DAY THREE: PROPHECIES AND OMENS
We resume our game mid-day, on our way to find a Chinese scholar. I didn't explore the warehouse area fully last time I was there, but that's where we'll find him.
Remember when in the first update I said to keep an eye out for the fence, which was then open? Well, now it's closed, which makes the warehouse behind it inaccessible. Keep this in mind.
Anyway we go through an alley and find this old man.
... who seems to already know us.
I am called Chang Li.
It is most gratifying to finally make your acquaintance.
How do you know who I am?
A man can learn a great many things if he knows how to listen.
What else have you heard?
Many things, William Hunter...
I have learned about the tragic death of a young girl who was the daughter of a powerful man in the government.
He's certainly got good sources.
It is also known by my humble self, and others, that you are investigating this affair.
What others?
Those who wish you ill.
That's ominous...
Celestial signs indicate a time of great change in this world, William Hunter!
Saturn in retrograde will soon be occluded by the moon in the constellation of Draco, the Dragon! Events of great pitch and moment are afoot!
The old order shall be destroyed, and the new shall take its place!
You alone can challenge the evil Bahumat and prevent ascendency of the Dark One. YOU are the Chosen One.
Chosen? By whom? What for? Old man, just what in the HELL are you running off at the mouth about?!
Please to stop asking so many silly questions and let me finish.
Signs, portents, omens, sheep entrails, and fortune cookies have all foretold of the coming battle with the Dark One.
They also predict that a hero will arise to combat him.
Remember THE prophecy that the drunk mentioned? Well, Blade does, which slightly affects the following couple of lines.
Is this the 'hero' who gets chopped into thousands of itty-bitty pieces?
Yes, but that's only half of it.
There's more?!
Yes, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.
At this point, you can manipulate the conversation into a couple of directions. Telling him to fuck off will get you nowhere, the other options just give more or less information before funneling back to the main branch.
Process of elimination.
What do you mean?
The minions of the Dark One have eliminated all my other candidates.
But please to let me offer you my humble assistance to aid you.
Well, this is what we came for isn't it?
Hmmm... Intriguing!
Note the time and place..
Fine, but what the hell does it mean?
The ancient scrolls say he used the power of evil to transform himself into a Dragon to terrorize and destroy his enemies. His ultimate goal was to restore chaos and rule the world in darkness!
Bahumat and his minions destroyed many cities and killed and enslaved thousands of people!
What happened to him?
Not to interrupt, please. I'm coming to it!
According to legend, he was finally overcome by the power of a white magician named "Gin-Su", which means "knife" in your language.
Blade... Knife... get it?
The date on the piece of paper translates to August 3, 2053, on your calendar. As for the name "Hollywood", it is completely unfamiliar to me.
So Bahumat is gone forever, right?
Not precisely. There is a prophecy foretelling his return:
"His evil shall become an addiction in the soul of mankind, and death shall be a blessing to those he has touched.
Sounds like a lot of baloney to me!
Please not to judge things you do not understand.
What you believe at this juncture is irrelevant. Time will prove the truth of what I have spoken to you.
Now I must render you what aid I can.
Here are ancient talismans of protection and good fortune to carry on your person at all times.
First: Tome of Ancient Wisdom, given to me by most aged and honorable father.
Second: Stone of Life, blessed by Lama.
And third: If all else fail, bullet-proof vest, Kevlar, made by DuPont.
Spot the odd one out...
Also, please to have this fortune cookie!
Thanks for all your help, Chang Li.
And that's it for what amounts to this game's infodump. It's a typical Chosen One scenario, but I like it better than most, thanks to a couple of nice subversions.
Now, let's have a look at all the items Chang Li gave us.
Some kind of code maybe? Nothing we can do much with for now.
Note the joke with the guarantee.
The animation for the object flips each page, and they all have this and nothing else on them.
Now I'll go ahead and spoil things a bit: two of the items are useless, and none of them is actually required. That's right, the entire sequence, starting with finding the safe at Chen Lu's, is purely optional. However, since we've gone this far, who could resist using that bullet-proof vest!
So we go into the inventory, take the coat off, put the vest on, then put the coat back.
And just as we leave Chang Li...
I am pleased. You have done well.
Thank you, sir.
Soon the whole world shall hear the dragon's roar!
Victory is nearly ours!! Long live Bahumat!
Oops.
Not good.
Remember Chang Li's translation? August 3, the date when Bahumat returns? That's
tomorrow.
Anyway let's return to Karyn for a bit of lulz.
Not much, Will. That lab report you wanted isn't ready yet, so you'll have to come back later.
Is there anything you'd like me to take a look at?
Yes, there is.
It's a book, Blade. People used to read them a long time ago.
I know it's a book! I was hoping you could tell me something about it.
What can I tell you, Blade? Have you read it? It looks like a kid's book.
Is there anything else you'd like me to take a look at, Blade?
Yes, there is.
Are you getting soft in the head, Blade? It's just a fortune cookie.
What's the message mean?
I can't make any sense out of it. It looks like some type of code.
But what does it
mean?
Is there anything else you'd like me to take a look at, Blade?
Yes, there is.
Oh Blade, it's beautiful! Thank you!
Uh.. Err... Yeah, I knew you'd like it.
Thankfully for Blade (and us), as far as I know there is no other use for the stone anywhere in the game.
Is there anything else you'd like me to take a look at, Blade?
Come back if you need me to make another computer run for you later.
See you later, Blade.
Alright, translation's done, lab results for tomorrow... this leaves us with only one lead to pursue.
Johnny Qwong, the mysterious associate of the late Chen Lu (and, if you haven't noticed, the guy in the "meanwhile" segments).
Notice that the Reservoir location has now appeared, thanks to Chang Li's translation. We will deal with it later.
The place is pretty heavily guarded. There's no way in and no way to meet Johnny Qwong in person. But there is an entry to the sewers... maybe they'll lead us into the mansion?
They don't actually, but they do lead us to something even more interesting...
Johnny Qwong's VidPhone terminal.
The schematic on the panel gives you an idea of where to place the connections in order to tap into the line. Of course it doesn't tell you exactly what to do - that would be way too easy!
Now, there's the small matter of the lock. Fortunately, Blade's got what it takes.
Easy
And here's the inside of the panel. Using the wire tester on it...
Welcome to one of the most FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU inducing puzzles of the 90's! The goal is simple enough: you need to connect the three leads to the appropriate slot. The "guide to being a PI" has some hints on what should go where, and the diagram on the front of the panel also helps. The game even lets you place the leads in any order!
That's about the only concession it gives you.
See, there's two things you need to get right. The lead you're placing needs to go EXACTLY where it should, but you also have a succession of very narrow windows in which to place the leads. Get the location OR the timing wrong and you're rewarded with this:
The music that plays while you get the short-circuit animation is absolutely guaranteed to erode your nerves, if constantly dying and reloading doesn't.
Hey, no problem right? Just relax, take it slow, take it easy, one lead at a time, breathe deep... I mean it's not as if we're in a hurry or anything!
Did I mention this sequence is on a timer?
Remember the giant rats the bum above-ground mentioned? Well, this is what happens if you spend too long (read: a few minutes,
game time) trying to work out how the puzzle works:
So, what's the trick? There are a couple. The most important one is timing. See those two gauges at the top? There's even an electric sound effect you hear when they go into the read. YOU NEVER, EVER DO
ANYTHING WHEN THE GAUGES ARE IN THE RED. Touching any of the leads (whether to put it or remove it) results in an instant, no-warning death. Once you figure this out, the puzzle becomes
much easier.
The other trick is actually spelled out in the guide (and is possibly the only really useful information in it). See the two LEDs on the bottom right? If you place a lead in the incorrect spot, the red light will start flashing and you should IMMEDIATELY remove that lead. The reason this is trickier than it sounds is because of the above caveat: if you notice the LED is flashing while the gauges are going into red, you need to wait for them to go back to green before you touch the lead, otherwise you'll get fried. But by the time the gauges go back to green, you'll have been fried anyway because of the incorrect placement. It's a cruel game.
Fortunately, I've already played through this a zillion times, and the front diagram pretty much tells you where to place the red lead: on the red wire, as close to the battery as possible. The blue one is a little trickier, because the arrow points to two locations, but placing it on the black wire again near the battery gives us a flashing red light, while placing it at the other end of the wire gives the soothing green light. As for the yellow lead, the diagram only gives you the general location: one of the eight yellow connectors on the right-hand side. Trial and error is the only way to go here, but soon we have all leads placed in the right spot.
Success! We have defeated the most cunning puzzle in the game.
Now let's head back to Blade's and listen in on our new friend's friends.
And this was the purpose of all this: get the real identity of the "voice of Bahumat", a.k.a. Deng Hwang... except both us AND Blade already knew this from seeing his name on Chen Lu's VidPhone... but we'll let that slide.
I have received some unsettling news concerning a possible disruption in our production schedule.
There must be no further delays, Brother Qwong!
I want you to personally continue checking on progress down at our warehouse.
You will resolve this situation quickly. Good day.
Note: Deng Hwang almost always ends his calls with "good day". A rather interesting quirk, considering he's in the business of making people's days as far from good as possible.
Notice that, now that Blade knows about Deng Hwang, a location shows up on the travel screen.
Anyway, this brings us to the game's other plot inconsistency. Hwang just mentioned the warehouse. Fine and good... except once again both us AND Blade already knew about the warehouse from The Jake, who even told us where it was. However, that wasn't enough to be able to do anything about it. BUT, now that Hwang's mentioned it...
Look! the fence is open again! for no reason whatsoever...
Here's how it works: the fence is initially closed. Then, once you open the cabinet in your apartment (after getting the keys), it seals off, and only unseals after you wiretap Qwong's VidPhone. It's worth noting because this entire business with the warehouse is the only situation that really feels like an adventure game puzzle. You'll have noticed that everything else is so well thought out that it always makes sense in-universe. It's one of the game's major strengths as an adventure game, IMO.
Anyway, let's have a closer look at what's going on in there...
Remember this scene? Well, The Jake did mention that "somebody should take those bastards out!"
If you noticed, there's a bunch of power thingies on the side of the warehouse, in the previous screen. I wonder what'd happen if these were short-circuited... after all, there were all these mentions about safety margins and the reactor blowing up.
TAKE COVER!
No shit, Sherlock.
Well, let's go home and see if this has had the desired effect.
Well well well...
I have just learned that our downtown warehouse was destroyed by the former police officier William Hunter.
Your security precautions were clearly inadequate, Brother.
Please come to our factory headquarters on the northern outskirts of the city to discuss this matter immediately.
Good day.
Yep, someone's definitely pissed.
On the plus side... remember that the fulfillment of The Prophecy was for tomorrow? Well guess what? it's not anymore
That's enough for one day. Before we let Blade go to bed, I'll show you what happens if you wander around town too late until Blade just falls asleep:
Upon waking up, you'd find most of Blade's possessions gone. I
think that only non-essential items vanish, but since some non-essentials are only that because of multiple paths, it is possible if you've closed off one path to find yourself in a permanent dead end. So it's just safer to make sure you go home as soon as you get Blade's bubble about being tired.
Notice the small detail in the picture. It is not just a fancy.
To be continued...