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10/31/2017

Virtue's Last Reward Part 13 (Finale)

What lies beyond Q?


Unanswered Questions
  • Just who is Phi?  She only tells us a bit about herself throughout the game...
  • What is the method Clover and Alice mentioned to return themselves to the past, in both mind and body?
The Theme of Nines
  • The final puzzle in "Q" is a recreation of the AB Game where the goal is to reach nine points - first with six people, then with only "us" reaching the total.
  • The facility the game takes place in is called "Rhizome-9".
  • There are nine surviving bikers in Tenmyouji's hypothetical story.
Real-life References/Myths
  • Minkowski Space, in mathematical physics, is a combination of three-dimensional space and time into a fourth-dimensional manifold.
Beyond Lock #9 (Continued)
  • Sigma, Phi and Tenmyouji solve the "Q" room and the holographic projector starts.  However, it's protected by another login and password.
  • Sigma thinks back to the other timelines and comes up with the login: KURASHIKI and JUMPYDOLL.  This starts up the projector, which shows Akane's message.
  • Akane explains the purpose of the AB Project: to transport the consciousnesses of two people into the past.  Namely, those of Sigma and Phi (presumably to stop Brother's plans).  She also mentions that Sigma and Phi will save "the cat in the box".
  • They return to the infirmary.  Using the two bottles of Axelavir in the Q room's safe, they are able to cure Alice and Quark.
  • Phi wonders about Akane's disappearance in this timeline.  Thinking back to what she said in the message, she decides that they must be the ones to save her in order to ensure this timeline comes to pass.
  • TO BE CONTINUED...
The Past
  • Sigma and Phi jump back to the very start of the AB game, awaking an hour earlier.  Using their knowledge of future events, they are able to immediately input the safe password and escape the room.
  • This allows them to preempt Dio's attack and save Akane's life.
  • She explains the reason behind her death in the other times: So that their lives would be threatened and they would awaken to their ability to leap through timelines.  Being infected with Radical-6 was also a part of this process; it slows down the brain's processing speed, allowing them to "store energy" and leap through time, retaining their memories as they did so.  She promises the full story behind the project in a "future timeline".
  • Giving a command to "Lagomorph" (Zero Junior"), she places her bracelet on Dio, making him a part of the game.  She then puts Phi and Sigma back into the room where they started to ensure that the future goes as intended.  Before she does this, however, she gives Sigma a key.  Engraved on it is the same inscription from the tombstone in the garden.
  • TO BE CONTINUED...
The Future
  • Sigma and Phi awake in the infirmary, having passed out after travelling back in time.
  • Using the Star keys, the others were able to get everyone's BP above 9.  They exit through the #9 door as a group, leaving Dio behind.
  • Exiting through the PEC, they find themselves outside.  Clover surmises that the date is December 31, 2028.  However, Tenmyouji tells them that they are not on Earth at all, but rather on the moon.  The red body in the sky is Earth, devastated by several antimatter explosions in wake of the Radical-6 infection.  The reason none of the group recognized the difference in gravity is because they were infected by Radical-6.  The actual year is 2074.
  • He goes into detail on the test Mars mission, saying that an "accident" occurred there, resulting in the first wave of Radical-6 infection that later spread to the rest of the world.  In an attempt to dispose of the virus, numerous antimatter reactors were detonated to "burn out" the virus.  The end result was a "nuclear winter" that blotted out the sun for seven years, devastating all life on earth.
  • Phi sends a private message to Sigma, saying that she figured out the meaning behind the riddle in the Floor B warehouse.  It's another anagram, spelling out "The Man on the Moon Rules the Infinite Time".  She states her theory: that they were meant to travel much further back in time and avert this catastrophe.
  • They decide to return to the facility.  Using the key Akane gave them, they are able to open the gravestone in the garden.  It reveals a treatment pod.  
  • K speaks of his past, having regained his memory.  He tells them of this facility (called Rhizome-9) and this is where he grew up.  He helped to set up the AB game and set up Zero and Akane's ultimate plan.  The plan's ultimate goal is to send Sigma and Phi into the past.  The others were part of the plan in their own ways as well.
  • Alice and Clover were abducted 45 years ago and put into cold sleep, arriving on the moon four months later.  Clover was brought because of her esper abilities; she was here to amplify Sigma and Phi's powers.  Alice was brought along to deactivate Dio's bombs by discerning the code on Dio's computer, leading to the discovery of Bomb #3's deactivation code.
  • Tenmyouji is also an Esper with ties to Akane, hence his inclusion in the game.
  • Dio (Left) took part in the game to ensure that Brother's plan of infecting the world with Radical-6 came to pass.  To that end, he sought to win the AB game (or sabotage it) and eliminate Akane.  When he was unable to kill Akane, he set bombs to destroy the facility.  Brother is also revealed to be an Esper.
  • Luna, of course, is a GAULEM and part of Zero's plan.  She took part in the game to ensure it went according to Zero and Akane's plan.
  • The pod finally opens.  Within, they find the Sigma lookalike we saw in another timeline (formerly in K's suit).  In this timeline, the person in the K suit is none other than Akane.
  • Oddly, the rest of the group doesn't recognize Sigma's double.  Sigma points this out, and gets prompted to look at his reflection in the water, revealing him to be much older than he believed (with his past self's consciousness inhabiting his body in the present).  This also reveals his future self to be none other than Zero. aka Dr. Sigma Klim.  His double is actually his clone/son, Kyle Klim, created to be a "spare" of Sigma should something happen to him before the AB game took place.
  • Due to the events of the AB Game, Sigma's past self is in his future body and vice versa.  This was the end goal of the AB game - to do this so that the apocalypse could be prevented and humanity would be spared.
  • Akane pulls Dio's knife on Phi.  Sigma leaps in to save her, causing the catalyst of crisis to be triggered and sending his consciousness into the past...
  • PHI ENDING UNLOCKED
The Distant Past
  • Sigma jumps back in time to April 13, 2029 - the day of the annihilation reactors' detonation.  Here, he encounters a much younger Akane.  She says that Sigma will be going to the moon tomorrow, along with the pods containing Phi, Alice and Clover.  Phi herself volunteered to be frozen, though not the Phi we know from the future - the one who followed Sigma's future consciousness into a different point in the past.  She lays out what Sigma must do to ensure the future he saw comes to pass.
  • Akane knows nothing of what occurred at the Nevada test site.  Sigma will be on his own once he reaches that point in the timeline.  However, she does know that Sigma put himself at risk in there to save a woman's life, resulting in the loss of his arms and right eye (which has already come to pass at this point).  She was informed of this by his future self.
"Another Time"
  • In this scene, the player views events from Kyle's perspective rather than Sigma's.  Luna seems surprised that he knows who he is, saying he should still be "suffering from amnesia".
  • Moving about the facility, Kyle converses with the others.  Tenmyouji and Quark plan to return to Earth; Tenmyouji seems convinced that Sigma fails in his mission to stop the Radical-6 pandemic and intends to go on living, even in this harsh world.
  • Alice and Clover are rather resentful at their roles in the AB game, having been taken away from everything they knew to a future of death and devastation.  However, they acknowledge that their actions were a necessary part of the plan.  They apparently have a way to send their minds and bodies back to the past; they do not elaborate on this though, though, simply saying "Schrodinger's Cat" when asked.
  • Talking to Phi has her play a message from Dr. Klim, which informs Kyle that he has instructed Phi to answer any questions the others have, but not Kyle.  Kyle asks about Phi's identity, but she once again ducks the question, giving the same speech she gave to Sigma.  Kyle attempts to confront her about the mission at the Nevada site.  Phi gives no definitive answers, but says that she is an "X-factor" in the grand scheme of things and that telling Kyle would change history as he is about to go back to the past.  This is apparently because he knows things he shouldn't, as he was asleep in the pod the whole time.
  • Akane explains that the "Kyle" we've viewed Another Time's events through is not Kyle Klim, but another consciousness entirely.  Kyle's consciousness is now in the past, in December 25, 2028, and that his consciousness is part of Akane and Dr. Klim's plan to infiltrate the facility.  Kyle's consciousness is now in the mysterious visitor's body.  She says that the visitor can travel freely through time and space, and is not bound by the laws of this world.  Therefore, they are the only one who can save it...
  • AKANE ENDING UNLOCKED