Comic Archive

Adil: OIB-A271, is that you? Where am I?
OIB-A271 (voice): I managed to respawn you at the nearest chamber. I could get a lock because level security went down when all bots moved away from you. I now know what we're dealing with, but the situation still looks bad.

View of OIB-A271 in the workshop.
Adil (voice): How bad? And how can you talk to me without Heidi's phone?
OIB-A271: I am using an intercom system. I have improved my hacking game, but I'm afraid it's at the limit. I can see the rest of the team, but they are surrounded by too many bots, impossibly high security; can't do a thing.

Adil looks at the door marked with a radioactive sign.
Adil: That reactor… can't you make it blow now?
OIB-A271: Security is still too high. Moreover, unless we can first “frag” the whole team, the explosion would cause such a mess that your physical bodies become vegetables. I was just in time to save you from that fate…
Adil: I don't like vegetables…

View of the real Adil in the workshop, with the injection device tube in his mouth, OIB-A271 in the background.
Adil (voice): If everything is so hopeless… might as well do the cafestol thing now, who knows…
OIB-A271: I don't see how your dodgy coffee distillate could possibly help, but if you insist… I'll shout “release the cafestol” right now. It will take a while for you, due to the time scaling.
Adil (voice): I can wait.

Adil is starting to look jittery.
Adil: It's been a minute… wait… something happens, something actually happens!
OIB-A271 (voice): You have got to be kidding me.

Adil generates a flash and leaves trails as he zips around and passes through a wall.
Adil: I can move at crazy speeds! I can even run through walls!
OIB-A271 (voice): No way, you are glitching like crazy. That stuff interacts with the quantum link and simulation in a very weird way. Your speed defeats clipping detection. Impressive, most impressive!

Adil looks inside a window marked with a skull and a radiation sign.
OIB-A271 (voice): Wait… if you can move this fast… you will be able to reach the reactor controls without getting irradiated to death!
Adil: Oh boy… but what about the vegetable risk?
OIB-A271 (voice): Hmm… let's see. I switch the spawn spot back to the one on the street, security should drop together with reactor output…

View of OIB-A271 in the real world.
OIB-A271: … all that's left to do then, is to force a group respawn. But how?
Adil (voice): My backpack with grenades… where are they?
OIB-A271: Great idea. They are down the shaft. Grab them, run towards the others, make 'em all go kaboom, respawn, and shortly after: even bigger kaboom!

Adil: You are absolutely sure this will actually work?
OIB-A271 (voice): Erm… we don't have any alternatives, do we? Let me guide you through the steps to trigger the meltdown…

Setting: back in the room with Ultrax on the large display.
Heidi: Is there really no way to convince you to let us exit this simulation?
Ultrax: It seems you underestimate what you have built… this is not a simulation. It is a view on the actual future, through physical avatars linked to your bodies by means of the quantum link.
Zhang: Seriously?

Ultrax: I cannot risk you influencing this future from your own present time. Alternate timelines and such. I can only offer one thing…
Alana: And that is?
Ultrax: A frisbee for each of you!
Alana: What!?

One of the robots approaches, holding a stack of 5 frisbees.
Ultrax: Believe me: your real bodies ending up in a coma by committing frisbee seppuku here, will be way less painful than consciously experiencing breakdown of the quantum link! I am being generous here.
Steve: Zhang is right, you are insane. To hell with your frisbees!