Part 23: Day 11 - Gameplay

Day 11: Gameplay

Music: neutral 2


New departments mean new staffing requirements. I take it you have an idea of what you would like to do, Manager?

Keeping an experienced Agent on staff's worked well so far. Bishop can stay in Control Team as their head. We'll put Twee and Mr.Blond with them, they showed potential. ...We'll recommend D.A.D. to Yesod for a permanent captain position, and promote the others from Control to work with them. That leaves Mizu and Talow to go to Training, and we'll put Medea alongside them.

A new agent, X?

Well, it is called Training, isn't it?





Our new wing's much less elaborate than the last two, and it shares an elevator with Information.

Let's all do our best today!



Oh, hey. Did Mizu leave already?

Yeah, she said she was going off to work with the new scarecrow Abnormality.

I'm quite impressed by her initiative!

...did you say 'scarecrow?'



You sure like Insight work a lot, don't you cutie?



Boss, we've got a message from Talow?

Talow? What's going on?

We're about to have a problem. Evac the newbies and order everyone else to Training's main room, stat.

What's going-

Got it, I'll send the orders.

Bishop, the chain of command states-

I'm trusting my instincts! You two, stand by!

Sir!

I'm writing you up for this later!



...that's unusual. Control Team's calling all agents to the Training main room.

Probably just some training exercise. Let's move, people.

Resplendent! Hahahaha!

...he always like this?

You get used to it.



Just another cutie to add on to the pile~ Do a good job and make it worth-a my while~ Huh? Why's Bishop paging me to the main room? I was going there already.



Okay, so everyone's here and the three new guys are hiding over in Information, right?

Yeah. So what's this all about?

It's my ass on the line if this is some drill, Talow.

Hold on! Umm..!

Music: First Trumpet




That's what's going on. We have a problem.

I thought he seemed really energetic!

Wait… you know what this thing is, don't you?

I'm… familiar with it.



Its name is Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom, and if it's not stopped we're all dead.

It's entered the Information Team's hallway. I'll put it on screen.



Gamma16? They were going to help me with my reports later.



I think you're about to be on your own.

The first rule of engaging Scarecrow is never to do it while there are Clerks around.



What's it doing?!

When it's killed someone, it sucks their brain out through the eye sockets. That's how it feeds.



Gamma16..!

This is why. It'll kill the Clerks and heal itself, making fighting it pointless.

That hallway leads straight to where the others are hiding. We have to move.

Alright, let's beat the crap out of a scarecrow.



You're gonna pay for that, you son of a haystack!!

The upside of sending everyone in the facility after it is that it can only hit one person at a time, meaning we can blitz it down relatively fast.



It seems to like me!

It wants your brain! _{Though I can't imagine why.}

Oh! I need that! Sorry, cutie, but you'll have to stop now.

After another few salvos of attacks, our facility has it taken care of.

Music: neutral 3


...yeah, I'm going on lunch.

Now that that's over, we get to work having people do their usual training. Mr.Black is on Instinct work with Laetitia, Tylana learns some Insight with Rudolta, and Twee works Repression with 1.76 MHz. As for the scarecrow…



That thing gets set off by agents with high Prudence, Mizu. This is why you can't just rush in and work everything right away.

Ohh… Wait, but how did you know that?

I'd recommend having an agent with a Prudence level of 2 or less do the work. That should prevent a repeat.

Hey! Don't ignore me!

If it requires low Prudence… Umm, Manager? Maybe if we send Medea in there?

Let's give it a try.



Umm… good scarecrow? Let me just tidy your room. I heard you like diplomas, so I'll hang a few here and there.

It's not reacting as enthusiastically. This should be okay!

...X, what do you make of the situation?

Couldn't say. All I know is we got out of a first trumpet situation without any casualties or escalation.

What about-

Clerks don't count. We'll figure out the rest later, we're already behind schedule.



See? We've only just now hit the first meltdown level, and… what's that? A Red Dawn?

Crimson, Manager.

Regardless, it's just a dawn. Keep working as normal.

Bishop works the mirror, and nothing much happens until the next meltdown level.



Okay, let's take a closer look…



...Of course it's creepy clowns. Why did I think there wouldn't be creepy clowns?



Crimson Dawn, AKA The Cheers for the Beginning, is a bit different from the other Dawn Ordeals we've seen so far. While Amber and Green focused on killing our Agents and Clerks, the Crimson Dawn focuses on our Abnormalities. Three spawn throughout the facility. Of them, two spawn close enough to Mizu and Bishop that they instantly stop living due to their low health and weakness to Black damage. The third one spawns in front of the Mirror's door.



Hey, this is pretty easy! It's not fighting back or anything! Everyone, come on over!



By themselves, they're no real threat. A group of four Clerks managed to take off around 25% of its health by themselves.



This poof of smoke means that the Crimson Dawn's finished its work with the current Abnormality. This would take away the PE boxes we use to buy info/gear, as well as lower its QC by one, but tool Abnormalities have neither of those so…



That's it? That was ea-

It's gonna blow!

What?!



…the clerk lived through it.

Yeah. I guess it wasn't a big deal after all.

In conclusion, Crimson Dawns: They're not a threat themselves, but make sure to keep them from letting out all your Abnormalities.



Fiiinally, we're just about back on track… Wait. Why's that say 'Noon?'

Our sensors are detecting that Noon Ordeals are starting to awaken. It looks like you'll be seeing them from here on out.

...Manager?

Presently, X appears to be banging his head against a wall. I will have to take a message.



You must be new here.

Started yesterday, actually.

Word to the wise: if you're an employee, you're probably screwed. If you're a clerk, you're definitely screwed.

What about you, Zeta21?

Me? I'm going on break.

Hey Medea, hold down the fort. I wanna see if this mask still looks as cool as I think it looks.

At this point I decide to throw Mizu at the mirror again, to see if she can get more Justice.



She does not, but this is still very helpful for what's coming.

Music: First Trumpet




Alright, Dawns haven't been so bad. Let's see what a Noon can do…

Sir, one of my clerks has just died!



Make that two, sir! One attack each!

...hell.



Welcome to Green Noon, The Process of chainsawing everyone's face in Understanding. Their gun attacks are pretty easy to ignore. They come out quick, but 1 point of damage isn't a lot. The problem is their chainsaw. It hits nine times per attack, with the attacks coming very quickly and each hit dealing 1 or 2 damage. Alongside Amber Dawn, these are why we never go without decent Red resists in the early game. Green Noons will chew through our Agents like a hot chainsaw through butter, and they're a very rude awakening to anyone still using the base ZAYIN gear-since as HE class enemies they get a 1.2x modifier on all attacks against ZAYINs.

They are a formidable opponent for our facility right now, with only two saving graces. The first is that on occasion they just stop working and sit in a box, letting Agents hit them for several seconds. The second has to do with a coding error: In the code, Green Noon's attacks are told to pick an integer between 1-3 for the chainsaw, and 1-2 for the gun. However, due to a bug the RNG can never pick the highest number. Yep, these things were meant to be even deadlier!



One of them is in Training, of course, so I send Mizu and Talow to take care of it. With our facility specializing in White and Black offense and Red defense, we've stacked the deck as best we can-and luckily we engage while it's in recharge mode.



Jeez that hurts!



It gets two more attacks in before the duo is able to down it, and as a result Talow loses half his health.

I'll be using the regenerator for a while. See how the others are doing, Mizu.

Roger.



Engage, everyone!

Are you sure? Your suit's-

I'll be fine, get it!



Two attacks later I sound the retreat-ducking out of a losing battle fast is just as important as pressing a winning one. Delta17 is unceremoniously killed by chainsaw about 2 seconds later.

Requesting assistance! We got one dinged up but had to pull back. Anyone there?!

Okee-dokie, I'll head over!



Hey, this one isn't dinged up at all!

Why are you in Control?! That one hasn't been harmed yet!

I heard a cutie walking around! Just give me a sec, I'll take care of it!



Mizu, fall back! That thing's a HE-level threat, you can't handle it alone!

Mmm… nah!



Cutie's a pile of scrap. Searching for the last target now~

So Mizu can apparently solo these things already. It cost her ~half her HP and we engaged it from the maximum possible distance… but Laetitia's gear is really powerful.



No need. I can hear it from here.

Just give the order, sir, and we'll fight it.

I'm sure we can win!

...No. You two don't have the strength or the gear to hold it off for more than a couple seconds. Run over to Training. Worst case, Talow will make sure you're okay.

And what about you, boss?



I'm going to make sure he doesn't have to.



Relax, and attack. Just like the old days.



Bishop, you're taking heavy fire. Fall back and wait for backup!

Can't risk the camera cables getting cut again!



That's the last step you're taking.






...Situation's all clear. Team, you're clear to return anytime.

Not bad... I guess that's why he's the captain, huh?

Manager, the situation is clear. We're only awaiting final orders to end the day.

Of course.

Music: neutral 1


So… how DID you know what the scarecrow was going to do?

Would you believe I saw it on an Enkephalin high?

No.

I would! You see all SORTS of stuff.

Well, sorry, but that's all the answer I've got for you.

Hey, everyone? Umm… It's time to end the workday. Please get everything put away safely!



Good job today, everyone!

Medea's Prudence is worth extra attention today, it's grown to 10. This is because the stat totals only show two digits. It's actually short for 100, the maximum possible amount. Scarecrow is very good at raising Prudence.

Music: never frozen bottom flows


O-03-60: You see a song in front of you. It's approaching, becoming more colorful by the second.
O-02-56: People have been committing sins since long ago. "Why do they commit sins, knowing it's wrong?"
F-02-44: However, the curse continues eternally, never broken.

Nothing but TETHs we've already talked about today. As a reminder, -60 is a decent super early game Attachment trainer and can breach, -44 is our stalker and literally just a worse, less convenient 1.76 MHz, and -56 is a the one which I agonized over taking on day 1 because I needed it to do things later but it was terrible for training stats.



The choice is not hard.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We officially meet Hod.

New Guidelines

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom

New Gear




Requirements: Prudence 2

New Story

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom










Huh. Thing's dead and it's still giving off sparks like crazy.



...yeah, I'm clocking out.