So it’s been three days since the SciLab fire, and Lan hasn’t shown up for school, instead staying in a funk in his room. Mayl and Yai pay him a visit to see what’s wrong, and to ask how his father’s doing. Yuuichiro’s still being hospitalized but he’s better than before, and Haruka has been spending all of her time with him. Yai tells Lan that he should come back to school, both so that people can see that he’s okay and to celebrate his solving of the incident. At this Lan snaps at them to go home and leave him alone, something that Yai’s all too pleased to do in the face of that attitude. The two depart, and Lan mutters that he has no right to show his face to anyone anymore.
This would be the part where he’d no doubt get a Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! slap or punch from Megaman if he had a physical body, but since he doesn’t he asks Lan how long he’s just going to sit here and do nothing but sulk. He can’t just take things out on his friends, he needs to make amends for his mistakes and move forward. At this the doorbell rings, and Megaman suggests that Lan takes the opportunity to apologize to his friends.
The person at the door is neither Mayl nor Yai however, it’s actually Chaud, whom we haven’t seen in a while. Lan thinks he’s here to arrest him, much to the other boy’s puzzlement. Chaud’s actually here to give Lan a request from the Officials. After quickly reiterating the purpose of the Tetra Codes and the threat that Alpha, whatever it is, poses, Chaud explains that there is one thing left that can stop the WWW. In good ol’ JRPG/anime convention this trump card is called the Forbidden Program, and it has the power to freeze any program, even Alpha. The Forbidden Program is allegedly located in the Undernet, in the care of a Navi known only as S. In short, the Officials want Lan and Megaman to find and retrieve the program for them. Chaud can’t do it because everyone knows him and Protoman, whereas Lan and Megaman are still civilians.
Lan turns Chaud down, and tells him the truth of his role in the SciLab fire, saying that he doesn’t have the right to help the Officials after this. Chaud cuts him off, saying that he’d really have to arrest him if he says anymore. Chaud tells Lan to go visit his father, and then if he’s changed his mind about the mission, to come and see him at the Virus Lab. Finally, he tells Lan that as far as he’s concerned, Lan never told him anything. He owes him at least that much for what he did at the N1. Well look at that, Chaud’s finally becoming less of an asshole. One of the few pieces of character development that actually sticks throughout the rest of the series.
Before I visit Yuuichiro, it’s time to start plugging away on a trading chain that I never got around to doing until now. It starts off with trading a Bubbler C (gotten via S-ranking Shrimpys) with a little boy in class 5-B for a Wide Sword C, then trading that with a woman standing in the editing room hallway at the TV station for a Recovery 120 S. Next, we trade that with an old woman in ACDC for a Dyna Wave V. The next step in the chain is a man in the hospital lobby’ll take that in exchange for a Grab Back K, and while she isn’t there yet later in the game Jennifer from the N1 will be in one of the battle rooms at Hades Isle to trade that for the Mega chip Zeus Hammer Z.
So, Yuuichiro is being kept in the same hospital room that Yai was in earlier. When Lan arrives his father is in conversation with Sean
◊, the boy who was unmasked as the Gospel Admin at the end of Battle Network 2. They’re discussing how at the end of that game it was revealed that Sean had been manipulated into forming Gospel and started the Super Navi project on the suggestion of a mysterious figure behind the scenes. Sean explains that it was an unfamiliar Navi, probably operated by Wily himself, who had told him to do the things that he had. They stop talking as soon as Lan enters, and after some quick greetings Sean takes his leave, saying that he needs to go to SciLab for something. His mugshot’s been altered a bit to look less surly, so I guess he’s doing okay. Yuuichiro explains to Lan that Sean’s been helping out the Officials and doing everything that he can to make up for his crimes, which strikes a chord with Lan since he’s just been running away from things. Lan confesses everything to his father, who after processing it tells his son that he did the right thing and that like Sean he has to find ways to atone. Lan says that he’ll go to Sci Lab and hear Chaud out. Also, we get an email about something the Virus Lab has developed called the Virus Breeder, providing even more incentive to go.
There’s no sign of Sean at SciLab, but there is a new device set in the Virus Lab that needs explaining. The concept behind the Virus Breeder is simple – by finding and capturing benevolent viruses they can be sent to the Breeder and converted into battle chips. These viruses are found at set locations throughout the Net, and these are the ones that can be found so far:
- Mettaur – on the platform where the skull door was in ACDC 1
- Spikey – within the computer that connected to the Undernet 2 Bug Frag merchant on Hades Isle
- Swordy – in Undernet 1, on one of the side paths on the upper level
- Jelly – at a dead end near the entrance to the Undernet in Beach 2
- Mushy – in SciLab 2, in an open area near the entrance to SciLab Square
- Momogra – where Beastman was fought in the Zoo Computer
- Killer Eye – towards the upper-right corner of the first area of the Principal’s laptop
Once inside the Breeder by talking to the man beside the device Lan will receive a battle chip for each virus family. The way these work in battle is that the game will quickly run a roulette that will cycle between each member of the family and whichever one it lands on either when time runs out or the player hits A will execute its basic attack, which is obviously more powerful when used by the stronger version of the virus.
Additionally, Megaman can visit the viruses inside of the breeder itself and feed them Bug Frags, powering up the attack of whichever virus version is being fed. I think the max amount of Bug Frags that can be distributed between the three is one-hundred, and upon hitting that Megaman is given a hint by a caretaker Program as to where the Omega version of the virus lies, giving the opportunity to send that one to the breeder and add that version to the roulette. I’ve never seriously used the virus chips since you can only get one copy of each outside of the Order System at Higsby’s and lucking out on the Chip Traders, but they are mandatory since they count towards completing the Standard chip library.
Talking to Chaud on the other side of the room gives us the skinny on the mission to the Undernet. The Undernet seems to have its own sort of hierarchy known as the “ranking.” The top ten ranked Navis are officially considered to be the ten strongest denizens of the Undernet, and the only way to meet a ranked Navi is by taking part in the ranking itself, upon which the competitors will fight it out to claim each others’ ranks and climb up the ladder. S seems to be ranked himself, so the best bet for meeting him is to enroll in this competition. That’s all the Officials know, so Chaud tells Lan that he’ll have to figure the rest out on his own. He gives Lan the Black Mind program, which will apparently make the denizens of the Undernet think that he’s one of them while it’s installed.
So we’ve got a fair amount of work ahead of us. Better take care of the next three jobs before embarking on this mission, because it’s rather long.
Job 17: Old Master
The client is a Navi in the SciLab’s vending machine. He says that he’s second-hand and that he’s starting to get curious about what his old operator’s up to. Our only clue as to the operator’s identity is that she was in ACDC Elementary’s yearbook and that her name is Anna Mori. In checking the yearbooks in the school’s teacher’s lounge Lan finds that that girl’s dream was to become a waitress. Well that’s easy enough, since there’s a café on Beach Street that always has a waitress standing outside of it. Talking to her reveals that she never sold her Navi, her PET had actually been stolen once. Huh. Talking to the client again nets us a Grab Revenge Y.
Job 18: Catching gang members
A Program in Yoka Square wants us to eliminate a gang of Navis who’ve been causing trouble in the area. After defeating all four members of the “Yoka Crew” we’re given a second Expand Memory item, increasing the Navi Customizer to its maximum size.
Job 19: Please adopt a virus!
A Navi in SciLab 2 has discovered some harmless Bunny viruses. Simply hand over fifty Bug Frags and the Bunnies are sent into the Virus Breeder.
Okay then, to the Undernet we go. There’s going to be a lot of back-and-forth in this scenario so we need a quick and easy way to reach the place. Going to Yoka and jacking in to Tamako’s stand is a good start, since it has a shortcut to Beach Square which isn’t located far from the Undernet entrance. While we’re in Beach Square there’s an actor Navi who’s having trouble getting into character for a villain he’s supposed to play. By talking to the guy with Black Mind installed he has an epiphany (basically sprinkle the dialogue with “Yo!” like he’s a stereotypical gangbanger) and gives us Team 2 * as thanks. This chip is one of the components for the powerful Prix Power Program Advance but I won’t be able to use it because one of the component chips can only be gotten in a section of the postgame that I won’t be able to access.
To enter the ranking we need to reach Under Square. The entrance is located in Undernet 3, and the path to get there is barred by a Heel Navi. He won’t let us through until we install the Black Mind program, and it has to be installed properly. No bugs. Like all squares there’s a BBS board and a set of merchants – this time a chip merchant and a program merchant.
- HP Memory – 12000z
- HP Memory – 16000z
- HP Memory – 20000z
- Time Bomb L – 4000z
- Air Sword * - 6000z
- Navi + 20 * - 7500z
- Old Wood W – 15000z
- Battery – 8000z
- HP + 300 – 20000z
- Beat – 10000z
- Tango – 10000z
- Set Metal – 5000z
I’m snagging Battery, since that attracts Elec enemies. Beat and Tango are unique in that they only work in player vs. player battles.
One of the BBS posts brings up a minor gameplay element involving the usage of certain chips. There are a small handful of chips in this game, the Old Wood available at this square’s shop being one such example, God Stone being another that only work if the battle chip Hole is active. The Hole chip can only be found in the postgame area as far as I know, and its effect is that it opens up a portal on one of Megaman’s panels. The idea I suppose is that the entities being used are summoned through it, though they aren’t actually summoned through it in the gameplay sense. The portals are required because we’re using them to summon up “entities of the dark” a concept which becomes central (to some dismay) to the next two games.
But that’s neither here nor there at the moment, the ranking is our concern. There’s a Heel Navi towards the right side of the square who will tell us (as long as we have Black Mind installed) that if we’re interested in the ranking to go stand by a large statue that’s in the center of the place. There’s also a teleporter near him that leads even deeper into the Undernet, but I’ll explore those areas later.
The statue vaguely resembles a figure with its arms crossed. After standing in front of it, suddenly ten Heel Navis also looking to get ranked jack in at the spot as well. The statue lights up and a voice begins to speak: out of the eleven participants only one will be allowed to enter the ranking. The contestants can fight it out in Undernet 1, 2, and 3 over who will win that right. All the Heel Navis disperse and Megaman heads out. We no longer need Black Mind, so I’m uninstalling it.
Challenging the Heel Navis is no different from any other battle with them – they simply consist of a virus battle. These battles can be a little tricky for the unprepared though since we have to fight Omega viruses instead of regular ones. Once all ten challengers are defeated the disembodied voice contacts us again, saying that we’ve earned the right to challenge the ranked Navis. Rank #10 is found “where the evil fall”, it says. And with that it signs off and we’re left to find the Navi on our own.
Well that’s not too hard. Evil people are said to go to Hell, so the place to check out is Hades Isle. In its Cyberworld can be found what I’m going to call a Ghost Navi, since they float and are cloaked. Fighting them is no different from the challengers, Omega viruses included. However the game does play Great Battlers during all of the rank battles, which is nice. After winning the Navi gives Megaman the Rank 10 certificate (until the end of this scenario our current rank will be displayed in the top-right corner of the screen) and tells him to watch his back now that he’s ranked before jacking out. Once he’s gone Megaman realizes that they never asked him where to find #9. Well that’s a problem, but at least we’ve got a foot in the door now.
Virus Listing
- Dominerd
- These door/domino viruses normally block damage from all non-breaking attacks when their mouths are covered. They attack by warping directly in front of Megaman and chomping down on him, briefly leaving them vulnerable to conventional attacks. Higher level Dominerds tend to stay invisible and guard other viruses on the field. When struck they will become visible and attack Megaman. They use the Geddon chip to restrict Megaman's movement.
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