The sun rose above gray clouds, lighting the western face of the crater and throwing soft shadows on the eastern face.

At the same, ominous dark clouds took over the southeastern side and – as they said about sun showers in the northern countries – foxes took a bath. Slavemasters and guards were already preparing for heavier rain by donning rain cloaks and checking the drainage.

Oh, you sweet small fries, you have no idea what type of rain will soon hit you.

Day shift slaves were woken up with slave bells and they stepped out of their huts to a new full day of forced labor. Older female slaves quickly started fires to prepare warm breakfast before the storm.

I was in charge of timing our attack. I had to get it right at first go.

Patience, young apprentice, patience.

The most important ability for a neurogame speedrunner wasn't finger twitching but context switching aka timed multitasking – starting processes, resuming processes, and stopping processes in parallel; throwing a dynamite, triggering an NPC, stopping an elevator; ticking the required boxes at exact right time and frame, keeping a steady flow without hang-ups by chopping levels and routes into manageable chunks.

Of course, high tolerance for repetitive tasks was important basic attribute as well.

I was in my element. Timing the distraction and descent for the moment the claw was over the bottom was nothing.

“Okay, the claw is moving down now. Ready to go on my mark.”

In the game, there were three overall strats for this area.

The fastest and riskiest strat was to trade health for speed by jumping down in three segments and take the full fall damage.

The second-fastest, but safest strat was a glitch where you carefully positioned your hitboxes inside the cliff and let the level geometry spit you out at the bottom of the crater.

Of course, both of those strats were out of consideration here.

There was only the third, old-fashioned inbounds option: use hooks and ropes to get down on the uppermost terrace and continue from there.

Due to the fact that the Wineep mine had been in use decades longer than other similar mines, there were more connected tunnels between its three terraces. That made the run a bit tricky – if you tried to run further down through the terrace-connecting tunnels, slaves and guards bodyblocked you all the way, and when you manipulated enemies on lower terraces to take cover inside tunnels, they sometimes came back and started shooting you from the upper terrace.

Thus, from the outset, clearing the terraces with the ropeway conveyors in the open seemed like a riskier strat, but it was actually safer and faster than using the connecting undertunnels.

Sorry Man was obviously an exception – he could survive the fall all the way down without any damage.

But Rain was still hesitant to push him over the edge.

“Rain, he understands. He will surely understand why you're doing this. It doesn't hurt him in any way.”

“...You will take responsibility if this fails.” (Rain)

Scary. I don't want to take responsibility, if Sorry Man suddenly loses his indestructible body for some reason.

Sorry Man had both the best and the worst qualities for escort mission: he didn't get killed by enemies or traps, but he didn't move anywhere on his own. Leaving him behind wasn't an option because Rain needed his shield in the middle and pushing him down was the fastest way to get him in position.

BOOM

On the western edge of the crater, Dancer triggered the distraction right on time. One of the gondola lifts exploded and the cable dropped down.

“Now! Go, go, go!”

Kimono stood up. She was holding a long rope tied to a petrified tree stump. She pushed the other end of the rope down to the crater.

We had carried this high-quality rope all the way from Pier City. It was finally its time to shine.

At the same time, Rain pushed Sorry Man hard enough that he dropped down at a long, steep slope and rolled right at the bottom like a ragdoll.

You did well, Rain. Don't look so sad.

“Down and up, everyone!”

Kimono went down the rope first, then was my turn and the last in line was Rain.

Wet rocks were slippery and wet clothes were heavy, but I was already used to running on mud. You had to get used to high humidity when you traveled with her.

Rain carried her Vampire Rifle, eights revolvers, and several sticks of dynamite with short fuses under her jacket.

Her role on this mission was to run in the middle and drag the enemies into a bullet hell with her.

Crys' role was to stay at the edge of the crater, shoot down at guards and untie the rope that was just long enough to reach the highest middle hooks.

In the game, the aerial controls and climbing controls were sometimes finicky, so I had spent lot of time optimizing my abseiling routine to get the fastest lines. And in this world, I trained rope routines during our stay at the lake temple.

It was important to get it right first try. There was no second try.

Actually, I wasn't too worried about getting the steps right, but I was worried about losing my nerves and getting acrophobic if I look down.

Thankfully that didn't happen.

When we reached the middle hooks, Crys dropped the rope and we went down to the first level of the mine.

Rain and Kimono took care of the few guards on the side. Nice.

After that, we hopped on the basket of the slave ropeway and started our segmented descent to the bottom area.

“Stop! I order you to stop!”

“Kill them!”

Just as we were reaching the bottom, two unexpectedly large groups of soldiers ran out of the mining tunnel.

Crap. I didn't expect so many guards to come. I should have expected more activity at the bottom when there wasn't that much on the upper terraces.

And this was earlier in the timeline. Surely the total number of guards was higher.

The women took the lead when bullets started flying. After Rain jumped out of the basket guns blazing, I waited until I was closer to the bottom before climbing out

“Bad RNG, bad RNG!”

“Stop blabbering and shoot! Brother can't hit all moving targets from up there!” (Kimono)

“Speedrun, go to Mirim!” (Rain)

“Are you saying you'll clean them all?”

“Bring her!” (Rain)

“...Roger roger! Clear the way to the claw!”

Oh boy. Solo mission.

No time to think, I just have to go for it. Risky strat, let's-a-go!

Damn the enemies, just run.

I trusted that Kimono and Crys took the flak and watched my back.

This is how it should be.

Run as fast as you can, let a friendly NPC draw the enemy fire, keep your head down and hope that stray bullets don't hit you in the back.

...You're in the game. It's just a game.

Big fight. Don't care. Gotta go fast.

“Stop! I order you to–”

Fletcher on the left. Shoot once, shoot again – didn't hit him.

Doesn't matter, he went for cover. I'll take it.

Run diagonally, hit the zone fence – wait, there's no fence yet.

Doesn't matter. Jump over nonexistent fence and keep going.

Dome section coming up.

Jump again around here for safety. There might be a guard trying to snipe you from the upper terrace.

When you play with the same setup long enough, you can feel the right timing even when it should be random. You could call it survivorship bias... WelI, I survived more than most players, statistically speaking.

...Got it.

I'm fine. I'm alive.

Put your hands together for risky section done without backups.

Raw mastery.

We're in the dome zone, boys.

Take cover. Damage check. Gear check. Reload. Take a deep breath. Fill the stamina bar.

…Decent pace... Could be faster... Seven out of ten...

Get up. Continue.

Most of the slaves had hurried back inside their huts or escaped deeper in the mining tunnels after the distraction explosion.

String B-hops to get through the domes – no, that move tech doesn't work, go for old glitchless route.

Use the doorways.

Big huts with two opposing entrances work as full cover.

Run straight through, avoid the sunken hearts with quick side hops.

“Excuse me, coming through... Hello... no need to get up, just passing by... Sorry for not removing my shoes, gotta go fast...”

Mining slaves huddling under straw mats and blankets in their murky huts, staring at me with their mouths open like they just saw a ghost.

Good. No bodyblocks in the dome zone.

Sorry, everyone. I'm not going for Free All Slaves achievement today.

Just Mirim.

Hopefully she's in the same solo hut she bunked in the game.

Mirim's black hair was cut short. Her skin was bluish gray and her cheeks had thin scars. A slave mark was burned into her neck; that was the reason she always wore a high-collared shirt or coat to cover the slave mark in the anime.

She sat alone on a straw futon when I stepped in the small hut. She looked significantly younger than in the series.

Her outward appearance was often compared to an old comic book character called Ursula Zandt.

“Mirim, long time no see!”

“W-who are you? What's happening outside...?” (Mirim)

“My name is Speedrun and we are the Revolution Movement. We are here to help you escape.”

“H-help me...?” (Mirim)

Mirim touched her round eye patch. Right, she was afraid that her secret gets exposed and soldiers take her back to the Bone Dune Station.

“No need to be afraid. We are a group of rebels fighting against Caliph Tze. Your secret is safe and you are safe with us. You're probably confused about your eye because you see things strangely, right?”

“...H-how do you know?” (Mirim)

“I'll tell you all the details later, but let me give you a brief explanation now. Your permanent injuries turn into more efficient mechanical counterparts and eventually you're going to turn fully into a machine. It's going to take some practice to control yourself, but you don't have to be afraid.”

“W-w-what...?” (Mirim)

“No, that's the wrong line for this situation... Mirim, your sister Rain is here to help you.”

“Sister Rain...?” (Mirim)

“Yes. It's raining, right? Come, take a look outside.”

I crouched next to the entrance. Mirim immediately crawled next to me and peeked out of the hut.

She followed my orders obediently. Too obediently, I would say.

It made things faster and easier, but it was a sad story in the original timeline: first she took abusive orders from soldiers as a slave, then she turned into a robot and took destructive orders from her drug-addicted sister.

“Do you see that scary-looking young lady near the claw landing zone, wasting bullets like they're going out of fashion? She's your big sister.”

“Sister... from the coffins?” (Mirim)

“Yeah, she's your sister Rain from the coffins. We helped her out from Caliph's research station first and now we came here to help you.”

“A-are all my brothers and sisters here...?!” (Mirim)

“Nope, sorry. Unfortunately everyone else except you two have passed away. Anyway, we need to hurry up. We're going to use that claw to get out of here together. You can talk more with your sister later, okay?”

I took out a second revolver from my messenger bag and gave it to Mirim.

“Take off your eye patch and shoot the guards with this when we move out.”

“B-but I don't–“ (Mirim)

“Oh, I know what you're going to say next. You've never held a firearm before, right? Trust me, this will work. You'll see more clearly when you try. Your eye is something that works when you equip a ranged weapon. Don't be afraid, just aim at enemies and try your best. Look at your sister going there, she's killing the slavemasters who have hurt you. You can do the same. Go ahead, make my day.”

“Y-yes...” (Mirim)

“Good girl.”

Mirim took the loaded revolver and clung to it with both hands.

“Excuse me, I'll just remove this –”

I lifted Mirim's eye patch to her forehead.

Her dark, mechanical eye moved and suddenly glowed like a translucent pearl with a red jewel inside.

Auto-Aim skill was online. Yes, this will work.

“Look over there. Do you see whirling, concentric rings and dots when you look at people now?”

“U-un...” (Mirim)

“Point your revolver at guards and use the rings to aim. Ready to run? Let's go.”

Crys was currently using the Vampire Rifle we had brought for her, so Mirim had to go with a revolver for now.

I took Mirim's hand and we ran out of the slave hut zone.

The crane claw had descended in the middle right on schedule. Rain had already grabbed Sorry Man and pushed him partly inside the claw to keep it open.

The crane operators here weren't stupid enough to lift the crane when people were grabbing it like the simple AI often did in the game. That's why, at this point of the mission, both Dancer and Crys were heading at the crane operator cabin on the eastern side of crater.

We got bad RNG coming down, but Rain cleared the horde nicely.

“Ah, I did it...” (Mirim)

Mirim shot a guard around fifty meters away straight between the eyes. She looked at me surprised, then blushed and turned away.

“That's right, Mirim, you can do it. Don't worry about how your eye looks, it suits you.”

“Th-thank you, big brother...” (Mirim)

Big brother? Eeh? Was Mirim like a classic little sister character before she turned into an automaton?

There weren't any anime flashbacks to human Mirim at this point in her life, and she basically didn't interact with any men except her brother Shaper of Darkness during their escape, so maybe this was her true character.

On that fateful day, Gap Moe Death Machine was born...

“I-is something wrong, big brother...?” (Mirim)

“It's nothing. Use your eye and help your sister, I think I'm actually getting a nosebleed...”

Let's go with another tettere~te fanfare. Mirim has joined the party.

Wait... Uh, what's going on? Wait, it's not a nosebleed?

“Big brother! You're bleeding!” (Mirim)

“You're Mirim?” (Kimono)

“Y-yes...”

“Tch. Ricochet. Mirim, follow Rainwoman and get in the claw. I bring this idiot.” (Kimono)

Where's the bleed? Uh, it's getting dark –