Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Part #63

Part 63: Escape: Crew Quarters

Time to take on the Crew Quarters. Sigma (3BP, Red Pair) and Phi (3BP, Red Pair) have teamed up with Alice (3BP, Red Solo) for this one.

VLR OST: [Cabin]

A little more energetic than our usual escape-fare. Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about this track but it'll do.

This area seems a little irritating at first glance but it's really not that bad. We've got a central corridor with two rooms at the front...

...and two in the back.

That said, room 3 appears to be, uh, handcuffed shut so I guess that's one option ruled out.

From the top, then.

These rooms are all very simple, being small cubic affairs with exactly four points of interest.

First, there's this.

There's a human silhouette drawn in white on the bed.
The area where the left knee would be has been ripped out. I wonder if that means anything...

Then we've got a desk.

Lemme see here... It's called... How the hell do I pronounce that?
"Schrödinger's Cat"?

Whoops, there it goes...
Still can't help talking like a cat when I talk about a cat.

Looks like all sorts of science-y stuff. I have no idea what any of this means.
I don't think this is part of any kind of puzzle so I'm just gonna... leave it here...

Er... leave it where?

Anywhere, there's some significant looking marks on the wall here...

A triangle, a... leaf... thing, and another triangle...
What's that thing on the right? It looks like the silhouette of a fox...

We can also examine the desk itself.

What's the deal with this drawer, though?

We can even open the drawer!

Since the top of the desk is made of glass, I can see the pattern on the aluminum.

Next thing of interest:

The locker.

Surprise.

I think this panel here is what unlocks it, but nothing happens when I push the buttons.
Is that a keyhole on the top there...?
Hm... I probably need a key or something.

Finally, there's a phone, and under it, the safe. Oh, and there's that book.

...

So... a phone, huh?

Is it connected...?

Nuts. Let's play with it anyway.

These look interesting.

These appear to be internal line buttons...
"1" probably means "room 1"... That's the room I'm in right now, so it would probably call here.
...Actually, that probably just wouldn't do anything.
I mean, it's not like you can call yourself with only one phone...
But there's no harm in trying, right?

Nope, nothing.
Pressing the "1" button is probably pretty pointless.

Well then. Let's try...

Oh, hey, Alice. So you are there.

Sigma? Is that you?

Yeah.

Where are you calling from?

Room 1.

That's right next door.
Why did you call me? You could just walk--

Wait a minute...

What's wrong?

There's something on the display...
It says 'twenty-five asterisk asterisk'.

"25**"...

Do you think it's a clue?

Hm...

Well, I'm going to look around this room a little more.
I'll see you later.

Interesting... OK, let's try 3.

Might as well try pressing it.

...What?
That's weird.
Why can't I call room 3?

Because the number isn't programmed, you dummy.

Just me.

Better than "justice", I suppose.

Really? You can do better than that.

I'm hanging up.

Come on, wait!

What do you want? And where are you calling from?

Room 1.

Ah. I guess they have some kind of internal line?

Seems like it.

So what is it you--

Huh? What's this...
"Agricola, Agricola, 9, 2."

I didn't know you were into German-style boardgame farming simulations.

Whoops. I meant, "Asterisk, asterisk, 9, 2".

_{How on Earth could you get those two mixed up...?}

That's what it says on the phone's display.

Hm... **92...

Maybe it's a clue.

Hm...

Anyway, I'm going to get back to searching this room.
Call me if you find anything else.

WELL GEE I WONDER WHAT TO DO NOW.

No tape has been inserted. The answering machine will not function.

What does that mean?

Well, I think we're about done here.

Except...

It looks like there's a piece of metal in there...
Is this some kind of pin?
It was obviously put here, so I'm guessing it's important somehow.
Well, whatever it is I can't get it out right now.
I need to get that lid open.

Oh, and one other thing...

The surface is kind of matte, and it isn't very reflective, but the light is good so it's easy to see what's on it. Or it would be, if there was anything on it.

As you can see, it appropriately reflects whatever's showing on the phone panel at the time.

Alright, let's go bug everyone.

Ah well, I don't think she'll mind if I go in.

Just thought I'd come check up on you.

Oh. Well, I haven't found anything interesting...

The rooms are largely identical.

Examining the phone just makes Alice remind us about the number, so let's move on...

What do you mean, another one?

I saw one of these silhouttes earlier.
It had a torn part too, although it was a different part.

The area around the left forearm has been torn... Do you think that's a clue of some sort?

Hrm...

But a hint about what?

I don't know.
Maybe... a doll?

A doll?

Have you found any dolls?

No, nothing like that.

What about a picture, then?
Well, if you find something that's shaped like a human, maybe try examining the left forearm.
There might be something there.

Hello...

There's something on top of the desk.
It's... a little piece of metal.

And more graffiti.

What do you mean, "too"? Did you see something like this in the other rooms?

Yeah. Just like this. Symbols on the wall, desk, everything.

Really... What could they mean?

True, but it's probably handy for examining things.

How do you figure that?

Well, look at the table. The top's made of glass, right?
If you put something in the drawer and closed it, you could see it through the glass.

Kaaay. And finally...

...Another locker.

Well, keep wondering. It's locked.

See? I told you so.

There's a panel over here where you can put in a passcode.
If I can just get it to work...

Yeah... Let's not.

Ideas for what?

How to use this thing.

Well...
Of course I do.

Hmph. You really think you're going to open it by just pressing random buttons?

_{Well, I thought maybe I'd just get lucky...}

It doesn't work like that!
There's no way you're going to get this thing open unless you know what to enter.

And we're done here. Now let's go bug Phi.

Find anything?

Not really...

Oh...

Let's go through the motions...

Again?

This silhouette.

Oh, did you see one in another room?

Yeah, I saw another one just like this.

It had a hole torn around the ankle too?

No, it had a hole, but it was somewhere else.

Hm...

...?

So if we search around the right ankle, maybe we'll find something.

Okay, take off your boots.

Not my ankle!

Then whose?

Hers!

Her?

Her? Well, whatever, moving on...

Yeah, it's a... piece of metal.
Kind of cylindrical...

It's too slippery right now, though. I don't think we can use it.

True...
The inside's hollow, though. Maybe you can put something into it?

Well, let's not insult eachother's intelligence any more than we have to.

I don't think there's anything in here you can use it on, though.

Maybe somewhere else?

Like where?

Well... like room 3, maybe.

That's some remarkably specific insight there, Phi.

What? Have you seen this before?

Yeah. Well, no, not this. But I've seen some similar patterns in the other rooms.
They're all right next to a desk, too, just like this one.

Have you figured it out yet?

No, not yet...

Oh...

We can always count on Phi to barely conceal her perpetual disappointment in us.

And finally...

...Another locker, bereft of interesting dialogue or any clues as to its code.

Alright, let's get out of h...

...ere...

...

Uh... what?

You scratch off the silver part with a coin so you can see the naughty stuff.
It's the ultimate in interactive poster technology!
What teenage boy doesn't dream of something like this?
The excitement! The anticipation! And finally... the reveal!

_{You look pretty excited...}

Soooo... I guess we're supposed to "interact" with this thing?

...
...Damnit. It's too slippery.
I think I'm going to need a coin to deal with that silver menace.

Denied.

Well, that's the last thing of interest in here. Across all three rooms, we've only gotten one good lead... the key to room 3. So!

Shouldn't have any more door problems now.

Shockingly, room 3 is entirely identical to every other room in here.

Bed, check.

It's ripped too, but in a different place this time.

Desk with object and graffiti, check.

Kay.

Locker, check.

Hey, wait a second...

I guess it wasn't locked.

People have honestly gotten stuck here, because the thought of a locker in a game like this not being locked just didn't occur. And by people I mean me, once.

And as it happens, opening this locker is essential to getting anything else accomplished.

It's all shiny...
Is this... aluminum foil?
There's so much of it though. Must be some kind of industrial size roll.
This is way more than you'd use in any normal kitchen. I wonder how much there is?
Maybe if I roll it out...
...
...Huh? There's something printed on it.
Looks like... shapes and lines.
Is this some kind of clue?
I can't carry this around with me, though.
Maybe I can cut out the important parts somehow...

Let's ignore the fact that we clearly can carry that thing around, and just move on to the obvious next step.

The game makes you do this combination four seperate times.

Eventually, we're left with four sheets of foil with different patterns, about which Sigma's only observation is that they're shiny.

Hrm...

Here's the phone. Sure enough, the tape slot is open and empty.

Now... surely you've all figured out where this is going?

What a curiously specific puzzle.

Anyway, obviously only one of those sheets is the correct one, and, spoiler, it's the one with six collections of lines on it as supposed to four.

Well, that clears everything up, doesn't it?

Alright, let's go sort the rest of these out. Room 1's locker has a second lock on it, so let's go bug Alice again.

Yeah. That's what it looks like.

A password for what, though?

Oh come on! There's only one thing in here that needs a four-digit password!

Alright, alright, keep your shirt on, lady.

Now, let's... uh.

You don't know which number each button stands for?

Well, it's really easy. All you have to do is add the number to the left of that button with the number above the button.
That means the three numbers in the first row would be...
2 + 6 = 8, 2 + 3 = 5, 2 + 0 = 2.
Now just calculate that for the other two rows.

You see?

Noted.

Wow. Good job. That was pretty impressive.

If there is, I'd sure like to know what.

Me too. Maybe there's a cassette deck or something around here.

HRM.

Alright, time to annoy Phi again.

Yeah...

Is this some kind of password?
If it is...

Phi also has her own variant on the telling you how to input the password thing but it's not interestingly different so whatever.

Heh... Yeah, I'm pretty great.

Looks like there's something in there...

You probably shouldn't get your hopes up.

Why not?

Just a feeling...

Yeah, fine, whatever. I'm not gonna let you bring me down.
Let's see what's in here...

What is it?

There's only one coin in here.
And it's not even real money! Just a toy coin.

See? Didn't I tell you?

Damn...

Maybe we could use it to scratch off the silver part.

Seems like a plan.

Yeeeaaaaaaaaaaaah!

_{Damn you're excited...}

Hey, don't misunderstand me. I'm just... really anxious to... find a clue in there. Aren't you?

You want to let me do it, then?

...

I-I'm sorry... Please, just let me have this.

Then get on with it.

Aaaand of course it's a minigame.

Don't judge me.

Okay... so... that's nice, I guess?

Your scratching progress does not appear to be maintained between attempts. Technically this is true of every single minigame in this game but on this one it's particularly jarring.

The big silver area isn't the only part you can scratch off...
I think her accessories are scratchable too.

Why don't you just take off all the parts you think can come off?

This is, of course, supposed to be hinted at by all those beds with the torn off fabric we've been seeing. So... accessories, huh?

Oh, now we're talking.

*Pant* *Pant* *Pant*

Damn! I look away for a second and you've scratched it all off!

Yeah...
I noticed some things that might be clues, so I kept going.

You mean these marks on her arms and legs?
There are four of them... A star, a circle, a diamond and a triangle.

*scratchscratchscratchscratchscratch*

Hey! What're you doing?!
You've already scratched it all off!

No, I'm not done yet!
This blue part still needs to go...!

...
Sigma...
I don't think that part's going to come off, no matter how hard you scrape.

The star has a 6... the circle has a 1...
The diamond has an 8 and the triangle has a 9...

Do you know what this is?
Star, circle, diamond, triangle... Have you seen these anywhere before?

Most curious. Anyway, it looks like we've got ourselves a new lead.

Let's just put this tape in...

And...

Er...

Damn, I forgot the number.

Sigma. What do you want?

How did you know it was me?

Who else is going to call me?!

Hmm...

Why did you call me?

Oh... I... uh... I... just wanted to hear your voice.

Wh-what...? Sigma...
I-I had no idea! Oh gosh...

(Shit. Guess that was a little too convincing.)
(She's more innocent than she lets on...)

Look, if there's nothing else, I'm hanging up!

Well, there is something...

What?

Remember that number you saw earlier?
Is it still there?

Yes..

Has it changed?

No, it still says the same thing. "25**".
I think it shows that when I get a call from room 1.

Hm...

I wonder what it means?
I think those asterisks mean it's hiding the latter half of the number.

If that's the case then it's probably a four digit number.

Well, let's look for more clues. I'll talk to you later.

Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger.

Oops, sorry, wrong number.

Wait! Don't hang up!

What?

Um... I forgot.

Hey, wait! You were the one who called me!

Oh, right.

So what do you want?

Remember that number you saw earlier?

"**92"?

Yeah.

It disappeared about when you hung up, but when you called it showed up again.
I'm guessing it only shows up when someone calls.

Hm...

I wonder what it means...
You see asterisks a lot for, like, passwords and stuff...

So maybe they're hiding something?

Maybe.

So if we knew the first two numbers...

Yeah. We could get a full number. That might get us somewhere.

...

All right, time for me to get back to searching.
Good luck.

I'll tell you what the numbers mean; they mean the Caller ID system in this place is dumb.

Th-That voice!

Looks like you found the answer.

The number you just entered is the number for the phone in the third room.

The buttons hare on the top of the phone are just shortcuts.
That means all the other phones have actual numbers too!

...Though I guess that's not really important...

Anyway, you're calling room 3 right now.

Room 3... Then that means...

Since you're so clever, I'm sure you've figured it out by now...

But yes, you're right! I'm speaking to you from a pre-recorded tape!
So you can grass me all the questions you like, but I won't be able to answer them.

I'm afraid this little talk is going to be a bit one-sided.

Urgh...

Then again, it's going to be a very little talk, because I only have one thing to tell you.
Have a look at the left screen above the phone. The answer you're looking for is hidden there.

What answer, you ask? Well, I can't hop you with that one!
Byeeeee! Have a nice trace!

Left...

All right, there's another four-digit number.
What am I supposed to do with this?
I guess I need to enter it somewhere...

Crap, I forgot to write that down. Let's try again.

Well you're not going to get any more out of me.
Above and to the left is all I'm going to tell you.

Have a nice trumpet!

Kay.

There's some kind of... pin in there.

But I have a notion.

I think a pin or something might fit in here...
...
...Huh? What was that noise?
Maybe I can type stuff in now...

We can! Although we're still not sure what.

This might help, though.

Yes! That's it!
Those are the same four shapes that were hidden on the pin-up poster!
I think each shape had a number written on it...

Indeed! By super-recollection, circle star diamond triangle translates to... 1698!

...Huh? That's odd... Are we misremembering the numbers? Let's just doublecheck that...

I'm not sure about the numbers on the star and the triangle...
Don't the shapes look like they're upside down?
That would mean the numbers are upside down too...

God damnit.

So, 1968 then. Fine.

And look what we found!

This is just like the code we saw in the Ambidex Room.
I mean, it's a different code, of course, but it looks really similar.

So... What do you guys think the optional puzzle is?

Know what would've been really cool? If it had been a natural extension of what we'd already done, a combination of all the hints we've seen. Something like, oh, say, taking all the numbers from the pin-up girl, noting which limb they were on, and sorting them according to the room numbers whose beds have the same limb indicated. Which is what a few people did the first time through this room. And by people, I once again mean me.

But instead, what you have to do is...

Pick up the phone...

...And just dial the same number.

The second passcode can be found on the left portion of the display above the phone.

Left...?

Sigh.

What the hell?!
It's not a phone number?

No, it's just a dumb puzzle.

Okay, so before we go punch that in, here's an actual cool thing. You can dial a bunch of extra numbers on this phone.

Let's continue Sigma's juvenile streak...

LOL

What in the name of...

Someone called O'Leigh is saying "Gosh he is illegible!"

Not done yet.

Uh, that's a little too rich for my blood, thanks...

...grinding were becoming common.
Often they took the form of galettes, with honey concealed inside a wrapping created from ground oats, wheat, rye, or--

Do you ever stop?!

Hey, I got your number on the wall-- Huh? She hung up...

This one doesn't do anything. Angela must have gotten disconnected.

Finally...

Warning: Mental tests carry a small risk of death.

...

Well, that was fun.

The shapes are different, and so is the placement...

Now, normally I'd show us doing the Escape password first, and then get the File. However, for this room, and this room only, you are fast-tracked to the exit as soon as you input the Escape password - which is really dumb - so we're gonna do the File password first.

...
_{Man, what good is a victory dance when there's no one there to see it...?

I'm lonely...}

Get.

Aaaand...

I wonder what's inside this time...
Wait a minute.
If I look through the stuff in here without telling Phi and Alice, they might be suspicious later.
"You took something when we weren't looking!"
Yeah, those are two bad sides I really don't want to be on.
I think I'll just go get them before I go through it.

Did you open this, Sigma?

Yeah, who else could have?

Why didn't you tell us sooner?!

What?!

Forget about it, Alice.
Let's just see what's in there.

What's this thing?

It says "FLOOR A".

We can look at it more later.
There's more stuff in the safe. Why don't we get all of it before we start going through it?

Good idea.

Whoops... make that two cards.

See? It says "AMBIDEX ROOM" right there!

Then we can use these to open the AB Rooms...
But... How are we supposed to get back there?
The door to the warehouse is still locked.

Check out this note.

You've seen this all before.

I see...
So once we can get out of the crew quarters, we can head back to the warehouse.
Right?

Yeah, seems like it.

So this key will open the door at the end of the hallway?

Lovely.

Wait!

What about this book on the top of the safe?

"Meow"?

Sorry... It's this sort of... I guess you could call it a tic.
I've had it since I was young. I wish I was just kitten, but I can't control it.
It's not dangerous, though. You're purrrrfectly fine.

Not... dangerous...?

Um...

...

Anyway, the book's called "Shrodingers Cat"--

Don't you mean Schrödinger's Cat?

Oh, you've heard of it?

I think it'd be harder to find someone who hasn't heard of it.

Fur real? Do you know what it is too, Alice?

Of course I do. I was just wondering why this book was here.