Part 9: Top Secret.

And so, I played back through the game so far. It went by very quickly.



Two dungeons, a brief romp through the Cyberworld to fight StoneMan, it made me realize how incredibly short this game is. After this update, I'd reckon that we're about halfway through it, in fact.



Incidentally, I stumbled on an awkward "easter egg". When Dex asks you to find the Recov50 L in Mayl's piano, heading upstairs nets you this hidden encounter.



It's really out of place in the Battle Network series. Romance is rarely brought up, and when it is, it's portrayed as mushy and almost saccharine, not anything sexual. This might actually be the only time the word pervert ever appears.



Anyway, we're now back to where we were. No godlike power, but I do have a few absurdly powerful chips courtesy of the Chip Trader to make sure things progress quickly. As you can see, this is how things are supposed to look when you get here.



So, this is the "twist" on the typical ice gimmick the dungeon has. All throughout the place, there are faucets you can turn on and off. The water moves in a straight line ahead, melting any ice in its way.



We found this part out the hard way. So you basically have to turn the faucets on then off every time you find one.



A custom sprite NPC happens to be lounging around the area as well, but this is all he has to say.



This faucet is already on and can't be turned off. Fortunately, there's another path we can take to a different area.



I'll put this into context, I was able to find stuff to say during Liberation Missions and Evil Spirit puzzles in the megathread. This...not so much. It's a freaking ice level, it's completely dull and uninspired, and I have nothing to say about it! That said, "dull and uninspired" isn't the same as "painful and torturous", which applies to the dungeon after the next. I'll count my blessings while I have them.



A ways in on that same screen, you run into a set encounter with two of those "PolrBear" viruses that appeared in the Internet. Oh look, StoneMan2 NaviChip!



And that was that. Most battles tend to be of either conventional length or really fast, depending on if I draw my stupidly overpowered chips or not. Wait until you see the boss video.



That defrosts the pump program, and we're finished with this part of the scenario.



As MegaMan points out, it looks completely nasty. At least nobody would be stupid enough to drink water that's a frothing purple muck.



Oh right, this is the MMBN series.



The guy proceeds to pass out. Chaud calls up and berates Lan for not having any clue what he was doing.



Chaud, after all, actually spent time examining the equipment, something I neglected to show him doing during the "Hey Lan, take a tour" segment Froid prompted us to take.



Doing the sensible thing and letting the Official who knows what he's doing is out of the question, because we're the protagonist, so it's back to the Waterworks.



Dammit Yai, there are more important things to be worried about right now!



What do you mean you forgot to mention the most important detail!?



DAMMIT YAI!



So yeah, MegaMan spells it out if it's not obvious. Time to find Froid's son.



Naturally, he's been locked in a car about 10 feet away from the school. It isn't even a real lock, the car even opens from the outside. This is the laziest kidnapping I've ever seen.



He doesn't even get a name or unique sprite. This was changed in the Anime of the series, and the kid became a recurring character.



Wonder where this goes!



We also get a message to deliver to Froid. Because email is something that characters only know about when it isn't relevant to the plot. Same deal with phone calls.

I said this in the megathread, and W. T. Fits was even nice enough to buy it as my first avatar, but this is a world where the internet runs on magic and contrived stupidity. Actually, scratch that, the entire setting is just stupid, stupid, STUPID. Still fun, and I'll be the first to defend these games from critics, but really!



By the way, Froid can't hear Lan, so we'll have to jack back into the Waterworks network and fight him. Although to be fair, that is clearly a reinforced steel door, so it makes sense that Lan can't be heard even if he shouts.



Okay, Megabuddy!



This is just needlessly tedious. The program even spells out what you have to do.

"Fall through a hole to find the path. Melt the ice to create another. Fall through another hole. Melt the ice again to create a new path. Then you can get to the brown path on the right."

Sounds fun, huh? And of course, out of the entire screen's worth of ice rows, only one of them has the correct hole to fall down. Trial and error gameplay! This dungeon is just so painfully boring and bland.



The programmers even have the nerve to hide a PowerUp down here.



Long and tedious story short, it's all a matter of finding which direction to point MegaMan before sliding on the ice. Savescumming is encouraged, as there's a rather annoying walk back to the starting point if you fall down the wrong hole.



The last area of the Waterworks has a background that occasionally flashes bright white due to the movement of the snowflake patterns. Thankfully, a bit more slipping and sliding is all we need to get to the end.



Chaud and ProtoMan have already defeated IceMan.



IceMan gets back up for round two. Okay, IceMan's design hasn't been changed one freaking bit from his original series appearance. Lazy, lazy, lazy. It about sums up this dungeon.



Chaud gets an email from Official NetBattler HQ at that moment. Turns out someone's behind the scenes of all this, presumably whoever kidnapped Froid's son.



Remember when Mr. Match said that his goal was the Fireprogram in Lan's oven?



Lan suddenly knows what a superprogram is.

Okay, I'll admit. People have said that this game is one of the worse ones in the series, and by this point I have to agree. MMBN4 is by far the worst in my opinion, but MMBN1 comes in second. With this as the series starting point, I can see why people didn't give the games a good reception. Still, what I said in the opening post is still true, it did a good job laying the foundation for better games.



ProtoMan vacates to chase after whoever stole the Aquaprogram, leaving IceMan and MegaMan alone.



Sigh. No, they won't listen for a single second.



Their funeral, really. IceMan has an attack that can freeze you in place, forcing you to mash the buttons to get out. I don't even need to bother in this fight.



To be fair to Froid, he's just trying to protect his son. I like the guy.



MegaMan forks over the message.



Yes, it even has an email address, except Lan had to be the CyberPony Express for the message for whatever idiotic reason.



Froid and IceMan hastily fix things up after the fact that Froid Jr. is safe comes to light.



However, an alarm goes off seconds later. The Aquaprogram has been taken.



ProtoMan confronts the enemy, who turns out to be that goofy-looking NPC from before. You may be expecting ClownMan.EXE, but that isn't the case.



ColorMan taunts ProtoMan that they don't have the time to fight right now.



And ColorMan's operator is in fact that woman who interrupted Lan earlier. Her name is Madd.



MegaMan and IceMan arrive too late to do anything, as ColorMan jacks out.



Chauderhead even asks how Lan knows his name, despite being the one who introduced himself. Hurrrrrrrrrrr.



Maybe we'll get some exposition on the loose plot of the game at least.



Nope, screw you!




Couldn't have said it better myself, really.



Cut to Froid and Froid Jr. having a reunion. At least we got thanked. And believe it or not, this whole misadventure will turn out to be worthwhile, as Froid makes for a useful friend.



About time we had one of these. The usual format for MMBN is that there will be a chapter of gameplay concluded by a cut to the villains, who provide foreshadowing and exposition for the player without the game having to inform Lan about anything.



Meet Dr. Wily. He's pretty angry that things have been going so badly lately. Which is a bit odd, considering that WWW has gotten the fire and aqua programs already.



This is Mahajorama AKA Yahoot. He's Wily's right hand man.



It's funny to watch Wily berate his underlings, I admit.



WWW has caught onto what Lan's been routinely up to, which doesn't bode well.



Wily suspected an Official Netbattler, but nope, they mean Lan.



Yay, recognition!



Wily doesn't like excuses.



Yahoot and Wily exit, leaving the rest of WWW to grumble in his absence.



Madd complains, rightly, that they've managed to get the fire and aqua programs with minimal loss. Wily and Yahoot haven't even done anything yet except bark orders.



Surely that had nothing to do with that LifeAura K chip I got from the Chip Trader!



It's so beautiful.