Lost Gold Story 04-02
Overview
- "As the old saying goes, the hunter has become the hunted... No, that is inaccurate. Joshua was and has been the sole hunter."
- Stage Cost: None
- First Clear Rewards:
Astral Memory x20
- Unlock Condition:
Emergency Medicine x250, 
Lumber x250, 
MRE x250, 
Drinking Water x250 - Note - During its initial limited run, this stage's first clear reward was:
Hunter's Badge x50 - Note - During its initial limited run, this stage's unlock condition was: Emergency Medicine x300, Lumber x300, MRE x300, Drinking Water x300
Guide
- Hover to view spoiler content.
Script
Sea Ferry Room
Luke: Vyn, you said that Zachary "came to Nosta for the first time." When was that?
After boarding the ferry, the five of you continue to review the series of events surrounding the Nosta incident.
Vyn: It was three months before Marius bought the island. Is something amiss?
Luke: For now, we can put aside the matter of Jack coming here to take revenge on Joshua.
Luke: However, Bryce's and Zachary's relationships with Joshua are complicated.
Artem: Do you mean to clarify their relationships via Zachary's timeline of actions?
Luke: Precisely. First of all, Zachary came to Nosta three months ago because—
Luke: Joshua revealed the parchment riddle to him.
You: That was how Joshua manipulated Zachary for the commutation.
Luke: But Joshua had been in prison for 10 years. Why did he suddenly want a shorter sentence? Why didn't he do that earlier?
Luke: According to Joshua himself, he saw news of Pax buying Nosta. He was worried that the mask would be found during development.
You: Hold up. Zachary already had the gold's riddle when he first visited Nosta. Pax hadn't bought the island then!
You: Joshua obviously lied. The idea of commutation must have started much earlier.
You: What exactly provoked Joshua?
Marius: Maybe it was the Nation A police chief who sold the parchment riddle in a public auction at the end of last year.
Marius: Joshua was probably afraid that whoever bought the riddle would find the mask.
Artem: He knew that just because he couldn't solve it didn't mean that others couldn't. How self-aware.
Luke: From this perspective, Joshua's and Zachary's cooperation makes sense on the surface.
Luke: But in reality, Joshua's real accomplice was Bryce, who had never been in contact with Zachary.
Luke: Zachary even had a conflict with Jack.
Luke: This makes me suspect that Joshua's and Zachary's relationship had soured.
Artem: You mean that Zachary came to seek revenge against Joshua?
Artem: Before Zachary fired, Jack was telling me about the location of the gold.
Artem: Zachary might've thought that Jack was his competitor.
Artem: But... Why did Zachary rush to the cave from the abandoned prison in the east...? Vyn, what do you think?
Vyn: Zachary was absolutely furious when he left the prison. He thought he had been deceived by Joshua.
Vyn: According to Zachary, Joshua suffers from PTSD. He often has nightmares of his fellow gang members who had died.
Vyn: During this trip, Joshua came to pay respects to his fallen comrades at that cave.
Vyn: Artem, I do not think he was competing with Jack for the gold. He had simply mistaken Jack for Joshua.
Artem: Yes, that's a reasonable explanation.
Vyn: Zachary thought that he had been cheated by Joshua. He was in a highly emotional state and fired in a fit of rage.
Vyn: After the shooting, he was panicking. He wanted to finish the job, but then he was shot by you, Artem...
Vyn: Luckily, he had a simple pepper smoke bomb, else he would not have been able to escape.
Luke: Now we know it wasn't a coincidence that both Jack and Zachary appeared in the cave.
Luke: Joshua had scripted this encounter.
Zachary is a victim of his own intelligence.
You: If Joshua didn't fabricate his PTSD before having thoughts of commutation, then he wouldn't have tricked Zachary.
You: Jack and Zachary — one wanted to take revenge on Joshua, while the other wanted a share of Joshua's treasure...
You: They're both people who Joshua wanted to get rid of.
You: Instead of doing it himself, he orchestrated their misunderstanding so they'd kill each other...
You: Is Joshua... really capable of planning such a scheme?
From start until end, you've had contradictory impressions of Joshua.
On one hand, he was the only survivor from the Great Gold Heist, a murderer who has taken 17 lives...
But he doesn't seem very brave. He's greedy, but he reveals everything once he's scared...
Unless he's still putting on an act?
Luke: Don't underestimate Joshua. We all need to be vigilant until we hand him over to the police.
You: We talked about the relationships between Zachary, Bryce, and Joshua...
You: So when did Bryce get involved with Joshua?
Marius: According to Uncle Bryce, it was after the auction.
Marius: Uncle Bryce was scammed by the Nation A police chief and a so-called archaeologist into believing there was a treasure that gifted immortality...
Marius: He found Joshua to confirm whether the Golden Mask of Anubis was still on the island.
Artem: For Joshua, the powerful and influential Bryce was a figurative money tree.
Artem: Also, Bryce's request was clear and simple and held no conflict with Joshua. They expectedly partnered up.
Artem: Once he had Bryce, Zachary wasn't important anymore.
Artem: That also explains why Joshua wanted to kill Zachary.
Marius: Too bad that Uncle Bryce didn't buy the island before I did, so he had to ask me for help. Such are the whims of fate.
You: Now, the timeline of the whole story is very clear.
You: Last year, Joshua learned that a Nation A police chief auctioned off the parchment scroll, so he set Zachary up to help commute his sentence.
You: After Zachary's first visit to Nosta, Bryce had studied the scroll and sought out Joshua, resulting in their partnership.
You: Joshua secretly abandoned Zachary. Bryce had to work with Pax because it had purchased Nosta's development rights.
You: Jack... was just a loose thread that Joshua wanted to tidy up...
You: And Zachary still doesn't realize that he was outsmarted by Joshua...
Vyn: As the old saying goes, the hunter has become the hunted...
Vyn: No, that is inaccurate. Joshua was and has been the sole hunter.
You all have more or less sorted out what happened on Nosta.
As for the Great Gold Heist or the gang mutiny, it's hard to discern the facts due to missing or lost evidence.
Unless Joshua is willing to confess, but...
Even if he were willing to divulge such a gruesome story of betrayal and murder, there may not be anyone who would want to listen.
You: (What a shame. Janet can't even get justice in death.)
Maybe because you're also a woman, you feel sympathetic to Janet's experiences.
You: (Hopefully the court's ruling can serve as a kind of answer for her.)
Luke: Next, let's put the four parchments together and find the real location of the Golden Mask of Anubis.
Staff: Mr. von Hagen, something happened at the base camp. I'm afraid we require your presence.
Before you can start the discussion, a staff member had knocked on the door.
Marius opens the door and the staff member comes in.
Marius: Yes?
Staff: Jack Barlow, who was sent ahead to the base camp, is fighting with Joshua Ott.
