BACK AT “THE ATOMIC SHOP” …
The Mechanic continues his spiel about his shop and is preparing to introduce another item that he thinks The Player would want to buy. The Player takes a look at the rest of the Adventureland area and has realized something very peculiar… even more peculiar than the events that have happened already. Nothing that is outside of the Atomic Shop is moving, at least nothing that The Player can see at the moment.
As The Player begins to take a step outside of the Atomic Shop, everything slowly starts to move again, including the park patrons attempting to run away, the zombies, and the invaders! Quickly, The Player steps back inside where they were before, and instantly, everything else stops moving again.
THE PLAYER
If I escape here alive, I will not be able to explain ANY of this to ANYONE! Especially what I just witnessed right now!
THE MECHANIC
What? What do you mean? Why did you walk away just now while I was enlightening you with some important information? And then you just stepped back in here … May I continue my pitch now?
The Player realizes that The Mechanic may not know about this whole time-stopping, freezing thing that just happened. Maybe they have time-stopping powers now? Or, possibly this is just part of the giant hallucination they’ve been having. Regardless, The Player is keeping what they just experienced to themselves for now.
THE MECHANIC
OK, here is the next, super fantastic item for you to buy!
This item will increase The Player’s Bonus multiplier by 2. 
When the Player has selected this item with the Pinbar, it will look like this.
THE MECHANIC
This one does twice what the first item did, but it will cost you only 15 tickets, not 20. Isn’t that a great bargain?!
THE PLAYER
Now wait a minute! Is there going to be another one that says 3X Bonus?!
THE MECHANIC
Well … maaaaaaaybe.
THE PLAYER
And then another one for 4X Bonus?!
THE MECHANIC
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
THE PLAYER
Why not?!
THE MECHANIC
Haven’t you heard of the “rule of three”?
THE PLAYER
RULE OF –WHAT?! OK, wait, hold on a second. I have to ask you the classic, gaming shopkeeper question, so forgive me if you’ve heard this one before, but this question is EXTREMELY relevant right now. If you don’t like NED, and you don’t want him to take over, why not just give me these items for free?
THE MECHANIC
No, I said that I don’t care who wins. I’m playing both sides of this invasion, but at least I’m being honest to you about that … as far as you know. Anyway, I’ve seen that tickets are a valuable form of currency in this world. People buy things with them. I saw that you have a lot of them, and I’ll bet you know ways to get more.
THE PLAYER (thinking to themselves)
(Well, I am pretty good at getting tickets.)
THE MECHANIC
I want those tickets so I can spend them on whatever else is here on this planet. But, I’d rather not do whatever work it must take to get them, and I don’t want to blow my cover. So you go get more tickets and bring them here. I’ll sell you things that will help you stop the invasion without letting anyone know I’m helping you. NED has no idea at all that my Atomic Shop exists. If he happens to win this battle, I’ll totally betray you and deny everything … probably.
THE PLAYER
I clearly have no reason to trust you at all, but what else do you have? Hopefully, you’ve got a weapon here somewhere.
Little did The Player know that a weapon is available. But it’s a weapon that functions in a decidedly different way.
*Note: Atomic Shop item prices are subject to change.
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