Part 45: EXPOSITION DUMP TIME!

This is officially my 20th update of this LP. The thread's title has also been changed to "S Is The Magical Letter"



And we begin with Wily laughing like a maniac. Good start.

We need more Wily. That guy's just so jovial.





You mean your WWW operators we haven't horribly embarrassed yet, right?



Can I buy a T-shirt with Wily's laugh on it?

The technology must exist!

We fade to black...





No, this is dreamland.

Maybe if you're a big nerd this is your dreamland.





Dreaming about your twin brother? Weirdo.



This is what happens when you aren't satisfied with Customer Service and put on the Oculus Rift.





Communicating pyschically with your twin brother? Weirdo.



What.

I THOUGHT WHAT WE HAD WAS SPECIAL!





You can't do this, MegaMan! We still have so many viruses to bust.

No no, it's "so much viruses busting to do". Don't get your grammar wrong, buddy.















He's dead, Lan



He's dead.



I just got dumped

Could it be that I've spent too much time virus busting and acting superior and not enough time relating to the average player?

I think this is a wake-up call.



Nah, fuck that.



Pyjama sprites!





Eh, I've had bloodier dreams. Also, I love nightmares.

I can't imagine how your twin buggering off is a nightmare. Seems like a good time to me.







Wow, this is the only time in the series that I can recall the country's government actually taking a more active approach.

Aaaand their active approach is completely retarded. Thanks Obama.







Yeah you incompetents. You had all of ten years to grab the damn thing but just stood around like noobs.

And yet they're the most competent anti-WWW guys around. Anywhere. Ever.





School? What is this school? Can I S-rank it?

As long as we didn't miss any (more) homework.



And WOW, our mom is not here. Things must REALLY be bad. That, or she's just visiting Dr. Hikari.

Or she's like... outside. Anywhere really. no wait this is a Japanese game... OK maybe she's out shopping



Abusing frames to not even face you, girl.

Whoa. I temporarilly feel bad about making fun of this game for having an extremely Japanese view of women. This lady's rad as hell.



In this fictional version of Japan, there is very much still an army. I'm going to assume for the record that there is also a naval force. But yeah, we got fucking tanks! Alpha-killer tanks



Real-world problems to net solutions...? OK I'll admit it, I'm completely lost as to what's happening now. All I know is that lady is wearing the exact same uniform as most of SciLab wears.





You should have outgrown the Roll chip series by now, honestly.

Roll is a fun chip for beginners, but we're far enough in the game now.



We're under martial law, so we can't simply leave unless we have special permission. Unfortunately, we do not yet have that.

If only we were well known for having done something important. Like saving the world. Alas, we have never done anything important, so we must stay here.







Talking to all 3 of your friends (Fuck Yai, she just bitched about how she can't leave) will trigger the next part of the story. You can actually go inside the school, but there's not much in there. Unless you want to see some random Ms. Mari dialogue.

Ummm Yai seems legit, I'd be bitching about martial law locking everybody in the boring craphole that is ACDC town too.







NetBattler meeting? Sweet! I've got loads of awesome strategies to do this. My preferred strategy is "shut the fuck up, let me do all the work and get all the chips. The rest of you find me virgins to sacrifice. Now."

I wouldn't trust you in a netbattler meeting. You'd probably go on about how leet your strats are, and challenge everybody else to a fight. Either that or scream about how pepole shouldn't be touching your chips. Confirm/deny?

Fine, I'll confirm that would be the case, but you cannot deny that I would wreck face.





Aw yeah, secret government hookups.

It sounds cool, but secret government hookups are actually extremely dull. I have one word for you: bureaucracy.



Before we meet ProtoMan, let me take care of something real quick.





I don't think that dash needs to be there, Capcom.



No stop it doesn't need to be bad-guy. Just say bad guy!



How the hell did you get the part? You don't even remotely LOOK the role. They should audition me because I could definitely be a good bad guy if given the chance. And even when not given the chance.







Ah crap, I gotta equip BlackMind.



Forced NaviCust segment!

BlackMind is a really cute NaviCust idea, at least. Just... making it take up customisation space is stupid.







: Oh, I see how it is. When you wanna act bad, you copy me, huh? Fuckin' white boys.



MegaMan clearly thinks this is retarded.

He's trying to look tough don't make fun of him





I wish I was making this up.

Well it worked for Lan rapping on a plane, why not now?





We need this for a Program Advance, so let's take this. It's either get this here or grind the Twin virus for a Custom Style S-rank reward.

But you love grinding for S-rank rewards!





At least ProtoMan doesn't have us do a fetch quest, he's too cool for that-- AH SHIT.



Yeah, fuck you, Yai. We get to go anywhere we want.

I'm sure if she really wanted to Yai could bribe her way out of here. She's a good, incredibly rich friend.





Then why weren't you helping when the Zoo was attacked?

Maybe because that segment was dumb?





Read above for my excellent plan.

Is this seriously the entirety of the semi-skilled netbattlers in the country? Well I guess that shows why Lan's always the one saving the day.





Oh lordy, plotdump incoming. Brace yourselves.



OH BOY!









"Also it was totally created by Japan OKAY THE INTERNET CAME FROM JAPAN. I MEAN NETOPIA."



The internet is a monster. Got it.





Christ sake, building your Net ontop of a monster will NEVER end well! At least they had enough foresight to create the Undernet.









Guess who that AutoNavi is, guys. Hint: cloak.

Is it.... is it us??





At least the tendency to react that way is a very human failing. They had the wrong perp and, well, that innocent Navi wants revenge on everything.

Made a mistake? Welcome to the Internet, fuck you get out.







They didn't delete Bass, obviously. They just thought he was deleted from being injured really badly.

Bass is too rad to be deleted. Just as well, otherwise we'd miss out on some excellent netbattles.







This is what happens when you blame independent Navis for crimes they didn't commit. After Bass, Navis were completely rewritten to not be completely independent. Why? Think about it, imagine Navis inciting a revolution just because they're tired of being alarm clocks for sleepy kids. Even so-called "solo" Navis presumably have a degree of control someone could exercise over them. Hell, even MegaMan himself is still mostly a yes-man, although, I doubt he would rebel anyway.

What is this? Alpha was the cause of the incident, therefore we blamed that AutoNavi guy?







Honestly, some people feel for Bass, and you can kinda see why.







Alpha is Kirby! We're all doomed!

SKYNET OH NOOOO









Oh God, people lose their shit once their Internet is down for a day, can you imagine 6 months? "MY FACEBOOK HASN'T BEEN UPDATED"

I would laugh and laugh and laugh. And then be very upset because if there's no internet who's looking after my neopets???







Essentially, we're all fucked because our heroes stood around and let Bass nab it. I'm harping on that, but really now. Our hereos didn't get outplayed, they just fucking stood there.

When that lady refers to all that's online... In the last two games we've seen everything is online. Ovens? Buses? CARS? All online. And there's (for some reason, somehow) a system responsible for taking care of weather and earthquakes that's also connected online.





Keep in mind that deleting Alpha means deleting the entirety of the current Net. Alpha was used as the basis for the current Net. In fact, the dumbasses simply built everything on top of Alpha, making him the foundation. And what happens when you remove the foundation?

....everything turns out OK?



That's not the sound of an alarm, bro.

That's the sound of a very excited alarm.







WELP. Is it too late to punch these idiots?



It's never too late to punch morons who should've known better.



Time to roll.



Why aren't YOU doing anything? You're a government official, yes? Eh, why am I complaining? He's just scared.

Yes, he is a government official. It's probably not his job to rescue children.



Okay, so our friends are cornered by the tank and...

Wow, Lan is pretty damn confident that he can take on a fucking TANK. Is my confidence rubbing off on him?

It's not even close to the most dangerous thing Lan's faced. Or his friends, either.







This tank should be firing right about now.



Why isn't the tank firing?

It's programmed not to fire until the text dump is out of the way.



Why isn't the tank firing?





This isn't the time for apologies. Get the hell out of dodge. Also, why hasn't the tank fired?



You guys could have literally ran away by now.

All of them, including Lan, could be three blocks away by now.







I'll believe that once it starts firing.



Oh, now you start firing.

Oh good.





Best tank ever, guys.

Maybe it's based on viruses and only fires every so often.







WAT

LAN IS FUCKING NEO, MAN



Fucking Matrix up in here.

YOUR BULLETS CANNOT HARM LAN apparently





This can't be happening. This is unbelievable.

Try anything! Since that tank is comically incapable, you can achieve whatever you want



Jesus, I've rubbed off on Blink Animation. He now wants to demonstrate his skills just as much as I do!

<sub>I'm a bad influence.

reminder: don't feed the plant</sub>







Displaying expert timing, and due to faulty tank design not permitting the tank to turn while shooting, Lan can safely reach the jack-in port.

Since we have no evidence to the contrary, I choose to believe Lan slowly walked up to the tank, in no danger whatsoever.



I shall call him "Mini me"

For the radness of his bullet-dodging, or the general stupidity of 90% of his other actions?

Damn, I think I need an icepack.



There aren't actually any Mr.Progs in this computer. That's because when Alpha took over the tank, he violently destroyed whatever was initially controlling the tank.

Dead Progs: 4

Mr Progs don't want no part of a child-massacre anyway. I choose to believe they jumped ship. Or er, jumped tank. I WANT TO BELIEVE.





YUMMY REWARDS



M stands for "My Chips"

I thought it stood for "mmm chips". Oh dang now I want to eat chips. mmmm... chips







It's a good idea to start gathering rewards from the lower ranks just to see what codes the different levels yield. It's especially important here because these codes add up to a Program Advance.

Heh, the Cannon PAs are silly. They're fun, but not real useful on bosses.



The grinding is real.

I told you about the grinding bro



NICE! This program completely and utterly shuts down DrillMan. You'll see how in the next update.

???



It is time... The greatest chip in the game is about to become mine. RARE VIRUS HUNTING GO!

Gater isn't in this game. NOT IMPRESSED.





Oh Spikeys, always ruining plans with their cool spikes.



HI

Yes, this is the Level 3 variant of the virus we saw from that random Heel Navi in FlamMan's scenario. The Level 2 variant is in a post-game area and we can't actually find the Level 1 variant yet. This chip is glorious and probably my favorite in the series.

Anyways, to celebrate the occasion, here's a GIF of how I s-ranked the encounter.



I may do this for some of the harder encounters in the game.

Don't let anyone, ANYONE tell you that CopyDamage sucks. If they do, they are either an idiot, or someone who never bothered to experiment with it. Half of these S-ranks were from CopyDamage's glorious utility. CopyDamage goes through EVERYTHING, even enemies with Auras, or who are impervious to all but a single element. Best of all, CopyDamage requires skill since you need to plan your moves and execute them near perfectly.

True skill > cheapness

Nah, each has its place. Skill is excellent to use for embarrassing navis. Cheapness is excellent to use instead of suffering through license exams.

Then again, it depends if you count pulling off silly chip combos (varsword beams + prism from the last game comes to mind) as skill or cheapness. Seems kind of arbitrary.

But you wouldn't have to suffer through anything if you had true skill, just bullshit Zenny from the RNG.



Magnum is a fantastic chip. You stop the cursor with the A button to deal damage in a column or row. Any square that doesn't have an enemy on it gets broken instead. Best of all it's fire-elemental, meaning its damage can be quadroupled in the right conditions. You better learn how to use this chip.

Anyways, here's a little bug I discovered in the game.



Hmm, Condor deals 180 damage, but the virus has 250 HP! Sooo, how did the chip kill the virus?


Well, there you have it. A possible 360 damage attack on the third panel? Might be useful for virus S-ranking in certain situations. Do with that information what you will.

Just keep in mind Condor has that pause when you use it, so you need to time it proper.



Wait, haven't we seen that thing before?



Does... does that thing have heatsinks for ears?





Let's viruses busting.

Always blame the viruses for out-of-control devices... oh. I guess it always is their fault. Nevermind.



I'll do you guys a courtesy and reveal their names early.

Alphabug: Red is the Level 1 variant, Blue is the second level and Yellow is the third variant. They constantly regenerate health at something about 25 HP/sec. If you don't one-shot them or kill them fast, the fight will become very difficult to deal with. They attacking by launching their bodies at you, leaving the circle behind on their origin square. If the body hits you, your HP gets sapped continously for a few seconds AND you get paralyzed in the process. If there are multiple of these on the field, you can get stunlocked for a very long time. To add further annoyance, should you dodge the body lunge, a weird "Alpha circle" is left on the panel they attacked, meaning you can't move there!

We first saw these things in the update just after I demo'd Bruce Lee. Either the game wasn't supposed to spawn those viruses at that time, OR the game is trying to sell the idea that Alphabug has always been around, just in very, very small areas of the Net where no-one would find them. Interesting...

In any event, it's time to take revenge for the fallen Progs!

I keep telling you the Progs live!



BEST CHIP IN THE SERIES

MEGAMAN JUMPS UP IN THE AIR LIKE A BOSS. MAGNUM IS LOVE. MAGNUM IS LIFE

_{Did that satisfy your need for revenge, my Queen?}

Call me that again and I quit

_My...King?





And it didn't give any chips *grumble, grumble*

At least it wasn't a Dominerd, amirite?





Ah, too bad I never got a picture of its attack, but I did say that its body flies at you and hugs you to death, while draining your HP whilst causing paralysis. The fact that MegaMan points this out is definitely srs bsnz.

Dude I just can't be against a virus that hugs people. Maybe it just needs more hugs?? Who's to say it's dangerous?? FREE ALPHA, HUGS FOR ALL







Well, all the tanks have gone out of trouble, so yeah, they already multiplied.





Oh good, at least they can do SOMETHING.

They just pushed the power switch. They don't know why you didn't do the same thing.





Yeah, no shit. Once Alpha gains control of the nuclear silos, we're all screwed.

Anybody who linked their nuclear silos up to the internet HAS IT COMING. IT security has to mean something, dangit.





NPC pls. I just said that. I don't know why the reveal is so dramatic, it's not as if we were supposed to have a connection with the name AlphaBug or something.

And to be fair they already said Alpha was the reason for shit being crazy.







Can't we just say that Alpha is reproducing tiny babies so that it can effectively assimilate all the new technology faster? It makes more sense and makes Alpha seem more threatening via a "learning" factor. Instead, you just said that one of the bugs inside Alpha came to life and is helping Alpha,

.........Alpha's having tiny babies who just want hugs?
oh my god





This guy gets a call. It's nice they made a sprite of him holding up his PET just for this. It's the little things.

I like that the way you screenshotted it makes it look like he's like "that's obvious Chaud of course we're doing that shut up Chaud"







FUCK. The nuclear missiles are gonna start launching soon.

THEY HAD IT COMING.





Now you're starting to see why Alpha is a fun concept.

And conversely, that proper IT security would make this scenario way less exciting.





At this point, Lan offers to help.





It makes sense Lan shouldn't be helping here. Erasing all of the AlphaBugs would take way too much time. And even if you kill them all, more will just spawn in other computer systems. All of this until Wily fully decodes Alpha, which means Alpha's full power comes online destroying everything. This is a losing battle no matter how you look at it.

But Chaud gave us the pass so we could go to the official meeting to help out...? Thanks Chaud.





Fuckin' a



Lan's Mom, Haruka, calls this time!









This day just keeps getting worse.

Oh. I was thinking she'd gone shopping but no duh she was visiting her sick husband in hospital.

Also neglecting her son.



Hospital time!







Yep, the Hikari men are retarded in their own ways. Lan, I hope your son is smarter.







Yeah, this could be a problem.

If only we had some way of contacting him. Some sort of... personal terminal...



Pffft, that's dumb. If Dad doesn't want to be found, surely he wouldn't help us find him, right?

Surely if he'd left a note saying where he was going Lan's mum would've already found it?



Mash A on everything, time.

Oh boy!





Also, Haruka is pacing back and forth inside the room.

Lan's mum is helping!



Wat. He left behind a CardKey?





Lan can read with his eyes closed.





Oh, well, that's easy.



He probably should have held onto his stuff a lot better.

Lan's dad: most competent person in the game. But for reals...