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Part 11: An Ounce of Prevention
Another scenario, another time skip.
This one starts with Lan, Mayl, and Dex deciding to visit Yai in the hospital. Seems like a week would be a long time to hold her if nothing is wrong.
Despite the fact that Lan wants to go visit her, he forgot that he has cleaning duty for the class today, one of the generic girl NPCs informing him as much.
MegaMan continues to be done with everything as Lan stays behind to clean, Dex and Mayl bullying him a little before going to the hospital.
After Lan finishes cleaning, we get an email about Anetta's activities. No points guessing who her Navi is.
Even though it's been a week, the N1 is still the talk of the town.
Same.
You can trust Lan to do his homework.
Probably. Maybe.
More importantly, Higsby has set up that OrderSys that he had Lan fetch for him in the BubbleMan scenario. With it, he's able to order chips for Lan, which basically just means that he can get one copy of a chip that Lan has. Even though you can't control what code it's in, it's a fixed code. It's fairly useful for getting additional copies of some chips depending on what code you're building around.
Haruka is, as usual, talking about the most relevant bit of plot.
Seeing as I defeated BeastMan Alpha in SciLab Area 1 earlier, BeastMan Beta is now roaming around. He's in Lan's doghouse, for some reason, prompting the above dialogue from the Mr. Progs inside.
Despite the fact that Mr. Prog plays it off as a joke, BeastMan Beta is indeed here. His presence has also attracted Spikey 2 and 3 viruses.
Seems like the Virus Lab has a new project in mind.
I dunno, man. But it sounds like it'd be neat if it happened.
The people in Yuichiro's Lab are exceptionally friendly today. Thanks, guys!
The zoo is supposed to be closed now, though the zookeeper allows Lan to go inside seeing as he helped save the animals last time.
There's a kid inside who will give you another Mod Tools code if you help him find his camera, which is stuck to a panda sign in the zoo.
The Ura Inn is about the same as ever for the most part.
However, one thing has suddenly changed: we can now jack into the hot springs!
This happens in all of the games, where an object that can't be jacked into in the early game becomes available later.
Inside of the hot spring computer is a Mr. Prog!
Mr. Prog sure is cute.
There's nothing else noteworthy in here, though.
Nothing at all.
At the back of the hot spring computer is a pad that leads to the guy who laughs at MegaMan if you speak to him while using the Press program. Turns out he's a comedian that's in a bit of a slump.
We'll be able to help him with this later, perhaps, but right now there's nothing to do about it.
Much like in the real world, people on the Net are still chattering about the N1.
The Officials are still patrolling, and one offers this line to MegaMan.
Sorry buddy. Can't start intruding on the rival's niche.
This guy starts wondering if the WWW's continued attacks on ACDC are because of a curse.
quote:
ACDC: Chat BBS
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| HigHig | New rare chip
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| I found an ultra-rare chip!
| It's called a "IceBall M"! Who'd have thought
| these elusive chips could be found on Hades Isles?!
| The thing that dropped it was, um...
| one of those funky chomp their jaws.
| The funny thing is, though, I battled over and over at
| that same spot, but never saw another one of them again!
| I can't figure out what I'm doing right and what I'm doing
| wrong. I bought a program at the Beach and equipped it, then
| I replaced it with "IceBall M". Hmmm...
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Miki | RE:New rare chip
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Did you really find a "IceBall M", HigHig?! Oh, I can't
| stand this! I'm gonna go find one too! But even if I
| go, I probably won't run into that thing. I think that program
| you bought at the Beach has something to do with it.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Haru | Number Trader
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Hey, all! Are you playing Higsby's Number Trading?
| Check this out! I won bit time!
| I got a "StepCros S"! Aw, yeah!!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gee, I wonder if I'll be needing that IceBall M I picked up soon.
Higsby's tip is here if you need it, though.
quote:
ACDC: Battle BBS
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Poteno | N1Grand Prix!
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Hi there! I went to see the N1 Grand Prix the other
| day. It was amazing! It's too bad the finals were
| cancelled, but seeing MegaMan in action against KingMan
| in the semis was worth the 1800 Zennys alone!
| Oh yeah, that Net Battler called Q was gross! Did you see
| his outfit? I want a 600 Zenny refund for having to see that!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| Nukky | RE:N1Grand Prix
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| That's a little harsh, Poteno.
| I thought it was worth even more than we all paid.
| I especially enjoyed the Extra Folder match on Hades Isle.
| It would be fun if we could make up
| rules and fight with Extra Folders like that as well.
| Guess we should all follow a dress code when we fight you!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Koetsu | Too good!
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Hey all! Koetsu here back now from taking part in the N1 Grand
| Prix! Oh man, that was just too much! When I made it to
| the top 8, I thought I needed to watch out for Yoshio, but I
| didn't know that bandanna kid was so good! It just goes
| to show that a good relationship with your Navi's more
| important than customization and folders. that, and
| the need for a rival! Those two are unstoppable!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't worry, Koetsu. Maybe you'll be able to take part in another tournament someday.
Maybe he filled it with illegally downloaded music.
I wonder what kind of things this data might be used for.
quote:
SciLab: Battle BBS
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| ChunG | ModTools
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| ModTools are here! They're accessories for the NaviCust!
| Apparently, they let you place parts with colort that normally
| can't be placed together. All you have to do is to
| enter an 8-digit ModCode.
| I heard that those ModCodes include special NaviCust
| symbols that are a little difficult to describe.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Mole | RE:ModTools
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| I have one of those ModTools.
| I bought it from some shady person on Beach Street.
| It allows you to fix errors by rewriting directly over the
| Navi data addresses that are causing them. You know how
| an Error Number appears whenever there's an error?
| You need to enter the ModCode for that specific error.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Haru | New ModCode!
+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Hey all! Hary the Hack here! I live to analyze programs, and
| have I got some ModCodes for you! For starters, the
| code for SetLava, Error # B3, is "Ya^UOMNCB".
| Next... Uh, well... Actually that's the only one I've
| cracked so far. Heh heh! If I find more, I'll let you know!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| U-pon | Vine virus
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| Those Wood viruses sure are nasty! The other day I ran into
| a vine-like thing that gave me the hardest time!
| All these vines came sprouting out of the ground, but no matter
| how many times I shot the virus it just brushed off
| my attacks! Fed up, I blasted off a CannBall, but to no
| effect! That's when I started to panic. I mean, who wouldn't?
| Fortunately I managed to get a grip of myself, and I
| said, "C'mon U-pon, this guy's gotta have a weakness"!
| Then it hit me-shoot the vines! Guess what? it worked!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mole, you weren't supposed to tell anyone!
U-pon, meanwhile, is talking about a virus from later in this scenario.
Seeing as Mayl has a shortcut to Yoka Square in her PC, I came to her house to use it and found that she still has the Bubble Wash.
Why would you not get rid of it immediately? 
This guy is a scientist. He will have important information about DesertMan later.
This guy gets it.
quote:
Yoka: Battle BBS
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Heylon | Extra Folder
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Hey everyone, are you carrying an Extra Folder? You can't
| trade the chips in it, but it's still handy. If you have a
| favorite folder and won't trade anymore, you're missing out!
| How so, you ask? By trading your Extra Folder for a new one
| you can increase the capacity of your Data Library!
| After you've traded a bunch of folders and increased your
| data, have Higsby's order the chips for you!
| That's what Extra Folders are all about!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------
| Takayan | RE: Extra Folder
+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------
| I beg to differ with Heylon.
| I agree you can get strong chips using that method,
| but I prefer trading data with friends to increase our
| Data Libraries so both my friends and I help each other!
| I'd never trade my favorite Extra Folder.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Koetsu | RE: Extra Folder
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Heh heh. Both of you seem to have your own uses for your
| Extra Folders. Hey, that's cool! Use 'em however you want.
| You can also use them to battle people under equal
| conditions to see who has the best fighting technique!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Koetsu | Asterisks&PA
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Sorry for the sequential posts. I forgot that I had
| promised to write about how asterisks are related to
| Program Advances. By selecting an asterisk chip as
| your Regular, your chance of causing a Program Advance goes
| way up. Program Advances occur when two chips fuse
| together, creating even more powerful effects. They're
| caused by different chips with the same code, or identical
| chips with sequential codes. Since "*" can act as
| any code, you have a higher chance of one occurring. However,
| for sequential Program Advances, you can only use one
| asterisk. So to activate an A+B+C Advance, you can't
| use *+*+C. Got it? Good luck everyone!
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not much to say here.
Yeah, I'm sure he'll do better next time!
Glyde never does any real fighting in the series ever again.
Did you get that you're going to need IceBall M, soon? Did you get that it's from Hades Isle and you need a Fish program from Beach Square to make the ColdHead virus show up?
Did you get it? Huh?
quote:
Beach: Chat BBS
+-----+--------------------------------------------------------------------
| Goh | NO SUBJECT
+-----+--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Tessan | What's wrong?
+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------
| Are you OK, Goh? Goh!
| All you wrote was your name...
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------
| MEGAoka | Warning
+---------+----------------------------------------------------------------
| This is Beach Square administrator MEGAoka.
| For your own safety, please do not post messages about
| the Undernet or the Under society on this BBS. Thank you.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| Arima | Scary!!!
+-------+------------------------------------------------------------------
| I guess normal folks should avoid the Undernet.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+----------+---------------------------------------------------------------
| BattleML | Invertigating
+----------+---------------------------------------------------------------
| The Officials are currently investigating Goh's
| disappearance. There has been a rash of crime recently,
| including the Zoo, N1 and BubbleWash incidents. Beware.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is why you never talk about Fight Club, Goh! 
Normally I don't show BBS Jobs, but this one is pretty funny.
This one is called "Be my boyfriend". I imagine that's self-explanatory.
Huh? Um... I think you're confusing me with...
(Just play along, I'm the one who asked for your help!) ...Darling, don't be embarrassed! Don't be shy just because we're in front of friends!
So you're this boyfriend she was talking about! Hi! Allow me to introduce my girlfriend, here.
Nice to meet you!
Aw, Blinky. If there was ever a time for MegaMan to make a "done with this face", it'd be now.
(Hurry up and say something!)
...Um, yeah. Nice to meet you!
It's so nice to meet you! So you're a celebrity, right? I mean, you're on TV and everything!?
"Well, I did have my own anime for a while. And a movie."
Ah! You mean that show... Um, what was it again? Yeah, he's not a big star yet. He's on that morning show...
Throughout this job, you'll have to correctly intuit what MegaMan's girlfriend wants you to say.
Yeah, that's right! That drama on TV in the mornings! It's so great that even a Navi can be on TV! I'm jealous! Didn't you have something to ask Mr. MegaMan, too?
M-me? Umm... Okay, well... I heard you were really rich, MegaMan.
Oh, yeah!! It blew my mind when I heard he had one of THOSE! Good idea, let's ask the man himself if he has one!
Ah, yes. That... Even though you have one, you hardly have time to ride it, huh?
Having a giant gold Mr. Prog to ride sounds fun...
Wow! So you DO have one!
Amazing! Let us ride it sometime too, OK!?
But of course! (This subject is no good, either! I'm in trouble!)
I know he just got here, but my darling has work to do! It's really, really too bad, but let's do this another time!
My darling doesn't show it, but he's in a big hurry! Hurry, darling, or you will lose the 100,000 Zenny contract! (Take this and get out of here, please!)
The reward for finishing this quest is a StepSword O.
By the way, if you get any of those questions wrong, she suddenly attacks you with viruses before telling her friends that you're too injured to continue answering any of their questions.
I still think they can make it work.
Alright, that's enough goofing around for now.
BubbleMan Beta is in Beach Area 1, causing Shrimpy 2 and Ratty viruses to appear. As I mentioned previously, he only shows up if you have 25% HP. That said, if you use a LocEnemy on him afterwards, he'll be forced to show up even if you heal after the battle!
DesertMan Alpha is also in this area. Beating him sends him to the Ura Inn's television, causing sand panels to show up in battle there, in addition to summoning Totem viruses and Mettaur 3s.
Defeating DesertMan Alpha also causes this guy to blind me with science.
Truly the Officials' information network is unmatched.
At the DNN building, it seems that a new program is in the works.
I, uh...
I don't think it's going over too well.
Not even a little bit.
I bankrupted this other gambler, though!
Finally, the last stop on this tour is Hades Isle again.
If you noticed that my HP is lower here, that's because I visited this place before everything else in this update. But it flows better over here, so I bumped it back.
Unlike before, this spooky lighthouse gargoyle can be jacked into.
And there is something of note here!
Not this.
This! A portal leading to an isolated area of Undernet 2!
The Heel Navi nearby is a merchant. And if you give him enough Bug Frags, you can buy a Giga Chip, of which there are only five in the game and you can only have one per folder. But it is what is perhaps the most absurdly overpowered chip in the series.
You know how in Yu-Gi-Oh! you'll occasionally have cards like Monster Reborn get banned because it's a really good effect with no drawback or cost? Imagine a Monster Reborn that took all of your cards that were in the graveyard and removed from play, put them back into your deck, allowed you to shuffle your deck and draw a new hand in addition to letting you play any cards from said hand immediately. Also, the card that did this inserted itself back into the deck at the same time.
That's basically FolderBack. And it comes in asterisk code, so you can use it with literally anything.
Since Giga Chips are version exclusive, White Version gets NaviRecycle instead, which is less broken but still good.
On paper it only reuses the last Navi chip. But it also recycles any attack boosting chips that were on it, so you could hypothetically get some outrageous damage with it depending on how you build your folder. Especially if it's a multi-hit Navi Chip like BubbleMan.
The exterior of the hospital only has two women, neither of whom have anything interesting to say. There's a wheelchair ramp and the Seaside Hospital is the biggest around.
There's also this ER entrance.
And some kind of control room for a Tree of Life? What's that?
Music: Tree of Life
Oh. Apparently it's the area theme of the next location.
Good to know.
This old man points out the Tree of Life to us, though we're not getting any information on it at the moment.
Next to it on the first floor is an office for where children are given check-ups.
The NPCs here are pretty straightforward as well, which doesn't make for a lot of fun conversations, sadly.
The third floor has an operating room.
And apparently, this tree grows straight out of the hospital.
That seems like an understatement.
On the second floor, while looking for Yai, I stumble across a familiar surname.
Unfortunately, the patient doesn't seem to be around at present. Pity.
The next room over has Yai, who has a slightly changed mugshot for this segment. This conversation drags a little, so the main gist is that Yai is fine and should be released soon.
The hospital is also state of the art and everything is run by computers. Isn't that the case for everything in this setting?
Naturally, that includes the giant tree in the center of the hospital. Because why wouldn't it?
Yai then starts to get bratty and demands that Lan go buy her a drink despite having just said that she's perfectly fine.
When Lan starts to complain, she starts playing up how sick she is.
Even Mayl is unimpressed.
Dex, for his part, seems to be having difficulty talking at the moment for some reason.
Heading downstairs, Lan gets Yai some tea from the vending machine. A nurse then approaches.
Apparently, the patient from the empty room is off hiding somewhere and the nurse is looking for him.
Seeing as Lan is the kid of guy who always has to help, he decides to go look for the missing kid.
And we now have a full name for our patient: Mamoru Urakawa.
Yes, this is the Kimie's son and Tamako's nephew.
Before I go looking for him, I bully a gambling Navi in the hospital.
On the beach, Lan finds a boy in a wheelchair, asking if he's Mamoru.
As it turns out, Mamoru is actually a big fan of Lan's.
I wasn't able to screenshot it since it happens quickly, but Lan actually starts blushing from all of Mamoru's praise.
When MegaMan tries to get Lan back on track, Mamoru switches targets and begins to praise him as well.
It seems that Hub is also weak to praise.
At any rate, Mamoru agrees to go back to the hospital, though he wants to talk with Lan a bit more first.
When the conversation changes to Net Battling, Mamoru gets excited, stating that he enjoys it immensely since even someone as physically weak as him can be on equal playing field with others.
Unfortunately, Mamoru can't Net Battle Lan at the moment due to his illness. Lan apologizes for being inconsiderate, though Mamoru doesn't hold it against him since there's no way he could've known.
When Mamoru starts to go back, Lan asks that he refer to him a bit more casually. I'm assuming in Japanese he probably called him "Netto-san" or something.
Mamoru then asks if Lan would be willing to visit him again sometime, clearly having a little bit of idol worship going on even despite the more casual relationship.
Lan agrees, of course, because why wouldn't he?
Sadly, Lan doesn't realize that Mamoru has been here a while, as the background details I've examined earlier have suggested.
As such, he and MegaMan just muse to themselves that they hope Mamoru heals up soon as he heads back into the hospital.
Lan then returns as well.
Yai grumbles for a bit about Lan being late, though she calms down once Lan gives her the tea.
Mayl then reminisces that it's been a while since the four of them have been hanging out together like this.
The comment seems to make Dex react, and he opts to flee the room.
Everyone wonders if there's something wrong with Dex before assuming it's probably nothing and letting the matter be.
Since it's getting late, Lan decides to head home for now, though Mayl stays behind to talk with Yai some more.
Seems like Yai is indeed doing well.
And so is Mamoru, fortunately.
How cute.
This segment is dragging a little, so I'll sum up the ending of this scenario really quickly.
Tomorrow's another one of those "filler" days, you see?
Tora's decided to hang around Electopia for a while. What's his reason?
Tora has realized he may be the best back home, but there are people around the world who are more skilled than him that he could possibly learn from and improve himself against.
Remember this speech for later. Keep it in the back of your mind, like that Undernet layout I mentioned in the last game.
After a brief interlude for dinner, Tora mentions that he's willing to share with Lan what he's learned about Chaud. But, in exchange, he wants Lan to do some BBS requests in his name to help him make a bit of money to help fund his overseas trip.
Tora then goes to sleep while Lan grumbles about Tora behaving as though he's at his home rather than a guest in someone else's.