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Update 21: A Rock of Silver

Inner Mines

So when we last left of-

_{Oh... sorry}

Sorry...

_{So when we last left off, we just got a huge plotdump from Proto about how everything is fake and nothing matters. Well, except for Niko - who's the only real thing in this game. Nothing left to do except leave the room.}

...Uh oh? Is this a bad development? I'm unsure if it is or not to be quite honest.

SilverPoint

[Hey, you okay in there?]

[I did what I could with the terminals for now, and...]

[It's you... you're the robot that insisted on living in the mines, are you not?]

[My friend told me to keep an eye out for you, should we ever cross paths.]

[...]

[...Likewise.]

[...Your... friend gave you something the last time you saw each other. Can you show me what it is?]

[Wait... You know about the amber?]

[I just asked to see it, didn't I?]

[Alright... here it is.]

[He seemed to trust you, so I will treat you as an ally as well.]

[...Okay??]

[Please listen carefully. You need to escort the messiah for the remainder of the Barrens.]

[I predict a high concentration of square particle disruptions in the near future.]

[...No way.]

[Yes...way.]

Silver is just utterly confused at all of this and also seems like she's just a hair away from a breakdown, like Niko was, and Proto is just being a sarcastic ass. I love Proto.

[It's likely that structures in the vicinity of the messiah might be affected... making it a far more treacherous pilgrimage than the previous...er, expectations.]

[The Goons and the messiah need all the extra help they can get right now.]

[Understood.]

O...okay...

I do really like how no one knows what's going on right now. Even us. The first run of the game was a somewhat predictable hero's journey with a few minor twists along the way, and now the fourth wall has been completely stripped away just so Niko and ourselves can all stare at each other and shrug.

[Even without the squares, the mines are not a safe place to be.]

[Come on, I'll wait for you outside.]

Wait! I want to ask you-

She left.

[If you were going to ask her about being "not real", save your breath. None of the people here know their predicament.]

[In fact... I don't think they can even comprehend it.]

[It would be in your best interest to just... pretend like we never had this conversation.]

[Causing mass confusion in the world's residents would likely result in unfavorable conditions for you.]

Alright...

...wait, then what about you? How did YOU know?

[...We never had this conversation, remember?]

Sigh.

Now the game is just teasing us!... Or is Proto teasing us? Gah, the game going meta makes it hard to figure out who's in charge of this thing now. Don't worry, we will get more answers from Proto eventually... but for now, we'll have to move on. It's time to go fix that rowbot again! At least things should go quickly since we know what to do.

Alright! Let's leave this joint!

Out of Protocol

[What I tried to do... and how you managed to see through it all. We HAVE been through all of this. Even though it was only supposed to run once... you still managed to come back.]

Welp! Looks like the entity figured out what's going on! This is uh, officially NOT GOOD!

[...How did you bring Niko back? And then, you even managed to break out of bounds. Bringing Niko to places that never should have been.]

[And now... now...]

[Niko is upset.]

[What even happened in that room back there? What did Niko learn?]

[I can feel it.]

[But you've chosen to trust that man instead of me.]

[...No, not even that. Just his book. His ghost.]

[This world is not real. The people are not real.]

[Everything.]

[IS.]

[W R O N G ! ! ! ! ]

AH!!

[...The Minecart!]

*RUMBLING NOISES

Panic

[Earthquake...]

Th-The tunnel back out just collapsed!

[No!!]

What are we gonna do?!

[I....]

Proto showing up to a dramatic scene to sigh his way through because of course something went wrong in the plan.

[I saw this coming, but this is a bit more sudden than I anticipated.]

[Both of you. Follow me.]

Where to?

[The way out.]

Both Silver and Proto head back into the dead end room. Where there's nothing but four walls. The best place to go when there's an earthquake and a cave in and... square particles?? We've no choice but to follow them as the minecart cannot be interacted with anymore.

Vestige

[Okay, all of us are here. There is an emergency exit behind my computer terminal.]

[We did not want anyone to stumble upon this route, so the terminal has been weighed down.]

[It cannot be moved by normal means.]

[But with our combined effort, it might budge.]

[...Maybe. I am not strong.]

I'm not that strong either...

Well, we've got at least a half dozen or so goons here, maybe we can help out by... I don't know, recoding the game to remove the terminal? I would actually enjoy more puzzles like that, manipulating the game's world by messing with the code and that causing even more instabilities. Sadly, there's not too many puzzles in Solstice. Granted, this update was free of charge.

[If that doesn't work, we might to dig around it, and...]

[You... could've just asked.]

[Phew.]

[Come on.]

Oh, I'm really looking forward to the Proto & Silver adventures right now.

Ah, thankfully there's a backup minecart and tunnel that... didn't collapse in the earthquake. Not to be a chooser in our time of begging but uh, maybe some stairs out of here instead of another dangerous route?