When you can move during a forced cutscene, there's a strong tendency to start doing player tics and clown around.

The flow of the run suffers.

Too much time to relax and make stupid mistakes. Too much time for unrelated comedy commentary and repeat bad puns. Too much time to doubt your life choices.

I once played neurogame in an art gallery that some media artist had designed. It was called Solitary Confinement. It was one of those No-Escape Room style games with very minimalistic scope – you just had to stay in a small virtual prison cell for specified amount of time to win the game (the words "win" and "game" were used very loosely).

Most players gave up after they had wrecked everything in the cell and there was nothing to do anymore, but I went in the gallery early in the morning (after staying up a whole night), logged in the game and fell asleep. It was my thorny attempt to “speedrun” Solitary Confinement as a joke by simply sleeping through it.

The attempt ended when an outsider woke me up, and for a moment (a very long moment) my mind was convinced that I was in real prison without any way to get out.

Never sleep while neurogaming, the warning label said.

An arthouse game like Solitary Confinement would be the worst place to isekai into. Even Mu-Ur Quincunx, despite its forlorn atmosphere, was okay in comparison. There was at least something to do and random events to experience.

What was my point again?

Right, the twins are still not here.

I am a patient boy; I wait, I wait, I wait , I wait...

I need to keep this run going or I might take the Rainwoman route myself and start kicking doors just for the sake of doing something.

I've come a long way from drinking muddy water and eating stale bread. Can't lose now by losing it.

Stay in control, me. Take small, calculated risks.

Safe strats all the way to the end.

---

Day thirty-something in the Starfish Mansion.

After a nice family dinner in the kitchen, we gathered in the Parlor Room and sat down on the comfortable furniture in front of the fireplace.

A happy time with the whole family in one place, even though the main topic of discussion was always the same: how do we kill the evil demon king, Caliph Tze.

“When we went to collect supplies at nearby village, the soldiers at the local garrison seemed more active and vigilant than during the time we first came here.” (Crys)

“That's probably good news. The twins might be running in the Winter Forest as we speak.”

Crys was wearing his best set of clothes and looked like an office clerk in his dark gray vest, black shirt and straight pants. He was relaxed enough that he carried only one revolver in a shoulder holster.

“We should send someone to spy on them.” (Crys)

“Uh, I think no, we shouldn't. Let's not take any chances that might change the sequence of events.”

“In the case that events have already changed, what then?” (Crys)

“Then we go with plan B as discussed previously: Dancer plus dynamite, blow up Rukhkh's nest to reset the immortality timer, and deal with Caliph the old-fashioned way.”

“At what point moving into plan B is warranted, if the twin brothers don't arrive?” (Crys)

“Oh, right, the cutoff point is when the snowfall around Rukhkh Mountain is deep enough to reach your waist. That's how it was in the original timeline, when Rain and Mirim climbed the mountain. If the twins don't come when the blizzards hit Rukhkh territory, plan A is no and plan B is go.”

“I see. What about the tribes of Winter Forest?” (Crys)

“Huh...?”

What was Crys talking about?

“The tribes who live in the Winter Forest, specifically their laws and traditions related to war.” (Crys)

“Oh...”

Crys was touching a dangerous topic now.

The Winter Forest tribes had a certain warrior tradition that even Caliph Tze didn't want to mess with – at least not before becoming immortal. If you declared an actual war against the tribes, they put all their effort into killing the chief of the enemy instead of fighting against foot soldiers, and they refused all peace talks until enemy chief's head was separated from his body.

In other words, if Caliph would declare war against the tribes, the tribes would keep sending assassins without end until Caliph Tze was dead. And only then they would talk about peace with the next Caliph.

Eternal war to death was the core tenet of their ideology.

And since the chief of the Staff Tribe was Stick Witch with unknown psychic abilities, and the Source Tribe warriors used unique Strangers weapons and vehicles, even Caliph had very little info about their actual danger level.

Caliph sent soldiers for training missions at the edges of Winter Forest, but he avoided the deeper forest beyond Mordant Dells and Ice Spines where the tribes lived.

I knew a bit more about the abilities and equipment of the tribes, but I agreed with Caliph Tze on this matter: don't touch the RNG hell of that place.

There used to be tons of speculation on the Mu-Ur forums about what exactly Winter Forest was supposed to be: a Strangers home base abandoned in this world? A stalkerverse-esque tech dump? A psychic weapons testing area? A conglomeration of pocket universes constantly spiraling out of control? Just a dungeon mine gone wild?

What was known for sure (both in the game and in the anime) was that many random encounters and events were bizarre and unsettling, and happened without any explanation. Even the showrunner probably had no idea about the causes and consequences of what was going on.

“You don't mean, uh, faking a declaration of war? No, that's too dangerous. Too dangerous, I tell you. If they find out it was us who made the declaration instead of Caliph, they'll come–”

“They'll come after Sorry Man, our leader.” (Crys)

“Uh...”

“Sorry Man is not your pawn.” (Rain)

Rain had been quiet until now, but obviously joined the conversation when Sorry Man was mentioned.

“As expected.” (Crys)

“I'm with Rain on this one. Winter Forest itself is dangerous enough. We don't want to mess with anything in the deeper parts. Not at this point, maybe not at any point.”

“I must still point out that such options are on the table in case something unexpected happens. We have already opened strange doors in this house; do not disregard the option of pulling lighter curtains apart simply because of fear or love.” (Crys)

I think that line of Crys' dialogue was in one of the fifth season episodes.

Well, it's good that Crys tries to come up with new backup plans, even if the risks levels are off the charts runkills.

“...Caleb would not be happy to have constant stream of assassins after him.” (Mirim)

“Caleb?” (Rain)

“Speedrun said it earlier, he said it's Caliph pet name.” (Mirim)

Rain looked at me with scornful eyes – like I had taught bad words for a child.

“Do not use that name.” (Rain)

“Sorry, Rain-chan.”

“...Don't use that name.” (Rain)

Rain was grumpy again. Angry, strict and serious when sober; angry, unpredictable and reckless on drugs. Can't win with her.

“Big sister, you don't have to get angry for my sake. I know Speedrun was not serious.” (Mirim)

“That's right, Mi-chan, tell your onee-san to relax a little... Kim-chan agrees with Speedrun-dono, right?”

Now it was Kimono who glanced at me with disgust. This is the worst audience.

I miss the Internet.

I miss my little streamer bubble where haters don't exist and all jokes are funny.

“Big brother, something wrong?” (Mirim)

“Hm? No, it's nothing... So what's the verdict, Rain-sensei?”

“I will kill Caliph myself. We will kill him, not them.” (Rain)

“Okay, vote for personal revenge from me as well. Let's try to not involve any unstable outside factions into this. Trolling Winter Forest tribes is plan Last Alphabet.“

---

On the odd hours of the night, I kept thinking about the relationship between this world and the anime.

I was heavily leaning towards the hypothesis that the showrunner of Mu-Ur Quincunx had prophetic fever dreams about this world and wrote them down, just like he claimed in interviews. He was inspired to write the series after a series of interconnected dreams and I had no reason to doubt that.

That was probably one reason for all the filler episodes in later seasons: the lives of the main characters in this mansion devolved down to filler quality, so the prophetic dreams became repetitive as well, and thus the show was full of filler.

Everyone got too comfortable living in the Starfish Mansion. MCs just stayed inside, kept opening random doors, got caught in random subplots, and the main plot progress came to a halt.

Even slice of life series, where "nothing happens" is the norm, have to at least include some interesting interactions between characters.

Crys was so depressed about Kimono's death that he just kept writing imaginary history for the Revolution Movement and hallucinating about talking fishes.

Rain kept drinking to alleviate her withdrawal symptoms when her inventory was running low on drugs.

How do you make interesting episodes about those?

They could have montage'd through all that and nothing of value would've been lost.

Soon it was the side-characters like Double Shadow and princess Achlop who started to run the show in the mansion and main characters were simply forced to react to their annoying teenager antics.

And then the focus shifted to Inside Out School in the Black Forest and new characters were being introduced in every episode, which made it seem like they were re-starting the series with a new generation of antiheroes – and then they even ruined that when the first students graduated and moved to Starfish Mansion, which escalated the filler problem further.

I was afraid that some jump-the-shark scenario might happen even in this timeline.

Was I just too impatient? We've only waited, what, few weeks?

It's the solitary confinement problem: a few weeks of skippable filler and you start punching walls just to see something different.

We need to get out and do something together.

A beach episode in the Seaside Room? A school trip to onsen? Camping trip to the mountains?

...They weren't interested.

Well, Mirim and Dancer were interested, but we can't go just the three of us. Maybe I should have lied that it's an important mission rather than just fun and games.

Mirim, in her current human form, seemed especially happy to just stay in the mansion. It was nice to see her skip around freely in the corridors and practice cartwheels in the dance hall room. In the anime, Mirim was already an automaton when she came here for the first time, so there was no emotional reaction of any kind. She simply followed Rain's orders like an android maid.

What purpose there was for Strangers to create Mirim anyway? Strangers creations were usually related to dungeon mining in some way or another, so maybe she was an experimental android miner?

You could only make guesses. Rainwoman was maybe a prototype for a moisture collector, or maybe a tool created for hydraulic mining, or created just to produce fresh water for slaves. Dancer was a walking bomb created to blow up mining shafts or something.

If you thought about Mirim's skills, was she maybe a living surveillance camera; an automated security system for a slave tower? She seemed to go around a lot just checking what everyone was doing.

Her demeanor made me think of Wood Eye, one of the curious students in the first side character group of the Inside Out School. He was probably living in the streets somewhere in the Mandarin River territory right now.

The first bunch of side characters in the Inside Out School were called the Group of Bastards, or “Goblins” for short. These were the first orphans that answered Crys' call for violent revolution and got picked for their prospective skills.

Wood Eye was a goblin who marched around the school house like a police officer, checking everything the other goblins were doing, over and over. He wore a long black coat and a black mask, and during the class he just stood at the back leaning to a corner wall. Fans called him Lazy Eye because he seemed like the laziest guy in the group, but on a later episode it was revealed that Wood Eye's only special skill was sabotage – every device he used had the propensity to stop working and fall apart.

So it was actually a good thing he wasn't doing anything in the school. Even furniture wasn't safe from his passive Weakening skill, that's why he kept standing in the corner like a chuunibyou delinquent.

...The Inside Out School, aka Secret Inner School.

I could tell Crys his own ideas now – years before he gets the idea himself.

Let's do that and see what he thinks.

---

“...And that's how the school arc goes. The biggest peril in starting the orphanage school is that Cult of the Green Mountain doesn't like it. The abbess of the main temple gets mad because the most talented street kids choose us instead of the cult, so she follows the orphans in the Black Forest mansion with a large group of cultists and uses Knocking Gun on all students. As I told you before, the Knocking Gun is a disgusting hypnosis-inducing weapon that should be banned... Of course, we can deal with the cult in advance now by killing the abbess and picking up the gun. Mirim is the perfect choice for this mission because she can shoot the abbess from far away and she's immune to Knocking Gun's effects. I've confirmed that Mirim's inner ears have already machinized... mechanized? What's the right word?”

“It's an interesting idea.” (Crys)

“Isn't it? We can start laying the groundwork immediately and continue in full force after Tze is dead.”

“I don't like this idea, brother.” (Kimono)

Well, Kimono still had her dream and educating street orphans wasn't part of that dream.

“The second mansion in the Black Forest, the so-called haunted house, would be the orphanage school then?” (Crys)

“Yes, it's in the Cursed Forest sub-area of Black Forest and it's just a normal building when the crazy miniboss who thinks he's a ghost is gone. And even if none of us stays there to educate the orphans on anything, I know the right people who can do it. In few years, gangs will recognize our power, and this will eventually make the Revolution Movement stronger than anything Suleiman has, or anything any of the crime lords or the syndicate have. After Caliph and Suleiman are gone, the Revolution Movement members are the Most Valuable Players.”

“Yes, I can see that happening as you describe.” (Crys)

Honestly, Crys becoming the next equivalent of behind-the-scenes world emperor has its own problems, but at least he is the least bad realistic option this world has. If you refrain from voting because you don't want to vote for the least bad candidate, your empty vote is the same as voting for all candidates equally.

“Brother...” (Kimono)

“It is fine.” (Crys)

“Kimono, it will be a big and long project. You need to help your brother closely on this one.”

I tapped my nose like saying it would be good for her plan. Sorry for being manipulative, but this is for the good of the whole world.

Speaking of manipulative, some Mu-Ur fans advocated watching the anime in non-chronological order for stronger emotional impact. They started from the fillers of season four, which mostly followed the students in the Inside Out School. This meant that viewers first heard about the main characters from the students, and only as rumors, and they treated the main characters like some sort of mythical beasts.

Sorry Man was the Dragon's Head; an immortal leader of ancient conspiracy.

Crys was the Right Hand of the Dragon.

Rainwoman was the Storm Queen and Dragon's Bride.

Mirim was the Ice Princess with eyes on her back.

...And so on.

At the end of the fourth season, when you finally saw the main characters for the first time (these mythical Founders of the Revolution) arriving at the school yard at spectacular fashion, the emotional impact was immense.

After that cliffhanger, you would then watch the first three seasons like a long flashback, and then jump to season 5 where the MC story arcs continued immediately because you had already watched the fourth season fillers.

This was called Front Load The Fillers watch order, aka Save The Best In The Middle.

“Crys, I'll write you a list of street punks we want to invite to our school; their strengths and weaknesses, and suitable jobs and positions in the Movement. I'll put the best candidates for future teaching positions and recruiting positions at the top. Their presence will make things go smoother and the school requires less policing on our part.”

“I leave it to you.” (Crys)

Yosh, school project is in the pipeline.

I can name the useful people like Magic Word, Snowstone and Coryx Dragon, and leave out the troublemakers like Jackdaw and Kani-Kani.

In the anime, Crys basically sent out open recruitment ads and spent too much time separating wheat from the chaff.

School students aside, I also need to make a list of of all the war-gang leaders that sat on the round table during the gathering episode, and which of them can be trusted.

I can't remember all of them, but at least Stray Dogs of the Stray Dog City, smuggling gang Ratline, Skull Hunters, the Big Cat Gangs, the female captain of the Pirates of the Rose and Sun, Clan of the Branchless Forest, East-Reef Nihilists and Rappa Society mystics should be included.

Blueskins and Iron Crows can be safely ignored.

But it's probably better to have Crys make a list of gangs he's dealt with and cross-check those who are in charge in this timeline.

Crys needs to spread some hype and propaganda about Revolution Movement before we even consider round table negotiations, though.

It's not a one-day project. Just some Chekhov Setups for the future.

---

Now that Crys and I had something to deal with, I talked with Rain to get her motivated.

She might just stay in the Starfish Mansion with Sorry Man, if I don't trigger her into long-term action.

“I know it's a nice and safe house, but it's not perfectly nice and safe. There are still people out there who want to use Sorry Man for something or just bury him into a volcano. You probably want to kill them all in advance to prevent that, right? We mortals don't live forever like Sorry Man, so for the sake of Sorry Man's long-term happy fun times–”

“...Who are they and where are they?” (Rainwoman)

“I will write you a list.”

Rain pretty much lived from moment to moment, but now that I had firmly planted the idea in her head, she should start thinking what happens to Sorry Man after she's gone.

Mirim will turn into a machine and takes care of him, yes, but Rain probably wants to do everything she can to ease her sister's future burden.

Now then –

– well, I just hope the last two MCs appear soon.

I don't want to take a plan B grind route.

Plan A all the way, and then the biggest bodyblock of all is gone.

And we can live happily ever after in this dead world.

...Dead world?

Many roomworlds in the Starfish Mansion contained plants and animals that didn't exist in the main world anymore.

In the series, the MC gang didn't put any effort into bringing that stuff outside the mansion. They basically held the keys to turn a dead world back into a living world again, but they had no vision for the future.

With my help, the black wastelands could turn green again. The war-ravaged No-Lands could be turned into flower gardens.

Clean the salt, plant the seeds, save the animals, restart the nature. See what happens.

We could become folk heroes like Johnny Appleseed.

That's one very, very long-term project for the future for Revolution Movement.

...And next day, the twins appeared on our doorstep like an abrupt reward package from a controversial crowdfunding campaign.