Unreal Engines

**Episode Information**GalleryTranscript

Unreal Engines

Release Information

**Release Date**
30 October 2020

**Viewers**
404K views

Credits

**Written by**
Jeffrey Yang

**Directed by**
Luke Lerdwichagul

**Storyboard by**
Elle Nguyen

**Unreal Engines** is the thirteenth episode of *Meta Runner*, and the third episode of Season 2. It premiered on YouTube on 30 October 2020.

Synopsis
MD-5 travel to Silica City's most dangerous part of town to find Masa a new Meta Runner arm. Only doing so comes with a price.

Characters* Marco
* Sofia Porter
* Lamar Williams
* Masa Shimamoto
* Tari
* Belle Fontiere
* Evelyn Claythorne

Others
Minor Characters* Gamers

Locations* Rustworks
* TAS Corp.
* Evelyn's room

Games* Turbo Crash 9
* Pocket Gakusei

Plot
The episode begins in an arena surrounded by cheering spectators. A TASCorp Meta Runner plays against Marco in Turbo Crash 9. The point of view then shifts to the screen, where Marco defeats his competitor in the game. Marco then turns to the Meta Runner and tells him to "pay up". The Meta Runner pleads for his Meta Runner arm, telling Marco he'd be nothing without it, to which Marco replies with that since he's in the low tiers, he's already nothing.
The player is taken away right as Sofia comes to say hello to Marco. Marco asks what she is doing here and she replies by claiming to be "just visiting". Right then Masa and Lamar enter the scene. As Sofia introduced them to Marco, he already recognized Masa and how he was decommissioned by Lucks in the past, mockingly referring to Masa as "Lucks' golden boy".
Sofia then tells Marco that they need a new Meta Runner arm for Masa. Sofia tells him they want to play for one. Marco agrees but tells them they need to pay an entry fee to enter, telling them to pay the fee or leave. Lamar offers to wager his Meta Runner arm in order to play a match of Turbo Crash 9. Marco agrees and proceeds to tell them they would play a co-op deathmatch with Masa entered in as Lamar's partner. Masa agrees, claiming he can beat Marco with one arm tied around his back. Masa then proceeds to pat Marco's shoulder, leading to Marco pushing him away. Lamar asks Marco who his partner would be. Marco replies saying that he doesn't need a partner and pulls out 2 extra robotic arms that were attached to his backpack. Marco tells them that the game will start soon and they better be ready. The scene cuts to the game's intro.
Tari is trying to find Evelyn. Tari enters Evelyn's room only to find all sorts of cat plushies, pictures of Evelyn, all within a room full of pink. She quickly gets her thoughts of the decor out of her head and attempts to search all the drawers for the Pocket Gakusei tablet. As Tari finds the tablet, Evelyn comes into the room and spots Tari acting very suspicious and is confused of why she is in her room. Evelyn notices that Tari is hiding something behind her. Just as Evelyn is about to check, Belle comes into the room to see Evelyn and Tari in the room. Belle walks over and Tari shows the tablet to both of them. Evelyn replies by claiming Lucks did not allow Tari to have her own video games and adds that Lucks will be very mad when he finds out. Belle seems to have an idea and tells Tari to come with her, telling Evelyn to stay back. Evelyn whines saying that she wants to see Tari get punished but Belle snaps right back telling her to wait.
Belle and Tari leave Evelyn's room. Belle then tells Tari to take the game. Tari is confused why Belle isn't going to tell Lucks, but Belle replies that she doesn't care about his rules, and says it is only an anime dating sim. Tari thanks her and Belle tells her to not mention it lest they are both facing trouble. Just as Tari leaves, Evelyn comes back and was sad that she missed Tari's punishment. Evelyn, eager to know the details, asks Belle what happened.
The scene cuts back to MD-5 in the Rustworks. Lamar and Masa are practicing Turbo Crash 9 with Lamar driving and Masa shooting the gun. Sofia is concerned for them but Lamar ensures her that him and Masa will be fine. Just as he says that, Masa begins to struggle. Lamar then regrets the decision but the game was already about to start. Sofia wishes them luck. Marco gets a microphone and welcomes everyone to the Rustworks. He announces for today's match, they had a special guest, coming "from the top of the world to rock bottom", the former TASCorp. Meta Runner Masa Shimamoto. The game then starts with Marco saying "Start your engines!" Lamar regains his confidence. Masa replies "Let's do this".
The countdown begins and all cars begin to race. Lamar and Masa try to focus, just as Marco comes through and destroys many cars. He laughs and Lamar replies he's taking him and Masa to the blocks where there is always a good weapon spawn. There is another enemy car already there. Lamar tricks him and eliminates him. They receive a grappling hook.
Just then 3 enemy vehicles corner them. Lamar finds an opening to get away and the 3 vehicles chase them. Lamar and Masa needed to try to find a good place to split them up. They go inside the tunnel and continue to be chased. Lamar gets angry and says "Y'all want my arm? COME AND GET IT!" He proceeds to maneuver between the blades and one of the cars gets hit by the saw. Lamar comments on the kill "I *saw* that coming". 2 of the vehicles continue to chase Masa and Lamar. They enter a corridor where they shoot falling spikes onto one of the vehicles which destroys it. The last vehicle attempts to get away using the ramp over the giant gap. Masa decides to use his grappling hook to pull the vehicle back when it was about to make the jump. It crashes to the side. Lamar compliments Masa and he replies "Just trying to lend a hand". They jump the gap and exit the tunnel.
When they enter the open, they notice that all the other players are gone. Masa hears a noise and shoots his hook to the side right as Marco comes in with a lot of gear and armor. It turns out Marco farmed about half the players in the game to get all those upgrades. Marco proceeds to chase Lamar and Masa all over the map. At one point, Masa finds a weapon to defeat Marco, but Marco gets them out in the open with the rocket launchers and their engines blow out. Marco says it's been a pretty good game but all good things must end. He attempts to crush them with the spike wheels. But Marco's car sputters and and his engine blows out. His 2 extra robotic arms begin to malfunction. Marco tries to fix them but Masa shoots the chain of a giant yellow skull above Marco's truck, leading it to fall and destroy it.
MD-5 won, but when Masa goes up to Marco after the match, he pats Marco's shoulder again. Marco whips Masa away with a fierce blow and says the game didn't count because he could have won if his arms didn't malfunction. Masa replies by saying "Imagine having to play a game with only half your arms". Marco then thinks that Masa cheated but Lamar and Sofia tell him to back off and the rules are no excuses and there is no special treatment. Since MD-5 won they wanted their prize. Marco told them to take the prize and get out. As MD-5 was leaving, Marco notices that something might have been missing from his arm pack but he doesn't seem to know what is missing.
As MD-5 is driving back, Lamar was happy that they won, but also a little confused. He asks Masa if he really did cheat. Masa replies saying that he didn't and thought Lamar trusted him. When Lamar turned away. Masa quickly pulled out some sort of chip. It turns out to be the chip that Masa planted onto Marco to make his arms malfunction. Masa turns it off and puts it back in his pocket, as the episode ends.

Trivia* This is the first episode where Theo and Lucks are absent.
* The title of the episode is a reference to Unreal Engine, a game engine created by Epic Games, one of the funders of the Meta Runner series.
* The device that Masa attaches to Marco can be seen just after he pats his shoulder the first time and just before the second.
* This is the third episode where Tari does not appear in the thumbnail, the first two being Bad Split and Firewall.

Sources