Part 151: Director's Office
VLR OST: [Placidity]
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
What's wrong?
I left something in the director's office!
What was it?
The picture! Argh, how could I forget it?!
Oh yeah. We must have set it down after using the face recognition thing.
Yeah.
You two go on ahead to the warehouse.
I wanna come with you.
Me too.
No, that's fine.
Why don't you head back to the warehouse, Sigma?
The others are probably already waiting.
All right. I'll see you two later, then.
Right.
Bye Mr. Sigma!
I watched them jog off toward the blue door...
And then they were gone.
Guess I should be getting back, then...
999 OST: [Riddle and Puzzle]
I stepped into the warehouse to find all the other teams already there.
K and Luna...
Phi and Clover...
The moment Dio spotted me, he dashed over to the rightmost AB Room and slid his card through the reader.
An Ambidex Gate has been opened.
Forty-five minutes remain until Ambidex Game polling closes.
As he turned to look at me, I swore I saw a flash of a smug grin.
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
This time I waited for you to get back before I opened it.
You see? I can be considerate.
But Tenmyouji and Quark aren't here...
Yeah, where are they?
I guess they forgot something back in the room we found. They ran back to grab it real quick.
Then they'll be here in a few minutes. No big deal.
...
...
While we waited, we exchanged information about the rooms we'd investigated.
Unfortunately, none of it seemed very useful. None of us had found anything, and we were no closer to unraveling any of the increasing number of mysteries we were faced with.
With that discussion exhausted, we sat down to wait.
...
...
Before long, twenty minutes had passed since Dio opened the door, and Tenmyouji and Quark were nowhere in sight.
[Music fades out]
Listen in: [English/Japanese]
Yes. I'm getting worried... What if something happened to them?
I'll go have a look.
Then I shall accompany you.
Nah, I'll be fine by myself. It's not that far away.
Just don't look into the abyss too long, or you might become a monster.
That's... I don't think... Okay.
Look, I'm just going to the director's office. I'll be right back. No big deal.
...
Right, see you guys later.
I gave a quick goodbye wave, and stepped out of the warehouse.
Sigma blip blip blips and door-opens and screen transitions the entire way back to the Director's Office. This won't bother you because I'm skipping stuff like this in the transcription but I just want you all to know how irritating it is.
999 OST: [Eternitybox]
Huh? That's odd...
There's nobody here...
Tenmyouji and Quark must have been here, then.
I laid out the floor B map.
After that they probably went through the warehouse and out the blue door to the elevator.
...Yeah, that's a much shorter route.
On the other hand, I came through the red door, which is kind of the long way around...
Huh. Looks like we managed to miss each other perfectly.
Ugh...
Well, this was a huge waste of time.
Shoot. Might as well head back, I suppose.
I'd packed up the map and was headed toward the door, when...
[Music fades out]
There was a light on where there hadn't been a light before.
We messed with it earlier, but nothing seemed to work...
I felt a sudden wave of inexplicable, nauseating dread. The light stared at me.
I swallowed, and edged cautiously toward it.
The machine was in arm's reach now.
I stretched my hand out toward it, slowly...slowly—
Please listen in: [English/Japanese]
So, you've finally made it.
N-No... You're...
999 OST: [Chill and Rigor]
I was the one who brought you here.
You undoubtedly have as many questions for me as there are stars in the sky.
As you can see, however, this is only a recording.
I will therefore be unable to directly answer any questions.
Ask if you wish, but I cannot respond.
Urgh...
I considered taking a swing at him, but decided that was spectacularly futile and kept my balled fist at my side.
Zero Sr is voiced by Jamieson Price in English and Akio Ōtsuka in Japanese. Jamieson Price is often typecast for deep and booming roles; he's Lu Bu in Dynasty Warriors, Iron Tager in BlazBlue, Duke in Tales of Vesperia, and the Spiral King in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - so Zero Sr is business as usual. Akio Ōtsuka might sympathize, being Ansem in Kingdom Hearts, Judge Gabranth in Final Fantasy XII, and Blackbeard in One Piece, as well as being the go-to dub actor for Nicholas Cage, Steven Seagal, Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, but who am I kidding - he's best known as the Japanese voice of Solid Snake and Big Boss throughout Metal Gear Solid (execept for that one time in MGS4 where the two meet, in which Big Boss was voiced by Akio's father, the late Chikao Ōtsuka).
Seriously, listen in: [English/Japanese]
There are many things I wish to tell you...
But unfortunately our time is limited. As such, the information I can provide is also limited.
I have chosen two things of great importance to tell you.
...
...
Hm. In retrospect, I suppose that's a rather odd thing to say.
I imagine you look rather bewildered right now.
Perfectly understandable.
The person who kidnapped you and threatened you with death is lecturing you about insects.
I suspect it hardly seems fair.
Nonetheless, this is very important. In a way, it will determine your fate. So I ask that you listen carefully.
...
...
Have you ever seen a termite mound?
They are splendid structures. Some might even call them works of art.
Termites are natural architects, and their mounds are both structurally sound and make excellent use of space.
So are they following some sort of plan as they build? Are there termite blueprints, detailing which room goes where?
No. Of course not.
Each termite is simply an oblivious cog in a tremendous machine programmed by millions of years of termite DNA.
It is doubtful an individual termite has any idea what its contributions are helping to create.
But a human does.
We can appreciate the elegant forms of their alien cathedrals... We can see the simple beauty of their perfect functionality...
We can understand the splendid planning of their structure...
In other words, only an intelligence of a higher order can understand the beauty of what the termite builds.
...
...
Why are we alive?
Why do we love, and give birth? Why do we create? From where do our cultures spring?
There are many theories, but no one knows the truth.
We are oblivious cogs in a tremendous machine programmed by millions of years of human DNA.
...
...
Yes, I mean to say humans are not different from termites.
...
...
We trudge through our lives with no greater understanding of our ultimate goal.
You might say we don't understand what we're building.
Only an intelligence of a higher order than ours can understand what we're doing.
Imagine how we might look to such an intelligence...
We may be building some structure so perfect and elegant we can't even perceive it.
Whatever it is, we've likely been building it on a dimension just above the ones we know since time immemorial.
If we are like the termites, then what we've created is almost certainly something of tremendous beauty.
...
...
And you are about to catch a glimpse of it.
Or have you already...?
...?
Consider what I've said.
...
...
Now, let's move on to the second topic.
It is somewhat more immediately meaningful to your life, and, in fact, the lives of several billion other people.
I realize this is rather sudden, but I have a password for you.
B-Bomb?!
Are you ready? I will only say this once, so pay close attention.
The password to disarm the number one bomb is...
BQZ RGJ DXR
I had no idea what he was talking about.
What bomb?!
Was he saying there were bombs too?!
If he'd guessed at my future confusion, he showed no sign of it.
Before I go, however, I have a warning.
You cannot tell any of your companions what you heard or saw here.
If you do, you will be penalized. Immediately.
...
...
I hope we will meet again someday.
We would have much to discuss.
Wait!
[Music fades out]
I found myself yelling at empty air.
The hologram had disappeared.
...
...
Termites?! Other dimensions?!
How could that have anything to do with kidnapping us?!
Shit!
I kicked out at a nearby shelf.
All players please enter your votes.
If no vote is recorded before the deadline has passed, any non-voting parties will automatically ally.
Aw crap... I need to get back.
Not like there's any point staying here...
I spun around and ran out of the room, toward the warehouse.