Mega Man Battle Network Part #14 - Obligatory Internet Slog.

Part 14: Obligatory Internet Slog.

The next time we gain control of Lan, Yuuichiro sends a rather oblivious email.

Well, good, nice to know that kicking his ass led to a bit of introspection!

Oh, great. And there's no way to refuse this, of course.

Chase the NPC time!

You might recall back during the update where I plundered the depths of the internet that we saw what seemed to be the WWW server. SciLab and the Officials by extension are searching for the WWW HQ, online or otherwise.

Chaud is being his usual charismatic self, accusing a random woman of being a WWW member. As for what the Undernet is, it's a place in every game in the series that usually represents a large jump in difficulty and rewards. I love it there, and in this game the WWW server address is supposedly connected to it.

Typical.

Yes, Chauderhead, don't let us interrupt you in your quest to piss off everybody in the world.

Because you're incapable of getting shit done yourself, as has been established! Chaud exits stage left.

Naturally, the only thing to do is start the hunt ourselves. We'll show Chaud up yet again!

And fortunately for us, we happen to be friends with an ex-WWW member!

Higsby is our man. I mean, it's hard not to like the guy because he's just so useful. Chip shop, connections to the enemy and information, Chip Traders to abuse, etc.

This item will let us inside the Undernet. Where is that, you ask?

Remember this guy two areas past Sal's link? En route to the special areas of the internet? This is not it.

Higsby tells you that you should head for the Dentown section of the internet, which means beating SkullMan and getting the /Miyu item.

Past Miyu's area, the real entrance to the Undernet beckons.

It's also trapped with a fairly tough virus battle, or it would be tough if I hadn't been abusing the game so much.

"ShieldBot:" These viruses are very rare, usually only showing up in scripted battles like this one. They constantly launch wave after wave of cannonballs at your field, blasting away at 4 panels at a time. The shield they hold is sturdy and takes a lot of punishment before the virus raises it up and you can attack it. Or, as you can guess from this screenshot, you can just use a chip like HeroSword that attacks past the shield.

Higsby calls up with an email the minute we set foot into the Undernet. Which for the record looks exactly the same as the rest of the internet.

Uh oh.

Higsby! Why didn't you tell us this BEFORE we hauled ass all the way here!?

Higsby, at the very least, provides us a clue on how to get the rest of the Memo items. First stop is Higsby's friend who reformed and works at SciLab now.

He denies being a former WWW member, but namedropping Higsby earns us the truth.

This whole escapade is an annoying fetch quest combined with treating the main internet like a dungeon. Every game in the series does this at least once (MMBN4 does it nearly constantly) and they're all the most unenjoyable parts of their games.

You know, this begs the question why WWW didn't change their damned passwords once these people left them!

This is a dick move on the game's part. This is the only hint you get in regards to who the hell the other two people you need to track down are.

Dentown will be our first stop. This old guy isn't who we're looking for, but he does reveal that an old man who knows a lot about WWW lives in ACDC Town. So that's the future taken care of, at least.

The real fuckery is this. You get no hints aside from Ms. Mari denying that she's an ex-WWW member, despite being young and beautiful. This is an area of DenTown that's tucked away well, you might not even realize it's here because you don't visit it during the traffic lights incident.

Inside is Ms. Yuri, Ms. Mari's identical twin. Yes, this is the NPC we're looking for, tucked away in the middle of nowhere with no hints whatsoever.

One look at how strong MegaMan is persuades her to tell the truth.

Note that if you don't have a certain amount of Library completion by collecting BattleChips, she won't give you the Memo item and will tell you to go fill out the library some more.

That's 3/4 of this annoying fetch quest done with. Off to ACDC Town.

This is the same guy at the beginning of the game who wanted you to ask him where he was to prove he wasn't senile yet. Throughout the game, he's just sort of here, telling you "This is ACDC Town! I'm not senile yet!"

It was all an act.

This is the first time in the game Lan has heard Wily's name.

You need to be a certain level to get this Memo. I don't know the exact level because I was already past it, but just snatching up HPMemory and PowerUp items throughout the game should be enough to get the Memo.

After giving Lan the Memo, he exposits a tiny bit.

Wily, used to be a good guy? This one line is some foreshadowing for events in the backstory (if foreshadowing is the right word), so I won't elaborate.

You'll want to use Miyu's homepage as a shortcut to get to the Undernet, because it's mere steps away.

The Undernet is nothing special, so I'll skip over it. No new viruses we haven't seen before, and nothing notable about the layouts except for the pathways onward requiring the Memo items. There's good loot to be had, though.

At the end of the Undernet, we encounter this guy.

BombMan guards the WWW Address as well as the way into the WWW Servers.

Riveting dialogue this isn't, but it's straightforward at least.

Negotiations are out of the question, although Lan even notes that BombMan seems to be rather dim anyway.

Execution! BombMan is a fairly interesting boss fight because he has only two attacks, counter-intuitively. I went easy on him so you could see them both and figure out his pattern.

After defeating BombMan, MegaMan snags the WWW Address, making all of this slog at least productive.

BombMan has a last trick up his sleeve, however!

He blows up and takes out the path that leads to the WWW Server. It oddly enough had no effect on MegaMan.

Lan suggests talking to Yuuichiro. When NetBattling can't solve a problem, surely Science! can.

Yuuichiro is shocked that Lan found the WWW Address. And because it's basically an IP Address, it can be used to pinpoint where the WWW base actually is.