[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
Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday
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Comments

[dereban]

The thing is that... maybe to the game, we aren't 'living, breathing people'. We're all just fiction.

6350 or no.

I think there's a lot of complexities here, personally, but all of it is giving me a headache.

[justonezero]

Huh? But we're already outside of the UI parameters, aren't we...?

[He is definitely focused on the video game aspects.]

[dereban]

To us, yes.

But - that might not be the case for the player.

[justonezero]

So even our actions are still within the restrictions of the game?

[Hn.]

[dereban]

It could be, yeah. If we're going all the way with this.

[justonezero]

[tilting his head, looking uncomfortable.]

...Wait. There is a game we're all working in the restrictions of already, isn't there...?

[dereban]

What do you mean?

[justonezero]

Those death games. It's the same basic rules as always.

[dereban]

-- wait.

You're right. It's... weird, isn't it? It's always set up the same way.

[justonezero]

We've always wondered why this keeps happening to us. The RPG elements are new, but maybe it's some kind of death game VN?

[le_mat]

Me and Dazai-san were talking about that when we first got here. Thinking there was some kind of overarching thing making it keep happening that way. But once stuff started happening I stopped thinking about it...

[oceanicbutterfly]

It would even explain why it's always Thursday night. The "game" is on a strict weekly schedule so that the player always knows how much time they have to do things.

[justonezero]

Eh- doesn't that make it more like an old-fashioned game?

[oceanicbutterfly]

It...

...I don't know, honestly.

[dereban]

Calling it now: the creators of the game have been making sequels. This would be the sixth game in the franchise.

[She clears her throat and then does a faux commercial voice.]

"The Foundation 6: Silence the Cold People"! In the wonderful sixth game of the franchise, the protagonists, the 6350s have to save the world from a darkness that tempts to destroy their world. Now with multiplayer options and a callback to your favorite elements from The Foundation 4 and some new surprise ones, we'll make sure that this game is a killing to buy!

Now available on all modern day console platforms for the low, low price of $59.99.

[justonezero]

The convenience of online-based multiplayer was our downfall all along...!

[dereban]

I'd say 'time to delete the internet', but I actually like the internet.

[justonezero]

I think there's way too many businesses that operate thanks to the Internet nowadays to do something so lightly!

[dereban]

[hand on shoulder]

Okay, another plan: we shut down the specific servers that run this game. If this is a game.

At the very least, we'd disconnect the player from us.

[oceanicbutterfly]

[...]

That would mean The Foundation 5 was a prequel...

[dereban]

That would basically be it, yeah.

[oceanicbutterfly]

An incident from the past that nobody could remember. The perfect explanation for why nobody ever mentioned it in the previous four games.

[dereban]

It's way too convenient.

[oceanicbutterfly]

We even watched it at exactly the right pace. Investigations on Fridays and trials on Saturdays.

And come to think of it, it's quite a coincidence that we found Sissel-san at the exact time we did, instead of two weeks earlier or around the same time as the other two.

[dereban]

... Yeah, like - don't you think that we might have found the three that survived a little sooner? Especially since the barrier was weakening?

Do you think that in that case... the game was going back and forth?

Between the past and the present.