A few hours later in the day of the Egocentric
Play A few hours later in the day of
The Egocentric!
Walk around a comic strip starring a truck driver. He is the center of attention – not you! You’re a jaded cop muttering in the captions beneath the panels, where your story unfolds in plain old text.
While the young trucker and his tough uncle steal the spotlight, you’re lurking in the margins, exposing their shady trade. Surely you don’t need fancy graphics to solve this case – or do you?
But this mission isn’t just about following clues. Everything might not be as it seems. Will you manage to uncover the truth about your adversaries? Beware, you might just end up exposing the real story behind your own badge in the process.
Arm yourself with a sharp sense of satire and plow through a maze of misinterpretations to strip away the gritty facade and expose the mundane reality beneath.
Minimalist Walkthrough
Use phone.
Enter gym.
Get a paper towel.
Use phone.
Select number: 305281 & Dial.
Scratch out the name inside the heart.
Hide behind the shower curtain.
Wait x 6
Take his phone! (when Micke can be seen writing on the wall)
Step out from the shower stall.
Exit Gym
Go to parking lot.
Use phone.
Choose phone: Mickes & Select number: 180042 & Dial.
Open the truck.
Comprehensive Walkthrough
Round 1 – The Truck and Its Secure Access System
Locate and Explore the Truck
You are standing outside a gym. A driver is on his way there, likely in the truck seen in the leftmost panel. The truck has 30 km left to Malmö, so we assume that’s where you are. Go to parking lot to meet the driver since it seems urgent. The truck hasn’t arrived yet, but based on previous intelligence, it should be here soon (only 20 km left now according to the leftmost panel). Click intel to see what else you’ve uncovered about the truck and its driver.
You enter a flashback. It recounts your eavesdropping an hour earlier of a CB radio communication between two men – the truck’s driver and an older man. They discuss a “package” that the driver is transporting in his truck.
Back to the present. Only 10 km left for the truck. Wait. There is the driver! He, however, seems to be just a henchman to his uncle, whom we assume is the older man from the eavesdropped conversation. Click wait again and make sure to also wait a few seconds in real time if you want to know what the driver thinks when he sees you. (The thought bubble’s content varies from round to round. So repeat this action in each round if you want to get a better understanding of the game's three characters.)
Wait again so that you are alone in the parking lot. Check the truck and note the decal next to the door handle. Note also that it flickers like it wants to catch your attention, so try clicking on it. The tiny text now shown zoomed in cannot be read without your reading glasses, which are dirty. You also cannot read the text on your mobile without them. Click Use phone to confirm this.
Clean glasses and Learn CallUnlock number
Go to gym and then enter gym and note the driver’s reaction to the wall graffiti. In there, get a paper towel. Go back to the parking lot and see through the gym’s window that Micke is going full throttle, and you seem to have missed a crucial opportunity. Check truck and click on the decal again. Apparently, the truck can be opened if you call 1-800-42. You can try calling from your own phone, but you'll only be met with a message confirming the text on the decal. You must call from the right phone – presumably the driver’s. But how do we get hold of it? Can we learn anything from the warning to "socially savvy users"?
Round 2 – The heart name
Learn Micke’s number
During our first round, more was happening than what you, the player character, were doing. You, the player of this game, were also able to observe the driver and his reaction to a graffiti heart with the name “Micke” scribbled inside it. Micke is his own name, as his reaction and the name of his trucking company make clear. A very common name, short for Mikael, but this Micke seems oblivious to the existence of other Mickes out there. How would such a guy react if someone were to disrupt his egocentric view of the world?
Enter gym and then scratch out the name inside the heart to find out. You replace it with your own name, of course! Exit gym and wait outside the gym until Micke arrives there. Whistle a random tune and wait a few seconds in real time to confirm the nature of Micke’s self-absorption. Go to the parking lot and recall intel if you want to refresh your memory and also learn a little more about yourself from the comments your player character now adds. Seems you are quite old and proud of it. But how mature are you? And what about Micke’s uncle?
Back to the present and, as the omniscient player of this game, note how Micke notices the heart with Åke scribbled in the center. Now you know the name of your player character! Wait or walk about until Micke starts writing beside the heart. Just stay out of the locker room as Micke won’t write anything if he feels watched.
Find Micke's phone
Now enter gym as Micke leaves the locker room and starts training. Read the writing beside the heart. Ah! Socially savvy and friendly Micke has shared his full name and phone number. Let’s call him!
Use phone. Get a paper towel and use phone again. Select number 305281 and dial. No answer, but look at the leftmost panel. A ringtone sounds from the truck! Micke seems to have forgotten his phone there. But how do you get hold of it? The phone is in the truck. The truck is locked, and it’s the phone you need to unlock it …
First, let’s go to the truck to see if Åke can hear the ringtone through the cabin, shall we? Yes he can, and if Åke’s old ears can pick it up, surely Micke shouldn’t have any trouble hearing it at the same distance? Let’s restart to find out.
Round 3 – Getting hold of Micke’s phone
We just need to hurry and make the call. Enter gym. Use phone. Get a paper towel and use phone again. Select number 305281 and dial. Now the ringtone sounds as Micke has just gotten out of the truck. Wait and notice that Micke now turns off the phone and puts it in his bag. An opportunity for Åke to get hold of it!
You can call 305281 again, but since the phone now is off, you’ll only be met with a voicemail message where Micke makes some highly speculative conclusions based on his assumptions that other people know when he is unavailable.
Seize the opportunity to scratch out the name inside the heart before Micke enters the locker room. This should give us a chance to snatch the phone while Micke is distracted by correcting the incorrect information in the graffiti heart. Since we want to get to Micke’s bag, we must stay in the locker room while he writes this time. But since he won’t write if he feels watched, choose to hide behind the shower curtain. Then wait until Micke starts writing and seize the chance to take his phone!
Step out from the shower stall. Use phone and this time choose Micke’s phone before you select number 180042 and dial. Now Åke can walk over to the parking lot and open the truck to confiscate the truck’s cargo. Adversary, ally or rival? Let’s uncover the truth about Bengt – and maybe even about Åke …
The Reveal
If you’ve already played The Man Who Calls the Shots, the reveal about Bengt won’t surprise you. But Åke sure was fooled – or was he? And if this was your first encounter with Bengt, then hopefully, you, the player, were fooled by both of them.
The Parking Lot Flashback
Version 1
This only appears before Micke arrives at the parking lot, and just once. Even if you use the restart button, the game will remember that you have seen it. If you want Åke’s comment (If my intel is trustworthy, the truck should arrive in this parking lot soon) to appear again, you’ll have to close the browser before restarting the game.
Version 2
There is, however, an option to recall intel down among the standard choices, but that too is conditional and only available if you’ve already seen the flashback and if you’ve seen Micke during the round. This version of the flashback adds comments from Åke to the conversation between Micke and Bengt
The Mirror Flashback
There is another flashback, which follows up on the earlier one. It is a bit harder to access and is only there to provide context to the events and shed light on the minds of our three main characters. You don’t need it to complete the game or to get hints for the puzzles, but surely you want find out what Åke looks like?
You cannot access this flashback in the first three rounds as it would be too confusing for most players to encounter it cold.
To see it, stand outside the gym when the sun briefly appears. This happens a few turns into a round when Micke is not present, either outside or training inside. You will see your shadow on the ground, and in the window, an ambiguous reflection appears while you ponder your loyalties and priorities. Wait it out, and then click on the word mirror to conclude your musings as you recall the second conversation, where Micke calls his uncle on the CB radio to tell him something he forgot to mention.