Chapter 9 Episode 17: System of Karma 2

Things pick back up on Arc’s side of things where that black hole thingy is floating in the air while the wrestler mobs facing her are posing like the goofballs they are. Arc asks what the hell that thing is, and Tiger Man says that as long as they have that, they’ll make Arc one of them too.

The wrestlers all line up for another pose, and Tiger Man starts talking about how they’re in the middle of selling their merchandise. Right now they have a Tiger Man Mask available too, except before he can continue hawking the things Arc strings them all up while he’s winking for the camera.

Arc says it was dumb of them to line up like that in front of her as she hangs Tiger Man from a beam. He in turn says it’s such a heel move of her to attack them while he was on the mic. In fact he’s so impressed that he wants to recruit her to their squad. Arc asks who they are and if they came to attack the Crafters.

Arc says she’s willing to put the screws to them and won’t hold back like you would. She’s interrupted as a couple of wrestler mobs run in declaring it’s interview time and ask Tiger Man how he’s feeling at the moment, holding up a mic for him. Tiger Man starts mugging for the camera playing up how badly off he is and yelling about how he won’t lose. His lucha soul is unbreakable, and he won’t give up even with victory odds of 1%!

The interviewer mobs say that was nice and refer to Tiger Man as senpai. They also say they can quote him on that for their next line of goods and that the sales corner will be going crazy. A bunch of wrestlers start cheering for Tiger Man in unison, and he in turn thanks them for it. Arc tries to rerail things back to a normal conversation, but Tiger Man calls himself the indomitable luchador. Then he activates his artifact and fires strips of rubber from his uniform at her.

Arc says she’s already seen that in action so it’s not going to work. Also since it’s rubber, she activates the flame power of her chains to melt it. Tiger Man yells about how he’s burning up as he struggles in the chains, and narration says he still seems to be trying to find the best pose to show off while he’s at it. He acts like he’ll actually lose when a voice calls out.

Some other wrestler mobs show up to help him, and he asks why they’re there. The mobs say they don’t want anyone else beating him and claim their chances of winning multiply by 1000% if they work together. The interviewer mobs act all shocked and says those particular mobs are the Three Olmeca Warriors who lost to Tiger Man last series. Apparently they’re legends and play it up to be the alliance of the century.

Arc has no idea what they’re talking about and comments about feeling strangely alienated. But the way they keep going on and on makes things easier for her, and she strings them up next as they prattle on. She then says she can’t have them underestimate her, the Genociders guildmaster. She tries again to interrogate them when she’s caught by surprise as something appears from Tiger Man’s shadow to attack.

The thing attacking Arc is described as not moving like it has a humanoid frame. Arc manages to dodge its consecutive attacks and tries to bind the thing. But when she shoots out her chains to snag the thing’s limbs, it passes through like it’s made of smoke and continues to attack her.

Scene then shifts to your side as you breathe hard and say you have to hurry as Arc and the others should be in battle. You’re running through some hallway leading back to the surface, quickly climbing some stairs and holding onto the sword that Hephaestus has only just repaired.

You think back to what Hephaestus told you while you’re on that staircase, and a flashback starts up. He says there’s more he wants to talk about but he knows you need to hurry back. As such, he’s done a temp repair job for you as he hands you back your sword.

You either ask in shock about how it’s turned back to normal or ask if he fixed it for you. Hephaestus thinks you might be misunderstanding something, but explains that it wasn’t physically broken. Normally even if an artifact were to be destroyed in an attack, it’ll revert to normal if the app turns off. You either point out there’s still a crack in it, ask about its current state, or say turning the app off didn’t do anything.

Hephaestus says there’s only one thing that doesn’t revert when the app stops. That would be memories, the light sealed in an artifact and accumulated information. He also says an artifact is a vessel that works by taking in the faith and memories of the majority.

Your artifact is supposed to have the gathered faith and corresponding powers from 23 worlds. Hephaestus says Something was added to it, which may have exceeded the supposed capacity limit. In which case the artifact meant to gather memories might end up breaking. He’s never heard of it happening before though.

Hephaestus does tell you that he guesses that your artifact might be trying to shed its husk and reincarnate into a new form. You ask for further explanation, so he obliges, preemptively apologizing if he isn’t clear since he’s been told his explanations are hard to understand.

Anyways, Hephaestus says it’s all theoretical, but he gets the feeling that it’s like an egg hatching into a chick. But just as living things need nutrition to grow, your sword will need a bigger vessel. You either ask about it taking a new form or about needing materials. He says that you don’t have enough Dark Matter. He’s used what he has on hand to fix it, but it still isn’t enough. Hephaestus also tells you his intuition says says it’ll go over the limit again soon.

You either blow that off and ask if Solomon is okay or ask if you can see Solomon again if you have the materials. Hephaestus asks if Solomon is the name of the Exception of your artifact that took the shape of a dragon. You then ask about Solomon being an Exception, and he tells you it’s the embodiment of a concept that has lost its vessel streaming from the cracks of a system. They’re supposed to take the form of an artifact’s former owner.

Anyways, Hephaestus says he’s never heard of a case where it was possible to communicate with an Exception. But if part of your memories were cut off from the artifact and given its own concept, he thinks that should make it possible to talk to it. You decide you don’t care whether Solomon is an Exception or not and ask him to tell you if Solomon is okay.

Hephaestus goes quiet as he activates his eye and looks at the blade of your sword. He then tells you he can see him past the cracks in the system, but he seems to be scared. To Hephaestus it looks like Solomon is afraid of leaving the egg, shivering like a chick. He then realizes he’s like himself. You are either relieved he’s okay or ask Hephaestus what he means about being the same as him.

Hephaestus doesn’t answer the question if you go with C, then tells you that just because an artifact is broken doesn’t mean the Exception disappears. The artifact itself is supposed to be a safety valve, meant to hold dangerous concepts and make them safely usable. Your sword is especially unusual even amongst artifacts with a second safety installed.

Hephaestus says that if Exceptions went away that easily people wouldn’t be afraid of them. Then he starts telling you something someone he knows told him, about how an artifact is like part of your body. If you don’t know yourself it will never respond as exactly as you envision, he says as he thinks about Talos for a second.

Hephaestus then continues. If you are prepared to understand it and think of it as a part of yourself, it will surely answer you. Back to your case, if Solomon is a part of your memories... you either say Hephaestus’s name or stay quiet. Hephaestus apologizes for only giving you guesses and not being like an engineer. But for now he recommends against you going two sword style, which I guess is what the sword overlay is. Having the concepts flowing through your body like before every time will probably drive you insane.

Anyways, Hephaestus says that if you’re going to use it he’ll reforge it for you. And if you have the materials he’ll make a bigger sword. He’s about to say more when you either call him by name or address him more politely. You then thank him as you grab his hand or hug him.

Hephaestus is confused at first before realizing that he could have just done this instead, and nearly starts crying over how stupid he was. If you happen to pick C there’s an extra part that kicks in here where he freaks out a bit at being treated like this, blushing red and fainting with a nosebleed.

Flashback time is over as the scene shifts back to the workshop as one wrestler notices the ground shaking for some reason. You burst through some door and either yell about how long the hallway was, parse that you’re back to where you were earlier, or say you’re back up top again.

The wrestlers recognize you and ask where you’ve been. You either say you’re here to help Arc and the others or tell the wrestlers to get out of the way, starting the episode battle.