Part 23: Underground City

Underground City



So, the Underground City is a pretty small area fittingly enough. Also fittingly enough, they have no loot for us to steal.

...Wait, that's a bad thing.



At least they have a small terminal and a rejuvenating light. Guess we'll just talk to everyone here. Because, uh, why not?



Yeah, I can tell.
Serph... When we left the Junkyard, did you feel forced out, somehow?



What do you mean?
Maybe I just can't describe it properly. But I think that's why we can't remember skills we learned there. Sera lost her memory too, when she came to the Junkyard... Could it be the result of something happening that wasn't suppose to?

It's the resu- hey, is that unnammed Friends 1 and 2 I see down there?



It's from some India country, or something... It means "Guardians of the Gods." Think that's relavant?

...Close. It's Sanskrit for "Guardians of the World" and refers to slightly different things depending on whether it's the Hindu or Buddhist definitions. In both cases, its the deities that represent the cardinal directions but in the Hindu use that also expands out to include north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west. Also three of those eight may sound familiar being Agni (south-east), Vayu (north-west) and Varuna (west). No Prithivi or Dyaus though.

And for the sake of finishing the earlier thought, the Buddhist lokapala consists of the Four Heavenly Kings. That being, of course, the dudes better known in SMT as Zouchouten, Jikokuten, Komokouten and Bishamonten.



Also the other Friend down here is effectively just a palette swap of the little girl from the previous scene. Incredible.

I don't. It's kind of bothering me, actually.
Why's there a small terminal here?
A small what, now? Me and Fred brought it here after we found it... We plugged it in, and it just lit up and started humming. We don't know what it's used for.

Let's see, not much left on this side of the bridge. I guess use the Rejuvenating Light to heal up from Vetala and then talk to that guy back there.



...Or, maybe not! "Mad Mart" seems interesting, though. Let's see what's in the-



Okay, fine, I get it. Let's just continue onwards then.



We can't go north, so we'll see what's across this bridge.



They think of us as food!



Gale for once makes an incredibly simple and obvious observation.



And this guy is amazed and terrified that three people were more competent than the Karma Society soldiers.

Going inside this place...



Roland's at the back of the room, blocking that door. We'll talk to him in a minute.



Whatever... Roland's getting tired of waiting for you.



What's happening to the world?

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that we can tune just from looking at Serph. His Atma being on his face makes it quite hard to hide! Thanks, Adil.



Okay, let's see what Roland wants...

Sure.

Silence

Answers... And More Questions
much better to just watch this because jeez this scene is long



Maybe follow Roland's lead here and grab a drink or something.







Gale intently watchin' the booze...

Where is Cielo?



...Your friend's nearby.



*chokes and coughs*



Someone's not impressed!



...Oh. Oh, hang on. Are you ready for basically all of the DDS1 exposition?

What do you mean?
Take a look.



The Junkyard?





Huh? What does that mean?
You guys, and that world you were in



Dude, you seriously need lay off the booze!
The Asura Project...



You were going to be programmed into microchips.



It's a purgatory born of wisdom...



Recollection

God?



30 years ago, at the end of the 20th century, crisis erupted worldwide.







Ten years ago, one such individual found the source of these problems:



....
It's her!



hidden discretely in its rays. The sun -- a gigantic body of accumulated data.



That places "him" on God's level.

Silence

And what does this god... have to do with us?



...We use our knowlege to find new ways of killing.



However, knowlege alone cannt create a perfect AI.
The Cyber Shaman? You said she created us.





...the Society's very foundation.
Sera works for the Society? We risked our lives for her... You're saying none of that mattered?



Sera cared about us!
An artist can feel love for her masterpiece sometimes --



Um, Argilla...



Maybe tuning right now is not the best idea...



Roland and Adil clearly don't appreciate it, and, um, well--



Tell me, How did you learn of all this?



How can you verify the information's authenticity?
This disc of composite data... We recieved it just before you arrived.



And then, or course, there's your existence.



...Here's a question.

Coercion



Would you like to?



That's the guy Varin claimed to be. They look soooort of similar, but even discounting Varin's facial tattoos it's not quite a perfect match.



That is not his face...
Back then, he oversaw the Asura Project. He died when God went mad.



Doesnt make sense. You and "Varin" are suppose to be programs. Something happened that day...



Get to the point. What is it you want?

Silence





Even Fred is surprised!

It's her fault that there are orphans like Fred.



And in exchange?



While Cielo remain captive? Unacceptable.
What!?



We need manpower.

You're saying you want us to become monsters!?
...A slip of the tongue.



I did not ask you accompany us.





Pretty sure Adil just realised that he fucked up and Gale's now figured out what he accidntally revealed.

You killed him.
Is that true? Roland?



This is nothing but coercion.





It may be true that we became frightful monsters... However, the people of the Junkyard fought for their very survival.





It's pretty damn impressive if you think about it. We've been in this room for less than 10 minutes and Roland has already pissed off both Argilla and Gale.



I see. You needn't say anything. We will agree to your terms.



...and for Fred.
Gale!
Take care of Cielo.







End

Underground City



Our informant should be there with further details.



best item in the whole game right here

You'll be able to access the Karma Society's database from terminals. I heard you need to use it to download Mantra, or... something.



This is pretty valuable, but I'll let you have it. Now hurry up and earn it...

Whew, now we can stretch out legs again. Gonna do the sensible thing and immediately re-enter the room we just stormed out of.



This lets us talk to everyone, you see.

Just because there seems to be some truth to that story doesn't mean we should accept it all. There's one large contradiction.
Beck's last words.



One of these Becks cannot exist, unless there's some truth we have yet to uncover.



We all shook hands, remember!? And now... You just give up...!?



Everyone else here is just a weak human. We'd be stupid not to ask for your help.



She, uh, she's not kidding. You can rewatch a couple cutscene here. The first of which is Varin's death scene from DDS1. Makes sense.

The other? The one that we just saw.

I think I'll pass on that and just leave now.



Couple people to talk to out in this room now too.



If Greg was still alive, we might stand a chance.



If you need something, go get it yourself.
Where's the Vendor?
Huh? What the hell are you talking about?
...I'm fine, thanks.
Look, this is ridiculous. I don't need you threatening me. There's this store called "Mad Mart" nearby.



One guy's getting skipped because it boils down to "demons have weaknesses!"



Since we need to go to the Mad Mart now anyway, we might as well see what's changed outside.




A lot of new people to talk to, actually, but the residents here all say the same thing but in slightly different ways. This one being the most useful since it lets us know that five years from now the sun is going to die and we'll all be petrified.

i dunno about you but i have MY underground bunker already prepared



...Also this is when I remember to equip the new bullet Adil gave us. Mostly because there's a dude here who mentions some bullets do additional effects. This one freezes and was easier to get this time around.

Giving it to Serph and the Shot Shell to Argilla.



Demons and disease must be punishments from heaven... The sun became furious.



I'm counting on you to help Timmy. The Karma Society got him... He must be in prison somewhere.



Nobody believes us right now, but one day, Fred and I are gonna crush those Karma jerks!



That's what we were doing... when they got Timmy. He stayed back so I could escape.

Nothing overly interesting, but I'unno. Can't help but think we're gonna find this Timmy kid and save him at some point. Good to make a note of it for later, I guess.

Anyway, Mad Mart!

Mad Mart



Hey, what's with the ring? Oh, I see... Alright, I gotcha. You don't have to say anything. I'll buy that ring from you, so go ahead and pick something out.



$20k is the most you can start with here. Since we're using DDS1 data, the amount of dollars you get here is based on how much macca we had once we went through the door at the top of the Karma Temple. You need 1 million+ macca there to get this.

Did you know there's writing on the ring? "Stage 1"... What's that mean?

...Yes, you can screw yourself out of some of your starting money if you had a little 1 million after Ananta but bought new mantras immediately before Hari-Hara. It doesn't make too big of a difference, since you get $10,000 minimum. Having 10k macca to 999,999 gets you $12,000. It's not really worth gunning for the 1 mill if you didn't have it already since it doesn't add much but its a nice start.



I'm guessing they're Australian dollars from the prices of things. $100 for a single Ration is just silly.

And, hey the Mad Mart is staffed by a person unlike the Vendor. That means we can actually talk to the clerk this time around!




And one last thing before we move on. Remember that disk we got off of Adil?



...We can buy mantras now. Hello, new moneysink!



And it's been revamped from the rather linear thing that it was in the first game. Now it truly is a giant board we buy our abilities from. It works pretty much the same as before but with some changes that make it better/worse. Blue hexagons we can get, yellow ones are mastered, grey we can see the abilities of but not buy yet. They get unlocked by mastering ANY adjacent mantra (this is a nice change; it mostly removes everything being along one long line that you have to go down all of to get what you want). The grid gets bigger by mastering one of the ones on the edge.

The ones with holes in that have little flames floating in? So long as one person in the party masters every mantra surrounding them, they unlock on everyone's grid. Half of them give you access to some nice new skills, the one at the bottom of the screen here gives Mutual Karma (still 100% Karma when benched; the 50% one is removed) for example. The other half? Oh, you'll see.

And, of course, despite some things being moved around to be much cheaper... others are now far, far more expensive. And the whole grid, in total, costs just shy of $27,000,000 per person to max.

Great.



...I'm going on ahead.



But that's my problem, not yours. Let's just carry on with the here and now.



Y'know, if I didn't know better I'd swear that the rank and file of Lokapala kinda hate us.



Not quite sure where I get that idea though. Maybe I'm just going crazy.



Of course they'd hate us!



Gale totally gets it. We're completely in the right.



And to prove it, we'll go through the doors to the left. Which just so happen to lead right into the second dungeon!