I don't know what to say anymore.

The early pace on this run was ludicrous. Marinor is a fairly weak gold now actually, I started using a more optimized route that should save around 1.5 seconds, so there should be room to take another second off it. Still though, can't complain about starting off with a gold.

Well was good, and Secret was... perfect, I expect every future run to bleed time there unless I go for YOLO spider path (and die nearly every time). Maze was clean. Lost a tiny bit going into dragons; but then I got nearly perfect dragon arcade RNG and golded that split, too. And then I golded the next split.

By the time I reached the tile cracks I was wiping sweat from my hands at every opportunity; and the cracks were where imperfections started creeping in. I got on a bad pixel at the last crack. I had a plan specifically prepared for that situation, though; forgo the safe but slow approach (joystick glitch), YOLO it and pray for the best.

In that situation, being on a best pace ever by 6 seconds, I tossed the plan out of the window and went for the joystick glitch. Still in two minds about that. It probably saved my skin, but it did lose time...

Bled a bit more in columns, but I was running against a gold there. Then in Cheesemaster, I gained that time back by hitting the 4th gold of the run...

Finish was weak, though. Freeing Thaylor was very awkward; and at the end, I very nearly threw the entire run away by typoing "break mirror". Based on my experiences practicing that segment, I actually though I'd choked the run at the last moment and would die; but I was saved by a technicality. It turns out that the skips I do earlier somehow give me more leeway at that point than I have in my practice save :) Still lost time, though.

Unsure whether to keep pushing. Any improvement on this needs amazing RNG now, on top of nearly flawless execution.

Played in DOSBox 0.74, maximum cycles. Stream VOD: