As meteors start falling from the sky while burning parts of the forest you start thinking what to do.
There's the fact that you haven't started TS session, so his whereabouts are unknown as of now. Also, you haven't finished the whole initiation process necessary. You need to retrieve the cruxite from the Cruxtruder and create your Session fee, as the Walkthrough said. And still, there's Umineko and Red.
Well, standing in the middle of the door while looking like an idiot to the sky never helped anyone. You snap from your own thoughts and get to the action.
The thing is, you have to decide between 2 things: Help TS or finish your initiation ritual?
Hunger: Finish initiation ritual
You've been so absorbed in your mind that you haven't noticed the Kernelsprite is still following you around. You take the cruxite from the Cruxtruder tube which looks like a really hard orange putty. You take the pre-punched card on your desk and assemble both that and the cruxite on the Totem Lathe. When you turn it on, the cruxite takes a weird form like a vase.
Last step is to alchemize the Session fee. There's a small platform on the Alchemiter, with an area more or less the size of the weird blue putty. You suppose that's the place where you should deploy it.
A strange robotic arm appears from the top of the Alchemiter and takes you by surprise, so you react and deploy your combat knife. However you calm once you see it centers it's attention in the cruxite. After some scanning a huge blue beam appears from it and…
An orange bush appears from the Alchemiter base. Suddenly, from one of its twigs a cluster of berries grows. What will you do?
Hunger: Help TS
You look behind and you notice the screen of your computer is flashing. You let the bush alone and proceed to your device.
toymakerScareless (TS) began pestering capitolRevolutionist (CR)
TR: heLP….
TR: a FREAKING METEOR SHOWER IN THE CAMPUS…
TR: ….
toymakerScareless (TS) ceased pestering capitolRevolutionist (CR)
CR: Soldier! o_o
CR: Don't give up! I'm on my way!
You open the Sfrub window. Apparently TS connected with you some time ago.
The screen shows TS alone on what it seems to be his campus building roof. He's running like a scared chicken. What will you do?
Hunger: Drop the Sfrub artifacts.
As fast as you can, you open the Phernalia Registry and look at the options. You look at the window and smile thankfully to TS for choosing a place with so much space. Then you start deploying the artifacts on a row, and finally the Pre-punched Card near TS. You close the window and proceed to do whatever you were doing.
Hunger: Eat the berries
You proceed to the Alchemiter, and take the berries. In that moment, the bush disappears, leaving you only with its fruit. The Kernelsprite is shinning like crazy.
You take a look at the base of your Cruxtruder. Well, the clock marks there's still less than 2 minutes ahead, so you think you're lucky. The forest, not so much.
As the berries touch your lips, you hear a metallic sound. You still have time so you check what caused it. You get off the Alchemiter and walk to your door, but before you can take another step, a laser hits the spot you were about to step on.
Startled, you look in front of you. Sentries, 4 of them. But these are different from the ones you knocked out didn't, and you can't put your finger on what. You take out your bow and prepare to Strife, when another laser knocks it off from your hand.
Now is the time. Bite the berries!
Hunger: Bite the berries
It all seems like in slow motion. You hang on the berries and take them to your mouth, and at the same time, the Sentry raises its arm and aims towards you. The berries touch your teeth and you open your mouth. The sentry shots a round. You can feel the berry juice in your mouth.
Or is it blood?
Just a few hours before.
You are now Red, in the same spot we left you in chapter 2. Well, time to face your destiny.
Sfrub is finally installed. A window opens, and there's a button that spells "Start", and over it, a text line reading:
-Server detected. Press Start to initiate connection
You press Start as commanded. Nothing changes from your point of view
Red: Answer Pesterchum
It appears TS wants to communicate with you. You open the Pesterchum.
toymakerScareless (TS) began pestering compulsiveCatcher (CC)
TS: -TS decides to run-
CC: -TS escapes safely-
TS: OK… let's talk of business…
CC: hiiiiiii :3
TS: HI… so, i will have to help you with this…
TS: SOrry if i'm being too cold but this thing is not as joke-matter as i though it would be
TS: SO let's behave with caution… ok?
CC: eeeeyup :I
TS: HAve you confronted your guardian…?
CC: nnnnuoooop
TS: WEll… you have to do it now…
TS: MEanwhile i'll deploy everything neccesary for your arrival to the medium...
CC: doooo i have toooo? :'(
CC: heeees too nicee D:
TS: WEll, you can attempt to catch him on one of your glasses, if that's what's bothering you
CC: hes tooo difficult to catch
CC: ... i will tryyyyyy :D
CC: thaaaanks ts your a good frond :-*
TS: FOr once say my name correctly...
compulsiveCatcher (CC) ceased pestering toymakerScareless (TS)
Red: Go downstairs and confront him
You check your Captchadex one last time. Yup, you have all the necessary things, and your Strife Deck is in order. You suppose it's now or never.
As you descend your staircase, you hear something in your head. It whispers you "It's time". That has to be your Guardian. Your skin shivers and you start feeling goosebumps all over your body. You feel the need of equipping one of your captured beasts, a TURKHEAT, caught in a fireproof glass bottle.
You're on your living room, scared as fuck. There's no sign of your Guardian anywhere. What will you do?
Red: Go to the dining room
You're moving but you feel like floating. Because of the adrenaline rush you don't notice you stamped your feet on the table. You accede to the dinner room and notice something weird. All the furniture is gone.
Then you hear a noise, like if someone was dropping heavy things on your house. You hear another sound, but this time a lot less noisy and coming from top of your head. Apparently you didn't unequip your Go-Goggles and someone is pestering you. You rush to a wall and put them on to see what's going on.
It's Umineko and TS, and as much as you would love to talk to them, you have more important things going on right now. Also you don't have a keyboard. You activate the Auto-responder for Umineko, and you're about to do the same for TS, but you see what he's typing
toymakerScareless (TS) began pestering compulsiveCatcher (CC)
TS: -TS decides to run-
TS: REddy... i'm sorry for destroying your living room
TS: BUt there wasn't any place where i drop this stuff
TS: BOth the alchemizer and the totem lathe are deployed there...
TS: BUt for the cruxtruder...
TS: OH... look... your dining room is empty...
TS: ...
TS: I'M such a dummy right...
TS: WEll... don't mind me...
TS: OH... and your guardian is on the kitchen
TS: BE prepared...
toymakerScareless (TS) ceased pestering compulsiveCatcher (CC)
So, your Guardian is on the kitchen right? Then you should move there. You remove your Go-Goggles and put them back on your head.
But as you try to make a step something appears in front of you. You really forgot important things right? As you forgot your Guardian can Teleport.
And that's how things are. Your Guardian, an humanoid beast the size of an adult, with protruding horns, weird appendices connecting parts of its body, a big head and a blue tail, appears in front of your eyes.
Guardianlog
Red: miiiister purrthree D: hiiii
Purrthree: "Hello my child"
Purrthree: "I can assume you know what day is this?"
Red: mmmmai burtday siiir?
Purrthree: "Correct. I hope you have a happy birthday"
Purrthree: "Even though I can't allow that to happen, sadly"
Purrthree: "You see, you know why we follow this millenary tradition, my boy?"
Red: nnnoupe :(
Purrthree: "It's quite simple, you see. To weed the weaklings. We lusus have the honorable task of watching for the human race"
Purrthree: "It may seem like the contrary, but the truth is, we're on even terms with all of you. If you manage to kill me on your twelfth birthday, not a single lusus will seek revenge, as they will see you as a full formed individual capable of defending yourself. On the other side, if I kill you, you will be mourned over, given a sepulture and I will be assigned to another baby to care for. I will train him or her like I did with you so he can kill me on his or her twelfth birthday"
Purrthree: "And the cycle will repeat"
Red: uuuuuuugh!111
Red: whiiiy do u wanna diiie? whiayyyy? i don wanna kill ya sir, i liiiiike you :'(
Purrthree: "You won't kill me entirely. If a lusus dies, he or she just reincarnates. Too bad your species can't, and I'm not meaning that in a spiteful way, but I really feel sorry."
Purrthree: "I also love you my child. That's why I'm looking forward you giving all your might and strength. Make me proud"
Red: …
Red: wwwweeell, tooooo bad :I
Red: yooooure a luuusus
Red: thaaaaaat means… I can catch you :)
Purrthree: "Well, let's see if you can"
Red: Strife!
You use Aggrieve!
You throw the bottle in your hand to a few inches from Purrthree. The bottle breaks and bits of it fly in his direction, sustaining minor wounds. A turkey comes out the ball and it sends some fireballs on his direction.
Your Guardian uses Auto-Parry!
Purrthree invokes a wall of light and blocks almost all the attacks, but a single fireball hits him on his knee. You prepare your next attack.
You use Aggrieve!
Turkheat sends another wave of fireballs, and this time, Purrthree blocks all of them with his wall.
Your Guardian uses Aggressive Counter!
Using his telekinetic powers, Purrthree makes your poor turkey levitate a few feets off the ground. Then he makes a motion with his hand and throws it to you. The impact is so strong the poor beast gets knocked off and you flinch, unable to do an action for the next turn.
Your Guardian uses Anti-air Punishment!
Now, all defenseless, your guardian uses an invisible force to make you levitate. He holds you from the neck, asphyxiating you slowly. You start to lose consciousness. What will you do?
Help Red
The only person who could even hope to help Red is TS. Would you like to be TS for a second?
Be TS
No time for introductions. You're in a crisis state but you actually have more time than Red
As TS, you zoom in your friend's home, to the living room. He's not there. You zoom into the dining room. Then you see him, his guardian, and a unconscious turkey on the floor. What will you do?
TS: Drop something heavy on the Purrthree
There's nothing on the dining room besides the Cruxtruder, and you can't lift that one, so you return to the living room. There's a small sofa, a table, some bookshelves and a TV station. What will you take?
TS: Take a bookshelf
You try to fit a bookshelf on the door, but unfortunately, it doesn't accede. You throw it violently at the door frame and it makes a hole on it. The bookshelf touches Purrthree but he repels it with a psychic attack. So your plan of dropping something on him won't work. Think! Red doesn't have much time left! The Cruxtruder is still lying there… That's it!
TS: Open Cruxtruder
You know that by opening it, you're giving him another death sentence, but at least this one will allow him more time to live. You take another bookshelf, and using the now wider "door", you drop it on the Cruxtruder. It bounces off to Purrthree, who repels it without breaking a sweat.
The Cruxtruder opens, and sends off a red light. In that moment, a small red ball emerges from it and looks for Red. However, on his path it meets Purrthree, who, for some reason, doesn't make any attempt to evade it…
Be Red again
As Red, you collapse on the floor. You're exhausted, breathless and have this huge urge to barf on the fine tapestry your cherished Guardian has bought for your pleasure. Speaking of which… Why did he stopped chocking you?
You look in front of you and see him. But he looks different. More reddish, and he also has another kind of tail. Oh and he glows?
Congratulations! Your PURRTHREE evolved into a PURRTHREESPRITE!
What will you do?
Red: Attempt to communicate with new form of life
Spritelog
Red: siiiir? issat u?
Purrthreesprite: "… I'm afraid so"
Red: wiiiill u try to kiiilll me now siiir? D:
Purrthreesprite: "… I don't think so"
Purrthreesprite: "You see, my child, I'm not your Guardian anymore. Well, not as a social title, I will still look for your well being though. I don't have any obligation to attack you, au contraire, it is now my duty to protect you at any cost"
Purrthreesprite: "Now, get on your feet again. There's still more to do. Like commuting with your friend there"
You look at what Purrthreesprite is pointing at. Apparently both Umineko and TS are pestering you. But you will attend those conversations in a moment. You still have to give your Guardian a peace hug.
What will you do now?