Part 71: The Date it Began

It's time to start the next route! We're going to be going back and starting once more at the first choice that influences the route- when the group splits up at the start of Round Two, and Mouse gets to choose which group she wants to investigate with. There's actually an option here we haven't chosen yet, but now is the time to see what happens when we go explore with...

[BGM: Silence]


I had woken up with Ox, and I felt we had worked pretty well together so far. I didn't see any reason not to work with him.

As a matter of fact, I will work with you.

Okay then, glad to hear it.

If I may ask, why did you ask me to investigate with you?

Well, you seemed rather competent earlier on.

[BGM: Stampede of Truth]


You also seem the most... grounded of everyone else here, which is a shockingly low bar to clear.

Uh, thanks I guess?

So Mouse is going with Ox? Great. Now can we quit talking about searching and just start searching?

Yeah, let's do that. The rest of us can just split up and look around.

Oh, and everybody, remember to input your moves and reconvene here before the round ends.

Got it.

With that, we all spread out and began our search.



Ox and I made our way to the library, which wasn't far from the cafeteria.

So, Ox. Why did you want to search the library?

There were a few reasons. For one, I'd prefer not to stray too far from the cafeteria for now. For another, from what I saw of the library, it seemed a rather large room, so searching it early might be useful.

But most importantly, libraries are often symbolic of information, of learning. It's unclear how much thought the Jade Emperor has put into all of this, but it's possible that he's put something special here.

It'd be fine if that were a Trinket, but I'd be even more interested if he left us some useful information.

Wow. That's a lot of thought for just the first place to search.

I try.



Do you actually think Brian'd leave special info in the library though? Seems like a bit of a stretch.

It is indeed a stretch. But there's no harm in checking it out anyways. After all, we'll have to search everywhere eventually, no?

Indeed. I guess we should just start looking through here then, huh?

Let's.



And just like that, we began to search the library for anything out of place. Ox was right when he identified this place as a rather large room. There was even a separate room connected to the library which stored even more books. With a lot of ground to cover, we began looking through the rooms for anything out of the ordinary.

Ox was very no nonsense. He didn't speak at all. Well, that was fine with me. Even if the silence was a little creepy, it was important to focus on the search. After a while, I noticed one of the library's computers was locked. Normally, I'd write the whole thing off. But why was this one computer not shut down like the rest?

Hey Mouse, I think I've found something. Could you come look at this with me?



I'm sure whatever Ox has found is interesting, but we're going to try and unlock the computer.

You're a prosecutor, right? Surely you can handle it yourself, I'm working on something else right now.

Suit yourself.

With that, he turned back to the book he was holding in his hands. And I turned back to this computer. Now, what could the password be? I noticed there was a button to 'give a reminder' that a lot of computers had. Maybe it could help. I clicked on it, and a rather odd message displayed:

The Date It Began

That was way too ominous to be a regular password's hint. As I suspected, this was something Brian had set up. So, what was 'it'? Presumably, he was referring to this race. So then, what was today's date? Well, the day I was kidnapped was the 24th of November... Assuming I hadn't been asleep for over a day, which would be crazy, today should be the 25th. So then, the password should be '11/25', right? Except it looked like I couldn't input a slash. So it'd just be '1125'.

But then, a thought crossed my mind. Perhaps it referred to another important date? I put my fingers on the keyboard.



This is one of the only routes that has any kind of actual obstacle that could get in the way of you getting onto it. There's a small passage that's added here in Mouse's narration that I intentionally left out for brevity's sake; it only shows up if you've already done the route you (the player) learn the date in question on, so you have a reminder if its been a while since you played that route. (And to be clear, this is information Mouse the character already has had the entire time, so its not meant to be any kind of meta knowledge or hinting at something, either- it's just information we (the player) might not have learned yet.)

As for the date in question, it was...



I input the date that Amadeus Bowen was murdered. After a second thought, that was when all of this really started. Right, Brian? As if to answer my question, the computer unlocked. Yes! Now, could I use this to contact the authorities? ...No, it looked like it was disconnected from the internet. Figures. So then, what's the deal with this computer? Why leave it here for us?

I found my answer in a folder labeled 'Reasons For Jury Duty'. I opened it and saw 12 PDFs with various names. 'Jamie Wilbert', 'Manuel Perez', 'Davis Caven'... Were these for everybody here? But wait...



Then why didn't I see my own name anywhere?

I found my answer in the name Richard Brill, a judge who passed away just over a week ago. I had just read about his passing the other day. And I bet he was the judge who ruled in the case against Brian's dad. That would make the most sense. Which means... Was it possible that I was a last minute replacement? That I wasn't supposed to be here? If that was the case, I don't know if I'd be less or even more angry.

So what was with the rest of these files? Out of curiosity, I picked one at random. Davis Caven. Opening the PDF, I saw a mix of pictures, screenshots, documents, and random text. It took a bit before I realized what this all amounted to. It appeared to be a loose collection of evidence highlighting corruption in the prosecutor's office at large, with many incidents connecting to a specific person.

Specifically, Ox. I could tell based on the picture.



So then, did this mean Ox was some sort of crooked prosecutor? Nothing in this document would be conclusive evidence, but laid out like this, it certainly made a compelling case. ...Don't be stupid. Conspiracy theories sound convincing when all the evidence is gathered up in one place. I was looking at the work of a literal madman. He couldn't be trusted, none of this could be trusted.

I turned off the computer in disgust. Nothing good would come of reading Brian's reasons for kidnapping everyone. Even if they had done things in their past they weren't proud of, that didn't make any of this right. It'd be a waste of time if I played to Brian's beat.

Hey Mouse, are you done over there? We should probably get back to the cafeteria soon.

Admittedly, Ox's voice startled me a little. I was really zoning out.

Yeah, I'm good. Did you find anything?

No, I don't think I did. A hint at most.

Ox...



Even though I was mostly dismissing Brian's conspiracy pages, I couldn't completely dismiss what I had seen. I had trusted Ox somewhat since we woke up together. To think that he had actually been involved in something a lot more shady, the thought that in some way this whole thing might be justified... This wasn't a good train of thought to follow.

Moving on, you should input your actions for this round in this room, then come join us.

Alright, I will.

With that, Ox walked out of the room. Once he was gone, I pulled out my tablet and turned it on. There was no need to think much about my choice. I just pressed the button to RUN. Afterwards, I returned to the cafeteria.

The scene upon returning is one we've already seen- everyone returns as usual, Rooster and Dog managed to find a Minor Trinket, and Ox calls attention to the fact that the results are about to display. As usual for Round Two, everyone simply uses RUN. From there, the group starts forming teams once more, and Mouse decides who she wants to explore with.

For this route, Mouse is going to pair up with Pig and Monkey, which we've already seen! It's the section where they explore an area connected to the cafeteria with a sectioned off area for printing and filing stuff, where we solved the Kangaroo Words puzzle. Therefore, we're going to skip past that and to the Round Three results, where the group all hit RUN once more. After those results, however...

[BGM: Mousetrap]


Before Round 4 begins, I have an announcement to make.

What?

There is an additional rule I have yet to inform you all of. A quirk of the race, if you will, that you all may be interested in.

No doubt those of you who checked the information tab will have noticed you each have a 'personality' assigned. From the Rat to the Pig, each of your personalities are unique to you.

Most of you probably dismissed that, and for most of you that was the right choice. However, for two of you, this personality is an incredibly important variable.



First up, I'll talk about the CLEVER personality. The clever personality wants to finish the race in first place, just like everyone else. However, this personality type isn't content in a big ol' shared victory.

For this personality to be satisfied, no more than three animals can tie for first. If this condition isn't satisfied, the animal with this personality will be treated as if they have lost. They will be punished accordingly.

Wait, but that means-

Are you kidding? That's crazy!

No...



The other personality to take note of is the DUMB personality. Unlike the other personalities, this personality doesn't actually wish to win the race.

The animal with this personality wants to be in last place when the race finishes. If that happens, all animals except those possessing the DUMB personality and those possessing the CLEVER personality will be executed.

However, this caveat is not applicable if first place is a tie between 9 or more animals.

What a farce.

Does this guy think he's fucking with us?

I apologize for not making these rules clear from the start. I fear you might think this would've been good information to have from the start. And you know? You are absolutely right.

Therefore, to make up for keeping this from you until now this round will be extended by 15 minutes. Use that time to regroup. And as always, choose wisely. Heh heh heh.



This couldn't be happening, right? There was no way! That BASTARD! There was no way that that was unintentional! He let us foster a false sense of peace. And then, when we were sure about our safety, he introduced this bullshit rule which forced our hands! Now, no matter what, at least 2 people would have to die.

But even worse... The clever personality.

I had that, didn't I.



Then that meant... the only way for me to live would involve others dying?

I thought... I thought he said that if we did everything right, everyone could escape!

It was our fault for believing that psycho for one minute.

Is he serious?

Probably.

Then people are going to have to die, aren't they?

Everybody, everybody, calm down! We can't descend into madness just like this! First off, the people with the clever and dumb personality types should just admit it now. It'd be best for everyone.



Admit it? B-but...

You moron! You seriously think they'd out themselves like that? They're not that stupid.

Right?

It's not stupid, it's noble.

Think about it people- either 11 people could die, or 2 could. Which sounds better to you?

That's-

If you confess now, we'll make sure you are honored after your death.



That's seriously your offer? Doesn't sound worth it to me.

Criticizing the offer? What, are you one of them?

Nah, no way. Trust me, if I had one of those personalities, I'd admit it. Why would I hide something like that?

Because you want to survive.

Yeah see, I'm not hearing a good reason.

This was my one chance to decide the person I wanted to be. If I really had everyone's best interests in mind, I should just admit it right now. Coming clean like that would almost guarantee my death, but... That might be for the best. Of course, I didn't want to die. Nobody wants to die! But what right did I have to put my own life over so many others? There wasn't anything that separated me from them.

No, that's not true. My mind raced back to the documents I saw on that computer. Unlike the others, I wasn't supposed to be here. I was a last-minute replacement. The others all apparently had committed grave sins. The small amount I glanced from Ox's file was enough to see what Brian was getting at.



These people were all sinners, right?

But that didn't change anything. Or did it? I had to say something quick. It wasn't an easy decision to make at all. But in the end, wasn't there only one thing I could do?