Part 35: Day 17 - Gameplay

Day 17 - Gameplay

Music: neutral 3


Let's start with some E.G.O gift talk. On the deployment screen, we can bring up a list of all an Agent's E.G.O gifts by clicking the arrow next to their stats. Today, we're mostly focused on the lock and the box next to each gift listing. The box lets us turn off and on the appearance of an E.G.O gift on an Agent, and we're not using it. If we click on the lock…



It closes, and fills in. Now, Mizu's mask will not be changed out even if we roll another eye slot gift.



Shuffling around equipment. Mizu and Mr.Black get the stylish new suits, and D.A.D. gets the Laetitia suit to finally get them out of the 1.76 gear.





It doesn't matter… just do whatever.



Man… we've been working our butts off, and we're still only level 3 agents? What's it take to get higher than that?

To become a Soldier 1st class, I had to undergo a multitude of dangerous experiments and infusions of mako. The path to power is fraught with risk.

I think what he means is that you'll start getting higher gains once you're promoted to work with the higher-level Abnormalities.

I hope it's soon… I wouldn't mind a pay raise.

Speaking of higher-level Abnormalities…



This is our newest addition-a very leggy individual indeed.



It needs a lot of boxes to get any information out of it-unlocking its information alone will cost us a total of 142 PE boxes.

Time to see how Mizu handles it.



Oh… wow, you are a powerful cutie, aren't you? Are those legs yours, or do they belong to everyone else who tried to get to your heart~



How was our new ward?

Not bad… the li'l cutie it seems to like Insight work, so we'll get along fine. Would not recommend footrubs, though. It almost kicked me, and that probably would have taken my head off.

You tried to give it a footrub?

Of course! You'd understand if you were there.

As for Queen Bee, ideally we'd have a way to use it for Instinct training due to it being a Red damaging WAW. However, if its spores land on someone who just had a bad time Instinct training with it they would be instantly doomed.



Wait, you want me to what?

For today, you'll be working with the Queen Bee.

The solution is to just send someone from outside the department.



Wow… You really don't move, do you? I expected more out of a WAW.



Meanwhile, Mizu manages to get another work done successfully. Note the -6% Overload penalty-ALEPH success rates decay even faster than WAWs do.



That lets us unlock its basic information. Our ALEPH now has a name: Blue Star.

This isn't so bad.

So long as it doesn't escape, an ALEPH is much like any other Abnormality. However, if you are careless it is inevitable that it will bring about the end of the facility.

Ah, right. Well, let's not get everyone killed.



Our first meltdown goes without incident, and we get extremely lucky: A meltdown on Blue Star means we can get an extra work in with it before it starts overloading-those extra 20-30 boxes go a long way towards unlocking things. No points for guessing that Hod is telling us about Punishing Bird breaking out. Speaking of-



Ow. Ow. Ow.

It never gets old.



X, while you were preoccupied with watching Talow, the Mirror has almost fully melted down.

...wait, we get two meltdowns this early?

Sure enough, I completely neglected to see how many meltdowns would spawn, and this caught me completely off guard. Despite being clearly visible earlier. Forgetting that things scale is going to be a recurring problem today.



Hey, boss, Queen Bee work didn't go great. Probably gonna' have spores.

Everyone, prepare to intercept.

...Yeah, I'm going on break.

Only until you're done bleeding.



Okay, I caught sight of the two affected employees. We're going to have one bee incoming, everyone get ready.

_{(Can you catch the error? I didn't at the time!)}



...bees? Mr.Black, handle them.

Gladly!!



The Hornet gun is amazingly effective against these worker bees, due to their Red weakness and its ability to fire from outside of the enemy's range.



These clerks keep walking in and dying! This is quite a problem, hahaha!!

The Bee AI seems to prioritize whatever nearby would die the fastest, meaning they swap targets to get reinforcements whenever possible.

_{This damn buzzing…} Mizu, get in there and help. Mr.Black, pull back once you reach 25% of your health.

Sir!



That's another cutie down!

Status report, how many are left?



Two just outside of Safety-_{well, three now…}

Send Mizu their way!



Two more on Control's lower level, sir!

Control's only really got Bishop… Send the Training team to deal with them! They might multiply before we get there, so we need the power!



Two more on lower Information.

Rrgh… got it! D.A.D. and Tylana, get on it! Zeta21, too! Twee, retreat to Training main room!



Two cuties taken care of!



We've got things handled down here.

Take care of it while I've got its attention!

This is for getting between me and my coffee time!



Four up here now, but we've got it under control!

Four, twenty, who cares? BRING IT ON!

Miiight need to suppress Tenebrais after this, though.

Thank goodness. We've got everything under control…



What.



Control, report!

One of the bees Mizu was after escaped up into Control and came in here! It uh… made some friends!

My hair was tingling something fierce!

Manager, there's too many! We're getting swarmed up here, and they've spread out again!

How's everyone's health looking?

Mizu and Mr.Black are recovering, and Mr.Blond was hurt in the initial pollen. If they fight now, at least it'll be a quick death.

Control Team is on its last legs, and we've taken a casualty Manager, but we can still perform the suppression perfectly! Just give the word!

The bees in Information have weakened our fighting potential by 75%.

Umm… Tenebrais is injured, but the rest are mostly alright! Maybe if we send Talow in-

No good, he'll get overwhelmed.



All hands, report to the Training main room right the hell now!

So things have gone from bad to worse. We'll analyze things more after this is all taken care of but for now, I just want to note that in times of crisis against multiple enemies, it's usually a good plan to put everyone in the facility into one of your main rooms where they can heal and their damage output can be maximized against any intruders.



Any bees who come in just melt.

Is everyone here?!

Training's accounted for-just counted!

Worry not, for the Safety team is all here!

Information's on site.

Control's here-what's left of us, anyway.

Alright! Everyone, catch your breath! This day isn't over yet!

Ooh, you're being all leader-y.

Someone has to do it.

Ah-hem.

Oh, you're still here? _{Normally you'd have stopped replying by now.}

Look, I get that the situation is a little…



Complicated.

A little.

The point is, we can still do this. Everyone, one team, go out and take care of the bees.



It's true that the remaining agents can handle the situation, manager. But… please, reconsider.



The bees are everywhere. Every employee in the company aside the agents is already dead.

Clerks don't-

Sephiroth counted.

…



You've cleared out one hallway, but there are still more. You may get away without any more casualties now, but you'll have to replace Sephiroth from scratch-and the cleanup time will keep the clerks we don't have anymore busy for a week.

Yeah, I get it. Bees are bad, and screwed up everything. What do you want me to do about it?

…You don't know?

He doesn't know.

Um… Miss Angela must not have mentioned it because he was doing so well?

What are you all looking at me like that for.

Manager, the Time Track protocols we have installed at this facility can do more than simply speed up or pause time. It is possible to reverse time itself to return to the beginning of the day, or if absolutely necessary a much earlier point in the timeline.



So... you mean I get a do-over?

Should you choose to, yes.

Well, then.



Let's give it one more go. With feeling.

Yes, X.


Retry count: 1

When we retry, we get this loading screen as the system returns to the start of the day, before…

Music: neutral 2


I'm back. Who else knows about this?

The memories of all the Sephirot have been synchronized. They are aware of any jumps made. The employees are not aware anything has happened. For them, it is a normal beginning of the day.

We're back to the deployment screen. All of our changes are already saved-everything is exactly the same as right before we last clicked begin management. So, that went poorly! Still, losses in Lobotomy Corporation are only bad if you don't learn from them. As a result it's time for our first...

Music: Third Trumpet
Post Mortem

The long and short of it is: I got sloppy. First with Queen's initial pollen burst, there were 3 infected Agents, and I stopped counting after I saw 2 because yesterday had 2. Queen Bee seems to vary the number of infections based on the number of people in the department, which went up when we expanded it-I didn't account for that and didn't double-check my work. Then, when dealing with the escaped Bees, one of the ones next to Safety snuck past Mizu while she was running down to deal with them-it went up to upper Control and I never checked to make sure there weren't problems there. My footage shows that there was a highlighted corridor up there on screen for a second, but I missed it since it was in the corner and I was focusing elsewhere. A pause to make certain there weren't bees anywhere near the top would have solved the issue, and so would have sending everyone who was a low-HP character over to Training to be protected by Tenebrais, Talow, and Credentia while the others cleared the facility.

We still were in a position where we could have passed the day since our facility's deathball shredded the bees in seconds, but clearing out all the bees at that point would have taken a while. With one Agent already dead I decided to simply pull out and give it another go.

In the end, this retry was entirely because I got careless multiple times in a row.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Day 17 again, but with 90% less failure.








Meanwhile…


That's it, I guess. The Sephirot and the manager've stopped responding.

Is that such a bad thing? No bosses means no orders. Permanent breaktime.

We can just keep going like normal, right?

Nah. This is the end. Today isn't ever going to stop.

Hold up. You're talking like you've seen this before.

It happens. The higher-ups all stop responding, and there's nothing left for us to do. You can try leaving, if you want. We've got… 24, maybe 48 hours before the Qliphoth Deterrence degrades to the point where the Abnormalities come out. With Blue Star around, that'll be the end of everyone-at least it should be a quick death.

...I think he's right guys. My hair's trembling like never before.

What the hell are you saying?!

I'm saying the manager's abandoned us. Mizu, could you point your gun right here?

Oh, sure!



Wait… Talow, what are you doing?! Don't just give up-you've been here longer than anyone!

You have no idea. Mizu, do it.

Uhh… I don't know what's going on, but okie-dokie!



TALOW!!!



---



Hey everyone! I'm all set and ready for a good morning-I just helped SeyserKoze through a couple of issues, and I really think he's going to be a great addition to the corporation! How're you all doing?

Same old, same old.