Part 38: Day 18 - Gameplay

Day 18: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4


With a glut of LOB (35!) burning a hole in my pocket, I boost all of our Agents' level 2 stats to level 3. Medea gets the shiny new ALEPH suit for now, and I do some minor equipment shuffling.





It doesn't matter… just do whatever.



Orders from the top, everyone! Sephiroth, SeyserKoze, you're just hitting the mirror today. From there, we'll squeeze some work in if we have time-but if not we'll have some more training programs after work.

Training programs? Again? Man… Why not just inject the power right into my veins? We can do that, right?

Ah yes… Mako infusions were how I gained much of my own power. Mother's cells allowed me to survive them without losing myself in the stream of souls that lies within all things.

On second thought, training classes are fine.

Bishop, I was told you're exempt from normal duties today? Whatever it is, it sounds important!

---



-so the call was cut off, just like that.

It definitely sounds like someone wanted to stop 'B' from saying that third truth. He's probably never speaking again, to be honest.

That's what I figured. So, today, can you look into something? I want to find out who this B guy really was, confirm who killed him, everything. There should be a corpse or something to go off of... Any information you can find, really.

Alright. I'll give the CCTV footage a thorough once-over, and check around in the places the cameras can't reach. That program seemed to be coming from inside the building, so there's only so many places to hide a body.

Thanks. I'll make sure Malkuth doesn't go breathing down your neck in exchange, okay? Just try to be around for the Noon.

Of course. Fighting the Ordeals keeps my skills sharp.

---

It is, ma'am. I'll be sure to perform my duties perfectly, like always.

I wouldn't expect anything less!



Netzyyyy! Boss boss boss boss! Hey! Boss! Netzy! Hey!

_{So loud…} What is it?

Did you get my list of titles? I wanna know what my new title is going to be! Is it 'Amazing Dancer' Mizu? That'd be great! Or 'Alpha Omega' Mizu would be cool too.

You're going to stay on this until I give you something, aren't you?

Sure am! Strike while the iron's hot! And cold! And lukewarm! And… just keep striking, actually! Eventually you'll have a breakthrough!

...Okay. Then you're just Mizu.

Just Mizu?

Just Mizu. Goodnight.



...Ohmigosh I love it. Hey Twee! Twee! Check out my new title!



Oh, that's really neat! I was just taking a look at the new tool Abnormality we got today.



The container was signed… "From EA, with love."

EA? What's an EA?

HAHAHA! It means Extraction Administrator!

Extraction…? Sounds interesting. Shame that it's just a tool...

Our newest tool requires us to have PE boxes in order to function, so we'll come back to it in just a moment.



It's time. Zeta21, you're going to be working in Safety again. D.A.D., you're assigned to test the new tool today. Tylana, stay open in case of a meltdown.

Roger that, boss. Good luck, Zeta.

Safety again..? I maxed out Fortitude with the Bee yesterday.

Who said you were going to be working with Queen Bee?



I don't know what I expected.

With some energy in the bank, it's time to test our new Abnormality.



When we activate our new toy, we lose 2 energy towards our daily goal-this number changes based on a few factors, but it's always a... small tradeoff, if you will. D.A.D. tosses a sphere into the strange contraption.



Prayer ensues, as the tool wiggles around menacingly.



This is what we want to see: the tool turns gold and D.A.D. does a happy little dance!



It gives them a glowing golden orb in return.



And just like that, D.A.D.'s damage is buffed from 5-6 to 6-7.



We do it again, boosting the damage to 6-8, and get a name. Our new tool is called Old Faith and Promise. It seems pretty nice so far, allowing us to pay in order to gain a direct advantage over our enemies. We send D.A.D. in a third time.



My gun…!

This time it turns black, and eats our weapon-returning D.A.D. to the basic riot club. The way Old Faith works is simple enough: Each successive roll with it increases the power of our E.G.O weapon, but it also raises the chance of it being consumed. If you're familiar with any games which have a pay-to-win upgrade system that randomly destroys your equipment so you have to shell out more money, it's that.

Sephiroth isn't likely to see any action, and we need to work this thing another 4 times. Malkuth, send him on down to give this thing a try.





Ma'am.

Hey there!

The blue sparkles here are the Sound of a Star suit's effect: It periodically heals everyone in the room, but only for SP. In general, green sparkles mean HP healing and blue sparkles are for SP healing.



Mother… have I been forsaken..?

Sephiroth also gets through three works before his weapon is destroyed, so we only need one more to unlock all of its data. I decide to send Mizu, since she's close.



To expected results. She's got a slight buff for the rest of the day, and we're finished with Old Faith and Promise.



Well, that's neat. Time to never use it again.

An efficient and decisive decision as always, X. Will we be ending things early, then?

We need to get 222 boxes from Blue Star to grab that weapon… so we'll probably end a little early. Not yet, though.

Very well, sir. I shall leave things in your care.



With our first meltdown, we see something strange: Despite us being slated to get 2 meltdowns, only 1 actually spawned. This is also because of Old Faith and Promise. It's part of a very exclusive club of Abnormalities which I like to call 'meltdown eaters.' Whenever meltdowns are generated, they're randomly placed on the Abnormalities in the facility. Whenever a meltdown eater is selected to be hit by a meltdown, the meltdown is instantly considered cleared and does not spawn. In effect, we'll sometimes randomly have 1 less meltdown than we otherwise would.

EDIT: I have been informed by multiple people that Old Faith is not a meltdown eater, and it melts down just fine the same as anything else. They do exist, but Old Faith was not allowed into this highly exclusive Abnormality club because it's not cool enough. What apparently happened here was Tenebrais's work with Laetitia triggered a meltdown on Blue Star, and since Twee was going there anyways she cleared it after only a handful of frames and I just didn't notice at all. Great thanks to the thread for mentioning this, I was about to be really surprised in the next few days.



My goodness, three smiles at once? How terrific!

I get to work on maxing out Mr.Black's Fortitude, and meanwhile have Twee power up on YMBH so that she can work with Blue Star. After this work is over, I pause for a moment to track exactly how much Fortitude Mr.Black gained, since he's close enough to only need 1-3 more works. I figure that he only needs one more to finish maxing it.



I've been taking notes on how Mizu works with new Abnormalities-I think I'll be able to properly clean the room now that my perceptiveness has been tweaked! Just you watch!



Crimson Dawn.



We've got this handled, sir.

Maybe so, but the timer's cutting it a little close. I'll just help finish things off.



Crimson Done.



Mr.Blond gets a normal while training with the Queen Bee, but she decides not to shoot spores. After the last two days? I'll take it.



Manager, I heard the warning. Has it started?



You're just in time. It's a green.



Those vibrations… I think it's just outside the door.

Both of you get out of here, I'll take care of it!

Very well.



I thought I smelled a cutie! Leave this one to me~



I don't like these ones! They don't know how to smile, and they're so terribly hard!

At least you have that fancy WAW suit! That chainsaw still goes through my gear like a chainsaw through butter!

_{As the two dead clerks lying there would show, neither of you has any right to complain.}



Glad you could make it, Talow. I've got things under control, though.

How'd you know it was me from behind the robot?

There's only one agent here with the Generous Pillar title.

Very perceptive. Let's get this thing taken down.

You don't have to help out in Training?

Nah. Medea took Knight of Despair's boon today and insisted on field-testing the new E.G.O suit alone.



If you told me a week ago that we'd be able to fight a Green Noon in hand-to-hand combat without trouble, I'd have called you crazy.



How is it? Any scratches?

None, ma'am. The suit looks immaculate.

There you have it, Hod. I had no idea ALEPH gear was this powerful... And you said there was a weapon, too?

Um… that's right! It's being extracted later today. Now, if you'll let me check on your vitals…



Holy-

That's amazing!

That's right-Medea took out a Green Noon in melee combat by herself, and only took 8 damage. Between the suit's 0.4x multiplier vs Red damage, the ALEPH suit vs HE weapon's 0.7x multiplier, and the Knight's 0.5x multiplier, Medea had a total modifier of 0.14x versus the Green Noon's attack. All resistance calculations in this game are multiplicative, which means that just a little stacking makes some crazy things happen.



Hey, just Mizu. Can you finish up? That chainsaw is really loud.

Okie-dokie, boss!



All done!

Phew. Got that out of the way early. Only thing left to do is go for the Blue Star's weapon, which means we need…







Mmmh… I needed that. There's been nothing to do all day.

...Huh. Did I forget about Training?

Um… I've been having Tenebrais train her Fortitude with Laetitia, and Boksi wound up with a Prudence of 2 after mirror, so I sent him to-

-The Scarecrow.

Thank you, Hod. Well done.

You're very welcome, sir!

Anyways, I was checking on how many more boxes I need to hit 222…





...seriously?

Your eyes are not deceiving you, Manager. Outside of the perception filter, of course, none of the information on screen has been modified or played with in any way. It is absolutely vital to-

Yeah, yeah, yeah, got it. Twee, handle it.



This time let's conduct some experiments on how strong the pull of that heart is, shall we?

---



Hey. Bird. I know you haven't had anyone come see you all day, but we can't really afford you breaking out this close to quitting time, so I'm here to deal with you.



Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have run off and tried to murder mosshead, but let's be fair-he kind of sucks.



Ugh, alright, fine. The point is, I'm not going to kill him-I'm going to let him snap under the pressure, and then I'm going to beat him back to sense so hard his stupid ancestors'll feel it for generations. So no more coming after me, okay?



My heart's in exactly the right place, you abnormal avian asshat-inside my chest. My job is making sure things like you don't remove it from there.



Don't follow? Then let me put it like this: I know how to dodge now. If you come after me again you will get a beating you'll never forget, and that little mouth you're hiding in there won't save you.



Oh screw off, birdbrain!



Say, Tylana… have you considered moving to a different department?

Not really, why do you ask?

I feel like you're hitting your ceiling in this department. You'd do great somewhere else. You've got good instincts, kiddo, and I'm sure you could be a department captain somewhere else.

You really think so?

I know so. The only reason you're not the head around here is you have to compete with me, after all.

Thanks. I'll... think about it.

Zeta21, you've got some real talent, too. Ever thought about what you want to make of yourself?

Plenty of times. I always come back to sipping on a cold drink, watching everyone else do all the work.

Heh. Well, it's nice to have a goal in mind, too.



Why, Talow, it seems you've finally gotten a second gift!

Mm? Huh, so I did. The Knight of Despair must've snuck this on me.

I didn't think you liked E.G.O Gifts.

I don't, but she and I see eye to eye on a couple of things, I guess.



Manager, the E.G.O weapon has been extracted successfully.

Great! Let's give everyone the rest of the day off. We'll test drive our new toy tomorrow.

I think I know who'd be ideal to test it, Manager.

Forward it to me, I'll consider it overnight.



Another one done by the numbers.

More across the board stat-ups, as our Agents are getting close to being maxed out. We've also gotten our first two fully maxed Agents.



Congratulations to Mr.Black and Zeta21 for reaching the pinnacle of Agentdom.

---

Bishop, have you found anything yet?

Not yet. Thanks for getting us out of here early, it makes it a lot easier for me to look around without a problem.

I thought you might like it. We'll talk tomorrow, alright?

Sounds good, Manager.



With a full load of Abnormalities, we don't get to pick anything new until the end of day 20, so -44 won't be able to keep stalking us for a little while longer. :rolleyes:

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Malkuth shows up in an actual cutscene again!

New Gear


Requirements: Level 5, Prudence 5, Temperance 5
*Not affected by Attack Speed

New Story

Old Faith and Promise