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

I turned my gaze to Guidance as if she had just grown a second head of her own. "What?"

"Don't look at me like that," the dev meekly muttered. "It's just... What else are we supposed to try? I sure as hell didn't code in any kind of manual in every single [Rig]."

"And the tutorial for this thing should've shown up once we had it unlocked," I finished off her thought with a click of my tongue. "Seriously, what if we break it or something?"

"Isn't that what Shen is for?" she whispered out, lowering her tone so as to avoid talking over Shizu in the background. "And I'm pretty sure I made [Rigs] powerful enough to traverse through the [Stars] once we reach end game."

....

....Once again, I was at a loss for words.

"What? You think I put the concept of the [Stars] out there just to look pretty?" Guidance smugly scoffed. "It's called future-proofing. I at least planned longevity in my games."

"Doesn't mean you planned for it to be this much of a mess," I rolled my eyes and fired back with a whisper. "But seriously, should we just press whatever?"

Guidance placed a finger on her chin as she replied, "Well, there's that one glowing red button that looks out of place."

I blinked. "Guidance.... Surely you know the tropes about random red buttons, right?"

"Red is bright and attention seeking," the dev reasoned. "To my defense, I've seen red buttons that acted as engine starters."

"Yeah, and they're also known as the big red self-destruct button for a reason," I answered back with a scoff.

"Ugh... Do you think I'm stupid enough to design this massive a ship just to put a stupid self-destruct button in the middle of the very console used to run the thing?"

Well, when she put it that way... "Fair enough."

With an intrepid breath, I let my hand hover over the console, my pointer finger touching the button as I hesitated to pull the trigger. Why was this so nerve-wracking? I've jumped into worse situations like this before. And it wasn't like we'd die anyway. Why-

"Just get on with it already."

"Wha-"

But before I could even finish my own mental monologue, Guidance had obviously had enough and pressed down on my hand for me. My finger depressed the button, and the glow it emitted seemingly disappeared as a whole lot of nothing happened for a few seconds.

"Huh," the dev shrugged. "I guess that wasn't it then."

"You think?" I gasped out, my nerves still making me shake as I rolled my eyes. "What would you have done if it was actually a self-destruct sequence?"

"Please... Again, as if I'm stupid enough to-"

[*gggGrRROOAANN....*]

The entire bridge ground to a halt, Shizu keeping quiet as the entire [Rig] seemed to groan to life. It wasn't in the same way when the earlier dungeon appeared. No...

This one somehow oozed power somehow.

"Was that it?" Shen suddenly chimed in. "That's the engine, I think."

"You think?" Shade shook his head. "I'm pretty sure it is."

[*GGGGRROOOAAVVRROOOOMMMM*]

A few seconds later, the low bass dialed itself up to eleven, the floor even shaking as the sound of an engine revving up echoed from beneath us. All of a sudden, the bridge lit itself up even further, lights that were previously dim now shining brightly as the entire room sprang to life.

"Wow... This is... This is amazing..."

Shizu's awe was pretty much the general consensus as the console before us seemingly opened up. Spreading out like some kind of transforming table, a center aperture emerged from where the red button formerly was, projecting what looked to be a chart of the entirety of the [Shallow Deep].

"Woah... What is that?" Shizu asked, her hand outstretched as if to touch the hologram. "Why can't I touch it?"

"That, my princess, is Marquen technology," Shade helpfully explained, crossing his arms over his chest as he moved closer. "This here is standard navigational equipment for the [Shallow Deep]. Small boats can only go so far away from their own home continent before the waters inevitably swallow them whole once they get lost."

"I see," I nodded, noting the few distinct landmasses that littered the Deep. "This is... pretty big, huh..."

Looking at it, the entirety of the [Shallow Deep] seemed to be enclosed in some kind of large landmass. Frankly, the entire sea was more like a lake with a quarter circle of thin and snaky mountains enclosing it. The map didn't show anything beyond that, however, and there was one small passageway through the massive mountains that led towards what I could only assume to be outside of this general area. And... wait...

Does that mean we were inside a massive mountain all this time? Aand I just felt like I was repeating myself just now...

"The [Shallow Deep] is undeniably big," Shade shrugged. "It's also undeniably perilous to even travel. There's a reason merchant ships steer clear from the empty center of it all despite it being the fastest way to travel between the three Great Nation."

"So does that mean we get to do that then?" Shen curiously asked. "We're in a big bad [Rig], right? That means we can handle all tha bad stuff out there in the center!"

"That wouldn't be advisable!" Maruki chimed in, finally coming into the foray as he strode towards the map. "The Empire has tried and failed numerous times to expand near the [Pelagarchi Region], only to fail due to the presence of Vermes in the area!"

Vermes, huh.... That's another word I wasn't familiar with... "Some kind of monster then?"

This time, it was Guidance that gave out the answer. "Those are.... not supposed to be in this world, really," she admitted. "I had already scrapped them when I decided to add them back in for more flavor text."

"Wait, you mean the most common cause of grief and fishermen's deaths for over a thousand years was because you decided to put them back in?"

...

....

Oof... That was.... Yeah....

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