This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

This was actually kind of exciting. The journey was always the fun part of adventuring, in my opinion, and with us setting sail into the red error-filled waters of the Deep, I could actually start, well, hopefully, level up and get some stats and new stuff into my kit. Now that I thought about it, did I not get anything out of that dungeon just now?

Oh well... Then again, the fact that I didn't even notice that fact until now meant that I was getting used to not being rewarded for all of my hard work. Heh... If Guidance was shooting for something that played like an endless grind, then she was well on her way to doing it. Speaking of which, why were we not moving yet?

...

.....

Well, that was kind of awkward. "Uhm... Isn't there someone that's supposed to make us move forward now?"

"Well, isn't that what our mechanic is for?" Shade scoffed.

As if on cue, all of us all turned our eyes to Shen, the girl still visibly playing behind Shizu's back as she froze wide-eyed at the sudden attention.

"W-Why are ya all looking at me like that?"

I almost winced at the clueless look that the poor mechanic was flashing us. Then again, this was tangentially my fault, but I wouldn't want to bring that up right now.

I was really kind of sick of being blamed for things that I wholly deserve.

"You are our mechanic, are you not?" Shade smugly asked in his usual tone. "Surely you should know how to steer this ship."

To her credit, Shen only took a few seconds to compose herself before she was back to her usual boisterous self. "H-Hah! Ya all think I don't know how to steer this thing?! Well, think again!"

An awkward silence settled across the bridge. Somehow, all of us had the same idea as to what exactly was going to happen next.

"Woo! Go, Shen!"

Well, most of us, at least. Shizu was clearly cheering her new best friend on as she made way for our mechanic to do her thing.

"It's all yours!" the princess gave a thumbs up as she ceded the main console to Shen. "You can do it!"

"Yeah!" the little mechanic cheered herself on. "I'll get us moving outta here!"

Beside me, Guidance shrugged at the sight before us. Maruki was keeping his quiet by the wayside, while Shade only shook his head at the perceived insanity that was taking place.

"You do realize this is your fault, right?" Guidance whispered to me.

"Well, yes, but does it even matter at this point?" I chuckled. "If anything, adding more fuel to the chaos seems like the right thing to do."

Cause what else were we supposed to do? Follow the now nonexistent quest line to Vestyge? It was certainly better than trying to find that one NPC Guidance actually designed for us to use.

Plus, I really did believe in Shen's potential.

"When are you gonna tell us what you saw in the cutscene earlier anyway?" the dev offhandedly mentioned as we both watched our young mechanic fiddle with the controls. "I'm sure you have a lot of new information we can use for this journey of ours."

"Maybe when we're actually out in the water," I chuckled, my eyes still focused on Shen's attempts at making this [Rig] move. "Besides, I have a lot of stuff to do myself. As do you, no?"

"Fair enough," Guidance lightly smiled. "We both have a lot of explaining to do. Think we can rope Shizu into it too?"

"We most certainly can," I smirked, Shen and Shizu fumbling about the console still in my peripheral vision as I chuckled. "Besides, she's our leader. She should take responsibility, no?"

"We're really gonna throw her under the bus, huh..."

I almost laughed out loud as I turned my attention back to the dynamic duo that was Shen and Shizu struggling to make this [Rig] set sail. Thinking about it now, Guidance and I should've really stepped in and helped by now. Not that I even knew what to do either way...

"You should really be the one steering the ship," Guidance suddenly chimed in. "If this [Rig] system still works, it should be you that's doing all the steering."

Huh?

I raised an eyebrow as I turn my attention back to Guidance. What the hell did she just say? "Why are you only now telling me this?"

...

...

"I'm taking the silence as you forgetting about it."

"H-Hey, it's not my fault this whole thing's falling apart," Guidance meekly replied. "I don't even know if it'll work anymore. It was supposed to show up as your quest reward."

I let out a resigned sigh, "Figures. And isn't that one of the most inconsistent things I've had to put up with this world..."

Seriously, the lack of [EXP] or even equipment drops from most fights were kind of stupid. I didn't know why that was a thing, but maybe Guidance just hasn't gotten to the loot balancing and all that stuff. Or maybe I just had horrible luck.

"Lady Guidance. Moriya."

A familiar suave voice called out to us, pulling us out of our conversation as Shade visibly showed his frustration at the fact that our two wards were still playing with the console.

"Yes?" I asked, acting as if I didn't know what was wrong.

"Are you seriously going to just stand there and wait till your 'mechanic' figures out how to run this [Rig]?" Shade thinly smiled, his brows twitching in obvious annoyance.

"Uhh, do we look like we know how to make this thing work?" I scoffed.

"Yes," Shade bluntly replied, much to my surprise. "You two know far more than either of you let on, so I can only assume that you two both have an idea as to what's wrong."

Beside me, Guidance grumbled, "Huh... This... doesn't feel great anymore..."

"Feel what, anymore?"

"Moriya here has to be the one to work the console..."

I blinked in astonishment as Guidance brushed off my question, instead pushing me into the limelight as she seemed to retreat back into her shell like when I first met her.

Dammit... I was hoping she'd at least join me against this smooth talker.

"Excellent," Shade smirked. "Kindly do the honors then."

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