Part 7: Mr. Prog's Wild Ride.

And on the vein of explaining, this'll be the last update written while I have Windows. Setting everything up takes a while, and I'll need to adjust you-know-what LP-wise and get new software, etc, and that's before I move to a new house on the first of next month.

I hope that when you move, there aren't small children blocking the only transportation you can use.



Chisao is officially "somebody else's problem", so let's freaking go to SciLab already.

It's brotherly bonding time! Dex has his brother, we have ours, so time to annoy dads!



Also, the Pet flickers almost as much as my wireless connection at this point.

Did you check if it's full of lizards? Either the PET or your router. That's what the problem with my wireless was last time it kept dropping out.




And on the note of horrific jokes, I'm under contractual obligation with MissEchelon to use the gag item later on that makes MegaMan do jokes like this whenever I press L. In the vein of "making this game harder for myself constantly", I'll try to have it equipped or bugged usually rather than anything USABLE.

Yessssss





As usual in MMBN-land, students get free rides on the Metroline, so no need to ever worry about paying for fare.

Oh hey, there's an ad for the N1 back there! Neat!



First NPC you can talk to in SciLab, not counting the woman in the train station, is a SubChip merchant who finally sells Unlockers. These, as you likely recall, open Purple Mystery Data, which typically hold the game's strongest stuff. From extra-potent BattleChips to ridiculous equipment to just assloads of Zenny, PMDs are THE swag of choice. I buy only one for now, but in this update we'll be introduced to something that's a tad, how you say, utterly broken due to the fact I'm emulating the game.

Remember: don't be a chump, always carry Unlockers (unless you really like backtracking??)



SciLab's layout is different from MMBN2's, but the same format of "take the elevator to Dad's lab" applies in every game SciLab is in, which is all of them but 4 and 6.



Also, IceMan from MMBN1 enjoying a popsicle.

I dunno, it doesn't look like he's happy about it





There's a meeting going on in the Virus Lab at the moment, so we can't access it for now, which is kind of a shame because it'd make a handy shortcut next update.



However...



This here is a VERY well-hidden jack-in point! You're almost guaranteed to never find this without hints when you play the game yourself, but there are indeed a few jack-in locations in MMBN3 you can't actually see from the isometric perspective of the game. This is the first of them, and almost all of them have goodies or viruses that are especially strong.

...Holy crap. I never knew this was here.



Oh my god. I think I can hear MissEchelon cheering happily in Australia from my home in Chicago.

OH MY GOD. D'awwww



I'm pretty much obligated to show off everything this group has to say, aren't I. But yes, those scissor-things are hands, not ears, surprisingly!



What do Mr Progs need hands for, you ask? You know, the usual stuff. Hugs, high-fives and thumbs-ups.




This is apparently the SciLab Mr. Progs' official goofing off spot.

Since it's such a bugger to find, that's pretty bright of 'em!



Why would you code laziness into something!?





Or the need to sleep, for that matter! Oh well, it's Battle Network, being goofy and ridiculous is the series trademark.

I dunno, I've seen some pretty lazy programs in real life. They were a lot less endearing than Mr Progs, needless to say.



I suppose so, but one has to really wonder which scientist said to themselves "You know what a program needs? An Int value for tracking fatigue". Maybe it was to make them more relate-able and humanoid?



This is what happens when you don't optimise your code, people.




Points for being clever on their part, though. Exploiting their standardized appearances and all.

Mr Progs are wily little so-and-sos!



And this one's just tired. That's the last of them!

We may never see them again, but those little guys are forever in our hearts...



Fishy's return, and they're more annoying than ever. They'll dash down your row as usual, but they'll do it twice in MMBN3, something that can and will catch veteran players off guard.

FISHY



Yeah, see my HP? I made the mistake of using the fast-forward function a bit too heavily with the Fishies around. At any rate, AirShoes * is an excellent utility chip, letting MegaMan cross over broken panels/holes on the field, but it's obsoleted quickly in the game due the ease of which a later item can make that effect permanent.



MMBN2's Job BBS returns in 3, and as usual I'll save the Job BBS for the postgame where I can get everything done in one update or two. Though, later in the game I'll be forced to do a few jobs, but they're largely irrelevant. To 100% complete this game, and fight a substantial number of postgame bossess, I do need to complete every last request. They're profitable, however, and I don't recall any I could feasibly get stuck on like what happened in the MMBN6 LP with that fucking PoisonPharaoh PA job.

Jobs are fun! I cannot promise I won't be drawing inappropriate images for these jobs like I did for MMBN2...



The coffee may not be good, but this here vending machine has an NPC I can use to help easily snap the game in half.

Oh my gosh. This was in this game?? Yessssss



What this NPC performs is a simple game of Double or Nothing.



Gambling minigame, meet State Saves.



State Saves, meet gambling minigame.



I'm sure you'll get along just fine.

It's the way the game was intended to be played, dangit.



For clearing the gambler out, you win a bonus prize. The Prism chip is delightfully abuse-able, but we'll wait on that for later. Oh, and there's like 3 more of these suckers in the game who all give even more Zenny and prizes. I think you can actually make something like 200,000 Zenny total if you put them all together.



As an added bonus, you also get to feel kind of bad about ruining him. But then you remember that GAMBLING'S WRONG, KIDS.



There's also a RegUp2 off to the right, but compared to the gambler, it's not as important.

It's important for Completionism! Hooray!



Pengi: These penguin viruses show up first here in the drink machine. They move around in slow circles, one row or column at a time, and are invincible to anything but electric or breaking attacks while on ice panels (GutsMan's NaviChip is your friend). To actually attack, they'll hork up a snowflake that moves in a wave pattern across two columns when they stop in front of MegaMan.



Sometimes I worry this series doesn't have enough adorable enemies. And then, Pengi



SciLab's first floor thoroughly plundered, and I think a few more Unlockers purchased if memory serves, it's time to get back to advancing the game up the elevator.



Dr. Hikari is, unfortunately, not present. Three guesses why.

Ooh! Ooh! Is he skiving off work with the Mr Progs? ...no?



A background door yields nothing. It's most likely just a supply closet.

The door is locked so it must be empty. Lan's a genius, whoah



One of the lab aides is surprised to see Lan here, but he's the only one who will say anything productive.



Yeah, he was apparently around in either MMBN1 or MMBN2.

He wasn't in MMBN2, otherwise I'd surely recognise that lovely hair.



Lan, annoyed already, just asks if his dad is around anywhere.

Lan's just giving him a shifty look while he tries to figure out when he met him last.



PARENTAL NEGLECT.





Now the thing is, MegaMan's PET is so tricked-out by Dr. Hikari that nobody else can/should try to repair it. It'd take someone with world-class technical skills to even comprehend the thing, so we're in a bit of a puddle here.

Nah, he's just got those weird hexagonal screws on it and nobody else around here has a screwdriver that'll fit.



He then forks over a SubPet item, which will at least act as a backup in case the primary one breaks completely. A nice thought, but the mere fact we're getting one confirms that we're going to need it, so uh oh time is on the horizon.

I'll be on the edge of my seat until then!



Not much else to do here, but at least the Pet is cooperating for now.



After talking to that guy, however, Dex reveals a useful feature of this game: Home Page shortcuts. Every character with a Home Page (except Lan himself) will eventually add a teleporter from their website to one of the game's Squares. The only Square that doesn't get such a warp gets a different kind of handy shortcut instead, but that's way the hell later in the game anyway. At any rate, navigation in this game is probably the easiest and fastest in the entire series. Between jacking in at a convenient spot and all the inter-connected areas and warps, MMBN3 arguably has the easiest to traverse quickly design out of all the Battle Network games. You can even basically jack into the postgame area directly!

It really does take a sharp downturn next game, so it's good to enjoy it while it lasts.



Naturally, any area with lots of computers means lots of chances to loot and plunder.

Looten Plunder?!



????



The game's first PMD shows up, and one Unlocker later, we get a BambooSword chip! It's a WideSword that deals 140 Wood damage, meaning you could almost oneshot FlashMan with it. There's also 1000 Zenny in the opposite corner of the area, but no new viruses besides Mettaur 2s, which shouldn't need explaining.

Oh. That makes more sense Also, BambooSword this early is bananas. I approve.



Once we pop out of the elevator, however, we coincidentally run into Sunayama again!

Now here's a guy who reminds me of a Captain Planet villain. No idea why, it must be the hat



MEGAMAN HATE TELEVISION. Honestly, considering how the Internet is rapidly making TV obsolete, I find this amusing in hindsight.



Then again, MegaMan already has ample reason to hate TV. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or scream.

....what




Well, we have a justified reason for it, the better question is what a TV producer is doing here!



Well, as it turns out, Sunayama does in fact have a good reason to be around!

So the real question becomes how is he this good at finding Lan??



Namely, SciLab's internet area is the staging ground for round 2.

Oh. Well then. No more questions.



Fuck it! We'll do it live!



Apparently TV personalities need to be that way. This is a rather embarrassing anecdote, but I once applied to be a jeans model, and they turned me down because I wasn't peppy enough.






CSI pass? Make your own joke. The game tells you what this is if you look at it on the item screen, but Sunayama offers no explanation, so you might be a bit confused at first.

It's OK if you're confused. Lan is constantly confused by life, so it's immersive gameplay.



The quickest shortcut for this sequence, for now, is Dex's homepage. Not because of the ACDC Square warp, actually!



It's because his home page is right next to the cybertrain. Let me pull back from this situation for a moment. We have Green Digital Edward Scissorhands NPC Train Conductor talking to the uploaded digital brain of the main character's dead older brother that can tap into the Wonder Twin Powers from Superfriends. God I love Battle Network.

More importantly though, do you see that shit?!



That Prog is wearing a HAT, man. A HAT



The Cyber Sci Pass is the only one we have so far, so here we are in SciLab's area.



The path to the SciLab Square is very easy, being a literal straight line once you go up the staircase, but around the corner is a very confused GutsMan and a RegUp2 in that BMD.

GutsMan: has definitely been to the square before. Then again, last game it wasn't unusual to find him looking confused around the Net.



And to every player's despair, get a load of the local viruses. Oh god, Ratty and Swordy at the same time. Thankfully, they've both been slowed down dramatically from the previous games. Equally thankfully, that's GutsMan V2 I have right there, so this battle was literally a single button press victory.

Swordy!!



A later battle, where I got the basic GutsMan, nets me a LongSword L.



This allows me to complete the classic LifeSword PA early in the game, and it, Zeta Cannon, and GutsShoot are traditionally the first PAs you'll have access to in the game.

LifeSword is rad as hell. So's GutsShoot, but that's obvious.



Right through that warp is the SciLab square.



Okay, special mention must be made to AntiDamage M. Not only does the utterly ridiculous thousand-damage BodyGuard PA from MMBN2 return, with the same formula, but AntiDamage has been buffed to absurd power itself. It sets a trap, and the next MegaMan gets hit, he instead jumps above the field out of range and throws 3 shurikens. They each deal 100 damage, making this easily the most damaging chip in the game thus far, and the most powerful chip period we'll have for quite a damn long time. It costs 3800z, go figure.

What you're saying is it costs less than an Unlocker. Very nice! Not that it matters too much, when these games really are so easy to break.



Mole1 is an Invis variant. You're vulnerable when you attack, but it lasts longer than Invis. You can also be hit by attacks that come from above, as it's flavored as MegaMan hiding in a hole under the panels.



It's also a totally adorable chip.



All the Squares in this game have BBSs, and I will reiterate that they're actually useful in this game, so check 'em! They're fresh now, but later on they'll be packed with handy tips and the occasional guidance.

I maintain that there is no good BBS, in real life or MMBN.



Alright, time to actually get this underway. Next update, I mean, but we can at least kick things off at the end of this one.



SNORE.



Skipping that for your convenience, and because no new viruses are seen in it.

BUT THE PEOPLE HAVEN'T SEEN ENOUGH SURVIVAL BATTLES from like every other Battle Network, ever.




Now, the second mission harks back to the License Exam formula from MMBN2. The second mission is a Navi hunt, and naturally mission 3 will be another 3-round survival match.

Colour me surprised!



Off we go, then, to hunt this sucker down. SciLab area is pretty compact, only having 2 screens, but the trouble is that they're split into an upper and lower region, meaning you effectively have 4 zones to search.

I'm still on the edge of my seat from earlier!!! LET'S ROLL.


NEXT TIME.