[CONTINUE + 4] 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, though now there's far, far less of them.

Is time running out for the mission? How many more loops do you have?

...You feel as if something is watching you when you're not looking.

FUN VALUE: 9
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[le_mat]

... if I had my powers I could effect their shared consciousness- that kinda apathy was effecting my world at one point too. But unless it turns back on randomly that might our only choice.

[finalring]

I'm not sure how much I agree with that...

[ it sounds like a risk he's not sure if he's willing to take, considering his...status. ]

Even if they are angered and try to see us as an enemy, it wouldn't make them any stronger against the entity, would it?

[white_camellia]

Which brings up another point: Do we truly know what that the goal of the entity is? I do not believe that it is after the destruction of the world, at least.

[If not, then what she knows of what happened in the last trial would have satisfied it.]

It is hard to counter something when we do not know the first thing about its true goals...

...Though I suspect Inaba-san may have been on to something.

[dereban]

[Taking out her notes:]

From what Drew said of the dialogue that I have written down here...

It did mention "completion", so perhaps something associated with that? My guess would be if it's not gunning for a 100% completion, then -

... A proper ending, maybe?

[finalring]

Is it trying to repeat the game until it gets the ending that it wants?

[dereban]

That's what I've been thinking before, honestly...

But the fact that they were willing to fucking GOB on us because it was growing bored means that they probably doesn't want some 'boring' ending that might wind up too similar to the previous 'games'.

Which is why it was trying something that, to them, would be considered new; different.

A 'what if' scenario, if you will. Because they probably thought that - 'oh, even if this winds up being disappointing, I can just reset and everything will be fine'.

[oceanicbutterfly]

Resetting hasn't made everything fine, though. Monsters keep disappearing.

[dereban]

'Fine' is relative.

I didn't mean 'fine' from our point of view, but rather 'fine' from the entity's. Trying to get into their head and line of thinking, so to speak.

[oceanicbutterfly]

That's sort of what I mean, though. Normally in a video game, resetting brings you back to the same situation as before, so you can try things again differently. But in this case, it seems like most of the changes made are permanent.

[dereban]

... Ah, the reason for that is easy to explain.

I've said this before in a previous loop, but there are visual novels that focus on 'meta', right?

One of them deals with going into the folders of the game and deleting files. Character files.

[white_camellia]

[...]

...May I see those notes of the dialogue? An idea occurred to me, though I am... uncertain where it came from.

[dereban]

Yeah, go for it.

[She'll pass her notebook over - the dialogue is all written in Japanese, but it's basically a translation of what happened in the trial; it's very precise, word for word as well.]

[white_camellia]

[She reads through it again, and...]

This one here, I think this is what is bothering me.

[She points to the phrase ""If I could be destroyed, I would have been a long long time ago."]

How do I put it... The wording would seem to imply that there have been attempts in the past.

[Which by itself isn't proof of anything, but...]

[dereban]

If there were, then... the question shifts to asking the reasoning behind it.

Although if the games are meant to fit into a box of a 'mystery' genre, the idea would be that the entity is 'a character that has shown up since the very beginning.' If this is supposed to be a potential finale of sorts... it'd have to be someone that's existed already up to this point.

[sageking]

Red has stated that it's efforts have been going on since even before her arrival. It's doubtless someone else besides us have noticed, and tried to end it for it's mistake of an existence.

[soupervillain]

Well, I call bull! What kind of a proper ending includes erasing a bunch of people from existence?! Eventually they're gonna run out of characters, and you can't end the game if there's no one to play as!

[dereban]

... I don't think 'erasure' is the end goal.

I think the concept of 'bringing them back from erasure' is. Because we see the entity as the 'enemy that must be fought against and defeated'.

[soupervillain]

So it... wants us to beat it?

[ Be patient with Giovanni. His head hurts a little. ]

This is just some kinda extra challenge? And if we win, it unlocks a new ending?

[white_camellia]

...I suspect that what it desires is its own death, with no higher goal than that. Whether the universe is destroyed to achieve that, or whether we destroy it is irrelevant to it.

[soupervillain]

...I knew it! I knew everyone here needed therapy!

[ Ring ring hello Dr. Ashling, do you treat reality-destroying monsters ]

[sageking]

I believe the theory of it desiring its own death is nonsense.

...IF that was the case, it would've simply allowed me to use an ultimate weapon I had in my treasury on it from the start, and made it more easy for us to access where its existence physically resides.

[ Even if it's something like an existence beyond time and space or some such nonsense, it must have a point where it just simply is. Such were his thoughts. ]

[finalring]

It could believe that the destruction of the world is necessary but not want it. Those types of scenarios are not uncommon.

[le_mat]

Maybe the other way around then? They need some hope?

[improbablenotimpossible]

Without hope, there's no progress...

[he murmurs almost distractedly]

[sageking]

Indeed. After all, more despair will only quicken their demise.