[IC] BNWL Day 2: Trails Ablaze

[IntSys]

@King Murdoc

 

Spoiler

Weather B's Action Sequence:

[Remaining Cooldown from the Ice Breath] (1 hs)

[Wait 2 hs] (2 hs)[Pulling Up] (1 hs)

[Wait 1 hs] (1 hs)

[Dropping Down to Row 2, Column 5] (1 hs)

[Wait 2 hs] (2 hs)

[Pulling Up] (1 hs)

[Wait 1 hs] (1 hs)

 

 

Timestamps:

2 hs: Weather B took 75 damage from the Cannon.

3 hs: Weather B took 3 damage from the buster.

 

 

[Custom Screen]

HP Status:

Score: 440/440 [Undershirt]

Weather B: 2/80 (Hidden)

 

Notes: Weather B will drop down to the second panel before Score on the next hs, according to the Analysis. (Yes, it's one of those viruses.)

 

Queue:

Tornado D | Spreader C | Long Sword L | Recovery 80 B | Air Shot *

 

 

@Cronos5010

 

Spoiler

Mettaur2 A's Action Sequence:

[Wait 2 hs] (2 hs)

[Remove Cover] (1 hs)

[Wait 1 hs] (1 hs)

[Use Sonicwave] (3 hs)

[Wait 1 hs] (1 hs)

[Use Sonicwave] (3 hs)

 

Mettaur2 B's Action Sequence:

[Remaining Warmup and Cooldown from the Sonicwave] (2 hs)

[Deleted]

 

Metrid's Action Sequence:

[Remaining Cooldown from the Chasing Meteor] (10 hs)

[Deleted]

 

Timestamps:

2 hs: Mettaur2 B took 45 damage from the Spreader and was deleted! Metrid and Boulder 3 took 45 damage from the Spreader. Mettaur2 A negated the damage with its cover.

3 hs: Metrid took 45 damage from the Spreader and was deleted! Boulder 3 took 45 damage from the Spreader. Mettaur2 A negated the damage with its cover.

4 hs: Orenucu took 30 damage from one Chasing Meteor.

5 hs: Mettaur2 A took 9 damage from the buster spam.

6 hs: Mettaur2 A took 9 damage from the buster spam. Orenucu took 30 damage from one Chasing Meteor.

7 hs: Mettaur2 A took 9 damage from the buster spam.

8 hs: Mettaur 2 A took 9 damage from the buster spam. Orenucu took 30 damage from one Chasing Meteor.

9 hs: Mettaur2 A took 9 damage from the buster spam. Orenucu took 60 damage from the Sonicwave.

10 hs: Orenucu took 30 damage from one Chasing Meteor.

 

 

[Custom Screen]

HP Status:

Orenucu: 200/380

Mettaur2 A: 7/70

Boulder 1: 200/200

Boulder 2: 200/200

Boulder 3: 80/200

Boulder 4: 170/200

Notes: Mettaur2 A's Sonicwave will be fired off at the first hs of the round. The last Chasing Meteor will target your current panel (Row 3, Column 1) and crash at the beginning of the second hs of the round.
 

Queue:

Vulcan 1 D | Cannon D| Cannon * | Vulcan 1 D | Wide Sword L

 

[LucidRain]

"He is correct." Mirona reported. "No kind of organization or union."

"Bummer. Well, thanks for the chip and showing us around, it was super fun!" Axel shook Steven's hand enthusiastically.

As they turned to leave, Axel shouted, "Oh yeah, by the way - when you get super famous and stuff, please invite me~!"

Axel waved and went back out to the streets. "It was certainly something, wasn't it?" He guffawed appreciably. "Well, I'm done for tonight! Let's catch the next train before we miss it!"

Axel rode the Tube back to where they were to stay for the night.

[Yours Truly]

Prediction
Vulcan 1 D, Vulcan 1 D
[Move Up] 1 hs
[Vulcan 1 D] 1 hs
[Buster] 1 hs
[Move Up] 1 hs

[Chevaleresse]

[Mode: Prediction]

[No Selection]

[Wait]

[Fire Buster]

[Move: Up]

[Wait: 5hs]

[Fire Buster]

[Move: Up]

[IntSys]

@King Murdoc

 

Spoiler

Weather B's Action Sequence:

[Dropping Down to Row 3, Column 3] (1 hs)

[Use Ice Breath] (5 hs)

[Deleted]

 

 

Timestamps:

2 hs: Weather B took 3 damage from the buster and was deleted!

 

 

Enemy Deleted!

 

Deletion Time: 36 hs

Busting Level: 4

Get Data: 350 Zenny

 

"You're kidding me..." the HeelNavi exclaimed, "tch, I should've brought more viruses with me. I'm not exactly a fighting model myself..."

 

After a few seconds of silence, he then smirked and said, "fine, I'll spill the beans. That portal is a shortcut for my own virus breeding purposes. I pick these kinds of cyberspace to let them grow in an open environment. Gotta let them feel the natural selection sometimes, you know?" He pointed to the purple rift. "But you clearly don't appreciate me here, so how about you let me go through the rift and shut it down from the other side? I'll take my viruses elsewhere."

 

 

@Cronos5010

 

Spoiler

Mettaur2 A's Action Sequence:

[Remaining Cooldown from the Sonicwave] (1 hs)

[Wait 1 hs] (1 hs)

[Deleted]

 

 

Timestamps:

2 hs: Mettaur2 A took 45 damage from the Vulcan 1 and was deleted.

 

 

Enemy Deleted!

 

Deletion Time: 22 hs

Busting Level: 1

Get Data: 200 Zenny

 

"Hey, the fryer's working again! Thanks, mate! Fish and chips, coming up!" After a few minutes, the chef got the order done, and handed it to Vlastimir. "Enjoy!"

[Chevaleresse]

Score was quiet for a moment, analyzing the situation. She didn't exactly trust this HeelNavi, but. . . "That would be for the best. Do see that you don't endanger any more civilians." Score waited, still not fully disengaging combat mode, until the Navi left and the rift vanished, before moving about to check the area for anything else of interest.

[IntSys]

@King Murdoc

 

"Right. I'll be on my way, then," the HeelNavi hopped through the rift. A few seconds later, the rift vanished without a trace.

 

The area didn't have anything else of interest, aside from the passage leading to the hub of the Street Lamp network, which was blocked by a security cube.

 

 

Moments later, it struck you.

Quote

"Well then, my work is done, time to go back and hide it from the other en-"

You might have been had. But it was too late.

[Chevaleresse]

Score frowned. "Mitsuru, I would like to remain here for a few moments."

"In the lamp?"

"In the lamo."

". . . I guess I've got nothing better to do. Can you try to avoid having me stand outside in a strange city at night for much longer, though?"

"I will be alerting the local authorities regardless."

"Fine, then." 

Score opened up one line, quickly penning an email to the local authorities. She mentioned her location and defeat of the HeelNavi in the area, the rift he had moved through, and the possibility of it simply being hidden and other ones being present in the network. With her spare processing power, she analyzed the area around the portal. Was there really no hint of the portal in the structure of the netscape around her?

[IntSys]

@King Murdoc

 

Score could not detect the rift at all. It was as if it weren't there in the first place. If it were hidden, then it would've been done extremely well, considering its scale. It made no sense that a supposed virus breeder was able to accomplish this.

 

Moments later, she received a response from the local authorities.

 

[FROM: Newham Street Management] [SUBJECT: Re: Suspicious Activities in LondonStreetlamp-GW-056-Comp]

Spoiler

Hello,

Thank you for notifying us of the activities. We're dispatching Navis to your location right now to check for any effects the portal had on the Streetlamp's computer, and will be performing a network checkup later at midnight. To prevent any possible interference with the checkup, please jack out from the computer as soon as possible.

 

With regards,

The Newham Street Management

 

[Chevaleresse]

"I believe I am finished here."

"Good, we can finally go home and kick back."

 

Without further ado, Score jacked out, and both Navi and operator were soon on their way back to the hotel.

[Yours Truly]

Vlastimit smiled before he ordered Orenucu.EXE back to his PET and said, "You welcome". He then simply waited for his order of his authentic street side British cuisine (which he honestly wouldn't have liked all that much if the seller hadn't provided him with tartar sauce) to finish cooking before he bid the cook a frond farewell and idly examined the shopping mall for interesting events before he took a cab or something back to the hotel.

[IntSys]

@Cronos5010

The shopping mall wasn't holding any interesting event, which, made sense as it was almost closing time.

 

...

 

 

Day 2: Trails Ablaze

 

9:00 AM, Earlington Hotel -> En route to Buckingham Palace

 

Everyone made it to the bus after their morning rituals and, of course, breakfast. Speaking of which, the breakfast offered at the hotel buffet was your standard English fare - bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and toasts, along with a small assortment of other options.

 

The sky was clear, not a single cloud to be seen in miles.

 

"Goooood morning, everyone!" - The exact same pitch, the exact same words, from none other than Midori. Kenji seemed to have gone out of his way to get earplugs for this.

 

"I hope you've had a nice fry up! Anyway, here's today's schedule. First, we'll be going to Buckingham Palace for a tour. As you may know, the queen lives here. I'll be accompanying you but the Palace's guide will do the explanations instead. We'll rendezvous at 1 PM. After that, we'll go to this pub called the Windsor Castle. Not the actual castle, of course, but it serves good food. We've covered your lunch up to 2000 Zenny per person, which should be enough. Then, we'll cross the River Thames and visit the London Eye, more on that later. Finally, we'll be taking the Eurostar to Paris. And that's all!"

 

"Any questions?" she asked, with a smile on her face.

 

--

Ayano

 

"Man, I'm actually missing rice already. All the grease... Yikes," Ayano commented on the breakfast. She fiddled around with her new chips. "The kids are such lousy netbattlers, too. I wonder if diet has something to do with that..."

 

 

Kenji

 

"And that's why the tea is there," Kenji shook his head. His eyes rolled toward Vlastimir, and then to Midori, and finally back to his own PET.

@Cronos5010

 

As soon as Midori had finished, Vlastimir's PET beeped. It was an email.

 

[FROM: NO-NAME][SUBJECT: Regarding possible corruptions]

Spoiler

This email is automatically sent to those with hidden corruptions detected by Colonel.

 

Your Navi has been corrupted. They may not notice it, but we assure you that it's there. Should the corruption be left unchecked, your Navi may grow into a bugged form, which will be detected as a hostile virus by Colonel and be deleted as soon as they enter a public net area.

 

To remedy this, we've sent you a patch attached to this email. To download the patch, your Navi must be in their PET. The patch will take thirty minutes to install, so please be patient.

 

Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[Attached File: Patch-M.exe]

 

 

(Chat, check news, etc.)

[Strider]

"This was so short. Will it be only two days in France as well?" Hina asked between bites of food. She didn't have anything else in mind that she'd wanted to visit in England, but it felt odd to go on vacation here for the first time, then leave after just two days. But they did have other more importan goals, she reasoned.

[IntSys]

@Strider

 

"Well, we got eight cities to visit in twenty days. So, we'll be spending two to three days in each city on average. We'll be spending three days in Paris, however," Midori answered with a smile.

[Strider]

"Yes, yes." For a moment Hina tried to remember something, then gave up and decided to ask. "I can't remember, what's the reason for the deadline? Why is it all confined to twenty days?"

[IntSys]

@Strider

 

"... Uh. I was only given so much to work all this out and cover your expenses here, all while drawing up a trip where you would get the most value out of. It's not a deadline, just the length of the trip I've prepared for you. T-This is what you signed up for, right?" Midori's eyes twitched slightly, but otherwise, she maintained her smile.

[Yours Truly]

Vlastimir decided to ignore the odd conversation Midori was having with Hina for a moment as he poured black coffee and condensed milk inside of his tea. He regarded the sudden message he obtained from the internet with about as much suspicion as you would expect from someone who used to be in a certain line of work, and he immediately deleted what seemed to be the least inspired attempt at using social engineering to hack his terminal and asked Orenucu to run scans on itself to try and find out if it had any actual bugs that it could fix; Vlastimir was feeling pretty confident in his own programming ability, as he had written Orenucu.EXE by his lonesome after all (nevermind the fact the NetNavi was technically built off of preexisting code, as said code was never really designed for the task and ended up being nothing but an inspiration for what ended up being his third or fourth best work yet). He also made a mental note to assume that his PET was already potentially compromised, as he just had to read that email didn't he?.

 

He then turned away from his PET to say, "Now now Miss Hina, there should be plenty of time left for us to enjoy cold and dreary London today, as long as we do not get stop by virus again I mean."

[IntSys]

@Cronos5010

 

Orenucu wasn't able to find any bug hidden in itself. Though, it did echo with the part in the email where it said the Navi might not be able to notice it.

 

On another note, the emails received through your Navi are always safe to read as the system disables scripting - they're always in plain text.

[Strider]

"No, there's no problem Midori. I just couldn't remember. It does happen from time to time." Hina took a bite off her piece of toast, chewed, and swallowed.

 

"Have you ever been here before--any of our destinations really--or will this be a first fo you?" She asked this offhandedly to Midori. Her rather decent knowledge of all the destinations could be the result of simple good research, or it could be personal experience, and it didn't seem a poor topic of conversation.

[IntSys]

@Strider

 

"Here in the agency, we're required to have first-hand experience in our destination. So, I've been to the destinations before, of course!"

 

--

An hour later, the tour bus arrived at Buckingham Palace.

 

10:00 AM, Buckingham Palace

 

As everyone made their way down the bus, they could see the Queen's Guards standing in tiny sentry houses outside the palace, surrounded by curious tourists eager to take photos, as well as automated lawnmowers running slowly through the patches of grass before the palace. Midori showed everyone to the entrance, through the scattered crowds of tourists on the red, clay path.

 

At the entrance, a tall, gray-bearded man came to greet you. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Jerry, and I'll be your guide for your Buckingham Palace visit. We'll be using earphones in the tour, so if you have them with you at the moment, please plug them into your PETs. If not, we have ones available inside, to the right side of the lobby. Now, come inside, please."

 

Jerry brought everyone inside, and proceeded to hand out earphones to anyone who needed them. Everyone would notice that a communication channel was opened. On the other end of the channel was an inconspicuous, gray and brown NormalNavi. "Hi, I am Jerry's assistant, and I'll be assisting him in the tour."

 

The tour then went down without any issue. The group passed through the many rooms in the palace at a leisurely pace. After a long walk, the tour ended at the back of the palace, in the so-called Palace Garden.

...

Well, something wasn't right. Seven lawnmowers zigzagged through the grass field at high speed, running wild. Other tourists were barred from stepping into the garden for obvious reasons, as men and women in suits desperately tried to chase them down.

 

"That concludes our tour. Feel free to enjoy yourselves here at the Buckingham Palace, or perhaps you can go to the Garden Cafe to enjoy tea, coffee, and sandwiches. Though, you may want to avoid the garden for now. That'll be an issue me and the other workers will be working on. Sincere apologies for the inconvenience. Now, if you'll excuse me... "

Jerry turned to the farce occurring down the garden, shook his head, and slowly walked along the garden. You could follow him if you wanted to. Or you could chase the lawnmowers on your own as well. You might get lucky.

 

"Bye!" Midori waved her hand and sent Jerry off. "So... I wouldn't touch that mess, personally. If you get hurt abroad, the medical costs are scaaary. Anyway, like I previously said, we'll meet up at the entrance at 1 PM. I'm sure we'll all be hungry by then, so don't be late! I'll be at the Garden Cafe, but if you need my help, you can always call me!"

 

 

Options:

• Go to the Garden Cafe with Midori. (Note: Purchases made in the cafe will not be covered by the ticket)
• Follow Jerry and see where he's actually going.
• Go back into the palace and look around.
  • Jack into the palace network through various touchscreen guide panels in the palace.
• Head into the garden anyway, ignoring the out-of-control lawnmowers and the workers chasing them.
• Simply observe the development of the great lawnmower chase.

 

--

 

Ayano

 

"What are these people doing? They can't outrun the lawnmowers like that!" Ayano said, facepalming at the scene. "Well, they have to make it look like they're trying to fix them actively. There's probably a network controlling these things," Hotshot noted. 

 

"Wanna help'em out? It's at least more interesting than standing about for an hour."

 

"We're not going to find a maintenance port to the network just lying around in the garden. I reckon that it's built into the palace's network, but it'd likely be sealed off to us."

 

"What if we follow the old man? Maybe we'll be able to find the port they use to deal with the lawnmowers."

 

"Yeaah, maybe."

 

Ayano began to quietly follow Jerry's trails.

 

 

Kenji

 

"Tch, hell if these petty lawnmowers are going to stop me. I am Uesugi Kenji!" With pride and defiance, Kenji ran into the grass. He was, of course, yelled at by the workers and told to stay away, but he didn't care. A speeding lawnmower intercepted his march, only to be grabbed by the handle and thrown aside. It rolled a few times, taking some damage, but it managed to land on its wheels, and continued to pick up speed again.

 

 

Brock

 

"Wow, look at him go. I'm having none of that," Brock remarked, before turning to the rest of the group, "how about you guys? How are you going to spend the hour?"

[Yours Truly]

Vlastimir openly looked around the place for a moment and noted the exact direction Jerry was heading before he said, "I think I will explore around this place for a bit more," and put on his best 'tourist exploring the grounds act' as he tried to explore the garden in a way that coincidentally allowed him to follow and track Jerry's movements, partly because he actually wanted to explore the grounds.

[Strider]

Without saying anything, Hina stepped off after Ayano. If she was right about finding a port, then Hina might learn a little more about this. She knew of course that the palace security wouldn't explain the situation to the public fully once they'd fixed the problem. And if she was wrong, no harm done.