The room is silent and you sink into a nearby chair. “A gashat...for everyone in the city…” You whisper stunned. You bury your face in your hands. “We’ve...did we lose?” You ask everyone and you bite your lip. No one seems to want to answer that question. You expect to feel helpless, terrified. But instead all you feel is a fire inside you. The urge to get up and make everything right. To protect the city and end this madness. The will that makes you a Kamen Rider.

“No.” You say standing. “No. We’re not done. Not now. Not ever. We’ve been through too much to be broken up again.” You look at Kuroto who was simmering with rage and gritting his teeth as he glared at the empty screen. “Kuroto. We’re going to need to fight back but Parado lost his Gashat and mine were taken by Kiriya...ummm is there a way you can make more?” You ask firmly before Kuroto’s glare turns to you and it slowly becomes more sheepish. Kuroto crosses his arms.

“If you insist on breaking my inventions then at the very least you can compensate by finding a way to allow me to make more. So the answer is no. I can’t. I don’t have the materials needed to program anymore Gashats or Drivers here. I used the last of them to make yours.” He snaps and you wince. “If you want me to build more, I’ll need parts and the only place we can reasonably get them is…”

“Gemn Corp…” You answer quietly.


“Cronus…” Emu finally speaks up. “Kiriya said he was working with someone named Cronus.” He stands and faces Kuroto. “Who is he?” He asks. Kuroto shrugs and shakes his head.

“Who knows.” He replies vaguely.

“You know something!” Emu shouts. Kuroto merely smiles smugly. Emu knocks his chair aside and strides over to confront him.

You step between them and hold your arms out. “GUYS! Now isn’t the time!” You shout. “We have a problem on our hands and that involves the fact that we may have a city full of players in a matter of days to deal with.”

Emu doesn’t seem to want to back down and Kuroto continues to look smug to provoke him. This was going to be a long day it seems.

>How do you want to handle the situation.
>Tell Kuroto to tell everyone what he knows. Pushing the other member’s buttons isn’t going to help the crew and even from Kuroto’s point of view antagonizing the people he’s working with won’t get him closer to his goals.
>Tell Emu to drop it for now. There are bigger issues to deal with such as your two non responding members, the mimminent mass distribution of Gashats, and the new Rider that has appeared.
>Let the two deal with it amongst themselves. Go talk to the rest of NCR to see what the next step they should take be.

>>4088178
>Tell Emu to drop it for now. There are bigger issues to deal with such as your two non responding members, the mimminent mass distribution of Gashats, and the new Rider that has appeared.
Fuck, this went sideways fast.

>>4088320
There's more important things going on. Telling Emu to set his emotions aside for now. Writing.

File: tumblr_okklcrInYu1qbkm4zo(...).jpg (94 KB, 1280x738)

94 KB JPG

You place your hand on Emu’s shoulder. “Emu…” You say quietly. “I know this thing with Kiriya is hurting you but right now we have the whole city to worry about.” Emu closes his eyes and frowns, sighing.

“We’ll run into him again. I just want to know why…” He says and clenches his fist. “This feels wrong!”

You nod. “This is all wrong.” You admit. “But right now Gemn Corp is threatening to pull every person in this city into this mess. We need to do something about it. Ride Players are horribly unequipped to do anything and Cronus is basically goading them into suicide rushing bugsters and himself. We’re undergeared, and two of our friends have gone missing. We’ll get our answers but for right now we need to find a way to level the playing field again. Gemn Corp seems to have pulled out all the stops…” You argue.

Emu nods. “Ok.” He says and glances at Kuroto. You pat him on the back and walk him to the table. The rest of the crew are chatting among themselves.

“He’s raising an army!” Graphite argues. “We need to strike now! Hit Gemn Corp while they’re preparing. We have 6 Riders right now with Mighty Brothers. Against Kamen Rider Lazer and Cronus, we can stop this at the source!”

“Last time we walked in there Reiko and I nearly killed each other because of Lovelica.” Parado points out. “We can’t go rushing in there again.”

“You two went there to talk.” Graphite counters. “Now we go to war.”

“Lovelica…” Emu says quietly. “That’s it!” He shouts. “Maybe he’s controlling Kiriya! Reiko, you said he had some kind of mind control over you right?” He asks excitedly.

You nod warily. “Yeah...he did. It was like...I dunno…” You shudder and try not to hold yourself. “But you might be right. Lovelica might be controlling Kiriya.”

“Graphite, have you seen Lovelica?” Poppy asks. “Even before we joined to help NCR, I hadn’t seen him in a while.” Graphite shakes his head.

“Excuse me...but I think we should focus more on stopping the distribution of the Gashats.” Akihito says quietly. “We’ve seen what happens when less than stable people get their hands on that kind of power. I don’t want to think of a city full of them.”

File: Bugster_(Bacteria).png (2.97 MB, 1920x1080)

2.97 MB PNG

“You’re thinking too small.” Kuroto points out. “Luckily I can enlighten you. Remember how the Gashats work?” He asks then promptly sighs as you all give him a blank look. “Ok...Chronicle gashats doesn’t possess a specific bugster virus strain so instead, in order to manifest the Rider armor they pull the virus from the surrounding environment usually the bugster boss the players fight and without compatibility surgery for immunity and a driver to regulate the intake, they immediately get infected with Game syndrome. Now let’s assume an entire city has it.”

“It’d be an epidemic the likes the city has ever seen!” Emu shouts. “Thousands infected at once...even if every hospital in the city had their own NCR there’s no way we’d be able to keep up.”

“Even worse, this NCR is down 4 members in terms of combat availability. Where the hell is Hiiro and Taiga?” Parado asks frustrated. You chew your lip at the mention of Hiiro’s name.

“H-he hasn’t responded?” You ask quietly. “I’ve been texting him but haven’t gotten a reply.” Asuna (nurse Poppy) looks worried and hugs you.

“Reiko…” She starts quietly. “I’m sorry but...he never even showed up for work today. I wanted to tell you and asked if you knew but everything got busy…” Your breath catches and you run your fingers through your hair.

“No. Not right now.” You whisper. You smile at Asuna and say, “Thanks for letting me know. We’ll...we’ll find him.” You say. “Right now we need a plan. So let’s focus on a task.”

“What should we do then?” Poppy asks. “Should we split up?”

“Good question.” Emu says and looks at you.

>What’s the plan guys? Split up the team?
>Yes
>No

>Regardless of choice. What does Reiko want to personally tackle first?
>Ask Kuroto where you can find parts to build more Gashats and Drivers. First and foremost the team needs to be fighting fit.
>Go and look for Taiga and Hiiro. The team needs to be brought together and you can’t lie but you’re also worried about Hiiro. Start by looking through their offices to see if they left any hints as to where they might be.
>Find a way to try and stop the distribution of the Gashats. You might not be able to stop it completely but you can try and disrupt it.
>Try and find Lovelica. He might be behind Kiriya’s change of heart. If you can turn Kiriya to your side, it’s be a great boon to your team plus...you have been making tons of new allies and friends. Why stop now?

>>4088489
>Yes
>Ask Kuroto where you can find parts to build more Gashats and Drivers. First and foremost the team needs to be fighting fit.

I'll leave the vote open for the night. I need to head to sleep. Stay safe guys.

>>4088489
>Yes
>Go and look for Taiga and Hiiro. The team needs to be brought together and you can’t lie but you’re also worried about Hiiro. Start by looking through their offices to see if they left any hints as to where they might be.

>>4088489
>Yes
>Ask Kuroto where you can find parts to build more Gashats and Drivers. First and foremost the team needs to be fighting fit.

>>4088506
>>4088909
Gotta rebuild our gear. Writing after breakfast.

You think about it for a moment. You look at your friends, the ones willing to fight alongside you. The ones who gave your idea of rebuilding CR a chance. Right now, it’s your turn to rely on them. “Yeah. We gotta split up. There’s too much going on at the moment to try and focus the whole group on it. Besides, this is the reason we made a team right? To be able to tackle multiple problems at once.”

The other members nod reassuringly. “Alright, so how do we divide up the tasks?” Parado asks. “There’s 7 of us. Not a very even split.” You scratch your head.

“I don’t know but I’m going to go and try to find some more parts to remake our gear.” You say and face Kuroto. “Where do you think we can find those?” Kuroto thinks.

“Well the obvious choice is just heading towards Gemn Corp’s HQ. We have tons of components there.”

“Well that’s out of the question.” Parado and Emu reply. “Especially if Reiko is going to go there herself.”

“I can handle it.” You counter.

“Don’t interrupt the Game Master!” Kuroto shouts. The three of you flinch and quiet down. “As I was saying, Gemn Corp is the obvious choice. However, Parado is well aware that I had a secret hideout in the event I was discovered as Kamen Rider Gemn.”

“Excellent. I’ll go there then.” You say getting up but Parado places a hand on your shoulder and sits you back down.

“However! A certain group of doctors decided that they’d report me to the Ministry of Health and certain bugsters decided that it would be best not to intervene even with the Ministry under their control.” Kuroto continues through gritted teeth. “So any spare parts I had there are well under guard within the Ministry’s building.”

You sigh and look at the ceiling. Once again everyone’s previous fights have road blocked you. “Great. So it’s either the heavily guarded Gemn Corp Office or the Heavily Guarded Ministry of Health office.”

“The Ministry’s offices probably won’t be as well guarded. CR never had a reason to target them because it’s not in our goals to fight humans. If we go there, Cronus probably wouldn’t expect it.” Parado points out.

“But we don’t know where the confiscated parts are being held.” Poppy points out. “We do know where they are in Gemn Corp though! Graphite, Parado and I have seen them countless times in the basement research and development rooms. If we spend too much time searching in the Ministry’s offices, they could call in for back up from Gemn Corp.”

“That might be true but considering the fight we had there, and the fact that Gemn Corp is well aware of our attempts to stop them. Security will be tight. We’d have to be fast.” Parado replies.

“Reiko are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have a driver so if you get caught…” Asuna asks. “Maybe it’d be better if you look for the others or Lovelica. You’d probably be less likely to run into a fight. But it’s up to you.”

You cross your arms and grunt. Asuna had a point but then again you’d never really minded danger. It could be fine as long as you didn’t get caught.

>What does Reiko do?
>Go look for something else to do. Poppy is right. With out a Driver this might be too much for you.
>Stick to your choice. You can bring someone else to cover you or someone else without a driver to keep an eye out. If you sneak well and don’t get caught then there won’t be a fight.
>Keep her suggestion in mind but don’t commit to your choice yet. Better you listen to the other choices and decide then.

>>4089298
>Stick to your choice. You can bring someone else to cover you or someone else without a driver to keep an eye out. If you sneak well and don’t get caught then there won’t be a fight.
Going through the Ministry of Health shouldn't be too dangerous.

>>4089306
We're gonna stick to the ministry plan. Are you gonna go alone? Or will you take someone with you?

>>4089489
Alone.

>>4089513
Ok we're going to sneak around alone. Will write after lunch.

“I’m going to go check out the Ministry offices.” You say standing up. “See if I can get us the parts we need.”

“Wait! You’re going alone?” Parado asks and you nod in reply. “No.” He says firmly. “I’m going with you.” He insists.

“No. You’re going to stay here and help Emu. At least you have Mighty Brothers to let you fight.” You counter. “I can handle myself.”

“And what if you can’t?” Parado asks getting up. “What if something happens to you? What if they catch you?”

“Then you and Emu are in charge. If something happens to me then I know I at least tried.” You say. “Besides it’s my fault we’re down so many Gashats and a Driver.”

“That’s not true and you know it.” Parado shoots back.

“Yes it is. Who’s the one who wanted to go talk to Lovelica and forced you to overload your Gashat? Who’s the one who stayed behind and got beat by Kiriya?” You shoot back. “I have to do this.”

“She’s right Parado.” Graphite speaks up. “It is her fault.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence…” You mutter. Parado glares at Graphite.

“She’s being a leader and taking responsibility. I can respect that.” Graphite continues unabashed. “I say let her. This is her choice. She wants to take that mantle she needs to learn to face the consequences and make hard decisions. You know this Parado. You chose to take the same position.”

“Yes! So she didn’t have to go through this!” Parado shouts. His hand instinctively tugs as the white highlights in his hair. The reminder of the corruption he suffered from overloading his Gashat. “I just wanted her to be safe.” He glances over to you and your white hair and dulled eyes.

“And I chose to want to fight.” You reply. “I know the risks I’m taking."

“Even if it means I might never see you again?” Parado asks. “You’re not like other bugsters Reiko. I don’t know if you can be brought back. Mighty Action X is my game.”

“Then that just means I know what being afraid of death is better than anyone.” You say. “The lone mortal of a race of immortal beings.” You hug your brother. “I’ll be fine.” You say and gather your things. “If any of you find Hiiro. You tell him, I’m giving him an earful when I get back. Akihito, I’ll be in touch. I might need you and Kuroto’s technical knowledge.”

You make your way to the elevator and punch in the code to go to the hospital’s main floor. You wave to your friends as the door shuts and once the elevator rises you drop the facade. You slump down and hug your knees as you shiver and sniffle. You’ve never done anything like this before and being without your Driver and Gashat makes you feel naked and vulnerable. You wonder if it’s some sort of withdrawal symptom from overuse. Or maybe it’s all psychological. Whatever the reason you take a shaky breath and steel your nerves. You had a building to infiltrate.

>How do you plan to try to get inside the Ministry of Health’s offices?
>Try to bluff your way in. Say you have some kind of appointment.
>Stake out the building. Maybe you can find some kind of flaw in their security. Works in the movies right?
>Try to find a backdoor you can use to get in. When an employee uses it, you can try and get in before the door closes.
>Write in.

Forgot to say that it's 1d20 for any choice.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>4089735
>Try to find a backdoor you can use to get in. When an employee uses it, you can try and get in before the door closes.
sneeki breeki

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>4089735
>Try to find a backdoor you can use to get in. When an employee uses it, you can try and get in before the door closes.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>4090069
>>4090083
I'll roll the last dice. We're gonna sneak in. Writing. https://youtu.be/t4SHQSSeib4

File: imageedit_11_5904336803.png (38 KB, 923x192)

38 KB PNG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncNSJGPl8X4

You wander around the building trying to find some kind of opening. Maybe an employee left a window open, or someone left a back door ajar to let the air in. Really you weren’t expecting anything. That kind of thing only really works in the movies. You debate trying to simply walk in and act like you belong but considering many of the people walking in and out of the office wore suits, you were sure your hoodie and casual jeans wouldn’t really fit in.

You wander into the alley way and just wait. Maybe someone would come out from the back door. After what feels like an hour, you hear the door open and an employee grunts as he tries to shove his the door open with his back. His hands occupied with a myriad of boxes that seemed to have contained ink cartridges for those office printers.

No way…

You think in disbelief that the most cliche way of entry was occuring in front of you. You do your best to try and side step around the man as he struggles to move the boxes to the dumpster. You’re almost to the door when you hear someone speak up. “Hey kid!” You flinch and the door shuts in front of you. Gulping you turn around waiting to get scolded. The man behind you wipe his brow and gives you a conspiratorial look. “You wanna make 20 bucks?” He asks. You back up, worried about what he’s about to ask you to do.

“I got a ton of boxes I need to throw out but it’s my lunch break! How unfair is that? I’ll give you 20 bucks if you throw them out for me.”

You look behind you. “What about the door?” You ask.

“Oh just prop it open. It shouldn’t take too long. Just don’t let anyone see you. Sounds good?” He asks expectantly.

“Uhh...sure?” You say trying not to bring too much attention to yourself.

“Alright awesome!” He says swiping a card in front of a reader. The door clicks and the man pulls it open. You wander in with him and find yourself in what looks like a combination of a storage room and trash room. Various empty boxes and office supplies are littered about. “Here’s the boxes. Some of them have old ink cartridges so careful, they might be heavy. Uhh...other than that. Have it.” He says walking off into the building leaving you alone and slowly coming to a realization he never did give you the 20 bucks and probably never will.

>You’re in! Unfortunately someone knows you’re here but fortunately they don’t seem to be the best employee. What do you do?
>Start wandering around. Maybe you might randomly find what you’re looking for?
>Head to a specific floor. Maybe the top floor might have spare parts or they could be in a basement floor. (choose a direction.)
>Find a place to hide. See if you can stay hidden until everyone’s shift is over. Once everyone is gone you might have an easier time wandering around.
>Throw out the boxes? You’re pretty sure you’re not supposed to throw ink cartridges in the garbage but you did promise…
>Write in.
Also 1d20 for any choice.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>4090295
>Start wandering around. Maybe you might randomly find what you’re looking for?

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>4090295
>Throw out the boxes? You’re pretty sure you’re not supposed to throw ink cartridges in the garbage but you did promise…
Though, he didn't say "immediately".

I gotta head to sleep. I got the early shift tomorrow. Vote's open til I can reply.
>>4090453
I swear if Reiko manages to inflitrate the Ministry by simply doing random chores employees don't want to do I'm going to die laughing.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>4090405
>>4090453
Rolling to see...you know what? Let's combine the two. We'll wander around carrying trash boxes. Nothing can go wrong. I'll roll the last dice and then to writing.

File: 441-4415928_metal-gear-so(...).jpg (188 KB, 820x588)

188 KB JPG

https://youtu.be/mJz9N3odqGg

You stand there for a moment, half wondering what to do, half amazed that your dumb idea actually worked. You pull out your phone and set it to vibrate just in case you’ll actually do some sneaking. You don’t want it to go off and then have to explain to your siblings that it was your ringtone that gave you away. You start to wander further into the building before stopping and eyeing the boxes. You didn’t exactly promise to do it, and he didn’t actually pay you. Then again you also didn’t say you’d do it right away but the idea does dawn on you. If one employee was willing to shirk off their duties on to you, maybe others would too. At the very least they might not give you much mind if you seemed like you were just there to do odd jobs.

You dig through one of the bigger boxes and take out some of the ink cartridges. Hefting it up, you feel oddly secure that you have a large box on your stealth mission. Centering yourself, you walk out the door and deeper into the building. You wander down the halls, holding the box high enough that it obscures your face when you think you see someone coming close by. Most people don’t seem to give you a second look, others seem to be too busy looking at some papers or trying to get to another area of the building to pay you any mind.

Every so often you can see a door left open but they almost always lead to a small office. Once it opened to a meeting room but it seems you arrived at the end as many people were leaving prompting you to quickly leave the area before anyone notices you don’t truly belong. You try to open other doors but they all seem locked. It seems like you weren’t going to find anything on this floor, which made a bit of sense considering it was the first floor. You jump as you feel your phone vibrate in your hoodie pocket. Quickly pulling it out you see a text from Akihito.

“Have you made in it? Are you ok?”

Looking around to make sure no one was watching you, you quickly send back a message.

“I’m in. Currently looking around. Also throwing out the trash.”

Akihito responds with a confused face emoji and before you can elaborate you hear a woman shout,
“There you are! Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you!” You feel yourself spun around and you’re face to face with a short haired blond woman. She glares at you and shouts again before you can say anything. “You interns are always so lazy! I don’t know why we hire you! And you’re texting?! I swear your generation is the worst! Just come with me!”

The woman grabs your wrist and pulls you down the halls and into an elevator. As she pushes a button to the 3rd floor she continues to rant. About how she needs her computer fixed right now, that she’s a very important person and she could fire you from your non existent position, that she better get what she wants before she’s back from lunch or she’ll inform your university and so forth. Various other employees peer out from their offices to look at the two of you but seem too embarrassed to want to intervene. You simply try to hide behind your box and try to fight the feeling of confusion over why you feel ashamed for not doing a job you never had.

Finally you reach her office...or rather her desk at the 3rd floor receptionist area. She points to her monitor and simply says. “Get to it! It better be done before I’m back!” She wanders off leaving you confused but at a computer.

>Well...you made it to the 3rd floor! But now everyone and their mother knows you’re here. Luckily your cover still isnt blown and you still have your box. What next?
>Try and “fix” the computer. Maybe you can use it to find more information on the building but who knows how much a receptionist would have.
>Just wander off and continue looking around. She’s rude and you’re under no obligation to work for her. She didn’t ever offer you 20 dollars like the first guy.
>Sneak off and try to hide until night. Now that you’re on the 3rd floor it might be easier to do so.
>Write in.
1d20 for any choice.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>4091538
>Sneak off and try to hide until night. Now that you’re on the 3rd floor it might be easier to do so.
You... should get in the box.

Rolled 15, 5 = 20 (2d20)

>>4091601
We're gonna go find a hidey hole. Maybe use the box. Let me roll the two other 2d20 and we'll continue. Video games do help in dangerous stealth missions.

You huff. That lady didn’t have to be so rude. Had she asked nicely, you might have actually complied but right now you have a task to complete. Still, you got to the 3rd floor and that was something to celebrate. Although now that everyone knew you were here it would be best if you lay low for a while. You grab your box and start to wander around again. After that debacle people tended to avoid your gaze probably in part to everyone not wanting to interact with the angry receptionist. You weren’t sure if everyone avoiding you made sneaking around easier or just made everything more awkward but as long as you acted like you were supposed to be here maybe they’d leave you alone. Then again now that you technically had a second “job” here you supposed you technically do belong here.

The 3rd floor space was a lot more open once you walked past the reception area. Cubicles littered the floor reminding you a bit of tournament setups when you used to actually make a living. However at the moment there was tons of people wandering around, making this area not a viable hiding spot.

You look down at the box you’re carrying wondering why you still have it then it dawns on you. If ink cartridges are being thrown out then it must mean the printers are fully stocked. So no one would bat an eye if they say a random ink cartridge box laying around. At least you hope. For all you knew that only applied to the first floor. You walk around the edges of the cubicle farm until you find a storage room. You plant your box in the far back corner of the room and flip it upside down so you can hide underneath. Unfortunately for you the box doesn’t have any way to look outside of it so you can only huddle inside of it and beg that no one tries to lift it.

You find just enough room to pull out your phone and text Akihito back.

“Found a place to hide. Going to play the long game and wait for the building to be empty before I do any serious exploring.”

Akihito replies with a “Stay safe. Stay out of sight.” and you settle in for the wait. Hours go by and things are uneventful. Once or twice you hear someone enter the room but no one approaches the back. Later on you have a small shock when two people walk in and lock the door behind them. You swear they were looking for you when things are moved around but then the kissing starts and you realize it’s just two employees making out. Luckily for you it doesn’t move past first base and they leave after what you assume is their lunch break. You find yourself wondering if you’d ever do something like that with Hiiro but you realize he’s too serious to do that kind of thing.

Near the end of the day someone actually tries to pick up your box! You hear them enter and say, “Fucking Hank. I told him to throw these out. I outta report that fucker to HR.” They try to lift your box but you dig your nails into the side and hold it down. The employee grunts and gives up after a moment leaving with a, “Screw this. Hank can do it tomorrow…”

You decide that the box has probably worn out it’s stealth capabilities and once the cost sounds clear you climb out and hasilty look around to find somewhere else to hide. You look up and see a vent.

Yeah that can work. Box did. Walking in behind an employee...kind of did.

You think to yourself. You push some of the heavier boxes in front of the door to buy yourself some time. Hoping that you have some of the enhanced strength some of the other bugsters have, you set up several packages of printer paper in a stack and begin pulling down on the vent cover.

>Roll me 1d20+4 because you actually do possess enhanced strength compared to a human’s.

Also, more out of my own curiosity, is anyone here from the older threads? Probably not considering how sporadic my posting schedule has become. Then again asking that here is kind of stupid considering the point is to be anonymous.

Rolled 9 + 4 (1d20 + 4)

>>4092059

Rolled 1, 11 + 4 = 16 (2d20 + 4)

>>4092076
Rolling the last two rolls. Slow day today.

File: olndeadline.jpg (42 KB, 620x300)

42 KB JPG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnerisonITQ

You grunt and give the cover a tug. The screws holding it in place give away and you find yourself standing with the cover in hand. “Neat.” You mutter as you jump to grab the edge of the vent to pull yourself up into it. Much like the box, the vents are cramped and you can only fit by crawling around in your knees. You debate trying to fit the cover back into it’s place but decide against it. You’d need a guaranteed way out in case you can’t find somewhere else to get out from.

The rest of the day goes by slowly as you lay on your belly. Now that you were well hidden, you find yourself poking around your phone and the internet careful to not make too much noise. You hear someone grunt and push the door to the supply closet open. You take a peek down into the room and see a woman putting the boxes on a shelf before moving to get something out of your sight. “Ann! Just forget it. We’ll replace the paper tomorrow. Let’s just clock out!” A voice calls out. Ann stops rummaging and walks out.

You look at your phone’s clock and see that it’s 9pm. You resist the urge to climb down and go explore. You give it one more hour just to make sure everyone is gone and send one more text to Akihito.

“I’m gonna go explore now. I think everyone has gone home.”

You receive no response, probably due to Akihito being asleep, but you feel more comfortable knowing that everyone knows how you are. This train of thought leads you to wonder if everyone else was ok. They took arguably the harder tasks. Shaking the worry from your mind you adjust yourself in the vent before deciding what course of action to take.

>It’s nighttime, everyone has probably gone home, and you’re in a vent. What’s the next plan Snake?
>Crawl through the vents. Maybe one of them leads to an interesting locked room. Or you might just find more office space.
>Look through the cubicles. Maybe someone forgot to log off of their computers. You might find something there?
>Go to another floor. You have an entire building to yourself. (Pick a floor from 1-4 or you can state you’re looking for a secret area.)
>Try to find some kind of security room. You could find keys. And keys mean unrestricted access.
>Write in
1d20 to sneak around. I’m gonna go get dinner so I’ll count the votes when I’m back.

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>4092273
>Look through the cubicles. Maybe someone forgot to log off of their computers. You might find something there?
Though I doubt that we're too heavy for the vents, this seems easier.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>4092273
>Look through the cubicles. Maybe someone forgot to log off of their computers. You might find something there?

>>4092326
>>4092345
Searching for a logged in computer. Maybe Hank fucked up again. Writing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj5zyz5yxoQ

You grip the edge of the vent and hop down, hang backwards from the ledge before letting go and landing quietly on the ground. You crouch and slowly walk towards the door to put an ear to it. The room on the other side is quiet. You slowly pull the door open and peek into the dark office space. Computers hum as they stay in standby mode rather than being shut off completely. Finding logged in computer would take a while if you were going to check every single one. Luckily, you have all night. You hop from cubicle to cubicle searching and wiggling mice to make the monitors flare to life. Everytime you do so you instinctively wince a the brightness and the idea that someone might catch you because of the light in the darkened room. But no one ever comes by.

Your search yields results after about 10 minutes of searching when you find a computer in the center of the cubicle maze still logged on! Heart pounding, you navigate around to the Internet Explorer icon and click. The browser opens up to the company website’s employee portal. You have access to everything for this guy, from his work schedule to his email. You look at the employee name. Morris Hank. Huh...Hank and Ann...those aren’t too common names here. Why was the Ministry hiring foreigners? From what you have seen, the government tends to shy away from immigrants unless they show exemplary work and Hank didn’t seem like that kind of employee. “Thanks Hank.” You whisper as you go through his emails. You find disappointment that you don’t find any hidden key combinations or messages pertaining to new passwords but you do get an interesting email from, judging by the email address, one of the directors.

Mr. Morris,
It has come to my attention that you have been asking around the workplace in regard to what I’ve been told is “secret Gemn Corp technology”. And I must reiterate that we at the Ministry do not handle such things. While we aided in apprehending Mr. Dan Kuroto on his attempts at bio terrorism, any and all objects pertaining to said case were promptly handed to the Attorney General to aid in our case against him. However, due to Mr. Dan’s early passing we can no longer prosecute him and thus we are no longer attentive to the state of said objects. I have spoken to the Company Director and we expect you in his office for immediate disciplinary action tomorrow morning. We will not tolerate this kind of disruptive behavior within the Ministry and will discuss how to proceed at the meeting.

Sincerely,
Kobayashi Yui, Human Resources

You frown. So the Ministry didn’t have the spare parts for Gemn Corp? Something didn’t sit right with you. If that was true, why was Hank asking around the office about it like an idiot? Your thoughts are interrupted by the sound of an elevator dinging and heavy footsteps making their way towards the cubicles. You hiss in panic and mash at the monitor’s power button as you dive under the desk and pull the office chair closer to try and hide behind it. Your eyes catch some light flitting around here and there as the footsteps grow louder. Occasionally you hear them stop and pause for a moment before moving on. Security.

Adrenaline rushes through your body and you fight the urge to run when you see heavy combat boots underneath slacks stop right in front of your cubicle. You squeeze your eyes shut and wait for the light. If it was shined directly on you, there was no way you could stay hidden. Fortunately for you, that never happens as soon after the steps begin to move away from you. You let out a breath of relief as you finally hear them fade away and the elevator door open and then close. You shouldn’t have been surprised that there would be security roaming around but luckily it seems that despite the attention brought to you no one seems to be looking for you now.

>Stealth mission is a go! What next guys?
>Continue to search Hank’s computer. Maybe you can find something hidden if you get Kuroto to help you. (DC to find more stuff with Kuroto’s help is lowered but the chance of being caught rises as you have to actually speak on the phone with him. Or you can try to find it on your own with a slightly higher DC)
>Search for another logged in computer. Maybe someone else was lazy today?
>Try another floor. Maybe you can get lucky there. You’ll have to be wary about security though.(Choose a floor from 1-4)
>There is security in this building but that just means they have to have some kind of break room. Maybe you can snake your way there and steal a set of keys?
>Pack up and go home? Hanks emails did say there was nothing stored here but then again it could just be a corporate cover up
2d20 for all choices. First for success, and second to see how well you can sneak and keep and eye out.

Rolled 15, 4 = 19 (2d20)

>>4092489
>Continue to search Hank’s computer. Maybe you can find something hidden if you get Kuroto to help you
With Kuroto

Rolled 10, 1 = 11 (2d20)

>>4092489
>There is security in this building but that just means they have to have some kind of break room. Maybe you can snake your way there and steal a set of keys?
Stealth: 100

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>>4092499
>>4092508
Uhhhh....Do you guys want me to roll for the 3rd set? Or should we wait to see if Justice can save us with a third person coming to roll?

>>4092510
Wait like 6 more minutes?

>>4092523
I'll give it 15 more. Don't mind me though. I'm just looking through all these MGS alert themes.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4092508
1
>>4092499
2
Ok I'll roll to see which choice is picked. Then I'll roll the third set of rolls.

Alright. We're continuing to rummage around Hank's PC. Please be good rolls.

Rolled 1, 13 = 14 (2d20)

Ok, let's try that again.

You keep an eye out for more security and dial NCR’s phone. If anyone was there it was definitely Kuroto. Unfortunately, Kuroto isn’t really the subtlest individual.

“Who dares dial this number!?” He begins to shout and you promptly stuff your phone under your shirt and hoodie to try and muffle the sound. You look around as you can hear muffled “Hello?! Hello?!” You pause for a moment and pull the phone out to hiss under your breath.

“Kuroto shut up! What are you trying to get me caught here?”

Kuroto calms down and grunts. “Oh it’s you. What do you want? Did you find my things?”

“No!” You whisper and you frantically bring down the call volume. “I’m still sneaking around. I found someone who left their computer logged in overnight. One of his emails says he’s getting in trouble for asking around the office about your stuff or as he puts it ‘secret Gemn Corp technology’.”

Kuroto cackles. “Idiot! As if the Ministry of Health would tell him where they keep my things.”

“That’s not all though. Well maybe it is...the email says they handed your stuff to the Attorney General for your trial. Apparently you’re being accused of Bio Terroism.” You say. “The weird thing is...guy’s name is Hank Morris. I didn’t think the Ministry hired immigrants normally.”

Kuroto goes quiet. “No they wouldn’t under normal circumstances but this isn’t the regular Ministry of Health we’re talking about. Like Hiiro explained when we first met. The bugsters have control over the Ministry now. Meaning they wouldn’t just hand over my things to the rest of the government. Not with their plans to keep Chronicle going especially when they started giving random people the official Gashats and everyone's Drivers. They’d probably want to keep those parts around in case they need to make more. This Hank person must have slipped in through the cracks while the Bugsters were trying to keep things running normally.”

“Can you help me then? I wanna try looking around his computer some more but other than the stuff he’s logged in I don’t know where else to look.”

You can almost see the smirk on Kuroto’s face as he replies. “As always, the Game Master is here to assist his protege. Here, let me just route you through...the HQ’s computers...and there. Get on FaceTime or whatever your phone has. I wanna see the monitor.”

You turn on your phone’s camera function and it somehow connects, which surprises you considering NCR only has regular landline phone. You can see your small reflection on the phone but on Kuroto’s end is only pitch black.

“Alright...this seems like a basic work set up. I hope you can type quickly because we might need to do some coding.” Kuroto says. You snort and try to suppress a laugh.

“Please. My APM is like 400 and that’s without playing RTS games. Pretty sure I double it if I actually played competitively.” You say cockily.

“Confidence. That’s what I like in my protege.” Kuroto says. You roll your eyes and decide to not correct him on how arrogant you sounded. You’re pretty sure they meant the same thing to him.

You spend about an hour furiously typing on the keyboard. You’re not even sure half of what Kuroto is asking you to type but first you start out typing on Notepad which allows you to use Internet Explorer unabated, then he asks you to download another text program for you to type more on and the process continues. Several times you have to duck away when you hear the elevator ding and security makes a sweep on this floor. Once or twice you are nearly caught but you somehow manage to evade them.

Unfortunately on one of those two close calls you can hear one of the guards chime in on his radio and say, “Hey I got this feeling there’s someone in the building. I think I heard typing or something clicking. Gonna ask that we double up on patrols for the rest of the night.”

You can’t hear what the other person’s response is but you make sure Kuroto clearly hears you when you half whisper half shout. “They’re slowly coming on to us! Hurry!”

“I am!” Kuroto replies. “Just download the last program. That’ll let me remote into their system. If this was Gemn Corp’s computers you’d be here for a few nights. Then again I have admin privileges.”

You grunt and do as you’re told. Kuroto walks you through connecting the two computers and soon enough you see the mouse cursor move on it’s own. Kuroto clicks around, opens the command prompt and after a few more jumbles of text rushing by you hear him laugh. He opens Gmail and begins to type in what you think is Hank’s personal email.

“This idiot actually used his own email on these computers. They log everything. Alright let’s see what we can find here…”

The email account had various emails you’d expect, things like spam and accounts to social media. What catches your eye is an email addressed to an Ann. “Wait! Click on that email. There’s an Ann here as well.” You say excitedly. Clicking on the link you can read the following message. It seemed to be typed in a hurry or perhaps Hank simply is a terrible typist.

Ann! I think i’m close to sumthing. I heard the guards talking about some kind of storage they ned to inventory. Why do guards car about inventory? I bet the Head Director knows about this. If I can get on to his computer or somting I can probably find what it is. I bet its the gemn corp stuff. The boss is gonna be so stoked once we bring that back to him. We’d make retroware millions!

Retroware. One of the up and coming game developers and also self proclaimed rival to Gemn Corp.

“Retoware...I should have known they’d be behind this.” Kuroto growls.

“What do they have to do with anything? Think they’re in league with the bugsters?” You ask confused.

“No. They’re just after my things. Like always! Anything to try and topple me! Alright Reiko this is now priority number one! Go find my things. Retroware cannot be allowed to have them!”

You sigh and facepalm. It already was top priority for you. Leave it to corporate espionage to raise it’s importance in Kuroto’s eyes. But you have your leads. All you need to do now is choose how to go about them.

>Reiko now knows security and the Director know about the location of the spare parts. Question is, how do you go about finding out yourself?
>Try and sneak into the guard’s room. If they know about hidden stuff then they would have some note about it. That and the keys to it.
>Use the vents to sneak into the Director’s office. If he has the information, odds are he has the keys to it too. Plus you won’t have to deal with as many guards.
>Try and find the room yourself. If the area is a secret to employees then it must be somewhere only the Director and the guards have access to. That could narrow it down some but you’ll still have to wander a bit to try and find it.
>Write in.
2d20 like always gents and with that I need to head to sleep. See you guys. Stay safe.

Rolled 16, 11 = 27 (2d20)

>>4092633
>Try and sneak into the guard’s room. If they know about hidden stuff then they would have some note about it. That and the keys to it.
aaaaaaaaaaaa

Rolled 11, 6, 13, 18 = 48 (4d20)

>>4092642
Aaaaaaaa indeed. We're about to go into the most heavily guarded area of the building. I'll roll the last rolls. First two are a set second two are the other set.

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https://youtu.be/Rj5zyz5yxoQ

“Alright I’m going to try and snoop around the guard’s room. Maybe I can borrow some of their keys.” You whisper into your phone.

“Just keep an eye out for security cameras.” Kuroto replies. You freeze. You hadn’t thought of that before.

“Can’t you just turn them off or something?” You ask. Kuroto goes quiet for a moment.

“...Reiko I’m logged into a worker’s computer. If you want me to worm my way into the building’s security, assuming these two things are even linked on the same network, that’d take me all night.” He says exasperated.

“Right. Guess I’ve been watching too many movies.” You admit as you crouch down and begin to move out. “I’ll keep in touch if I need anything. Just get rid of any evidence that we were here.”

“What do think I’m stu-” Is all Kuroto gets out before you hang up. You slowly make your way towards the stairs while taking care to avoid any cameras. Admittedly this task is rather difficult as many cameras are set up to cover one another’s blind spots. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that they’re all in the black plastic domes preventing you from seeing which way they’re actually facing. Ultimately you end up just dashing underneath some cameras and hugging the walls, hoping that maybe security wasn’t paying attention to that camera at the time. The stairs themselves posed no problem as it didn’t seem like security checked them too often. By the time you reach the 4th floor you can hear the ding of the elevator arriving.

You quietly close the stairwell door behind you and decide that the fastest way to find the guard’s room would be to simply follow one which was more nerve wracking than you expected. Every movement the guard made you feel like he had caught on that he was being tailed. When he turned to look to the side, you thought he was looking behind him. Eventually the two of you fall into a neat little pattern. Maybe it was all the competitive fighting games your host used to play, or all the people you’ve been interacting with recently but you’ve come to read people pretty well. The guard you were following would always sweep towards the wall then to the opposite side before moving on, his flashlight would always just illuminate where he was looking from chest height leaving anything near the ground in shadow if there was a nearby object to cast it. In short, this guard seemed bored and was only doing a cursory glance at everything.

You spend about a half hour on each floor before the guard finally seems to return back to the security room. This was the critical moment. You get as close to the guard as possible and slowly follow him as he approaches the door. He pushes the door open and you slip on in.

File: security-officer-watching(...).jpg (920 KB, 3523x2642)

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The guard’s room was basically a small office room that had several monitors and computers lined against the wall rather than a regular desk and furnishings. From your crouched position you have a good view of the monitors and a cursory look shows you that various other guards are patrolling the other floors. The guard in front of you picks up his radio, “Everything seems all clear on the cameras. You sure there’s someone here?”

“I could’ve sworn I heard talking in one of my sweeps.” Came the reply.

“Yeah well maybe you just want some action. It’s been boring this past month.”

“True but I say we keep this up for about an hour more before we settle back to having two on patrol and two on cameras.”

The guard in front of you sighs. “Fine. I’ll keep an eye out on cameras for a bit longer before heading out. Send someone over to pick up for me in about 10 minutes.”

10 minutes. You didn’t have much time to search for what you were looking for and you couldn’t make too much noise or movement. This room was small enough as it is and the lights here would making hiding impossible if you brought attention to yourself. You crawl on your knees towards the desk on which the monitors sat and crawl around the corner. Painstakingly you pull open the drawers and peek inside. The first few contain basic office supplies but once you reach the top drawer you find a spare set of keys and a note that reads;

“Hey I got us a spare key set after Touma kept losing his. Wish they would’ve told me they’d let him go before I went to the trouble of explaining why I needed them to the higher ups. Speaking of which. Director told us to move the corp stuff to his office. Says someone’s been snooping too much and he wants to keep a personal eye on it.”

Corp stuff...did he mean the Gemn Corp parts? If someone was snooping for them it would match with what Hank was doing. Or it could be something else. Either way you take the keys and crawl your way back out of the office room.

Just before you leave you give the monitors one last glance to make sure no one was on their way here and your eyes catch it.

Nico Saiba and the Ministry Director walking into the building.

>You go the keys and you got an idea of where some corporate stuff is! But what is Nico doing here? She’s usually with Tiaga. What do you do?
>Continue on your way to the Director’s room. You want to look around before anyone else gets to it.
>Check the keyring for any unusual keys. They might be labeled so you can find out where they lead to.
>Sneak back down to the first floor and try to get Nico’s attention. Maybe she knows where Taiga is but why is she here with the director?
>Sneak down to the first floor but eavesdrop on Nico and the Director. Something doesn’t feel right considering the Ministry is working along with Gemn Corp.
>Write in

>>4093131
>Check the keyring for any unusual keys. They might be labeled so you can find out where they lead to.
Gotta be quick about it.

>>4093131
>Check the keyring for any unusual keys. They might be labeled so you can find out where they lead to.

>>4093155
Aww shit. I forgot to ask for 2d20. My bad

Rolled 9, 17 = 26 (2d20)

>>4093170

I fucked up on this one guys. I'll give it to you just so we don't wait for retroactive rolls.

Rolled 14, 1 = 15 (2d20)

>>4093170

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You pull yourself from the cameras and look down at the key ring in your hand. Whatever Nico was up to could wait for now. You didn’t have much time left so you begin to examine the keys for some clue as to where to go next. The key ring was heavy and for good reason, there were almost 2 dozen keys here each one split up by what you think is by floor. Each key had a small imprint of a pair of numbers on it. From 1-1 to 4-6. You can’t really tell what door each key opened but they were fairly uniform in shape and size...save for one. Jutting out awkwardly, one of the keys was far larger than the rest.

It was also a triangular shape with three sets of teeth that slowly spiraled outward kind of like a screw. This key was labeled B-1. You’ve never seen a key like this before but if the other keys were labeled by floor then the B must stand for the basement floor. Assuming this building had one. You look up at the monitors, Nico was exiting the elevator on the 4th floor with the Director. From his facial expression, it seemed like the Director seemed very on edge. Shaking your head you stuff the keys into your messenger bag and sneak out of the room. You quickly crouch run into a supply closet to give yourself some time to formulate a plan. You check your phone for the time. 12am, midnight. It was the dead of night so there was no chance that daylight would be coming soon. Relaxing a bit you suppress a yawn and plan your next move.

>Keys acquired! You have full access to the building. It’s all a matter of avoiding security to get to the door in question. Where do you want to go now?
>The Director’s office. Nico and the Director should be there now so there’s no way you can sneak in to snoop around but you could try and eavesdrop.
>Alternatively you can try and make a distraction to get them out of there so you can snoop around. This will raise some kind of alarm though.
>Try and find the door the B-1 Key fits. It shouldn’t be too hard right? A key hole for this thing should be pretty obvious. Assuming the door itself is not hidden.
>Human Resources was involved with Hank’s inquiries. Maybe their office would have more info on this mysterious key or possibly the “Corp Stuff” mentioned in the note.
>Write in
OK 2d20 this time.

Rolled 3, 1 = 4 (2d20)

>>4093235
>Human Resources was involved with Hank’s inquiries. Maybe their office would have more info on this mysterious key or possibly the “Corp Stuff” mentioned in the note.

>>4093271
Wow, that's bad.

Rolled 9, 16 = 25 (2d20)

>>4093235
>Try and find the door the B-1 Key fits. It shouldn’t be too hard right? A key hole for this thing should be pretty obvious. Assuming the door itself is not hidden.
No time now.

>>4093271
Oof that is bad.
>>4093272
OK a tie. I'm gonna take 30 to grab lunch. If there isn't a tie breaker or a change im choice by then I'll roll for the choice. See you guys in a bit.

>>4093299
I'll switch to
>Try and find the door the B-1 Key fits

>>4093335
OK thanks anon. Not the best rolls. So I'll pose a question. Would like me to roll the remaining dice or should I stick with whathe you guys roll from now on. It's supposed to be best of three but I don't really want it to become my just plating my own quest. I also don't want to stop the quest either. So I'll leave it up to your guys.

Rolled 6, 2 = 8 (2d20)

>>4093353
I think it's fine for either you or anons to roll/roll again if needed

Rolled 11, 10 = 21 (2d20)

Sounds fair to me. I'll wait for the other anon input but I'll get to writing right now.

>>4093369
What >>4093364 said.

You pull the keys out of your bag and examine the B-1 key a bit closer to memorize the shape it’s keyhole would have. Putting them away, you make sure you have them pressed down so they don’t jingle as you move around the empty building. Starting from the floor you’re in you slowly begin to walk around the edges of the room and examine the doors, one by one, to see if your mysterious key would fit any of them. None of them have the right shape to them and you don’t want to walk into every individual room to see if there was something in there that it would fit.

Deciding that this floor was a bust, you head to the stairs and down to the first floor to try that out. If your theory of it being a basement key is correct then you should find the door leading there on the ground floor. Your footsteps echo on the tile floor forcing you to walk more slowly and carefully. This floor had more doors than the previous one due to it being the one with the most foot traffic. Most of the doors lead to public areas like the bathrooms but none of them lead to your mysterious keyhole. You’re beginning to feel a bit frustrated at the moment. Everything was relatively smooth until you had to find this hidden door.

You sigh and crouch behind a desk to hide from an oncoming guard. His flashlight illuminates the desk you’re behind but it doesn’t go past that as the guard slowly walks away. You hold the key in front of you and study it some more in the moonlight hoping that it would reveal some secret. However you fail to find anything else of note on the object forcing you to consider your options once more.

>Reiko couldn’t find the door for this key. What’s her next move?
>Hit up the Director’s office. Maybe Nico has left by now. The director should have some kind of info on this key if he’s asking for things to be moved around.
>Go to HR. That room is guaranteed to be empty and she was involved in the Hank case. Her office might have notes on where the Gemn Corp supplies could be.
>Head back to the Guard room. They should a list or map or something of where the door for this key should be. Only one problem though. By now the guards should have gone back to their old patrol route. According to the guard you shadowed that would mean there’s two guards in the guard room now.
>Call Kuroto. He used to run Gemn Corp and it had close ties to the Ministry before he was murdered, maybe he’d know where this key could go?
>Write in.
2d20 as always.

Rolled 6, 9 = 15 (2d20)

>>4093405
>Go to HR. That room is guaranteed to be empty and she was involved in the Hank case. Her office might have notes on where the Gemn Corp supplies could be.
Come on, gimme a break!

Rolled 13, 16 = 29 (2d20)

>>4093405
>Go to HR. That room is guaranteed to be empty and she was involved in the Hank case. Her office might have notes on where the Gemn Corp supplies could be.
Has Reiko's luck run dry?

>>4093415
>>4093462
Apparently not. Nice rolls there! Reiko's really getting some stealth practice in. Anyone wanna roll to see we can get higher? I'll get to writing.

https://youtu.be/ncNSJGPl8X4

“HR…” You mutter to yourself. You don’t want to risk getting caught by trying to sneak into the Director’s office but Human Resources seemed to be just as involved with Kuroto’s case as the Director. You stretch a bit trying to ignore the ache in your back thats started to build up due to crouching all night long and head back to the stairs. Thanks to the fact that you had been shadowing a guard all night, you knew exactly where the HR’s office was so getting there was a simple task. The guard’s presence has also lessened considerably making moving around much easier. You’re not sure if they’re catching you on camera but considering no alarms have been raised and any guard you hide from seems to be relaxed, you guess that you’re in the clear.

It does take you a few moments to find the correct key that would fit the office door but after a few tries, you hear a soft ‘click’ and the door swings wide. You stand and groan quietly as your back screams in protest. “Remind me to never exercise ever again.” You mutter as you start to rummage around the office.

The office itself is fairly bland with only a plant and a somewhat empty bookshelf acting as decoration. There are two extra seats probably for mediation meetings and a cork board with a multitude of papers pinned to it. You look through the papers but only find things like old calendars, changes in policies, and motivational print outs. Certainly nothing that would point out a secret door. Moving to the desk you look through its various drawers until you find a stack of files and paperwork in one.

You crouch once again and turn on your phone’s flashlight to skim through the papers. At first you find nothing of note, simply reports and the like of various complaints and incidents from around the office. Nothing on Hank’s file though which confuses you. You’d think that corporate espionage would rate high on something you’d have to report. You’re about to give up when, as you’re putting the files back, your hand accidentally knocks away a fake back to the drawer.

“Interesting…” You whisper to yourself as you reach into the extra space and pull out a thinner folder out titled.

Project Cronus

It was completely empty save for a small scrap of paper that must’ve been missed. On it was was a set of instructions.

“Yui, as I was directed by our ‘employers’ here is a key to the processor room. To access it simply insert the key into the socket underneath the first floor button. Then turn it counter clockwise until you hear a click. The elevator should descend down. Make sure all of the guards have a spare key but do not tell them what it is for. Having several extras on hand is a precaution but not one I hope we have to use. If anyone asks tell them that it’s for the company's safe where we keep important documents.”

You grin from ear to ear. “Jackpot.” You whisper as you take a picture of the paper and folder. The name bugs you though. Project Cronus. Kamen Rider Cronus. This was all too coincidental. “Kuroto has some questions to answer.” You whisper. You don’t have too much time to think about it when you hear talking outside the office.

Throwing yourself to the ground you crawl to the door and listen.

“I-I understand ma’am.” You hear a man stammer.

“You had better.” You hear Nico say arrogantly. “Cronus does not tolerate failure. Don’t make me come back.”

“Yes Miss Saiba.” The man says in a defeated tone. You hear someone go back into the office as a door closes and a pair of footsteps walk away leaving you thoroughly confused. Nico was working for Cronus?! What happened to Taiga? Why didn’t he stop her?

You stop the flurry of questions and steady yourself before moving forward.

>Revelations! You know how to get to the basement level, Reiko has discovered in character that Nico is working for Cronus, and you’ve found a file with Cronus’s name. What do you want to do?
>Follow Nico and confront her. Why is she working with Cronus? She and Taiga were, if a bit begrudgingly, were always helping you guys fight against Gemn Corp. You two weren’t exactly friends but you don’t like the idea of her being evil.
>Let her go for now and head to the basement level. Project Cronus...that sounds much more pressing amidst all this.
>Call Kuroto. Maybe he knows about this project. If he can tell you what it is then you don’t have to risk wandering into an unknown area alone.
>Write in
2d20 like always gents though calling kuroto doesn't a roll to be honest.

Rolled 15, 11 = 26 (2d20)

>>4093565
>Let her go for now and head to the basement level. Project Cronus...that sounds much more pressing amidst all this.
Oof. The betrayals are piling up.

Rolled 12, 4 = 16 (2d20)

>>4093565
>Let her go for now and head to the basement level. Project Cronus...that sounds much more pressing amidst all this.
No time.

Rolled 20, 16 = 36 (2d20)

>>4093571
>>4093588
I think I did foreshadow Nico a few threads back. But yes we're roughly on the first half of the season's last arc. Also we're heading deeper into the compound. Just the last rolls to see if I gotta break out the alert theme

>>4093598
Uhh...Never say I don't love you guys.

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>>4093598
Reiko was a professional sneak all along

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https://youtu.be/XIrOsEsRixQ
You wait for the elevator to ding before you get out of the HR’s office and make your way to the stairs. You race down to the first floor to intercept Nico. If you can make it into the elevator before one of the guards can call it back up, you’d be home free. You go down the steps, two at a time, and by the time you the bottom step you swear you’ve broken some kind of record.

Peeking out of the stairwell’s door you see the light of the elevator slowly descend and the doors open, revealing Nico dressed in her usual attire. Much like your hoodie and messenger bag, her jacket and backpack are covered in various video game pins and patches as well as those of her sponsors. She strides out and you make your move, opening the door and half run/ sneak your way to the elevator. You pull the keys from your bag and pull on the first floor button. It pops off with a small ‘pop’ leaving behind a keyhole nestled within the circuitry that works the button.

You follow the note’s instructions and turn the key until you hear the ‘click’. The elevator doors slowly close in front of you, just as you see a limo slowly park in front of Nico before the doors block your sight.
The elevator jolts and begins to go down. The small jingle that plays through the speakers does nothing to quell the mixture of excitement and nervousness that fills you. More questions fill your head as you wait for the elevator to stop. What is Project Cronus? Was this why Kuroto didn’t want to talk to Emu about Cronus? What does this have to do with the missing parts you were looking for?

The ‘ding!’ of the elevator pulls you from your thoughts and the doors slide open revealing...A large server room.

Dozens of towers full of hard drives hum and whirr as you feel a mixture of heat and cold air being blown around. As you wander around you see a set of computers that are shut off. Booting them up you are brought to a log in screen. You frown wondering what to do. There was still an entire other half of the room to explore.

>Secret Lab found but unfortunately doesn’t seem anyone was dumb enough to leave themselves logged in. What do you do?
>Ignore the computers for now. Maybe you can find the parts here? Judging from the computers it’s possible the Ministry was studying them. But why? They should know everything Gemn Corp does.
>Try to guess the log in password? It’s a one and a million chance but you could get it.
>Call Otaco- I mean Kuroto. He helped you hack around a computer once. Pretty sure he’d have the log in for this considering it screams Kamen Rider Chronicle.
>You could leave. This seems way over your head. Better to come back with back up. Then again with chaos the city is going through, you might not have another chance for a while.

1d20 this time guys but I need to head to work now. Thanks for sticking by me and I’ll try to post tonight when I get home. Otherwise I’ll see you around the same time tomorrow.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>4093681
>Call Otaco- I mean Kuroto. He helped you hack around a computer once. Pretty sure he’d have the log in for this considering it screams Kamen Rider Chronicle.
*bring* *bring*

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>4093681
>Call Otaco- I mean Kuroto. He helped you hack around a computer once. Pretty sure he’d have the log in for this considering it screams Kamen Rider Chronicle

File: e053ff61ca2b59f5cda11eb5e(...).jpg (106 KB, 640x427)

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https://youtu.be/sphRvyNAVOU

You slowly wander toward the computer keeping an eye out for trouble. You’ve only seen these kinds of set ups in the movies. Pulling your phone out, you dial the one man who would have any idea of what all this does.

“What do you need now?” Kuroto replies. “It’s like 2 in the morning!”

“Everything.” You reply turning your camera on. “You’re going to want to see this.” You hold your phone out and slowly pan around the room.

“So you’re in a server room? Big surprise.” Kuroto replies.

“Try the secret computer room underneath the Ministry of Health’s building. Birthplace of what I assume is ‘Project Cronus’.” You reply. “I want to get into the computer. Maybe find some stuff out.” The other end of the call stays silent. “Kuroto?”

“...Say that name again.”

“Project Cronus? What do you know about it? You’ve got tons of things to answer to you know.” You say taking a seat and bringing the computer to life.

“Only that I deemed it a complete failure and that it should have never gone this far. As far as I was concerned, Project Cronus was to remain on paper.” Kuroto explains. “But explaining everything would take too long.”

“I have all night. Pretty sure no one knows I’m here.” You counter.

“I doubt it…” Kuroto starts. “Anyways, try this password out. Ωδ7XL9.”

“What the hell kind of password is that- Hey it worked! What’d you do?” You ask in confusion as a custom OS begins to boot up.

“Backdoor passcode.” Kuroto says smugly. “Idiots thought they could outsmart the Game Master using my own OS! As if I wouldn’t have another way to enter my own tools!”

“Why? Couldn’t they just use Windows or something?” You ask moving around the menus and trying to understand the sheer volume of data scrolling through the screen.

“Because why use trash when you have perfection to work with?” Kuroto replies. “Besides, my OS would be the only one who could interface...with the Gashats…” He grunts. “Reiko! Your phone is useless! I can’t read the scrolling text! Too much artifacting in the stream!”

“Hey! My phone works just fine!” You say looking down at the cracked screen. You could still see some of your blood nestled in the cracks from your near death. Shuddering you look back at the screen. “Well what are you going to do? I can’t make heads or tails of this.” You ask.

Kuroto thinks for a bit. “We’ll just download it. How much memory does your phone have?”

“I dunno like 150gb? Not nearly enough if all these servers are any indication.”

“BAH useless technology!” Kuroto shouts. “Alright. I need you to plug your phone into the computer then type in the following commands. Hopefully your data plan isn’t terrible either.”

“W-what are you going to do?” You ask hastily typing the commands and plugging in your phone.

“I’m going to upload everything to the computers here.”

File: 001cfac87bc0485fcec9d55ea(...).jpg (6 KB, 202x249)

6 KB JPG

“I thought you couldn’t do any of that without the computers being in the same network? I’m pretty sure all this stuff would be on it’s own private internet if it’s even connected to the internet at all.” You ask.

You can almost see the smug grin on Kuroto’s face as he speaks. “Maybe on those computers but this is my OS. And anything that belongs to GOD does as it’s told!” He laughs maniacally as you see the WiFi hotspot on your phone register a new connection. “There we go, stable internet connection. Not the fastest connection but it’ll do. It’ll take a while though. Anything else interesting down here?”

You sigh. “I’m going to have to do a lot of explaining to my phone provider...I haven’t checked. Just give me a minute and I’ll get back to you. Don’t hang up.”

>We’re getting all the data now! But it’ll take a while. What does Reiko do in the meantime?
>Try and make heads or tails of the information scrolling through the computer. Maybe you can catch something you can ask Kuroto about.
>Look around the room. Maybe you can go find the parts you’ve spent all night looking for.
>Head back to the main floors of the building and do some exploring. (Will result in further stealth checks. Indicate where you want to explore)
>Just sit and wait? No point in disturbing anything while Kuroto does his work
>Write in

1d20 for any choice that doesn’t involve going back topside.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>4094932
>Look around the room. Maybe you can go find the parts you’ve spent all night looking for.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>4094980
We're gonna search the room for any goodies. Writing.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

oops meant to do 2d20

Rolled 18, 15 = 33 (2d20)

>>4094980

>>4095000
>>4095015
It was supposed to be 2d20?

>>4095076
No it was 1d20. I meant to roll 2d20 to make up for the last two rolls.

You get out of the chair and slowly walk around the computer room. The light of the servers give an eerie blue glow to everything while simultaneously not providing enough light to be able to see things in great detail. After a few rows of server towers you come to an clearing, in the dim light of the the computer and server towers you can barely make out what seem to be a few tables.

Why aren’t there any lights?

You think grumpily as you feel around the wall for a light switch. It takes about a minute and several bangs to your shins before you feel one and flick it on. You can hear the audible pop and hum as the ceiling lights flare to life, blinding you momentarily. You rub your eyes for a moment and wander over to the tables.

They were plain work tables littered with various bits of circuitry and soldering tools. On one of the tables was a laptop connected to an adaptor you’ve seen Kuroto use to program your Gashat. Nothing here however seems like it could be used to build a Driver however. You scratch your head and shrug taking the most obvious thing first. The laptop and adaptor. Then you slowly start to pick through the circuit boards for the ones that looked functional or at least that could be used for Gashats. As you sift through the parts you find what looks to be a pair of finished Gashats, they’re unlabeled and don’t even look like they would fit in a normal Driver but you put them in your bag with the rest of the parts. You’re about to continue to scavenge some more when you hear a ‘ding!’ from the elevator.

You’re blood chills and you slowly turn to face the origin of the noise. Heavy footsteps can be heard stepping out but nothing is said. All you hear is the loud 'click' of a gun...

>1d20+2 to hide! Put all your sneaking training to good use!

Shit. My friend's car broke down and he needs a lift to work. I'll get back to this asap. In the meantime roll for your lives!

Rolled 20 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>4095087
oh fug

Rolled 6 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>4095087

File: solid-snake-mgs-big-boss-(...).gif (994 KB, 257x194)

994 KB GIF

>>4095100
Oh fug indeed. Here I am putting my pants on and I see a nat 20. Gonna spend my time driving thinking about how to narrate this. See you guys when I get back.

File: download (51).jpg (8 KB, 178x282)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rad3r9sjVSM

You’ve fought monsters, thrown yourself off of a second story window, and crashed into oncoming traffic but this felt different. Maybe it was because you didn’t have you were unarmored and had no equipment to reach for but the sound of a gun click sounded too real. It awakened an instinctual fear within you, everything screamed danger. Before you were fully aware of the fact, you pick up a screwdriver and hurl it right at the light switch as you throw yourself to the ground and roll underneath a table.

The screwdriver his it’s mark dead on and the switch clicks once more bathing everything in darkness. You hear a muffled, “Huh?” and footsteps as whoever walked out of the elevator begins to patrol around the room. You push away your fear and begin to crawl on your belly towards the person, hoping to get a look at them to gauge the situation. Using the server towers as cover you snake your way around them and towards the sound of footsteps.

Using them to judge the distance and direction of your target you slowly move behind him and try to catch up while crawling. “I know you’re in here! Come on out!” The person calls and you immediately recognize the voice. It was the Director! The director fires two shots into the air and you flinch but adrenaline and practice keep you from giving away your positions. You don’t know much about guns but that didn’t sound like a handgun to you.

You peer over to the side to get a good look at the director only to see a large Bugster! He was a metalic grey and even in the dim light you could notice he had two gun barrels protruding from his arms. “Revol…” You mutter recognizing the manifestation of the Bang! Bang! Shooting bugster virus. But he had the Director’s voice, that could only mean that he had fully manifested and the Director was dead.

To compound the matter as soon as the shots fire you can hear Kuroto shout over the phone. “Reiko? What’s going on over there? Keep them away from my things!” You suppress a groan and hear Revol shout,

“Kuroto! I heard you were back from the grave! Sneaking your way into the Ministry to try and get your things back? That’s low for the so-called Game Master of Chronicle!” before he fires off a few more rounds. “Come on out and fight!”

You roll to the side back out of sight and plan your next move. Whatever it was you’d have to be cautious. You had no armor to protect you now.

>Reiko vs Revol!
>Reiko's HP 5/5
>Monster boss fight! What do you do?
>Try and get to your phone first. If Revol discovers it he may well destroy it and Kuroto won’t be able to figure out what Project Cronus is.
>Make a distraction and try to lead Revol away from the computers. There’s tons of things in the table area you can use to make noise.
>It’s pretty dark...maybe you can pass off as Nico? She was bossing the Director around so that must mean she has higher authority. The two of you have roughly the same height and build. (As a note, Reiko is a horrible liar, as far as I’m aware I don’t think she’s ever lied in this game, and will take a big penalty of -4 to this roll.)
>Do what you do best and try to talk to Revol? If the director is indeed gone and this bugster has fully manifested, perhaps he’s become self aware enough to no longer need to follow his old programming just like you and the other bugsters at NCR. (This option has the highest DC but Reiko’s track record with making friends is fucking nuts so she gets a +6 to this roll and honestly is only an option here because of that.)
>Try and use one of the Gashats you found. You know Parado was able to use them without a Driver maybe you can too? Only one problem. You have no idea what game this thing contains, if any at all, and even Parado’s old Gashat had a regulator for the virus intake. Last time you tried to use a Gashat without an inhibitor it nearly killed both of you.
>Write in

1d20 for any choice.

Rolled 4 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4095262
>Do what you do best and try to talk to Revol? If the director is indeed gone and this bugster has fully manifested, perhaps he’s become self aware enough to no longer need to follow his old programming just like you and the other bugsters at NCR. (This option has the highest DC but Reiko’s track record with making friends is fucking nuts so she gets a +6 to this roll and honestly is only an option here because of that.)
It'd feel wrong to not give it a try

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>4095262
>Make a distraction and try to lead Revol away from the computers. There’s tons of things in the table area you can use to make noise.
What was that noise?

>>4095277
>>4095268
A tie. I can...I think can combine the two actually. I'll give it 10 more minutes for a 3rd vote. If you don't wanna combine the options then I'll just roll for the choice. Let me know what you think.

>>4095296
I don't mind.

>>4095325
Sorry about that. Today seems to be random event day. I'll get to writing. Gonna try and make friends during the heat of battle.

You couldn’t let Revol get to you phone. If the connection was cut, then you may never know what Project Cronus is. You get to your knees and crouch run back to the tables.

“Kuroto, I have a bullet with your name on it.” Revol shouts. “Just come out of hiding and make it quick.”

Kuroto’s laugh echoes throughout the room. “Good luck with that! But you should know the fate of all who defy the Game Master!”

“Damn it Kuroto. Don’t antagonize him…” You mutter as you sneak around one of the computer towers. You reach the tables and do the only thing you know that makes the most noise, flip the table over. The sounds of clattering and metal crashing rings out. Over the din you can hear the sounds of footsteps approaching but by the time they reach the area, you are long gone.

“Revol is it? Mind telling me what Project Cronus is?” You shout trying to make your voice echo and mask where you are shouting from as you crawl to the phone. “And you! Keep quiet! You trying to get your connection to the computer cut?” You hiss at Kuroto over the phone before you tuck it behind the monitor and hope no one catches it.

You hear gunshots come from the table area. “Who’s there?! You got another lackey to help you Kuroto?”

“Uhh technically he works for me!” You shout already on the move. “Well really it’s more of a joint partnership. Neo Cyber Rescue I like to call it and can you please stop shooting!?”

“Shooting is a way of life! I live for the heat of battle!” Revol shouts firing wildly. “I would never listen to someone who works for the enemy!”

You try not to curl up in a ball and freeze from surprise as you force yourself to keep moving, slowly making your way back towards the tables. “You sound like Graphite, you know that?! Who by the way is helping us too! And so is Parado! How are we the enemy again?”

“You humans always hunt us bugsters down! Well now we are fighting back! I heard that Parado and Graphite were recruited by you humans! So then it leaves me to fight the good fight!”

“Oh god you really are like Graphite…” You mutter. “Cept more gung ho about it I suppose.” You grab a bit of circuitry and hurl it to the other side of the room to draw Revol’s attention away. “Well...here’s the kicker. I’m not human. I’m a bugster like you and I’m the one who started NCR.” You shout.

“Lies! Why would one of our own ever want to help humanity?”

“It’s less about humanity and more about helping both sides.” You say. “Why’s it gotta be about helping one side?”

You hear Revol’s steps slow down a bit before he shouts. “Explain yourself! Why would you turn on us?”

>Well you got his attention. Not exactly the best conversation conditions but it could be worse. What do you do now?
>Reiko’s HP 5/5
>Explain that the bugsters are being used just as much as humans are. Lovelica and whoever this Cronus guy is, are using both sides to perpetuate Chronicle and by extension the War between humans and bugsters.
>Ask him if he’s happy with what he’s doing? Why does this conversation have to be about you? From the snippet you heard between him and Nico, it didn’t seem like he was in a very good position.
>Trade info. Ask him what he was talking about with Nico and you’ll tell him why you remade Cyber Rescue.
>Try and use one of the Gashats? It’d kind of undermine what you’re trying to do and you still have no clue if you even can or what it’ll do to your body but getting shot at doesn’t sound too fun either. Even if you’re doing a good job at hiding.
>Write in
1d20 as always. +6 for talky bits.
Unfortunately I didn't get to post as much as I wanted today. Sorry about that. I gotta head to work. We'll continue tomorrow. Thanks for playing guys.

Rolled 5 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4095449
>Explain that the bugsters are being used just as much as humans are. Lovelica and whoever this Cronus guy is, are using both sides to perpetuate Chronicle and by extension the War between humans and bugsters.

Rolled 19 + 6 (1d20 + 6)

>>4095449
>Trade info. Ask him what he was talking about with Nico and you’ll tell him why you remade Cyber Rescue.
Best option.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4095552
>>4095594
Damn Reiko's laying on the Yukihara charm! Let's see what choice we go for.

“Well I could ask the same thing to be honest. Why’s Nico Saiba working for Gemn Corp?” You say pressing up against a computer tower. “So how about a trade? You tell me what she was talking to you about and I’ll let you know why I decided to remake Cyber Rescue.”

You hear Revol’s footsteps come to a halt. An uneasy silence fills the room before you hear him speak up. “Deal.” He says and goes quiet. You wait for a bit before you realize,

“Hey! You’re supposed to go first. You agreed to my deal.” You say.
“No. Person who made the deal goes first to show that they’re gonna honor their side.”

“Ugh fine!” You grumble. “But settle in because it’s kind of a long story.” You say as you sit down and relax a bit. “Really it all started as a way to fight back against the bugster like it was originally. See starting out, I had my memories messed with in a whole other convoluted mess, so I had thought I was a human.”

“I knew- Wait what? You thought you were human?” Revol asks in confusion.

“Like I said it’s a long story.” You say. “Basically I thought bugsters had killed my friends, sounds reasonable right? My friends died, I wanted to find out what was going on. Then I learned about bugsters and how they were trying to wipe out humanity. Sounded reasonable enough at the time. But then Parado stepped into the mix and I found out I wasn’t human so it all kind of became a jumbled mess. That’s putting it simply to be honest but I decided to take a chance. If a bugster could make friends with humans, help them try and survive...why couldn’t both sides just come together? So I asked Parado to join us and see things from our side and we slowly started to piece things together.”

“So that’s it? You just asked them to join you? I don’t buy it.” Revol replies.

“I mean I asked you to talk and it worked right?” You point out. “Honestly, I just want humans and bugster to get along. We’re not really that different. Both sides just want to live in peace and there was a lot of preemptive attacks before any kind of communication could have been done. We’re both just scared of dying. Humans don’t like seeing their loved ones die to give birth to bugsters and bugster don’t like being hunted down before they have a chance to truly live. You should know, you killed your host. Wasn’t it scary slowly becoming sentient and learning you had more to yourself than just your old programming?”

Revol is quiet for a moment. “But you still hunt us down.” He points out.

“Unfortunately yeah, I don’t want humans to die. But I also don’t want bugsters to cease to be. Humans only have one life. Bugsters don’t truly die. So I protect human’s lives while keeping the hope that once this is all over. Maybe we can find a way to bring bugsters into this world without having to kill a human.” You explain.

“How do you know humans won’t just conveniently forget about that last part once this is over?” Revol asks.

You grin. “Because I sure as hell won’t let them forget. As everyone tends to learn, I’m pretty damn stubborn.” You laugh then go quiet. “...Besides. If I don’t have hope. Then what do I have? It’s what we’re all riding on right now isn’t it? Hoping that humans win, hoping bugsters win. Hoping that neither side figures out they’re being played. So if no one else has hope...Then I’ll just be that hope for everyone. It’s my namesake.”

“I-I see…” Revol replies. “So do you really mean it? You just want to help everyone?”

Despite the fact he can’t see you, you nod. “Yeah. I’m here in a secret computer room, stalked by an armed bugster and what am I doing? Trying to talk to you instead of trying to fight back. I’m pretty sure that’s as dedicated to a cause as one can be.” You point out.

“Well...I do have a gun…” Revol points out weakly.

You snort. “Well yeah that too. So why is Nico working with Cronus? From the sound of it, the conversation didn’t seem pleasant.” you ask.

“Y-you heard that?” Revol asks. “Where were you? I thought we were alone!”

“Just the end bit.” You admit. “Something about not tolerating failure. And I’m learning that I’m pretty damn sneaky. I’ve been in this building all night.”

“What really? I uhh…” Revol goes quiet for a long time before speaking up. “Cronus wants me to start pushing towards shutting your guy’s hospital down. He’s trying to limit your resources. Because I’m the minister I can fudge some numbers, alter some inspection records and slowly work my way to shutting it down but he wants it soon. I don’t think I can do that. People will notice…” He pauses as if weighing on something and simply stops.

The air in the room is quiet but not tense, simply one of contemplation as the conversation hangs in the air.

>What do you want to talk about now? Or do you even want to keep the conversation going?
>Ask him what’s bothering him. Seems he’s got something on his mind.
>Ask him if he’s happy with this whole war going on. Does he even want to be a part of it now that he has actual free will.
>Ask him if he’ll let you leave. You’re not actually an enemy just here for some parts so you can try and go help everyone.
>Ask him what this computer room is all about. Maybe he knows about Project Cronus.
>Write in.

>>4096651
>Ask him what’s bothering him. Seems he’s got something on his mind.

>>4096651
>>Ask him what’s bothering him. Seems he’s got something on his mind.

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If you guys get this, my phones IP has been banned for abuse. For some reason. It what I use to run this game so until I can get home in about 3 hours I can't reply. Lord knows I've been trying all day. Sorry about this guys. Please bear with me.

Forgot to add I'm on a McDonald's WiFi posting this on my break which is over actually. Back to the grind.

The two of you stay silent for a while longer before you decide to break the awkwardness and ask, “Hey...are you ok?”

“I- what?” Revol replies thoroughly surprised.

“You ok? You sound kind of distracted. Something bothering you?” You repeat. “I guess it’s not really my place to ask though. What with you trying to murder me and all.”

“I wasn’t trying to!...I mean...I just wanted to scare you guys away is all...Well maybe I wanted to hurt Kuroto a bit. He’s a bit of a dick.” Revol replies.

“Then what was up with the whole living only for battle banter?” You tease, grinning.
“I got caught up in the moment and it did sound cooler in my head.”

“Right...but seriously, you good?”

“I...umm...no one’s ever really asked me that. I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to say.” Revol admits. “All the conversations I’ve ever had with anyone were usually orders except…”

“Except?” You ask curiously. “Actually, let’s start with something easy. Start from the beginning. What’s on your mind?”

“I just...you were talking about helping humans and I kind of realized that a lot of them depend on me. As the director of the Ministry of Health, I have to oversee a lot of health plans and inspections. Not just for hospitals but for stores and restaurants too. I never did realize how fragile humans are. At first it was just following orders. I’m from a military shooter game so following the chain of command is err... was hardcoded into me. But then…” Revol goes quiet.

“But then something changed didn’t it?” You guess.

“...yes. At first it was easy. I just relied on my host’s memories. He knew all the laws and protocols. When I was appointed director, Gemn Corp pulled some strings to make up for the fact I look nothing like the old one and no one really questioned it. But soon, people began to recognize me. They said hello on my way in. Some of them stopped to talk to me. Little by little I learned more and more about my employees. I looked into the things they liked. Like sports. And at first it was mostly to keep up appearances and maintain my cover but slowly I started to find myself enjoying things. Like baseball! Or acting!” Revol grows excited at the mention of acting. “Did you know people get paid to pretend to be someone else? And they get to make films, tell stories and entertain people? It all looks like fun.”

“So then what’s the problem? It seems like you started to enjoy your job or at least you started to enjoy human things as you slowly started getting self aware.” You ask.

“I met ‘her’.” Revol says glumly.

“Bad coworker?”

“What? No! She’s great! We talk all the time on our breaks about movies.” Revol says. “She always has a new film she wants to talk about so every night when everyone goes home, I just stay here and watch it so we can talk about it the next day. We make each other laugh, we even like the same kind of films. It’s great that out of all the genres of film we would like the exact same kind! Can you believe it?”

“I can actually.” You laugh. “You know what it sounds like? Sounds like you're in love.”

“I’m not! I mean...am I? I’m friends with other people who work here but...I don’t feel the same about them.” Revol asks confused.
“Yeah that sounds like love. So who is this lucky lady? And how is any of this a problem?”

“Her name is Yui. Yui Kobayashi.”

“The Human Resources director?! Isn’t she in on the whole secret lab thing here?!” You ask in surprise.

“How much...how much do you know miss?” Revol asks.

“I...I kind of snooped around her office and one of your employees did leave their computer logged in. She sent them an email.”

Revol’s voice rises in anger. “You had no right to go looking in her office! She has nothing to do with this!”

“I didn’t know!” You shout back placatingly. “I was following a lead on that Hank guy and I accidentally found the hidden folder for Project Cronus! Besides, if your anger is anything to go by, it means she means a lot to you!” You continue. Revol doesn’t reply. So you tentatively ask, “Listen, if I knew it would put her in danger I wouldn’t have done it. But from what I gathered she’s pretty embroiled in this if she has a key to this floor. So… what’s the issue?”

Revol hesitates. “Gemn Corp brought her in. She’s the one who was working on these computers. Her position as HR is a cover. I...don’t think I was supposed to like her or even interact with her. My orders were just to make sure she did her job. She doesn’t even know I’m a bugster. She was scared though! I think they just pulled her from some development team within the company and put her on this job!...I felt bad for her. So I just talked and we never stopped talking. Then Lovelica and Cronus found out. They’ve been holding her against me. If I don’t do my job or get results I’m afraid they’ll hurt her.”

And there it was. Just another person trying to make the best of a bad situation. Someone who didn’t even get a say in the matter.

>What do you say?
>Ask him if he even wants to be a part of all this fighting. From the sound of it, he just wants to enjoy movies with the girl he likes.
>Ask him if he and the HR lady want to join NCR. Yui was working on project Cronus. She’s be a great help with the technical aspects but that would make her a target for Gemn Corp as well. Even more so now that she’d be actively working against them.
>Ask Revol if he would like your help in escaping. If he doesn’t want to fight or help you, the least you can do is try and get them out of Gemn Corp’s grasp. Your creed as a Kamen Rider was “Help anyone bugster or human right?”
>Ask if he knows anything about Project Cronus. Maybe he might have some inside information?
>Write in.

You’re about to say something when Revol interrupts. “Hey...can I see you? I promise I won’t try anything...no one’s ever really took the time to talk to me like that and I wanna know who I’m speaking with.”

>Well? Do you show yourself?
>Yes
>No

>>4097698
>Ask Revol if he would like your help in escaping. If he doesn’t want to fight or help you, the least you can do is try and get them out of Gemn Corp’s grasp. Your creed as a Kamen Rider was “Help anyone bugster or human right?”
>Yes

>>4097731
We're gonna see if he wants to escape. Because we're a nice person. Writing.

File: 753c931fdd0d43a962622e56b(...).jpg (32 KB, 462x600)

32 KB JPG

You slowly get up. “Alright. I’m coming out.” You announce and slowly walk towards Revol with your hands in the air. Revol turns to face you as he shifts back into a human form. That of a young adult male. He squints and wipes his glasses with a handkerchief from his breast pocket.

“Wait...I know you...You’re Parado’s little sister!” He says in surprise. “We all thought you died…” You give Revol a small smile.

“I kind of did? Like I said, it was complicated. But more importantly, do you want to leave?” You ask.

“What do you mean? I can’t- I have to stop you. It’s my job.” Revol says but you shake your head.

“No. I mean, do you want to leave the city? Escape. Go and live your life with Yui somewhere else. It doesn’t sound like you want to be a part of this war. To be honest, it doesn’t sound like you were ever asked what it is you want to do.” You explain. “So the question is. What do you want to do? Not what you are told to do, not what your duty says you should do. What do you want to do?”

Revol looks conflicted. He looks at you, then to the computers, then back to you. “I want...I want to be able to talk to Yui about movies. I want to try and be in movies.” He says tearing up. “I want to stop worrying every night and counting the hours before I can find out if I’ll ever see her again. I just want to feel safe and secure.”

You nod. “What you want is what every human wants. And that’s what I want everyone to have, bugster or human. The ability to live in peace. I can’t promise you it but I can damn well try to give it to you.”

“How? Why?” Revol asks emotionally.

“Because I’m a Kamen Rider and because I have a group of friends who want to help me reach my goal.” You say grinning. “And because it’s the right thing to do.”

“But what about Yui? She doesn’t even know what I am. I can’t just pull her from her life.”

“Then let’s do what I’m doing for you. Let’s let her decide. No lying, no scheming. We’ll tell her the truth and leave the choice to her.”

Revol thinks about it then slowly nods. “O-oh ok. Let’s do that.” You pat Revol on the back.
“I think you’re doing the right thing Revol. You don’t have to fight to help people.” You say.

“But what about this room? Cronus could just move someone else here to continue his work.”

>Revol is right. What do you do with this room?
>Ask Kuroto if he can do something. It is his OS.
>Ask Revol to simply shoot all the computers once Kuroto says he’s downloaded everything. If everything is a pile of junk, nothing can really be done.
>Leave it. As much as you want everything gone. Getting rid of it just leaves evidence of you being here.
>Write in.

>>4097768
>Ask Kuroto if he can do something. It is his OS.

>>4097880
Asking Kuroto. Writing.

You look around the room. Revol was right, if you simply left it untouched then there was no stopping Cronus or Gemn Corp from just picking back up where they left off. You wander back to the computer and pull your phone out from its hiding spot. “Hey Kuroto. We have an issue.”

“That’s where he was?! On the phone?”

You nod. “Yeah, he’s copying everything on these servers, on my dime no less.” You say a bit grumpily.

“It’s not my fault your technology is inferior.” Kuroto replies. “Now what’s the problem. You didn’t get shot did you? I don’t want to deal with Parado flipping out.”

“Thanks. Your concern for my well being is reassuring.” You reply sarcastically. “No. I talked to Revol. I’m going to try and find a way to help him escape and hide from Gemn Corp but first-

“You what?!” Kuroto screams and you meekly give Revol a reassuring smile.

“I’m going to try and help Revol escape or hide or something! He doesn’t want to be a part of all this and I see no reason to not help him.” You repeat. “More to the point, we can’t just leave this room. Otherwise, Cronus will just start it back up again. This is all your OS. Can’t you do something about it? Like wipe the harddrives?”

“Wipe the harddrive?” Kuroto laughs. “No no. You need something a bit more destructive. Just give me a few more minutes to finish downloading what’s left and I’ll show you what I can do.”

Revol give you a look and asks, “What’s he gonna do?” All you can do is shrug in response.

“Hey Kuroto...you’re not gonna burn the building down or anything are you?” You ask nervously.

“What? No. Nothing with that much fire.” Kuroto replies.

“That much fire?!” You shout as the sound of whirring slowly becomes louder. You and Revol slowly look behind you at the server towers. The blinking lights start to blink faster and turn red. “Kuroto...what are you doing?” You ask nervously as the whirring becomes high pitched. You wave behind you and motion Revol to the elevator.

Kuroto cackles in delight. “I can hear them sing from here! Might want to get out of there. Several hundred thousand disk shards won’t be good for anyone. Frankly I’m surprised they were still using hard disk drives.”

You’re about to ask him to explain when you hear a pop and a crack as one of the servers explode from within and sending a handful of disk fragments into another tower making that one repeat the process. “RUN!” You shout shoving Revol forward. The two of you dash through the room, server towers exploding and a few catching fire, all while Kuroto’s laughs ring from your phone.

The two of you throw yourselves into the elevator and mash the remnants of the first floor button with the heel of your foot. “It’s not closing!” You shout as the door slowly begins to shut. Revol holds tightly onto you and shouts,

“I knew I should have budgeted for better elevators!”

As the self destruction slowly makes its way towards your position the elevator mercifully dings and the doors close shut. Light elevator music plays and you feel yourself being pulled upwards. You and Revol breathe a sigh of relief before you glare at your phone. “What was that?!” You shout at Kuroto.

“I formatted the drives, overclocked them as high as I could to increase their temperatures and then did the same for spin speed. The result? The disks spun so fast they shattered and the ones that didn’t caught fire from the heat but I think you saw that first hand.” Kuroto explains gleefully. “I think I caught a glimpse from your phone’s camera.”

You let out a breath of frustration and sit up. “Remind me to never let you near any of my things. I’ll see you back at the hospital.” You grunt and hang up. Revol shakily stands up.

“Is it like this all the time?” He asks.

“Yeah...kind of. Usually I end up nearly dying and hospitalized but this is par for the course.” You reply standing and dusting yourself off.

“How do you do it?” Revol asks. “Like you’re not getting anything out of this. Most people don’t even know what you’re doing.”

The elevator dings and the door opens revealing the moonlight lobby of the first floor. In the elevator’s light you grin and reply, “Like I said. I’m really stubborn.” Revol looks at you in a mixture of awe and confusion before he lets out a combination of a sob and a laugh.

“T-thanks.” He says. You clap him on the shoulder and give him a thumbs up before the two of you begin your walk back to NCR.

>Mission Complete! You managed to get replacement parts, downloaded a ton of information on a secret project, and more importantly made a new friend.

>New question. Do you want to move on from this or backtrack a bit and handle the other issues mention with the rest of the cast? The other tasks were:

>Go and look for Taiga and Hiiro. The team needs to be brought together and you can’t lie but you’re also worried about Hiiro. Start by looking through their offices to see if they left any hints as to where they might be.
>Find a way to try and stop the distribution of the Gashats. You might not be able to stop it completely but you can try and disrupt it.
>Try and find Lovelica. He might be behind Kiriya’s change of heart. If you can turn Kiriya to your side, it’s be a great boon to your team plus...you have been making tons of new allies and friends. Why stop now?

>>4098328
>Find a way to try and stop the distribution of the Gashats. You might not be able to stop it completely but you can try and disrupt it.

>>4098328
>>Try and find Lovelica. He might be behind Kiriya’s change of heart. If you can turn Kiriya to your side, it’s be a great boon to your team plus...you have been making tons of new allies and friends. Why stop now?

>>4098514
>>4098518
A tie. I'll give it 10 more mintues. Then I'll roll for it.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4098518
>>4098514
Rolling to choose.

Stopping the Gashat distribution it is. I'll get to writing.

File: Poppychibio.png (115 KB, 350x440)

115 KB PNG

Several hours earlier. You are…

Poppy Pipopapo, or now referred to as your alias, Asuna Karino. You watch as the elevator with Reiko slowly closes and goes up. Turning to your friends you ask, “Do you think she’ll be ok? She’s really tense.” Parado frowns and sighs.

“I hope she is. I think she’s trying to do everything on her own.” He says. Graphite grunts.

“That’s up to her. If she wants to lead then she better have the skill to back it up. Going solo is a good way to prove that.” He says and goes quiet for a moment before quietly adding, “I have faith in her.”

Emu smiles weakly. “I believe in her. We just have to believe that she can handle herself.” His face grows serious. “Right now we have to take care of these other issues.”

“I’ll look into the Gashat distribution.” You say and everyone looks up.

“Poppy...are you sure? What about your nursing duties here?” Emu asks. You nod. “I can take a few days off. I asked to become a Rider so I can do more to help. Now that we’re being spread thin, I need to step up and do my part.” You say. “If things start looking a bit suspicious, I do have a double that can help me.” You smile and nod at your twin who in turn waves excitedly.

“That’s right!~” She announces. “I’m still a trained nurse! Always willing to help and lend a hand!”

Akihito speaks up. “Ok. I’ll note that you’re working on the Gashat issue but the question is. How do we even stop it? We can’t just go to every house and get the mail before it's picked up.”

“Well...we can try and stop it from the source right? The Gashats need to be made so if we can find where they’re produced we can stop them from being made?” You suggest. Parado shakes his head.

“We’ll have to look into that but Cronus said that they’re being mailed as he spoke. So that must mean he already has them made.” He points out.

You hum and tap your cheek as you think. Parado is right. Cronus wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t have something planned. The only issue would be how to track them down.

>How do you plan to go looking for the Gashats?
>Gemn Corp would have had to make the Gashats in the city and there were only so many here. You could go and stake a few out, maybe ask some of the factory workers if they knew anything.
>Kuroto owns the Company. Maybe he can log in and get some kind of shipping manifest? Would Cronus even go through channels like that though?
>Cronus probably wouldn’t want to entrust this kind of thing to average people. Perhaps he had them made all in a single place and would ship them from there? It could be worth a shot to see if any of the old abandoned factories had started up again. The Gashats might be stored in house.
>Write in.

Always forgetting. 1d20 rolls please.

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>4098674
>Cronus probably wouldn’t want to entrust this kind of thing to average people. Perhaps he had them made all in a single place and would ship them from there? It could be worth a shot to see if any of the old abandoned factories had started up again. The Gashats might be stored in house.
Let's go snooping.

Rolled 4, 15 = 19 (2d20)

>>4098683
Snooping around. Let me just roll the remaining dice.

“I don’t think Cronus would have the Gashats made by regular people.” You say thinking. “It would run the risk of a manufacturer running late or maybe holding onto some of the Gashats if they didn’t agree with him. Think about it. If he had hired someone to make them Gashats and then made that announcement? I’m pretty sure at least one or two factories would refuse to hand them over if it meant holding the city under his sway.”

Emu thinks about it. “That would make sense. It would be easier to keep track of the Gashats too.”

You turn to Kuroto who was busy typing away on a computer, pencil in mouth. “Kuroto…” You start. “Where does Gemn Corp have their Gashats made? Is there a factory we can check?”

Kuroto grunts and looks up from his computer. “No we had them made in house. The ones we use to transform were hand made by me. Chronicle was made in batches. That’s why we kept selling out. I purposely made them in limited quantities to keep an eye on the data they provided and adjusted accordingly. Cronus’s plan to flood the city in them is ludicrous. He’d never be able to keep track of them but then again he probably doesn’t want to.”

“Then if he doesn’t want other people making them and Gemn Corp doesn’t have a factory to make them. How does-” Parado asks before the thought hits you.

“The abandoned factories!” You exclaim. “Like the one we fought the fake Snipe in. They’re in the city outskirts so no one would notice if one of them started up again unless they specifically went to look.” You get up. “I’ll go around and check them out.”

“Hold up!” Parado shouts. “You’re not going alone. At least take someone with you.”

“What? But Reiko got to go alone.” You point out.

“Yeah but she’s also sneaking around a building they don’t expect us to check out. If you’re going to the center of Cronus’s operation then I bet he’ll have something guarding it.”

You frown. He was right. It would be better to have someone else tag along.

>Who do you want to bring along? If anyone?
>Graphite
>The other Poppy
>Kuroto
>Emu and Parado (as Parado can’t transform outside of Mighty Brothers)
>No one. Insist you can handle it yourself.

With that we've hit that time of day again where I have to go to work. Thanks for sticking around guys. Stay safe and i'll read your votes tomorrow.

>>4098751
>Emu and Parado (as Parado can’t transform outside of Mighty Brothers)
>Kuroto

Emu and Parado for muscle, Kuroto in case we need to fuck about with the gashat tech.

>>4099296
Wow bringing a posse. Writing

“Ok. I’ll go with you and Emu. Oh and Kuroto should come along too if we’re dealing with his technology.” You say pretending to think absentmindedly. “Is that enough people?” You ask.

Graphite lets out a laugh. “I didn’t mean that you should bring half the hospital.” Parado mutters as his face grows red.

“Hey I’m busy here!” Kuroto shouts. “Why do I have to go?”

“What are you doing?” Emu asks.

“Thinking up new game ideas obviously!” Kuroto replies proudly.

“Your game ideas started this entire mess!” You scold Kuroto. You walk up to him and wave a finger at him. “Now you get up and come help us clean it up mister!” Kuroto looks at you strangely as if surprised you were scolding him or as if he was remembering something from long ago. He shakes his head and growls.

“Fine! If only to stop you people from interrupting my glorious work!” He shouts and stands up grabbing his Driver and Dangerous Zombie. “Well? Come on then! I don’t have all day!” He shouts, perhaps a bit louder than he intended. Emu and Parado look at each other and sigh as they get to their feet and follow.
----

“That’s 3 factories we’ve searched.” Kuroto grumbles as your group slowly makes its way up a hill at the farthest reaches of the city. “And still no sign of any use.”

“Well there’s only a few more left. If we hurry we can search for another one before we need to head back for the day.” You say looking around. “How much farther do we need to go?” You ask looking behind you.

Emu and Parado were huddled together consulting a map. “According to this map. The place should be on top of this hill.” Emu says. As if on queue the rumblings of a vehicle can be heard. Your group scurries off the road in time to avoid a large trailer truck barrel down the hill towards the city.

“Hey!” Kuroto screams. “Watch where you’re going!”

“Calm down Kuroto. They can’t hear you.” Parado says putting the map away.

“Why was a truck here?” You ask.

“Delivering obviously. That and driving like a jackass.” Kuroto grumbles.

“From where? No one lives here.” You point out. Everyone just looks at you.

“So then we must be close…” Emu says slowly. “But if that was a truck from the factory, then they must have started shipping things out!”

The four of you sprint to the top of the hill. As you reach the crest, another truck drives on by. All of hide behind a nearby building and study the factory before you. The factory is in full swing, with workers moving about and gathering boxes, operating forklifts and entering the factory building itself. But something seems off, the workers' movements seemed too...precise, robotic. They always seemed to walk to just the right place and bend over at exactly the right angle to lift something. Furthermore they all bore the same bored expression. No one stopped to chat with a coworker or even seems to acknowledge one another’s existence. Despite the noise of machinery the factory seemed eerily quiet. Completely devoid of any human interaction.

“What’s wrong with them?” You ask quietly. “It doesn’t look like Game Syndrome…”

“It feels wrong.” Parado says quietly. “Humans don’t- shouldn’t act like this.”

“Nevermind them!” Kuroto hisses. “Look! Gashats!” He points to a stack of pallets. Barely visible within the packaging was the familiar box of Kamen Rider Chronicle just like you see on store shelves. They were being loaded on to another truck.

“What do we do?” You ask.

“I want to check out the workers.” Emu says. “Something doesn’t feel right and they might need our help.”

“No. We came here to stop Cronus from trying to ruin my game. We should head inside and find a way to stop the factory from making more.” Kuroto argues.

Parado looks at you. “This is your mission. What do you want us to do?” He asks.

>What do you want to do?
>Approach the workers. Something is obviously wrong with them that or they’re the best crew you’ve ever seen.
>Try to sneak into the factory and find a way to stop production. That is why you’re here.
>Try and find the foreman of the factory and explain to him that these games are dangerous. They need to stop shipping them at once.
>Write in.

>>4099570
>>Approach the workers. Something is obviously wrong with them that or they’re the best crew you’ve ever seen.

>>4099570
>Approach the workers. Something is obviously wrong with them that or they’re the best crew you’ve ever seen.
This can't go wrong.

>>4099570
>Approach the workers. Something is obviously wrong with them that or they’re the best crew you’ve ever seen.

>>4099797
>>4099818
>>4099826
It's been voted. We're gonna go check out the workers! We are doctors after all.

“I’m a nurse. There really isn’t a choice at the moment. Let’s go check out the workers.” You say walking out and towards the people. The people make no movement or give any indication that they notice your presence. “Hello? Is everything ok?” You ask gently as you approach a man loading boxes.

“...”

“Hello?” You ask again. Parado waves his hand in front of the man’s face. No response. All he does is continue to move boxes. “Emu can you check them? This might be a new stain of Game Syndrome.”

“Can’t be.” Kuroto replies. “I’d have known about this.”

“Did you know about the mass Gashat distribution?” Parado asks sarcastically. Kuroto simply glares at him

“Guys…” Emu says. “These guys are riddled with the virus...and they have no pulse…” He says as the blood drains from his face.

“What?!” You shout as you put your hand on the man’s artery before he walks away. Just as Emu explained, you don’t feel a heartbeat. “Impossible.” You say before you press your fingers on Kuroto’s neck.

“Don’t touch the Game Master!” He screeches and tries to slap your hand away instinctively.

“Kuroto has a pulse...so they’re not resurrected like him.” You say. Parado looks at you confused.

“What makes you think they were resurrected?” He asks.

“Well Kiriya died. We saw him die but he’s back. So I figured maybe Cronus was somehow bringing people back to life to work for him. People who lost the game. Otherwise, wouldn’t people notice that factory workers are missing or traveling to work at what’s supposed to be an abandoned facility?” You explain

“Cronus also doesn’t sound like the person who would want to rely on regular people if he has a factory building Gashats for him rather than use regular manufacturers.” Kuroto points out.

“Well if there are regular people or something under Cronus’s control there must be someone in charge or something telling them what to do.” Emu says looking around him. “There’s a truck coming for pick up. Let’s see if the Driver knows or if he’s also acting strange.”

Your group waits for the truck to pull by, unnerved by the silent workers. As it pulls closer, more and more of the factory “employees” walk out. They and the forklift operator arrive precisely when the truck comes to a halt and without pausing begin to move the pallets onto the truck and prep them for travel.

You hurry to the driver’s door and knock on it politely. You receive no response. Confused you knock harder and get the same results. Finally you climb on the steps to peek through the window. A woman sits holding the steering wheel and looks straight ahead, immobile. You hop down and walk back to your group shaking your head.

“She’s just like the rest of the factory. Isn’t responding.” You say.

“Well we have to do something.” Parado says. “The longer we wait here the more shipments get sent out.”

“He’s right Poppy.” Emu agrees. “Maybe we can try to do surgery like we do with a regular bugster? If they’re infected then the virus would manifest right?”

“Or we can still try to look for a leader.” Parado suggests. “If we take him down, odds are the workers will stop without having instructions.”

“It might be easier we just shut this factory down.” Kuroto points out. “If the workers have nothing to work with. That could slow down Cronus long enough for us to do something about these people.”

>What do you want to do?
>Try and perform a surgery with your Drivers like you normally do. The workers are riddled with the virus so it might work.
>Try and look for a bugster or person in charge. If you can stop the chain of command that could stop this whole operation.
>Ignore the workers for now and try to sabotage the factory somehow. What good are workers when they have no way to do their job?
>Write in

>>4099963
>Try and look for a bugster or person in charge. If you can stop the chain of command that could stop this whole operation.
Nip this at the bud.

>>4099966
Looking for the person in charge. Writing.

You nod, “Parado is right. If we take down the leader then everyone might snap out of it. I don’t want to try anything with these people just yet.”

“Then we better get a move on.” Kuroto says as the truck slowly pulls away and the workers move back to their positions. The four of you make your way into the factory for a closer look. Despite the run down exterior, the interior is pristine. Various machines are set up next to conveyor belts as Gashats are slowly moved from area to area in various states of completion. More of the workers are inside, boxing up the finished product and setting them aside for another worker to come pick them up and move them out to be put into a pallet. Other workers standby and operate the more intricate machines but all are still in that unaware state and moving with unnerving perfection.

“It feels so soulless here.” Parado says shuddering. “I know I helped declare war on humanity once but even back then I wouldn’t want this on humans. Never this.” Emu pats Parado on the back and looks around.

“I don’t see a foreman’s office or anything from here.” He says. You wander around, trying to stay out of the way of the worker’s way out of habit. You find a nearby door that no one seemed to be using and open it. Inside was a dilapidated lunch room. The tables were broken with its legs snapped in the middle and thrown to the side. Metal chairs lay strewn about, rusted and in disrepair. It’s obvious from a quick glance that this room hasn’t been used in years.

“Guys. Check this out.” You say pointing to the lunch room. “What’s going on? Do these people not eat? Is Cronus just working them to death?”

“Efficiency.” Kuroto says. “Only fix the places he needs, in the most optimal configuration, and work it nonstop.”

“If that’s true, then I’m willing to bet that even if we do find a foreman’s office it’ll be just as broken down.” You say. “Let’s keep looking.”

As you explore the grounds, you notice that the only areas cleared were ones that people or vehicles went through and even then only the specific paths that were traversed were cleared leaving small walls of garbage and refuse lining them.

At the end of your lap around the grounds is when you finally notice him. A red and white bugster wielding a large staff and with a large cloak.

“Aranbura…” Parado says. “He must’ve been brought back by Cronus.”

“Well let’s get this over with.” Kuroto says drawing his Gashat.

“Wait! Maybe I can talk to him.” Parado says. “He might listen to me. We did fight alongside one another.”

“You sound just like your sister right now.” Kuroto grumbles. “We have the element of surprise right now. I say we use it.”

“Looks like you're deciding again.” Emu whispers.

>Do you attack Aranbura or do you let Parado try and talk to him?
>Attack
>Talk
Also 1d20 for either choice.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>4100057
This is tough.

>Talk
Seems like something Poppy would do

>>4100255
Since this one requires a roll. I'll leave votes open til tomorrow. Stay safe guys.

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>4100057
>Talk

>>4100313
>>4100255
We'll go talk to the scary virus monster. Writing.

“Parado go see if you can talk to him. Maybe he can give us some information.” You say. Parado nods and slowly makes his way towards Aranbura.

“Aranbura?” He calls out but the Bugster doesn’t reply. “Hey, it’s me. Parado. When did you come back?” He asks. When they’re is no reply Parado turns to you and shrugs. “Not responding either.” He says as Aranbura slowly turns around raising his scepter. Like all the other workers, the movement is too smooth and precise. Parado notices your change in expression and looks behind him just in time to see the scepter ignite in flames. The bugster seems to mutter something to your friend before bringing the scepter down towards his head.

Parado throws himself forwards towards you as the weapon crashes into the ground exploding violently and sending debris everywhere, disturbing the trash around the paths. Your friend rolls back to you and gets to his knees. “Emu.” He says grimly. “Mighty Brothers.” Emu notices the serious expression on Parado’s face and draws his Driver and clicks down on the Gashat’s button.

Mighty Brothers! Double X!

As if the Gashat’s announcement triggered something, workers from all around the factory walk towards you, surrounding you. They seem to glitch out in reality as various parts of their body blur and twitch while they slowly transform into the bugster minions that you’re so used to fighting.

“Looks like we won’t be stuck watching.” Kuroto says drawing out his equipment and you follow suit.

Dangerous Zombie… DoReMiFa BEAT!

You glance around the area noting where all the minions are approaching from before turning to Parado. “What did he say?” You ask quietly. Parado stays quiet as he slowly clenches his fists and grits his teeth. A single tear falls from his eye as he replies before replies grimly.

“Help me…”

>This is a good place to stop this thread I think but I'll leave it to you guys. Should I make a new thread or continue on this one til the fight is over. It's only a week old and I don't want to spam the board with a new thread every week.

>If we're continuing. Roll me 1d20 to see how the fight starts out!

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>4101242
I'd say continue

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>4101242
Guess we gotta put Old Yeller down...

>>4101379
>>4101396
Nice rolls. I'll get to writting.

File: KREA-Aranbura_Bugster.png (652 KB, 314x531)

652 KB PNG

“Parado go see if you can talk to him. Maybe he can give us some information.” You say. Parado nods and slowly makes his way towards Aranbura.

“Aranbura?” He calls out but the Bugster doesn’t reply. “Hey, it’s me. Parado. When did you come back?” He asks. When they’re is no reply Parado turns to you and shrugs. “Not responding either.” He says as Aranbura slowly turns around raising his scepter. Like all the other workers, the movement is too smooth and precise. Parado notices your change in expression and looks behind him just in time to see the scepter ignite in flames. The bugster seems to mutter something to your friend before bringing the scepter down towards his head.

Parado throws himself forwards towards you as the weapon crashes into the ground exploding violently and sending debris everywhere, disturbing the trash around the paths. Your friend rolls back to you and gets to his knees. “Emu.” He says grimly. “Mighty Brothers.” Emu notices the serious expression on Parado’s face and draws his Driver and clicks down on the Gashat’s button.

Mighty Brothers! Double X!

As if the Gashat’s announcement triggered something, workers from all around the factory walk towards you, surrounding you. They seem to glitch out in reality as various parts of their body blur and twitch while they slowly transform into the bugster minions that you’re so used to fighting.

“Looks like we won’t be stuck watching.” Kuroto says drawing out his equipment and you follow suit.

Dangerous Zombie… DoReMiFa BEAT!

You glance around the area noting where all the minions are approaching from before turning to Parado. “What did he say?” You ask quietly. Parado stays quiet as he slowly clenches his fists and grits his teeth. A single tear falls from his eye as he replies before replies grimly.

“Help me…”


”Heshin!”

Gashatto!

Level/Buggle Up!


The four of you spring into action, you pirouette and swing your foot at one of the minions sending it flying at the others and knocking them all down. Kuroto draws it sickles, runs into the biggest group, and proceeds to slash away the enemies while getting clipped and hit by the surrounding foes. Your enemies move even more robotically as is trying to calculate what to do. They pause for a moment then move into action, each attack being followed up by another from a separate minion.

Emu and Parado move in to take care of Aranbura. “Emu.” Parado says quietly as he draws his sword. “Let’s finish this quickly.” Emu nods as he moves into position. Aranbura summons ice spears around him and flings them towards the duo. Parado moves in front of his teammate to parry the spears while Emu dips and dodges a few before slipping through. He goes into a roll and sweeps the enemy bugster’s legs. Aranbura is knocked off his feet and Parado leaps in for the kill as he tries to drive his blade down on the fallen foe.

However his blade is parried at the last moment, Aranbura’s staff snaps into place and slaps the attack aside in a blink of an eye. He sits up in one fluid motion and rather than attempt to stand up he waves his staff to conjure a fireball and launch it at Emu. Emu pops off the ground and jumps out of the way as his partner tosses the blade to him.

Catching the blade in mid air, Emu unleashes a flurry of attacks but the bugster refuses to stand up and instead stays sitting as it parries some attacks but is struck by most of them. Emu hops back to avoid some of the minions that have wandered over to fight as well.

“Why isn't he getting up?” Emu asks countering an attack as he presses his back to Parado.

“Judging from what Kuroto says, it’s probably not optimal. Aranbura is a wizard boss from Taddle Fantasy. He’s not known for his melee capability.”

“Right.” Emu replies as the two of them are slowly surrounded. “Poppy! A little help here?!” He shouts.

You flip a minion over your shoulder and look behind you as you see Emu and Parado fighting a gang of minions, as well as Aranbura charging some kind of spell from his sitting spot.

>What do you do?
>Jump into the group and help them fend off the minions. The more people that are free to fight the faster you can take care of aranbura.
>Jump to interupt the spell. You don’t know what the bugster is casting but it can’t be good.
>Write in.

1d20+2 for these rolls.

Rolled 6 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>4101526
>Jump to interupt the spell. You don’t know what the bugster is casting but it can’t be good.

Rolled 1, 12 = 13 (2d20)

>>4101551
Trying to interrupt the spell. I'll roll the other two dice. Gonna go get lunch and then I'll do the write up.

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You see Aranbura casting a spell and your body immediately jumps into action! You leap into the air and stick your leg out for a Rider Kick! Your foot connects with the staff but you were slightly too late. The spell goes off as intended but thanks to your kick it’s redirected to the ground right below you. A giant explosion of arctic energy envelops you before the force of the explosion rockets you away from the boss.

“Poppy!” Emu screams as he and Parado struggle to get free from the group of minions They slice and kick, slowly whittling down the group but taking hits along the way and not clearing them fast enough to get to you.
Kuroto fights his way to the boss and engages as he swings his sickles madly actually forcing Aranbura to stand up. The two clash as staff meets sickle, sending sparks fly due in part to Aranbura charging up some kind of electrical attack.

You struggle to get up and find it hard to move your body. A light layer of frost coats your armor and somehow seems to weigh you down considerably. Every step feels slower and more difficult to take.

Aranbura slams his staff on the ground and the sky grows dark. Storm clouds form over your group and begin to rain lightning down upon you. You do your best to dodge the bolts but in your burdened condition you’re simply too slow and electricity courses through your body causing you to spasm and fall to the ground. The others don’t fare much better as they are hit as well.

“We need to get rid of that staff.” Parado coughs as he gets up and strikes a minion in the gut.

You remove your BugVisor from your belt and attach it to your wrist, revving up the chain blade on it.

>Team HP: 20/25
>What do you do?
>Try and disarm Aranbura. That staff is scattering your team around and is capable of hitting all of you from a distance.
>Try and close the distance between you and the boss. If you and Kuroto team up against him, he’ll be too busy to cast any big spells.
>Go and help Parado and Emu. If you can free them from the minion group, all four of you can focus your efforts against Aranbura.
>Write in.

1d20+2 for the choices.

Rolled 12 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

Not a fan of kamen rider, like the concept but just can't get into it, but I'm going to be following this

>>4101805
>Try and disarm Aranbura. That staff is scattering your team around and is capable of hitting all of you from a distance.

>>4104196
Yeah Kamen Rider has some good plot set ups and ideas but it's unfortunately hampered by the fact it's a kids show and has slowly become a vehicle for toy sales.

I'm trying to expand a bit more on this season and kind of build on it. I actually need to head to sleep but I'll post later in the morning. If not I'll remember your roll and have a new thread up within the week. This game doesn't tend to get many voters and once the thread reaches the bump limit it kinda dies out after it falls off of the front page. Hope you enjoy the game as it goes though!

Rolled 7 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>4101805
>Try and disarm Aranbura. That staff is scattering your team around and is capable of hitting all of you from a distance.

>>4104196
>>4104273
Disarming the monster. Writing

You dash towards Aranbura, slashing at the minion enemies that ran up to you and pushing them back. Aranbura attempts to charge up another spell but is interrupted as Kuroto swings his sickles at him. Alternating between high and low attacks, he keeps the bugster off balance giving you enough time to arrive and help him. You join the fight as you time your attacks with Kuroto’s and net some hits on the boss.

Aranbura’s defense is tight as his staff seems to snap unerringly to defend against your attacks. He uses both ends to block yours and Kuroto’s attacks at the same time. However you have strength in the number of attacks you can throw out, and eventually your strikes begin to slip through. Your chain blade cuts into the bugster but it seems incapable of feeling pain. Unlike other foes you fought, the boss doesn’t stagger back or flinch but the damage is evident.

Aranbura begins to charge another spell, this time flames begin to envelop his staff, but Kuroto and you are prepared. Kuroto side steps behind the wizard and swings his sickles underneath the staff, pulling back and pinning it to his chest horizontally. “Now Poppy!” He shouts. You rev up your chain blade to the max and jump! Putting all your weight and momentum behind your attack, you swing downward. Your weapon cuts down from Aranbura’s shoulder to his hip. It gets caught on the staff but you grunt and press down as hard as you can. With a crack, your weapon slices cleanly through and the blade follows through with the rest of its trajectory!

The two pieces of the staff fall to the ground but Aranbura doesn’t scream or roar in rage. Instead he shoves Kuroto back and begins to wave his hands as magic begins to gather around him.

Emu and Parado continue to cut down wave after wave of minions. “They keep on coming!” Emu shouts.

“We’re dealing with a whole factory of enemies, just keep fighting!” Parado replies as he ducks under Emu’s sword swing and shoulder tackles another minion. A ring of magic forms around their group and the nearby temperature begins to drop albeit slowly.

>What do you do?
>Attempt to interrupt the spell again but without a staff or the opponent flinching from your attacks it’ll be more difficult.
>Help Emu and Parado fight and get them out of the AoE. The spell seems to need some time to cast now that he no longer has a magic focus.
>Try and burn down Aranbura with sheer damage. He seems to be wide open so if you can finish him off before he gets his spell off then you won’t need to worry about interrupting him.
>Write in.
1d20+2 for these choices.

Rolled 16 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>4104461
>Help Emu and Parado fight and get them out of the AoE. The spell seems to need some time to cast now that he no longer has a magic focus.

>>4104477
Helping the others fight. Writing.

“Kuroto! Forget about Aranbura for now! We have to help Emu and Parado!” You shout, swapping your chain blade to it’s blaster configuration for a moment and firing into the backs of the rampant minions as you make your way towards the group fight. You punch and kick your way through. Roundhousing one into several others, slamming your knee and flipping them over your shoulder, swapping back to your chain blade and hacking away. Kuroto for his part stays back and locks his sickles together in their bow formation. He opens fire into the group and begins to pick off any stragglers or new comers as they all mindlessly walk towards your group, without thought, without tactics, serving only as fodder to overwhelm you.

“Poppy, what are you doing?” Parado asks as he swings at one enemy and uses the momentum to spin around and strike another with his sword. “You’re going to get stuck here too! We have to…” He hesitates for a moment. “We need to finish off Aranbura.”

“He’s casting some kind of spell! And you’re stuck in the blast zone! I gotta get you out of here.” You shout as you clear the wall of enemies and reach your friends. You fire wildly at your enemies, their sheer amount of numbers making it impossible to miss.

“We’ve been trying too!” Emu shouts. “But they just keep coming!”

“They’re mindless…just swarming us and trying to beat us with sheer numbers no matter the cost. They have no personality, no customization, every bugster has some shred of pride for their troopers!” Parado growls. “Just what the hell is going on!?”

“We can think about that later.” You reply deflecting swing at you. As you counter attack you start to notice a thin layer of frost forming on your weapon. “We’re running out of time! I have a plan but we need to coordinate on this. We can clear the swarm if we synchronize our finishers.”

“At point blank? The blasts would hit one another!” Parado shouts.

“That’s why I said coordinate! If we can push the tide back just enough and space the attacks at the exact positions we might be able to pull this off.” You say as you remove your Gashat from your Driver and slotting it into your weapon. The two others look at each other and nod before following suit.

>Kimewaza!

>Mighty Brothers Critical Finish! DoReMiFa Critical Finish!

All three of you fight back against the tide as your weapons charge. Simultaneously you all shove the group back and fire off your finishing strikes from your chain blade and from Parado and Emu’s swords. A ring of explosions blossoms around you, scattering the minions everywhere and they slowly fade away. “Run!” You shout and the three of you dash forward and out of the magical ring.

The moment you step outside of its boundaries Aranbura casts his spell. A large blizzard appears within it and a glacier of ice begins to form. It rises and grows in size until it is as big as a house. The spell fades and the block of ice stands there glinting in the sun. Had you stayed any longer it would’ve been your prison.

Your group turns to face Aranbura who simply stands there, waiting.

“Let’s finish this.” Kuroto says.

“Wait!” Parado shouts. “We should...I want to help him.” He says quietly.

“Parado…” You say quietly. “I know he was a friend but…”

“Exactly! Reiko would try and help him!” Parado shouts. “Emu! You have Maximum Mighty X! Can’t you reprogram him back to normal?”

Emu hesitates. “I can but…”

“But what?” Parado asks looking at everyone. “Why are we hesitating?”

“Because if we help him, his host will die Parado.” You say quietly. “You know this is how we bugsters survive. Even if we bring him back to normal, he still needs to consume his host to become complete.”

“I don’t think even I have the power to stop that Parado.” Emu says.

Parado clenches his fists. “So we just finish him off like this?!” He shouts. “He didn’t even have the option to fight like he normally does! He’s just some mindless...thing…” He says dropping to his knees and punching the ground, cracking it. “It’s not right...we’re not...we’re not some kind of animal to be slaughtered. He should have at least had the chance to actually fight…”

Emu undoes the transformation on both of them and crouches down next to Parado. He places a shoulder on his back and says, “I know…” He whispers. “I know…” Emu looks up at you.

“What do we do?” He asks.

>What do you do?
>Finish off Aranbura. It’s the most humane thing to do. He’s clearly not right at the moment.
>Try and reprogram him back to normal. Note that if you do this, his human host will die if you let him live. If you fail, then you put both lives at risk.
>Write in.

1d20+2 for these choices.

Rolled 20 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>4104556
>>Finish off Aranbura. It’s the most humane thing to do. He’s clearly not right at the moment.

Gonna grab lunch. I'll be back in around an hour. Vote is open til then.

>>4104562
Alright I'm back and taking this option. Writing.

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You shake your head and sniffle. “I...we…” You take a deep breath, “We finish him off. It’s the right thing to do.” You say glancing to Aranbura. “Nobody deserves to live like that…” You move towards the bugster and draw your weapon again until you feel a strong grip on your shoulder.

You turn and find yourself faced with a teary eyed Parado. “I’ll do it.” He whispers then in a much louder tone says. “Emu. Use Mighty Brothers again.” Emu slots the item back into his Driver

>Mighty Brothers! Double X!

>Level Up!

“I can do it if-” Emu offers but Parado cuts him off.

“I said I’ll do it!” He shouts taking the blade. “He deserves that much...for my failure.” Parado slowly walks up to Aranbura and slots the Gashat into his weapon to charge up another finishing strike.

>Kimewaza!

>Mighty Brothers Critical Finish!

“Aranbura!” He calls out and the bugster slowly turns to face him. Parado quietly readies his sword. “I’m sorry.” He whispers and with a shout he dashes forward. The boss raises his hands and begins to fire back with lightning, then ice spears. Parado ducks under the lightning and parries the ice spears. In what seems to be a final act Aranbura begins to charge another one of his large spells but Parado reaches him before he can finish it.

“Fight it!” Parado shouts as he drives his blade into the bugster’s shoulder. “You can do it. Just try!”

“...can’t…” Aranbura strains to groan as he continues to cast his spell.

“Then we’ll fight it together.” Parado whispers. With a roar he twists his blade and slices sideways, spinning Aranbura just as he completes the spell and fires...directly at the factory. The fireball rockets and punches through the wall of the building before detonating inside. As explosions roar out, Parado raises his sword one last time and cuts down the boss monster.

Aranbura falls to his knees and then collapses on the ground before exploding as well. Your team’s drivers, unmoved by the situation announces it’s customary “GAME CLEAR!”

Parado drops his blade and undoes his transformation. “It’s over.” He says numbly. “Let’s go home...I want to make sure my sister is ok.”

You quietly nod as you turn to watch the flaming wreckage of the factory for a few moments before untransforming and follow Parado back to the long walk to the Hospital.

>Kamen Rider Chronicle EP 9 End.

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With that somber ending, I think this is a good place to end this thread. Thanks for sticking with me or just plain voting. Means a lot to me. I'll have a new thread up tonight or by tomorrow morning. I'll see you guys then. Stay safe!

New thread up
>>4105566