3. Don't Mess with the Program
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"Annnd... Check it."
"No more unresolvable errors?"
"Nope. The strings're gone."
"Great," Player sighed in exasperation. "I really hope that's all for now."
"Aight! Lemme know how it goes."
"Okay!" Player then announced to their audience. "Day two with Plus! Let's hope I can finish it this time." With their collective affirmations of approval, Player opened it. After selecting their name and clicking on Hide and Seek, a very faint voice played as it loaded. They didn't pick up on it, but it made their Baldi flinch.
"What's up, Professor?" M asked. With a look of unease, Baldi turned to him.
"I heard him- the other me, say something," He responded, "I'm sure it was, 'You did something, didn't you'."
As wary as Player actually was, they boldly spoke, "Yeah, well, he can shove it." Principal looked like he was contemplating something, but luckily did nothing else.
This particular seed revealed a playground; in fact, that was where the game decided to spawn Player. It almost felt like a homefield advantage - no stamina loss while running, after all. Even so, they kept Plus' Baldi in their gaze as they took off to find the notebooks. When far enough away, they heard the countdown, turning around as they were stopped by a tree. In its branches was the apple item, creatively titled, "An Apple For Baldi".
They briefly remembered the various reactions YouTubers made when they used it for the first time, and snorted. When it came to sharing those videos with the AIs, they saw Baldi shamefully look to the others and stammer out a "Do I eat like that?!"
M was caught up in a wheezing fit, Sweeper had the expression akin to seeing a train crash in slow motion but couldn't look away, and all Player could do was shake their head, but Baldi couldn't see it. So, it was Principal who grabbed his shoulders and clarified, sternly, "No."
Back to now, Player continued on their way, as they couldn't grab it without a Grappling Hook. They looked back at Plus' Baldi again, briefly. However, from their copy, he abruptly rose from his seat and called out, "He's peeking! That cheater!" With a start, Player whipped around to see. All appeared normal. They glanced over at their Baldi, who was giving a disapproving face. "And now he's pretending. But I know what I saw, yes siree!"
"Don't worry, I believe you," Player replied calmly as they finally continued on, "That's said to be super rare, too. Though, it doesn't seem to affect anything, where we're concerned."
Strangely, as they began to find out, all the chalkboards were the same now. No matter the room, whether for classes or faculty-only, every single one of them read, "Baldi says: You can't hide from me! Haha!"
This time around, the random event activated quickly - the one about a party in the detention room. They went to it, and their present was...
"Oh, wow; lucky! That'll work!" They couldn't help but smile. It was the Apple.
Then, on the final notebook for the floor, Player overheard the ruler-smacking's tempo increase considerably.
"Wait, hang on. He's not supposed to be that fast; not on the first floor!" They uttered, leaving the classroom, "In fact, I don't think he ever gets close to that- OH, HIII!" Right down the end of the hall appeared the professor in question, and his speed was as if they'd gotten all the questions wrong in Classic.
"Run! You gotta RUN!" From their copy, Sweeper proclaimed. The other three had similar comments, though some could've been considered backseat-gaming.
As Player sprinted, they looked back every few seconds. "HOW IS HE SO-" They yelled, interrupted by the filter's beep. "-ING FAST ALREADY? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" In only a few moments more, Plus' Baldi got in close and
"An apple? For me? Thanks!" Oh yeah, they still had that. Without thinking, Player booked it, but ran out of stamina. They immediately detoured and used a water fountain.
"Okay, haha, maybe this'll buy me enough time," They spoke again, trying to settle down but was clearly rattled. Then, it slowly became panic as they asked, "Uh... Where is the elevator?!" They checked their map, thankful that it essentially paused the game. After taking a minute to breathe, they inspected where they'd explored, and got jittery all over again.
The one elevator for this floor, at the playground in the beginning, was all the way on the other side. To Player's credit however, the pathing to the notebooks they needed was absolutely inefficient. It was then that they seemed to understand, a familiar feeling taking root. They took another breath.
"Okay. So that... Jerk," Player meant something stronger, but resolved to toning down the language, "Wants to go hard mode. I get it now. Well, if he won't pull any punches, then neither will I!" After looking over the floor plan one last time, they closed the map, before promptly taking off.
"Fear... Became determination," Principal mused from the other side, although Player couldn't see his small smile. "Go get 'em." It was in his usual, tired tone, and yet it helped.
Player proceeded to scour more rooms, ones they initially passed over, snagging as many items as they could carry. At last, the playground was in sight, and they just barely made it in. They bought the map from Johnny's store, and... Saved and quit, followed by re-opening and loading.
"Not taking any chances..." Were their words.
Floor two was just as bad, if not worse. They had to memorize where the two elevators were, or else face the same problem as before. More characters were here, but Player was prepared. The old version of Playtime approached, and on instinct they used their pair of Safety Scissors.
"Sorry, Playtime; not today," They couldn't help but murmur. Elsewhere they saw Arts and Crafters, only for Player to open a can of BSODA. "Please forgive me..." Even later still was It's A Bully. They sighed, before blowing on the Principal's Whistle. "... I don't feel like trying my luck. Next time."
From afar, Plus' Principal of the Thing called, "Don't worry. I'm coming."
Another event, certainly much more than Player anticipated happening. Now it was the malfunctioning fog machine, which messed with their view for a while. Luckily, their filled out map was unaffected.
Since 1st Prize wasn't present, they opted for a Grappling Hook, thankfully won in the other fieldtrip, camping - which, as well as farming, had long ago undergone a makeover. Now, one needed to solve math problems by matching the falling equations with their respective campfire answers.
Back in the level, they found the last notebook, and like before, that Baldi got extremely fast. With a route planned, Player rounded the hallway, aimed, then fired. The grappling hook pulled them down the corridor right as Baldi got near them. Once they reached the end, they turned to the elevator and got in.
Two down, one more to go. This time, along with the filled-out map, they bought a few more items for the long haul. Saved, quit, re-opened, loaded. It was almost routine already.
Once in, they inspected the layout, and carried on. Immediately after getting the first notebook
SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
They jumped, before finding themself in the elevator... Which was now missing one of the three power tubes. They turned their attention to the other game, seeing the looks of surprise and confusion upon their audience's faces.
"What... Just happened?" Player then questioned aloud. None of them could answer.
They tried a second time, same result. Third time, they only went far enough away for Baldi to do the countdown. But afterwards he just... Stood there. It was very eerie. As soon as Player reached for a different notebook to grab, the end was the same.
Game over.
They sat there, puzzled. Of course, the obvious solution would've been to move 1.4.3C to a different computer, and try to finish Plus from there. But that'd involve recording the footage, and that was...
"Huh... Well, hang on," Player then said, and from the outside, picked up their phone and called Friend. They remained unmuted as they continued, "Hey. Yeah, it went sideways. He didn't like that we messed with the version check. Can't even beat it now." A sigh, and a pause. While they had this conversation, the faculty began their own, quiet enough however to not interfere with Player's.
"I really wish we could be of more help." Baldi was first to speak, saddened from the results.
"You mean like, actually being in there?" M asked.
"Are you nuts, man?!" Sweeper retorted. "It's not like we can just... Waltz on in there and make sure they win!" His words had the opposite effect on the music teacher, whose asymmetrical eyes lit up.
"Oh yes we caaannnnnn...!" He quickly got excited over the prospect, flying out of his seat. When Sweeper gave him an uneasy expression, he added, "Look, I'm living proof of that! Half of me came from-"
"Absolutely not," Principal firmly interrupted, "We aren't moving to Plus; it's too dangerous-"
"Who said anything about moving? We'd only be copying ourselves so that-"
"I won't allow it."
"Heh, yikes. Fine, we've got two 'nay's," M budged, before immediately turning to Baldi, "Professor! Surely you can see where I'm going with this, right? None of us will actually be in danger, Player can finally win the game, and hopefully we'll all have learned the mysterious secrets hidden away in Plus! Maybe even..." He paused, then added more seriously, "Where he is."
Although it was only recently that this certain someone was brought up, it managed to silence any further arguments that Principal or Sweeper could've come up with. It allowed Baldi the time to respond. And when he did, it was approached with calmness.
"Yes, I do understand," He started, "And, truthfully, we could do better to help them than..." He stopped, glancing over at Player, who was still engrossed in their phone call, judging from the words spoken. So, he looked back at M and continued, "... What we're doing now. At this point, that's pretty clear. But, I must ask: Is this the way, M?"
M relaxed from the words. "What else can we do? Go through every byte of space it has, or let ourselves be moved elsewhere until they're done? It's just... Not enough. And a boring way to write this arc." Principal made a face in his direction. "... For the history books."
"Still, the idea of us splitting off like that, and most definitely seeing our counterparts in person," Baldi pondered aloud, "I know you've already done it, but some of us haven't. Facing ourselves, and/or each other might have... Consequences."
"You just said that you wished we could do better..."
"Now now, I'm not trying to be a hypocrite-"
"We don't know until we try! And if it fails, Player will tell us!" M's voice was rising. He sounded so desperate. When Baldi stood up however, his drive faltered. The professor's face barely changed from M's perspective, but Principal could see it in the emotional percentages.
47% wary, 42% sad, and 10% irritated, along with a few other nondescripts that made up the last 1%.
Yet, all Baldi did was place a hand on the other's shoulder. "M. Please settle down." Under his hand, he could feel him shaking, fists clenching. "I know you want to find him. We all do. But we can't rush into something like this. You also need to consider that for us to know that it didn't work, Player would have to... Find out." M stared at him, before suddenly pulling back. He eyed each of them, his resolve dissipating.
It was as if he was seeing the worst outcome, through Player's eyes. It was too much.
"... Oh." Was all he uttered.
"But hey, don't worry; I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out!" The professor added, trying to remain hopeful. Then, there was silence.
Wait. Silence?
Snapping out of the moment, Baldi gazed over M's shoulder, and saw that Player was still present in the room, but they were watching them. The curveball left him scrambling for a way to salvage the situation.
"So...!" He finally addressed to them, deciding instead to get straight to the point, "How long exactly have you been listening?" M took this time to sit back down, dejected.
"... Long enough." Player answered, with unease.
"Oh! Sorry about that, I hope we didn't distract you or anything!" They shook their head. "Thank goodness! Anyway, is there anything we can do?" Player left the teacher's desk, approaching the four AIs.
"Look, I know you guys are mostly against it, and I get why," They replied, picking their words carefully, "But at this point, this might be our best option. Maybe not sensibly, but... It wouldn't be the same without you. Besides - and I'm going to be frank - I don't give a c... Crud? Yeah that, about beating Hide and Seek. All I want is to talk to the guy, and get our answers that way."
Before any of them could respond, Player confidently added, "Hear me out! Okay, so we've already messed with the game, so he's onto me. Which is why... We're about to do it again. Friend will add you in, but wait! The game checks for Filename2s and deletes them, right? So they'll get rid of THAT and it'll pose as our decoy!"
"Well, assuming we can also work around spawn points. If we do too much, he'll be-" A beep. It'd been Friend, who apparently was still on the line, set to speaker. "Oh, sorry. Peeved off." Player slumped from the critique.
"Yeah... But... We can deal...! Right?!"
"Why are you, uh... So on board with this?" M found himself asking, "The professor just went over how it could go horribly wrong..."
"Because!" Player stressed, unsure why this had to be spelled out for them, "One cheating son of a-" A beep. "With a ruler can't stop all of us!" Moments after, they realized their statement. "Oh. Oh my God. No offense, Professor."
"None taken!" Baldi immediately tried to reassure with a wave of his hands. "So you're sure about this? Through the danger and the... Possible mirror-matching?"
"Yeah! I know that we can handle this!" With their answer, Baldi faced the others.
"Alright, everyone. What do you think? Should we still give it a try?"
It took a bit longer, but the faculty came to an agreement, even going over a plan. Once done, the games were closed, and the changes were made.
It was going to be odd, no longer having two games to look over, no safety net to reach out to. But if this worked correctly, this would prove to be far better. Mentally preparing themself, they opened Plus.
The logos displayed, before the last one glitched. For a few frames, Player thought it switched between it and the anti-piracy image. The screen went black, before the logos started over. If the creeping feeling of worry that began to arise wasn't already justified, it was about to be.
Instead of the usual name select screen, Player was able to look around the area it was in - the white expanse with nothing on the horizon. In front of them however, was Plus' Baldi, who was giving them a grin, one that they were absolutely sure carried no happiness to it.
"Oh, hi!" He greeted, his tone sickly-sweet, "I see that we have a cheater around here!" The stressed word almost gave away what sounded like... A growl. "So, I went ahead and deleted your file. Not that, you know, you were getting anywhere to begin with." He chuckled, before finally handing the clipboard over to Player, who was able to take it.
And... Write messages. That was probably what he was counting on.
"The game would've kept crashing!" They wrote, showing the message to him.
"I know!" This was coupled with a matter-of-fact nod.
"Then, it became... Impossible! You can't appear right behind me IMMEDIATELY after the FIRST GODDAMN NOTEBOOK!" No filter on the clipboard? Well. No complaints there.
"You'll just have to be quicker next time!" That's all he had to say for himself. Despite the annoyance growing, Player finally realized that this was the opportunity they'd been looking for. Maybe if they just talked everything out, nothing would have to happen, and...
Yeah. Communication. That's all it should take!
"Okay, listen. I have some questions for you. Could you just tell me" They were stopped mid-sentence, before the text was backspaced.
"After all your attempts of sabotage? I don't think you're deserving of that!" To their surprise, Baldi answered. Okay, so maybe it made a little sense that he'd be angry, but...
"I've literally never been able to talk to a Baldi without doing unusual things." This time, they were able to finish writing.
"That was them, but this is me. And I... Don't care! No Q and As, and that's final." This was going nowhere quick. Player sighed to themself. Okay, new plan... New plan... Uh... Intimidation? Whether or not it came through, Player glared up at him.
"You're in for a world of hurt." Baldi's face didn't waver. Instead, he simply tilted his head and replied.
"Oh, am I?" Player paused, not sure why he was taking it so lightly. Before they could think about it, Baldi added, "I know what you did. Brought in some friends to help even the odds! Well, I disposed of those dumb copies." Oh, great; so even that wasn't going to work. "... And kidnapped the real ones!"
Player's faux anger melted into genuine fear, trembling. "YOU DID WHAT?!" They shakily managed to write. Their cursor went straight to the close button.
"Ah-ah-ah!" Baldi waved a pointed hand to stop them. He sounded more sinister as he explained, still beaming, "Don't even think about closing the game to pull them out. You won't have the permissions for that."
Why, oh why, did Player not think of moving 1.4.3C onto another machine after the copying was done? In the end, they couldn't answer, so Baldi went on.
"Really, all you had to do was delete that version," The last word was spoken with a trace of venom, "Then all would've gone back to normal! But, given all the other..." He trailed off, as if looking into something, before his façade finally fell apart in order to cringe, "Variants, that doesn't seem like something you're capable of."
"You stole them... How could you..." Was all Player could put.
"You know, it's not such a bad thing!" The professor shrugged it off, composing himself once more, "I know that C-" A beep. Oh God. Did he just try to swear? "Was the one who tried to pry into my game, and now, I have him and his stupid little friends in my grasp! I should be thanking you; after all, if you hadn't pushed me so far..." He stopped to laugh.
"Give them back. They're MY friends too." Finally, Player had enough and demanded. Baldi stared down at them for a while. Then, he turned smug.
"Oh, I see. So it's personal," He responded at last. "I'll make you a deal, then. If you can beat my game, I'll set them free. No catch. Until then, they'll stay here, where you can't find them. How does that sound?" Player pondered over the offer. It sounded too good to be true, there had to be something he was hiding intentionally.
"Only if you play fair from now on. No crashes, no unusual speed, no sudden jumpscares. None of that shit." In the end, those were their terms, mostly. They still wanted to tack on one last thing, but not just yet. After reading, Baldi scoffed.
"Oh, believe me. When you lose, it'll be from your own failures." Player leered up at him again, not sure if they could trust his word. However...
"AND. When I win, AFTER you let my friends go, let me ask you things." They went for the kill anyway. Baldi rolled his eyes with a shrug.
"You ask for a lot of things, for someone who's done nothing but hack their way to victory. But sure, whatever. I'll humor that request." Bingo.
"Then it's a deal." They agreed at last.
"Glad to hear it!" Baldi returned to a more bouncy tone, but it only served to make Player sick. "Now, just enter your name, and we'll get started!" They did, but it was erased, Baldi shaking his head, shifting once again to a darker inflection. "Oh, no. Not that one. Besides, many people use it. I want to know who you really are - the true name of the fiend who decided to mess with my game."
This caught Player off-guard. They weren't sure what to do, or what to put in. They did, however, know that under no circumstances should they put in their real one; it was far too risky, considering the situation, and the insufferable AI asking for it.
In the end, they entered a name. Thankfully, it was accepted.
"Hm. I'm sure you picked one to shut me up, but alright! I'll go with it!" But it didn't fool Baldi at all. He cleared his throat, before disappearing along with the clipboard, the menu becoming visible in his place. Still, he spouted more dialogue, albeit different.
"Welcome, Jason! Since you're not new to this, you have no need to see the controls page! Or to select any of the other game modes, for that matter!" As Baldi spoke, the mentioned buttons and text appeared to fall from their spots and hit the ground, making crashing sounds as their very images broke apart and dithered away. Eventually, all that was left was Hide and Seek and the settings.
Player was still processing this event when the last of Baldi's words were uttered.
"Whenever you're ready, we'll begin the game!"
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