Vanellope's Bug Problem
Chapter Fifteen

I had just put RoadBlasters through a frenzy and had turned tail to get back to my game before RoadBlasters was unplugged. I had never driven faster in my life before then as I darted through the power cord.

I made it out of RoadBlasters just as the plug was pulled, and found myself riding over the Twins' karts like a ramp. I came down to see that my game had also been unplugged.

As I was processing what had just happened, I felt the Twins punch me in the shoulders.

"Have you completely lost your mind?!"

"What in da woild was dat aww about?!"

I said nothing as I parked my kart where my game had been plugged in. All I could do was process that everything I ever had in the world was now gone.

"I guess we're going to have to find a new game to live in."

"Awe you cwazy?"

"Who'd let us live in their game?"

"Dey definitewy won't wet you wive wit dem!"

"Not after what you did!"

"Well, we can't just sit in Game Central Station forever."

"So, what's da pwan, den?"

"If no one will take us in?"

"Well, you two would probably have better luck finding places to stay than me. I'd probably hurt what small chances you have with persuading someone to open their doors, so maybe it'd be best if you two sought shelter without me."

Crash shrugged. "I tink dat sounds agweeabwe."

Burn nodded. "So, what game should we look at first?"

As they headed off to contemplate their options, I re-boarded my kart and made my way to Fix-It Felix Jr.

I cut the engine as I approached the threshold of the game in order to assess the situation without being noticed. There was a game in progress, and all the characters were on the building acting out their scenario of Felix repairing the building being destroyed by Ralph as the big man fought to reclaim his land.

I hopped out and slowly wheeled my kart behind the pile of bricks at the far end of the game to see how the game played out.

The closest I came to being spotted was when Ralph was bulldozed into the dump during the introductory cutscene, but Ralph's obligation to look toward the building as he complained of his stump being moved stopped him from being aware of my presence. Gene being thrown off the building as Ralph started wrecking the building landed shy of the entrance, so he didn't notice me either.

The cutscene after the player won a level brought everyone's attention to the apartment roof, including the player's, which gave me my chance to sneak into the basement through the front door before Ralph was thrown off the roof.

Of course, I had to leave my kart buried under the bricks in order to get inside fast enough.

I found the code vault in the basement, but it was guarded by an NES controller. It seemed to me that I'd need a code to get inside, but it puzzled me as to how I was supposed to get it.

I spent a number of weeks in the basement listening to the game sprites talking amongst themselves, gathering that Ralph was a frequent customer at Tapper's. I myself had been there many times, and had sometimes found napkins with codes written on them. I decided then to dig through the dump while everyone was busy living out in game mode in search of the code in question.

I found the code after three weeks, and as soon as I had the chance, I made my way to the vault door and inputted the code on the napkin.

Success!

The inside environment was an endless realm of zero gravity surrounding a network of codes held together with strings. I started swimming about and began examining the intricate patterns of the game's code. If I could figure out how to embed myself in the game and take the place of the main character, I could integrate myself into the next racing game that rolled into Litwak's arcade.

The learning process was entirely trial and error, but through my endeavors, I had a number of key elements down:

First, I would need to embed my own code into that of the main character's backstory subject to be able to take their place. (In the case of Fix-It Felix Jr., it was Fix-It Felix Sr.) But as soon as the displaced character completed a round of work in their game, the code reset itself back to normal.

Second, I could rewrite character memories by removing the memory codes from the grid and ensuring that they were sealed away. After that, they would be unable to differentiate fictitious roles from genuine roles.

Once I was satisfied with what I had learned, I kept an ear out for any mention of an incoming racing game. As soon as I became aware of it, I left Fix-It Felix Jr. during arcade hours, unearthed my kart from the bricks, and sped to Grand Central Station to find the new game.