Part 27: You're Missing Something

And, with one last jump to the past, I begin my advance towards the final ending!

This is back to the first Investigator profile - female, old, unmarried, spacer. After unlocking *Mute, but before getting her questions for *Hyun-ae.

Time to be as blindly trusting as possible.



Seriously? You can stand her?



Wow. She's bolder than I thought...
She lives up to every single bad thing people say about women. Like, just an absolute hysterical, self-centered child.
I'm sure she didn't give you the whole answer, though... and not being able to type probably makes it hard to bring up with her, right?
It's probably better if you don't hear it from me, though. I don't think you'd even believe it. Better to ask her yourself.
Okay, so what I'm going to do is give you an entire block that's full of nothing but questions for her.
It might be a little hard to get the whole story out of her, but if you fake sympathy, she'll probably actually believe you.
So there you are, a few questions to give her. Drag the truth out of her, then tell me how crazy you think she is.



Sticking to *Mute's side.



Reactor meltdown.



*Hyun-ae disabled.



My best time: 91 seconds. It can be done faster, but I can never remember the full list of subsystems, so I have to waste time using power_control list.



Now, let's skip ahead a bit.



Well, okay then, so you've seen it all for yourself.
In her own words, no less. That bitch is just... insane. Completely insane.
So you see, that's why I hate her. She killed everyone.
She killed my master... her husband... the emperor himself! She killed her own father, and she killed thousands of perfect strangers! She might seem pretty, but listen: she's crazy, and she's a monster. The last person to love her, suffocated to death because of her!
Well, you know what? That's sociopathic. That's appalling. It's damned unforgivable!



Hmm...

Are you serious? What is wrong with you, you stupid woman?!
You'd feel pity for her, over her victims?!
You don't feel bad for her husband?
You don't feel bad for her father?
You don't feel bad for her brother?
You don't feel bad for So-jin?
You don't feel bad for the Smith family's little daughter?
You don't feel bad for thousands of hapless peasants?



You dumb bitch, can't you try to at least be a little bit rational here?
Look... if you still can't be convinced... at least you should see these log files of mine.
They're kinda dry, but... I think you should read them. Trust me here.
Come talk to me when you're done with those. After that, well, we've got some things to discuss.



Block 8 unlocked and consumed.



She died in the end, too... and that's fine. If she wanted to kill herself... well, it'd be screwing up her duties as a wife, but whatever. Why did she have to take everyone else with her?!
She killed everyone... she doomed everyone to an awful, suffocating death.. for what?!
You know what pisses me off most of all, though?
She never even said a word to me! Not a damn word!
Fine, maybe she thought her life sucked. Maybe it's like those diaries of hers say, she was horribly dying and nobody would listen to her.
And you know why? Because she never said anything!
She was my master's wife, it's not like I wouldn't. All she had to do was say something to me, and I would've tried to help.
And I'm absolutely sure she knew that. So there's one conclusion: She was just plain crazy, and deep down, she knew it.
She never talked to me because that'd just break her whole stupid fantasy.
She was crazy, and because of that, she just went and killed everyone! Everyone!
I want you to look me in the eyes, and tell me that you'd rather sympathize with that... that crazy bitch, that monster, than any one of the thousands of victims who died just like her.



Seriously?!



Really? What could it possibly be?
What could possibly make anything she did even slightly acceptable?!
...well, if you really think there's something you can show me to convince me, go ahead.
But there isn't. Of course there isn't. She’s just a crazy murderess.
It's that simple.



And now, it is time to cheat.

OUT-OF-CHARACTER KNOWLEDGE POWERS ACTIVATE

>decrypt block7
Decrypting block now...


SUCCESS: block successfully decrypted!
>quit



Even if I do that, though, it doesn't come up in the UI unless *Mute puts it there. However!

Let's look back a bit in my LP, here...



Aha! This is what I'm looking for.

More specifically...



THIS is what I'm looking for.



Did you forget that the Search by ID field was there? I didn't!

Forever Silenced - May 13th, Year 320, The Pale Bride







I... what the fuck did I just read...?
No way. I don't...



...wow. So... she wasn't quiet because she was just being a good woman.
Then... I guess she wouldn't be able to ask anyone for help... I thought...
...well, that still doesn't justify mass murder.
But still. Wow. That is all kinds of messed up. That's just horrible.



BGM: Mute (Rescue)

Okay, then... well... I guess I should probably talk to her now.
Maybe I misjudged her. I don't know. I guess there's only one way to find out, right?
...okay, well, I'll be back in a short bit, then.





That's fine, though, it hasn't been very long. She shouldn't have degraded yet.
What I'm going to ask you to do is use the copy command, and transfer the contents of the core she's in to mine. I'll sort out the rest, okay?



To the terminal!

>help copy
USAGE: copy [source code] [target core]
transfers data stored in source core into target core
WARNING: any AI program transferred will be unexecutable until stored in own core
>copy core2 core1
Copying...

SUCCESS: *Hyun-ae data has been transferred to inactive storage in core1
WARNING: AI personality *Hyun-ae is no longer available
>quit



...I'm going to go get her, okay?



*Mute told me that you were the one who convinced her to just listen to me! Granted, I don't understand how what you did to show her that was possible... did you cheat the system, somehow...?
Well, no matter how, thank you!

Right, okay. So... go ahead and ask her, *Hyun-ae.

Ah, what...? No, you should say it! It's embarrassing...

Ahem. What did we talk about with arguing?

...sorry, sorry. Very well, ah, it's...
...this is hard to say...
Well, it's... we'd really like... it'd be for the best if...



BGM: Hyun-ae (Cheer)

WHAT.
That was not what we agreed on asking!

But you said... it'd be improper if I wasn't...

...ugh, wow.
Yeah, but you don't have to say it like that! She's a woman, that doesn't... no!

Ah, geeze... sorry... I didn't mean to make it sound like...

Okay, look. Here's the thing: It's not ideal for *Hyun-ae to stay on the ship forever.
I don't want to be your wife, okay?!
Man, *Hyun-ae. You're making me sound ridiculous here.

Sorry... I didn't mean to...

Fine, whatever. Okay, right, as I was saying before: It'd be really good if you took her with you. And... well, I could come along to make sure she's safe.
Don't take any of it the wrong way! It's just out of a sense of duty and absolutely nothing more!
Look, just ignore what she said, I don't want to be part of some harem, okay?! I just think it's the best way to fulfill my duties here, salvage the situation!

Really? I, ah, don't really see why... well... you know, it wouldn't be so bad to share if it was someone like that person...

AHHHHHH! Shut up, shut up, shut up!
Don't let her scare you off just because she's in love, okay? It'd just be a strictly charitable arrangement, don't make it romantic, *Hyun-ae.

Geeze, I'm not in love, it's just... I really...

Shut up!



Okay, look. You can drop to the console to take the ship's records with download, but please take us with you when you do, okay?
It doesn't have to be a permanent arrangement. Just transport to civilization would be fine.

Ah, but if you want it to be permanent...

Silence is a virtue, *Hyun-ae! Stop it!
Okay, well, that's all. I'm going to deactivate us both now.

See you soon...









BGM: Nonanalogue





Super-Secret Ending Achieved

All Endings Achieved

The End

Thanks for reading!