maintain our memories between reloads.

Why?

[sageking]

This creature is hardly omnipotent. An easy answer would be simply because it can't easily override everyone's memories.

[improbablenotimpossible]

Solomon rules out an immunity due to being 6350, perhaps if this is a "game" - that -

As horrible as it sounds. We're treated like "PCs" - player characters, while everyone else is a 'Non-player character'.

[dereban]

So basically...

It's a setup where "only the PCs remember things from previous save files"? Rather than the entity being unable to... things are made so that we can't forget.

[improbablenotimpossible]

That is possible, but it's not a perfect system. I believe I suggested to Amamiya that we might be dealing with a "Hacked" game with the entity using glitches in the system.

[dereban]

Glitches, huh...

It makes me wonder if we should start glitch hunting now.

[sageking]

An attempted setup of that, perhaps.

Though, it's not perfect, given that a certain monster seems to recall this as well. It's unsurprising that even that creature has limits.

[dereban]

If the entity is a 'player'... I suppose it makes sense that they'd have limits.

[improbablenotimpossible]

Even with exploiting things, a player is still within the parameters of the game - you can't suddenly turn a beat 'em up into a visual novel no matter how hard someone exploits an error in the programming.

[sageking]

Hmph, a cowardly player at that. They still haven't shown their faces to us despite how overconfident it seems.