Protagonist (OLND)

"I can't believe this couldn't wait until the morning."

- Protagonist

The protagonist of One Late Night: Deadline is an app developer under the employment of a company called Aeon Embedded Ltd. He encounters strange occurrences at Delta 5 after having a late night drink.

Drowsiness
Because the protagonist hasn't been getting enough sleep, drowsiness is an issue as he explores the building. Drowsiness causes the protagonist to slow down and have degrading vision. In order to stave off drowsiness, the protagonist must regularly visit a Vending Machine or consume Dexterity tablets throughout the night.

Story
One late night, the protagonist was forced to go into his office in order to fax a project report to a client, which apparently couldn't wait until morning. The protagonist complains about having to do this when he hasn't had a good night's sleep in days. After faxing the report, the protagonist goes to get a soda from a vending machine when he hears a blood-curdling scream. He goes to investigate the source of the scream, which appears to be coming from the Webcom office. He is unable to enter the office, but is able to see a burn mark on the floor of the office's lobby. Clearly he wasn't the only one in the building, so the protagonist goes looking for any other employee wandering around. He runs into the Janitor in the basement, who explains that the building manager has scheduled late night cleanings and that was why he was there. When questioned about the scream, the janitor confirms that he has heard the scream as well and notes that he recalls seeing someone going up to the Webcom office earlier that night.

The protagonist goes back up to the Webcom office and is now able to enter it. Upon entering, he hears a ghostly voice asking for help and turns the corner to see a man on his knees in pain. When he approaches the man, the man gets up and disappears around the corner. The protagonist makes his way to the office of a Webcom IT employee, where he notices that the employee has left his jacket behind.

Assuming a Webcom employee is the other person in the building, the protagonist wanders around the Webcom office and comes across a key with the name Robert on it. He heads back to where he came from and suddenly comes across the Black Widow. He manages to evade her and goes into the CellaLogic office across the way to find a ringing smartphone on the floor. Picking it up, he discovers that the phone belongs to a Robert. The protagonist answers the call and the caller wants him to close the portal and to call him when he's ready. The protagonist is confused and asks for more information, but the caller goes on to confess how he tried to communicate with the other side but instead opened up a portal for spirits to come through. The caller implores the protagonist to send all the spirits back through the portal and to watch out for the woman in black.

The protagonist heads down to the first floor and encounters pieces of paper floating down from the upper floors. He picks up all the pieces and notes that they appear to spell out some sort of code. He proceeds to to back to his office where he receives a call from a woman who says she can see him. Upon rounding the corner, he encounters the Black Widow yet again and goes to hide. When the woman disappears, the protagonist proceeds to use the fax machine to decode the pieces of paper.

After faxing the completed paper, the protagonist finds an old newspaper dated Friday, December 18, 1911. The paper's headline was a murder in which a body was found on July 5 of that year. The body belonged to an Alva Gettlin, discovered with 6 stab wounds and a slash to the throat.

The protagonist hears a voice asking for help and discovers a ghostly employee in his office. He watches as the ghost disappears and enters the office to read some emails. A coworker name Richard sent him a photo of an apparition that the building security cameras caught the other night, indicating that spirits have been in the building for some time.

Feeling drowsy yet again, the protagonist heads to CellaLogic's office, but discovers that the vending machine there has broke. He goes off in search of the Janitor and helps him get his toolbox before going to the second floor. After the vending machine is fixed, the protagonist receives another phone call and the caller tells him that there can be creatures about that he cannot see. The caller proceeds to demonstrate how to use the smartphone to enter the spirit realm. There the protagonist encounters a shadow creature, which he is able to dispel using the flashlight on the smartphone. He then goes to the vending machine and finds a Level 3 Keycard. With the keycard, the protagonist is able to enter the Black Curtain Studio office to find an email addressed to John that talks about strange activity going on in the CellaLogic laboratory. The protagonist receives a call and the caller surmises that there must be something in the laboratory that's drawing the Black Widow to that building. The caller implores the protagonist to find out what it is.

The protagonist sneaks into the CellaLogic office and finds a Laser Room Keycard to enter one of the lab rooms. There, he finds a Lab 03 Keycard, but is unable to enter the lab room on account of the building temperature being too cold. The protagonist proceeds to the basement to turn on the heater and then heads back upstairs. He finds the Specimen X sample in the laboratory's refrigerator and goes upstairs to find a way to destroy it. After finding a Level 1 Keycard in the Chip Software office, the protagonist goes into Black Curtain Studio to discover a message left on a presentation board. His next objective was to find pieces of the past hidden on presentation boards in every office. The pieces spell out the name "Leonore." Upon faxing the name, the protagonist received a series of codes:

5798 5968 4221

With codes in hand, the protagonist heads back to CellaLogic to destroy Specimen X. Cell sample destroyed, the protagonist heads down to the first floor to encounter the Webcom IT employee looking quite shaken. The last thing the man could remember was walking out the door of Webcom's office and seeing an old woman in black before passing out inexplicably. Before going out the exit, both men watch as the Black Widow enters the portal back to the spirit realm. The other man presumes the police will arrive soon since the protagonist tripped the security alarms during his intrusions into the various offices. They decide to leave before the police comes as they're sure the police will have a lot of questions.