OTACON: Sorry, but no Mei Ling this time.
OTACON: Do you want to save, Snake?
OTACON: Snake, you of course know the saying "One for all, all for one."
SNAKE: What is this, all of a sudden?
OTACON: Oh, I figured you'd need a lot of motivation, so I came prepared. It's from the 'The Three Musketeers' -- the book, not the candy bar. Anyway, it means that if you go up against everyone by yourself, they'll gang up on you too. I think. Since you're on your own on that ship, you need to take this to heart and avoid confrontations. How was that? Just like the old days, huh?
SNAKE: Almost reminds me of Mei Ling, but ... you sure you got it right?
OTACON: Of course! And I'll teach you a lot more of these, you can count on it.
SNAKE: Great ...
OTACON: Time to save?
OTACON: OK, see you Snake.
OTACON: Oh, you need to save? Just a second.
OTACON: Hang in there.
OTACON: Time to save?
OTACON: Okay ... there's a saying that goes -- "Even a bird on high dies a glutton's death, as do the fish of The Deeps." The lesson is -- er, don't be greedy. The fish that belonged to the family called the Deeps died from overfeeding, and so did a bird that got high on something -- probably fermented fruit.
SNAKE: ... okay. If you say so.
OTACON: I do, Snake. Don't take unnecessary risks just because you're greedy for more items. Remember the Deep family's fish.
SNAKE: ...
OTACON: Oh, Snake, you wanna save?
OTACON: Another Chinese proverb: "Those who look to the Heavens prosper, those who defy it are no more." Do you know this one? The meaning here is -- hold on a sec -- that you can only survive so long as you're a part of the natural order of things. You remember pre-ripped jeans? Manufacturers thought that just because people loved old, broken-in jeans, they would want to buy new jeans that looked old. So they purposefully --
SNAKE: What do jeans have to do with nature and order?
OTACON: Denim should fray and rip on its own, naturally. Right? Some designers tried to go against that, and -- no one bought them! The earnings report from that fiscal year is enough of a proof!
SNAKE: Earnings?
OTACON: Time to save?
OTACON: Hey, Snake, what's "Hardest won, most easily lost?" It's time, get it? Amazing how relevant these Chinese proverbs still are! Once the moment's gone, it's gone. Except for Daylight Savings Time, of course. That extra hour to do anything you like with every autumn ... gotta love it. Then again, you lose an hour every spring, so I guess the proverbs are right. Wow, they thought of everything.
SNAKE: Did they even have Daylight Savings back then?
OTACON: Of course not! They knew how to save time. We're the ones that need to be tricked into it.
SNAKE: But you said --
OTACON: The moment never returns, Snake. Let's not waste it on idle questions.
SNAKE: Okay ...?
OTACON: The Chinese have a saying: "Those who are lost never question a path, and a drowning man doubts not the shallows." And it means -- means that you need to make use of other people's help. Otherwise, you could be in trouble. If you're lost, you don't even know whether a road you come across is a right one, and, uh, what's the difference between shallow and deep if you've already drowned, right? Anyway, the point is that help is always a good thing to accept. So make good use of the Codec.
SNAKE: Look -- this stuff seems nothing like what Mei Ling used to talk about.
OTACON: Hey, she couldn't do better herself!
SNAKE: ...
OTACON: Okay, Snake. Stay out of trouble.