Chương 64: 2.23 Control - Halsey (3:24)

Z3ke [last online: 4 days ago] MoronicMnemonic F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 MyPrec0ius It's not dropping any earlier just cause you keep posting that. I know that Zeke hasn't updated in a while, but we've been through this before. He's not ghosting us. He's working. I bet he's playing out the instructions Binary gave him on his own copy of Frontiers right now so he can make sure to get all the descriptions down.

ShivSays You just know he's got a notebook open and he's writing in it like "entered mysterious corridor (describe better later)" He's probably rewriting the same paragraph five times, trying to figure out a better description for "it was a weird ass hallway." MushroomCleric You're all forgetting how long his updates take when he's cooking. Think over the last few arcs and look at the pattern. He vanished from the Glens for 8 days and came back with a lore dump on the House of Seasons.

He disappeared in the Deadlands and we got a bone kaiju and the Corva betrayal. He went dark around the research sites and when he came back he dropped the whole Reclaimer fight and the escape sequence from the scavengers. Whenever he disappears for a few days, he comes back with a wall of content. StoryLeech Yea. Zeke doesn't do drip-feed updates. He disappears for a bit and then drops a novel on us. NineToes | Zeke doesn't do drip-feed updates. | Well… mostly.

He updated pretty consistently when he was going through the Crushed Skirt and when he got to the Holdfast. But I get what you're saying. Still, this feels different. He hasn't even been online at all, and this is happening right after that whole chaos he got up to in the Under-MIZ. Zordak ^ NineToes I dunno if it's intentional or not, but Binary is gonna get Zeke killed with his plan. Every scavenger crew in the city has probably heard about his big score by now.

If he sets foot back in the Under-MIZ so soon, then he's really gonna feel like a Rockstar because he won't be able to go five feet without bumping into a "fan" hoping to follow him to another treasure. Cold_Reboot Binary isn't trying to get Zeke killed with his plan. He literally said there wouldn't be any fighting involved. Sure, the Under-MIZ isn't exactly safe, but Zeke's dealt with far worse by this point in the story.

He'll walk out of the danger with a story to tell no matter how many scavenger teams are chasing him. That's kind of his whole thing by now. C0da_Creator I'm really excited for the various lore drops we have coming and the associated spikes in the forum readership. FarFieldVanishes Right?! Binary was right when he said that this story is at its best when it's dropping actual lore. Just look at what happened with the House of Seasons. The forum was in an uproar when it came out.

PaperSnakes Speaking of the House of Seasons… how's that whole Zeke-run thing coming along? Last I checked, you all were still stuck in the Valley of Echoes. FarFieldVanishes Oh, that's been done. 8a8yaga managed to mod in both the bone kaiju and Zeke's Rockstar class. It's still janky in a few places, but it works. I'm sure that once Zeke posts more about the ranks in Persona, we'll get a better understanding of his class and can implement it more.

Right now we're trying to build out the Under-MIZ segments but it's rough. Everything in that zone is so interconnected that if you tweak one thing, it has a cascading effect that breaks three other mods. MoronicMnemonic F5 F5 F5 F5 F5 InnerMarrow Can we talk about how messed up it is that Binary didn't just post the Witness instructions here? Like, seriously. Why DM Zeke instead of just putting it all down in the thread? If it's real lore, why gatekeep it?

SoftLocked Because he wanted Zeke to "discover" it for the fic. You all were praising that idea just two days ago. InnerMarrow Yea. Well, there's a difference between letting someone write it up for a fic and straight-up withholding information from the entire forum. Binary is always going on and on about how he's a real lore theorist and that's what is most important to this forum. But now he's hiding everything behind a wall. This feels less like collaboration and more like gatekeeping.

JimothyTheBarber What if this was the only way that Binary could share the info. What if he's actually a dev and he's still bound by the NDA from both Severance and Horizons? Maybe he can't post it publicly, but he can hint it to one person who then "discovers" it organically. Andri-Gschwend | What if he's actually a dev | Def feels like the Witness (which just makes me sad because of the disappointment from Destiny 2's Witness) was his baby and nobody ever found it. VeneratedWitchHunter Jeezus.

What is wrong with all of you? First Zeke is secretly a dev. Now Binary is secretly a dev. You're all grasping at straws. What's next? I'm a dev? Gravemind is a dev? Whenever this fic doesn't get updated for a few days, you all go absolutely insane. CradleOfMirth Don't worry Venerated. No one thinks you're secretly a dev. StoryLeech You all want instant payoff, but that's never been how this fic operated. Zeke always goes out there and survives something horrible, then comes back and explains it.

That's the formula and it always takes a few days for him to write it all up. PixelBaron Yea yea. Delayed gratification. I get it. Still hitting that refresh button every thirty minutes though. MoronicMnemonic F5 F5 F5 Binary_Arcana (Primary) Okay. I think it's been long enough. Since "Zeke" is taking his time with posting, I might as well share what I found so this thread can stop spinning in circles. Consider this a public service.

The Witness is real and it's been ignored for years, buried under bad theories and even worse fanfiction. I'm done waiting for this forum to get back to its roots of exploration, discovery, and actual analysis. If you want to find it yourselves, now you can. InnerMarrow … You're just dropping it? For real? What happened to letting Zeke "discover" it. ClickWhirr Shit Inner, pick a lane. You can't complain about Binary hiding the info and complain when he shares it.

Binary_Arcana (Primary) I can't give you exact directions to the Witness. The Under-MIZ, as you all know, is procedurally generated so coordinates would be meaningless. But what I can give you are anchor points. There are five structures that appear consistently across the different seeds of the Under-MIZ. If you spend some time to map your instance, you'll find them. Find these: Yellow-Hollow Co. Spire - a collapsed communications tower with exposed scaffolding.

Ash Intake Facility - partially flooded building marked with a faded red A across the front. Glass Rotunda - a shattered dome with reflective flooring. Scabro Archives - an old administrative complex for the Scabro company. Most of it is buried underground. Colo Relay - you all might call it something different. It's where you can fight Henry Addams and his scavenger crew. Once you map those positions, you need to do a little bit of triangulation.

At the approximate center of all five locations is where you'll find where Zeke ran off to. Alvinrav3n Odd way to phrase that last sentence. Binary_Arcana (Primary) There's a ramshackle building in the middle of the five locations. It doesn't look like much so it might be easy to miss. Inside the building, you'll find an old payphone that doesn't work. Next to the payphone is a wall that is covered in graffiti.

The wall doesn't align properly with the surrounding structure, and it won't respond to interaction prompts. That's because it's not a real wall. It's an illusion. Equip a flashlight and shine it on the graffiti. Specifically, you need to shine the light on the dollar sign in "Mary'$ Home Cooking." If you hold the light there, the wall will eventually let you pass. Behind the wall is a stone path and it's easy to follow because it doesn't branch and there aren't any enemies around.

Follow it to the end, and that's where you'll find where I sent Zeke. VoidWyrm69 Why is Binary suddenly talking like a supervillain? | Follow it to the end, and that's where you'll find where I sent Zeke. | Dude… what? GlassHarbor Yea. That line gave me the ick. This isn't some grand narrative reveal bro, it's a forum thread. Stop acting like you're orchestrating a story. InnerMarrow It's not just that. Like I complained about earlier, dood is gatekeeping information.

He claims that it's a public service for this forum but then he randomly drops creepy ass lines like "that's where I guided Zeke." This weird half-RP, half-info dump is childish. HollowHeartsClub He could just be trying to get people to actually engage with the info rather than having everything spoon-fed to people. He's right in that this forum used to be about discovery. It was about mapping things out, testing theories, and comparing notes. Now it's just "drop the coordinates or it's fake."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. People are just mad because they've got to work for it. VoidWyrm69 There's a difference between encouraging discovery and talking like you've got Zeke tied to a railroad track somewhere. StoryLeech Both things can be true. People are lazy on this forum now, but also Binary is being weird as well about it. MushroomCleric ZEKE! If you're reading this, DO NOT go into that building. DO NOT follow that path.

Stay out of the Under-MIZ. Shootingblnks Uh… that's not good. That didn't do a thing for my anxiety. Binary_Arcana (Primary) HAHAHAHAHA. Tell them what you found Mushroom. VoidWyrm69 Jeezus. Why are you laughing? It's cringe man. MushroomCleric You're a POS Binary. What the hell man? InnerMarrow Great. Now Mushroom is doing the same thing. Can someone just explain what's going on? MushroomCleric I went and followed Binary's instructions.

It took a while, but I was able to get a map of the Under-MIZ and find all the buildings he mentioned. Then I triangulated the spot where he sent Zeke. The room that Binary is talking about with the Witness is real. There's an illusionary wall there. A narrow stone path is behind the wall and it goes on for a bit. But then it just ends. You step out into an empty chamber with no NPCs, no bosses, and no event trigger. GlassHarbor So it's just a dev sandbox room? Why send Zeke there?

There are like, half a dozen of those scattered around the Under-MIZ. I could've pointed him to at least two off the top of my head. MushroomCleric Maybe the Witness was real at some point. Maybe it got cut from the games. Maybe it only ever existed in the lore. I don't know because it's not there now. Here's the problem, once you're in the room you're not getting out. There is no exit. The second you step fully inside the room, the stone path behind you closes up and now your character is stuck.

I tried everything I could think of. I shined my flashlight along the walls, thinking it would reveal the path again. But nope. I tried taking a pickaxe to the place but you can't damage the walls. I tried fast travel AND teleportation, but nothing worked. You're just stuck there. Binary_Arcana (Primary) Mushroom is right. Nothing will get you out of that room. I found it a long time ago, long before any of this started. It's a sandbox room, but unlike any of the others that you can find scattered around the map.

Most sandbox rooms are just leftover scaffolding from the devs. You can get out of them if you're persistent enough. But that room is different. HandsWithoutArms So what… you're just stuck there forever? Binary_Arcana (Primary) No. Not forever. Only as long as your supplies last. I feel like everyone keeps forgetting that Frontiers is a survival game. It's easy to make that mistake because, once you get far enough in, food and water stop feeling so scarce.

But survival games still require an upkeep, and if you're locked in a room with no exit, your resources are eventually going to get low. SpicyShoyu Okay… uh, cool prank I guess. But what's the point in sending Zeke there? You know he's just going to reload an earlier save and continue from there. He'll write it up by saying "oh, thank god Mushroom told me not to enter that room or else I'd be screwed." Binary_Arcana (Primary) Because he can't. He's a man trapped by his own premise.

He keeps insisting that this isn't a fanfic and it's actually happening to him. We've just seen him disappear for four days. So tell me, how does he talk about those missing days without saying that he went into that room? If he's going to insist on continuing with his kayfabe, then it's obvious that he went into that room and now he's stuck and can't write himself out of it. If "Zeke" truly exists in the Fracture-verse, he doesn't have a save file to reload. He doesn't have a menu to escape through.

There's no cheats that will get him free. He has no clever workaround or a hidden exit. That room is closed. Cold_Reboot | Binary isn't trying to get Zeke killed with his plan. | Well... that aged like milk. ThreadSpectator42 Okay, I'm sorry but that's actually kind of hilarious. You're telling me that Binary just baited Zeke into a one-way dev room? That's a top-tier troll move. GlassHarbor Hate to say it, but that's commitment. Dood planned the whole thing out perfectly. RealBoyKikunu Seriously.

What's wrong with you Binary? Why would you try and sabotage the fanfic like that? You're the Primary - a role that you literally created for this fic. And the whole point of the Primary was to guide Zeke, not to sabotage him. SoftLocked Yea… this is kinda fucked up. You don't get to step into the mentor role and then pull something like this. The fact that you're bragging about this makes me wonder what your endgame even is here?

Binary_Arcana (Primary) In his last update, Zeke asked me why I had a sudden change of heart about him. I told him it was because of the House of Seasons and that, once he started uncovering real lore, I got on board. But that was a lie. There was no change of heart. I've been against his fanfic from the very beginning, and I've said that more than once. Most of you just don't want to hear it. You're wondering why I created the Primary system if I was just planning to betray him anyway? Think about it.

How else could I have shut down his fanfic? You all were mewling about him like a bunch of children, so I needed to manipulate him into screwing over his own fanfic. I knew about that sandbox room long before I became the Primary. I knew exactly what it was, how it worked, and that stepping into it would trap him. I discovered it months ago. But knowing about the trap wasn't enough. I needed a way to lead him there. That's why I created the Primary role.

It's also why I pushed for the rule that everyone had to "yes-and" whatever the Primary said. I didn't want to risk anyone interfering or accidentally derailing my plan. I made myself into a voice that he would trust, hoping that when the time came he would listen. GwendolynHigginsISaBAMF Oh boy. Here comes the manifesto. VeneratedWitchHunter Uh… I've also been against Zeke's fanfic. But at the same time, I've got to say that this whole plan of yours is kind of insane. Binary_Arcana (Primary) Is it?

Or is it the only real way to deal with what he's been doing to the games we all love? He's hijacked a world we all care about and rewritten it to fit his own narrative, and instead of pushing back against it you all cheer him on. Sure, when he posted the House of Seasons lore I reconsidered for a bit. I'll admit to that. It was something that this forum hadn't uncovered before. I thought for a second that maybe he was a fan of the games. Maybe he understood the setting. Maybe I was wrong about him.

But then things went off the rails again, and worse, all of you started treating his fanfic like it was canon. You started to deify him. You repeated his half-baked ideas in other threads as if they'd been sourced from the games themselves. Let's go down the list, shall we? He invented a faction in the Concordant, and then wrote a whole fanfic about a war they fought against the Vash Dynasty. None of that exists in the games. It's all completely fabricated, and yet you all praise it.

Then he created the Rockstar class. Just because it's cut content doesn't mean that it's actual lore. Yet he built his entire character around it anyway, and people like FarField ride his dick and try to put mods in the game. He created a mayor for the Holdfast despite the fact that that town is completely ungovernable. He turned the Pale Regiment into a joke.

They find him using glyphs that they don't understand, and instead of kidnapping him for the information he's got or killing him to keep the info out of anyone's hands… they just let him go? That completely contradicts everything that we know about them. Don't even get me started on the Under-MIZ. That's endgame territory. People don't survive in the Under-MIZ on luck. Yet somehow, he does. And once again, none of you push back against it.

Then there's the fact he completely fabricated the Eaters and the whole cult thing out in the Glens. No matter how much people want to talk about Argo's quest chain, the Eaters AREN'T A THING! But his worst crime is what he did to Corva. He took one of the most beloved NPCs in the entire series and turned him into a body-hopping maniac. 7Spirals You're acting like creativity is a crime. Binary_Arcana (Primary) No. I'm acting like the lore matters. The games matter. The world matters.

StoryLeech | he took Corva and turned him into a body-hopping maniac. | That arc was good. Binary_Arcana (Primary) That arc was bullshit. Corva was never a villain and he was never intended to be one. And yet Zeke forces this sudden face-heel turn on him and makes him into a psychopath who would try to kill his own team. PLUS, he somehow BEATS HIM?! Corva is an experienced adventurer. He's a Drifter with Rank 7 in multiple skills. He's strong, fast, and skilled.

Meanwhile, Zeke's OC is basically a nobody who had just earned a class and barely has his melee at Rank 2. But he somehow manages to kill Corva? That's some damn wish fulfillment there. It's shoddy writing. Meanwhile, I'm over here doing actual work. I'm making real discoveries. I found the chamber of the Witness. I contributed to one of the oldest unresolved mysteries in the game. That's what real lore research looks like. It's not headcanon, and it's not fanfiction. It's EVIDENCE.

It's something that you have all seemingly forgotten that this forum was created to do. None of you have been pushing back on what Zeke's been doing to the series that we all know and love. Not once. You've all been too busy applauding. MushroomCleric Yea… because we're enjoying the story. CrushDaddyXx | Meanwhile, I'm over here doing actual work. I'm making real discoveries. | Okayyyy. There is it. THat's what this is really about.

Binary is all salty and butt-hurt because nobody cares about his "deep lore investigations" while Zeke's fanfic is pulling in pages of replies. So now he's gotta tear it all down to feel better about himself. You just know this dick is the type to drop a. 5 star review on a story just to ruin someone else's day. It's absolute hater energy. GravemindLegacy (MOD) CrushDaddyXx, this is your second warning. Keep it civil or your account will receive a temporary suspension.

Inkfall I don't know exactly what Binary's problem with Zeke is. It feels like there's more than "he's ruining the canon." But at the end of the day, Zeke is writing fanfiction. That's it. Nobody is forcing you to read his story, Binary. If you don't like it, you can just not click on the thread. He's not hurting anyone. I'm inclined to agree with Crush on this. Not the part where he's about to get temp banned.

But I do agree that you sound less like some noble defender of the lore and more like someone who's pissed that your posts only pull a handful of readers while Zeke's threads blow up. Binary_Arcana (Primary) Except he is hurting someone. He's hurting the friends and family of Ezekial Mercer. < New. York. Ganymeade. com/missing. persons. ZM > Anxious friends and coworkers are seeking information regarding the disappearance of Brooklyn resident Ezekial Mercer, 29.

Mercer was last seen leaving his workplace, El Pedro's, late Thursday evening. His employer described the disappearance as "completely out of character," noting that Mercer maintained regular contact and had no known travel plans. Authorities are asking anyone with information to come forward… Do you see it now?

"Z3ke" didn't just come up with that username out of nowhere. He found this report about some random missing bartender from New York, and decided to build his "gritty, realistic" fanfic around it. Mushroom keeps praising how grounded Zeke's writing feels. Well yea, what's more "grounded" than lifting details from a real missing persons case? So no, Inkfall, "Z3ke" isn't just writing a harmless fanfiction. He's taken a real disappearance and turned someone's tragedy into content.

Say whatever you want about me, but that is vile. And it's who you've all been cheering on. VeneratedWitchHunter If that's actually true, then that's beyond fucked up. 10161066 Hmm… it would explain the whole kayfabe thing. He never breaks character. This makes it sound like he's really pretending to be this Ezekial Mercer guy. BobaFettaCheese Sounds like you're all reaching. There are a bunch of other explanations for this. DataDatum Yea. For all we know, "Z3ke" actually is Ezekial Mercer.

Maybe he's a fan of the games. He hates his life as a bartender going nowhere, he disappears one day and starts writing escapist fanfiction where he gets isekai'd into a world that he actually cares about. That sounds more realistic than an evil mastermind stealing a missing person's identity for internet clout. CrushDaddyXx LMAO. Binary's theory sounds less plausible than a dude rage-quitting life to become an isekai protagonist.

Raviollius Wow, he's REALLY dedicated to the larp, he got all this info prepared ahead of time. Kind of weird though. Maybe he was a close friend of the missing bartender and is writing this to cope? Or… he's a serial killer and this is a way to gloat. SignalLoss | writing this to cope? | As much as it pains me to say this, I can see myself doing something like that. If my friend just up and disappeared, I could see writing a fanfic where my buddy is off and having wild adventures in a faraway land.

Dodough Alternatively, Zeke is doing a massive publicity stunt pretending to be isekai'd into Frontiers but is secretly hiding somewhere. RidiculouslyAverageGuy The logical answer is that this really is a publicity stunt and he signed an NDA to make things as real as possible. Lorem-Ipsum | The logical answer | That's not a logical answer at all. What the shit?! Binary just dropped evidence that Zeke is using a real missing person as writing material, and your responses are "maybe it's viral marketing"??

The man is profiting off the sadness of a family, and everyone here is still trying to defend him. StoryLeech | profiting off the sadness of a family | When has Zeke profited off anything? He doesn't have a patreon that people can go to. He's not trying to sell his fanfic or anything. He's just writing for the love of the game. Elterrible00 Exactly. I checked too and couldn't find a single patreon post from him.

Unlike me, who does have a Patreon, and if anyone's interested in supporting actual writers you can read more of my work here: https: //www. patreon. com//elterrible00 PuffPuffKeep El. Read the room. This isn't the time for that. Zeke's fanfic just turned into a cursed internet story, so I don't think anyone's clicking your link right now. Seriously, there are going to be essays written about this. Some rando from a forum messenger board is writing under the alias of a missing bartender? That's ghoulish as shit.

NMR-3 Could even be that he's doing some sort of bizarre ARG-esque marketing campaign for impending remakes/remasters of some of the games. MushroomCleric ^ NMR-3 I've been saying this from the beginning. Zeke is doing a marketing thing for the games. It makes total sense. Horizons hasn't touched this IP, and this would be the perfect way to engage the fandom and revive interest without officially announcing anything. This is their way of saying they haven't forgotten about us.

Byte-Sized Mushroom is drinking the copium. 7Spirals We don't actually know that Z3ke is basing all this on a real missing person. If he did, I agree and say that's dickish. But that's a huge accusation to be throwing around without proof. Silentcrusader The more realistic option maybe is that Zeke "abandoned" his life for the bit, and is doing the most unhinged "livestream" of all time. Strangely enough, why did he never try to ask anyone to contact his family? GwendolynHigginsISaBAMF Ooo.

Silent brings up a good point. If I was isekai'd into the Fracture-verse and I had access to this forum, I'd be spamming messages trying to reach my sister. I've got two cats at home and they'd be furious that I just vanished. She'd need to go and feed them and comfort them. Shit… is it bad that my first thoughts went straight to my cats and not the rest of my family? It's bad, isn't it. Yea, I'm just gonna stop talking now. FopperyandWhim Soooo, I'm not really up to speed on all the drama in this forum.

From what I've just read, it looks like Binary is upset because he thinks Zeke is just making stuff up while everyone who is trying to research stuff in the game is getting ignored. Do I have that correct? CrushDaddyXx Nope. Binary is upset because Zeke is more popular than him and writing a fanfic that people want to read. StoryLeech Don't listen to Crush, Foppery. You basically have the gist of why Binary is pissed. FopperyandWhim Okay.

Well, I mean, it is kind of messed up that Zeke is using a missing person as his OC. I'm not going to try and defend all that. But what I will say is that Zeke isn't just creating things. He's discovering stuff that the community missed. The House of Seasons is the perfect example. Everyone thought that it was just a dungeon with the Blooming Witch in it and people could fight her to get stronger. But he proved that there was more to the place than that. Binary_Arcana (Primary) Who are you?

I've been on this forum for years and I don't remember seeing you making discoveries and talking about theories. You've got something like, three or four posts here. Let me guess, you're a Z3ke fanboy and you want to defend your hero. You only ever played Tech Reign which means you don't know the wider lore or the history of this community. So how about you sit this one out and go back to lurking in whatever hole you crawled out of.

CrushDaddyXx Grave, you might as well just give me the 24 hour ban because Binary is being a prick and someone needs to call him out on it. CrushDaddyXx [post deleted by Moderator] GravemindLegacy (MOD) CrushDaddy, this has been your last warning. Your account has been temporarily banned from the forum for 24 hours. GravemindLegacy (MOD) Binary_Arcana, this is your first warning. Keep it civil or you will be temporarily banned from the forum. FopperyandWhim I've actually played two of the Fracture-verse games.

That sounds shabby, but my friend only introduced me to the series a few months ago. Everyone has to start somewhere. But you're right in that I've only ever finished Tech Reign. I'll be upfront and say I don't know most of the lore in the series. I don't know whether the Eaters are real or not. I never played Frontiers or Syndicate's Wake so I can't weigh in on what you're angry about there. I don't know how survivable the Under-MIZ and I couldn't tell you whether the Pale Regiment was portrayed accurately.

But I can tell you that Z3ke didn't invent the whole Corva thing. I was planning to take a few more days to clean everything up and check my grammar, but given what's being said in this thread I think it's best to just show my work. <entity_corva_vessel. png> <entity_corva_vessel2. png> <veilstrider/corva. png> <character-editor. corva/shards. png> SoftLocked What are we looking at here? Kinda looks like a bunch of poorly rendered screenshots. FopperyandWhim I found Corva in Shards of Time.

And he's a body-hopping asshole.