Part 38: Chop chop chop.

Not like Lan has any experience with hanging out with rich people, right?



Staring emptily at the inactive TV, Haruka begins showing signs of encroaching insanity. Her linguistic skills are already corroding, and she's hallucinating the presence of her husband. It's a good thing she doesn't know what about happened to MegaMan.



Nothing to do but head for the ship. And this is fair warning, you won't have any access to the internet on board the ship and can't leave until the scenario wraps up.



As one would expect, the ship is as luxurious as possible. And Recurring Fat Guy shows up for no particular reason, his father apparently brought him along.



This isn't a pleasure trip though, we're here to investigate possible Nebula activity.



Right on cue, this guy is rebuffed from entering the engine room, the NPC saying that it's off-limits to passengers. For crying out loud, the Nebula agent HISSES.



As if you needed it drilled in, even Lan catches on. Well, that was quick, let's go apprehend the Nebula agent! Well, no. Colonel advocates taking time. After all, he hasn't done anything yet, and since the ship has left port, it's not like the agent will be going anywhere soon.



The inherent humor of pairing the stern, pragmatic Colonel with the idiotic Lan rears its head. Colonel's advice whizzes straight over Lan's head.



This way we can catch him in the act and have harder evidence, after all.



This conversation is word-for-word identical in Team ProtoMan version, I think. Lan probably thinks highly of Colonel for obvious reasons.



Behold, SmugLanSP.



This is like some buddy-cop show, with the grizzled Colonel being exasperated with the overenthusiastic incompetence of his rookie partner.



There's a Chip Trader Special over here, and normally this would result in a bonanza of save-state abuse.



However, the auto-save function of Chip Traders makes this impractical for DTDS. I honestly can't imagine why, considering that this game is pretty much just a port of both versions of MMBN5 with a few extra features slapped in, but saving in DTDS takes around 15 seconds or so. Contrast that with the nearly instant saves of the GBA games. This isn't the emulator, I recall being very annoyed with the time it took to save whenever I did when I played it on the DS. So save-scumming the Chip Trader is out of the question because it would take way too fucking long.

Oh well, the game's stuffed full of game-breakers already, screw the Chip Trader.



First order of business! I'm flying, Colonel, I'm flying!



Anyway, to familiarize ourselves with the ship and pass time, there's a stamp hunt.



Behind this guy, note the custom sprite NPC, there's also a NetBattle matchup available, but it's currently in use, so stamp collecting we go.



Which doesn't mean we can't bug the NPCs anyway! Yai and Glide have set the precedent for how effective wealthy operators and Navis are.



Much like the Airplane from MMBN2, the NPCs on board the ship are given a bit more characterization. This generic old man sprite being used for the captain of the ship even gets a justification.



Oh a much smaller ship, mind you, but it's tradition. And no, I'm not even going to bother showing where the stamps are, you have 3 fucking screens to search and you even get obvious hints.



Oh sure, richy-rich folk can't spare more than pocket change, can they?



Meanwhile, Native American (Netopian?) NPC guy has beaten the wealthy NPC into the floor. Money can't buy you happiness, and in MMBN, it can't buy you victory either. It can buy you a shitload of awesome chips and Navi customization options though, so given the resources, yeah, rich people just suck at NetBattling.



Have we mentioned he's Native Netopian? Oh well, his personality is agreeable enough. Strong, fond of battle, makes fun of everyone else? People like that are just the best.



Yes, this is a silly Native American stereotype character. However, his Team ProtoMan counterpart has the distinction of having unquestionably the stupidest name in the whole series. Fyrefox. No, I'm not kidding.

And I realize that by mentioning that, I've spoiled who our next teammate is, but come the hell on, he's the only other character on the ship with a unique sprite, any idiot could have guessed.



Yesss, battle!



Unfortunately, the fight is interrupted before it can even begin by the ship shaking back and forth. No, it isn't rough seas, this is a luxury cruise liner after all and the skies are clear on top of that. That can only mean one thing!



And now, a pointless word puzzle. Due to the security emergency, the door's locked and requires a password.



This guy offers this mnemonic as our only clue. And like all word puzzles in the series, this tripped me the hell up when I first played it. A few goons in the thread mentioned how I've always noted difficulty with these puzzles (See the Mother Computer and the SciLab Mainframe for examples) and this is no exception to the trend. Being the egotist that I am, I feel it necessary to include some justification for this trouble and my hatred for these puzzles in this update!

1: I was young. MMBN2 came out in 2001-2002, MMBN5 came out in 2005, I'm currently 19. Do the math.

2: Dear Capcom! It's not a puzzle if you don't give any indication of how it's supposed to be solved! Likewise, a hint isn't helpful without context of how to apply said hint!



First of all, there's no math involved despite what the initial "Double 1 and 9" part might have hinted at. That could be (11 + 9), (2 + 9), or 2(1 + 9) when looked at mathematically, which of course will give an utterly wrong answer. Sound out the mnemonic hint, however, and you get the code.

Rrrgh!



Past that stupid door, we can finally pursue that Nebula agent!



Oddly, the Nebula Navi doesn't recognize Colonel. And being a standard mook, Colonel is well aware that this is a laughable enemy.



There are 4 areas in the engine Cyberworld, and the cowardly Nebula Navi has blocked the way with utterly pathetic viruses.



Confronting them in the last area, they decide to beat a hasty retreat rather than fight. Whatever, they're still stuck on the ship, and they'll have to make their move when the party/auction starts to get at the booster system.



And just as we finish up there, the announcement that the party has begun blares over the loudspeaker. Convenient.



The auction begins after talking to all the NPCs. The Nebula agent, you'll notice, isn't present. And funnily enough, nobody questions Lan's presence at all. Just look at this, talk about completely out of place. The rest of the NPCs on this screen are powerful business executives and heads of corporations. Lan's a 6th grader.



It's interesting how little the issue of how easily data can be copied has been addressed in the series. Backup data for cannon fodder NPCs has been mentioned several times, they even function as extra lives in Network Transmission, so Navis can be copied. For reasons probably involving copy protection, BattleChips can't be duplicated, despite the fact you can earn them in purely digital form after any random encounter.

And heck, remember Bass' GetAbility program that Beardman made? It allows him to copy any attack or record chip data to use any time. But that shouldn't be special at all, any idiot can pirate software or crack a copy protection defense even in reality, without any of the ridiculous things in the MMBN universe that would make it even easier.

Jesus, just imagine the copyright nightmares a million-dollar program with such widespread applications would have. There's no point at all in hosting this auction period, the second the booster program gets out of Ubercorp's hands, it'll be everywhere. And forget trying to keep it out of Nebula's hands.



Apparently though, it's relatively cheap for the business world. Oh well?



And there's the booster program right there. The guard Navis are all being amplified by it, so it's under careful protection. Still, the only thing I can think of that would make a Navi 10 times as powerful would be bassbs.clt, the code file Hog Butcher sent me that when patched into the game, transformed Bass into BassBS.

Speaking of, Hog Butcher, where'd you go?



This sounds like the sort of thing a villain would say before springing a trap, but no, it isn't.



It's the sort of thing a stupid NPC says immediately before a villain takes action.



Well, 0 times 10 is still 0, after all...

Okay, there's an obvious problem right here. If the power to the room was cut, why was the display computer still active? Yes, it could have had a backup set of batteries or something, but given that it was built into the podium, that isn't likely. And besides, you know the writers didn't think of that. As usual, Cyberworld is treated like a magical parallel dimension rather than, you know, the internet.



Time to find Obvious Nebula Thug person!



The guard confirms that nobody entered or exited the room, however, and given the size of the guard versus the size of the doorway seen earlier,you can bet he wouldn't have been able to be slipped past.



NPCs being useful? My reality! It's crashing around me! You'd think we'd have had to search the room ourselves!



They're shocked to hear Lan tell them he's a Nebula agent. And really, the whole "He's a 6th grader in an ultra-rich business elite meeting" thing just keeps getting funnier. Nobody seems to notice or care. Lan hasn't even identified himself as a member of an anti-Nebula taskforce, they just sort of go along with him. See, Japan, this is why you shouldn't always make your protagonists a student!



A red herring! As it turns out, someone stole the booster system before even the Nebula agent could make a grab for it!



Colonel makes a point, it couldn't have been anybody present. There's something tricky afoot here.



After checking around the room for clues, Lan has a eureka moment.



Or rather, the player is expected to. I guessed correctly the first times I played, so I wanted to see if there were funny dialogue bits for picking the wrong answers. I especially hoped for Colonel being exasperated with Lan's idiocy, but sadly, all you get are single lines from Lan and the choice being removed from the list until you pick the right one inevitably.



Encyclopedia Brown we ain't.



Can you figure out the riddle, everybody? I love how something that's literally impossible to fail due to wrong answers having no consequence comes not even 5 minutes after that fucking security door. Consistent difficulty? Screw that.



In what must be a herculean effort for Lan's cluster of 8 or so brain cells, he points out how the mirrors are all angled to reflect light in a specific path.



Except, um, the crucial last one. After MMBN4, I'm almost typing out "Fuckup Tally:" out of reflex, this mistake is just silly. It's pointed away from the mirror in the corner of the room, for fuck's sake! I'd even bet that it's so they didn't have to make another graphic for the mirror pointing a different way.



Colonel rationalizes the actual process, it turns out that Lan was just guessing and got lucky, even stating how he hadn't thought it that far out. Still though, at least they got how light works right. Too bad they still managed to apply Capcom Science via the backwards fucking mirror, but at least it's less insane than usual.



So, the angled sequence of mirrors allowed for a long-distance Jack-In, and following the mirrors leads to the deck eventually. The criminal has hijacked the ship, we've been boarded! Damn you, NetSomalia!



Surprise! Token Ethnic Guy Dingo is behind all this! As if you didn't see this coming, given he's the only other custom sprite on the ship. And we always have to get into a conflict with future teammates, after all!



I'm pretty sure this is a mistake as well, Dingo means Ubercorp is the enemy here, not the booster system, based on the context. Another idiot eco-terrorist? Close!



Turns out that Ubercorp opened a resort and ruined Dingo's village. Well, not like that sort of thing is without precedent, after all. You've had a smallpox vaccination, right, Dingo?



Well, Dingo isn't listening, so in we go into the ship's computer. And yes, they've outright given up trying to explain why the Party Battle System isn't working, just accept that it randomly craps out whenever a dungeon is involved and deal with it.



Anyway, the ShipComp is another of MMBN5's evil dungeons, though what makes it difficult isn't very well depicted by screenshots. You need to find a ShipKey item in the underwater areas, and you know what that means.

See the air gauge? Yes, apparently the absurdity of Navis needing to breathe is confirmed here. You only have about 20 seconds of air before the gauge runs out, and after that, you get smacked with 1 HP of damage every second. It's very forgiving early on, considering the slow rate of drain, and having any recovery chips in your folder will almost nullify it completely.

Worth noting is that the ShipComp is particularly convoluted, more so later on in it, but the maze-like layout doesn't help the hunt for the ShipKeys. Worse, there are whirlpools that drain a chunk of your air or smack off some HP all throughout the ShipComp.

Oh yeah, and if you run out of HP while underwater, the emergency rescue system automatically teleports you back to the start.



Marina: These submarine viruses are extremely annoying. They'll create anchors in bubbles that drift across the field, moving diagonally and bouncing off of the edges of the stage, but their defense is worse than their offense. What do I mean?

Note the introduction of Sea Panels, and boy has it been a while since I've had to explain a panel type! Aqua-element viruses (Save for Shrimpy, which ignore panel type) and Navis can hide inside of sea panels, and the only way one can damage them while hidden is with an attack that strikes downward, so essentially it's like they've used the Mole chip while on a sea panel. This makes damaging viruses, mostly Marinas, extremely annoying.

Aside from the defensive properties, they also behave much like sand panels did in MMBN3, slowing your movement down by forcing you to stop moving for a second before you can step off the sea panel. Electric chips, naturally, get a 2x bonus on sea panels. Finally, the sea panels will fade away and revert to normal panels after a few turns.



The early areas of the ShipComp are simple, as you can see, but they get much more difficult later. Thankfully, the ShipKeys are always right next to a teleporter panel that will warp you back to the door, so you never have to backtrack to open them.



Adding to the problem is that the BMD loot here is of very high quality, you do not want to miss the stuff here in the ShipComp.



And now to introduce two more features of the ShipComp. This is a surprisingly complex dungeon, considering how previous ones in earlier games mostly just consisted of a single gimmick repeated nonstop as you made your way to the boss.

The first are air bubbles. Self explanatory, they refill some of the air gauge.

The second, nearly fucking impossible to screenshot, are the currents. Remember way back to the very first dungeon of the LP, the AirComp? The damned gas puffs are back in aquatic form. You'll get flung around by currents if you don't avoid them, though you can hold the direction the current is coming from to stand against it. Doing this costs a lot of air, however, and not getting the timing right will result in being blown back.



Cherry on the cake is enforced fucking backtracking! This is an HPMemory, but you can't get those as Colonel or ProtoMan for understandable reasons, namely that they have different max HP counters than MegaMan does, and collecting an HPMemory with them would permanently prevent MegaMan from ever having max HP. You'll have to return here if you want that HPMemory later.



And here's where things get much harder. ShipComp 3 is a massive area, probably about the same size as SciLab 3, the site of CloudMan's Liberation Mission. Thankfully, the path splits into 3 separate sub-regions immediately, so finding the ShipKeys is at least helped by that.



A Sparky virus. Renamed as Shakey for some reason. With sea panels. Oh fuck you.



FUCK YOU TOO!



Thankfully, the most important upgrade the ShipComp has is right next to the entrance to ShipComp 4, the last area, which is one gigantic maze dedicated to finding a single ShipKey.



Now crossing one-way paths via being blown by currents to another pathway, whirlpools everywhere, and a labyrinthine layout combine to make ShipComp 4 pretty tough, especially with the extremely annoying virus encounters here.



If you expected Dingo to have any other Navi, I'm ashamed of you. Meet TomahawkMan!

Somewhat ironically, he fights similarly to FlameMan. By that, I mean that the totem pole object on the battlefield provides the majority of TomahawkMan's gimmick, though TomahawkMan can also throw his tomahawk in a boomerang pattern, or much more dangerously, use the TomahawkSwing, which has LifeSword range.



Colonel makes short work of him anyway, though. And on top of that, he even snagged the booster system back mid-fight!



Just in case, you see. Ah, Colonel.



Now that we've taken it back, there's no point for you to exist anymore!



Lan intervenes, of course. After all, Dingo was wronged by Ubercorp, though a bit of guilting is all it takes for Dingo to apologize for his actions. His village would be ashamed!



Colonel spots opportunity, however. TomahawkMan did take out that squadron of boosted guard Navis with no trouble, after all. That's just the kind of force we need.



To convince Dingo and TomahawkMan, though, Colonel notes that once they defeat Nebula, they'll be hailed as heroes! And Dingo's voice will pull a lot more weight then, enough to raise awareness about what happened to his village.



One more kickass member for Team Colonel!



Arriving back in the harbor, Nebula being blamed for everything once the booster program was returned, time to head back to EndArea 1 for the next Liberation Mission. TomahawkMan, if you please?



CHOP CHOP. TomahawkMan is very eager to carve up the enemy, he's quite eager about fighting.



Bwahahaha, a teammate I can sympathize with!



Time for asskicking.

...That said. I'll demonstrate TomahawkMan in the next mission, but once I've done so, I'm using the TP Chip on him to bring his Team ProtoMan counterpart in. What could possibly be more awesome than combat enthusiast TomahawkMan?



How about a bloodthirsty NapalmMan?