999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors Part #69

Part 69: Study

...And Junpei and the others leapt through it.

But no sooner had they done so----Than the clang of metal on metal rang out behind them.

Junpei grabbed hold of it with both hands and pulled with all his strength--

Hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggh!

Damnit!

It looks like it locks automatically...

Is there any other way out?

It's got a red light on it, though, so I'm pretty sure it's locked too.

But there is a card reader, right?

Yeah.

Then perhaps if we find a key card, we could open the door and leave?

Well... Yeah, that might work, but--

H-Hey! Wait a minute!

Oh man...

They took a second look at the room they'd found themselves in.

[Music: Eternitybox]

It was filled with piles upon piles of all manner of things. The only word that could describe it was "chaotic".

It was like a tornado had passed through, followed by a giant who had picked up and shaken the entire room a few times.

Junpei's heart fell.

Clover and Seven looked as though they were about to cry.

I rather doubt that, however, so it would be wise to start looking. We haven't much time. Let's find that [key card].

We won't be able to get through the hallway without it.

...

All right then! Let's begin!

[Music: Nonary Game]

Of course there's a track called Nonary Game.

Much like the library before, this place is packed with cool things to poke. In terms of space, the room is actually very small with just a straight path through all the crap lying around so it's easy to tell where you are at least.

Also like the library, we're gonna be skipping most of it for later. Though in this case that's not just because despite being tiny this room takes about twice as long as the library to finish. It's because I actually missed some cool stuff so I'd have to go back and get it anyway so...

Man, this place is a mess...

It's so messy... I dunno where to start...

Some of this crap looks familiar.

If that's true, then...

Perhaps Zero would shut himself in this room to devise the machines and puzzles he'd need to see his plan come to fruition.

Umm...

Oh, and the study has a gimmick. That gimmick is "puzzles you've done before." It mostly limits this to one room in particular, for some reason, but there is one notable exception.

The first indication of said gimmick is visible right away since it stands out quite clearly.

Yeah, I feel like I've seen this before...

Unlike the tables before, though, we don't have to cross-reference this one with a giant map. Thankfully. I suppose that's the benefit of there being only one of them this time.

Nothing else on the first screen so let's move on ahead. This cabinet over in the corner is very, very difficult to see.

Like, I'm pretty sure I've managed to miss it more often than not. I'm not even sure if I'd call it helpful.

What have you found in there, Junpei?

Looks like someone was working on a solution. It's got some handwriting on it too...

This is kind of a clue for the first puzzle we're actually gonna solve, maybe? It's not really that useful I don't think. There's nothing it tells us that isn't either immediately obvious, or going to be mentioned anyway.

Speaking of that first puzzle, it's right here. Let's get this outta the way, shall we?

(Wonder if any of these buttons do anything...)

(There's something on the screen now.)

What's this...

There are 15 cells here, with numbers and letters in them...

Lemme see that.

...

Ah, I see...

You just gotta use that to make the "ALL" cells on the right and the bottom green.

Umm...

You wanna take a look at it? Do you think this might have something to do with the puzzle?

(It's a piece of paper Clover gave me.)

(Just like she said, this is probably related to the puzzle on the screen somehow.)

Thanks, Clover. This really helps...

He he he he...

Ugh, okay. This puzzle is kind of vaguely similar to the one from the laboratory behind door 8. Remember the 3x3 square we had to turn all green? Yeah, it works like that. Only it's harder. A lot harder.

...It's probably the hardest puzzle in the game, even. And, uh, if we back out?

Do you think maybe this puzzle...

So, yeah, no help here. Instead, we have to try and figure this one out on our own.

When you know what you're doing, it's not so bad but figuring it out for the first time can be a bit of a pain and the gif probably doesn't help if you don't know what I'm doing already. Starting at the top-right corner and going around to the bottom right, cutting through the middle rather than going around, until every square is blank. Then we go from the top-left corner, and move clockwise around.

You seem to have done an excellent job and solved the puzzle. Just what I would have expected of you, Junpei.

H-Hey, c'mon, you're embarrassing me...

Whoa, whoa! Don't get cocky, kid. We don't got time for that.

The lid slid open, and somethin' came out.

That it did; let's see just what that is, shall we?

(There's a cross engraved on it.)

We'll hold onto this for now, and move onto the next screen.

This is where the first blatant repeat of a puzzle is, and it might actually be easier than the first in some respects.

Ah, now I get it...

What do you mean?

I guess you weren't there Clover, but I

I think I just need to do the same thing here.

The same thing?

The important part is this nautical table we just found. I just have to match up the directions on the compass with the lines on the nautical table. I used the steering wheel in the

Okay then, show me. Now!

Of course.

So, yeah, I think you might have an idea why this is easier already. This time, we get the benefit of seeing the map on the top-screen now. Previously, the compass was on the top screen and a giant 3D steering wheel was on the bottom for some reason.

Since we can see the route without needing to write it down or anything it's very easy to replicate.

Agh! Knock it off!

Hey, we don't have time for screwin' around right now. Check out the right side of the monitor...

Oh...yeah...

I heard a noise too. You know that big box in the hall by the exit? I think it made a noise...

A noise, huh...

We'll check that out later. For now, we're interested in grabbing what just turned up here.

A second emblem? I'm beginning to notice a bit of a pattern.

Ah well, onto the next screen and this pipe.

A pipe...

A pipe...

You wouldn't think it from that awful generic dialogue, but that it included everyone but Junpei is a bit of a clue. If we examine the pipe again?

In case you couldn't tell from the numerous times they've cropped up already, pipes in this place are Serious Business. Only fitting they get the intensity they deserve.

That said, let's look in this conspicuous cabinet. It's here, so it's gotta be useful right?

Looks like we've got 3 sheets of the stuff.

This is something that will come in handy for the next puzzle, believe it or not.

To get to it, though, we need to go back a screen.

(Whoa! Well, now we've got something on the screen, at least.)

Huh? What is this?

Oh...wait a minute...

I saw something like this when I figured out

Morse code?

Yeah... The dots on here look like dits for Morse code.

Ah, I'm afraid I don't understand. Well, perhaps you should give it a shot anyway?

All right, I'll try.

This one is actually both kinda tricky and pretty simple. We know it's 3 letters long but that could be anything, right? Well... yes, except we also know the number of presses in each letter we need. The first character is 2, the second is 4 and the last is 1. This greatly limits what could go where. So a B, for example, can't be the first or last letter.

[Sound Bite: .. -.-. .]

The first letter is either an A, I, M or N. The second letter can be a B, C, F, H, J, L, P, Q, V, W, X, Y or Z. And the last can only be an E or T.

...From there it should be obvious that the only real possibilities are either ACE or ICE. Sure, something like "IFT" would work but I don't think Zero's gonna make that the password unless he's hiding something other than his identity.

How did you know...?

All I had to do was listen to the sounds the machine made. After that, it was a trivial matter to decode them. Ah, yes... I believe I heard a noise from somewhere on the right of the device after you solved the puzzle.

Do you see anything that could have made that noise?

Yeah, that's true...

Ah yes, one more thing. I heard a noise from the back of this device.

Well, it's nothing we need to concern ourselves about.

Well, first we'll grab that third emblem...

(Considering where I found it, it's probably a code.)

And then we can move over to the last part of the room that we haven't walked past already.

If we try and search every one'a these, we're gonna be at it 'til the cows come home.

Don't you get smart with me, kid!

Uh, how 'bout we deal with this area later, okay guys? Maybe we should try something more...promising...

Though, there's nothing else over there so let's just look at this since it's probably unlocked now. After all, we have solved every puzzle we can see in the room and two of them did make reference to this after the fact.

I-is that...?

(That is pretty damn creepy. There's a coffin in there... A coffin... A coffin... Oh man... Does Seven think...?)