Out with the old, in with the new as they say, and this ViViD level is no different. Ever progressive and ever mindful, CERES has decided in their war against the evil carbon footprint to give citizens both new and old a lesson in healthy living. To show this, they've created a level all about... recycling, or as close to recycling as a company like CERES can get. (Which isn't very close at all, honestly.)
This, of course, means that when you're dumped in to today's ViViD level, the first thing that will hit you is the stench. It's vile and rancid and the type of stench that makes a person want to give up smelling altogether, and when you finally open your eyes, you'll see why. There's trash everywhere. The buildings are decrepit and crumbling, the cars are broken down and rusted, and overall, it looks like the apocalypse rolled right on through. Which is weird because this is definitely not a post-apocalyptic game. Yet wandering around this pathetic excuse for a ViViD level will just reveal more of the same -- it's a total wasteland.
And if you look up, you will see a billboard.
RECYCLING AND YOU: HOW NOT TO BE A DIRTY WASTE OF SPACE
You'll only have a moment to be offended by the sign before, amongst the piles of trash and rubble, there's another, smaller pile of trash and rubble. The only difference is this one can talk.
 Welcome to The Dumpster Dive, my cool cats and sweet kittens. A brand new ViViD level, created and innovated to you by CERES's very creative and innovative technicians. We're all here to help you learn to Reuse, Reduce and Recycle, givin' you kids some tools to help you lessen your impact on the planet. After all, we're all here together on this great planet of Tellus. Wouldn't want to ruin it, right? Ha ha!
Happy Trash Day to Cerealians one and all!
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PHASE I [ 6 00 ] So, you're here.
You're probably sitting in a pile of trash because, well, everywhere is a pile of trash. You're in a landscape of trashiness and there's no escape. Your only option is to give in to the sweet, sweet pull of the garbage. The buildings are crumbling, the sidewalks are a mess of bottles (but no bottle caps), rubble, and empty chip bags, and you're stuck in this... trash. This garbage. This hellhole.
Wasn't recycling supposed to be clean?
It probably takes a rat skittering over your foot to get you going but like any good game, the protagonist needs to move. If you're going to find out anything in this trash heap, you'll need to explore a bit. See if you can find someone else! Or something else. Maybe someone more experienced with ViViD can help you figure out how to log out. Even if logging out doesn't seem to be working right now. You should be careful too because one wrong step might cause the pile of trash you're standing on give way and send you into the sewers below.
Which means there are rats, there are bugs, the ground is unsteady and... yep. It's starting to rain.
Good luck.
PHASE II [ 800 ] And then come the... trash drones.
They zero in on any living thing in this ViViD level -- if you’re moving, if you’re breathing, if you have some sort of a pulse, they’ll be there. And they’ll grab you and take you away. No matter how many you shoot down, more and more and more will come, never stopping until you're swarmed completely by them. They have to get you! You're garbage, you're garbage, you're garbage! You're garbage!
And so, you're snatched up.
Don’t worry, though. After a short flight (wave hello to your fellow drone-napped neighbor!), you'll arrive at three huge trash chutes with three equally huge signs above them. GARBAGE, RECYCLING, and COMPOST hang above the chutes and the drones pause just momentarily before announcing one of these options in a robotic voice. You've been sorted and without any preamble, the drone will dump you in whichever one it decides.
Hopefully you don’t end up in the compost. Gross.
Of course, once you down there, there's plenty to poke around in (or not much if you're still not into the whole trash thing). It's piles and piles and piles of trash as far as the eye can see! Again! If you're especially clever, you may be able to use the trash to build a way out of the chute. The very, very long chute. Maybe there's someone around that can help you? And better do so quick, who knows what CERES has deemed to be "recycling" this time.
PHASE III [ 1125 ] CERES's standards continue to shine on again, because after some time, those chutes will finally start working. So if you've been separated from a friend through any of this ordeal, don't worry about it. You're all gonna end up in the same place anyway.
Which is the incinerator, of course! (Wait, that’s not how recycling works.)
The ground beneath you shifts, enough to knock over whatever flimsy excuse for an escape plan you have, and suddenly all of the trash, compost or recycling will be dumped down into an underground furnace -- along with everyone stuck there, of course. Bit by bit, everything moves ever closer towards that red hot furnace and it’s clear that everything's going to be dumped straight into the fire and burned. Say your farewells. Make nice with your neighbor. Finalize your will because --
Oh. It stopped.
Looks like it jammed.
It doesn't remain jammed for long because CERES is, if anything, highly efficient. So it starts up again. But then stops again. And then starts again. And then stops again. This may be a glitch in the level, actually.
So, you're still getting ever closer to fiery death, but... slowly. Very slowly. In fact, you could probably walk away from said fiery death faster than you're going towards it. It's like they can't even program a near death experience right!
PHASE IV [ 1125 ] Maybe you avoided the incinerator. Maybe you ended up in a different part of the level altogether. Maybe you just got lost. Either way, now you’re stuck with the age-old hobby of enthusiasts and the exceptionally desperate alike.
Dumpster diving.
And CERES wouldn't send you down there without an incentive, you know. If you look, it seems like there might be something valuable, something incredibly important and just for you. A shiny item that you’ve always wanted right from home and it’s right there in your grasp, something precious that you could never get in Cerealia. How it came to be there, nestled between an empty carton of eggs and a half-eaten cheeseburger, no one knows, but you'll be filled with the inescapable, all-consuming urge to go get it. Just jump right into that dumpster and get it.
The more you resist the urge, the more it'll hurt. (As in, physically hurt actually. The feeling will be comparable to your fingernails slowly being plucked out.)
This is ViViD though and the moment you hit the trash, the spell breaks. You'll see that your most precious thing, whatever it was, was never actually there. Instead, you seem to have actually grabbed something else and whatever it is, you can't let go of it. Be it an empty bottle of bacon soda or a bicycle tire with a giant hole in it, it's attached to your hand now and no matter what you do, you can't get it off.
Hopefully whatever you grabbed wasn't too big because it looks like you're not getting rid of it. Not till you beat the level.
BONUS [ why o'clock ] The odd thing about being stuck in a trash wasteland is that you can go for ages without seeing another person. Ages. Of course, CERES doesn't like that very much since ViViD games should be co-operative! Player with player! Player against player! Players who shouldn't be playing at all. That's the type of play CERES supports.
Which means the longer you go without seeing another person, the more you might feel an itch. It gets under your skin, making you feel dizzier and dizzier, and shorter and shorter of breath until -- you pass out. Vision going dark, breathing cutting out, and down you go into the trash and whatever this ViViD level has planned next.
It won't take long. You'll wake up feeling slightly confined and there will be a moving body next to you. It seems as if you've finally, finally found someone -- and they're really, really close. In fact, maybe a little too close? When you open your eyes, you'll see that the two of you may be bound together in a way that might be familiar to some.
But instead of a shirt, it's just a garbage bag. A really, really strong garbage bag that can't be broken out of no matter how strong you happen to be. No laser eyes, no super powers, nothing will separate you from this person other than, well, getting along.
There really is only one question you have to ask yourself now. Just one.
What the hell does this have to do with recycling?
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Keroro | Keroro Gunsou
[For this two-foot tall green frog-alien who prides himself on cleanliness and on his cleaning prowess, getting thrown into a garbage dump is the last thing he'd want.
Climbing onto a box, he stomps once.]
What is the meaning of this, de arimasu!!
Is there anyone here?!
[He stomps again.]
HEY!!
[He stomps-
And the ground gives way. Hope you weren't anywhere near by because there's now a screaming frog headed your way on an avalanche of garbage.]
K-Kerooooo!
BONUS
[Whoever heard of a frog sharing a garbage bag with someone? Especially when you guys aren't even the same size?
The frog is struggling at the bottom of the bag, kicking and struggling. Please, please pick him up. He promises to get along with you if you'll just save him.]
phase 1 because this was clearly a match made in heaven.
He has to move fast if he doesn't want to be buried under the smell. So he leaps up and heads straight up the avalanche. In gigantic leaps and bounds, Naruto manages to make it up to where Keroro is. Without hesitation he reaches down to grab the frog by the front leg and continues up.
Up and up until he jumps from the top of the collapsing pile and then proceeds to stick to the side of a building as if he were a spider on the wall. Only then does he look down at the frog he saved.]
Yo, you okay?
[Not fazed at all by the talking animal, nope.]
yes, yes it is
Ah. Yeah. I'm okay, de arimasu.
[.....wait. This guy looks familiar. Keroro dangles from his arm, staring at Naruto and wondering why he had the strangest craving for ramen right now.
Weird.]
Who are you?
no subject
That was a close one. We both coulda died if we got buried alive.
[Naruto can see now that this isn't a toad and probably doesn't have anything to do with the toads that he's formed a contract with but it doesn't change the fact that it was someone in need.]
I'm Uzumaki Naruto! What's your name?
no subject
Uzumaki...Naruto?
[The Uzumaki Naruto??
Were times really that hard for Kishimoto????]
Ah. I'm Sergeant Keroro of the Keroro Platoon.
[Maybe it was a different Naruto.]
no subject
Yeah! You've heard of me?
[Has his name traveled in the talking animal world? Did the toads and frogs get along to the point they could talk and share information?
He has no idea who this Kishimoto person is. And good luck trying to explain it.]
The Keroro Platoon? I didn't know that frogs had platoons! That's pretty cool!
[A huge grin because why not? Why couldn't Keroro be in a platoon?]
Does that make you the frog boss?
[It isn't a different Naruto.]
no subject
[Sort...of? Keroro squints, still convinced he's a different Naruto who just so happens to look exactly like Uzumaki Naruto. Hey, maybe he was cosplaying? Keroro wouldn't judge.]
And I'm not a frog, I'm a Keronian. [He doesn't deny that this is cool though.]
But I guess that does kind of make me a boss? A boss of the platoon, that is. [An incompetent boss.]
bonus..... may god help them both
the OrganizationCERES messing with his mind at this point, as could the sensation of movement around the legs. He's far too focused on realizing he's losing his balance--][That is, until he gets a frog foot blow to the crotch.]
[The proud mad scientist Hououin Kyouma screams and tumbles full onto the trashed-up ground, pain spiking through his groin and radiating outward. Keroro might get a face full of lab coat, or a foot in that big star on his chest, or both...!]
it's too late for Keroro. Save yourself, Okabe
And find himself in a world of pain while he was at it, but there would be people who'd tell him that he was lucky. (That person would probably be Giroro, that train-loving red daruma.)
There's a muffled "Kero...." before he notices that they're on the ground and scrambles up without any care to what's happened to the guy sharing a bag with him. Popping out of the top, Keroro takes a deep breath that smells grossly of garbage.]
Kero....where is this?! Where am I?!
OH MY GOD KERORO. bonus ftw
But that's where their luck ends. Sakuya, in particular, is feeling especially unlucky right about now. Not only has he been dumped in a garbage bag, which is a thing he does to other people, thank you very much! it's not supposed to happen to him!!—but he isn't even alone to nurse his wounded pride in peace. Or have any peace whatsoever, with the way whatever is in the bag with him is carrying on!
On the other wing, it clearly isn't a human, and that's of some interest. Hmm.
But it's too dark for Sakuya to make out exactly what he's dealing with here. After a few moments of struggle, he whaps out at his hapless bagmate with his wing, trying to calm it, him, whatever, down. That's how you call people down, right? With violence?]
Would you stop that racket this instant?! Do not move! I cannot concentrate with you fussing about like that, you idiot!