Headscratchers / Mega Man Battle Network 1

• During the ElecMan scenario, Claude mentions in passing that the plan was to lure the WWW in with fake data, meaning that the Electric code that they got was fake. Yet this is never referenced again and they're apparently able to create the Life Virus anyway. What gives?
  • It's never stated that the ElecProgram they nicked was the fake one. Given that MMBN computer networks essentially operate as their own physical plane- with Navis having to follow linear paths from designated jack-in ports instead of simply warping to wherever they need to go- Lan and Megaman probably just caused ElecMan to divert course somehow, inadvertantly dodging the (poorly planned) trap.
• The final boss has you jack into a machine directly in front of the real-world Dr. Wily. Why doesn't he just... attack you physically? Lan is an 11-year-old child who has to focus on operating Megaman, and nobody else is in the room; the game's other scenarios also make it clear that there's no time differences going on when it comes to events on the network, meaning that for the full several-minutes-long lead up and final boss fight, Dr. Wily is standing there watching Lan destroy his life's work without interfering.
• At the end, Hikari mentions that he had to change Hub's DNA because if it was 100% identical, that damage to the navi would damage Lan, too. How does that work, exactly?
  • I think that it has to do with the Full Synchro status effect. When Navi and Operator are acting completely in sync, they become linked in a way. If Navi and Operator also share DNA and mental state... I don't really know that this is an adequate explanation, but quantum physics posits that if two particles have identical quantum states, they are, in effect, the same particle. Maybe that applies here?
    • According to the NT Warrior manga, this is exactly how Full Synchro works, and why it's such a difficult and dangerous technique to use.
  • The world of the game is written to treat the material and cyber worlds as subtly overlapping dimensions (the second game's climax proved that bugs and radiation do not mix). On top of that, MegaMan does not properly fit into the Cyberworld as a normal Navi (when he taps into his human DNA, he gets absurd boosts in power). Lan and Mega could essentially create a double-ended dimensional anchor that results in the damage Mega takes bleeding over to Lan.
• Number Man's level has you entering passcodes based on the number of things in school. One of the hints is the amount of doors in school. But the last door you find is locked and there are additional doors behind it. Which means you're granted access for entering the wrong amount of doors.
• The game had a feature where Mega Man's health would recover after every battle. In-universe, why would they get rid of this feature? Kind of a step back to remove that ability from the Navis or PETs.
  • Aside from the need to add more difficulty for the player and more of a sense of danger in the plot, that ability only ever came up in one story scenario. In all other instances, Mega Man and other Navis acted like battles really did take a toll on them despite the fact that, by gameplay standards, anything that doesn't outright kill them would be immediately shrugged off. We can either say that in-universe, instant recovery wasn't considered canonical or that the advancements in technology meant that changed the Internet into something other than narrow paths in a salmon-colored void of floating gold letter "e" into unique areas made instant recovery infeasible in exchange for other improvements. Like speed, damage, and more varied abilities. Updated Navis can't instantly recover from battle, but their performance in battle is so much better that they'd delete a non-updated opponent quickly enough to make out of battle recovery irrelevant.
  • Alternatively, the company that makes Navis introduced an 'upgrade' that removed after-battle healing so they could sell you recovery chips.
  • Another possibility is that when Lan was younger, his parents subsidized the energy used to recover Megaman; but as he got older, they didn't. Hence, he now has to buy it himself in the form of recovery chips.
• The WWW members have their own metroline allowing them to sneak into ACDC, however, the metroline is hidden underneath the school's statue/fountain which is behind the school gate, but when Higsby first arrives, he's standing outside of the school gates.
  • He arrived earlier and acted as if he arrived via the normal metro to avoid any suspicion.
  • Alternatively, he arrived from his home, not from the WWW headquarters, and used the normal metro to get there. It's not like WWW members must use their secret metroline.
  • Pretty much this. It would make for a poor secret if WWW flunkies were constantly in and out of the school courtyard.