Beyond the Cyan door and Lock #4.
Unanswered Questions
- What is the purpose of the gravestone in the B. Garden, and why does it have a keyhole in it? It didn't pertain to the room's puzzle.
- What is the significance of the phrase on the tombstone? It translates to something along the lines of "What you are, I was; what I am, you will be."
- What is the full meaning behind the diagram found in the B. Garden? It certainly ties back into the events of the previous two Nonary Games...
The Theme of Nines
- One of the numbers on the scratch-off poster is a 9 (two if you flip the 6 for the second password).
- There are nine stars on the screen in the final puzzle of the B. Garden.
- The fictional polymorph Ice-Nine is mentioned once again here in relation to Alice (though, as in the first game, it turns out to be a red herring).
- The message Alice's father left is said to have been comprised of eights and nines.
Real-life references/themes
- Schrodinger's Cat is indeed a thought experiment concerning quantum mechanics.
- Agricola is a board game about agricultural resource management.
- The Prisoner's Dilemma is a well-known paradox/thought experiment about mutual cooperation (and bears some similarity to the current Nonary Game).
- Jell-o is a range of gelatin-based desserts.
Path Summary (Cyan -> Ally -> Blue -> Betray)
- Sigma goes with Phi and Alice to the Crew Quarters. Within he finds a book about Schrodinger's Cat.
- During the first round of voting, Phi explains the Prisoner's Dilemma. Sigma sees a version of future events where the facility is destroyed by a bomb (labeled #3).
- Sigma votes "Ally" while Alice Betrays, putting him and Phi at 1 BP and Alice at 6. (Strangely, Dio votes to Ally in this timeline).
- The group discovers a bomb, numbered "03", in the Crew Quarters. However, there is no clue to who planted it...
- The door choice is put to a vote, and Sigma ends up entering the Blue door with Alice and Luna. They end up in the B. Garden.
- Strangely, they find what appears to be a tombstone with a key in it. However, none of the keys they have fit in it...
- Leaving the room, they encounter Tenmyouji's group and discover that three people were cryogenically frozen in the Treatment Center until recently.
- Tenmyouji claims Alice is "All-Ice Alice" (mentioned throughout 999), though Alice denies it.
- They return to the Floor A warehouse, where K reveals that Quark has collapsed and is currently in the infirmary.
- Quark is diagnosed with Radical-6 and makes an attempt to commit suicide, but is stopped and sedated with Soporil.
- Alice shows symptoms similar to Quark's and flees the room, scalpel in hand. The rest of the group (sans Tenmyouji and Quark) splits up to look for her.
- Sigma finds Alice, along with Phi, in the B. Garden. Alice apparently passed out. They return to the infirmary, where Alice is revealed to also be infected.
- As the two are transported to the Treatment Center, a dose of Axelavir is found in Quark's pocket. Which means only one of the two can be cured...
- TO BE CONTINUED...
Beyond Lock #4
- Sigma remembers the "IG Replicator" in the laboratory and reveals that it can be used to make another dose of Axelavir. They head there to do just that, leaving Luna behind with Alice and Quark.
- The Axelavir is successfully duplicated, but the group discovers another bomb. Bomb #2, to be exact.
- Clover also finds a purple memory card under the bomb. They suspect it belongs to the same person who planted the bomb. However, with nothing to plug it into, they have no way of knowing for sure.
- They are interrupted by the AB game poll announcement and make their way back to the infirmary, where the Axelavir is administered. The group then returns to the warehouse to cast their votes.
- Sigma votes to betray despite Luna's wishes. However, they are surprised to find that Alice arose to pick "Betray" herself (she attributes this to her training). Sigma confronts her over this, claiming she tried to kill him.
- Suspicion is cast on Tenmyouji, Dio and Phi as well, as they picked "Betray"; had either group chosen to Ally, someone would have died. Distrust quickly spreads.
- Luna suggests to Sigma that they find a common goal to unite the other players; she suggests a common enemy, like the person who set the bombs. Sigma shows Luna the purple memory card, saying it could be a clue to the perp's identity.
- The two head to the infirmary, intending to use the computer there to view the contents of the card.
- They find a string of letters on the card, though they are unable to make any sense of them. Alice and Clover suggest it may be an encoded message from the Myrmidons.
- Sigma presses Alice for answers, but she refuses to answer, saying that Sigma could be one of her enemies, or even have set the bombs.
- Speaking further in the garden, Alice speaks of her history with the Myrmidons. Her father had been abducted by them when she was a child. Motivated by this event, she joined the Department of Defense and later SOIS, seeking her father's abductors. This led to her investigating a site where several of Free the Soul's founders had allegedly gathered (resulting in the ending scene of 999) and later to her taking Clover to join the SOIS.
- Hongou is revealed to have been a member of Free the Soul, and the original Nonary Game tied into their experiments with the morphogenetic field.
- Alice's father was killed during her and Clover's botched mission and left behind as a warning, though he did at least manage to leave a dying message for Alice ("a series of 8s and 9s" and a declaration of love for his daughter). The numbers turned out to be coordinates for the Myrmidon headquarters, allowing SOIS to launch an attack, planned for December 25, 2028. However, Zero's abduction prevented the attack from taking place...
- Sigma contemplates Alice's story, attempting to deduce who the Myrmidon agent is among them. Alice states that decrypting the code would be their best hope, but they need a key...
- TO BE CONTINUED [LOCK #5...]
