Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Part #44

Part 44: Escape: Infirmary

It's a new start, it's a new escape! Sigma (3BP, Red Pair) and Phi (3BP, Red Pair) are teamed up with Tenmyouji (3BP, Green Solo) this time around.

Here's what's going to be in our speakers this entire time:

VLR OST: [Dispensary]

Yeah... Could be worse, I guess.

The Infirmary has somewhat of a weird layout due to the partition in the middle...

Basically we can walk around with our backs to the partition but we can't complete a loop. Oh well. We'll live.

Let's just poke at that exit door again...

It's got a keyhole. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what this thing is for.

So we need to find a key that looks like it fits in there, right?

Yeah, I figure we do.

Of course, we knew that already! They didn't, though.

Well, let's start examining stuff, I guess. There's no shortage of stuff in here!

It's an AED, just like it says.

Okay, what's an AED?

It stands for "Adult Erotic Doctor".

...

I'm kidding.
It stands for "Automated External Defibrillator".
You use it to try and restart somebody's heart if they go into cardiac arrest. It uses electricity.

Hm... Do you think we could take it out?

Probably, but what good's it gonna do ya?
If your heart stopped, sure, it might be useful, but right now? Don't think so.

...

Lesson learned.

Well, this looks noteworthy.

What do you think it means?

Hmm...

Fascinating.

It says "ADAM"...
Since it's right next to the bed here, I'd guess it's some kind of medical equipment.

Doesn't look like it's turned on...

True, but I think I can see a button...

Could it really be this easy?

This looks like a power button.

Try pushing it.

Why do I have to push it?

Well, it might be a trap or something.

That makes me want to push it even less!

Fine. I'll push it.

No, I'll do it--

Gaaaah! Fine! I just need to push it, right?

Please do.

Urgh...

Well then.

...What?

This house is clean.

What the hell are you talking about?!

...

There's also this.

Okay, now that we've got the power on, what're we supposed to scan?

How about that square hole in the sheet?

The part that's been cut out?

Sure, why not?

Uh...

O...kay then?

So...

This minigame is actually really clunky, in that you have to wait several seconds after inputting a letter before the puzzle will let you input the next, even though it's clearly registering my increasingly impatient screen-tapping.

See, when I scan part of the bed, a letter shows up here...

There's probably a bunch of metal plates or something in the mattress.

You think the scanner's just reading the letters carved into them?

Maybe. My point is you're not going to get anywhere doing that. You need clues.

Moving on then.

It's not showing anything, though...

There are some arrows down here...

I saw something like that in the AB Room.
Wasn't quite the same size, though.

So you think this is a card reader?

Yeah, that'd be my guess.

The desk looks nice and inviting, too.

Never seen a coin with a bump like that on it before.
Think maybe it's part of something else?

The bump might plug into something, or hook into a notch.

It's a notebook.

Maybe there's something important in there?

No. I flipped through it earlier. All the pages are blank.

Huh.

I guess that's it for the desk.

Yep. Definitely it.

Nothing suspicious about it, I guess.

You'd think you could examine those suspicious drawer-like things under the desk, but no.

Maybe, but I'll have to seat before I make any decisions.

Since we're making terrible funiture-related observations...

It's a stool.

A regular stool.

I guess a guy your age doesn't see that very often, huh?

...Moving on.

And...

You know the whole point of that thing is to cut through flesh?

Just... be careful with it.

Phi?

It's a scalpel
Although I guess both of them can hurt if you're not careful...

Understand?

He understands.

The lower part of this table is annoyingly easy to miss.

Probably a lock that fits it somewhere.

No, it's an injection gun.
Pretty much what it says on the tin: It's a gun-shaped thing that gives injections.

Should we take it with us?

Nah. It'll just ignite the fires of war.

...

Besides, all it's got in it is some saline solution.
You could inject someone with it if you want, but it won't do anything.

...

...

Next...

When you think about it this is kinda obvious, but unless you're thinking about it this little nook is also easy to miss.

There's a memory card on here.

Thank you, Tenmyouji.

I wonder what's on it...

See anything around here that might be able to read it?

What's this drawing supposed to be?

Very mysterious.

Yep, we're done here.

Aha! We'll come back here later.

Time to check out the rest of this shelf.

Well, there's no handle, so I'm guessing those buttons are how we get it open.

The thing over each one of 'em looks like some kind of counter.

So that means...

I don't think PIN means what they think it means.

So, yeah, another barrier.

There are little icons that look like the types of medicine on the buttons, right?
A blue capsule, a yellow powder, and a red liquid...
Have you seen those anywhere before?

Hmm...

None of them have labels, though. I don't have any idea what's in them.

Maybe we should just pick some and take them?

No. It's dangerous to mess with medicine you don't understand.

So we'd be commiting a medi-sin?

...

Sadly, Sigma's joke was critically trepanned.

_{Not very generous with other people's, are you?}

What's this?

It says "Tubocuarine" on the label.

T-Tubocuarine? Isn't that...

Yeah. The muscle relaxant in our bracelets.

Throw it out throw it out throw it out

There's also this.

I wonder what this white stuff is...

Maybe it's cheese powder.

...Cheese powder?

Yeah, you know. Like on Cheetos. This is probably white cheddar.
Ah, man, that takes me back...

...

Next stop... some weird square thing.

The cover's going to keep us from grabbing them, though.

There are three empty spots...

Five times five minus three is... twenty-two blocks.

I can see four different icons.

There's the blue capsule, the yellow powder, the red liquid, and the green tablet.

Hey, check this out. There's a couple of keyholes on the bottom corners.

I'm not sure what this thing is, but I guess we'll need to unlock those keyholes before we can get much out of it.

I think we might be able to do something about one of those...

There's a keyhole on the other side, though. Maybe it'll fit that one?

Fine.

Big whoop. Now to find the other key...

Finally, let's poke around behind the partition. There's a sink and three beds here...

"But of course it is you, Tenmyouji..."

...Idiot.

At least it's got a faucet. You wanna see if it works?

Let's.

Can't you just call it "water" like a normal person?

...

Hm. This isn't bad.

What are you doing?! You can't just drink that! Who knows what's in there?!

Calm down. I've got an iron stomach.

And finally, the beds.

I sure am tired... I wish I could just lay down for a bit.

How'd you like to sleep next to me, Phi?

I think I'll pass.

Is the charm finally gone...?

That's not the problem here!

Next...

The foot of this one seems kind of... strange.

So someone attached a sheet to this sheet?

I guess so.

Why would someone do that?

I donno. Ask the mouse.

He's a rabbit.

Maybe, but it's gonna be tough. It's sown on there pretty good...

How do we get it out then?

Our best bet is probably going to be to just cut it out.

Didn't you find a knife earlier?

Oh... Well, it's not technically a knife...

Whatever.

Plan!

It looks like something's been written on it, but we can't read it like this.

So can I touch you with the other hand?

...

What do you think's written on here?
If we can get this stain off, maybe we could read it...

This is an oil stain, though.
I don't think we can get this stuff off unless we got some bleach.

Bleach, huh...

And finally...

Hey, there's something on here.

There's a little notch on it here.
Feels like it's made of metal, too.

Maybe it's part of something else?
Like, we won't be able to use it until we find the other pieces.

Hmm...

Well, let's not pretend this isn't extremely obvious.

And now we've got a key.

A nice clean key. Just look at that shine.

And that's everything!

Now, let's go follow up some leads.

Try it out.

C'mon, you don't have to tell me what to do, I know what's up.

Yeah, looks like some words... Is this a hint?

Thanks, game. I think I'm good though.

Know what I will look at in the archives, though?

This.

Hmm.

Hey, do you remember seeing anything with a picture of a wash basin on it?

Um... maybe?
Yeah, you know, I think there was a piece of paper on the clipboard...

And it had a picture of a basin like this one, didn't it?
I think it also had a little diagram that said something about mixing two things together.
It just called 'em "A" and "B", but it was showing how to get stains off clothes.

So basically you could get some kind of laundry detergent by mixing this A stuff with the B stuff.

But what are "A" and "B"?

It said on the monitor.

Sometimes the hints are a bit much, a bit too fast.

Sweet.

There's air.

Sounds just like your head.

Oh no he did'n'!

Like what?

I donno. Maybe some kinda liquid?

Liquid, huh?

Yeah. Pretty clever, right?

Donno if I'd call that "clever". I think a three-year-old could come up with that plan.

Ugh...

Just do it.

Fine.

Given that the Lounge had a long and convoluted inventory based puzzle involving five bottles of alcohol, five bottles of liquer and twenty five possible cocktails I don't see why they couldn't have just let you pick up the basin and mix the powder and water that way. Oh well.

This has gotta be the cleaning solution that picture was describing.

So that white powder might have been sodium percarbonate...
It becomes an oxygen-based cleaning agent when you mix it with water.

So if you soak something dirty in it...

Yeah, it'll clean it right up.

HRM.

Let's not.

Looks completely different...

What hole...?

Alright, we've gathered up a nice new set of leads, so let's get back on the chase...

Starting with this... thing.

The whole thing just moved out from the wall a couple inches.

Can you pull it out?

What do you mean, pull it out?

Well, let's have a look at it, then.

Surprise puzzle!

So this is a lot like the last block sliding puzzle we saw, except we're managing multiple blocks at once.

Wait, no, wait...

This is a puzzle, right?

Yeah, it has to be, but I can't figure it out...

You put the red block on the red square, the green block onto the green square, and the blue block onto the--

Blue square, right?
Yeah, I figured that much out, I just...

Welp.

A puzzle this simple has stumped you? I weep for our future.

Then you solve it!

No. It'll get my hands dirty.

Guh...

Keeping quiet isn't going to help us either, though, so I'll give you a hint.
Right, up, left, up, right, up... I think that should be enough.

Um...

It's not like we've got all day!

_{Well, I guess we don't actually know if it's day or not...}
The point is you're never going to figure it out.
Now hand it over.

N-No! I'll figure it out! I want to solve it!

There are bigger things at stake here than your ego!

But...

Look, I'll just tell you how to do it, okay?!
Right, up, left, up, right, up, left, down, right!

Okay, fine.

I guess that was a passable performance. Good work.

_{Why do I get the feeling your heart wasn't in that?}

I'm sure I don't know, Sigma.

Moving those blocks seems to have filled in the empty spaces on the front.

Hrm...

Hrm...

...Nah.

Okay, seriously though, this batch of pestering isn't really funny enough to bother with so let's just skip ahead...

...

Well done, Sigma!

There's something in here...

Huh.

Well, that seems to be the end of this line of enquiry, so let's get on the next one...

Interesting...
You're gonna put that fabric we bleached into the hole on the bed.

Yeah. It looks like it's exactly the right size.

Go on, then.

Will do

O...kay? I guess we should examine it again.

Nope, that just puts it back in our inventory. Well... let's just leave that there and poke at that scanner again.

Alright, progress!

...this is progress, right? Not really sure what to do with that...

There are two numbers and three different icons on the sheet.

Yeah. Looks like a 4 and a 5.
All three icons are for medicine, I think. Probably capsules, powder and liquid.

Hn. Now, if we've got those two numbers, that might suggest that each of those icons represents a number too, right?
For instance, the capsule could be 1, the powder might be 2, the liquid could be 3... Like that.

So I need to scan the 1 square, the 2 square, and the 3 square in order, then.

That'd be my guess.

But what numbers correspond to the icons?

Hmm...

If only there were routes of inquiry even beyond the hints we've already been given!

What, and you do?

Yeah, pretty much.

Then why don't you tell me? How the hell am I supposed to solve this thing?

Do you remember seeing those medicine icons anywhere before?

Oh yeah... They were on those blocks in the frame.

Exactly. The icons on that sheet are exactly like the ones on the blocks.
Now, try and remember them.
What color was the capsule?

Blue.

The powder?

That one was yellow.

Now how about the liquid?

I'm pretty sure it was red.

Hmm...
Do you remember seeing anything with those colors assigned to numbers?

Uh...

Nope. Nothin'.

S-Sorry.

You just found it.
You seriously don't remember?

That note?

Yes! Finally!

Cue some recounting of said information, and...

I just need to solve this equation!

I don't know if I'd call it an equation...

Alright, let's actually solve it!

Hn. Good work.

The screen changed...

You've seen it too?

Yeah. There was something like this in the AB Room.
The symbols are all different, though.

I take it you two saw one?

We used a password like this to open the safe in our AB Room.

You oughta write that down.

No, it's cool. I can remember it.

You're gonna memorize it?

Sure. No sweat. I've got a pretty good memory.

Can't help but notice that the puzzle is still active. Which, of course, means there's another solution somewhere.

Actually...

It's not the only one.

Yeah, I know...

You mean the dirty sheet?

Yeah.
It had a five by five grid, didn't it?

Yeah, and so do these blocks.

Hn. Don't you think there might be some kind of connection?

Indeed.

I believe I said this before, but this is a pretty typical optional-VLR-puzzle in that its difficulty is more a matter of it being silly and obtuse than it being a clever puzzle with a clever solution. Let's let the hints play out and follow along with the game's logic.

What number was the blue capsule?

It was 1.

What about the red liquid one?

2...

And the yellow powder?

That was number 3.
When we entered them with 4 and 5, we solved the puzzle.

Mm-hm
So how about applying those numbers and their positions to the block in the frame?

Uh...

Well, think of it this way.
Just imagine the sheet on top of the frame.
What would be in the 1 spot?

Uh...

A blue capsule.

What about the 2 spot?

Another blue capsule.

And 3?

That would be a yellow powder.

What would numbers 4 and 5 be, then?

There's a red liquid on 4, and a yellow powder on 5.

So what are all the icons you got?

...Right?

And if you add them up?

Pause for effect.

Yeah.

We've got a silly puzzle with a weird arbitrary logic progression, which, if you don't immediately figure it out, is dumped on you all in one go in a massive overlong dialogue sequence that takes you all the way to the solution... which is wrong.

This is the fourth typo I've found in this room. I've been correcting them as we go, but I thought this one was dumb enough to warrant preserving in its entirity.

Maybe all the writing in this room was done really late in development, or maybe they're just not paying their editors enough.

Why yes, Sigma. Yes it should.

I don't even know.

Huh? Why'd the left drawer open?

There's something in there.

Huh. Well, this looks like it should solve itself.

And...

You'd think there'd be some amusing hint dialogue for failing a puzzle this simple, but no. There's basically nothing.

Nice! Good job!

Seems you figured it out.
The screen's showing something again.

The symbols changed, and they moved around.

Well, it's probably related to the safe somehow.
Can you remember this, Sigma?

Leave it to me.

All right. Now can we please get the fuck out of this room?

Ha! Well done.

Good work.

File get.

Seems like it.

First we've got...

It says "FLOOR A"...

We can take a close look at it later.
There's still more stuff in there. Why don't you get the rest of it first?

Next we've got... a card.
Two cards, actually.

See? They've got "AMBIDEX ROOM" right there.

Yeah, you're probably right.

Then we can use these to open the AB Rooms...

But how are we supposed to get back to the warehouse? That's where all the AB Rooms are.

We can go back the way we came, but that door's locked.

See? Read this note.

Once you've opened a door, you can hop through it as much as you like.
The Chromatic Doors are like that too! Once you open them, even I carrot stop you from going in and out of them!
But! But but but, you have to escape before you can take advantage of this Free Rein Rule!
Once you've activated a Chromatic Door and gone through it to the puzzle beyond, it warren't let you go back until you've solved the puzzle.

Interesting...
So it's saying that once we get out of here we'll be able to head back to the warehouse.

Yeah.

It looks like part of a newspaper.

Why would someone put a newspaper in here...?

"The Radical-6 virus continues to spread across the globe like wildfire.
The WHO has confirmed that the death toll is estimated to have passed 100,000 victims.
Immediate quarntine of any infected patients is strongly advised."