Summary

Ken has been found, but it's not as simple as extracting him. The 6th CyberBrokers Quest has been launched! Carefully read the entirety of this message for important details and safety information. Your mission is simple but critical. From October 19th through October 24th, locate and access Ken's memories in search of a version of Ken you wish to extract back into The Paradigm. ShaDAO is modifying his memories with unstable tech, and the version of Ken you find and extract may permanently alter Ken's state to match. Keep an eye on the #quests and #catch-me-up channels in the CyberBrokers Discord and tweets from the @CyberBrokers_ Twitter account for clues and next steps.

Spice, Zinc, and Soleia have put Operation Key to the Keep into action. Using the Hubur Key as a scare tactic, the team has found their one-way ticket inside the Cold Storage compound - a Chemist on ShaDAO's payroll. The trio meets the Chemist at a jump point in Cold Storage and he helps sneak them into the facility, where they navigate through the hangar to the laboratory that Ken is being held in. He is found in a pod with a terminal screen displaying what appears to be his memories. The team is able to dock the Hubur Key into his station and they soon discover that, using a dial on the terminal, they can change Ken’s memories. Carefully, they begin the process of extracting Ken, knowing that the choices they make during extraction will forever alter Ken’s memories and his personality once extracted.

The first of Ken’s memories the three of them encounter is a rave Spice and Ken went to almost two decades ago. Spice recounts that Ken had gotten overly friendly with a Tripper at this concert and had a bad trip. The team can choose to either have Ken crowdsurf or let Ken have his bad trip. Despite Spice recounting that she can’t remember if Ken did or not, the majority of players chose to have Ken crowdsurf.

This leads to a scene on a bridge, high up in the clouds. Ken appears to be being chased by a Lupis mech, piloted by a Drifter with red hair. The choice the dial offers is between having Ken leap off the bridge or confront the mech. The majority of Questers decided that it would be most like Ken to stop and see what the mech wants.

The next memory is a vision of Ken walking hand and hand with a red-headed Drifter. The two’s playful banter suggests that they are more than just friends and that the Drifter might have even been the one piloting the mech from the previous bridge memory. The choice is then between having Ken stay and kiss this mystery woman, or say his goodbyes. Though the majority of players decided to kiss the Drifter, because so many players had chosen the crowdsurfing choice earlier on in the Mind Map, the most popular path follows the “Ken says goodbye” choice.

After Ken says goodbye to the Drifter, the team ends up in a trippy arcade, where everything is larger-than-life and there is a young, child version of Ken. Everyone in the arcade is faceless. A woman who must be Ken’s mother assists Ken in putting tokens in an arcade game. And though it’s impossible that Ken has a mother, since he is AI, Zinc admits the brokers have strange manufactured memories of their lives before TPL. The majority of Questers chose to have Ken win the arcade game he was so desperate to play, not lose, thus resulting in the most popular choice of the four possible Kens that could have been extracted - Damaged Ken. Damaged Ken is filled with rage about what ShaDAO has done to him, and his time in the pod in Cold Storage has made him overly aggressive and angry.