‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 513

Colors by Audrey with edits and everything else by me.

And so ends Volume 4 (it began here). Hope you've enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading.

76 Comments

D: *hugs a Kat*

Kats are cute

Those eyes aren’t saying “hug me.”

They say “you are advised to move to the minimum safe distance as soon as possible”. Which is not a good thing when there isn’t a minimum safe distance.

Minimum safe distance is logged out.

With the Virus about that is still not enough distance…

Unless you have your own system that isn’t dependent on TENka. Only one person we actually know to exist in this ‘verse with such a system, though I’d have to suspect that others are out there, just leaving the stupid hacker-hunters to rot in the bed they made by driving away everyone who knew how to keep things running.

So… I been reading this comic since you started all those years ago. (if you have not notice those post from neoshadow or dusky 😛 )

I felt this chapter was a bit anti-climatic compared to the others. Normally you end with dramatic cliffhangers, but this felt like it was kind of expected.

I hope the next volume really picks up. 🙂

Also starting #BlameBandit . Mark my words, bandit choice here will probably a big impact considering when and where the volume ended.

GEE THANKS, KAT’S DAD

(there is literally no way in h*** she came up with this on her own, or she WOULD have an excuse for why it doesn’t apply to her)
(like, i dunno, the part where she COULD cheat but didn’t only because she was trying to fit in and stuff?)
(this is VILE)

Agrees, these words are echoes of words shouted at her by either one or both of her parents. I could hear it now:

“What’s wrong KAT? You don’t want to be a weak powerless failure like your MOM do you?!”

It amazes me how the words of parents from potentially decades ago can haunt us for so long. Parents have a huge responsibility and so often they either carelessly delicate their responsibility to others who it doesn’t belong to… Or they mishandle and abuse it. Such a shame.

I’m not completely sure of that, I mean sure we know she’s good and hacking and has at many times shown that she had no qualms doing so. But I think recent events had her thinking about things differently. There where more then a few times in the last encounter that she could of done things much easier by pulling out a cheat or a hack, but instead she did the much harder route of pulling it off legit. And yea she was doing good for a while then just totally got her a** handed to her, by a well meaning but misguided, teammate. This might of been the first really difficult task she tried to pull off without resorting to any special trick up her sleeve and when it failed starting to wonder if all her wins up to that point where because she was cheating; She spent so much time always gaming the system in some way or another and the one time she didn’t boom. I think it would make anyone who actually does have a conscience wonder about them self’s to at least some degree. especially if pushing the limits and bending the rules seemed like par for the course ever since you started but now you need to play the game straight and realizing you’ve never really done that before and now that you’ve failed at a task you could of beat easily with your rule bending ability’s, was the fail because it was really an impossible situation to play straight or is it just that your no good at playing the game properly? that isn’t so cut and dry of an answer especially for the one in that situation.

Nah #BlameBandit . Bandit is the root of all evil.

Geeze Kat, calm down. You’re being a teensy bit dramatic there.

… Dude, do you really not recognize the internal narrative of someone who’s been abused and/or has severe self-esteem issues? A little sensitivity, please.

Self esteem issues maybe, abuse, well not from her parents, although from what I recall from the past narratives, she wasn’t exactly a popular person with society in general before the big fubar wrecked everything. Also, she has always been on top, always the winner, always top notch, the star etc, etc. She has never been at the bottom of really anything. As a kid she was excelling at everything. Even as a villain (unwanted but still), she was considered a top notch villain, so still at the top.

That was not what I expected her to say…but it looks like she’s about to do some major internal character growth, and I wait in hopeful anticipation of the pages to come.

“You never stop learning” seems to fit perfect here.

Ah yes, the classical hero. And the power of Failure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IyPc5nw0Wk

Interesting watch. thanks for the link…

G-odd***it Bandit.
You broke Kat.

Great Plan.

exactly which is why I started the new #BlameBandit .

Think I should start a Bandit fail counter?

I hope she can handle having to suffer with failing, like everyone else.
If we’re lucky, she can start to grow and learn.

Thus begins her path to development.

Shh.
Some people like to experience and not analyze.

Unhappily, I’m not one of them. 😛

She may need to finish breaking before she picks up the pieces, and even then she may not find a new way to make herself complete.

She’s probably been planning something like this for years. Failing here is her loosing her one shot at redemption. For her to fall like this I don’t think she has a plan B. No Xanatos gambit here, either she pulls of several impossible things one after another, or she fails. She isn’t accustomed to failure and has failed to include it in her plans. In her mind, she’s just failed. She doesn’t have a plan for going forward from where she is.

I’m making no predictions where Kat is concerned, but once they get out of the game, The Dude is totally going to strangle Jake.

erm… potentionally…
… well, also probably not… afterall most of the people she is with play villians still.
so umm yeah going to back to #BlameBandit again for this page.

I’m not so much worried about her fall from grace as much as I am her climb back to the top. She’ll have an outburst towards Jake like anyone else would, but her actions afterwards will be what either reveals her to Dr. Grace or helps to show Jake that she really is trying to change.

I expect Jake to get clued in on the details and start making up for this shortly after they finish up the fight and regroup with Jane.

That’s if he’s turned over a new leaf, having been turned into a tree for blasting the tree behind Kat…

Jake will never be forgiven #BlameBandit

Huh, so I guess she has no idea how to play in this ghost state. New experience for her plus feeling like a failure. This should be interesting!

That would be strange, she was the beta tester, she played all routes, she must have tested the ghost mode too.

maybe she never died?

Bingo.

She didn’t just never die, she was UNTOUCHABLE!! She had the system so wrapped around her finger, any time she didn’t like where it was all going, she just hacked it the way she liked…

Beta. Tester.

I mean, a tester do not play, they test. You should run all the variants to see if they work and how well. Kat herself said she did ALL the routes, ie the ones she likes and the ones she doesn’t. While testing you should fight, win, lose, run away, die, surrender, every one possibility not matter if you like it or not. You are not playing, you are testing.

Ok, maybe she didn’t do a good job as a tester, but that seems unlikely.

Sounds like they didn’t make their child prodigy “tester” do the failure routes. Her job was more to try and break game so they could balance it properly.

She probably figured out more power stunts then JUST the whole “custom plants on your island” bit too.

Eh, for MMORPGs these days it’s normal to have a playtest – I bet what Kat was doing was closer to that than a formalized tester task.

As for her much closer ‘in’ on the game, she was a DEVELOPER.

That would be why you do NOT want developers doing your testing. They aren’t as systematic as they think.

Chiu ChunLIng is right… she’s more of a pre-alpha tester

Wait, why would she be a beta tester? Beta testers test betas.

Welcome to the real world, sweety. 😀

Wonderful page, Kat is cuter than ever.

Well, this could even be positive. It seems they can respawn, and now they are free from the group, right? Perhaps Kleya and Danni can eventually form their own group together, that would be awesome.

Don’t worry Kleya, Danni has been doing exactly that for a while (at least from her point of view), she can give support now and you both will be alright.

Supposing they can see each other while being ghosts, that is.

This was my thought, as well– Danni has had a lot of experience in recovering from being “useless” and essentially invisible. Well, she’s had a lot of practice in being in that state– I’m not sure how much practice she has at recovery, actually….

I just recalled that Danny is kinda in probation. Is she allowed to die even temporarily? Or would it be seen as failing and get her off the game to face doom in IRL?

I guess it all will boil down to popularity. Hope that her last moves were flashy enough to bump her off danger.

It seems they’re still in the game, and able to get another esone, so I’d assume she’s still “visible” and still good as long as she’s still part of the team.

How is dieing cute? ?-?

Oh, poor Kat.

I love this page, so much emotion. And the color choice and drawing(posture, mimic, everything) is awesome for this moment.

I just finished binging the entire comic from page 1. You’re an amazing story-teller. I can’t wait to see how Kat will respond to a situation she’s never dealt with before.

Congrats 😀

Excellent! Now she has to learn how to play like everyone else. If you want to be the hero you can’t be nearly as arrogant and overconfident as you were before. A hero is humble!

Maybe she’ll finally fly under the radar of her would-be enslavers and would-be murderers.

Uh-Oh, her eyes look like she’s on the brink of sanity. May God have mercy on the world if she does go over the edge, because she won’t. Given all her abilities plus D’s, I doubt the human race or maybe even the planet will survive.

Or she’s just about to have a Heroic Blue Screen Of Death – her brain can’t handle it so it just switches into standby mode, leaving her unable to really do anything…

(Warning, TV Tropes link. Some complain when said links carry no warning…)

You can only get Heroic BSOD if you’re not verging on the Despair Event Horizon. Or already long past it. While I theorize that Kleya isn’t past it, she can see it from her bedroom…and pretty much anywhere else she goes.

I get human-interface BSOD occasionally, it has none of the qualia of Heroic BSOD. It just means I’m unable to simulate human mental characteristics for a time, there is no emotional turmoil or distress involved. In fact I find it comfortable enough (I don’t have access to the emotion of “enjoyment” when it occurs, so I can’t say it’s pleasurable as such, but that just makes me suspect my version of that emotion isn’t ‘real’ by human standards). I do retain a capacity for snark, at least internally (I usually can’t use human language properly or at all when my human-interface BSODs).

I’m not sure what my eyes look like, reports are unreliable. Some people said they have never felt closer to violent death, others that I look like I’d fallen asleep with my eyes open (others are not available for comment). I’m guessing that means something like “devoid of any human emotion”. Kat is definitely feeling some emotions here.

One word… #BlameBandit … if she ever does.

End of volume? That means there will be a Kickstarter, and a chance for me to buy the entire story so far in hard form, right? I hope I suddenly come upon enough extra money to do that…

Best comic ever!

Jake. . . you are in deep sh**

Exactly which is why I started the #BlameBandit

Poor Kat Dx
Betrayal hurts more than anything.

So, Aneeka, it looks like your evil masterplan worked out perfectly: you had us all bi***ing about Bandit’s stupid d*ck move, as we were assuming he was actually kicking her out of the game — while you were chuckling in secret, knowing all along that he is actually just giving her the opportunity to experience something new, and grow as a person… Very sneaky 😉

In other news, sad incredulous ghost Kat is cute.

Ha, I actually feared everyone would get mad once they realized the death wasn’t as serious as they thought. But, thankfully, everyone seemed relieved instead. Whew!

Hehe… don’t stress it. You have done plenty of foreshadowing about death not being perminent in the game.

1) The Grammar of the Plural Tense: Aneeka you may not realize this but you been using the words “loss”, “death”, and their synonyms… in the plural not singular tense. The plurality of “loosing” in previous chapters suggests that perminent death is not a thing in the comment
2) The Trees and Kat’s mom. Erabana’s don’t let Erabana’s get perma-deathed to paraphrase Dr. Bartle, who is founder of player psychological theories that run MMOs. You told us that Kat’s dad made the tree thing a prank for Kat’s mom right? Well if the dad’s prank actually killed game characters or people perminently… then Kat’s dad would be sleeping in solitary confiment of the couch for a few days… if you know what I mean. ’cause Erabana’s don’t let Erabana’s get perma-death. Got to go for 100%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxpW2ltDNow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartle_taxonomy_of_player_types
3) Simple Game Dev theory tells us based on the popularity of the game, that is probably does not have permadeath: Kat’s father gave Kat the goal of “trying to break the game”, which in game development terms means the original design of the game was for explorer-type players. However, Bandit is a pvp type player. So the game was designed for explorer-type players and pvpers like “bandit”. Actually the orginal Bartle’s taxonomy quote is more, “Explorer’s don’t let other Explorers get pvped repeatedly”, but its the same concept. In his famous MMO taxonomy, Explorer’s discover the video game mechanics, write the walkthroughs, discover the glitches of any game. ( Explorer’s hate death and pvp the most, but prefer crafting and “exploring”. Explorer’s work together to prevent or overcome pvp situations that prevent them from enjoying game by “exploring”. Sometimes by sheer numbers and teamwork. If they cannot, they quit the game. Any rapid decline in explorers, by Bartle’s theory, explains how so many MMO die out or fade away suddenly like Second Life for example or Everquest or WoW before the first expansion. Because explorer’s more than any of the other 4-6 types of gamers make up the backbone of the game…. its kind of a PLOT HOLE for a game that started “explorer” friendly to last as long as it has in its universe with a permanent death option.
…. no game would last a year if it had a permanent death option.
4) People being on their second character. I don’t know, maybe this was just me, but they way you described people making new characters… suggested to me that permanent death was not a thing.

This is an MMORPG. The idea of permanent death even with several ‘spare lives’ is already unusually dramatic for those.

Great. Now there’s going to be two Dudes screaming their heads off.

Seems like Kat needs a Reality Check.
You can’t be all-powerful in a video game, it’s inhuman and unfair. You CAN be above average though.

I still #BlameBandit

Huh can she lose % for stuff that happens while she’s dead?

Cause janes not been seen in a while.

Bandit has kind of been blindly focusing on Kat.

And he just stole her shtick.

If she isn’t branching out her répertoire then I feel she isn’t going to be happy Bandit stole her kill your own party member Stick.

Though it might be that she will feel that… Their can only be one.

Really it could be kind of fun for there ratings to thick there entire party is not a team but a weird fight club.

I do have a feeling that losing an Esone is kind of bad. If I remember right, you need an Esone to use your specials? Don’t you?

Yeah you do.

I’m not positive about this, but you might also need an Esone to have a percentage in an alignment? When they got the Esones in the tutorial, they were glowing the color of their alignment. I’m not sure if alignment percentage even matters though if alignment only affects the specials available to you.

And in the case of an Erbana that’s critical because you bloody need the bag-of-holding Special.

http://navcomic.com/not-a-villain/page-419/

i dont think the esone effects your alignment if that was the case players could probobly just swap esones out and in to become different alignments.
more i see it as a power-core/extra life
you need them for certain abilities and in critical situations they sacrifice themselves to let you live again

This is where it starts to get bad if you don’t have someone who can talk to you and balance you: See the end of the world.

She is attracting plants like crazy without knowing it. Pretty soon it may dawn on her that there may be ways that she can use her knowledge to heal herself.

I think she is more finding plants like crazy lol.

Welcome to ghost state, Kat!

Given your skills, and given Danni’s support, I think you’ll manage to muddle your way through. ;D

Well Kat will now be…. Katsper the friendly cat ghost. ^_-
#Katsper 😉

Awesome chapter end! Looking forward to volume 4 😀

Thank goodness Kat finally put on her big girl panties and accepted dying. If she’s going to PLAY the game instead of HACKING the game, she has to learn to deal with dying / losing / failing… and then getting up and trying again. Another 47 times, if necessary. The way normal people play and the way good players get to be good players. It’s a long, hard road to becoming an expert.
Jake was absolutely right that Kat was being too perfect. For someone who was trying to pretend she didn’t know the game, she was not only doing an unusual path but scoring perfectly, picking up hidden items, and demonstrating a detailed knowledge of that lesser known path and the game mechanics in general that, as an “ordinary new player,” she COULD NOT reasonably have known. While Jake may look like a team killer for his choice to try and stop her, his analysis of the situation was spot on. If Kat didn’t have some kind of failure of loss of points soon, it was going to be painfully obvious to everyone that she was not who she was pretending to be.
I just hope she learns enough from this experience to realize he’s still trying to help her (and risking his own butt in the real world by doing so) rather than just blaming him for trying to cover for her own lack of subtlety.
Hopefully she will learn and grow through this experience and become a good team player, and hopefully Jake will manage to stay alive in the real world after all the risks he’s taking to try to help her. At the end of the day, if Kat is exposed, she’s safely off in her secret base – while Jake is the one who will be easy to find and blamed for helping her. I’m not putting any money on his survival if Kat gets exposed, now that he’s told his superiors she isn’t “the one” and covered for her like this.

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 513